November 24, 2015

My what a week this has been! Finally I have some stories to tell.

It's hard to remember exactly what happened and when, but I'll do my best. There have been a lot of ups and downs this week. On Wednesday we taught members who spoke French lessons. It was a different experience because they speak faster than our teachers and already understand the Gospel, so we have to try and go deeper. It went fairly well, but I think we can do much better. 

On Thursday I got to watch my companion go absolutely crazy with the Spirit and French during our lessons that day. He described his experience with our "investigator" Guillaume as having words come to his mind over and over with exactly what he should say, in French. He and I both bore powerful testimony to him. This investigator is based of one of Frere Keenan's actual investigators and his story is heart-rending, and it's so easy to love him and want him to accept the gospel. More on him later. We taught Lisa again on Thursday and we continue to have great lessons with her. We taught her more about prophets and the power and importance of the Book of Mormon, and the Spirit was so present. She asked us "who are you, really?" and we responded that we're just a couple of teenagers who are doing our best. I felt like Ammon when King Lamoni asks him if he is the Great Spirit. Again Elder Graham was filled with the Spirit and bore powerful testimony and knew exactly what to say over and over. That day was hard for me because I felt like I didn't have the Spirit very much at all. I prayed hard that night for an increase and to know what to do better after feeling overwhelmed with everything I was supposed to be doing.

The next morning my prayer was answered by one of my teachers without him even knowing. He said he wanted to share a scripture with us, and shared Philippians 4: 6-7 with us, which were exactly the words I needed. It was very spiritual for me and a testimony builder as well. That day I felt like how Elder Graham was the day before, filled with the Spirit in all of our lessons. We had a powerful lesson on prayer with our other "investigator" Leonard and I could speak near-fluent French. Then with Lisa, I had multiple promptings as we taught her further about the afterlife. What an amazing experience. 

Saturday we taught Guillaume again, and we were finally able to get him to pray. After "6 years" of not praying, he finally offered a simple prayer to God, and it was beautiful and simple and wonderful. What an amazing experience it is here at the MTC to teach people who feel so real, as well as people who could potentially be real investigators. 

Sundays here continue to be awesome. I love teaching and being in lessons because everyone is so spiritual and insightful and wants to share what they know, it's so different from a lot of home ward meetings. It's also a little interesting to have a Sacrament meeting almost entirely in French and be able to understand the vast majority of what's going on. My French has grown by leaps and bounds as I've been here at the MTC, and it's fantastic.

Monday I gave my first priesthood blessing of my mission. One of the sisters in our district hurt her knee, and she asked me for a blessing before she went and saw the doctors. It was really cool to have words truly just come to my mind as I listened for them. It was also Elder Graham's birthday, and it was cool to see all the support. Gifts like candy and ties from the other missionaries in our zone and teachers, and a box of cookies from his grandparents. I couldn't get him anything (for obvious reasons) but I think he had a good birthday regardless.

Cool news, I made it in to the Christmas program coming up soon. I think it's for the Branch Presidencies and their wives. Not sure if I'm a soloist or part of the choir or what, but I'll find out tonight. 

I think that just about covers this week. Hard to think I'm already over halfway through since we fly out on the Sunday the 13th! 

See y'all real soon,

Elder Miner

This is me and my companion with our old zone leaders. They headed out to Paris yesterday, and I think they'll do great. The new zone leaders are the other two elders from our district, and the new sister training leaders are also from my district, so basically all the "power" now sits in our district. ;) 

The second is Frere Keenan. He served in Quebec and is getting married on Friday, so we won't see him again until Monday. 

These are my teachers. The first is Frere Nollet, a native Belgian who attends BYU and served in Washington DC, French speaking.

November 17, 2015

Hey everyone!

Speaking French is hard, but I'm so so enjoying it. A lot of the MTC feels the same from day to day... So it's hard to know what to send. Elder Graham continue to get along, I already feel like I've known him for years. The schedule has become ingrained, and we know our way around campus now. We're settling in for the long haul now I suppose. 

The news about the attacks in France really shook all of us up, please keep the French people in your prayers. 

I will say that people definitely weren't kidding about gaining a lot of weight here in the MTC, I'm already starting to feel it.

As for teaching, we've finished up with "Raymond" and are now teaching "Guillaume." Guillaume is based off of a real investigator that our teacher Frere Keenan taught and baptized. He has a sad story about losing a daughter at birth despite praying hard, and has since turned away from God and the Catholic faith he used to have. We've already had some spiritual experiences with him. Do you remember Lisa from our last email? Elder Graham and I have now taught her 4 times total. We've had a lot of spiritual moments with her, especially in talking about the plan of salvation and temple work. In our 3rd lesson, we invited her to be baptized. She said no because she wanted to learn more about what that would mean, so we taught her about the Word of Wisdom for our fourth lesson. She really saw the great reasons for it, but she said coffee will be hard. We probably won't be able to teach her until December 3rd again, but she'll be visiting her son who was recently baptized. Being able to teach real people is so great. 

