Crazy Transfers

Hey everyone!! So this week has been awesome! We got transfer calls the other day. Our stake President requested that Elder Heno and I stay in this area so our mission President decided to split the area. Elder Heno will take the Arue part and I will take the Pirae section. My new comp will be a new missionary. He arrives tonight! I'm really excited for this opportunity to do a lot of work!

So we've been focusing on Taaroa and Bertie this week! Their baptism is this Friday. They hit a couple snags with the marriage but we prayed for them and it all worked out. They are super strong! They read the scriptures every day and they understand this gospel better than anyone I've ever taught! I can't wait to see where they'll be in a year.

We also worked a lot with the Moux family. They are so close to baptism. We invited them to fast with us Sunday and they did. We fasted so they could receive an answer to their prayers and know whether or not they should get baptized. The fast went really good! They felt the Spirit really strongly. We're going to see this Thursday if they'll pick a date for baptism.

Yesterday at church, we talked a lot about fasting. I learned so much. For me fasting has 2 purposes. The first purpose is to make us weak. When we are weak or tired or without energy, we are more susceptible to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. We can more easily recognize the Holy Ghost and revelation becomes clearer. The second reason is to give fast offerings. The Lord wants to bless us but its necessary that we act before we receive the blessing. In helping others, God is more willing to help us. For me, these two reasons are why we fast. Becoming more in tune with the Spirit, and helping others so that in turn we too will be blessed.

I love you all!! Have a good week!!!

Elder Porter

Pictures:

Group of investigators and members at a Va'a race (va'a is like canoes racing but in the ocean! its super cool!!!) the big muscular dude with the beard and long hair next to me is Taaroa, he's getting baptized this week. When his hair is down he looks like Jesus from the Bible videos)

Elder Heno standing outside our house.

The outside view of our chapel

No Wi-Fi on the island

We only received about two sentences from Elder Porter this week, and it was very late at night here in Arizona before we heard from him. He said that for some reason the Wi-Fi had been turned off all over the island and he was quickly typing a message home to me after finding one place that had internet connection. He said he's doing great, Working hard, and would send me a long email and pictures next week. And then he said "Ok mom. I love you! I've got to go. We have a lesson to teach." I was sad for a minute, but then I thought....what else could a mom ask for? Our son is happy, healthy, and busy in the service of The Lord!

Manliness 101

So, before I tell you about my awesome spiritual adventures, let me school you all in proper fish eatery. This week, I ate fish in the manliest way possible!! An investigator handed me a fish that had been gutted and skinned but that was it. Then she handed me a lemon and said "Tamaa Maitai" which means bon appétit. I never felt more like man. I was all Bear Grylls-ing it as I tore off fish meat from the bone with my teeth! Super cool!!! Dream come true!! Best fish I've ever eaten!!!!

For the rest of my week, It was awesome!! We started off the week by having interviews with President Bize! We talked for about half an hour! We discussed the area here at Pirae and he gave us some good ideas about how to help the ward to grow! It pumped Elder Heno and I up and we worked hard this week with some awesome results! 

We were able to teach an excommunicated member this week. About 15 years ago his wife cheated on him so he asked the church to remove his name from the records. Since then he's avoided the church at all costs. He especially does not like missionaries. However, our stake president was able to convince him to come to a FHE that Presdient Estall organized at his own home. So we talked to him there and he warmed up to us. Afterwards, we visited him again and he told us he really liked us and that he wanted us to come back to teach his family! It was awesome!

Elder Heno and I did a bit of contacting this week. We were able to meet this one French lady who's Jewish. She doesn't believe in God at all and she kept telling us that she's too much of a bad person so there's no use in trying. We talked to her and she expressed to us that she really hopes that the family can be eternal. We testified that it can and she promised to read our brochure and to pray. I really hope she feels the Spirit testify to her that God exists and he loves her!

Sunday, we had a pretty cool meeting. Elder Sinjoux is the district or area or regional something 70 over the Pacific...he was the mission president here right before President Bize. Anyways, we had a meeting with him, the stake presidency, all the bishops in our stake, all the ward mission leaders, and the missionaries in our zone. He talked about how to involve the members in missionary work. It was an amazing, spiritual meeting. I learned a lot!

The meeting made me really think about how to involve members and what really helps the missionaries out. I think the best thing a member can do is offer to go to a lesson with the missionaries or hold a FHE and invite an investigator and the missionaries. There are a lot of things members can do and I invite all the members who might read this to ask the missionaries what they need help with. Missionary work does not work without the members. 

