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)

Shark Bait Makes it Through The Storm/ The Hurricane Gets a Taste of His Own Medicine

Dearest Family and Friends! I am glad to report that although we had a crazy week and a bit of a love tap from the Hurricane named Hola, it has been another fantastic week!

Hands down the craziest part of the week was being held up in the house. Elder Hardy has been sick during a few days of the week and we have also been making sure the District Leaders have been helping the Zone get ready in the occasion Hurricane "Hola" want to say...  Hola! Which she did!

One morning Elder Hardy slept in a little bit so he could rest and the phone started ringing. Not an unusual occurrence since we need to report a lot of things to our Zone. When I walked over to the phone the call said it was coming from President Granger. I knew this wouldn't the average phone call. President explained to me that his flight back to Vanuatu from New Caledonia (New Cal had a Zone Conference) had been canceled and he wanted all the missionaries to stay in doors in case the storm got any closer. We got the word out as soon as possible!

Elder Hardy and I used the day to write letters to home, read some scriptures, watch some church videos, and it ended up being a pretty fun day!! The wind started to pick up and sounded like the beginning part of The Wizard of OZ but times by 10. The rain sounded like bullets on our roof. The Lighting lit up the dark skies like a Christmas tree and the Thunder sounded ferocious. Thanks to Our Father in Heaven we were safe in our little house. The majority of the storm did not pass through us and we were able to work the next day. How blessed are we?!

The work here in Black Sands is going really well! Two of our new investigators Thelma (22 year old young woman) and her younger sister Lilly came to church and Elder Hardy and I our so excited for them! A new transfer has come and Elder Hardy and I will be staying put as Zone Leaders. We are determined to improve and help The Lord and His Efate Zone to the best of our abilities. This is the hardest thing I have ever done. But it is all so worth it. My love goes out to all who have sacrificed so that I can serve at this time. Thank you. I love you.

May you always remember this Gospel is true. Heavenly Father loves you and me. Jesus is the Christ and Savior of us all. Trust in Him and He will lead us back home.

All my love,

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

This is a picture of a small handgun that a young boy at a Family Home Evening showed us. Thought it was so cool! I wonder if it came from World War II? Thought Grandpa W. Would especially be interested. He found it in His family's garden! Crazy!!