One Month, Family Night and more Running - Mon, Apr 20, 2015

Hello family and friends.

It's been another week just like all the others. Full of adventures and new things. But this one was unlike any other for a couple reasons. Number one. This new week begins the last month of my mission. Number two. We discovered that the air is so thick here that when we pedal down the road the air we are running into feels like a strong wind even though there is no wind at all. Number three. No week is ever the same, ha.

So to start this week off we spent Monday night at our ward mission leader's house and celebrated the birthday of his granddaughter. Nothing too exciting. We ate some good food but I avoided the fafaru. Google it. It can be pretty gross.

Tuesday is our "lesson day." It's the day of the week where we have almost all of our lessons fixed. We go with our ward mission leader and do the lessons. We taught the Tahitian grandmother. We taught about Jesus Christ's earthly ministry and how he established His church on the earth while He was here. It went well. Our ward mission likes to talk to her and since they are both elderly we let them do most of the talking. We also did a lesson with Isaia and his girlfriend. Isaia is the investigator who doesn't really talk. But this lesson he was a little more open. Yay! Also, his name is pronounced ee-tie-yah. There are no s's in Tahitian. So that was a good day with two lessons.

Wednesday we did the round of the island on bikes as our morning workout. It's a 26 km ride and it took us a good hour. The wind was really strong so we weren't able to go too fast. It was still a good ride. We taught our English class which had about seven people. We did a revision on verbs and the present tense. Overall a good day.

Thursday we spent the whole day doing a service project at a member's house. In the morning we moved sand into a little outside eating area. Then in the afternoon we started filling up their driveway with rocks and sand to make their dirt driveway drive-able after the rain.

Friday we ran 5 km. Nice and easy. Monday we did 6 km with shoes and my shoes destroyed my feet. So I stopped wearing them for running. It doesn't hurt barefoot for the first several km. Once you hit 6 or more you start to feel the asphalt grinding into your feet. We headed out to do our district meeting. The training was given by the Elders of Rurutu. A small island just next to us. They talked about giving good commitments. It was a good training.

Saturday I ran 8 km. My companion ran/rode his bike. He's a good sport to run next to me. My feet hurt quite a bit afterwards. We had no lessons and tracting isn't successful here so we spent some time with members and investigators. And the rest of the time we spent reading with maybe a small nap. I'm past the half-way in the Tahitian Book of Mormon.  I plan on finishing before I go home.

Sunday was good.

And today was good. My fallen metatarsal arch has made running not possible for today. Maybe we'll do more biking for exercise. But in any case we decided to take a break this week from hard exercise to relax.

That was our week. I love you family and friends.

Faaitoito!

Elder Squires

The part about the family night escaped my mind. 

We started a program for family night's done by each auxiliary presidency. It started this Friday with a family night done by the Relief Society. It was simple and went well. We had three investigators come. Two of which we teach and the other one we already know well. Hopefully we'll get some more investigators from this program. We'll see. 

Love you all,

Bye

The Sister's attacked our door after we missed a lesson and were pretty bummed about it. There are nice Sisters. 

Motu, Service Project, and Running - April 13, 2015

This week was good. We started it off Monday with a trip to the motu. So, in French Polynesia there are islands that have a recife. Tahiti has a recife, Bora has a recife and others. The recife normally circles the entire island. The distance from the recife to the main island can vary. Here on Tubuai at closest it's around one kilometer and at farthest it's two-ish kilometers. This creates a nice shell for the island. It protects it from the ocean waves, it makes a nice lagoon of water and sometimes there are islands out on the recife. These islands make great places to visit and do a little barbeque. So Monday morning we headed out. The weather wasn't looking so hot due to rain that had been coming down for a solid week. As we were riding in the boat we could see the storm clouds coming in. Once we arrived at the motu (one of the islands on the recife) we only had a few minutes to get everything off the boat before it started raining, again.

It was still a good experience. We had a lot of fun making food, talking and walking around this little island. I'm happy we were able to go.

Speaking of rain. It rained all of the week before this week and this week the rain finally stopped on Wednesday. We were at a member's house on Tuesday night waiting out the rain when he heard a chicken crow. That one little crow told him that there would be no more rain. And what do you know? He was right. It stopped raining and hasn't rained since. There are good things to learn from others.

Like every week we did a service project. We spent the day working on the land of our ward mission leader where his son-in-law has built his house. It was just a good day of work. We would work for a few hours then take a coconut break. Work some more and then go eat. Work some more and take another break with juice. Work some more and take another coconut break. It was very Tahitian. I'm not complaining because I enjoy coconuts and being with people. So it was a win win for me.

