'Tis the Season- Week 24

Ka oha nui once again from The Marquesas - where all the white people seem to come for the Winter.

This week was definitely better than last, as we actually had some work. And frankly, we've had a whole lot of Inception (investigators engaging themselves). This dude we've been seeing for a while named Denis said, at the end of our lesson and without being asked, "I'm gonna read some more about this Lephi (not a typo, that's what he said) dude before the next lesson." This old dude we see named Lucien, who is never afraid to say what he thinks and is super humble and way too wise, asked us, "When's you guys' mass? Am I allowed to come to that?" And what's more, he said if anybody gives him a hard time about it (people already have for the two times we've had a lesson with him; it's disturbing how fast news travels in this town), he's gonna be like, "Yeah I'm becoming a Mormon. You got a problem with that?" just to see their reaction. Too funny.

And after the easiest fast of my life (I was surprised by my good fortune on that one), Celestine and her family came to church! I was ecstatic. And they said that they'd only come for sacrament but they ended up staying for more. It was like, really natural for them to be there. Celestine participated in Sunday school and everything. All reluctance quickly turned. I sincerely hope that this'll become a frequent thing. We're trying to involve them even more by having the kids come and play basketball with us. This dude in our ward, Coco, has a team of all-chicks that kind of kick trash, so they make Poirier and I look pretty wretched at basketball, but it's usually a good time nonetheless.

So many miracles this week. Apart from having lessons, investigators progressing, prayers being answered, and me giving a talk in sacrament that everybody said was super good and that Coco cited a bajillion times in his talk and in his Sunday school lesson, the craziest thing of all happened.

Poirier and I are in the office counting up the tithing, right? (the second counselor had abandoned his post and the president was busy) The numbers on everybody's slips adds up to like 58,000 Francs, but when we count the money we have 59. Somebody added like a 1000 extra. I counted it again. 59. We looked over the papers to check and make sure it was really 58, and it was. Poirier counted it. 59. We looked over the papers to see whose it could've been, and were having no luck. We counted it again. 59. We counted it again. 59. We weren't sure what to do and whose it was, and Poirier idlely counted it again (this time from lowest to highest) and - HANG ON. We counted it again. 58. No lie, it was 58,000. Without skipping a beat, Poirier was like, "Well, I guess the Lord took care of that one. Thanks Heavenly Father," and got right back to work. Say what you will, but I vote I witnessed a miracle.

Such a blessing to have a better week this week than last and to see the hand of the Lord so thoroughly in my life. I hope everyone's doing well, and I hope this was, at the very least, somewhat entertaining to read.

Lots of love,
Elder Harrah

P.S. - Poirier and I now have more inside jokes than we can count, and talk about Star Wars and Michael Jackson and make fun of white people on like a daily basis now. Just thought I'd throw that out there


-one of the many cruise ships that's been here this week
-it's blurry because it was so far away and I used my zoom but the cruise ship at night. The way my hand shook the lights kind of look like music
notes, so that's cool I guess
-no lie, this fruit just grows on the tree like that. And when you cut slices, they're stars












Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The End of TIME-- Week 103

Image
I find it a bit inappropriate to merely say what I did in this last week, here in my last  real  email, so I wanted instead to use this occasion to reflect and look back. ... and then yesterday we went into the city and afterwards spent a bunch of time with missionaries from some other zones, so we ended up having no time to do mail. Classy. So today I find myself pressed for time and without many words. I feel like the greatest summary of all I've felt and learned will be in my homecoming talk, but even so, I would honestly just like to take the time to say how much I love this gospel and how different my attitude towards the gospel and how to handle what's really important in life has changed so much, and I can't wait to continue to share this same beautiful and wholly  real  light that exists in this world, and is all that really counts. Please everyone that reads this, know that I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that the only way to even stay sane in
Read more

Pomme Poire Williams: "They Coming with Knives, They Coming with Guns"--Week 101

Image
Longest. Week. Thank heaven it's over. Monday Chilled in this guy's sweet field and hung out with the goats there. It was very tranquil. Tuesday Work. We were busy from 10 am until clear into the night. We had a lesson every hour! I was grateful to have a full day of work, but at the same time, since I was feeling sick it was just kind of torturous. Wednesday Same deal. Super busy. Did a service project and helped plant pineapples. They had a lot of them in their field. The bushes that the pineapples grow from actually give forth to baby bushes too, and you just pluck them off the bush as if they were fruit and you plant them and you have more. Weirdest thing. Thursday A full day as well. The same as yesterday really only replace service project with weekly planning. For a moment we were pedaling our bikes and I just wanted to die. I even sent a text afterwards to Elder Smith and Elder Packer to shoot me with a spear gun. Super worn out. This week was d
Read more

"What if this is just a Lovely Bones trap?"--Week 99

Image
Monday The shortened p-day. We took the time to plan out this activity that we're going to do for our ward, and went to go do a family home evening that mostly just got cancelled (whoever the investigator was was out drunk) Tuesday In the morning we went to the temple, and that was quite nourrishing (it felt like years since the last time I'd been), and then we went and had a multi-zone conference with President Fox. It went super well. He shook hands with everybody and took the time to talk to us all a bit. He and Soeur Fox are quite nice. We also went to a funeral in the evening at the Protestant church. Sad deal. It was the mom of my old DMP from Haapiti. It was a nice service though. Everyone was trying to keep their chin up and they sang some fun, loud, Tahitian Protestant hymns with the usual drums and ukeleles. Wednesday A full day's work. We had lots of lessons today. The best one was definitely with Mereani and Poeiti. They were super shy before, but
Read more