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