Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Bonjour tout le monde!

First of all- Sorry I didn't email yesterday, we had zone conference all day! It was super great and I got to see a few missionaries from my mtc family so that was fun.



 Last p-day we went en ville because I had to sign some papers at the bank and then yesterday we had zone conference with two other zones in Faa'a so P-days have been pretty exciting around here lol. Going en ville was super fun because we stopped at this big market and had fun looking around at all of the different things vendors were selling. I of course wanted to buy it all but seeing as I'm a poor missionary and I've still got quite a bit of time left in Tahiti- I refrained. (Mom you would be so proud of me) It was really neat to see everything though and to talk to a few people so we really enjoyed the experience.



The work is going pretty well here in Papara even though lately we've had a little bit of a rough patch where everyone was canceling appointments or on vacation or sleeping every time it rains (which is a lot here). BUT we've been doing something different lately that I have LOVED and even though we've had a few rough days, we've also had some of the greatest experiences. We've really tried to focus on Christ and teach all of our lessons centered on him because we've realized how important a testimony of Christ is. There are approximately 22,000 members in French Polynesia but 11,000 of them are inactive. That's HALF. So our biggest goal as missionaries is to teach investigators and really make sure they have a testimony of Christ and this gospel so that we don't baptize future non-members. Because in reality, everything around us changes constantly but something that will never change is this gospel. It will always be the same and it will always be perfect. So even though people around us (like members of the church) are not perfect and don't always live the gospel- the church will always be the same and Christ will always be the perfect example. We have an investigator who's had bad experiences with members of the church and that is always one of the hardest blocks for investigators joining the church. But anyways- BREF.

I want to just talk about the Kokovi family for an example of our new emphasis on Christ. So this family is great. Like one of of my favorite families in Tahiti (if I can say that). The Mom (Philomene) has a baptism date but she doesn't want to get baptized without her husband, Rono. Rono is incredible and is soooo ready, but he's just afraid of the commitment. He has a hard time with his faith and acting with faith. The only other member we teach is Hitinui (the oldest) and his girlfriend, Matarii. They have 3 other girls and a boy who we haven't gotten to take lessons yet, but we have Soirée Familiales every week and they always love them. I would LOVE to teach the whole family but we'll just have to be patient and keep praying. So we had a SF with them on Friday after 2 weeks where Rono was working in Faa'a. We were a little nervous that maybe they had stopped progressing (that happens a lot when people go on vacation sadly) but it actually ending up being one of the greatest SFs ever. We talked about Christ and their progress and Rono shared all the differences he had seen in their family since they started taking the missionary lessons. They spent a lot more time together and they were a lot happier. AND he hasn't been drinking for a month!!! We were SOOO happy to hear that. We all just shared testimonies of Christ and we really just had such a great experience with them. I'm excited for the future with them because I really think they're close to baptism. Happiness does really come from families. I've realized that here more on my mission than ever before.

I'm out of time- but I love you all!! Soeur Taylor




 This cat picture is for you Ashley!

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