10/28/2013

                Oh before I forget, I got the package today with the ties and stuff for chrimis, thanks!! I can’t wait to open them in about 2 months! But those months will fly past, no doubt about that! Also, Please tell trace to cut his hair, he reminds me of Violet off of the Incredibles. And tell cam bam to stop growing, its freaking me out how much everybody is changing, weren’t they all supposed to stay how they were until I got back?! I’m realizing how much I miss all of our holiday traditions, it seems like just yesterday we got out of the winter season, now were heading back into it again, crazy. Here, winter is just a little rainier. So it reminds me a lot of being in Washington.

            I’m glad to see that My family is happy and healthy, I’m really grateful for technology too, I don’t know if I would be able to survive serving a mission if I wasn’t able to have contact with my family for two years. All In all, I guess that I would really have to work on my faith and trust in The Lord! I’m so grateful for the protection and safety that he provides you all while I am away. He knows that you are all my greatest treasure, so he helps me worry less by keeping you all busy and safe.

            I was just talking to the other Elder Fyffe and I shared with him one of my favorite things that I say to myself before I go into any lesson. It’s a quote that I made for myself, "Make them cry;" Let me explain. I’ve never been much of a crier these past years, don’t know why, but I was just too desensitized by the world... don’t know really. Anyway, I came into the MTC still with a non-mission mentality. But I remember the first time I cried, it was when Elder Holland shared a testimony about how God really does know our names. He said he has a personal witness that he knows each and every one of us by our names. I remember then looking at my nametag and tears started to fill my eyes. It was the coolest feeling ever to have this experience! After that moment, I did all that I could, in order to feel that same feeling as much as I could. I read the book of Mormon for hours every day, and by the time I reached 3rd Nephi, 11:8, I felt the same feeling again, and tears filled my eyes. It was at that moment that I realized that the Book of Mormon was true. The next time I cried was in my first lesson here in Tahiti. I bore testimony (in Tahitian) that I know I have a Heavenly Father and a Savior Jesus Christ. Tears streaming down my face, I knew that everything I had just said was true.

            I’m pretty sensitive now when it comes to bearing testimony about my Eternal Family. Almost every time, I get teary eyed, I hope you all know how much I really do love you! I was listening to a talk on night that said that when we cry, because of something we read, or something we hear, or something we say and we are touched or moved enough to shed a tear, Its God testifying to us that these things are true. We should then kneel down, without hesitation and thank our Heavenly Father for talking to us and letting us know that these things are true. God has talked to me a lot up to this point on my mission, because I’ve shed many tears of joy. My goal is to help others receive this same manifestation. So, I, with the help of the spirit, try to make my investigators cry. I’ve realized that it’s actually quite easy when I am in tune with the spirit. Countless people have cried in front of me during the lessons, and every time I see this happen, I say a little prayer of gratitude in my heart, to my Heavenly Father for talking and touching our investigators.

            I love my Mission so much. I hope that you all will get the occasion this week to shed a few tears of joy at church, or during scripture study or while praying. I live for these moments, because once you’ve tasted the love of God, you realize that it really is the most precious thing in the world. I love you all so much and hope that you all have a great Halloween! I’m dressing up as an Elder this year haha! Stay safe!!

Orometua Fyffe

 

 

10/21/2013

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            Thanks For the update this week, Ya, its flown by for me too, I feel like I wrote you just yesterday! Anyway for this week, we had another marriage and baptism!! Poehere on of our investigators got married and baptized the same day! So I had the special occasion (that seems to happen more and more frequently lately) to feel pure joy again! Seeing Poehere go into the waters of baptism, and come out 100 percent clean again, makes me feel so good about my mission and the fact that God sent me here, for this soul, and I kept my promise and helped her obtain the key to Eternal Life! It makes me so excited to meet all of the other people he will be placing in my path this last year of my mission! I was blessed enough to serve in the best mission in the Whole world, I don’t care what other missionaries say about theirs, because I know for a fact that you can’t beat Tahiti!

