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

Allergies and Cancellations - September 22, 2014

Family and Friends! Hey! So before I deliver the bad news I want to let you all know that I am still alive and doing well.

Okay, now for the bad news. This week I found out that I have allergies. It's not your normal allergies, it's a special allergy. And to tell the truth, I'm not really sure if it is an allergy. But anyway, I'll explain what happened.

It all started Monday morning when I was noticing this itchy bumps on my elbows. I just thought that they were mosquito bites so I didn't pay attention. Well that night we had our family night with a member. I had been really hungry all day long and so I ate so much that night. The food was crab, chicken, rice, and some other things. It was one of the first times that I have eaten crab and it was definitely the first time that I had eaten that much.

Missionary moment. It was past nine when we left the members house and so we biked home as quickly as possible. Such a classic missionary thing. Anyway, we got home and I noticed that my arms had this huge bumps that were really itchy. My companion told me that they were hives. I called the mission nurse and we just thought it was because of the crab. She told me to sleep on it and that she would stop by in the morning to look at it. I put some cream on it and went to bed. That was a rough night. I remember waking up with this giant bump on my wrist and having really itchy elbows.

When I woke up in my morning my hands felt a little funny and when I looked at them they had swollen to twice their normal size. What!?! It was crazy. The mission nurse gave me some allergy pills and I took a nap to recover from the long night. So that day we went out and worked and my hands went back to normal so we thought that all was good.

The week went on and nothing too big happened but randomly I would have spots on my arms swell up and get hives. On Saturday it was the most obvious when I touched something to my lip and it started to swell up. I then put my ring on my arm and after a few minutes the outline of the ring swelled up and got really itchy. I called the mission nurse again. She told me that it might be because of this new medication that I have been taking. She advised me to stop taking it and that we would go to the doctor today to see what's up.

So long story short I have stopped taking my medication and we will visit the doctor eventually to see what's up.

Yeah. That was the excitement of my week. Along with 14 cancellations and 9 lessons with investigators, and the continued apartment searching. It was a pretty rough week. But I am still happy to be out here. We'll just have to see what the next week brings! I can't wait!

Family, and friends, I love you all. I hope you all are happy and doing well

Love,

Elder Squires

My hand vs. my companion's hand.

We went hiking....

A short cut in our area. It is so steep you have to use a rope

Soaking Wet, Apartment Hunting, and Skyping - September 15, 2014

This week was not a normal week in most senses. Lesson wise it was pretty normal. We had a fairly high number of cancellations and a decent amount that were there. It is really hard to have progressing investigators when things are like that. But this week we started the lessons with a little girl named Kealani who is turning 8 next month. She is really sweet and we enjoy teaching her. She should be getting baptized next month, yay!

As for soaking wet...you remember how last week was rainy? Well this week was worse. And this time we were outside in the pouring rain. We had a lesson at 10 with Teraia, and that went really well. Then at 11 with Hana, a new investigator. And during the lesson with Hana the rain started to get strong. And as we walked to our next lesson it stayed strong. We got to the house and the lesson got cancelled. We next went to our lesson that was to follow and he wasn't there either. No! By this time we were soaked so we walked into the neighborhood Tubuai (pronounced Two-puu-eye) and headed to a member's house for refuge. We ended up in our ward mission leader's house and he kindly let us in and let us dry off. He also helped us look for an apartment because where we live now is 30 minutes on foot from our area. So he looked for some apartments while we dried our books and clothes off with a hair dryer. Ha. It was pretty great.

As for apartment hunting we have been doing that whenever we have some down time. We walk around looking for apartments and making calls. It makes for quite the plan b activity. Ha.

And as for skype. We have to do our meetings with my district by skype and  since the only computer that has a camera is the ward's laptop we have to use that for zone and district meetings. Knowing that last week we did a zone meeting to say goodbye to the ones who were leaving because of the transfer, using the skype was a success, even if I had to hold the laptop and the poor sisters had to stare at me for most of the meeting. But this week for our zone meeting the internet would just not work at all. We tried for almost an hour and it did nothing. So the sisters had to sit in their clerk's office and do their own meeting while we did our zone meeting. It was really unfortunate because they are on an island. They are the only two missionaries on that island. And contact from the outside world is rare, so it's nice for them to have skype with us and it's nice to have them as a part of our meetings.

