This Week

From: Brandon Squires <brandon.squires@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Mon, Oct 27, 2014 6:45 pm

This week has been....crazy. It started off Tuesday with a multi-zone conference with Elder Nielson. He is in the area presidency for the pacific area. The conference was with our zone and two other zones, Paea and Papeari. We talked about every thing in that conference. From why we are here as missionaries to committing more people to be baptized to bearing our testimonies in one minute to prove that a sincere and powerful testimony can be bared in a short time. It was such a great learning experience. I loved it!!

Tuesday night we had four lessons. With two at the same time.  So my companion went with a member to a lesson with some new investigators that are doing really well. I went with Fr. Teinauri to teach Jacques and his brother and his dad, who wanted a Tahitian to come to be able to speak to him. The lesson went all right. It only ended up being Jacques and his girlfriend. But it was our first lesson with her and I was really happy about that.

Thursday we called the member with whom we were supposed to eat and they said, "We'll call you back..." They never called back. We actually found out that they don't have time to feed us during the week so we didn't have food for the day. As we were walking around in Quartier Taua, which is a really steep neighborhood, my companion and I were kicking rocks at each other trying to get the rock to go in between our legs. It's a little game that we play. A member randomly calls us after we walk past her house. She says, "Mai!" Which means come in Tahitian. So we went up to her house and she invited us to eat lunch with her. After that we kept working and later ran into our Bishop who invited us to come eat with him. Such a big blessing!

I love the mission. I love you family and friends. I love sharing the gospel. And I am happy to be here. Thanks for every one of you!

Love,

Elder Squires

Zone conference. Elder Nielson is in the middle.

Sweet cloud

I found a Tahitian foam pit...it's not real but it looks like it could be.

Baptism, Four months, and Walking - October 20, 2014

We had a baptism this week! It was really great. Kealanie has been baptized and has shown the good example for her mom and for her entire family. At her baptism we had a lot of non-members come. One is a referral that we had already received earlier in the week, whose name is Jacques. Or Jack, in English. We taught him Tuesday and the lesson went so well. He asked so many questions. So after Kealanie was baptized our Bishop asked what people had felt. Jacques said that he had felt something very strong. It's true. There is always a special feeling at baptisms. And this was no exception. After the baptism we talked with some of Kealanie's family and engaged some for the lessons. We fixed one lesson. We'll see how that goes.

Four months. It has now been four months that I have been here in Outumaoro. The transfers were this week and I stayed. Do you now who else stayed? My companion! Ha. It's great. We get another six weeks together. Woot woot.

As for walking..... We still walk. We have done so many miles. Everyday we walk 2 km to get to our area. Another 4 km in the area. And another 2 km to get home. My shoes, that are already two sizes too big, that are already being held together by glue, and that I got for free, are really starting to show the effects of all the walking. Our ward is very impressed by us. We are the first elder's they have had that have gone on foot. We enjoy it. It's effective. A car would be nice but I enjoy the BM Double-Pied (sorry, French joke).

Overall it's been good. We've been doing a lot of work and learning a lot of things. Fill your lives with good things, even if it means waiting for a long time for the seeds to grow, we have to plant them, or they will never grow. I love you all family. And I hope that all is going well for you all!

Love, Elder Squires

Kealanie...she is so funny!

We love our members

The Dog King

Hello - October 13, 2014

Hello everybody,

This week was good. Monday night we did a multi-family family night at a member's house. The family night had a couple of our investigators and a lot of members. The lesson was the plan of salvation which our Bishop taught. Then for the game it was up to me. I chose a game that I really like. It's a game of rhythm and commandments. We played the game and it went really well. We then sat around and our Bishop got a guitar and a ukulele for my companion and me. I took the guitar. We tried to sing and play a hymn at the same time. It was really hard. I'm not used to sight reading with people singing with me and not to mention that it was a really fast song. So in the end having the guitar didn't do much at all. But it was the first time that I have been able to play the guitar in front of people so that was nice.

Tuesday we started out the day on our bikes. Which is extremely rare. In the last 2 and a half months we've used our bikes maybe five times. But we took them after a good spray of WD-40 to keep them alive. We had a lesson with a university student named Chantal. She is from Moorea but is here for school. We decided to try and fix her baptism. So we started by talking about Mormon 9 where it talks about miracles and how we have to act. We asked her if she believed miracles could happen. She said yes. We engaged her to be baptized and she said yes. Yay!

Wednesday I went with Elder Bagley into his area and we worked out there for the day. That was good. Thursday we had our first lessons on the south end of our area in the quartier Tubuai. Then we had a lesson at the top of our area at a rehabilitation home. We came all the way back down our area for a lesson with Vatea but he wasn't there so then we went and bought some thing to eat while walking all the way back up to the church, which is on the far north end of our area, and at the top. After the lesson with Chantal up at the church, we came back down only to go up another quartier. This was the night where a news report was on TV talking about Sister Taylor and her miracle. And since we had permission to go watch it, we did. First time watching a new's report since I started. It was really cool.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were all good. We fixed the marriage for Jean-Yves and Lea!!!!! And we also fixed Simone's and Teriivahine's!!! woot woot! All of that thanks to working with our members and our mission leaders. Family and friends, help the missionaries! Without you it just doesn't work as well. You bring something special. When you are a friend for an investigator you will be their personal trainer on their marathon to being a member and staying active.

