Personal sacrifice gives value to the things we sacrifice for

Dear Family and Friends,

There it went, my mission in Polynesie Francais!

100 things to say.... the work is rigorous and doesn't slow down, even when you're at the end!

      

 Met the President of Polynesie Francais.

Participated in a unique Rurutu Heiva Tradition, -"The Torch March", the three cities march their dancers up and down the streets with Bamboo torches and they all end up in by the beach.  There they present their dances.  It was an exciting night.  There's a woman starting her own cult here, and while filming the dance, she kept talking to us about how wicked Tahitian traditions are.   Haha, I was a little miffed

      

 The Gift of Tongues still helps Sr. Kendall and I so much!! I have seen a greater understanding in our amis (who speak Tahitian), as we teach.  What a wonderful promise, the gift of tongues.  

Gave a last minute, 20 minute, talk in church :) 

     

 I don't know if anyone remembers the Papi Desire, from my first sector

 Here's what I said at the beginning of my mission about him 

                    

 "We dropped into this big ravine, where Papi Desire lives, in his tiny hut, with his pigs.  I knew that I would need to share a message with this man, but I only had my Tahitian Book of Mormon in hand.  So I prayed that I might be able to share something, from God to this man.  

I honestly chose two verses that I saw had the word "Christ" in them, and then asked the papi, in broken Tahitian, to read these two verses.  I bore my simple testimony of Christ.  For the first time, That man lit up and asked for the reference and asked we could come back the next day.   I looked up the verse later in English, Mosiah 15:6-9.  It talks about how Christ broke the bands of death for us."

  

Just yesterday,  a member told me that this Papi, Papi Desire, passed away.  I was taken aback, and remembered immediately this scripture that had given him so much comfort.  I know that this man will recognize The Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Spirit World, and I pray that he will once and for all accept the saving ordinances.  

A talk really hit home to me, called "One More Day".  

He says.  

"If we were told we had a short time to live, we too might plead for more days of life in the name of things we should have done or done differently.  Regardless of the time, the Lord, in His wisdom, determines to grant each of us, of one thing we can be sure: we all have a “today” to live, and the key to making our day successful is to be willing to sacrifice.  The Lord said, “Behold, now it is called today until the coming of the Son of Man, and verily it is a day of sacrifice” (D&C 64:23) "

I understand firsthand what he means by "personal sacrifice strengthens us and gives value to the things we sacrifice for."  I am thankful for the sacrifices, we as missionaries, get to make, for the Savior.   It has strengthened me and given me a glance of the real value of the Gospel.   

I love all the people we have taught, and how grateful I am for the many faithful members of the Church here in Tahiti!

I know that the Savior really did work beside me, these last 18 months.  I cannot ignore or deny his presence.  He often prepared the houses and people that we went to visit.   He softened so many hard hearts, and directed us to those in need.  He frequently softened my own heart and taught me many important truths.  I testify that God the Father lives.  And that he has a marvelous work to do.  I invite us all to be engaged in this work.  Jacob 5:70-72.  This is the actual Church of Jesus Christ.  Let us live as true disciples of Jesus Christ! 

I love you all! 

Sr Spencer 

e rave rahi te mau hoho'a

Dear Family and Friends,

Tahitian Drum, and my leggings and socks that I bring around in my backpack for warmth :)

And Me :)

And me:)

Our cute little chapel

Faatamaaraa Family Ariiotima and Omer

Family of our DMP Eretaia!

Their cute daughter

A member, Koba, in her get up for the Heiva event

The Dance!

Our ami Pauro, in Yellow, getting awarded for his musical talent

Walking home in the pouring rain haha good memories

Add caption

Rurutu may be a tiny island, but they have 4 bakeries, Pizzaria, and a Waffle Luv

Dear Family and Friends,

We found the one Pizzeria on the island, run by a French man.  He was actually super friendly and courteous, like turning off the Spanish Soap Opera, and he gave us free juice.  He was excited to see that there are missionaries back on the island, and asked us lots of questions about the Book of Mormon.  He doesn't understand why Native Americans don't talk about Jesus, if he actually visited them(as told in the Book of Mormon).  Haha that is a new question, it's exciting to get new questions to study :)

 

The Jehovah's Witnesses have this food stand, wednesdays and thursdays with Belgian Waffles and German Bread. We go there every week, haha we'll just chalk it up to Rapport de Confiance. 

Sr. Kendall doubling as Neal Armstrong #Tour de (Polynesie) France

 

My long hair, check it out mom. What do you think, butch cut right before I go home?

