"It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like February"

Josh thought he would share a "Deep Pondering Missionary" pose.  He mentioned that it was a "pretty legit study spot".  Surely you realize how serious he must have been while taking this...

Hey all!

I really hope that I spelled these words right, words like February and begining are a little out of my head right now! And with French spell check, not the greatest source of help ha ha ha! And with the title, I am thinking that I am going to love February a lot this year, because not only is January over, but tons of cool stuff will be happening in February!

This week was a great week! This week was more of helping people with baptism dates get ready for the interview for baptism and for the baptism itself. They will come in the future, but know for now that we have a lot of great people who are ready to be baptized, stay tuned! As they get baptized, I will post it, just to try your patience huh? :)

Chopau: "A bread roll with mystery meat on the inside.  Got to love it!"  For a kid who elected not to eat anything at scout camp, this shows tremendous growth.

And also this week, we had transfers, and Elder Peel and I are staying together in Maraa! We are really starting to click right now and the area is picking up! Before Elder Peel, it was ok, but now with him, the area is rocking! Definitely thanks to my college missionaire et Notre Père Céleste! C'est quelque chose grande qui va passé avec le pouvoir de Dieu. Nous sommes rien sans lui, mais, grace a lui et son fils Jesus Christ, on peut faire toute chose! C'est grande ça!

I hope you like the French ha ha ha! Maybe here and there I'll throw in some sentences i roto te reo Tahiti aore ra i roto te reo Farani. No reira e nehenehe ia ratou ia haapii mai te mau reo mai vau te huru! (And sorry, there isn't Google Translate for Tahitian :) )

The Caves of Maraa - A Little P-Day Field Trip

But, just know that all is well here! The area is great, we're doing great, and Tahiti is just maitai roa!

 

Culture Shock: Goes to the ice cream we had the other night! Ice cream here is very expensive and is far from a day to day pleasure here! Something I'll look forward to in 1.5 years ha ha ha

 

Funny Moment: I have started a juice collection. I don't know how much exactly, but I have consumed over 18 liters (pictured to come in other weeks!)

Spiritual Thought: Charity is the pure love of Christ. If we want to have this pure love, we need to act. We can either wonder if we have charity and worry about it, or serve and show our charity.

Stay tuned for next week!

Elder Garff

Cockroaches, Beetles, Lizards, Flies, Spiders and Mosquitos at night...Oh My!

"Something you might not be seeing in Utah this January"

Hey all!

I hope that the snow is treating you all well! Here, it is hot, and getting hotter! I think that the members and people here are starting to identify me by how much I sweat! On bike, crazy hot weather, and long distances don't help matters either! Each day my sleeves are covered in sweat and sometimes have to peel them off ha ha ha!

This week went by really well for us! We fixed 4 baptism dates for February, and it should be great! We are working with a lot of great people and there are tons of cool stories here! I will tell you about them as they happen, but right now we are working with a cool family which has touched me beyond anything I have felt in my life. Though it sounds cheesy, it is true and I love this family to death!

And, everything else has been going well! There is no room to complain. There is nothing better than going to bed tired (except of course the feeling of waking up the next morning with tons of energy, if not, the going to bed tired thing isn't as cool ha ha ha!). We'll just keep working! I love you all back home and hope that when you are in school or the weather is less that 0, you'll think of Tahiti ha ha ha!

Culture Shock: I think this week will go again to the insects. Because the houses here generally don't have air conditioning, the insects like it. So, at night, it is not uncommon for us to see cockroaches, beetles, lizards, flies, ants, spiders, and mosquitos. Something I don't think Utah has with all the snow!

Breakfast Elder Webber Style

Funny Moment: So, this week, Elder Webber is going home. So, in honor of him, I had the breakfast that he had every morning: Milo (liquid chocolate), crackers with Nutella Spread on them in sandwich fashion, together to form a chocolate wonder... And he is skinny still, unbelievable!

Spiritual Thought: This week I have thought a lot about Self Mastery. If we can't control ourselves, who is going to control us? God will let us choose, but Satan will do all he can to control us. This is why we must master ourselves, if not, Satan will be our master and thus lead us by his chains to hell. So, this week I studied how to do master myself, and I found the answer in Alma 37:33-37, awesome scriptures there. The answer is faith. If we have faith, we will be able to conquer Satan, we will be able to master ourselves, but only if we rely on Christ. So, the challenge I have for you all this week is to develop faith in Christ, so you can master yourselves.

Ua here vau ia outou!

Elder Garff

Fish Eyes - They Almost Made Me Throw Up.

Hey all, this week was awesome and crazy at the same time!

So, big news, we had 2 baptisms this week for Heirani and Jayson! Heirani is the mom and Jayson is her son. Her husband, James, is not quite ready for baptism, but he is so close! Just have to wait for certain things. But, with this baptism, it was very touching. To get baptized, this family gave up: coffee, cigarettes, got married, and all of that in just over a month! This family, I love to say, has more faith than I have ever seen in my life before. The power of faith, the fast, and the will of God are powerful, no denying that!

