A Full Week In The Area!!! Shark Bait's First Travel to NC

Dearest Family and Friends!!! I am once again honored for the small chance I have to report on an amazing week in which I and my two wonderful companions had! To start things off we were really looking forward to this week (because of the business coming) it is our only full week in our area. We hit the ground running and set some high goals! 

Because President and Sister Granger went to New Zealand this week (For The Mission President Seminar) we were told that we would be basically babysitting the mission. Which honestly felt like a lot more pressure than your average toddler. But we were able to manage things without too much drama. 

One of the most crazy experiences of this week would be my first time driving the Assistants which resulted in a car accident. Before I move further with the story... Yes Mom, everyone is fine. I am fine and no one was hurt. We were driving down the main road of Port Vila and a man decided to run a Stop Sign and T-Bone us as we were going through an intersection. The accident happened right next to the Police Station and were perfectly safe thanks to a Loving Father in Heaven who does protect His missionaries. The truck only took some damage to the bottom left side resulting in a large dent and the paint of the vehicle really scratched up.  If you knew me before the mission you would know that I have never been pulled over or been involved in a car accident.... All the above has happened here in Vanuatu! I am not only have some crazy experiences but I am having a crazy awesome mission. This is truly the hardest thing I have ever done but I am loving it more and more as the days go by. 

One of the best parts of this week would be a lesson we had with one of Elder Piol's and Elder Hable Recent Convert's Mom (who allowed her daughter "Nistancy" to be baptized but has not had much interest in the Gospel until now) We were able to get a lesson with her and pulled up a video on our phone about the Restoration of The Gospel. We all had silent prayers trying to do our best to have the spirit with us to soften her heart. After the video we allowed a few moments of silence, answered her questions, and bore our testimonies. The lesson and spirit have increased my testimony. Joseph Smith did see God The Father and His Son Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon testfies of Christ and I add my testimony with the thousands of others who know of its great wisdom. We are so very blessed!!! 

Well, today we are heading to New Caledonia!! I have spent 7 months in Vanuatu Andrew will be leaving for the very first time! We will be giving tranings, going on splits (teaching in French!!), and meeting the special Elders and Sisters of NC! Life is pretty exciting although we will have a lot of work to do. It's not so hard when the work so great and inspired! 

Mother's Day Calls!!! Next Week is the week we have to honor our beautiful Mothers!! Mom, I love you! It is a wonderful day we have to honor woman especially the wonderful mothers that we have. In our mission we will be allowed phone calls on the day of Mother's Day. This will be Sunday for you and a Monday for me. Which means it is my P-Day! It is a requirement that you need to call me. I do know this might be expensive and I am sorry about that but if we get to talk I will be super excited. I wish even more that we could Skype but I will be thankful for what I have. Here are the phone calls. Just call anytime. If the time doesn't work you csm always call back! 

Love you all so much!! :) I hope you all have had a wonderful week. 

So much Love!! 

Elda LaMont/ Shark Bait/ Island Boy/ Your Alekken Ty

Missed you All. Sorry I could not email last week. Shark Bait big news!

My dear family and friends!! I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to write some of my feelings and keep you updated on the wonderful work, which is happening here in the beautiful paradise of the Vanuatu Port Vila Mission. 

Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to be able to write you last week but I am grateful now for the small opportunity, which I have been given to share some pretty amazing/crazy experiences. 

Transfers this last week has been crazy. President Granger has taken me out of Zone Leader and has told me he feels inspired to put me as an Assistant to the President. I have been placed with my two new companions Elder Piol and Elder Hable. Elder Piol is a seasoned Veteran, as he will be going home very soon. The role that President wants us to play is Elder Hable and I take over things and if we have anything we can not solve on our own then we have Elder Piol to help us.  This means I will be traveling with my new companions (and the Mission President) throughout the 3 different countries of the Mission. Different islands of Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and the Solomon Islands to give training, I will be trusted to help train the Zone Leaders, and will be teaching in all 3 languages of our Mission (French, Bislama, and Pidgin) We have a lot of responsibility and roles to fulfill. Despite this extra work I try to remind myself of the wise words, which come from the White Handbook, explaining that an Assistant to the President is no different than another missionary. We all have the same call but different assignments. I want to stay humble and teachable. I desirous to teach with love and learn from all those I will have the ability to meet. In answer to your question Dad, we will not go everywhere with President Granger but most of the time we will join him in his travels. We have a lot of places we will be going for Zone Conference this upcoming month. And when President Duquet (the new mission President) gets here he is going to want to hop on a plane with us to visit every place in the mission. We will be going to New Caledonia next week (So excited!) 