On Sunday we got a sneak preview of the Church's Christmas initiative, and oh my goodness it is going to be absolutley amazing!!! I can't wait for all the publicitiy the church is going to get, you guys are all in for a treat. 

I wish you could all hear the MTC choir here, it's amazing, and I love being in it. 

See you soon!

Elder Miner

A picture of Jaden's district at the temple on their Sunday walk.

PS So funny story, the power was out yesterday morning, probably because of the snow. We thought we'd get some extra sleep because everything was down, but we didn't. Oh well, made for an interesting start to the day.

November 10, 2015

Bonjour!

It's great to finally be able to contact the outside world, I feel a little sequestered here, but it's fun. First off, My P-day is Tuesday (obviously) so that's when I'll get all your emails. :) If you want to send me a package or a letter though, my mailing address is:

Elder Jaden William Miner

DEC15  VAN-PV
2005 N 900 E Unit  38
Provo UT 84602

and I get those right away. I feel a little lonely, I haven't gotten any packages or letters yet... (hint, hint) ;)

The MTC is really a lot of fun, they certainly whisk you off quickly and get you everything you need. I was a little shell-shocked for the first couple of days, but by Friday our schedule normalized and we've really been settling in. I have some wonderful teachers for French, Frere Nollet is a native Belgian who was an exchange student and served in Washington DC, so his French and English are impeccable. Frere Keenan served in Quebec, so his French is a little weird, but he's so fun to work with. Our district is an absolute blast, we laugh all the time and we've bonded really quick. There are 4 elders and 4 sisters going to New Caledonia, and we have another two elders going to the DRC, French speaking. (I'll have pictures in a later email, I don't have my camera right now.)

My companion is named Elder Graham. He was raised in Minnesota, and he's sharp as a tack and way diligent. We think on the same wavelength almost all the time, and he's definintely my favorite person at the MTC. Since he grew up outside of Utah, his experience with the church has been quite different, and it's fun to compare ward and stake boundary sizes and temple trips and stuff. He's a big Doctor Who fan, so I wish I was a little more into it, but we like a lot of the same memes and we both like all kinds of the same nerdy stuff and similar books, so we relate super well. We also can teach really well together. His conversational French is fantastic, and he's been picking everything up really quick. 

I was also called as the District Leader for my district for the first three weeks. I don't really do anything besides get the mail and start meetings, but it was still quite stressful to recieve that calling at first. Again, I've been able to settle into it and I hope I'm doing a good job. Elder Graham assures me that I am.

The MTC was not exactly what I expected, there's really a huge emphasis on teaching here. Our teachers all act as investigators inbetween lessons, and we're teaching at least one lesson a day now, in French too. I'm so grateful that I have the French experience I've had as a base to build my Gospel vocabulary off of. There are also a number of "Gold Tags" around campus. Some of them are members, some of the aren't, and we're encouraged to teach lessons to them. Elder Graham and I had an opportunity to teach a Gold Tag named Lisa yesterday. She stopped us on our way to get the district's mail and asked us why some other missionaries had offered her a Book of Mormon, but not a Bible. We explained that we usually assume people have a Bible, and talked about the importance of both to us. She seemed reassured by our answer, and we continued talking for a while. She told us that her youngest son had recently been "baptized Mormon" and it was a surprise to her family. She told us that she had raised her family to be anti-organized-religion, and a lot of her other sons were mad at him, and she was trying to figure out how she was going to have Thanksgiving with everyone now. She also wanted to understand her son's decison. We did our best to help her, and we have another lesson with her tomorrow. She feels like she might be a real investigator, so hopefully we can help her. 

Really though, the MTC is just a lot of fun. It's different, and a little weird, but all in a good way.

See you soon!

Elder Miner

Here's a picture of Jaden and his companion, Elder Graham.

And his district.

November 7, 2015

First letter from the MTC:


Dear Mom and Dad,

Yep, I'm alive! The MTC is really a lot of fun, and I'm starting to settle in pretty well. The food is pretty crazy, and you weren't kidding when you said I would be sitting and eating pretty much all day. My P-Day is Tuesday, so I'll email more then, I'm just taking time now to learn the email system. (Yes, I got permission from my zone leader) Can't wait to email you again!

Lots of Love,

Elder Miner

A Little About the church in New Caledonia

My sister-in-law shared this article with me.