            As a zone, our goal is to get 20 baptisms in each ward before the end of the year, and with all the work my companion and I are doing, I don’t see us having any issues reaching this number. In the past few weeks we’ve had five, with 9 lined up for November, and we are hoping to fix 6 more this week! 20 souls saved by the end of the year, I pray to my Heavenly Father to help us find his lost sheep here in Tahiti. I know that with the simple faith I have in the Savior, we will rescue them. I love my mission so much, I’m so happy to be out in the field serving with my Cousins Austin Fyffe, Katie Mattingly, Keenan McMullin, and Austin Stevens, I bet they’re right there with me when I say I don’t regret leaving EVERYTHING behind for 2 years in order to experience true life, true joy and true happiness. Our lives might have changed completely, but the Church is always true and there is always joy to be found in the work!

            Anyway for this last Sunday, I was asked to give a little talk in church about missionary work, just before the meeting started. So I quickly scrambled a little talk together in 5 minutes and then shared it with the whole ward. It went really well; I shared D&C 18:15-16, and asked all the members in the ward who have served a mission to raise their hand. Then I said that these missionaries really know the meaning of this scripture because they have saved countless souls and felt the joy that comes only from missionary work. Then I invited all the other members who hadn’t served a mission to help us right now, to save souls with me and my companion and taste this joy that comes from doing missionary work. I bore testimony that Jesus has always been working to save his lost brothers and sisters, and that it was the right time to start helping him. I love preaching His gospel, I love saving souls, I love my mission so much!

            I hope that you will all stay safe this week, and try to invite one of your nonmember friends to church, who knows; maybe sometime in the future you will be a part of their conversion story. As for all of the pictures, there’s the wedding and baptism of Poehere and Omai, also a hike that I went on this morning, it was really awesome! I’ve missed hiking!! Anyway, I love you all so much, please stay safe this week!

Elder Fyffe

 

10/14/2013

                Well this week really has flown by. My companion and I really have been working pretty dang hard. We have 10 baptisms fixed at the moment, 9 of them shall come to pass in the month of November. It makes me so happy to say that I was a part of these people’s lives! I got one of the coolest surprises on my mission thus far this past Sunday. A family came up to me, (I baptized their daughter) and they told me that they have started going to temple prep classes and that they will be sealed as a family for time and all eternity in December. They invited me to go with them into the sealing!!! If my tear ducts weren’t clogged with Tahitian food I probably would have teared up a little. I got to see first had how much of a difference one missionary can make. I never thought that one person could make a difference, especially not me. But now I know that God sent me here for a reason, to make a difference in this family’s life!! I am so blessed to be his servant!!

            I remember the first time I went through the temple, I had all of the people I loved with me, family friends, all the people I wanted to see after this life. The only way that experience would have been better, much, much better, is if my sister was there. But hey, I will take her to the temple with me soon after my mission! I can’t wait to go to the Temple again, it’s been about a year since I last went... too long.

            We should be celebrating Christmas here on the 16th of December. I realized too, that All these next holidays, are my last holidays in Tahiti on my mission! It’s my last Halloween, last Thanksgiving and last Christmas- Crazy.

            Anyway, for the pictures this week, Elder Lee and I had to be traveling assistants and dropped off all of the baggage for all of the new missionaries. So along the way as we drove around the whole island of Tahiti, we stopped and some cool sites and took pictures. It’s crazy pretty here, and I can’t wait to show it all off to my family when we come back together after my mission. Well I think that’s pretty much it for this week, I have probably forgotten a few things, but hey, I should be able to remember them and tell you in next week’s letter.  I love you all so much and Pray about you all the time, Stay safe this week!

