It has been another wonderful week on the island land of Calédonie. On Tuesday of this week we had our reunion de district up in Tontouta and the Matuz's gave us a ride up there. They came with a cake for Elder Winget and I since it was both of our birthdays this week. Elder Winget, our district leader, gave a great formation on how to become a Christlike missionary. We aren't supposed to be missionaries that just do missionary things, like talking to people and knocking on doors and sharing the Gospel; we need to be missionaries and people that ARE Christlike. We cannot just strive not only to do Christlike things but be Christlike in our lives. But, I suppose similarly that as we strive to do what is right on the outside that it can change our inside – like smiling, for example. There are days that smiling is no simple task, but the more we smile (the exterior action) the more that it renders positive our attitude (the interior effect). Yes, we must perfect the inner man, but our actions become the means to that perfection of the interior. Right?
On the way home from our meeting the Mautz's played the new Andrea Boccelli Christmas CD. I nearly died with spasms of musical joy. My heart soared with those Christmas tunes. I thought of home and our Christmas tree all lovely and sparkling. I love Christmas.
My birthday was excellent. I woke up early and made a huge omelette for my companion and myself. We had some good lessons that day, and a wacky one with a certain Lorenza who has crazy dreams that she goes into unnecessary detail. She sees the virgin Mary all the time, but she did have an interesting one about progressing from a dimly lighted rim into a room of great light. Kingdoms of glory? Well, I did my best to tie all those dreams back into Gospel principles. She has one more chance, but if she recounts her unceasingly recounts her dreams again next time, ça y est. We ate Magnum bars for lunch (I insisted), and the Teguisiale's made cake. The elders in our district called me and sang as well as the assistants. Soeur Leavitt also called, with a purpose but with the ulterior motive to wish me a happy birthday. It was the most bizarre birthday because it just felt like any other day. For that very reason, I loved it more than any other birthday in years past. The more we focus on ourselves the more disappointed we will be when things do not live up to our astronomical expectations. I had no real expectations and was able to serve others, and it ended being a great day.
Thanksgiving lacked turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, but we did eat Shepard's pie at the Li-Khau's, and we found a new investigator! I gave thanks for that. She is this lovely Tahitian woman who was thrilled about having a Book of Mormon. Speaking of that, we have an investigator who teaches catechism to a bunch of young adults, and we had two lessons with her and gave her a Book of Mormon. We came back a few weeks later, and she told us that she was at page 605 (there are only about 660 pages in the French one). We are excited to meet with her and answer her questions.
Bah, peer pressure - the others are waiting for me. Gotta go. Zone conference tomorrow! It has been 6 weeks already.
I love you all! Have a merry week, and be on the lookout: I sent a package home. It was expensive, and it was the first and hopefully last time I take money out of my personal account. I refuse to spend personal money here when we have enough for everything in the first place. But, bof, it is for Christmas, and you're worth every 7,500 pacific franc of it.
Love,
Soeur Cummins
birthday breakfast
birthday lunch
an extremely talented ami playing yves duteil. i tried hard not to sing along. that failed.