I love you all.

Have a great week.

Elder Squires

The transfer is this week, we're staying. But this is the last zone photo. And two of the sisters that started with me finish this week. One of them is the sister in the blue.

 

We made cheesecake...at least we tried!

And...this morning we played around. Great stuff. 

Conference, Conference and A Split - October 6, 2014

Ia Ora Na Outou, Eaha ta outou huru?

This week has been interesting.

On Monday we had our FHE cancelled so we went home and enjoyed our meal that a member dropped off. The food sounded so good. Sashami. One of my favorite dishes. The thing was that this time the sashami was store bought and tasted old and not wanting to risk getting sick again my companion and I didn't end up eating it.

Tuesday morning we had to wake up early to get to the doctor by 8 in the morning. The mission nurse, Sister Warner, picked us up and took us in town to see my best friend, the doctor. He prescribed me some new medications after the crazy allergic reaction that I was having with the last ones and so far nothing crazy has happened.

Wednesday we did a zone conference. This is the first time that I have had a zone conference where it was only my zone that was there. Normally we have done multi-zone conferences. So this was a nice change and to top it off we did it at the mission home. I'll send a picture. I really liked it because it felt....how do I say it....civil. I think that's the best word. I'll show pictures. Anyway, the zone conference went well. We talked about a lot of things. But one of my favorite was about taking our calls and taking them to heart. Also, that night we ate McDonalds that our Bishop dropped off.

Thursday went well. We did all of our lessons and we got to eat with a family of new converts that had fallen inactive and have started coming back.

Friday we did a split with our zone leaders. That makes the second time in my mission that I have done that. It was good. I went with Elder Bagley. It reminded me of Bora. Oh the good ol' days. Ah. And. My companion and Elder Lee Chip Sao fixed Simone's baptism. We think she just needed a Tahitian to teach her and it worked! But we'll see what happens.

Saturday and Sunday we watched conference. It was so wonderful. I am currently downloading them so that I can listen to them again. This was probably the first time that I haven't fallen asleep during a single session of conference. I was proud of myself.

That's pretty much all family. Love you!!

Elder Squires

This is typical tahitian house. It's very 2nd world our here. We have a mix of first and third world all over the place so being in the mission home was nice to be in a first world place again.

McFamily meal. It's big!

The mission home.

Investigators - Mon, Sep 29, 2014 8:47 pm

Hello everybody! Today I am happy to announce that I have had no crazy allergies, or bad food, which means....That I can talk about my investigators.

This week we started off the week teaching Teraia. We had to do her lesson at a bus stop because we didn't have anywhere "peaceful" to go. It's just the biggest bus top in our area and it's right next to the highway with the Tahitian equivalent of Walmart on the other side of the highway. But it turned out just fine. We had started talking when she told us that she wanted to do whatever it takes to get into the celestial kingdom. She said that she wants her and her family to make it up there together. The problem is that her boyfriend doesn't want anything to do with the church. He doesn't want to get married, and he really doesn't want to get married so that Teraia can get baptized. So that's her biggest problem. She had problems with the word of wisdom but she has almost completely quit. And she is a consistent reader of the Book of Mormon.

Our next one is Kealanie. She is seven years old and her baptism is fixed for the 16 of October. Her mom is not a member and her grandfather helps us out during the lessons. She is really great and her baptism is coming up soon.

We kept looking for an apartment but no news yet.

Next is Teriivahine. He is the brother of a member in our ward. He is about 19 years old, but you would never guess it. Often Tahitians look older than they really are. Every week we teach him. We usually read a chapter in the Book of Mormon and then talk about it. However, yesterday our ward mission leader talked to him about getting baptized and he seemed all right with it. Our lessons will soon be making a shift and we will focus more on re-teaching the lessons and getting him ready for baptism.

Next is Herelani. She is the girlfriend of our ward mission leader's nephew. Elder Ollerton and I started teaching her but we weren't able to do any lessons after the first because they moved out. But now she and her boyfriend come here every weekend. We have decided to teach them every weekend. We'll see how it goes.

Next is Laiana. She is the girlfriend of an ex drug lord here in Tahiti. We haven't had any lessons with them for a good month and a half but Friday we had a lesson with her. She told us that she had done her prayer. She asked if Heavenly Father was really there and she got the feeling that he was. That was so good to hear. And she told us that she wants to be baptized. The problem for her is that she has to get married. We'll see how that goes as well.

Another is Simone. I've already talked about her a little. She is doing better. Before she wasn't really receptive to our messages. But then she talked with an investigator from a neighboring ward after accidently going to the wrong church. This investigator told her that she just needs to listen to us and let us teach and that she will feel it. That was perfect. She has been so much more receptive to us.

Another is Jean-Yves. He is the last that I will talk about. He is the boyfriend of a member. He has a strong desire to be baptized. He reads the chapters that we give. He comes to church. He is just great. We are waiting for his girlfriend's birth certificate to come back so that they can be married and he can be baptized. Yay!

I know these things are true. That this church is the true church. I love the Lord. And remember that the Lord loves us too.

Elder Squires

Another cool part of our area