Transferred to the Vallée (du Tir) - the Weekly Email

So, everyone can stop holding their breath, I've finally been transferred! After only 9 months in Ouemo, I've been transferred to Vallée du Tir where I'll be serving as a Zone Leader for the South Zone of New Caledonia. And my new companion is............. ELDER KESSLER! We already spent 3 transfers together in the office, but we get along great and he's super awesome. We've actually whitewashed into the area, but we have one of the old Elders staying with us until his companion arrives from the MTC, so that's helped make the transition easier. Plus Elder Kessler was serving as a Zone Leader in the North before the transfer, so he knows what's up a little. I think this'll be a fun experience though.

The past week has basically just been transfer craziness. This new area has some great investigators. There's one member house where two investigator couples are living and we're teaching. We just set a marriage and baptismal date with one couple yesterday, so stuff is happening really quick here, which is great. The area is actually kind of small, but there's a lot of investigators though. Lot's of fun new experiences though! Including driving a manual now. I practiced a little with my Dad before I left, but this is a little different. Pray for me.

I want to testify quickly of God's grace. He truly will support us as we look to him and seek his help and lifting, guiding hand. And He loves each and every one of you.    

Tata bisous,

Elder Miner 

The view from the new apartment

La Dengue La Dengue - the weekly email

So, not wanting to scare anyone, but there's a bit of a Dengue Fever epidemic here and in Vanuatu. Here at least there's been a couple of deaths, and we're taking a lot of precautions as a mission to protect us missionaries from mosquito bites, since Dengue is pretty nasty. So far no missionaries here have gotten sick, but around 10 in Vanuatu have.

In other news, we recently started teaching another inactive member named Philippe, he went inactive last year around the time I came here to Ouemo. He has a strong testimony, but there's just some things keeping him from full activity, he has lots of questions, but I think we can help him with that. Maeva and Gabriel are progressing as well, last night we challenged them to set a marriage date, we'll see how that goes, but lessons with them are always amazing. 

That about sums it up for this week, transfer news comes in this weekend, I'll keep you all posted on where I end up!

Love you all, gros bisoux!
Elder Miner

Found some jungle literally 20 steps off a road.

I love the weird ocean-mountain landscapes here.

This Hibiscus is seriously as big as my face. 

Happy Valent, I mean ZONE CONFERENCE! - The weekly email

Hello everyone, yes indeed we had zone conference the past two days, and they were great! One of the biggest things that happened was the changes in missionary schedule, I'm sure most of you have already heard about this by now, but it can take a little while to get things out here, we had to wait until we could download the broadcast because of spotty internet in parts of the mission. Anyways, there was another great worldwide training meeting for missionaries held at the beginning of the year, which included changes in the daily schedule for missionaries. One of the biggest changes for us here includes planning in the mornings instead of evenings, leaving the apartment at 9 AM and then taking studies whenever fits best during the day, and a changed p-day schedule. Pretty sweet. I also got to participate in an MLC, and we discussed a lot about how to be an effective mission leader, and I learned and felt a lot, now it's all about doing as President is fond of saying.

We also had a baptism this past weekend, sorry no photos, but it was amazing. Her name was Gisele, and she basically found the church herself and walked into the font. Her testimony was amazing, and her path to find the church stretches all the way to Vanuatu. Missionaires, you never know who is looking at your namebadge and what influence that could have in the future. Needless to say the Lord can and does do His own work, he just lets us missionaries help. 

I love you all, joyeux jour de Saint-Valentin,

Elder Miner 

Exchange with Elder Gray. Yes that is a real place. 

Zone Conferene happenings

I'm Only Happy When It Rains - The Weekly Email

The rainy season here isn't kidding around, it's starting to feel just like last year. It's rained for the past 3 or 4 days, and I wouldn't be surprised if it carried on for a week more. The rain here is great because it keeps the temperature and the bugs down (although the mosquitos come back strong right after rain) but it's a problem sometimes because people don't like going outside in the rain, so contacting gets even harder. But it's ok, we just try and teach lessons inside. 

Otherwise this week has been up and down. We've had some great lessons with Maeva and Gabriel and another investigator named Malia, and we have a member (Frère Babel, I think I've talked about him before) who's decided he wants to come to any appointment of ours that he can. But, on the flip side, contacting has been rough recently, and the rain kinda puts a damper on missionary work sometimes. But it comes and goes. We do have a baptism coming up this weekend, so that's definitely something to look forward too. More details on her next week. I think the best part of being a district leader is getting to do baptismal interviews and hearing people's stories and testimonies. 

We also have zone conference coming up next Monday and Tuesday, so lots of news next week.