The new area is wonderful! The Assistant's area is called Nambaru. It is actually an old area I had as a Travel Elder. Many of the members came rushing up to greet me once again. My heart is full of gratitude to be able to work with the wonderful people of Nambaru again. This week we have been in the Office a lot of the week. We had several meetings with President in regards to an emergency transfer we needed to make. We were also able to help President with the new missionaries who came in. Although it was difficult to be out of the office for so long it provided a wonderful opportunity to meet new missionaries and get them excited about the amazing work we get to be a part of. The ability to work with President Granger has once again shown me how inspired The Lord's chosen servants really are. Trust in those God calls. They are not perfect. They try their best and are inspired. I know God lives and talks to those He has chosen. 

Before leaving my old area (Black Sands) I was able to witness a miracle. I woke up one morning on an exchange with a District Leader (One of my old companions Elder Burbank, who were help teaching to become the next Zone Leader for when I left) and felt a small feeling that we should go see a recent convert of ours. This recent Convert is a young girl named Christina Hillaman. For the longest time she was not allowed to be baptized because her Father is very much against the church. I am so glad I listened to this small feeling. When we arrived at her house the mother was practically in tears, telling us that she had been praying the missionaries would come. She speedily brought us into the house to show us to Christina's Father who is very sick. He asked us for a blessing which we were happy to give. He took a lesson from us as well and we were able to set a baptism date. The Lord works through amazing ways and I testify He is involved with His work. The family gifted me a custom Vanuatu Matt before I left. I love them and I love The Lord and His inspired work. 

Hope you are all doing amazing! I am doing fantastic! Although I miss my family and loved ones I have never been happier. I LOVE this work. 

So much love to all of you, 

Elda LaMont/Shark Bait/ Island Boy/ 

PS. Keaton you’re a stud! I love you and Luci! Good luck with the new job! Cheering you on from all the way across the ocean.

Shark Bait's Exchanges with The APs and Mama Fred's Baptism!!

Dearest Family and Friends,

Again I am more than excited to tell you of the wonderful week in which I have had on the beautiful island paradise of Vanuatu. It has been an incredible week with challenges which have brought me new incites to this beautiful gospel and have blessed my life. 

One of the very best parts of this week would be the exchange I got to have with the Assistants to the President. I was put with Elder Hable who was able to teach me many things. He is a very humble and powerful teacher and I enjoyed becoming more his friend. He taught me more about the importance of Companionship Study and how we can find answers to the soul from the Book of Mormon. We had a powerful study of the Book of Mormon before being able to go in his area of Nambaru (which actually was once my area my first transfer here as a Travel Elder) Throughout the many lessons we tried to have we used what we learned from the Book of Mormon. It had amazing and powerful results! We were even able to set a baptism date with one of his investigators and find new precious souls to teach! I testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the peace, light, and happiness it can bring to our life if we will just open it. Our Heavenly Father wants to talk to us and this is how he does it along with his chosen leaders. I loved what Elder Hable was able to teach me about exchanges. He followed the White Handbook to give me specific and direct things I do well and what things I could work on. He is eager to help me with a new leadership role that President wants me to work towards. I am so glad I got to work with him! The Lord continues to bless me. 

Another wonderful blessing of this week would be the baptism of one of our investigators Lamala Fred. She is the mother of our Recent Convert Nicole Fred. We are so excited for her and have seen the amazing blessing the Atonement and Gospel of Jesus Christ has brought to her and her family. How my soul is filled with joy to see her and her Daughter come into the fold of God. I was unable to attend her baptism since we were on our exchange with the Assistants. But my companion Elder Hardy said that as she came out of the waters of baptism with tears of joy. I was told that she even shared a powerful testimony during her baptismal service. This Gospel is true. Is it not amazing how this perfect and everlasting Gospels blesses us so much individually and as a family! We are so blessed! 

I love you all. I pray for you. I work hard for The Lord and for you. Keep enjoying life and smiling!

Sorry, no pictures for this week. I forgot my camera cord back at our house! Next week for sure!

So much love to each and everyone of you.

Elda LaMont/ Your Alekken Ty/ Island Boy/Shark Bait

Pictures from Zone Conference

The Miracle of Thelma's Baptism Shark Bait Hits the big One Nine!

Dearest Family and Friends, 

I am so very thankful for this opportunity to write and share some of the thoughts of such a fantastic week! Many great things made up one of the best weeks of my mission! I almost do not even know where to start!