The work this week was a little down. We had two lessons with investigators. One with our Tahitian investigator and another with an investigator named Mata. Our Tahitian isn't progressing because we haven't given commitments. The Tahitian style of teaching is slower and so as we work further into the lessons we will start committing her. Mata on the other hand is doing well. He wants to be baptized but we have to talk with his wife to convince her to not be afraid of her family. We're waiting for the next lesson with them.

Running. I've picked up running again. Friday I ran five kilometers with no shoes (I had loaned them to someone) and today I did six with shoes. I got blisters from my shoes so I might just keep running with no shoes. I enjoy running. It's a good sport for relaxing.

I love you all family. We're still out here. We're still working. We'll see what the future holds.

Elder Squires

A really pretty sunset

That's the driveway to our house after all the rain. 

What A Week

So, family and friends. What can you say about a week of rain, of cancelled lessons, of problems with investigators, of practical jokes, sad moments, early conference mornings, Easter and activities? Well. I guess you say it's normal and you share these moments.

Rain. It rained EVERY DAY. It's only a problem because our laundry dries outside on the line. Oh well.

It's a strange fact. No matter how free you would think your life is it always seems to fill up with things. We have investigators that don't have time. They were too busy for us. You wouldn't think so here on such a small island. But that's how it is.

We have an investigator that doesn't really talk. He is very shy. If you ask him a question he just says I don't know. It's rough. We are trying to find ways to help him. We'll see what we can do.

It was April Fool's this week so we called the Sisters to play a joke on them. The joke was that we called them at 3 in the morning to wish them a happy April Fool's. Ha.

Our ward mission leader's family/our adopted family/ had a tragedy when their two dogs died. It was a rough moment. It's hard to lose a friend.

For activities we went to the motu, one of the outer islands, and spent the day with the first counselor in the Mission presidency. It was a lot of fun. My companion has the photos.

Conference was great. We woke up at five in order to be there at six when it starts here. It reminded me of early mornings going to the temple. The talks were great. We were lucky enough to watch four of the five sessions in English. It's so much better in your own language.

Easter around here is pretty low key. They don't really celebrate it. Like at all. And unfortunately my companion and I forgot to do an Easter egg hunt.

Wow. What a week. But the biggest part is Easter. The day to remember Jesus Christ and what He did for us. I love what Elder Holland said and what the other speakers said about the Atonement. It was such a nice reminder of what it is all about and how important it is in our lives. The Atonement is our saving hands in this life. The thing that saves us and keeps us in His love. I am so grateful for Him and what He did. I know He lives. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Love you all!

Elder Squires

Well, It's Official - Mar 30, 2015

Hello Family and Friends,

This week we got the transfer calls. I was really hoping to not get a call because that would mean that I would stay here on Tubuai until the end of my mission. I really like it out here and I wouldn't like to go to a new area for only six weeks and then go home. So we waited. Saturday night we heard that the calls for transfers had begun. Here in the mission we get a phone call from the assistants and they tell us where we are going to be transferred and who our next companion will be. It's nothing fancy. So, we waited. It got later and later and we went to bed. I checked the phone one last time before we went to bed, no call. So, we waited. We woke up Sunday morning, no call. That could mean two things, one - no transfer or two - they didn't call us yet. So I texted the assistants to know if I was being transferred or not. And....

I'm staying!!!!!!!!!!! I will finish here on Tubuai. Yay!! And for those who don't know, I go home the 20th of May. I leave Tahiti the 19th and get to SLC at 3 in the afternoon. It's official. The end is here.

There is something called a teaching pool. The old mission nurse's husband talked to me about that. It contains the investigators that you teach. At least from what I understand. Here on Tubuai our teaching pool wasn't very big when I got here. But recently it has solidified even if it is small. It's nice to have a constancy with the people we teach and the weeks that go by. It's been nice.

We have a couple, Michel and Karina. Michel is an excommunicated member and Karina is an investigator. She has wanted to be baptized for a while but she wants her husband to baptize her. So we have been working on that. Turns out that the husband's reintegration as a member will be really quick. Allowing the couple to marry in May and the week after the husband can baptize his wife. That was the great news that we got this week. I'm excited for May!

I love you all, I know this Church is the true Church of Christ. I am glad to be out here serving my mission.

Thanks for everything! Happy Easter!

Love,

Elder Squires