Hard Work

Hey Everyone,
So this week was pretty crazy. It started off with a giant film night last Monday. We did it in this neighborhood in the volleyball/futball court. We had a projector and big speakers and we watched a film called "Facing the Giants". Its a film about football and how a coach uses the bible and prayer to motivate his team. Tahitians love this film!! And we had 60 nonmembers show up to watch. It was a fun night. I was the technician!

Tuesday was alright. Nothing big really happened. We had a couple of lessons and found some new investigators but that's it. Then on Wednesday is when we had some cool experiences. I went on splits with Elder Temake my zone leader. We met with a new investigator named Karine. Her son is serving a mission in Canada and she's very open to the lessons. We invited her to be baptized and at first she was resistant because she wanted to wait until her son got off his mission, but then we explained that its important to be baptized quickly so you can become protected in the church. Elder Temake invited her to be baptized on Christmas so then that way, she'll be able to Skype her son. She liked that idea and she agreed to be baptized. Then we started talking to another woman who lives next door and as we talked to her we discovered she had already received the lessons from missionaries. Her sister is a member and she wants a life similar to hers. The husband showed up as we were talking and we discovered that they were BOTH ready for baptism!!!! We engaged them for Christmas as well and they agreed. It was such a strong testimony builder that the Lord knows all things and all people and will guide us, as missionaries, to those searching for the truth of the gospel. 

​Saturday was the big concert at Paofai! It was awesome! The President of Tahiti was there and I was like 3 feet away from him! The missionaries sung last because we were the best (in my opinion). It was funny because we sung at like 10 at night...way past curfew but oh well...!! Everyone loved us...we sang a traditional Tahitian tarava, Glorious by David Archuleta, and O come Emmanuel in french. We got home at like 11! So much fun! The choir was made up of only Teenagers, kids, and young adults from all different sects and religions. I highly enjoyed the Pentecost choir. They were amazing. 

Anyways thats about it for this week. I love you all! have a good week! 

Love,
Elder Porter

Here's a picture of the whole choir (with all the religions and sects performing together)

Here's another pic from the concert. This is a little more close up. The lds missionaries are in the blue t-shirts in the middle of the picture.

Another concert pic....

A pic of the president of Tahiti speaking...

Walking!!

Hey Everyone! So this week was was straight crazy sauce! It was a lot of hard work, but work that payed off! My comp and I got a new phone from the mission which has a pedometer in it and we walked 50 kilometers this week which is the equivalent of 31 miles, 5 Scandinavian miles, or 248 furlongs. The converter said 50 kilometers is too short to convert into light years so maybe next time. We met so many people! We had about 30 references or contacts. There is a lot of potential here in Papeete. I'm very excited for these next couple of weeks. It's been pretty cool also being able to work closely with the assistants! 
  We went out on Wednesday to do some contacting and we were able to find a nice lady named Marianne. She had talked to sisters before and she wasn't very happy to see us. Luckily, we used our charms and she accepted to be taught. She was actually very grateful after we talked.
  We were able to talk to another lady named Kareen. Her son, in fact, is serving a mission in Calgary. He's the only member in his family. We went to visit his mom and she was very happy to see us. She told us that reading her sons emails from his mission has given her the desire to learn more about our church. It was a very spiritual experience. 
  We had about 7 people come to church just from our part of the area. The assistants had about 6 of their investigators come to church so that makes a total of 13 investigators at church! It was super cool!!
   By the way, I totally forgot it was Thanksgiving on Thursday so we didn't really do much. However I DID eat a bunch of fafaru on Wednesday! I actually love it now. Its really good when you put lemon juice and coconut milk on it. They also had these special bananas you eat with it, and boy was it good!!! It still smells like a sewer that died but it tastes like good food! 
  I really enjoyed watching our hard work pay off! This week we get to reap the benefits of all our hard efforts! I love you all!! Have a good week! 

Love,
Elder Cole Porter