I Have Arrived at Raiatea!

The District at the peak of the hike up Te Mehani.  They have "Arrived"!

Hey Everyone!

I don't have a lot of time today, but I'll try my best!

The biggest news was that Raitahi, one of our investigators that we picked up in June, got baptized this week! It was a great change of heart that he had, and next year he wants to serve a mission! His baptism wasn't easy, but it was a great experience!

Raitahi's Baptism - Awesome moment and a great step for our sectors!!!!

Also, this week, we had a lot of great participation amongst the ward leaders and members. We weren't able to do a lot of lessons this week, but when we had them, all the members wanted to work with us. My favorite split was with our awesome Branch President, President Mapuna! He is awesome and a powerful President!

The Apetahi - Found only on Raiatea and Tahaa.  You have to hike the TeMehani (8 hours) to see it:)

Allow me to explain why it is a little rushed today. In Raiatea, it is said that if you don't hike the Te Mehani, you haven't arrived at Raiatea. At the top, there is a flower that only grows on this mountain and a mountain at Tahaa. So, it is extremely rare! It took 8 hours to hike, so sorry if I don't respond to all the emails today ha ha ha!

My Sunburn - it may not look bad, but I think I will start using the sunscreen that my parents sent.

Mom Note: We sent numerous bottles of many types of sunscreen.  Josh left it all in a package for us when he departed from the Provo MTC 14 months ago...

I am not sure how our guide got into this hole - We were just happy he got out.

Also this week we had a Leadership Council.  It was over Skype, so it was difficult to understand sometimes, but, it was great!  It was a great spiritual experience, but it also earns the Funny Moment of the week.  To liven things up, we took all the little figurines that I had and assigned each one of them to a leader at the conference!

Leadership Council

Culture Shock: This one will go to the flower. I am not a huge flower fan, but, it is always cool to see something rare, even if it takes a bad sunburn and 8 hours :)

One Last View

Spiritual Thought: President Bize talked a lot about the Holy Ghost. It is the one thing that every missionary seeks in their mission. And, for the Holy Ghost, it is there for us as we are worthy of it. If we are arguing with people, not being obedient, and not listening to His promptings, we can't keep Him. In True to the Faith, we can read that as we abide by the commandments, we will gradually receive a fulness of the Holy Ghost! So, no matter where we are (missionary, young adult, primary, highly aged person, etc...) we can continue to seek the Holy Ghost, so He can always be with us.

Love you all! And Go Utes!

Elder Garff

I didn't mean to dress like this for our sports activity...but it just happened like that:)