Birthday Parties with the Relief Society

Happy Birthday!

Josh serves with marvelous people who have been so good to him.  They have helped him celebrate his birthday throughout this past week.  We are so grateful to these wonderful people in Tahiti! 

Hey Everyone!

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, it certainly was a good birthday! I want to wish a Happy Birthday to my Pa too! It is an honor to share the same birthday with you!!!

Here, we celebrated it with our ward mission leader (DMP in French, Dirigeant de Missionnaire de Paroisse) and one of his friends Manihi! They are some of the funniest people I have met and it was awesome to spend time with them! Like my sister Rachel told me to do, I ate a LOT of cake and drank a LOT of pineapple juice :)

The Dinner Deast!  Manihi and his wife, DMP and his wife, and Erika!

This week was just an exhausting week in general. We have been running all over the place doing errands for the ward, zone, and today is what we like to call a "Chill P-Day". Haere maru noa! We started by cleaning the outside of the house and tons of arranging in the house, and we are now just going to relax!

The things that happened where just a lot of lessons, nothing crazy in particular. We have a lot of investigators in progress, now, we just need to help them accept the engagement of baptism! It will come! But, other than that, we had a lot of meetings this week and tons of planning. Nothing like 4+ hours of meetings in Tahitian! :D

"The Relief Society"
They brought him a cake and juice - Favorites for sure:D

Funny Moment: Because the other Elders moved, Elder Piazza and I are the only Elders on Raiatea. So, at our District Meeting, we called it "Relief Society", because it was me, Elder Piazza, and 6 Sisters! Not every day that happens!

Culture Shock: When singing Happy Birthday, the Tahitians sing in French, then English, then Tahitian! Pretty fun :)

Spiritual Thought: This thought comes from my Pa, who shares the same birthday with me! In the Tahitian culture, there is a huge tendency to talk on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on, and you get lost in the sentence (speaking and listening)! A lesson I never thought about before my mission but have reflected on during my mission has been in the "Code of the West", "Talk Less, Say More". As a missionary, when giving advice, or when speaking in general, make your words count. Are your words the worth and quantity of pennies or dollar coins? Do you speak a lot and say nothing? Or, do you speak less and say everything? Maybe that is why the Spirit talks to us not every second of the day, but when we need Him the most. If He talked to us all the time, we'd tune Him out. But, we know that when He speaks to us, His words count and should give all our attention to Him.

Love you Loads!

Elder Garff