Love you all!

Elder Miner

We visited the zoo last p-day as a district. Here's a picture of a cagou and us.  

Can we knock this?

Our flooding parking garage. Not really flooding, but lots of rain nonetheless.

Episode 5: Return of The Members - the weekly email

So, this week marks the return of the first group of members that went to visit the temple. Once a year the members here take a large group trip to visit the New Zealand Temple (the closest one here). The sacrifices they make to take themselves and their families as often as possible is truly inspiring. They go without gifts all year, simple food, no new appliances, etc. just to visit the temple once a year. Back home it was a 15 minute drive. for those who live close to temples, take advantage, there's nothing better you could do for yourself. 

In other news, we found Tony again finally! He's been hard to get in contact with since Christmas and New Year's, he lost in job and was a little upset over it, and did his normal thing, he sought ought parties and alcohol to cope. It's sad, but he's calmed down enough now and we finally got so see him on Sunday. It's actually a cool story, we left the apartment after studies and said "we'll look and see if Tony's car is there" since he lives just down the street. It was finally there, and we went over, and he had just gotten home like 10 minutes ago. #miracles. Maeva and Gabriel also came to church again on Sunday! We're hoping to fix a baptismal date with her this week, I'll keep you posted.

I really do love this country. It's a study in contradictions, but that's what makes it fun. I'll be sad to leave, but I'll make it count while I'm here.

Love you all!
Elder Miner

Not much in terms of photos this week, but here's a gorgeous view we found while tracting!

The Exodus - Elder Miner

So, this weekend has been a doozy for us here in the Bureau. We had 6 missionaries leave the island on Monday, 3 were going home and 3 had been transferred to Vanuatu. With the total number of missionaries world-wide going down, the mission has fewer missionaries so President is deciding where we need to be. So things are changing here in the mighty VPVM, as usual. Here in Magenta we had a sector whitewashed again, 3rd time in 3 transfers, which can be a little tough. It'll work out though.

The other awesome thing that happened this week was that we started finally teaching Maeva and Gabriel! Gabriel is a member returning to activity, and Maeva is his girlfriend. I saw them occassionaly at church ever since I've been in this area, but they were moving around and trying to find a place to live and life was crazy until just last Saturday, and we finally sat down and had a lesson. Their goal for this year is to really become stronger spiritually. Maeva wants to be bapized by Gabriel, and so they're working towards marriage and full activity. I'm so excited to help them on this pathway towards baptism and the temple and basically just happiness! Missions are great!

Something I've noticed this week is just this immense love that I can have and that God has for everyone. EVERYONE! Whoever you are, wherever you are, God loves you. 

And I love you all too.

Elder Miner 

Last day together as a district!

Picture I forgot to include from Madeline's baptism on New Year's Eve.

Elder Estall and Elder Taoutaha left this transfer. Those two have been a great influence on me during my mission, and I hope they have a great homecoming and life after the mission.

Through Heat and Rain and the End of The Fêtes - The Weekly Email

This week has been downright awesome. Everyone is coming back from their vacations for the holidays (les Fêtes) and we've been seeing so many investigators again. Although the weather has not been kind, super hot last Thursday through Saturday, and the rain from then on, but still hot and humid. 

First order of business, our mission hit it's goal of 1,000, yeah 1000 baptisms in 2016. We acutally had 1019 if you believe it. The work goes forward here as we establish the Church in these beautiful islands, and I couldn't be happier than to be a part of the great VPVM. 

We've had some great experiences finding new and old people to teach. We tracted into a middle-aged woman and her older mother and have begun teaching them. They live in an area that recently got reassigned to our area, and we figured it had never really been worked since it was far away from the home of the old missionaries who would have worked there, and voila, we found them. They have accepted the message of the Book of Mormon and prophets and revelation so quickly, it's been amazing. We've also been able to get in contact with Patrice again, he was working two jobs during the holidays to get some extra money for his family, but now his work schedule is dying down a little, so we'll visit him again now. And then the miracle, one of our old investigators, Max, whom we had dropped a while ago because he wasn't progressing, recently got some great news. He and his wife are going to get married this year! Marriages can be really long and complicated and expensive because of the Melanesian culture surrounding them, but he was able to convice his family to let him get married before his older brothers, and that will allow him to finally get baptized! :) Really excited for that. 

That's about it for news here, I hope you are all doing great at home, I love you all, stay safe in the cold!

Elder Miner

Found this cool house while tracting. There was one apartment at street level, two below street level, and then two more on the bottom. Space is at a premium here on an island.

This is a giant pizza that one of our members got us for dinner. His name is Frère Babel and he is fantastic.