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

Huahine, Tahiti AND GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice panorama of Huahune huh?!

"I am a missionary and I live in Tahiti, this place is oh the jolliest that you have ever seen. Our missionaries are the fairest and each one is a shining star, we'll fight for our dear Lord for missionaries we are!"

As you can see, I have been thinking a lot about the Utah vs. byU game, and congrats to the Crimson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stopping byU with 18 seconds to go on a two point conversion!!!!! I wish I would have seen the game! I asked President Bize if I could watch the game, and he said yes... I could watch the one next year...

But, here, this week was really awesome! We started by taking an airplane and doing a split with the Elders at Huahine! Sister James, the Sister Training Leader, also went with us to do splits, so we technically went on a split with her :) It was awesome to see Elder Cooley and Sister Kelsey again! Mini MTC reunion :) Also, always good to see Elder Fawson and Sister Noble :)

Mini MTC Reunion
The MTC again!  Josh, Elder Cooley, Sister James, and Sister Kelsey!

After, we took a flight to Tahiti to go to leadership council. It was awesome and it was great going in with a great report for our zone! All of our missionaries have worked hard and the Zone of Raromatai is doing well!

A Huahine "Split" with Sister James on the airplane:)

After, we had a party to celebrate our triumph of the last zone goal (average of 10 lessons with a member for 3 weeks), then worked until we collapsed this week. Needless to say, the "semaine de ballad" was a tiring but good week!

Elder Piazza.  As we would say here: KO

"Everybody's got a Pondering Place", and I found one on the airplane this time:)

Funny Moment: Pictures and detailed description are not included, but it was fun watching Elder Cooley do the Tahitian Dance!

Culture Shock: As missionaries, we do splits with a lot of Elders, I had the chance to go on a split with Elder Ford :) Don't worry, I didn't sell him.

Josh with Elder Ford

Spiritual Thought: This week I have been thinking a lot about gratitude. In all of our trials, we have a tendency to complain, not to thank. In a talk by President Uchtdorf, he said that we need to be grateful in our circumstances, not because of our circumstances. A great example is the Jaredites. Ether 6: 9-12 we can read that they were tossed in the sea in little boats, with little air and light, and had probably the roughest 344 days of their lives. But, all during their journey, they praised the Lord. Even after they landed, their first act was not about themselves (building houses, planting food, hunting, etc...), but it was praising God. If they can do that, even with hard circumstances, I am sure we can be grateful in our circumstances, no matter what they may be.

Elder Garff

You have got to be kidding me.  The one time we are on Tahiti and we missed the Distribution Center by 4 minutes.
Well, I guess Tahitians are known by their strict adherence to schedules...

So fun to see that the ducks have a big influence - even with the cat calendar:)

The Busiest Week of My Mission!

THE ZONE
Top Left:  Elder Toriki, Elder Ivie, Elder Perrut, Sister Perrut, Sister Bize, President Bize, Elder Bize, Elder Opuu, Elder Taoutaha, Josh - aka Elder Garff, Elder Piazza
Bottom Left:  Sister Maa, Sister Ladd, Sister Jeaneau, Sister Turina, Sister Mendenhall, Sister James,
Sister Sanchez, Sister Teahu
Not Pictured, but still in the Zone:  Elder Cooley, Elder Fawson, Sister Kelsey, Sister Noble

Well, I am happy that I am still walking and thinking after the past 8 days!

We started last Sunday with a fireside, the speaker was President Bize. It was a great experience, and all of Sunday we got to spend with President and Sister Bize! Awesome!

Monday, we also spent with President, and with President and Sister Bize, we practiced our songs for the missionary concert, played a little football, and looked for a gaseous water spring, which we gave up trying to find after a few hours!

Tuesday, we had a huge zone conference with Tahaa and Raiatea! We tried to Skype in with Huahine, but the wifi and the church gave out :( Elder Piazza and I gave a fun formation too, about how to succeed our challenges, see the spiritual thought.

Wednesday, we did a split with the assistants, including my old zone leader Elder Teamoutuitaou! It was great and we got to see a lot of new investigators, as we were with Elder Fareata, who was the Elder here before he got assigned as assistant and I replaced him!

