The Rain - March 10, 2013

Hello everyone!

This week was pretty great! It had ups and downs and I'll tell you about our adventures.

Monday we had p-day. I was with Elder Bagley and we didn't get a whole lot done. It was a slow day. Our family night we did with a family of members. The lesson went well and at the end we ate. And this family really makes us eat. At the end of our meal with four different dishes of raw fish. I have learned that raw fish is really good. They served us four cakes. When they put them on the table I was so shocked. I only ate a slice of three of the cakes.

Tuesday, we worked with a ward missionary who knows the area better than me and my companion. She showed us some of her friends and some old investigators. Then we had a lesson with a protestant named Maiva and her son. She doesn't hear very well because she is older so we talked mostly with the son while the ward missionary talked to the mom. We talked about baptism and following the example of Christ. The son wasn't very accepting at the beginning but towards the end he opened up and accepted to talk with us again. I had no idea what to say during the lesson but the Spirit guided me and He touched the son's heart. We fixed our next lesson with him and the mom for Thursday.

Wednesday, we did a split. I went with our bishop to teach Naomi and her husband while my companion taught the lessons with the children of Rosine who was baptized the beginning of the year. There is a lot of potential in that family. We spend the most part of the afternoon at her house teaching her kids. We have fixed most of their baptisms and we just need to start teaching the dad and we will be one step closer to helping them have an eternal family.

Thursday it rained. Friday it rained. Saturday it rained. Sunday it rained less. But we worked any way.

On Thursday we worked with a member in the morning and then we ate with him. The afternoon it rained so hard! We went to Maiva's and cancelled it because of the weather. But at the end of the day we did a family night when the family of Rosine. It went really well. The dad was there. We talked about how the church is to be constructed and then we played a game. The dad will take some more time but we will get there.

Friday we had our district meeting and then we headed over to Naomi's house. The rain was so bad that we called a member to take us to her house because she lives on the other side of the island in a town called Hitia. The end of Hitia is the end of our area.

The lesson with her went well. But at the end they told us they didn't want to get married anymore. NO!! We talked with them and they talked about how money was a problem and they wanted to pay themselves. And since neither of them have jobs money is very limited. Marco, her boyfriend, had other questions and with the Spirit we were able to help them out and the marriage is back on plan.

Saturday me and Elder Purau, a new missionary, went to Hitia in the rain. It took 45 minutes to get there and when we got to the Tema's house, he and his girlfriend have been investigators for about a year, his girlfriend is another daughter of Rosine, they were not there! NO!

We had nothing to do until one and it was raining and no one was home. So we ended up doing our studies on the beach across the street from a grocery store. Studying on the beach was great. And we ended up contacting three people and fixing lessons for them.

This is definitely the Lord's work. He is the one putting people on our way. He loves us so much. I know this church is true. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Squires

Working in Paradise (Kolipoki Style) - March 3, 2014

From: Brandon Squires <brandon.squires@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Mon, Mar 3, 2014 05:39 PM
Subject: Working in Paradise (Kolipoki Style)

Hello!

This week went well. It was a little bizarre because our Church had been hit with a landslide and so everything that is normally at the Church has been else where. 

The church
We have done lessons on the out(door basketball court. We have done baptisms in the ocean. (That's one of my favorites.) We have meetings at our Bishops house. And it will stay like this for a while. We won't have a Church until they fix it all up. Only two rooms were hit by the landslide but we can't use the Church at all.

The geneology room - one of the two damaged by the landslide..

For the investigators things are going well. We started out this week with six baptisms fixed and our goal was just to fix and fix more. 

Wednesday we had to do a split because we had two lessons at the same time. So my companion went with our Bishop to a lesson with Naomi, Marco and their two kids. Naomi and the kids have been taking the lessons for a long time. She knows these things are true and she wants so badly to be baptized. But the block has always been the boyfriend, Marco. The lesson on Wednesday they engaged the children for a date and they accepted but before we could be sure we needed the approval of Marco. 

Friday we went again with Bishop and we talked with Marco. It seemed so simple. We just talked to him about it and he said his worries were the challenges and also he didn't want them to get divorced. The thing is they have been living together for 18 years! I was so shocked that they had together for so long and that they were worried about being seperated. And in the end they accepted to be married and baptized the 10 of May. I was so happy afterwards! It was a great moment when they accepted. I looked at Naomi and she smiled so big at me. Yup, a great moment.

We had a baptism this Friday. Her name is Lanivei and she is 9. Her family is all members but we needed to teach her simply because she was over the age of 8. And I am glad that we were able to teach her. She is pretty awesome. We had a handshake that reminded me a lot of the handshake I did in high school.

Our baptism Friday

Sunday we had a lesson with the son of an inactive couple. His name is Terii. He didn't want to get baptized right now. He wanted to wait. He didn't want to make those changes. But the more we talked about how much better his life would be if he changed, he made his decision. I don't know if he did it for his future family, or for his health, but I know that he did it because he saw that his life would be better. And it is so true. When we choose God, He promises that our lives will be better.

I know this Church is true. I love you family.

Love,

Elder Squires

Pictures from last week:

The reserved seats for Elder and Sister Nelson

From our hike to the World War II cannons.

The view from a cannon!