Bonjour!

I'm seriously running out of titles and things to write in these
weekly emails! All the weeks kind of blend together into one big
experience that gets harder and harder to describe.

Well, this week, we FINALLY found people who are willing to give a
ride to and come to lessons for the big family of seven that we teach
(A. and her family), and then they canceled. Noooooo. But there's
always next week!

A few weeks ago, we contacted a woman named M. She was super nice
and asked us to come back, but she's almost never home. Finally this
week, we passed by and she was there! She almost said that she was too
busy, but then her husband that we hadn't met before yelled out the
door inviting us to come in for a bowl of coffee (they drink hot
drinks from bowls, not mugs here) and so we confirmed that they had
Milo (it's like hot chocolate) and went ahead! They then spent the
next hour telling us about things they don't like about their church,
followed with, 'what do you believe about that', and we just kept
sharing scriptures about what we believe about the given topic. It was
a pretty cool experience, and then they invited us back to share about
the Restoration, so we'll be doing that this week!

In this country, there are only two fast food places, MacDonald's and
a place called Quick. And EVERYONE is obsessed with MacD. The Elders
especially. And they really think it's funny to ask my companion to
get them MacD every time we see them. So at tomorrow's Zone Training
Meeting, we're launching a challenge, and the winner at the end of
next transfer will have MacD, bought by us. We'll see how it goes,
hopefully it motivates and gets the Elders to stop asking us to buy it
for them!

Well, that's it for this week. I love you all!

A few photos from Jordan:

Countdown!

Not like we're counting or anything...

Still Alive

Last night we received an email with the subject line: "Still alive!"  She thinks she's funny.  Just wait until she's a mommy.  It's one thing to hear from the mission that she's safe; it's another thing entirely to hear directly from her.

After talking with her for over an hour it was apparent that the entire time of the storm she felt safe and never in any grave danger.  She said, "I know it was a cyclone, but that wasn't my concern.  My concern was taking care of people, that's what I'm out here to do."  Wow.  When you fully trust on the Lord, He provides peace and comfort.


Then later last night we received the email copied below with her weekly update:

"As the subject says, you can all remove your black clothing and stop
planning my funeral. I am alive! We had a great time staying indoors,
making cookies, making bread at our neighbors apartment with her and
organizing our area book this past Saturday, and now it's back to
business like normal!

Okay, so last week...

Elder Haleck of the 70 came to visit! We had a conference with him
with all the missionaries that lasted most of the day, and Sister
Mason and I translated for it. It was so great, and I learned so much!

Also, Mamie P. came to church again! This time, she made me a
pretty blue traditional dress and told me to wear it to church. It was
a hit! Everyone seemed to like seeing a missionary dress like them for
a day (and not in "white-person clothing", as Mamie P. calls what
I usually wear).

And this week:

This week, we had the COOLEST lesson ever with M. and S.! Last
week, we planned on teaching about the Word of Wisdom, but since S.
wasn't there, we ended up talking about something else with M. and
we gave her the brochure about the Word of Wisdom to read for the next
time. When we got there this past Friday, they had read the brochure
as a couple, read in the scriptures together, and had started to live
the Word of Wisdom! M. is still trying to stop smoking and S. to
drink coffee, but they are well on their way! Even more so, they
talked to their two sons about talking to us, and they both joined in with enthusiasm on Friday! 
It was so cute, especially little H. who wanted to read with us so badly,
but can't read yet. So we're officially teaching all of them, as we
also started teaching their 14-year-old daughter J. this last
Wednesday. They are seeing so many blessings as well! S., who has
been so nervous about praying in front of his family, started saying
family prayers and even praying at work when he feels too tired to
continue, and says that he received strength every time. They didn't
know how they were going to pay for their kids' lunch money, as they
don't qualify for any scholarships, and last week they received a
notice in the mail that the lunch money is covered for all three kids
for the entire school year (the school year just started here, since
summer here is America's winter). I am just blown away every single
lesson, they are amazing! M. was pretty sick this last Friday, but
she told us that it was just Satan trying to get her to cancel her
lesson. I can't wait to see what kind of progress and crazy blessings
they've seen this week!

Well, I love you all so much! Have an awesome week!"

She is safe!

This is a copy of the email we received over the weekend to let us know that Jordan is safe and accounted for.  Thank you for your prayers!