Thursday we had a breakfast with real American pancakes!!!! :D with the Sisters in our district. Throughout the day, we were planning for tomorrow and had tons of meetings... Fun!

Missionary Concert - I am in the back:)

Friday we had our district meeting, a split with the Elders of Fareatai and at night had a missionary concert! I played the piano for the majority of it, and it was great! Sister Ladd was the leader, and she put the whole concert together this week!

Saturday, we had tons of lessons and meetings, and after running all over the place, we came home to find out that our zone won the mission challenge! It was to have 300 lessons with a member over the course of 3 weeks, and we had 337! Definitely proud of the whole zone! Pictures to come :)

Sunday, we ran all over the place again. It is always fun when you have to do a split to go to two churches, do the report for the zone, have a surprise ward counsel at the same time as your lessons, and plan an emergency split. And during the split, run all over and do multiple zone reports in 1 hour.

(Sorry for that exhaustive list. It won't be like this in other weeks!)

In all, I am glad to survive :) Next week should be a lot less complicated :)

Translation:  "Auto School...Keep Your Distance."
Another Translation:  "Rachel Garff is Driving...Keep Your Distance";)

Funny Moment: Always great to stop outside and eat at a restaurant. But, it is important to look at what type of restaurant it is before eating there...

So, after the missionary concert, we paused at a little restaurant and ate outside, but after we started eating, we realized that we were at a brewery "Brasserie".   Just imagine all of those members and investigators who saw us - Ha ha ha!
(Note that we are drinking pineapple juice and apple juice - don't worry!)

Culture Shock: There is a major American influence in Tahiti, but that doesn't mean that the French don't put their own stamp on things! This is seen with the car below:

Riddle for my Dad:  In French, the J and G sounds are switched, which makes this brand....

Spiritual Thought: Something that Elder Piazza and I shared during our formation at the zone conference was how to realize our goals/objectives. My favorite point was to not look for excuses and just to accomplish your goal. In Jesus the Christ, Elder Talmage explains the parable of the Good Samaratin. The Priest and the Levite had all of the excuses in the world, and passed by the wounded man. The Samaritan however, didn't. "Excuses are as plentiful as weeds by the side of the road. They are there for us if we want them... The Samaritan didn't have an excuse, for he wanted none." For us, we have all the excuses in the world to not succeed in school, excuses in the mission, and in life in general. If we want excuses, they are there. But, if we want to accomplish our goals, we can't search for, want, or make excuses. Don't search for excuses and you won't have any.

Love you all, hope school is treating you all well ;)

Elder Garff

P.S. GO UTES THIS WEEK!!!!!!! 

Another Tahitian Sunset - You gotta love Tahiti!

How Not to Impress the Sister Missionaries Part 2

How Not to Impress the Sister Missionaries Part 3

The Sister Missionaries left a ton of pink sticky notes on our car, so we took them and drew hearts and our names on them - thus, pretending that we got heart attacked by them.  This went over really well:)

Snap Chat Photo with Elder Paulsen

Follow the Beer Bottle Road

You've GOT to love District activities on a boat!

Ia ora na Outou!

Today, I looked at my companion and said "We're not in Kansas anymore". We tried to follow the Yellow Brick Road, but because we are in Tahiti, we followed the Beer Bottle Road. A little different, but it led us to an investigator, so I was OK with it.

The Beer Bottle Road!  We think that the beer bottles are the foundation and they poured cement on top of them to create a nice smooth road:)

   This week was a good week! It was mainly spent in preparation for President and Sister Bize who arrived yesterday and who will stay with us until Tuesday. It has been great talking with them and I have learned a lot! President Bize gave a talk at a fireside yesterday which was really inspiring for me, (see the Spiritual Thought below.) And, while President is here, we are going to give a formation. So, needless to say, there is a lot of preparation this week!

Another Sunset, like the ones we get to see every day here.  You just gotta love Tahiti!

Also, we had a lot of great lessons this week and we saw a lot of progression. We are still in the building mode of our sector, but we are close! The members are working hard, and the miracles are bound to come!

