37 till CHRISTMAS!!! 🎄☃️🎅🏻🏝☀️ & 10 till Thanksgiving!!! 🥧🍗🦃🍁 SO crazy how fast time is flying by! Miracle filled week and always super sad ending with saying goodbye to Elder Chadaz, Elder Ockey, Elder Whetten(my second trainer), & Sœur Harryman!!😭 It’s so sad it’s literally all my favorite friends in the mission that are all leaving! And all those when I was a baby in the mission were all at 1 year and now I’m in there shoes and they are all finished!! Super crazy! 

Now for some Highlights from this week:

– Made a Facebook video for our Facebook page and so im excited to see how it turns out! It was a short 2 minute video of our beliefs and a reel to post so well see how that goes!

– Exchange with Elder Chadaz for the last time and it was so amazing to be with him! Love him so much and he’s literally I would say one of if not my favorite missionary I’ve met on my mission! He’s just the best and its him that we found out we are 4th cousins so even cooler! 

– District Tamaa(eating) together in the city at Uturoa and it was great to be with them! It was because Elder Chadaz is finishing his and so we all wanted to eat together! The food was very yummy and it was a great time spent together!

– Soirée Familiale that was great! We had 5 of our amis there and then we talked about the plan of salvation and where we were before and our lives here! It was one of the members that lead it and it was great! We then invited them all to church the next day and all of them came! We had 10 amis at church and that was the most we’ve had since I’ve gotten here! It was INCREDIBLE!!!

– Appel de Transfert!!! We had our transfer call this week and I’m staying with my companion and now I’m the new District Leader!! It’s crazy! I can’t believe I’ve been out long enough to be that and now have that responsibility! I’m super excited for this next chapter of my mission and to be able to help all these wonderful missionaries in my district and all our friends here at Raiatea!!

– Primary Program for church and it was that when we had all 10 of our amis there! It was so cute and all the children did such a great job! 

– The funniest thing happened where I for the first time mixed up an English word with a French word that wasn’t good at a Faatamaraa! We were with my favorite family Tarati and we were talking about The Other Side of Heaven which is a film our church made about a mission that served on a Polynesian Island and in the first one Anne Hathaway is in it! And so I was explaining that to them and I was like she’s Catwomen, in Les Miserable, and then I was like Princess Diary! But when I said Princess Diary in French I was like La Diarrhée de la Princesse 🤦🏻‍♂️🤦🏻‍♂️ In French Diary and Diarrhea sound the same and Diary isn’t how you say that in French it’s “Journal Intime” so they all bursted out laughing and I had realized what I had said being “The Diarrhea Princess”, turned absolutely bright red, and was dying of laughter with them! Definitely a core memory and so grateful that it was with them who I love so much and definitely made our relationship stronger🤣 

That’s about it for this week but yeah it was crazy! Filled full of miracles, sad moments, and full of laughter! I love this work so much and more and more I realize how little time I have left! As I see these missionaries going I know I’m getting so close! As Sœur Harryman had said in her final testimony because we have a testimony meeting with the whole mission on zoom and what she said really touched and stook with me being, “My brother told me this right before the mission and I’ll tell it to you all now, Forget yourself and Live everyday like it’s your last!” She was like the mission truly flies by and live every day like it’s your last! It was great advice and exactly that! I must give my all more than ever before and I know the Savior will give me strength! He lives and thanks to His Atonement everything is possible and He is the answer to everything! Once we forget ourselves and turn to Him we grow in beautiful ways and do as the Prophet has told us to “Let Him Prevail in Our Lives”! He’s there always and loves us more than we truly can imagine! I love you all SO MUCH!!!! And miss you all like crazy!!! Till next week! Beaucoup d’amour! Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!💙

-Elder LeBaron☺️🤙🏻🌺

JOYEUX ANNIVERSAIRE BENNY! Today’s my brother’s birthday and it fell just right to be on P-day! Shout out to him my homie for life! Love you! Crazy week that I had and it flew by! Filled with surprises and wonderful miracles! 

