BBQ

Last P-day was rather uneventful. We sat in the house and talked and did our normal P-day things. We did have a random dude at a gas station tell us that some random lady in France gave some money to a guy who was suppose to be slightly dressed like us as missionaries and he wanted us to somehow figure out who this guy was because the lady wants her money back. It was probably the most impossible request that I've ever been given as a missionary haha. 

Thursday we went back down to La Foa with Frere Goyetche, the member that lives down there. When we got to his house he wasn't there which was not normal. Turns our he was casually fighting a fire down the road haha. We also saw our investigator Andre who is getting baptized in 10 days! We had a lesson on the Word of Wisdom and it was a miracle actually. We speculated that he had some issues with the Word of Wisdom but he told us that he already felt like he needed to stop smoking and drinking coffee before he even knew it was against the commandments! He even told us that our lesson was inspired that day. From that day on he promised us that he would never drink coffee or smoke ever again! Crazy stuff. 

Friday we had our French class again. Turns out the students want to restart with the basics because the missionaries in the past went a little too fast and I really don't blame them, looking back at how long it took me to really understand and speak French. I'm still learning everyday and I am by no means perfect haha. Before my mission I always had this idea that the language would come easily and that after a year I would speak perfectly just like the stereotype of missionaries learning a language but I can testify that it is not like that at all haha. Friday we also did our contacting at the bus station just like every other day. This time round though a lady actually came to us! She wanted us to explain the Book of Mormon to her too but we kinda ran out of time. Her bus was leaving and she doesn't actually live in our area. That's the problem with contacting in Bourail actually. A lot of people on the street don't actually live here haha. There are just stopping by because its kinda like the hub of the island for the buses. 

Saturday we actually went back down to La Foa. We helped a non member collect clams on his private beach property. I don't have any pictures with me unfortunately We also checked up with Andre and he's still doing super well! 

Sunday I had to direct church for the first time of my life. We had a solid turn out too. With visitors we had around 30 at the branch! We also had to teach the lesson to all the Brothers. All went well. 

Monday we had our French class again then we did a little contacting before we headed up to Kone for our exchange. We gave out a few Book of Mormon's and it was solid. So for our exchanges we do them a little differently. Its actually just all 4 of us together because Kone and Bourail are like 100km's apart and us four are literally the whole district. We talked a ton about our areas and that night we had a backyard BBQ with a word of wisdom breaking amount of meat haha. 

Tuesday was just a continuation of the exchange. There is really not a whole lot to do to stay busy in these two areas but I bought a basketball and we tried a little sport contacting. It was soooo nice to finally get to play for real again. Its been around 6 months since I've really played. 

That's it for this week! 

Avec amour,

Elder Burbank

Pics:

-Backyard BBQ 

-Dead tractors on Frere Goyetche's 40 acres

-Cool dock

-Frere Goyetche gutting a deer: let me explain this a bit. So, for some reason, there are a ton of deer on New Cal. They are not native here but there are a ton, so lots of people in the north go hunting. Every meal at the Goyetche house has deer in it haha. It tastes super good.