This week was great. Lots of good things happened.
After 20 years of living together, Elvina and Yves got married!! Their daughter saved up her money and bought them wedding bands. Saturday morning they went down to the mayor's office and made it official. Sr. Marrett and I didn't go, because they didn't want it to be a big deal. Sunday, we had stake conference and they were there. (side note: Stake conference was packkkkeeedd. There was not that much parking and they had a shuttle picking people up to take them to their cars. Then the overflow was huge and literally every chair in the building was being used.) Elvina and Yves got good seats because they are amis de l'eglise (investigators). There were some powerful testimonies borne during the conference and they were really touched, especially by the youth. After the conference, we went over to their house all ready to talk about the lesson we had been planning on sharing and have abandoned for one reason or another the last couple of days. We abandoned the lesson plan again and just talked about baptism and the conference and their thoughts. We have gone back and forth with a baptismal date with them, but they were moved by the spirit during conference. They picked a date, just like that. Saturday we are going to fast with them to accomplish that goal.
Something similar happened with Leila this week. Tuesday we were over there for one of our visits during the week. We have been asking for months if she had prayed about baptism. Finally, we decided to give her a little break. So when we were doing the follow-up, I wanted to ask, but didn't, because I knew when the time came she would tell us. We had the lesson and it went well (I can't even remember what we talked about my memory is just shot these days). At the end, Leila asked me to give the prayer. I gave the prayer and prayed for God to help her find her date. Then, right after we said "amen," the day we had been waiting for came. She told us she picked a date to really pray to be ready for!!! That was like the quickest answer to a prayer ever. What happened was Monday, she just said the prayer and pulled out the calendar and thought about it and chose a date. Yyayayayayay! I am stinking excited for her. That act right there is like one of the greatest miracles of this mission.
So there y'all have it. Two miracle stories that have been in the works since I got here. Both Leila, Elvina, and Yves, we have seen multiple times a week since I have got here in December and had baptismal dates that we tried to make work, but weren't right. Now we have some good goals.
Saturday night the stake did an open house. The seminary was in charge and the youth did different themed rooms like, The Plan of Salvation, temples, prayer, and study the scriptures. Each room had so much creativity in it. The Plan of Salvation was life size. They took chalk and colored the gym floor and we walked through the plan. It was amazing to see the power of the youth in action. They all bore powerful testimony and put a lot of effort into the open house. I was so grateful they did that, so the nonmembers could hear the good word from the youth. Afterward they had refreshments. Holy cow. I literally could have timed. There had to have been like 8 tables of food and within less them 4 minutes, there was absolutely nothing left.
Things in the ward are going well. We started having our splits and it went really well. The thing is the word "split" here has various meanings because it is English and everyone thinks it means different things. Like just going to a lesson with the missionaries. We defined it as the missionaries separating and going with members to see two different people at the same time. Tuesday that happened and the members had a great time and we saw some people. It just felt great to be doing what the mission president has asked us to do.
Sr. Marrett and I have started to ask the classic question, "Do you have a Book of Mormon?" to people. It works here in Tahiti. People LOVEEE free stuff and when we pull one out of our bag for someone who we have never talked to before, the just feel so loved. It works on both sides because we love doing it too. The Book of Mormon is so powerful for conversion and is a great way to share the gospel without asking the dull "Do you want the missionary lessons?" question. I love it and hope to finish it in French this week and start reading it seriously in Tahitian. I have learned so much by reading it in French.
Ok, time for adventure. Today we woke up at like 5:30 to go to the presque ile (little island) and we saw a turtle that is in a magical botanical garden. It was pretty cool and right next to the ocean. The ocean looked awesome and the water was clear. After that we saw some cool caves and did some of the suppppeerrrr touristy stuff. It was fun.
I hope everyone has a great week and tries their best!
Love,
Soeur Campbell
This is Tahiti. We drove like an hour to get there
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