The Struggle Between Mormonism and Culture in New Caledonia + 4 More Things About the Church There

byMindy Leavitt | Nov. 04, 2015

Mormon Life

Comments

1. The first members of the Church on the islands were U.S. servicemen.

They were stationed in New Caledonia during World War II when Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia, served as the U.S. naval and military headquarters in the South Pacific. Years later, more Church members, these ones from French Polynesia, came to New Caledonia to work in the nickel mines. Those Saints were organized into New Caledonia’s first branch in October 1961. At the time, the branch was part of the French Polynesian Mission almost 3,000 miles away.

2. The people there have a genuine kindness and friendliness.

It’s a chilly day in New Caledonia when the temperature falls below 70° F. While there is a rainy season from about February to June, the yearly average temperature remains around 74° F. And the people who live there reflect that warmth.

“People in this country are really nice in general,” says Ula Seiko, a native New Caledonian who also served her mission there. “But there’s something more about the members that makes them different—in a good way—from the rest of the population. One of the principles that comes to my mind is the genuine kindness that I think is a gift tied to the gospel. It’s an attitude that prevails among the members.”

One member from Tahiti who recently moved to New Caledonia observed that New Caledonians are “doux.” In French, the official language of this overseas territory, doux has a dual meaning—“sweet” and “soft.” Returned missionary Laurel Cummins White, who served in New Caledonia from 2009-2010, explains that “the members of the Church in New Caledonia are in this mix. They are sweet and sincere in gesture: they share their warm smiles, firm handshakes, traditional ‘bisous’ (cheek-to-cheek kisses), and their open hearts. They are soft in manner. They are humble, genuine people from deeply traditional backgrounds who have found unity with each other in the gospel and in their devotion to Jesus Christ.”

3. They have a unique struggle between religion and cultural tradition.

“The members here try hard each day to live the gospel the best they can,” says Freddy Tuahivaatetonohiti, the current stake historian in New Caledonia. “One of the biggest challenges for Melanesian members is trying to reconcile customs with religious practice, which isn’t always easy since customs hold a really important place in their lives.”

For native New Caledonians, and especially those who are recent converts to the Church, deep-seated cultural customs and practices—called la coutume—within their individual tribes dictate much of what they do. La coutume can make getting married difficult, keeping investigators from being baptized. It can put a financial strain on families who are expected to pay large sums for various events and can cause tension among families or tribes when members of the Church decide to be loyal to their beliefs rather than their traditions.

4. They are loyal to their heritage.

Along with la coutume, New Caledonians are very loyal to their heritage. Many can trace their ancestry back to Protestant or Catholic missionaries who first arrived on the island in the mid-1800s. They are rooted firmly in the “faith of their fathers” and are hesitant to accept another religion. For French people who have immigrated to New Caledonia, their background often makes them less inclined to believe in God. These attitudes make missionary work a challenge. Missionaries seek to find those who are humble and teachable. Fortunately these are also common traits among New Caledonians, and many accept the gospel with open arms.

Another aspect that makes sharing and living the gospel a challenge is the number of languages and ethnicities present on the islands. Missionaries who serve in New Caledonia learn French in the Missionary Training Center, but once they arrive in the country they often try to pick up one or more of the 40+ other languages spoken natively or in surrounding countries, such as Bislama, Wallisian, and Futunian.

“One of the characteristics of the Caledonian population is that it is multi-ethnic,” explains Seiko. “But this characteristic isn’t a stumbling block for members of different origins and cultural traditions. On the contrary, it creates a richness within the Church.” Seiko recalls many activities when she was in Young Women where they were taught dances and sampled dishes from other cultures. The members who taught them, Seiko remembers, “loved sharing what they knew.”

“It’s our diversity that makes us strong,” says Syo Ulivaka, another young native who served his mission in New Caledonia.

5. Every year, the members make sacrifices to travel to the nearest temple, 3,000 miles away.

One important source of strength for the members in New Caledonia is a yearly temple trip. “Many of the members love going to the temple each year,” explains Brother Tuahivaatetonohiti. “It’s a huge strength for them in their lives.”

In an interview with Church News, President Guidi explained, “We don’t have a temple in New Caledonia, so in order to attend the temple and do temple work, each year New Caledonians come to New Zealand to attend the temple with a full year of work before—of preparation, of saving money for the trip.” Members make many sacrifices throughout the year in order to fund the annual trip in January, while school is out for the summer. But for them, the blessings of temple worship outweigh the price of sacrifice.

“The spirit of the temple remains with them after they return to New Caledonia,” he continues. “This spiritual strength is also felt by others at home who were not able to visit the temple. We feel our unity grow stronger, and we become more humble.”

Missionary Training Center