Baptism of Jayson and Heirani

In addition to that, we found a lot of new investigators this week who have a lot of potential for the baptism! A lot of them could even have baptism dates set next week! So our area is definitely on the "rising stage"! Lots of good news to come!

Culture shock: Definitely goes to our Tamaaraa (eating appointment) last night. The mom said that with fish, only true Tahitians eat the head (sucking out the eyes and tongue of the fish), so naturally Elder Peel and I had to try it! I unfortunately sucked too much out of the eyes and tasted an eye ligament that almost made me throw up... Gross

"Uncle Rick, I Think I Conquered My Fear of Fish!"

Funny Moment: This morning, Elder Lewis got out his shoes for a hike. The first shoe had tons of spiders. After cleaning it out, he cleaned out the other shoe, filled with 10 live cockroaches. Needless to say I hid my shoes after that!

Spiritual Thought:

With the family Teriipaia, I have thought a lot about the power of faith and fasting. With our faith, and with our sacrifice of the fast, we can accomplish great things. Things may seem impossible, but with God, nothing is impossible. He just asks us to believe in Him, and whatsoever we will ask Him in faith (nothing wavering), He will give it to us in His own time and His own way.

Love you all, don't suck too much of the fish heads you eat!

Elder Garff

Bonne anne'e and Ia orana i te matahiti api - Happy New Year!

Hey all!

 

I hope that you all had an awesome New Year! It was definitely weird for me to look at the calendar and see 2016!

But First.... A Toast!

 

Here, the sector is doing well! We continued to work crazy hard this week, and even with all of the crazy partying on New Years, we had a fair amount of lessons and progression from a lot of investigators! In the next few weeks to come, I hope that I can send their baptismal pictures! Truly the Lord is here at Maraa! If we continue to work hard, we'll continue to have success! Especially with the holiday over, I am excited to get back to normal work!

 

And everything else is going great! Elder Peel is definitely a great companion and we have tons of things coming up this week! This week, we had a baptismal interview that President Bize was there for, we will have a zone conference also that he will be here for, an interview with him, then another multi-zone conference next week. A lot of President Bize to come!

Karaoke with Elder Peel

 

Culture Shock: So, whoever created the "Minions" must have served a mission in Tahiti. "Minion" in English means "cute", the Minions I swear speak Tahitian, and like the people here, the Minions like Karaoke ha ha ha!

Funny Moment:

So, my bag strap has been breaking constantly. So, I decided to buy a Minion jumprope and that has served as my strap ha ha ha! Defintiely a little different!

The Minion Jump Rope Strap - Awesome

 

Spiritual Thought:

This week I have really thought about goal setting. With goals, if we set too many, there is no motivation to get them all done because it is impossible! If we set too few, We won't have a ton of motivation after we accomplish them. I finally decided to set 6 main goals, with the intention of making the small goals as the year and my needs progress and change. So, my challenge to you all would be to find 5 big things that will take all year to change. Then, after that, keep these 5 big things in a place you can see all day and make the little goals every day/week/whenever, to accomplish the 5 big things you want to see a change in this week.

 

Love you all! Hope you are all gearing up for school again ha ha ha!

 

Elder Garff

 

Yes, this is a picture of a pig farm just down the street from where Josh lives.  I am grateful for each picture Josh will send, but it did not really fit into the context of any of his letter, so, it has become bonus material.

 

Ia orana te Noera! and What Would Christmas Be Without Golem?

Josh adores his Christmas sweater - It was a gift from his thoughtful siblings.

Well, of all of the Christmas' that I have had, this one, like my cousin Truman Ballard told me, was the most memorable. This week was definitely a week to remember, and it started with a crazy P-Day, awesome Christmas party for the mission, and then a Skype!

 

So, just a quick story for P-Day, I'll attach a picture but there is a scripture that says the Gospel will be preached to every living creature, so I figured I would give proselyting to turtles my best shot. One turned his head away from me, and the other one was pretty interested!


Josh preaching the Good Word to the turtles

 

After, on Wednesday, we had a huge Christmas party for all of the missionaries! It was an awesome experience! I got to see all of my MTC group there and it was so crazy just seeing everyone! It took up 6 hours of our day, but with a mix of watching movies, gift exchanges, and talks from President and Sister Bize, it was an awesome evening!



MTC District Christmas Reunion

 

But, above all, the coolest experience of the week was Skyping with my family. We only had 45 minutes, and it seemed like 45 seconds! Definitely one of the coolest experiences of the mission!

 

Culture Shock: I think the culture shock of the first green Christmas here was crazy enough! And don't worry, though it didn't snow, we still got covered in rain (melted snow? Close enough!).

Ohipa Oaoa: Defintely goes to Preaching the Gospel to my Turtle friends. Nothing beats that this week!

