Almost Cyclone, Digging Holes, and First's - January 26, 2014

This week was an interesting one. By reading the subject line you can see that. 

Friday night we heard about a potential cyclone. In the beginning stages they called it a depression that was to hit a small island called Rapa, which is one of the furthest island in my little island group. They told us that Sunday night we should stay in our families and pray for ours and other's safety. No one seemed terribly worried out me but my companion and I flipped on the inside when we heard that. Saturday passed just fine, other than the killer heat. Sunday passed fine, but the same killer heat and today is the same. The cyclone didn't up hitting us and no one has really talked about it out here. They still seem shaken up from the cyclone that happened five years ago. Understandably. And in the end we didn't have any problems other than this killer heat. 

So, because the work out here is moving at the speed of a rocket...ha. We decided to take a day to give service. We chose two families, one active and one inactive and we decided to help them with the construction of their houses. The inactive family had us put tile joints in their shower and the active member (who showed up two hours later than expected) had us cover a hole. It was funny with the active member because he very quickly stated while we were shoveling that I am not one made for manual labor but more intellectual. He then asked my major and we were able to laugh about that. It reminded me of the t-shirt I made when I was younger, "I'm a thinker, not a swimmer." It holds true. 

The first's are many. It was the first time that I got to work putting in the tile joints. My companion had his first lessons in his first area. Today we did a surprise service project and I laid cement and built a cinder block wall for the first time. My companion decorated his first planner. 

All in all a good week. With some new references we'll see what the weeks ahead have in store. Also, mission president is coming down this weekend! Yay! I am excited and nervous. 

Well, love you all,

Elder Squires

We had to hammer out the bottoms of the cinder blocks. The Sister's were there as well.

Yeah, we wore reflective vests to our service project.

Beautiful sunset.

New Companion, and Sick - January 19, 2015

Well everybody, it's been quite the week. We did a little bit of everything. But in all this week we biked, we said goodbye's and we said hello's.

Elder Millerberg left. That was too bad. I'm not a big fan of the six week transfers but they happen any way. We said goodbye Sunday afternoon. At the same time I said hello to my new companion. Elder Hervaud. He is 25 years old. He is from Outumaoro (familiar, right?). He is a brand new missionary. He has only been out two weeks on his mission. He is sweet.

I got sick again Thursday. Not that I was especially sick that day, but that we went to the doctor to figure out why I was having a hard time breathing. The mission nurse thinks I have an allergy that is causing the phlegm. That phlegm falls into my lungs and creates problems. The doctor hooked me up to some machines for my pulse and blood pressure. He did an ultra-sound of my lungs and throat and found that my lungs work very well. He prescribed me some anti-allergy medications and some thing to clear out my nose.

As for the work we were able to two lessons with our new investigators. One, who is 11, named Mauri wants to be baptized. Another named Atina, listened to what we shared and was very nice about it. She even accepted to have us come back. And we'll see where it goes. But, we had to put one on pause because her husband doesn't want us coming over any more. It's too bad. She was really nice and really interested.

Voila. Not a whole lot. That's been our week out here.

I know this church is true and that Christ lives.

Love you all,

Elder Squires

Elder Hervaud getting off the plane.

Elder Millerberg with a brother in the branch.

Tubuai, the part under the orange line is our area. 

Transfers! Tahitian Cooking and French Polynesian President - January 12, 2015

Here we go again!! Another Transfer!

This time it's not me getting transferred. It's Elder Millerberg. He is finally leaving his first area and heading out for the big world of Tahiti. All in all, I'm not really a fan of six week companionships. It's not the same. Considering I just finished four months with Elder Webber, six weeks goes by like nothing.

The news is that now I will be serving with someone else. His name is Elder Hervaud (pronounced heir-vo) He is from Tahiti. I helped him with his papers. He got his call while I was serving in his ward. He will show up here the 18th. He started his mission this year. I am training him.

This week we worked with a member from Mahu. This member knows everyone. We were very blessed to be able to work with him this week. We found two new investigators and had someone to drive us around. So nice. We even had help from members in the other branch. It was a good week.

And since we spent so much time with this member, we found out that his family was making the food for a big feast for the president of French Polynesia. We decided to help him  out.

Saturday morning we woke up and headed out to his house. The first thing we did was drive up to his farm and cut down some banana trees, picked some pineapple and some tapioca(?). It started to rain pretty hard when we got back so we took a little break. After a minute we decided to do the next thing. To kill the pig. It's very traditional. So, I witnessed my first pig being killed. I left them degut the pig while I took the skins off coconuts. My hands still hurt from that. Overall it was fun. We had a good time doing authentic Tahitian cooking. The pig eventually got put into a hole in the ground with hot rocks. And apparently the president liked it.

And today we had a lunch with the president. He invited the entire island. They ran out of food. Ha. They killed four cows and made a bunch of other foods and it ran out. Oh well. It was still cool to see him.

This is my last week with Elder Millerberg. My new companion arrives Sunday and we'll head off. It'll be great. I love you all! Have a great week.

Elder Squires

That's the president, in the salmon colored blanket thing with a staff and wearing a white hat.

He stole my camera last night....those are the bananas we had ripening in our house. It took two weeks to get some ripe ones. And now they are almost all yellow.

That's the member and my companion heating up the rocks.