Now for some Highlights:

– Surprising split with Elder Larsen (the greenie of our DZs) and he was with us for 2 days! The DZs were in Tahiti for MLC and then had an exchange in Bora Bora after so Elder Larsen just stayed with us! It was great being with him and had a great time together!

– Blitz in our secteur! A Blitz is when all the missionaries in your district come together in another secteur and then we go contacting to help find references for them and it’s so fun to do! This time around it was for our secteur and sadly didn’t have much success but it was still a great day full of little miracles!

– Exchange with Elder Jefferies who’s in Faaroa normally and it was great to be with him! We had an exchange within an exchange! With Elder Larsen and Elder Jefferies but it all was great!

– Wonderful Faatamaraa(member meal) with the family Laufatte (the son of one of my companions)! Also Winter mā(Senior Missionary Couple) came and ate with us and it was so good! Love them and had a wonderful night together!

– Miracle lesson with one of our inactive members that’s coming back to church invited her boyfriend to a lesson so we found a new ami and it was great to meet him! We was very open and liked our message! So we’ll see what happens next!

– Ended our P-day today with a fun hike and got to see all the Islands of the Raromata’i! Or the Society Islands! But we did it as a zone! It was wonderful!

That’s about it for this week but it went by in a flash! 3 weeks till Thanksgiving and 6 till Christmas is crazy! Time is literally flying by! And it’s all my lasts right now! In a weird whirlwind of emotions when you hit your year mark because you start seeing everything you’ve done and how much more I can still experience and so it’s this beautiful time to reflect and see how I can give my all in this time that I have left! I was then reading in my personal studies and read Sister Browning talk titled, “Seeking Answers to Spiritual Questions” and it really touched me and this is a part that I loved that she said, “I testify that placing your trust in Heavenly Father and in His prophets, whom He has sent, will help you to spiritually elevate and push you forward toward God’s expanded horizon. Your vantage will change because you will change. God knows that the higher you are, the farther you can see. Our Savior invites you to make that climb.” I love that analogy of being on this climb of life and to see that the Savior wants us to all climb to see this beautiful view of the miracles and blessings in our lives! I know that when we truly expand our view and trust in this climb of life that the Savior is right by us hand in hand helping us make it to Heavenly Father again! Through our struggles and trials in life we aren’t alone and this climb may be steep and scary at times but we aren’t in it alone but have the Savior right by helping us! That’s it for this week but I love you all SO MUCH!!!! And miss you all like crazy!!! Till next week! Beaucoup d’amour! Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!💙

-Elder LeBaron☺️🤙🏻🌺

NOVEMBER ALREADY! Christmas is next MONTH!!!🎅❄️⛄️🌴🥥☀️ And then 2025 here we go for my last year in the Tahiti Papeete Mission!🥹 What a week! Had an incredible experience and then some of the hardest trials! But hey all you can do is smile and know every day gets a little better in difficult situations! Joy is a choice and we can’t control our circumstances but our attitudes! So I chose to have JOY! Well I tried my hardest!😅

Now for some Highlights from this week:

– THE HAWAIKI NUI!!!! It was so INCREDIBLE! So the Hawaiki Nui is a once a year huge boat race from all the islands of the Raromata’i/Society islands being Huahine, Raiatea, Tahaa, and then to Bora Bora! It’s a crazy race! And so we did a service project and got to carry all the outrigger(va’a/pirogue) boats out of the water and put them on the shore! It was crazy but so amazing! We got shirts and a hat and gotta wear it all day because it was a dress code and to show the sponsors and we were doing a service project so it worked out! The shirts are sick! Then I got to see one of my favorite families from Fautaua (my last secteur) Teamo mā ! So that was amazing!

