We visited the Australes a few weeks ago. This is the southern archipelago in our mission. It is also the place where the first LDS missionaries arrived in French Polynesia back in April 1844...the island of Tubuai (Too-poo-I) to be exact. This was the first foreign language mission of the LDS Church.
We were able to visit three of the five islands...Raivavae, Tubuai, and Rurutu.
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Addison Pratt, first missionary in French Polynesia
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Here are some pictures of our visit to Tubuai.
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| An early church building...see the lettering at the top. |
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| This brother attended church in this building when he was young. |
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| A monument to the early missionaries |
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| An area referred to as "The Sacred Grove" on Tubuai. Prayers were given here by the early saints. |
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| The early saints on Tubuai built this bridge to help them get to church. |
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| Our lunch spot. |
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| Gotta love those missionaries! |
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| Exploring |
Often times we end up with extra time on the isles due to the limited flights on and off the islands. So despite the fight we had with mosquitoes we were able to enjoy some of the beauty of the islands...
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| Just below our pension on Raivavae |
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| Raivavae...a baptism had taken place here just two weeks before |
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| On Rurutu |
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| Exploring Rurutu |
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| A grotte (cave) on Rurutu |
The trip was almost a week long and it is always hard to be away from Tahiti for that long, mainly because of the lack of internet connection with our missionaries and all. But it was good to be in this rich area of church history and meet the people here.
Sorry for the long delay between posts...I'll try to be better at updating this blog.
Love you all
