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

Goodbye Pamatai

This week has been so full of goodbyes and full of so much food.  Yesterday we ate at four, five, six and seven! I am dying! 

 This week was really fun and it started with a youth conference the stake invited us to.  We had around 100 kids and 12 missionaries for the "missionary day".  We gave formations and showed the kids how to prepare and what the mission life is like. Then we went and did door to door and each missionary took around 9 youth. We taught lessons and contacted people.  It was so much fun. After the conference we had so many youth tell us how much they want to go on missions, it was great!

Also we made one last Temple trip while I am here and we took five of our investigators and toured the gardens! And also this Saturday we had my last baptism at Pamatai! We taught this inactive family and they started coming back to church and we baptized their two kids this last Saturday. Now the dad is our assistant ward missionary leader. I love them so much! 

 We had a lot of last lessons and a lot of goodbyes, I made a lot of friends here and a ton of good memories! I will miss everyone here but I am so grateful for everything I learned. I hope to be able to incorporate everything I learned at Raroia.These last three months will fly by.

 I get my new companion tomorrow and we head out this Thursday morning. Ill let you all know how it goes and I send pictures next week because these computers are sketchy! I know this Gospel is true, I know God sent me here and I am thankful for the blessings he gave me!

Thank you all for the support and love

Elder Moller

PS – from letter to Dad (Kelly)

So I called the branch president at Raroia this week to see if everything was good for Thursday. He told be there are no leaders over there other than him and the primary president. So I will be helping him out and taking over when he comes to Tahiti. And the primary president is leaving in November so it cool! Don’t tell mom but we will normally be sleeping in the chapel because we don’t have a house, how funny is that! I think its fun. I already got a few references and stuff but it will be a really fun experience, my companion gets here tonight I think and I meet him tomorrow and we will just see some last families before I get on the plane Thursday morning! The stake president is having a going away party for me today and the ward is having a going away dinner Wednesday! I was well loved here! I will have a lot more to say next week but I love you!

Everyone and their dog tells me about mom and about how much she loved pictures of me. haha my companions love her. They laugh all the time, random people I have met like once come up to me saying that they need a picture for my mom! Its like she is here, hahaha It will be a little harder for her to track me down at Raroia

Love you

Elder Moller

Hi.

We heard a bit from Elder Moller and he will be transferring in a week or so (likely heading out on Oct 1st).  He will be training a new missionary (they arrive on the 29th), (re)opening a new area, and will be a member of the branch presidency.  A lot of change.  He is going to the small atoll of Raroia and there are about 233 people there.  We will find out more later if his area is more than just this atoll.  For those history buffs out there Raroia is where Thor Heyerdahl landed Kon Tiki after proving it was possible to build a boat and sail from So. America to Polynesia.

Thanks to all for your support.

Kelly

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As much as I have loved serving in Faa'a, and even though I had a really good 7 months of my mission here, I'm getting transfered. I will be training a new missionary at Raroia. So yeah this will be a really fun end of my mission!  The island has been closed for a while because we haven't had enough missionaries to cover the smaller islands so we will be opening the island at the same time! I heard there are about 200 people that live there so we will see how fast I can contact them all! My companion gets here the 28th and we will be leaving probably the 1st of october! I am super excited for this step of my mission (maybe my last) but at the same time I am sad to leave my Pamatai area! We had some good work here and its going to keep being awesome with all the baptisms we have coming up next month! Luckily I will be here for a last baptism this Saturday! 

I know that this work is true! and I know that God loves and cares for each of his children no matter where they are in the world! I know that this gospel is true and I will continue to try and help as many people as I can receive the same truths. 

I am starting to get all my stuff in bags and I am really "moved in" and it’s getting kinda hard to find all my stuff and get it into my suitcases. My companion is being really patient with all the things around the room. I'll let you all know about all the preparations next week! Pray for me, pray for my next companion, and pray for my new area!

Thank you for all the support and love
Weird to think this is my last area
weird to think this is my last companion
I love my mission

Elder Moller

What a Week

So this morning we had a zumba activity with all the missionaries in the zone, taught by an older Tahitian missionary sister in her 50's and oh my goodness. I thought zumba was just like dancing in place.  I have never sweat so much! I now understand why when I told the missionaries that we were doing zumba with Sr. Hauata they just looked at me with big eyes and said "good luck". She knows how to work out! 

 This week was full of excitement as we had multiple meetings with President Bize, and we talked about where I might be going the next transfer which will be here in two weeks! I love my area so much but I am excited to see where I will be finishing my mission.

 Yesterday I was able to go and see the old stake I served in because we went and sang again with about 50 missionaries. I was so happy to see my converts still there and see some of my old investigators now members! And tonight we are going to a park by the beach to have a lesson with about 30 young adults and their friends.  It’s going to be awesome!

 I have come to find out that God has many tools but they're never ready, never perfect, very broken. But that’s all he has.  All God asks is for his tools to have a desire, a desire to work and to be worked. And God will fix his tools, repair the scratches and refine the edges to make his tools fit for the job he has for them.  Making them ready, and making them perfect. God has a work to do and he has many tools. He gets the job done with the tools who trust, who follow, who listen. Out of the many tools available God uses the tools that submit and with them his work gets done. But the tools who don’t do the work, are the tools that don’t get worked on.

I know that God strengthens people when we put our lives in his hands. To do it is not a sacrifice at all but a benefit for you and for everyone that God puts in your life. 

 God will accomplish his work, but God refines you when you let him have you do the work.

 I love this Gospel

I try my best

Zumba changes lives!

I love you all

Elder Moller 

(This is a bit more from Elder Moller that was sent to Dar and I.   – Kelly)

 I had a reunion with president this week and he told me I will be getting transferred in 1-2 weeks, and he showed me a couple of islands "logic" told him to put me on but he hasn’t prayed about it yet so he doesn’t know! Maybe I’ll be helping in a branch presidency, while I train. So many possibilities!!! Maybe I will stay in the big city!

 We also have a ton of baptisms fixed in the ward and we are trying to retain them all.  I am hoping I can see at least on of them before I go.  We have 9 fixed. I hope to have received a call next week but we will see.  I honestly think the calls will come the week after. But I just wanted to let you guys know. It’s actually quite rare for a missionary to stay in a area for 7 months and I will have done it twice now. I’m almost at 100 days left.

Love you

Elder Moller

I Don't Labor That Much on PDay

This week marks two years since I got my mission call! I’ll always remember it because Labor Day made me wait a whole extra day.  Oh well, it was worth the wait!!!

Also this week we had the 100th convert baptism in the stake for 2015! The Faa'a Stake is the Best!!! The church is true! 

 Every morning this week I get a report of everything I do the previous night! I am happy to report that the 24-hour a day lessons are still going strong! Last night my companion saw me sitting up in my bed just blabbling as if I was talking to him, and he says, "are you sure?" and I guess I got mad at him for questioning my blabbing. I think is funny! Other than that everything is going great for the area!

 We are still planning our big open house for the 26th and I really hope I will be there because that is the week of the transfer and I honestly have no idea what’s going to happen!

 This week our ward is having a question answer with Elder Sinjoux (Area 70) for all of our investigators. I am really excited. The Gospel changes lives! I know that this Gospel is true and I know that this is God’s work. I have learned that there are never coincidences, just miracles. And that obedience is worth it every time. I love you all and I pray for you.

Elder Moller