Also, congrats to my little brother, Ren. He received his mission call today and will be in the Argentina, Buenos Aires West mission!! He hits the MTC on November 18th. We'll be almost exactly one year apart on our missions. 

I love you all!! Have a good week!!!! 

Elder Porter

Our "manly" dinner of freshly skinned fish with our investigators Taaroa, Bertie and Bertie's mom who is a Sanito (remember a Sanito is someone who is a member of R-LDS church)

Me and Elder Hughes, my zone leader. He's awesome. We were sticking with the "manly" theme for these pics!

Our district: Elder Heno, Me, Elder Hughes, Elder Escoffre 

Investigators

So this week was pretty cool! Monday we had a Family Home Evening at the temple with 3 investigators. Its a couple named Taaroa and Bertie and Davis (the nephew of Bertie). We talked about prophets and we watched a couple of Mormon Messages. It was the first time we had a lesson with Davis. We gave him a Book of Mormon and fixed a lesson with him for the next day. So then on Tuesday we saw him again and he had already read 13 chapters in the book Of mormon. WHAT? and he understood it all too. He told us he wants to get baptized and serve a mission. It was super cool. 

Then Wednesday he had another lesson with Taaroa and Bertie. We wanted to fix their marriage and baptism for the first week in October. They were actually excited and they agreed to get married on the 2nd. However, Bertie's mom, who's a Sanito (remember I told you all that a "sanito" is someone that's a member of the Re-organized church of Jesus Christ. They do not have anything to do with our church) anyway, she is really against her Bertie's baptism so she was scared and wanted to push the baptism back till December. Sunday we took them into our bishops office after church and we had a big discussion. Bishop LAcombe calmed their fears and they agreed to get married the soonest possible which is probably next week or the week after. Heno and I were super stoked! 

​We were also able to contact an excommunicated member named Jean-Ives. He was really hesitant at first to talk to us because we were so young. We did a FHE with him and the stake president a few weeks back and he said we could stop by again. So Friday we went and visited him and he was super excited to see us. We talked for a bit and then HE asked US when we could come back...​that never happens!!! He told us he likes us alot and that he's comfortable around us. Its really amazing watching the spirit work in peoples lives! 

Well i love you all!!! Have a good week!!

Love,
Elder Porter 

First Bapteme!!

Bonjour Tout le Monde! J’espère que vous alliez bien! Cette semaine était carrément top pour nous. I actually just realized I was writing in French, sorry, my bad. Anyways, How are all you doin?! This week was awesome for Elder Heno and I. This week I performed my first baptism. His name is Angelo and we've been teaching him for awhile now. The service was awesome except that I almost messed up with hand positioning and apparently I body slammed him into the water. I was so nervous that I must have not taken care to be gentle. Everyone "oohed" as he went in because there was a big splash. oops! I was told at least five times, "Haere maru elder", which means take it easy in Tahitian. But other than that, it was a very beautiful service. One of the hardest things about this mission is that most of the people we teach are already members. They're just inactive or excommunicated. There's a great cultural difference in Tahiti. Most Tahitians just don't see the need for marriage. As you can guess, this really makes it difficult for us to get people baptized.

We also had a really special experience this last Tuesday. We were trying to find an inactive member but we couldn't find his house. There were only two or three houses on his street and all of them had giant gates in front. We were about to leave when I looked in the window of one of the houses and I saw a picture of the Tahiti temple. We decided that that had to be his house. As we were walking up to the gate, there was a man that walked out of the house. We started talking to him and he told us his name was Tamatoa. It wasn't the member we were looking for but as we were talking we learned that his mom was a member in our ward and that he was excommunicated 10 years ago. We asked him if he had 20 minutes for us to do a little lesson with him. He said yes and he invited us in. We talked alot about forgiveness and the importance of the temple and the church. His wife is French and she doesn't have a religion and his son just turned eight. At the end, he gave the prayer. It was such an amazing prayer. He thanked God for having led us to him and he asked God to help him forgive because he's still bitter about being excommunicated. He then told us that we were the first missionaries he's let in his house since he was a member. He told us we were different and that's why he let us in. Elder Heno and I were so happy after the lesson! We are going to continue to teach him. 

I'm very grateful for the Spirit this week. Through His guidance, we were guided to someone who had been prepared to hear our message. 

I love you all!! Have a good week!!!  

Elder Porter

     Elder Heno, Angelo and me.

    Two of our investigators, Thierry and Dornella.