Lessons in Rurutu: We have several amis that follow the lessons but are in concubinage,  are not yet married with their boyfriend/girlfriend.  So we whipped out a Couple's Night, to help them work towards marriage.  Wellllllll, it was an awesome activity but none of our amis came hahaha.  So we'll have to try another tactic. We incorporated some fun American Wedding games, that the members really liked and our Ward Missionary Leader gave a fantastic lesson. You snooze, you lose I guess ;)

Jackie, is a Protestant Diacre/Leader that started the lessons thanks to a member.  He is partially deaf and speaks the Rurutu dialetic of Tahitian.  The lessons can be a struggle but he's a good sport about it.  

Anabelle and Elisabeth are two new amis that are incredibly powerful! One told us, "Sister ma, I already told my boyfriend that I will fight my way into this church. I will become a member."  She has been praying to see a sign of mormons on Rurutu and then saw us at the store.  She was too afraid to talk to us but prayed again that we could come to her house.  Well a member made it over to her house and invited her to take the lessons that week.  She has a long road to take, because she has to get married first, but we are happy to see these miracles happening in our ami's lives!

This mission road is also coming to an end, as I put most of my belongings on the boat, to wait for me in Tahiti. 

I didn't get to say much about eatting with that Muslim Family, but it was a wonderful rare occasion to learn a lot about Islam and life on La Reunion at Madagascar, where they grew up.  We ate together to celebrate the end of their month long fast.  

I don't think that I will see another person baptized on my mission,as the work progresses slowly and surely.  But how grateful I am to have this time to teach the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ!

At a FHE, we heard two members bear powerful testimony of Joseph Smith.  Bringing it back to the basics.  Crazy how we see so many diverse problems and circumstances all around the world, but the message the most important to teach is Joseph Smith and the Restored Gospel.  If they can understand all the implications of this message, their lives, all of their lives can and will change. "The Gospel is perfectly simple and simply perfect."--Elder Larsen

All my love and encouragement to those at home and on missions!!! 

Photo Hoe: A member caught some tasty lobsters, so we had that with a side of fries. So Good!!!!

Photo Piti: Cruisin by Unaa, our biking game is on point :)

Photo Toru: Rurutu has some gorgeous sunsets.  God is the best artist

Photo Maha: Couple's Night! Lesson by our deticated DMB Eretaia

Love,
Soeur Spencer

 

 

 

Ca va?

Dear Family and Friends,

The blessed boat brought us our dryer.  Now we can dry our clothes even when it rains!

Our Sr Maire!!!! Miracle #1 is about how she quit smoking in a week.  Voila, a dry mormon :)

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We are so thankful for this sister! She's leaving to Tahiti, to have her third child.  But she worked so faithfully with us!! Even to come fix our flooded house at 5:30 am or bring her kids to lessons or help a family of the muslim faith get to know the missionaries. 

We ate with this fun Muslim family from Morroco, and taught him how to say "Hallelujah" and "Merci, Seigneur". 

Some Rm's took us in, after church.

President just came in and said : "bon retour, Sr Spencer!" ... :(

Love, 

Sister Spencer

The Art of Teaching

June 11, 2018

Dear Family and Friends,

We are blessed to have the Priesthood!! We received priesthood blessings this week, and I see clearly the value of having a Priesthood holder in the home, ready and worthy at any moment!

Blessed to be dedicated servants of the Lord.  We had a broken pipe and the our house flooded. At 5:30 am, the Young Men's President comes over to help with his very pregnant wife and two toddlers.  They spent the next hour with us repairing the pipe and cleaning up.  I am so thankful to be supported by the Lord's servants: faithful ward members.

We ate with this wonderful family!! This woman, although not member, really loves and watches out for the missionaries.  She actually is the Secretary of the Protestant church in the South Pacific, but she never misses a general conference haha  We love Hannah and Marc.

Thankful for my spunky comp, Sr Kendall and for the hard, spiritual, and funny moments we spend together.

Exciting lessons about the Retablissment. 

How best to express how hard it can be to teach a lesson?  You need to work on speaking another language, you need to listen intently to the ami, but more intently to the spirit.   You need to TEACH THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST(how many times have I over complicated the Gospel of Christ??) You have to answer very crazy questions and bring it back to the lesson topic, you have to be brief, AND in sync with your companion. And just forget all the distractions, (sometimes you are teaching someone in a ditch on the side of a busy road haha) And you have less than an hour do all this.  Hahaha it is such an art, and you spend your whole mission trying to master it.  BUT my lovely companion and I are trying our best, and our lessons have been improving, while the spirit strongly testifies. 

Certain amis have dug in their heels and we have spent time discussing with DMB(district leader) and between us two, how we can help them be converted.  We feel the rush, this month, because in July, the Huge Heiva starts, where no (less) work can be done haha like Alma 34:33-34.

