"There can be miracles... When you believe..." - The Weekly Email

Ah Prince of Egypt, what a great movie. That song might as well become this mission's theme song with all the emphasis we've put on miracles.

Hello one and all, here's me sending off from New Caledonia again. The weather is beautiful, the water is gorgeous, the people are smiling, and I'm just loving it.

We've seen a ton of progress this past week. Fred and Euphrasé, a younger Melanesian couple we've been teaching both came to church this Sunday, and Patrice finally made it out to his old church, something he said he needed to do to help his conscience. And, the biggest news of all.... WE FOUND ANA AGAIN! Sunday night we were about to leave when we saw her walking, so we stopped and got out and started talking and she said she wants to start the lessons again! Elder Kessler and I were super excited, and we're so optimistic for October to help New Caledonia hit its baptismal goal.

Fun little side-note, Elder Kessler hit his year mark last Friday. Time flies by so fast sometimes, my year mark is only about 5 weeks away. Crazy huh?

I just want to talk about an interesting phenomenon in mission life. It seems like the more success you have, and equally the more obedient and dedicated you're being, the more opposition and rejection also seems to come your way. The trick is to keep your head up high and focus on the mini miracles, and not the tough stuff that gets in the way. I love my mission, and I couldn't be happier than I am being here right now. I love you all, and I'll see you soon!

Elder Miner

PS No pictures for a while, my camera broke, sorry everyone...

Old Friends, New Faces, and Intimidating Gates

Hello once again everyone, it's your favorite Elder Miner sending emails once again! This week has been busy, and full of mini-miracles. I'll start with the title, first off the old friend this week was my friend Leo from Mont Dore. He was baptized at the beginning of the year, and we often passed by to help him understand everything in the church and to keep him company a little since he's retired and single. We received a call from the Elders in Mont Dore letting us know that Leo was in the hospital in our sector and that he would be leaving for a hospital in Australia really soon and that he wanted a blessing. We got in to see him, he's doing fine he just has some problems with some organs and he needs to go somewhere with better medical care. It was great seeing him again and we were able to give him a Book of Mormon to take with him since it had all been a really fast process. Now for the second part of the title. The mission has a goal to baptize 180 people next month, with 25 of those coming from New Caledonia, so to facilitate that one of our goals is to "find like crazy." For me and Elder Kessler, that's meant leaving the Tours de Magenta where we do most of our work and we're now going gate-to-gate in some of the richer neighborhoods that make up most of our area. It's a little tough since we usually get rejected pretty hard by richer people, although we've had a little success, more news next time if it pans out. But really, everyone rich here has gates and fences and it's a lot different than America. 

Other than that, we're doing pretty well here, Elder Kessler's year mark will be this Friday. Our investigators are all still doing well for the most part. We had 4 investigators at church last Sunday which I think is the highest for my time in Ouemo, as well as one of our long-term inactive members that we've been working with for a while named Nadine. I consider her coming back is thanks to us trying harder than ever to work with members.  Other than that it's just business as usual here I guess. But stuff is moving, we're definitely beginning to progress, and same with some of our investigators.
Love you all!

Elder Miner

Dual-zone photo from the last zone conference.

Us and Leo in the hospital.

Beautiful views while gate-to-gating.

The Tremendous Transfer

So, the biggest news since last P-day is transfers..... Drumroll please, Elder Miner is staying in Ouemo and his companion will be..... ELDER KESSLER! That's right, no changes for us two. Elder Kessler has been here since I got to New Caledonia, and he'll pass his year mark here. But, we will be together for our birthdays, so that'll be cool, his birthday is October 7th and mine is the 11th, so that'll be fun. The rest of our district stayed the same too, except the trio of sisters changed sectors. 

Other than that, missionary work has basically stayed the same. We've had some trouble getting in contact with Alexia again, but that's somewhat par for the course. We've been trying to find like crazy to get ready to baptize like crazy in October, but I don't really have any good stories from that... I do want to give a shoutout to the Elders in Kone, the farthest North sector. They had a baptism this past week, the first in at least 10 years, if not ever. The work is really starting to move here, it's amazing to watch. It's great to be part of a mission where the culture is continuing to change for the better. 

Love you all back home! I love all the stories from your lives, whether you're on missions too or just living life back home! 

See you soon,

Elder Miner

The district of Magenta.

We went to the WWII museum last week, it was way cool and very well done. America basically changed cultural relations here between the French and native Kanaks, and left behind infrastructure like roads and airports. Thousands of Americans passed through here either going to, returning from, or recovering from battle in the Pacific.

Some of the money here. The top red one is the equivalent of a $100 bill here, but it sure doesn't go as far... 

Faith, the Final Frontier - The Weekly Email

Faith, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the mighty Vanuatu Port Vila Mission. It's ongoing mission: to do the 5 and baptize, and invite others to come unto Christ. To boldly go where no mission has gone before. 

We just wrapped up our latest zone conference yesterday, and one of the things we talked about was the frontier of faith, that as we become more and more obedient and follow the five steps (Be obedient, be faithful, work hard, achieve the goals that you set, and never give up) President Granger has given us, we approach the frontier and once we break it, anything is possible. The zone conference was awesome, and once again I was translating. It was much easier this time, especially with the help of Elder Claveau, one of our newer Tahitian missionaries who speaks great English. I really do enjoy translating, although it does make it harder to participate in the conference. Luckily I have great companions who help me with that. 

As for some investigator updates, Patrice is still doing great, our last lesson with him he had a list of about 8 questions on what he had been reading in the Book of Mormon, and great questions too about why Laman and Lemuel still murmured after seeing the angel, questions like that. We also had a great member-present lesson with Alexia. I don't know how much I've talked about her, we've had a tough time getting in contact with her, but she's turning into a much more solid investigator. She was raised Catholic, but always argued with the priests in Catholic school and felt like she could never get answers, but she loves our lessons because she feels like she gets truthful, logical answers. The member who came with us was raised Catholic as well and he had a lot of similar experiences and they connected really well. It was an awesome experience. 

I also had a CT scan today for my sinuses, we should get the results this afternoon.

Other than that, not much else to report, hope you all are doing well back home!

Love you all!

Elder Miner

Tracting, two peepholes?

Elder Claveau and me.

                          The 4 Elders from my MTC district.