Don't Let The Bedbugs Bite

Kuraora

This week was really great.   We have really been picking up our activities because I don’t think this island has had a branch activity all year.  So this week was English class, Sports day and Karaoke night! Most of our activities turn into primary activities as the kids on the island love us, and they are at every one of our activities!

I was worried that karaoke would be lame  but we had a really good turn out! We set up a TV out side our house and had a neighbor bring over his speakers, got a flash drive of the most funny, old, and random music I have ever seen and sang the night away. Who knew that Abba and the Bee Gees made it all the way out here! The fan favorite was "I Had the Time of My Life" from Dirty Dancing! Hands down! 

Church was good, and  I learned last minute that I had to conduct and it felt funny saying "we want to thank you for the prayer, for the talk, and for the blessing of the sacrament" when it was me doing it all haha! It was really good!

The only down side to this week were the late night attacks! Thursday night a centipede stung me in the ear lobe.  It was like three in the morning when I jump out of bed telling my companion to turn the lights on.  Then I seaw the little bugger crawl into my pillow! So my companion got the knife and chopped it up while I tried to get the poison out. I was so freaked out I had to read for an hour or so.

Then Saturday night my companion got stung on his shoulder, but that centipede got away, hit and run. Needless to say I don’t sleep with a pillow anymore and I wake up randomly in the night and have to do centipede scans. Nowhere is safe.

On the bright side we fixed a baptism this week for December. We have to really plan ahead with preparing people, because we don’t know if the missionaries will still be here after December! But all is well and we have so many friends here and so many things to do.

Sometimes when God calls you to work, there is not much physical support, but regardless the work still works and blessings still come if you are diligent, obedient, and love God and the people you serve. 

I love my mission and the weeks go by so fast here! In two moths I’ll be home!

I love you all so much and I pray for you. Happy Halloween, I got my scare this week, and every night that I go to bed so don’t worry about me!

This work is true and it changes lives, especially the lives of those who teach it!

Love you all

 Elder Moller!

Rain, Rain,Come Here

This week was fantastic on little Raroia! The village takes maybe five minutes to walk though but it’s so great! Lessons are going well and I am happy to say that we had 14 people at church yesterday, which takes the load off a little because last week we, directed, prayed, blessed and passed the sacrament, gave the talks, and taught combined priesthood and RS. This week was a little better.

So basically when we don’t have a lesson we walk around the village looking for service or that rare person we don’t know. And this week as we were walking we saw this massive pig in a inactive lady’s house.  So I B lined it to her house to get a better view and "Grissly" the pig was taking up half the house while the lady was feeding her rotten chicken bones.  I had a good time, feeling like I was at the fair, when I guess a chicken leg fell deathly close to this little puppy. Then the fair of horrors pursued. Grissly mistakes the puppy for a chicken leg and oh my goodness Grissly was a big mean puppy munching machine. My companion and me regretted that visit. I’m pretty sure the puppy is still alive but I’m not patting Grissly on the head anymore. But other than that we were able to help people put their boat in the water. What joy.

So at the house (chapel) we have solar panels, so sometimes (everyday) we run out of power! I love sleeping with my fan on and sometimes at 10:00 at night it turns off and it is so sad. It’s basically the same for water.  I’m always scared it’s going to run out, but this week it rained so hard, so we took advantage and washed all our dishes and filled up our water bottles and washed our clothes from the water coming out of the gutter! It was great!  

So yeah, the work is great, and we have some good potential! People here are so nice and loving! I know God loves all his children no matter where they are on this planet, I know this Gospel is for everyone and si tu veut, tu peut. If you have the desire, you have the ability!

Raroia is great

If I want to snack on something I have to make IPO

So yes when I’m hungry I boil flour in water and eat it, it’s so good.

I love sleeping on chairs, sooooo much.

I love my mission

Love you all

Elder Moller

Cockroaches, centipedes and scorpions

This week has been so great! We started to do some cleaning this week because there are big random boxes taking up our much needed space, and we killed maybe around 15 to 20 cockroaches and two scorpions (which i didn't even know exsisted here) and the biggest centipede I have ever seen. My poor companion saw it first and he couldn't even get words out of his mouth. He ran to the front door and struggled to get the door open for a few seconds.  I loved it, but he did end up finishing our cleaning while standing on chairs and pushing stuff around with sticks hahaha. 

