7.2-magnitude earthquake hits off New Caledonia

A 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of New Caledonia today in the tectonically active Pacific region, but there was no tsunami threat, seismologists said.

The quake struck at a depth of about 9km and was 109 kilometres east of Ile Hunter in New Caledonia at 0126 GMT, the United States Geological Survey said.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said there was no current warning or advisory in the region.

-TheAustralian.com

6 Little Baby Missionaries - the weekly email

So, the most eventful thing probably this past week was us being able to get the 6 new missionaries who have arrived in New Caledonia. 3 American Sisters, 1 American Elder, and 2 Tahitian Elders. Three of them are being trained in the Mont Dore ward, one for each sector there. They seem fantastic, and I'm excited to get to know them better and I know they'll add a lot to the mission. 

Other than that we did have some lessons with Ana, she's working and fighting amazingly hard to overcome her difficulties with the Word of Wisdom, and she's already come so far. I can't go into details too much, but she is doing amazingly well. We did have to push her baptismal date back to the 10th of September, but hopefully now she and her kids can all get baptized together. We were able to give her a blessing and we've had some other lessons with her, and every single one is amazing. She just seems to know what she needs to do next to come closer to Christ without us telling her anything. Investigators like her make this all worth it. 

We also have been having lessons with an investigator named Thomas. He has lots and lots of questions, and answering them is so fun, but also difficult. Last time we ranged from the pre-earth life to Solomon and Cain and Abel, with other questions inside those subjects, wow. Great though, helps us answer his true needs.

I'm loving this work, I never want my mission to end. Sure there are things and people I miss back home, but I sometimes wish I could be here forever. 

Love you all, keep being amazing,

Elder Miner

I bought a pareo and a nat. Islander status acheived?

We deep fried a chicken. Why do we have a deep fryer? Why did we have a whole chicken? Not important. 

*There must be a story behind this one.

Les Tours de Magenta, we spend a lot of time there, and there are a lot of people there. Sometimes they can be pretty too. 

Missed it by *that* much - The Weekly Email

The baptismal totals for our month of miracles have arrived, and, drum roll please, there were 162 people who were baptized this past month, beginning their journey to become disciples of Christ and enter in to the Celestial Kingdom. Our goal was 170, but we blew the old record for baptisms in once month out of the water (the old record was around 90). Our zone had been given the goal of 10 and we had 8, so not bad either. Shoutout to the "Solomon Warriors," our brothers up in the Solomon Islands who blew WAY past their goal. Next month our mission goal is 130 baptisms, with our zone being responsible for 8. 

Second big piece of news, transfers came in, Elder Kessler and I will be staying here in Ouemo together. By the end of this transfer he will have been here for 9 months, which is the longest we know of for one missionary to stay in one area, but he likes it here and has done an amazing job of getting the bureau up and running as amazingly as it is now. We have a lot of good things starting to happen here as well, which is great.

I want to talk a little bit about the hand of God in missionary work. Monday we had been working all day in one area and felt impressed to stay working in one neighborhood until a certain time. We then both agreed that we needed to move on to a different neighborhood. Once there we were in the process of talking to Beatrice and Rebeca when someone came and said to us, in English, "Elders, can you finish quickly? We need to talk to you." We did so, and went to talk to him. He is actually a member from the Ducos Ward, and he was with his cousin. Apparently she had asked him something about who we were or what we were doing, and he brought us over to talk to her. We had a great spiritual discussion about our church and it's Restoration. Had we not been following the promptings of the Spirit, we never would have been in the right place at the right time to encounter someone ready to listen. 

I love this work, I love this Gospel, and I love Jesus Christ. I love you all, and I testify of the love of God for each one of you.

See you soon,

Elder Miner

These are some photos that Elder Kessler sent me that he'd taken with his camera. The first was us at the start of our companionship, then me making cookies and then us at the Riviere Bleue.

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.