This week has been exciting, and a bit of refiner's fire! Feelin ready for next week of lessons and ...life lessons ;)

Love Sr Spencer

PS I have thought a lot about the story of the King of the Lamanites. If we read in the story, he values his life at about half his kingdom, but when he starts to understand God and his gospel, he is willing to give away ALL of his kingdom.  And then his first, innocent, sincere prayer, that is echoed in investigator's prayers even now. "If there is a God, and if you are God, make yourself manifest unto me, and I will give away ALL my sins to know thee"   I find that so powerful! All our sins, even our favorite sins haha

Voila my comp and I goin' fishing

District meeting - We used to meet by telephone - now we upgraded to skype

 

Pierre, just doing his thing, tendering his octopus!

E rave itoito [maua] i te ohipa

June 4, 2018

"Does this mean I'm Mormon?" was a classic quote of the week from one of our amis who came to church.  First time coming, the Relief society Pres.  gave her a necklace and sang for her, and during the song you could see her confused face and heard her say, "Does this mean I'm Mormon?"  LOL.   Ah, it only life was that easy ;)

The Famille Toa fights hard for the baptism, but their dad is still very unsure.  He is in our prayers and fasts.

Ward members defy their difficult circumstances and continue to work hard with us.  Thankfully!! They are determined to further the missionary work here.

My companion, Sr Kendall is wonderful, and really helps me out when hard situations arrive.

It is getting cold on the island and might get around 55 degrees at night.  Funny for those of you in much colder places, but for Tahiti, that's supa cold.

Je vous aime de tout mon coeur!! Good luck and have a good week!!!

Sr Spencer 

Tender Mercies of the Lord

May 28, 2018

Dear Friends and Family,

Famille TOA- Our wonderful family of 3.  The daughter, 11yrs, works hard in her lessons and commitments to read the Book of Mormon.  She prays sincerely that her dad will get married to her mom and that he'll let her get baptized. She is preparing for the 23 Juin!       The mom got the answer to her prayers, asking which church she should go to, and become a member of.  The spirit brought peace to her heart, as she arrived at the Mormon church.  She rides the bus to church each Sunday, voila, the 3rd time this Sunday. She waits for her husband's okay for their marriage.      The Dad is blunt and is from Nouvelle Caledonie.  He has changed since the first lesson but he can be very stubborn in the lessons.  We invited them to be married the 22 of June, and yesterday the daughter whispered in my ear that her Dad accepted to get married!!! He was reticent, he said, because they don't have enough money to buy rings.  Well just to testify how involved God is, in the little details of our lives,  later that day, a Member Came UP TO US, asking if they could pay for the rings.  He was not aware of their situation.  Sweet Tender Mercies.  In walking across the village, back to our house, we saw all the right amis, that we needed to talk to.  We literally flopped on our beds, overcome by how many little tender mercies we saw all day long.  

Maeva- Is a Jehovah's Witness.  She is a wonderful woman who serves as many people as she can, and usually with her incredible cooking skills. She comes to church and likes sitting up in the very front, so she can catch what's going on. During the last lesson, we talking the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and watched the Video of Christ's baptism. Yesterday she told us that she had seen good changes in her life and in her family's life, and she felt that her mom who passed away a long time ago, was happy to see her daughter taking the lessons with the Mormons. She accepted to be baptized and we are working on the date with her!!

Tilda-  Our Mission President said we need to work harder on inviting people to be baptized.  in fact, that we need to invite everyone to be baptized Unless the spirit tells us otherwise.  Our first lesson with Tilda, meant that we taught the Restoration of the Gospel and invited her to be baptized if she gets an answer.  Sr. kendall and I went back over how to teach using the Brochure Pictures, and had a short, powerful lesson.  The spirit of able to testify during the lesson and Thilda accepted the soft baptismal invitation. 

Service Project, where everyone went hard.  It was very hot and sweaty but the Tamaa at the End makes it all worth it haha.

Wonderful FHE by the members.  We had new amis there, even the Policeman who stays here for 2 months, from France.  Big Carnival Tent set up on the beach, with some hilarious skits (by the Famille Cary), and of course a feast.  

Not everything is perfect, even on this little island.  But I can personally tesify that the Savior is surely working in the field beside us. I have no doubt. We have seen the continued, genuine efforts of members all this week. Several pray, personally, to know who they need to see and who they can invite to activities and lessons. We have seen the Spirit working in the lessons to help multiple people accept soft and hard baptismal invitations. And oh, the power of the spirit!!  Jacob 5:71-72.   

Ward Activity at the Beach (Nairoa)

We made mermaid tails for all those that wanted them

And we took an excursion to the Grottos on the island, some crazy cannibal stories to go along with them, they used to have war meetings in this grotto.