This week we contacted almost the whole island and have met some awesome people who are really ready for the gospel. We did some service this week.  Cut coconuts and gathered shells.  hahaha I love service. 

The only hard thing  on this island is the children, they are crazy.   They want to play all the time and they come knocking on our doors wanting to play while we are studying.  And if we stay silent or don't open the doors they start chanting and sticking fake money in the windows hoping  we will grab it.  And if we don't they start throwing dead centipedes though the little holes in the windows. Its kinda scary. Those kids are relentless! 

This week while we did a service project I learned how to ride a trike which is a little embarrassing to say the least but these trikes here are really hard.  You keep thinking you're going to lose your balance so you "correct" yourself and you end up in a pile of trash next to the road. You just have to try it. 

But I am excited for this week as we are starting our english classes and our sports activities! We are having a ton of film nights where we watch Meet the Mormons or another church movie and they love it. 

I'm getting used to the daily bucket. I normaly dread it but the faster the bucket the better! And by some miracle a member dropped off a washing machine but we don't have an iron.  Best thing Ever! I dont have to iron anything! 

So that's pretty much it.  Boosting the work here is a blast.  I had a coconut for breakfast and like three naps today because we have nothing to do for p-day, but its totaly worth it.  I love my mission, I love Raroia I love our little branch! 

At church we had two active members other than us, but its growing.  Already we had an investigater there with us!  Such a miracle and such faith! I spent some time thinking this week of the faith and dedication of all the members of the little braches all over the world.  We can learn so much about how to live the gospel from them! Love you all so much and have a good week

Thanks for the prayers and the love

 

Elder Moller

Raroia

Well we made it in one piece.  We had a really nice last week at Tahiti I got my new companion Elder Owens from Heber.  He is 18 and he used to be an elf on the weird Polar Express train in Heber and he also worked at that as I put it "The weird train restaurant".  I think it’s called Dairy King?? So he is good!! Then we got a ton of stuff before I left and the ward threw a little party for us.  It was really nice of them! Then we got on the plane Thursday morning and we are here! 

 We sleep in the chapel which is a little rented house. We put our little tiny mattresses on the church chairs and we put our stuff in the branch president’s office.  And we have a bathroom with a toilet and a bucket. We don’t say “I’m going to take a shower”, its "I’m going to take my bucket".  It’s so cold, it’s like pouring snow on myself in the morning. And because we use rainwater for everything we have to be careful, because it like never rains. But we eat pretty well.  We get invited by random people to eat and it’s normally really good.  Yesterday we ate coconut crab and it was amazing.

 So it’s been about a year since the last missionaries passed though here and they stayed for about 4 months.  Before them no one remembers having missionaries here so there is still a lot of work to do.

 We had a total of 7 people at church yesterday. Actually it was really motivating to see their faith and endurance.  And I just imagined all the other branches all over the world and the faith of God’s children.

 There are more inactives, and we are working on getting them back to church.

 Here the native language is a different dialect of Tahitian.  We are trying to learn it, but there is a lot of French because a lot of people come here to work on the pearl farms so they are not natives.  

 We made a deal with the local school to teach English to the kids three times a week if we could use the internet every Monday so that is why I am able to write today.  I am sitting on this little bitty chair surrounded by paintings of witches.  It’s fun!!

 On the island there is a little community about a hour away.  It’s a village just for the people who work at a pearl farm but they can not leave the village without the boss's approval so we won’t normally be able to go over there.  It’s hard because that’s where our branch pres. lives.

 This week our branch president and our president of the primary will go to Tahiti and because I was called to be the first counselor I will take charge this next Sunday, fun!

 We walked around today collecting shells and making necklaces and cutting coconuts.  So yeah, I love you all so so so much we have contacted almost everyone here but I have hopes for this week!

 Raroia is so pretty.  I wanted to send pictures but the school director said we had to go so I will try next week!

 All is well and it’s an adventure out here. We are preparing for the cyclone that’s coming, and there are so many teaching possibilities. It’s great!!!

 Have a good week,

Elder Moller