Texan in Tahiti

Ia Ora Na Ma Famille!!! I wish I could type fast enough!! This past week has been so great. I LOVE it here in Tahiti. The weather is a lot like Houston just not as hot so I love it. Plus we have a car now all the time so its nice!!

 

Coast of Tahiti.

The coast road.

So anyways, where do I start?? The languages are going well and I am learning so much each day! The french gets better each day so that's been nice when talking to people and when teaching. I still have a lonngggg way to go on the Tahitian but I know that when I get to a good point with the French, I'll try to really improve my Tahitian.

 

Cool story with Tahitian by the way- On Wednesday night we had our Family Home Evening or "Soirée Familiale" with that new family (I cant remember their last name at the moment) but it was all in Tahitian. We had 3 members from the ward there (the just released bishop and 2 other leaders) who led the lesson and Sœur Carter and I just bored testimony on prayer. Sœur Carter speaks pretty good Tahitian so she did great but I was a little nervous. Nonetheless, I stood up and started off by saying,  "I speak just a little Tahitian, but I want to try." I then bore my testimony on prayer and I know that I made a lot mistakes. Even though I said probably everything wrong, I don't think I'll ever forget the look on their faces when we both finished. They were all so happy (especially the Mami) and afterwards, one of the leaders made a remark about how we were Americans and we spoke their language. It was SUCH a cool experience and really motivated me to want to learn so much more Tahitian. The thing here is that since I'm white and American, they expect me to be able to speak even a little bit of French but they don't expect you to know Tahitian aka their language. It's very cool and I hope to one day able to speak Tahitian very well.

Bizarre fruit here called Tupace?

Public water facility for fresh water

 

Thursday was a rough day for me because I got sick. I don't know how but I think it was either the water or something I ate. But we were going around and visiting our amis (investigators) and inactive members to see if they were coming to our activity at the temple and I just kept feeling worse and worse. I felt really weak and I had a terrible migraine. I let Sœur Carter know and we both decided that it was best if we cancelled our faatamaraa because there was just no way I could eat and we just needed to go back to the house. So we stopped by the house of our faatamaraa and Sœur Carter went and talked to them while I stayed in the car with Sœur Mathilde (Ward mission leaders wife). I was just resting in the back of the car when I saw President Lai come out to the car and ask if I wanted a blessing. It took me by surprise because I hadn't met him yet and I was so touched that he wanted to give me a blessing. So I went inside, and they gave me a blessing. After the blessing, they gave me some medicine and this sugar water or some kind of warm liquid in a cup.. I kind of looked to Sœur Carter like uhhhhh is this okay? She nodded and so I drank! It turns out that it was supposed to make me throw up and so sure enough, 2 minutes later I was puking in the back of this member's yard. Ha ha, there goes the first impression. It was all good though and I am doing so much better. I think that part of it was dehydration too but I have discovered this magical rehydrating solution (actually it was Sœur Carter but oh well) of taking a water bottle and doing a 75 percent water and 25 percent mango juice. Its great and seriously works miracles!! Thank goodness for Tahitian mangoes. And ritz crackers!! They have those here and so those help me get enough sodium since I sweat so much here.

Well I'm out of time because French keyboards and slow computers are the most frustrating thing  of my life right now !! ( I know my life is hard)

I'm doing so great and am SO happy here. Sœur Carter is the best ever. I couldn't have asked for a better trainer!!

Love yall!!

Sœur Taylor

Tahiti is such a beautiful place

Cute little Stacey!

Tahitians have the cutest babies ever!