One of the great things for this week would be Zone Conference. Although planning out Zone Conference is not the easiest thing for Elder Hardy and I we had a fun time. We had the Tanna Zone come as well so we had to plan for more Elders! Zone Conference really was amazing! Elder Hardy and I also were given the opportunity to give some training. We came up with a pretty good idea, which we thought turned into a decent training! We had a lot of help from our prayers! For our training we called up two Elders. We had one Elder extend out his hand and the other keep his hand close to his body. We invited missionaries to explain some of the hardships in which they have had while on their missions. As they shared some of the trials in which they have faced we started adding books and weight to each of the Elder's hands. The Elder who had his arm far from his body really started to struggle to hold the weight of the books. The Elder who had kept his weight close to his body still had a fair amount of weight to hold but looked just fine. We did our best to use this to testify of the Savior. As missionaries, and sons and daughters of Our Heavenly Father we are as the arms of The Lord. We at times are asked to take on some heavy loads, of all sizes. When we are close to our Savior He promises to make our burdens light. When we do not accept his help the weight is unbearable at times. I testify of the truthfulness of this important eternal doctrine. The Savior and Master Jesus Christ is ready to help make our burdens light. I pray you have had an opportunity to think more heavily upon the love He has for you this special season. 

The next wonderful part of the week! The baptism of Thelma Jack and my 19th Birthday! What a day! Thelma is a miracle. There are times as a missionary when it gets hard and you ask yourself why you are here. It is beautiful people like Thelma who remind me quickly of the importance of this great work. Thelma has read the Book of Mormon and has come to know of the reality of the Love which Our Father In Heaven has for her. She has changed to follow the Savior Jesus Christ. I see the light of The Holy Ghost fill her soul with joy. Watching her come out of the waters of baptism makes me so thankful for this great plan of happiness. All things are possible through God! My soul is filled with gratitude for what Our Father in Heaven has given Thelma and all of us who are willing to accept his divine plan! What a great life!

Thank you to all of you, who have reached out to wish me a Happy Birthday! Thank you thank you. You have brought me so much joy! I am truly blessed and I am loving my mission. I know my family is blessed for their sacrifice. I love them and all who have helped me. Know that I think of you often and love you all.

So much love, 

Elda LaMont/ Your Alekken Ty/ Shark Bait/ Island Boy

Elder LaMont, Thelma, and Elder Hardy

Happy Birthday treat!

Shark Bait Helps Plan Zone Conference and The Miracle of Thelma

Hello to my Dear Family and Friends!!

I am again more than happy to report that it has been another fantastic week! I am so grateful for the time, which I have to reside in the beautiful islands of Vanuatu and with these even more beautiful people! I am blessed further to have so many family and friends cheering me on.

This week has been a busy and we have done a lot of contacting looking for more people to teach. As our dear Mission President says the work can not start unless you find someone to teach. We have tried this week to do just that. We have had much success and have found new people. We found a a large family from the island of "Tongwa" and they are so kind. Elder Hardy and I saw a new road in our area covered in thick Island Bush (or grass) and decided to adventure. We were not sure what to say to this large group of people we found in this village. Our favorite thing to do is to make them laugh... Which Elder Hardy and I are pretty good at doing. We have found we can laugh with the people and love them it makes the work even better!

While contacting down the Pot hole invested dirt roads (surrounded by beautiful Island vegetation and flowers)  of part of our area called Sweti we meet two boys named Rico and Junior. When they first saw us about a week ago they asked for a Book of Mormon (or Buk Blong Momon) We were surprised but gladly gave them one. We decided to follow up and teach them about this special and true book. We had a great lesson with them! They are actually huge fans of Soccer! They asked me if I knew who Paul Pogba, Anotine Griezmann, Neymar, Christiano Ronaldo, and many others. They were shocked when I told them yes and we had a great talk about the beautiful game of Soccer! When we taught them we included as much soccer terminology as we could into the lesson.

I have a testimony of this great and Restored church. It is watched over by the good Shepard, who is The Lord Jesus Christ. Through His living Prophet Russell M. Nielson he watches over his flock and desires all to come unto Him. It is my great privilege and honor to be about His work. The work, which is most important. It has been a great Easter Holiday to reflect on all that He has done for us.

I love you all so much. Thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes which have made my day and already my week.

Love you all so much,

Elda LaMont, Your Alekken Ty, Shark Bait, Island Boy

Thank you so so much for the wonderful package from home!!! I love you so much!

I was reunited with a dear friend named Elder Bybee. He is going home soon and this mission is going to miss him.

Shark Bait Experiences His Very First MLC and Baptism Set!

Hello Dear Family and Friends!!!

This has been yet another fabulous week in one of the most beautiful places in the world! This week has hands down got to be one of the best weeks in the mission so far. I have learned and grown a great deal this week.