I don't have a lot to say this week, as time is short again, but I hope that everyone is loving school, and that everyone is getting excited to watch the University of Utah crush byU in football this year! :)

GO UTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Funny Moment: Will go to finding the Beer Bottle Road. Something that I don't think I'll ever find in Utah!

Culture Shock: With everyone in school and me on a mission, I thought that I escaped homework... But, with preparation for a formation, I found myself typing a presentation on a computer screen for hours! So, school extends into the mission field too!

Hunted by a little Tahitian girl!

Spiritual Thought: President Bize spoke at the fireside about the Church. It is literally the Church of Christ, or the Church of miracles. The same power that Christ, Peter, John, James, and the other apostles uses is in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints today. Now, it is up to us. Do we have the faith to do those miracles? Do we have the mindset of Christ? Do we see others as the Christ? If we say yes to those questions, we can do mighty miracles. And, we can do the small miracles too, if we have the eyes to see the opportunities.

Have faith and do miracles this week!

Elder Garff

Surfing...as close as I can get!

The hose wasn't available, but luckily it was raining and we were able to wash the car with rain water and sink water.

While You Take the School Bus, We Take the School Boat!

A Tahitian Sunrise - the same sunrise the students on Tahaa see every day as they go to school at Raiatea.

Hey Everyone!

I hope that this week was a great first week of school for you! If you haven't started school, I hope that this week was a fun last week before school :)

This week was crazy. This week, we had a split at Tahaa. For those who don't know Polynesian geography (I don't blame you), but there are 3 islands in our zone. Raiatea (where we serve) is a 20 minute boat ride from Tahaa. So, to do a split, Elder Piazza and I took the boat to Tahaa! It was awesome and I was with Elder Taoutaha!

Split to Tahaa via boat :)

Other than the split, we had a lot of lessons with members this week which is a big change. People are asking to come with us to our lessons and are excited to do missionary work! It is fun, but tiring too! For example, we should be having 6-7 splits with members! A split for every day!

And that wraps up this week. We were crazy busy, but we still had lots of fun!

Josh as Elder Piazza's barber.  "The first time I gave a hair cut, and probably the last time I will be trusted with cutting hair!"

Funny Moment: Will have to go to cutting Elder Piazza's hair. I had no clue what I was doing, and I hope it is OK ha ha ha! My first time, and probably my last time cutting hair!

Culture Shock: Always fun when you see students pilling in a boat to go to school on a different island.

This is how the kids at Tahaa get to school.  We take buses in America, they take boats!

Spiritual Thought: This week was a week where I thought a lot about the power of members. There was one time that me and Elder Piazza contacted an inactive house and were shunned and ignored. But, as we went on a split later in the day with the High Priest President, we went to the same house and were warmly welcomed. We were astounded at the efficiency of missionary work with the members. So, my challenge for all of you is to work with the missionaries in your ward. Invite them to dinner, show them people who are interested in the gospel, do splits with them, and just be their friends! Don't just pray for the missionaries in the world, but pray, then answer your prayers by helping them out! The members work here often with us, I hope that at home it is the same!

Hope you are doing well! AND GO UTES!!!

Elder Garff

Josh alongside the 120 (You can only guess why they call it that).

The Life of Beach, Skype, Repentance, and Mea

Got to Love the Beach huh?!

Well, that just about sums up my week!

We started by having a P-Day with the district, which turned out to be really fun! We visited an old Marae (old sacrificial site for the ancient Tahitian gods) and found a lot of fun stuff :) After, we just chilled at the beach and stood in the ocean!

At the sacrificial site, we found this rock, which was probably a person who was not too happy to be sacrificed...

After, we had 2 days of busy missionary work, followed by the leadership counsel! It was great, but, because we are on the outer island, we have to Skype every other month. This month was Skype month and while it was hard to hear and we cut out several times (once while giving a report), it was fun! And below, there is an accurate description of how it went!

This is the Leadership Council meeting room.  Everyone was in 1 room and we skyped, so, as represented by the board, everyone was together and we were just a little square on the bottom right of  their screen. Ha, ha, ha!