Elder Fyffe

 

10/08/2013

                Well here you go for these past 2 weeks! Sorry about last week, we were actually really too busy to get anything done for our p-day, I’m surprised I even found time to do things today, transfers are crazy! Anyway, we had 3 more baptisms since the last time, and we fixed 4 more, so before the end of the year, we should have 9 more baptisms! Crazy how blessed we are right now, God has been putting he children in our paths, just like I’ve been praying and fasting for! I loved general conference; it did make me miss home though! I can’t wait to go to priesthood with the Fyffe boys when I come home again!

            Anyway, the mission president is keeping me in the sector for the next 6 weeks because he said I’ve been really getting the place moving. Plus are bishop called the mission president asking him if they could keep me in the ward haha, I love this ward so much! Tonight Elder Lee and I are going to go pick up all the new missionaries at the airport! I can’t wait because I’m going to pretend like I’m a mute. I will let you know how that goes. I love and miss you all so much, you are all in my prayers and in the testimonies that I bear multiple times a day, take care this week and be safe!

            D&C 76:60- My thought for you all this week. I love you all so much and am so blessed to be a part of this amazing family! Wish I had more time to talk and tell you stories, but I gots to go, Faaitoito!

Orometua Fyffe

 

09/23/2013

                Well, not too much has happened this week for me either, we had another Baptism here for a young teeny bopper named Vaiana. It’s actually a really phuni story how we committed her to baptism. I think it was my first family home evening here in my new sector. It was at Bishops house so he invited a few investigators to join us. After I gave the lesson we were just sitting there and she (Vaiana) whispers to the wife of bishop something because she was too embarrassed to say it out loud. Then the bishop’s wife said it out loud that Vaiana wants to be baptized, and she wants Elder Fyffe to baptize her. I was really surprised because I’ve never had that sort of experience before on my mission. It was the first time I met the girl, yet right when she saw me, she wanted me to baptize her. It just goes to show you that we must have planned that whole thing out in the preexistence. We both promised to go down to earth, I would live in America and she would live in Tahiti. But when I turned 19 I would go on my mission to find her and baptize her.

            It’s a real testimony of the plan of happiness that our heavenly father prepared for us all. I’m so glad that our paths crossed here in Tahiti, I know that she would have been baptized one day by another missionary. But I feel like it was a part of my Plan to be the one to baptize her! I love my mission so much! I don’t think I’ve ever had so much joy in my life before. It’s not like I was wasting my life before, but I definitely wasn’t using my divine potential to its fullest. I wish that instead of all the nap taking I did before, I would have gone out and talked to people more. Not forcibly to baptize people, but at least to meet them, be a part of their lives as a friend and a support, and just profit from their existence.... I don’t even know if that makes sense.... But for me, maybe one day while I was sleeping, there was someone walking outside who I was supposed to run into and become friends with. I don’t know, I don’t regret anything, I "shouldn’t should on myself" as my Grandpa Don would have told me haha.

            Now that I have finally fully let God into my life, I’m fully prepared to profit from this amazing plan that he made from me. I know where I came from, I know why I’m here, and I know where I’m going. All that is important is that I keep doing what I should be and God Will place everyone in my path that I need in order to reach a fullness of joy. Baptizing someone is one of my favorite things to do. But seeing their lives change because of this message of hope, that we, the missionaries share with them, Is one of the greatest miracles in life. I will never regret coming on a mission, I know this is where I’m supposed to be. School can wait, friends can wait, and the newest Zelda games can wait....a little.... But serving a mission for the Lord as soon as I was able is definitely the priority. This truth has been confirmed to me over and over, every time I leave my house here in Tahiti to start the Day. Little by little, I know I will become the person my heavenly Father always knew I could be.

            Anyway, sorry if this email didn’t make sense; it was more of a journal entry than anything. Anyway, I decided to share some of my thoughts with you all this time! I love you all, like only a missionary knows. Keep safe! Here are 2 pictures from this week, the baptism of Vaiana and then some parakeet pigeons!

