"sign language came flooding back somehow".....Week 102

This is my companions email:

Elder Nielsen of the seventy came to our Stake Conference to speak. He is an incredible speaker to hear from. But the most enjoyable part that came from that conference was that we had an investigator that wanted to meet him. Our investigator is Aussie and deaf. My companion can speak sign language and our investigator can read lips most of the time. When we brought our investigator see Elder Nielsen, he said, through sign language, that he desire to have more authority than Elder Nielsen. He said he wanted to keep going up and up and up. Elder Nielsen in his best efforts told him that he couldn't. But our investigator did not stop asking how he could be an individual with such high authority. Then I will never forget what Elder Nielsen said. He began to be a little frustrated and pointed towards my companion and me and said, "You cannot go higher than these two young men here." My calling? I thought to myself of this statement he just made. How could my calling as a mission at the age of twenty be above the seventy, the apostles and prophets!? He continued to explain there is no greater calling, and there is no greater authority than to be a full time missionary.

We had to move our baptismal service to a couple of more weeks because our investigator is still struggling with some addictions. It is difficult to see him succeeding and then failing in his attempts. What makes it hard is the person he lives with who is a less-active member who has been convincing him that it is okay to drink here and there. Even our investigator asked was it really bad to have a beer once in a while. It just reminded me of Nephi saying how Satan convinces the world that it is okay to sin here a little and there a little, because God will beat us with a few stripes and we are then saved. However, no unclean thing shall ever inherit the kingdom of God. We will continue to work with Steven and pray for him. We then met up with a referral from a recent convert family. When we called the referral and asked if we had permission to teach his son, he gave us more than permission. He wanted us to baptize his son in a couple of weeks. 

The first photo is us using the fire hose at the chapel to wash our car. the second photo is trade offs with Elder Kafusi from Tonga.... i hate bikes haha, i have had a car my whole mission!

Third photo is a massive cockroach in our bathroom. We tried to kill it with fire and if you look closely at the picture the flame just covered my companions hand instead haha. 

And the rest is just a photo shoot.

We ate a pigs head. It was pretty nasty to be honest but the elders from Vanuatu loved it haha. 

Then we did some service and pruned the trees using machetes. 

(Conner's comment on the deaf investigator)....everything i learned about sign language came flooding back somehow. i was able to communicate with him and we will have our first lesson on Saturday! I know it was the Spirit helping me remember what I had learned almost 2 years ago. I even signed things i had never learned. It was pretty cool:)

Things are going great. I am loving life:)

Elder White