The rest of the week was full of work, and the best part was when Manihi and DMP (both over 57) went with us and took the charge. It was as if they were the missionaries and Elder Piazza and I were the Member Integrateurs! It was hilarious to see them whipping out scriptures and discussing in Tahitian. Elder Piazza and I couldn't understand all of it, but, they did their work well ha ha ha!

This week was a great week, I hope that it was great in Utah! Shout out to all of my friends getting married! It is weird to see you all married... I can't even go on dates here ha ha ha! And even if I could, President Bize always puts me with companions that the women here find more attractive than I am :)

Not a Bad Place to do Studies huh?!

Funny Moment: Will definitely go to the moment where we were looking for a house. We went to a woman who tried to explain, and was visably frustrated that we didn't understand where she was explaining. After talking with her husband, she came out, looked me directly in the eyes, and said: "Tu vois chez mea"??? (Translation: "Do you know where "thing" lives?"). Uh NO! It took all that me and Elder Piazza had to not bust out laughing!

Culture Shock: The Tahitian word "Mea" means "thing" in English. And Tahitians use it all the time! It is pretty hilarious to hear people asking me if I know "mea" or if I can move the "mea". It is difficult to explain in email, but it is the most hilarious thing to experience!

For My Sister - Another Sunset in Tahiti

Spiritual Thought: Just a little mea, but, this week I have been pondering about the principle of faith. Faith is the smallest of the Gospel principles but is the most powerful. For all of us, there are times that we think our faith is sufficient. Then, there are some moments where we can use our faith but, we doubt, and don't use it. With faith, there is never a point that we can stop acquiring faith on this earth. All of us, no matter what age, what position in the world or church, or how many accolades we have, need faith and need to keep adding to our faith. So, go forth and obtain faith sufficient enough to do all things requisite in Christ!

E mea tia roa ia tatarahapa ia outou!!!!

Elder Garff

It's not every day you find a lizard on your chair at church, but it is often the case.
Bet you'll look next time...

How we did our emailing today - we rented out the chapel:)

Elder Piazza calling the congregation to repentance - Not staged at all...

How Not to Impress the Sister Missionaries

Ia ora na Elder Piazza!

Today I am a little pressed for time, but I'll try!

This week was awesome welcoming Elder Piazza! He is from France and it is quite a culture shock for me! When you walk in the bathroom and see it covered in products such as hair gel and deodorant, it is weird. Then, to realize that none of the 8 products are yours is even weirder ha ha ha! But, we are doing awesome and with him, we have really picked up the missionary work here! I am excited to serve with him these next few weeks!

Family Night with the coolest family in Raiatea!!!

This week we also had a lot of success with the members. We are in a sector right now that hasn't seen the missionaries for ages. As we went, we helped them all out, made awesome friends, and received 14 member references last week! Talk about a people who are excited to do missionary work!

In all, things are going well. I am loving the work at Raromatai and I love all of the missionaries in my zone and district! We are really starting to pick up the work and all is becoming bright with the aid of our Heavenly Father!

Sorry Sister James:)

Funny moment: I love pinning people in with cars, as seen with a Sister from my MTC promotion, Sister James :)

Sappy Birthday Elder Piazza!  I hope you liked the egg I cracked on your head:)

Culture Shock: A tradition in France is to slam an egg on the head of a person on their birthday. I am not that mean, so I cracked an egg on the head of Elder Piazza for his birthday (which was actually the same day as Elder Paulsen's birthday!)

Spiritual Thought: I have been thinking recently about faith. It is the smallest but most powerful spiritual building block that we can have in our lives. If we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we can grow a tree of life. If we have enough faith, all is possible. But, there are 2 catches. Moroni 7:33, we have to do it with the intents of Christ in mind, not for our personal desires. The second, we have to be patient. The mustard seed became something great, but wasn't something great at once. Even with miracles in our lives, we have to continue to be patient. For the mustard seed and our seed of faith to reach our maximum potential, we must wait and continue to nourish the seed (see Alma 32:39-41)

Have Faith, Be Believing, and Go Forth!

Elder Garff