It was great reading your letters. I loved both of your letters, mom + dad. Dad, you're a stud. Good job sharing the Gospel whether it's recieved or not. We had a great lesson last week in Elders Quorum about sharing the Gospel. Mom, it's great to hear about all your good plans for when I get back. I'm excited to spend good time with you guys. I was glad also to hear about the bonus again. I know you're being blessed while I'm away. As for me I'm bittersweet. Until yesterday night I was GREAT. Erakor Branch is the best! We're being abundantly blessed with success and support. We've been trying hard to get to know ALL the members. It's quite the task. Here in Vila people kinda come and go from here and their islands. It's hard to keep track of people and their membership records when they move a lot. Lots of members are in Erakor branch records and lots aren't. Currently my mind keeps being brought back to a comment made a few months ago in Etas. We were at Andrick Vano's house, our Elders Quorum pres. He asked about missionary work in Etas. We told him we were facing a bit of a hard time finding people with little support. He listened and said he had similar experiences on his mission in Tahiti. He said what will happen is you'll struggle but you'll learn. He said you'll go to a different place and it will start to flow. People to teach will come out of nowhere and success will come with seemingly ease. That was true. Everyone we're working with (Mostly LA's) are doing great. We've been trying lots of things. From teaching their children, to casual visits and conversations, going to the garden with them for a day and just caring about them and giving a good example. We've seen 4 families come back since we've started. The last 2 sundays I've counted over a dozen we've worked with. The branch is doing so much better and is on the rise. Last sunday we did a Reactivation with the Elders Quorum with a small meal at the end at the 1st counselors house. At the end we met up with 18 of us! From the branch presidency to missionaries to young men to investigators even! We looked like a white shirted army. It was powerful. Last sunday I gave a talk about Heavenly Father. I read D+C 130:22 and tried to help everyone understand Him more. I went through and described all His attributes in the topical guide. We also planned a YM activity with our bud Tony. He just got called to serve in Canada. It was "THE AMAZING RACE". It had 9 checkpoints. Everyone you had to figure out and find and take a picture there or a video. We sang the Nat'l anthem in front of the Parliment Building. We visited the Relief society president at her work and sang a song about "Island dresses". It was a blast. After we borrowed a projector from the district and watched the prince of egypt and "Kolipoki" (The other side of heaven, no one here knows that name or calls it that, just kolipoki). We also have some great investigators. We'll be having a baptism next week for Alan, the son on the recently activated counselor in the Elders quorum. All is great in Erakor. So thats the good in a nutshell. But..... yesterday I was brought down. While I was in Etas I had 3 converts: A, S, and R. The first is 50 something. S is 9 and R is 14. R stopped coming to church because she is pregnant. I felt so sick to my stomach and bad for her. I don't know how or why. Last week I read Alma 31:26-31 and pondered it. Now I know how he felt. I'll be doing exchanges in Etas soon and I will go see her. I don't know what I'll say but I'll try do encorage her as much as I can. Thats about it for now. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Elder Sears
PS PLEASE send John Groberg's book!
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