Your Day for a Mission

This is the Mormon Message about President Sid Going that Elder Miner mentioned in his most recent letter.

Cookies, Casseroles, and the Looming Transfer - The Weekly Email

Maybe I should be the guy who comes up with future Harry Potter book names... Maybe not... Anyways, this week has been quite the success in terms of cooking. We found brown sugar and chocolate chips, so I made chocolate chip cookies. We also learned how to basically make cream of chicken soup from scratch so we were able to make a green bean casserole, one of Elder Kessler's recipes, which was so good. And of course, transfers are coming up on Friday. We'll see what happens.

Not a whole lot of news to report this week, we had Stake Conference over this past weekend. President Halleck from the Pacific Area President was in attendance, our Mission President and his wife, along with President and Sister Going, the recently released President and Matron of the Hamilton New Zealand Temple. President Going is in fact the famous rugby player Sid Going (he's in a Mormon Message). I was able to talk with him and his wife briefly after the meeting, and they are truly wonderful people.

Anna now has a baptismal date set for the 20th of August. She has some changes to make, so some prayers on her behalf would be welcomed. But she is continuing to progress well and has a strong desire to change. 

That's about all for now, we'll see where I end up next week!

Elder Miner

Sometimes you just have to tag everything possible I guess.

Riviere Bleue take 2

Just had to post this............

We're the office Elders, we're officing - The Weekly Email

It's what we do. Working righteous Hari Kari in our humble way. (If anyone doesn't know what that's from, I highly suggest you look up "Saturday's Warrior." 

Hello everyone, it's Elder Miner once again from New Caledonia. We're smack dab in the middle of our month of miracles and everything is looking great. We had a baptism this past weekend for one of our investigators named Rebeca. She's the 9 year-old daughter of a member here who was baptized in France and then lost contact with the Church when she moved back to New Caledonia, but has since come back and now her daughter made the decision to get baptized. Elder Kessler and I are super proud of her and her decision.

We also were able to watch the Worldwide Missionary Training Broadcast from January as a mission. I had seen it back in Mesa, but it was awesome getting to watch it again especially now that I have much more time under my belt as a missionary. Since Elder Kessler and I are nerds who love technology, we were able to run the audio of the French translated broadcast through our translating system, so that way all the missionaries could be watching in the same room, but those who wanted could listen in their native language. Then all that had to be translated by us missionaries was the training President gave. 

Finally, these past couple of days have been fantastic. We've had more appointments than ever, and they're actually going through. There's nothing more fulfilling than getting to discuss the Gospel of Jesus Christ with those who want to learn more. We also finally got back in contact with Anna, our Fidjian investigator who is basically golden.

I love missionary work and being a missionary. I'm so glad I still have fifteen months to continue working and serving the Lord.
Thank you for all your support from home. See you all soon,

Love,
Elder Miner

Baptism! This is Rebeca, who got baptized on Saturday and who I was able to confirm on Sunday. She's the daughter of a member who was baptized in France and then moved back here, became inactive, and then was found by my companion and one of his old companions. They are some of the best people I know, and I'm so proud of Rebeca for her decision to be baptized. 

The three current designated translators, Elder Thomson, Elder Cosgrove, and me.

"Hey Honey, want to be blessed?" "Nah I'm good." - the weekly email

So, Elder Kessler and I were doing a tracting method where we go to doors and offer to bless homes and bring the Spirit into their lives. It's been awesome, but it doesn't always work out. This time we stumbled on this cute little Caldoche couple and we were talking with the husband at the door and when we asked them if they wanted a home blessing he turned around and that was the conversation that insued. We still had a good conversation with them, but  We get so many funny rejections, but we usually just laugh those off.

Hey everyone! This has been a good first week of miracles, not grandly miraculous, but it's been good regardless. We've been doing a LOT of tracting and contacting, because people kept cancelling lessons on us. But it's been great, we've been really led by the Spirit through our contacting to find lots of good people who are accepting. It's been tough and tiring, but satisfying. 

We have a baptism planned for this Saturday with Rebeca, and we're very excited for that. The zone is progressing rapidly towards our 20 baptism goal here in the South Zone. We've had one real baptism and we have....... drum roll......... 17 dates fixed. For here in New Caledonia, that is mindblowing. This truly is becoming a month of miracles. 

Thanks for everything you all do back home to support the missionaries around you!

See you all soon!

Elder Miner

Chapel park thing.

Some of my sights everyday, that's the airport just next to the chapel.

 

Chapel

The quietest Fourth of July ever - the weekly email

So we had the Fourth of July Monday, and not a single firework. My only real consolation is that we decided to repeatedly play the MOTAB version of "the Star-Spangled Banner" in the car. And we couldn't even make burgers because we had a soiree with members, but we'll be doing thattonight. 

Hello all you probably sun-burned, home-made ice cream-filled, firework-lighting American friends! I hope your week has been awesome! Happy Independence Day to everyone. Having now lived in a foreign country and having talked with many people here, I realize how blessed we are to live in America. Our ease of travel, convenience, and of course freedom, are such a blessing that we must always be grateful for. 

So biggest news for this week is obviously zone conference. We had an amazing zone conference and this month is going to be our "month or miracles" that we will achieve by being obedient, being filled with faith, working hard, achieving our goals, and never giving up. The zone's goal for this month is 20 baptisms, and the mission goal is 170 baptisms this month. I feel so energized and we have already begun to see many miracles. I was also asked to translate for the conference for those who speak French natively and haven't learned enough English yet because they're newer missionaries. It was one of the most difficult things I've ever done mentally, but it really was an amazing experience, especially for the times when I felt so connected with the spirit and whoever was speaking, especially President Granger. 

To list some of the miracles we've experienced recently, our investigator Anna came to church on Sunday with her three kids, and had a really good time. We also tracted our way to a potentially golden family. We were in an area trying to teach an inactive member and we saw an American flag in a window so we said, "OK, we'll stop by after this lesson." The lesson didn't actually go through, so we went over and knocked on her door and asked why there was an American flag in the window. She told us she had just got back from a vacation in California, so we talked about America for a little while and then turned the discussion to the Gospel. She said she had seen the missionaries and the chapel frequently and had always wanted to know more about us, so we presented a brief message of the Restoration and she invited us in to share the rest. We had an amazing discussion, and at the end her adult son walked in and he had already heard a little about the church. She has another adult daughter and another 10-year-old son as well. She was very accepting and super excited to read the Book of Mormon. Finally, a 9 year old girl who is the daughter of a fairly new member decided to get baptized on Monday! Her name is Rebeca, and she's so ready, and she'll be the first of our baptisms for this month. 

Well, we've got a lesson to go to now, yes even on P-day, but I'll talk to you all next week!

Love you,

Elder Miner

Me translating!

The life of a missionary translator...

Zone Photo!

Me and President Granger