– HAPPY HALLOWEEN !🎃 👻🧙🏻‍♂️☠️ We had a ward primary Halloween trunk or treat activity! It was so fun and we had 3 of our amis there and it was great! We did the Candy Pong and it was our stand that we ran and we had such a good time being with them all! So we got a little special Halloween experience! My last and first one out here in Tahiti!

– CRAZY SUNBURN!🥵😵 So not really a highlight but yeah from the Hawaiki Nui I forgot to put sunscreen on my neck/chest area and put it everywhere else just not there! It took all the sun and it was so painful! It blistered horribly and I had a huge blister on my neck! I then called our mission nurse and went to the doctor and got this French medicine Flamazine and it completely healed the blister in 2 days! It was a miracle! Also received a blessing from my companion and that more than anything I know healed me! Huge miracle! But I couldn’t wear my tie because we didn’t want the blister to pop and so that was quite funny to see so many be like where’s your tie and then they saw me all bandaged up and were like oh! So yeah crazy!

– Had a Stake Conference this weekend and it was great! We had wonderful speakers and the spirit was so strong!

– Found out I’m cousins with Elder Chadaz!! He’s my 4th cousin! That’s the closest I’ve found on the mission so yeah pretty dope! It makes sense we are the closest to each other here so it’s because we are cousins!😂

That’s about it for this week! But yeah it was crazy but I was able to find Joy through the hard moments! The Lord is always there for me and even during hard moments He’ll always make them better if we turn to Him! He’s the only source of Joy in this world full of turmoil! Miracles are everywhere and when we have the eyes to see it wow it’s beautiful! That’s it for this week but I love you all SO MUCH!!!! And miss you all like crazy!!! Till next week! Beaucoup d’amour! Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!💙

-Elder LeBaron☺️🤙🏻🌺

What a week full of many difficulties and yet some of the most beautiful miracles that I have received my whole mission! It was quite a rough week for me and we had many challenges to face and it wasn’t easy! But we were able to see God’s hand every day and able to stay positive and see beautiful miracles happen! So let’s talk about some of them! 

Miracles/Highlights from this last week:

– We had a bike accident with Elder Durham’s bike! Luckily no one got hurt but his piece of his bike that changes gears completely snapped off while we were in the valley of our secteur with NO CELL SERVICE!! We were like what do we do?! So we tried our best to fix it but it was completely destroyed! This guy came up to us and started help us out and i started to talk with him! Found out the person we were going to visit was his wife! So we walked to his house with him and then had a wonderful visit with them and right before we left he asked us for a blessing so I was like of course! So we gave him one and it was absolutely beautiful with tears in his eyes said it was exactly what I needed! He was this sweet papi(grandpa)! I also said the blessing in part French and Tahitian so it was crazy! Gift of Tongues IS REAL!!!

– Surprise Exchange with DZ mā and I got to be with Elder Granger again! It was so good and then we had a huge Soirée Familiale(Family Home Evening) with Taumata mā from Fautaua who are here for work for 1 month and literally felt like we were back in Fautaua! It was a wonderful soirée(evening)! We found so many new amis!!!

– Miraculously got Elder Durham’s bike fixed in less than a day! In Polynesia everything takes so so so much longer and when you ask somebody to do something it takes time but literally it got done so fast and even the guy who fixed the bike said it was a miracle from God and Yes it was!! 

That’s about it for this week but wow so amazing to see that even with those challenges I faced there were so many miracles that came and I’m never alone! Like the Prophet has told us that God will manifest more of His hand in our lives then ever before and to always “Seek and Expect Miracles”! That has been my mato of my whole mission is to always seek and expect miracles and they will always happen! His hand is always there and no matter what He’s there to catch us and give us these beautiful miracles! I can testify that He lives and is a God of miracles! They happen every day! We just have to have the eyes to see them! That’s it for this week but I love you all SO MUCH!!!! And miss you all like crazy!!! Till next week! Beaucoup d’amour! Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!💙

-Elder LeBaron☺️🤙🏻🌺

WOW ALREADY LAST FULL WEEK OF OCTOBER! Time is truly flying by! It’s been great this last week with my companion Elder Durham! He’s quite the character and he’s always making me laugh with his video game references and just random references to funny things! We are definitely getting closer and he’s opening up more with me which has been better and how we are both learning from each other! But yeah super amazing week! 