Orometua Fyffe

 

 

09/16/2013

            Well, this week has been absolutely awesome! I’m pretty sure I passed one of the most memorable moments of my entire mission a few nights ago. First off, we’ve fixed 5 weddings this week; it’s pretty phuni because I never realized that my mission would consist of wedding planning. But it’s been happening a lot and I’m pretty sure it will happen a lot more! Anyway, after the 5 weddings we fixed, we also had a ridiculous amount of lessons; at least 7 a day! So we’ve been working nonstop this week, it’s been pretty exhausting. But when I’m working, I’m not pulled down by the thoughts of life after or before my mission. I work in the moment to accomplish the work of the Lord. I’m starting to realize what the scriptures mean when they say we need to have our eyes fixed uniquely on the glory of God.

            My mission is going by way too fast. Although Life here on the main island is waaay different than what I’ve been used to for the past 6 months of my mission, I’m starting to get used to it. And I really love my ward! They are honestly one of the biggest blessings that the Lord has given me, the support from his loving Tahitian children.

            Yes I do eat well, and maybe it’s starting to show a little. But I decided that its time that I embrace my new Tahitian roots! So, if I’m obese when I get home, I will have to accept the fact that I served in the best Mission In the world! I’m so proud to serve these people and I can’t wait to bring some of you back here with me so I can show you all how blessed I was during these short 2 years of my mission.

            Anyway, the absolute coolest thing that I have been able to do this week was....; wait for it....... I gave a blessing to the President of French Polynesia. Yep. The Mission President Came to our house Late one Night and said that we were going to go give a blessing to someone, Elder Lee and I went with him and thought really nothing of it. Until we pulled into this ridiculously nice house and President told us who it was for. So the Wife of the President used to be really high up in the government; so that is how she had that connection and close friendship with the president. Anyway, after the blessing Elder Lee and I had to make a promise with mission president, that we wouldn’t tell any of the other Missionaries. For a good reason too! They would all be soo jealous haha!!

            Anyway, I’m so grateful for this experience that the Lord allowed me to have, I can say that I’ve layed my hands on the head of the president of French Polynesia; and gave a Priesthood blessing by the authority of God! Stinkin SWEET! Anyway, that really was a highlight of this week and quite frankly of my mission. I love you all and hope you all know that I pray for you all the time! 

Stay safe this week!  

Elder Fyffe

 

09/09/2013

            Well prepare yourselves for a ton of pictures; I’ve got a lot to catch up on!! Let’s start out with how my birthday has gone by so far..... Awesome! This morning at 2 I was woken up because we had to cast out a DEMON IN OUR HOUSE...! Ya, It has been a very memorable day thus far. It was pretty freaky too haha, but we’re all safe and there are hopefully no demons anymore.  It was really nice though because in the morning, the other Elder sang happy birthday to me and gave me a cake! I really like cake now, I don’t know why.

            Anyway, this week has been absolutely incredible! We fixed 8 baptisms, four of them will be at the end of this month and the other four will happen before the end of this year. I love my new sector so much! The lord has really blessed me. There are times I even feel guilty of how blessed I have been on my mission. I have a strong testimony of eternal families, it’s my absolute favorite thing to talk about and testify about. I’m so grateful for my family, and I love them so much! I love you all so much!

            I’m so grateful to be a part of the Dispensation of the fullness of times. The Lord sent all of the prophets before our time, to prepare our generation for success. Elder Holland told us in the MTC that all the other prophets were happy to "fail," Because they knew that our generation would succeed. I’m so thankful for all of the work our ancestors did for us up until this point; we wouldn’t be having any success if it wasn’t for them. I love this church and my time to serve the Lord. I know that even though the mission is hard, the Lord is preparing me, and helping me live up to my divine nature. One day I will live up to the Title as a son of God, because I’m working my hardest for the next few years to make a difference and to make you all proud. I love you all so much, stay safe this week!

Elder Fyffe