So yeah. That's my week. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all. And I hope you all know that I love the Lord and I want nothing more than to serve Him.

Have a great week family and friends,

Elder Squires

A lot of bananas. It's so big that it has to lean on the house.

Our bikes in after our muddy trip in the area.

Transfers, Anniversary, and Food Poisoning - Sep 8, 2014 7:44 pm

Hello everyone!

I hope all is going well! This week was better, as for the weather. And for cancellations, we only had 13, ha. Okay, I thought it was better but it really wasn't. But! It still beats 19! So...drum roll...this week is transfers and here is the big news...I am staying! Yay! And so is my companion. We aren't changing. We have only been with each other for a month now so it wasn't too much of a surprise. They are some changes of people in the zone but me and my district are staying the same.

So, for the anniversary I have to explain how we do our first contacts with investigators. Once we have our first lesson with the potential investigators we go through our "first contact" routine. We start out by introducing ourselves and our families with photos. And this last week or so as I have been showing the photos I realized how long it had been since I had since my brother Michael. And I realized that yesterday was the three year anniversary since he went on his mission. That was a shock. I can't believe it's been three years. That seems so long. But that is a part of the sacrifices that we make as missionaries. Only 8 months to go! Then I will see you again Michael!

Ahh (letting breath out). Another day of getting sick. On Wednesday night we didn't eat because we had to cancel our meal appointment to be able to go to a meeting. The meeting wasn't all that great and when we got home we were hungry. We tried to go to the restaurant right next to our house but it was closing, so what do we do? We go to the nearest food truck. Those are big out here. We ordered my favorite, poisson cru and went home. We ate that night and went to bed. As I woke up Thursday morning I felt sick. And sure enough I had food poisoning. My companion did too but mine was worse. I called the mission nurse and she said that it all has to come out eventually so just patient it out. And so I did. I didn't eat much other than some ice cream, which wasn't that good of an idea. But Friday I felt better and was able to eat, and I was back to eating normal food and even dared eating poisson cru again. And I'm still doing well.

So that's the report for our week. It has been an interesting week. The work is going well. And we will keep working.

I love you family. I know these things are true.

Love,

Elder Squires

Going up to our Bishop's house in the back of his Land Rover

Great. A giant spider on my shirt.

A Rainy Week - Sep 1, 2014 6:41 pm

This week can be described in a very simple way. A rainy week. Last week we moved out of our apartment and moved in a little ways a way. We now live 30 minutes, on foot, from our area. We are now six elders in the house. Monday was companion was feeling sick. When we called the mission nurse she told us that we would need to stay home Tuesday to rest and recover. So we did. We had to cancel 7 lessons that were planned for Tuesday. It was rather unfortunate but it happens. We all get sick sometimes. But we didn't stay home all day. That night we went out on our bikes to get some juice for my companion to drink, it rained while we headed out there, ha.

The week continued the same. Most of the lessons we had fell through because of investigators being too busy, because of the rain, or family problems, or overall just not being at the house. That's what made it rough. We had 19 lessons cancelled overall.

But anyway. The good things. We did get to see Tamatea one night as we were headed home. He told us that his dad had just gone into a coma that day. It was sad to hear but we were able to promise him that the Lord will help him. That was a good experience. I know that the Lord will help us in our trials and our afflictions. There was a scripture that I read, I don't remember where it was, maybe in Alma?, it was about a people that had gone through many difficulties but those difficulties were swallowed up in the joy of Christ which lightened their afflictions and allowed them to be happy. I know that is so true. That the Lord allows us to have our burdens lightened so that we can be happy.

So even though it was a rough week I didn't really feel all that bad. And even right now I don't feel like it was that horrible of a week. It has been lifted off my shoulders. I know this Church is true. I know Christ lives. I love you family. Keep going and keep living.

Love you,

Elder Squires