Thanks so much for your support and letters! It has been such a great week here in Paita and in the mission in general. We had our zone conference on Tuesday with all the other missionaries, and the talks that our leaders gave were inspiring and lead by the Spirit. Our zone leaders gave an amazing interpretation of the parable of the Good Samaritan and how it relates to missionary work and the Plan of Salvation. I am constantly impressed by the spirit, knowledge, and capabilities of the other missionaries and of our President. At the end of our conference two of the elders who are leaving soon to go back home to Tahiti bore their testimonies and our entire assembly was in tears.
On Wednesday we had a wonderful lesson with our progressing investigator Ismaella. She loves reading the Book of Mormon, and she is trying to be a good example to her husband. She asked about a girl who had come to our lesson before and we told her that it was Alicia, who was a member. She then asked “How can I become a member of your church?” I nearly burst out of my chair with joy this question. I contained myself and we explained baptism. We are excited about our upcoming lessons with her.
Later that night we had an English lesson with Messina and Sephora – Sephora is going to write Heather a letter with the English she is learning. That will be sent in a few weeks. Later that night once we arrived home, I fell asleep in my outfit for the day after our nightly planning. I was just a little bit tired. I woke up the next morning a bit confused as to my attire: “Why am I still in my skirt?”
On Thursday we did some service at our friend, Josephine’s house. We are de-weeding her yard – which is quite a task since the weeds are not exactly the type that we find in California. But it was good work, and she fed us rice and soup afterwards.
On Saturday there was a ward activity at the branch building – well, I guess you would call it a branch activity – and there was a LOT of food, but I wasn’t feeling too well so I just ate some po’e. That is a must. Even if I was on my deathbed I know I would still force myself to eat lovely, delicious po’e. We had a lesson with Michel Ciani later on that day and I became inwardly frustrated with him. It is distressing to see your investigator who knows the truth, who is saying all the right things, to not act upon that knowledge, and to not have any desire to read the Book of Mormon or do, well, anything. Thank goodness that our Heavenly Father has infinite patience because sometimes I am in need of so much more. On Sunday we had branch conference and the formations (the talks) that were given were good. I didn’t get as much from them as I would have liked because I was doing the translation for Sister Mautz, but that’s always a fun challenge for me. Soeur Seiko and I taught in Gospel Principles about the responsibilities of the family, and after church Sour Pene came with us to one of our lessons. Soeur Pene is the member in our ward who loves bursting out in English song to the American missionaries. She is helpful and enjoys giving us early morning telephone calls. She has this big American flag sticker on her church bag and she tells me that she may be Tahitian but she knows that in her heart that she is an American. Then she rattles off the flag salute and “God Bless America” in her falsetto voice.
! I am so thankful to be here, and I hope that I can continue to work hard and serve Heavenly Father well. He has done everything for me, and He asks me to do so little for Him.
I love you all so much. That is great that Kristina was accepted into her desired program of study, Way to go Alex and his awesome school accomplishments. I hope everyone had good birthdays, and I am glad that my package arrived home safely.
Love,
Soeur Cummins
P.S. It is getting hot here – but the one consolation is that the mango trees are teeming; soon it will be a mango feast.
the biggest marmite of rice i have ever seen.
service at in josephine's jungle