Prayer request for Sister Frost and others in her mission.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/wp/2015/03/11/formidable-tropical-cyclone-pam-bears-down-on-south-pacific/?postshare=231426127048888

This is our girl's mission; she was originally on the island of Vanuatu and is now on the island of New Caledonia. While they are a "neighboring island," there is a little distance between them. The storm is not expected to have as big of an impact on New Caledonia, unless it changes its path, but they will still get hit. I don't typically ask for prayer requests, but this is my girl, my whole world. And we need her to come home safely. 95 days cannot come soon enough.

Even dog bites can be miracles!

This week was a week of big miracles! We had so many people who really surprised us. The biggest two were two women named L. and P.; L. told us a few weeks ago that she read Mosiah 18 and wants to be baptized! When she found out that she must get married or separate from her boyfriend first, since they're living together, she started to cry, and claimed that she 'would never be baptized', because he wouldn't marry her, and they have children together. We fasted with her to help her talk to him, and just a week later (this week), she told us that her boyfriend is moving to Maré (an outer island) to build them a house at the end of this month and she's staying here and applying for jobs so that they can be married as soon as possible, and then she wants to be baptized right after, before they move to Maré to start their married life together in their own home, since they're living with her parents at the moment! They planned it all out together!

The second was P., she was a miracle contact that I had on an exchange with Sister Tehanin a few weeks ago. We had spent the entire day porte-à-porting (door-to-door) in an apartment complex because all of our lessons fell through, and we hadn't had a lot success. One or two people said that we could come back another day, but nobody really seemed interested. Finally, we decided that we would just do this one last apartment building. We knocked on all the doors, working our way up to the fifth floor. Then, the very last door of the building, we meet Paola, who asked us to come in pretty much the moment she opened the door. She comes from the same tribe as Sister Tehanin up north! We had our first lesson with her this past Saturday, and taught the Restoration. At the end, of the lesson, we asked her to pray and ask God before we saw each other again if what we had taught was true, and she said that she already knows it is true and she almost cried when we handed her a copy of the Book of Mormon that we had brought for her. We were just in amazement when we left her apartment. It was worth walking up all those stairs!

Now for the story of S. S. is an ami who really didn't want to be one, but all of his siblings have slowly, one by one, been baptized. We started teaching his wife, but he would tell us we could only come over when he wasn't home. Then, he started allowing us to be there when he was home. Then, attending the lessons, but saying that he would never participate. Then, he started reading the Book of Mormon and participating. Two weeks ago, he said, out of nowhere, "I know I'll be getting baptized, I'm just taking my time. No rush. But I know it'll happen". WHAT?! This week, we watched a Church movie (The Testaments) and he LOVED it. At the end of the movie, it says, "le Messie est venu, et Il reviendra" (the Messiah has come, and he will come back). Afterwards, he was just alking around saying, "Il reviendra" (he will come back) over and over again. It was hilarious. We just love their family so much!

A. is getting baptized this Saturday! At our lessons this week, he just has grown up so much and he showed us how ready he is. It's so excited to be here and be able to be one of the people who teaches him.

Ok, so about the title of the email. This week, we were working out, and a large dog attacked me and bit my knee. The owner heard it all, and came speeding over in his truck. Luckily, the dog was tied up, I just had walked a little too close because he hadn't shown any signs of aggression, and it was a dog that I knew. Luckily he didn't break the skin thanks to my pants, so I just have some massive bruises. Come to find out, he's actually a trained attack dog. His owner is an attack dog trainer named M.F., and he was super nice. He told us that he used to meet with the missionaries, and actually knows a ton of the members of our ward! He invited us to come over and teach his family sometime this week!

So that was my week! Thank you all for your continued prayer and support! I love you all!

Another 6 weeks in Ducos!

It's official! Sister Harding and I get to be together for another 6 weeks here in Ducos. I'm so happy to stay; I love Ducos so much now.

I gave a talk this week in sacrament meeting. It was a little bit crazy, because I found out at 8pm the night before, and they didn't give me a subject or time limit... I asked, and he said not to take the whole meeting and that my subject is "Christ". It was alright, and then the Elders both spoke after me. In all, not the worst thing ever for only my second talk.

Other than that, there really wasn't too much to talk about this week. We had 11 lessons, which is pretty much a record for right after the holidays! A little boy we teach (his name is A.) is getting baptized this month! His whole family is basically all members, but he's 9, so he has to have the missionary lessons in order to get baptized. It's so much fun to teach him. He opens and closes all our lessons for us. He welcomes us, and selects someone to choose a hymn and pray, and then leaves us the time for the lesson. It's so cute!

Well, I love you all so much, have an awesome week and don't forget to read the scriptures this week!