 

Spiritual Thought: This was sparked by my Dad's email to me today. If, after just 7 months, I cried just at the sight of my family because I was so happy to see them, just imagine what will happen at the end of our lives, when we are able to return to our Heavenly Father, the most powerful Being in the universe, who loves us more infinately than we can ever love someone else. Just a little something to ponder about, what will our reaction be at the end of this life? Tears of shame for not keeping the commandments? Or, tears of joy for the knowledge that we can live with God for eternity?

 

Love you all, Happy New Year!

 

Elder Garff

Bonus Material:
It is a little known fact that Golem actually was one of the visitors.  We learn two very important things from this photo.  1) Josh has not lost his sense of humor and 2) We need to be more careful about the type of advent calendars we send to him.

What would Christmas be without Golem?

"The House After the House with the Dog..."

Well, Christmas is finally here! It's Practically Upon us!

My Christmas Trees!

Things have been going great here in Maraa and I couldn't have asked for a better sector! Elder Peel and I are working as hard as we can everyday, and have been doing some pretty crazy stuff! We have been working with a lot of great people for baptism, and should have a lot coming in the next few weeks! Other than baptism stuff though, this week was really a "get to know the sector week" and it was a little bizzare! Going from a small island like Bora to Tahiti was crazy, I felt like I was crazy overwhelmed! I wonder what it will be like in 1.5 years! Ha ha ha!

Funny Moment: We were looking through the area book for investigators, and found an investigator, with an address! But the address, as I will post below, was "The house after the house with the dog". Thanks whoever wrote that, we'll definitely find that house!

"House After the House With the Dog"... Thanks!

Culture Shock: Definitely will go to the Green Christmas here! I don't think we'll get snow, but we'll probably get rain!

Spiritual Thought: This is definitely about Christmas, and will be what my Mom asked for "A Christmas Thought". When reading in the Liahona, I read an article written by Elder Christofferson. He said that for Christmas, we should just take a moment and be filled with the love of our Savior for us. He then quoted a man who compared the Holy Ghost to a fire. To receive the warmth from the fire, we don't need to be smart or complicated. After working to have the Savior in our lives, all we need to do is sit back and enjoy the warmth from the fire. Regardless of your spiritual standpoint, take time this season and take 10 minutes at least and let the Spirit of Christ fill you. You don't have to be thinking of crazy thoughts, and don't have to be the prophet or church leader, just be you and take a moment to appreciate Christ and let His Spirit warm you this Christmas season!

Josh and Elder Peel

Love you all, Merry Christmas!

Elder Garff

Ants in My Pants

Hey all! You will never guess what happened this week! This week was one of the best weeks of the mission so far, and it was filled with plenty of surprises!


A pleasent surprise was 2 baptisms this week! We baptized Temana (investigator baptism) and we baptized Jeannine (an excommunicated member baptism). I had the privelidge to baptize them both and they both have very different stories. Jeannine has been working ever since January to get back in the church, and after a marriage, following the lessons, changing times for work, and baptizing her kids, she is back! With Temana, he has a little bit of a learning disability, so we had to change our teaching style a ton. But, it just goes to show that the Lord is looking out for everyone, and if we ask, He will give us the way to succeed.

Jeannine's Baptism

Temana's Baptism

 

The crazy surprise is that I am not in Bora Bora right now! I got a transfer call to serve on Tahiti! I am right now serving with Elder Peel in Maraa! It was so weird to see all the cars and big buildings (which I am sure are nothing compared to America!)! So, I'll be here for a while, and I'll be the senior companion, definitely freaking out a little bit right now!

Na Na Bora Bora

Also, we had a fireside that was awesome! It was about the meaning of Christmas and how Christmas is about the people, not about the presents. Definitely a cool message! And for one of the videos, Elder Webber and I translated the subtitles into French (the French movie isn't out yet)! Definitely a cool experience!

Ants In My Pants

Funny Moment of the Week:

Definitely goes to finding a colony of ants in my pants! They were hanging up, and in the morning, we found the colony all over 2 pairs of my pants and all over my dress shirts... Definitely had to laugh that one off!

Josh's First Boat Blessing

Culture Shock:

We were asked to give a blessing to a boat... Not every day you find someone asking for a blessing on their boat! Just goes to show how important fishing is here!

Spiritual Thought:

This week, I came across a quote that Elder Stevenson said. He said that when he was called to the Quorem of the 12 Apostles, he was very overwhelmed. But, President Monson told him that the Lord qualifies those who He calls. Several times on the mission, I feel like I am not qualified at all to be a missionary. I am trying my best, but there are honestly times that I feel like the French or Tahitian isn't coming, comprehension and speaking. But, the Lord will qualify me to do His work if I remain faithful to Him. And for all of us, if we are faithful to the Lord, we will be qualified to do what He asks us to do.

Elder Garff