Miner Mission-Major Blessings: Weekly email!

Hey everyone!

This week has been probably one of the toughest but most rewarding of my mission, and a lot has happened. We taught a lot of lessons this week and talked to a lot of people. We were super disappointed to have both the Pahoa/Buano family and Alice and Nicola tell us they didn't want to meet anymore, but we found a lot of new people to teach. We finally found an old investigator named Mati who we'd been looking for since I got here. We also taught a lesson to a couple that Ben found named Mano and Nathalie, and they are pretty much golden, Mano especially just loved everything we taught and he was super excited to read the Book of Mormon. We also got one of our inactives to come to church. His name is Mike Aliki, and he's been inactive since he was 16, probably 20 years or so, but on Wednesday we met with him and he told us that he's stopped smoking and drinking, started praying every day, and wants to come back to the church. Oh my goodness it was so cool! I love getting to help people, and the difference I could seem in him already was so apparent.

I also am excited to say that the language is really starting to come now, I'm beginning to understand most of what people say, so I'm really starting to be able to communicate. To anyone trying to learn a language, talk to the children, that helps a lot. And read the Book of Mormon in that language. And finally, pray for the gift of toungues all the time. That's the only way to have real progress, and it's the one thing that's helped me.

Also, Noumea is really a beautiful city. Today for P-day we went to look at some art that a family in our ward was asked to display in a really nice hotel. The whole family are woodcarvers, and their work was amazing! We then had lunch on top of a hill at an old fort, and the view and the ocean were just gorgeous. This is a truly naturally beautiful country. I officially have the best mission ever.

See you all soon!

Elder Miner