WHERE TO START?!! This week was filled with so many miracles that being at the end of the week having it spent with Elder Soares and his dear wife! Also Elder and Sister Nielsen who my families knows very well! It’s been amazing to be in their presence and hear of their words! Also the WHOLE mission got to be together and it was amazing to all be here in Papeete and celebrating the first missionary of Tahiti 180 years ago! This island is special and its amazing to see all the miracles and blessings from the church being here in Tahiti and that like 2 Nephi 29:7 says, “…that I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea”. God knows and remembers this people here and it’s beautiful to be part of this great history here! The celebration consisted of 2 parts the cultural part and the spiritual part. The first hour was all dancing showing the culture here and the had an hour break then the rest was us missionaries and other members who sang in a giant choir! It was beautiful and then we got to hear Elder and Sœur Soares speak to us and Elder Soares spoke in French it was incredible! It was just all centered around the blessing of how special French Polynesian is and what a blessing it has been for here! It was such a beautiful experience and hard to put into words all that happened but is definitely a couple of days I’ll never forget! So beautiful!
Now for some other highlights from this week:
-Found 4 new friends just from doing a lesson with 1 new friend we found a little bit ago and they all wanted to listen and then they all were interested for another lesson and it was such a miracle!
-Helped get ready for the celebration and mission conference with Elder Soares am bad went to the church but Pirae to set up all the chairs for the conference we had Friday! It was great and glad I was able to help!
-We had a feeling to go visit one of our friends and when we got the they were Ike do you want a waffle and I didn’t hear her and my companion said yes and I was like yeah so then we had this amazing waffle just during our lesson and it was so good! My first time that happened and it was also a miracle because I was really hungry and was literally and answer to my prayers and a miracle!
-Mission Conference with Elder and Sister Soares and Elder and Sister Nielsen with other visiting Authorities was absolutely incredible! He talk about having Joy in our lives and the others talked about how we hear Him and having faith that God will always answer our prayers and literally everything was exactly what I needed to hear! Elder Soares talked about 5 points of what Joy is and how we can always have it:
1. Feeling joy increases our desire to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others.
2. Joy is a principle of power.
3. Our joy is a choice.
4. Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause.
5. We can feel true joy by focusing our mission on Jesus Christ.
He then promised us we would always have joy if we followed these 5 principles! It was just a beautiful experience!
-Got a picture with Elder and Sister Nielsen after because our family knows them and it was so amazing to see them again almost a year later when I saw them the last time!
-Got to see my WHOLE district from the MTC which I haven’t seen since I’ve gotten here which was an amazing devotional! Then spent all of the celebration sitting by Elder Warnock who was my companion in the MTC and it was so good seeing him again!! Also seeing everyone together!!
-Had the CN180 celebration and like I said above it was really amazing! Just the importance of this amazing blessing of the missionaries coming here to share the gospel 180 years ago!
-Got to see so many families from Taravao my old secteur and it was amazing! The family Colombel, Bisiaux, and Tetoka! It was so good to see them and I miss them so so much! We got pictures and were able to catch up for a little moment and it was just such an incredible miracle to see them! God is so aware of me that I was even with how many people came which was a lot I was able to see all of them! It was incredible!!
-Sunday was another special conference we had with Elder and Sister Soares and it was amazing because it was our 3rd time hearing from him and I felt so blessed to be able to hear so much from him this weekend! He is absolutely incredible!!
-Got to go to the Tahiti Faa’a airport to drop off the missionaries who were traveling back to the islands because the celebration and conference finished and I hadn’t been back there since my very first day here so that was a pretty crazy experience!
-Oh yeah not a highlight but this week while I was taking a shower there were maggots in the shower and then looked up and they were falling from the roof! It was DISGUSTING! I think something died in the roof and yeah very gross! But I’m still alive so that’s good!
But yeah that’s about it for this week! Filled with absolute incredible miracles and experiences I’ll never forget! I just felt Heavenly Father and the Savior’s hand in every detail and that They know me so individually! They are my ultimate source of Joy and Peace and only through Them can I have the strength to keep moving forward! Heavenly Father answers our prayers and never hesitate to pray and continue to grow our relationship with Him! He wants to give us blessing when we are faithful and trust in His perfect plan and timing for us! It’s not always easy and something I’m still working on doing but when we continue to put forth the effort and trust un His timing we will see the blessing perfectly placed in our lives! I know He heats us! And love us with His perfect love! Find His endless JOY that we can have in our lives daily no matter the circumstances because of Him! Love and miss all of you so so much! Beaucoup d’amour! Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!💙
-Elder LeBaron
