Bon Voyage Leavers/New Arrivers/ Shark Bait Almost Becomes Dog Bait

Hello my wonderful family and friends! Is time going by super fast for you too?? It seems like I was making an update just yesterday. Wow! Time flies when you are having fun and working hard. Time seemed a lot slower when Keaton (#Captain Moroni) was on his mission in Kansas. It's a lot easier to be on this end of things. Once again, I appreciate and love all those who have sacrificed so that I may be here. And for those who send, emails, prayers, and even letters of support. I pray for you too. A million times, thank you.

I am happy report that I am alive, :)happy, healthy, and just a reminder... France are CHAMPIONS of the world!! I just want to point out.. I called it! This missionary work sure is hard stuff but I am loving it. No place I would rather be than Vanuatu right now:)! Perhaps you should all just get a plane ticket here in a year's time... I know I will shed many tears to leave this beautiful land. Especially the beautiful people of the isles of the seas. God truly does love his people of the islands! I feel it in my heart and soul!

This was a calmer week which I loved! The last few weeks we have been flying everywhere (I am definitely not complaining. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to travel with my Mission Président) and it was nice to take a rest. The craziness of Assistant work made it so we were in the office most of the week.

Once again, no complaints. I am here to do The Lord's Will. He chose me for this assignment as Assistant and I am happy to fullfil it to the best of my abilities. Being an Assistant has taught me so many things. The first being; We are equals in the sight of Our Father in Heaven. An Assistant to the Mission President is no more important than a Junior Companion. It cleatly states this in the Missionary Handbook. We all have the same calling to Invite all to Come Unto Christ. Leadership is all about Love. Jeaus Christ the only begotten of The Father, never boasted saying he was better than everyone else because, he is the only Begotten of the Father. He used it in fact, to set a perfect example, love, serve, suffer to take our pains, die for us, and then to conquer death and rise again so that we all can. When we are called as a Leader for a season we should do what the Savior did. That is give service and love. The Savior descended below all things that He might lift His people up. A Christ Like Leader seeks to listen, learn from those he leads, love, serve, and descend to lift those he serves. Thus Christ showed a true leader is all about love and service. I am so grateful for all The Lord has been teaching me out here! I wouldn't give up my mission for anything else in the world. If you are debating whether to go... Just go!!! It is hard but certainly the best experience of my life thus far.

This week we had an opportunity to meet the new arriving missionaries and say goodbye to the old ones. The old ones seemed very excited for home. And the new ones had a great fire in their eye excited for the greatness coming. It was a great opportunity for me to reflect on my service especially as I am approaching my year mark.. I use to honestly envy those going home. Now, I felt sorry for them. There are only a few things, which give me excitement for home. What can I say? I LOVE my mission so much. How grateful I am for what the Lord has blessed me with. I love working. Getting out of the house and being with the people of Vanuatu is my favorite thing. I love picking flowers and giving them to little girls reminding that they are, "Olgeta, Princess Blong Papa God" and then playing soccer with a paper ball with the boys. I love the people here. They are and always will be in my heart.

Story Time!!

I had an experience this week where Elder Hable and I went a little exploring near our house. There is this one hill above our home. It is a view where we could look out into the night sky with the Vila lights in the distance lighting, up the dark sky with the ocean. It is quite the view!

I managed to get he truck up the hill so we could enjoy it! Let me tell ya Dad... I see why you like trucks so much! They are legit! Would love to get one one day. Plus I now am pretty decent at driving stick shift. Anyway, we decided to attempt the hill climb and made it to the top. We had only planned to come up there when/if times were stressful and this week called for it. We enjoyed taking a breather and making the necessary calls to arrange Zone Conferences and tons of other things. We then realized (wanting to go home) that our diecention down the hill would be scary.

We drew lots about who would get out and make the back up while the other had the scary job of driving. I of course, lost so I drove. As I was backing up the truck Elder Hable quickly got in the truck again and said some angry looking dogs were lurking about and barking at him. They were ontop of the hill we were below but looked like they could get down and have a nibble on us. Side note. Earlier that day a dog went at me while going to a recent convert of ours (Henri) Jumped from underneath a table going for my ankles and I managed to avoid what looked like a probable bite by smacking it with my backpack and throwing rocks. So basically, I was feed up with mean dogs for the day.

I told Elder Hable that I would give the backup for our Truck but was definitely taking a stick to.deffend myself. I got out and the dogs were closer. I yelled at them attempting to scare them off. If you know of my childhood fear of Werewolfs you know this was a really unpleasant experience for me. Dang it Harry Potter.... My stick ready I noticed something else... A small red light in the distance that made it's self-known as a white man smoking.

The man quickly informed me that he was upset for the way I had treated his evil monsters... I mean dogs... And invited me to leave with the most colorful vocabulary, discription, and threats one can imagine. Typical Australian vocabulary to say the least. Not even on his property I was a bit proplexied. His words were quite mean and as we made our escape down the hill I was pretty mad at what he said but was gratefull I had managed to keep my mouth shut. I just couldn't wrap my head around why he would treat someone like that. I was upset most of the night. Suddenly, I realized I had been making a mistake and needed to forgive this man. In my heart I was reminded of the scripture D&C 64:10, which states, "I the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men." How many times has the Savior forgiven me? I realized I couldn't judge this man and needed to find love for him. I had a cool experience as I asked for help to love this man I will most likely never seen again. I did feel a portion of love for him and forgave what he had said against me. What a lesson The Lord taught me about forgiveness and repentance. The weight fell off my shoulders as well as the bad feelings vanishing. Sorry the story went so long! Its a good one though and I had more time to email this week! :)

I read a talk this week from General Conference labeled, "Until Seventy Times Seven" by Elder Lynn G. Robbins. It states in one part, "Repentance is God's ever-accessible gift that allows and enables us to go from failure to failure without any loss of enthusiasm. Repentance isn't His backup plan in the event we might fail. Repentance is His plan, knowing that we will. This is the gospel of repentance, and as President Nelson has observed, it will be a life time curriculum."

So, if from time to time you struggle with the fact that you aren't perfect or don't seem to measure up remember... We are NOT supposed to go through this life alone. We have a Savior who walked such a lonely path so we don't have to. If you struggle like me, with forgiving grumpy Australians who obviously just want you to be dog Kakai (food in Bislama) then that's okay. You can always ask for forgiveness knowing that we are supposed to fail, get back up through the Savior, and overcome our weaknesses. It's a Life Time Curriculum even for a prophet of God. Isn't this a beautiful Gospel?!

Please just never forget this Gospel is true. Our Father in Heaven lives and loves us. He has perfect Patience for you and and will provide for us to be better through His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, through our Faith and desire to repent/keep the commandments.

I Love You All! How was your week? Did you almost get eaten too? Let me know! Would love to hear from you!

Much Love,

Elder LaMont/Alekken Ty/ Shark Bait/ Werewolf Slayer/ Vanuatu White Boy/ Island Boy/ Your Biggest Fan

So... Someone did not entirely drain the Baptismal Fount. Thought this might make you smile:) You gotta do what you gotta do. I trust Elder Hable... He didn't let go of my legs but we couldn't stop laughing.