Now for some Highlights from this week:

– We invited our friend to be baptized and she said yes and now really preparing her for the November 2nd! So we are helping her to accomplish that! 

– We then had some really good visits with our members this week and we have been really been working hard with them to help strengthen our relationship with them and have more of them who are able to help us with our amis!

– Soirée Danse/Talent Show with the Société de Secours (Relief Society) and it was amazing! It was a bunch of dances from all over French Polynesia and it was quite a beautiful experience!

That’s about it for the week but it flew by and again didn’t have much time so it’s shorter this week! Had wonderful beautiful miracles and I know that God is in our most smallest details and when we look for them we can see that He’s always there! Keep finding joy in this beautiful gospel and know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are always there for us and no matter what they answer our prayers! I love you all SO MUCH!!!! And miss you all like crazy!!! Till next week! Beaucoup d’amour! Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!💙

-Elder LeBaron☺️🤙🏻🌺

What a week! So much has been happening lately on my mission! Hitting a year out on the mission everything again has changed and again my focus and how I think has changed! It’s amazing to see how missions change and sculpt us! I’m so grateful for it and now sadly everything will start being my last so I’ve really been taking everything in and now more than ever before giving my all and have an energy that really came from the General Conference of truly helping everyone know that the Second Coming is coming and that we must prepare now and there’s no better time now then to come to Him and partake of His endless Joy and forgiveness! 

Now for some Highlights from this week:

– Started the week with a split (unexpected) and was with two greenies Elder Durham with me and then Elder Larson who is normally with DZ mā(our Zone Leaders)! It was crazy! But miracle we invited someone to be baptized and she said yes so MIRACLES!!!

– Had one day where all our lessons canceled and so we just did a whole bunch of visits and it was crazy but it went great and many of them were so grateful we had stopped by! Even with HURRICANE RAIN AND WIND! It was pretty scary our power went out and our service but we are doing good now!

– Interviews with President went WONDERFUL! I love meeting with him and having that time with him! He’s amazing and he came in person for the islands because of our zone conference and yeah it was a wonderful time seeing him and just talking with him!

– ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! So much fun and wow so powerful! I came with many questions and all of them were answered! It was very special! Then we played a little game and I was going crazy on all the conference talk questions and got them all right! So that was fun! Then got everyone to sing happy birthday to me because of all the birthdays in October! Then got to see SŒUR HARRYMAN!! It had been so long and sadly it was her last conference but we got to be together and we literally predicted it! So yeah and got to see Sœur Snow and Elder Granger and with Elder Granger now that he’s DZ(Zone Leader) he did the training and he did great! 

– BAPTISM WITH CONRAD! Our ami Conrad got baptized this week and it was the first baptism all year so it was amazing and so many people came to support him and he was so happy! Such a special day! It was also his birthday so even more special!

That’s about it for this week but yeah it went great and truly again flew by! Time really is speeding up and it’s crazy! From my studies this week I received a direct answer to my question of how I can still have strength this last year of my mission and as I was reading President Emily Belle Freeman’s talk she said, “Learn how priesthood ordinances and covenant promises will allow God’s power to flow into your life with greater efficacy, working in and through you, empowering and equipping you to reach your full purpose and potential.” Once I read that it was amazing to see that each of us has this power so readily there to take upon us but we must search for it and see that it’s there for us to reach our full potentials! He is there to endow us with power and give us a force an eternal force or celestial force that helps us through all of our moments of difficulty! Turn to Him always! He’s there to give us this power! I love you all SO MUCH!!!! And miss you all like crazy!!! Till next week! Beaucoup d’amour! Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!💙

-Elder LeBaron☺️🤙🏻🌺