One of the very best parts of this week would be our (and my very first) MLC Training! For those of you who don't know this stands for Mission Leadership Council. The Zone Leaders across the mission (including New Caledonia and The Solomon Islands) were able to attend! We had many training's coming from President Granger and Sister Granger in the beautiful Mission Home. All the training we received were powerfully taught through the spirit and many great scriptures were shared. My testimony of this wonderful gospel has grown from the things in which I learned. Two things really stuck out to me in the training. The first is how much of Leadership when done right is about serving and loving others. If we look to the Savior he was the best example of leadership and pure love. He descended below all things to lift us up. He washed the feet of His disciples to show that leading others is about serving others. What an amazing example this is! A Zone Leader is truly not better than another missionary in the field but has been selected by Our Heavenly Father to love and serve those he is trusted with. After the training, I feel more determined to this better and more with the spirit. The Second thing which stuck out to me is as Leaders we must do as President Granger says and, "Keep The Flame of Faith Alive." We have a great responsibility to keep missionaries excited and working hard in the greatest work. It was a wonderful two days of fun and learning. We even had relay games/races!

The next best part of the week would be our investigator, Thelma Jack. We found Thelma working with some other investigators who did not turn out to be as promising as we originally thought. Thelma is a 22 year old young woman who actually speaks great English. We have worked really hard with her and we invited her to be baptized! She agreed and we are so happy. She has experienced a wonderful change from reading the Book of Mormon. Before reading the Book of Mormon she would never accept our invitation to pray. During the lesson where we invited her towards baptism she said a prayer in front of us for the first time. We have set her date of baptism for the 7th of April! Which is also my birthday! What a great day it will be.

I testify of the reality and truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. This Gospel is true and I love Our Father in Heaven. His Perfect Plan of Happiness through his Perfect Son will bind families forever. I love you all and hope your weeks were amazing.

Much love,

Elda LaMont/ Your Alekken Ty/ Island Boy/ Shark Bait

Elda LaMont, Lonie, and Thelma

Mission Leadership Council

Shark Bait Gets a Samoan Roommate and the baptism of Nicole and Renol

Hello Again Family and Friends!!! Another great week here in Vanuatu for both Elder Hardy and I!

This week has been decently busy and has provided us with some great growing experiences. The start of the week stared by the Assistants telling us that a missionary by the name of Elder Burgess would be staying with us until his flight to Amboe (Another island in the mission) Elder Burgess is from the island of Samoa and is just about to finish his mission. Elder Hardy knew this experience would not be the most comfortable since our house is not the largest and adding a large Samoan to the equation made the house pretty packed! On the bright side though, we spoke Bislama most of the week and felt like we improved tons and did what we could to learn from all of Elder Burgess's experience in the mission! The Blacksands area is an old area of Elder Burgess and he was able to help us learn the area a little bit more. We were even able to find a new family with Elder Burgess! I have no doubt that although the situation was not the most comfortable for us The Lord put us together so we could find this new family! We can learn from every situation even if it is not the most comfortable!

The next best part of this week would be the story of Nicole! Nicole is a an 11 year old girl who is friends with the Kila Family in our ward. She would get up every morning early to come with this family to church. She loved every moment of church and looked forward to coming with the Kilas every week. The Kila family let us know that Nicole would most likely love a lesson from us so we went over and began to teach her. She loved it and with the permission of her mother we continued to teach her. We then invited the Mom to come to one of the lessons and asked if Nicole could be baptized. The Mom explained to us that she had begin to see a difference in her home. She loved seeing Nicole pray more! The Mom granted us permission to baptize Nicole and said she would come to the baptism and to church with us. We had the great blessing to have her baptism this last week. My dear Family and Friends, it is truly amazing to see the great happiness and joy the gospel brings to families. Although I miss my family and the mission at times provides challenges, the ability to help The Lord bless families brings so much joy! I know Our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ live and love us. There our souls prepared to hear our word and I will try harder every day to meet them.

Know that I pray for you and love you all. Thank you for your sacrifices so I can be here.

So much love,

Your Alekken Ty/ Shark Bait/ Island Boy

Answers For Dad: Living Area- I live right next to our Church. The Church we live next to is an actual nice building one of the few here in growing Vanuatu. The House is small but what the Sister have called, "adorable." I have to admit the place is growing on me and I love it! I have not seen a Dishwasher since I left the States! We always need to wash the dishes. Which I actually have grown to like as it gives me time to clear my head and just ponder! I really enjoy Personal Study and the time to read the scriptures. The scriptures always bring peace.

Elder LaMont, Elder Hardy, and Elder Burgess from Somoa

Amanda, Nicole, and Renol. Elder LaMont and Elder Hardy (The Cache Valley Boys)