Oooookayyyy Famille WOW.

 Lots has happened.

First of all, I hope everyone had a Joyeux Noel et Oaoa i te Nohera! Because mine was the bestttttt! I got the BEST Christmas package in the world from the best family ever (which I ended up opening on the 23rd whoops) and I also got the package from the best home ward ever! Thanks a ton Cypress Ward :) I definitely felt spoiled. I did get the package opened though so that was kind of a bummer but I think I got most of everything inside. MAURUURU ROA! (Thank you so much!!)

Our Christmas trees.

BEST PACKAGE EVER!

In Tahiti, most people celebrate Christmas with a big meal on Christmas Eve and they party for the rest of the time. Needless to say , the work was a little slower, but it ended up being fine. On Christmas Eve, we spent it with DMP Scott and Hine (In Mahaiatea) and we had a big feast of ALL seafood. Y'all won't believe that I ate... lobster, sashimi (raw fish with this sauce), shrimp, oysters, clams, annnddd escargot! I decided to be courageous and try it all since I've never had most of that ever in my life.

 

Seafood!

Christmas eve dinner. It was the best!

Guess what?? IT WAS SO GOOD. Tahitians can make some good seafood, let me tell you.

Christmas day wasn't that special from any other day, but Soeur Carter made some cake and we had fun delivering cake and singing hymns for our amis. We had a faatamaraa Christmas night with a family that literally would not let us leave the table until they thought we had eaten enough. Which is A LOT. So yeah, it was pretty hard to move/ breathe for awhile because we were so full buutttt we survived. haha

Our Ami Raf and her niece Kahaia with our beautiful necklaces Raf gave us for Christmas. We just started teaching Kahaia which is super exciting - more about that later.

 

This past Saturday we had the baptism of Papi Teuira! It was so so so great to see his baptism because it's been quite an adventure with him. He's the grandfather of Soeur Mathilde and he's taken lessons in the past but has never been ready. We started teaching him again and it has been so great to see him progress. We taught him ALL in Tahitian so that was definitely an adventure but so good at the same time for practicing my Tahitian. We have to teach him pretty slowly because he wants to understand everything but I made him a notebook with summaries of each of the lessons so that he can study on his own and he has really loved that. When we started getting him ready for baptism, we found out that he didn't know or have a testimony of Thomas S. Monson. So, of course, we taught him and engaged him to pray about the living prophet. Needless to say, every time we asked him if he prayed, he would say Aita! (No) and so we would try to help him understand better the importance of the prophet. That happened literally like 5 times until we finally prayed together the lesson before his baptismal interview and he offered the prayer at the end of the lesson. He has never prayed for us before but after waiting and insisting that we wouldn't say the prayer and that he could do it- He prayed! And it was so great. He got the confirmation of the living prophet and when he bore his testimony at his baptism, a big part of it was about the prophet, Thomas S Monson. We were definitely some proud missionaries :)

 

Papi and Stacey at the baptism

Papi and us with President Lai who baptized him.

Papi did a little dance after he got baptized - So Cute.

After his baptism we went back to their house (DMP and their family live with him) and we had a big faatamaraa and he pulled out his ukulele and we sang some traditional Tahitian songs. It was FUN. I loveeeeddddd everything bit of it. 

So on Christmas Eve, we got a call for transfers and Soeur Carter is going to Tipuari (FAA'A is her zone but it's basically Papeete) and I will be staying here in Papara. The big news is that I'll be training and Soeur Green (who will finish in February) will be my companion too! We dropped off Soeur Carter last night and then Soeur Fisher and I are heading up today to pick up our trainees. So I'm training Soeur Kavera (I think that's how it's spelled) and I will be in a trio!! 

Lots of changes but I'm excited.

Soeur Fisher and I are the only newbies training so we won't get to see any of our MTC family again, but we're excited to meet our new trainees.

 

Tried to get a picture of us all but Soeur Fisher didn't quite make it. Whoops.

DMP Scott and Hine and their cute little baby girl, Olivia. They are our angels here in Tahiti.

My favorite little munchkin - Stacey

Famille Maono. They're all inactive except for the girlfriend and boyfriend of two of their kids who are amis. We teach the whole family all together and it is so great!

DMP Tchong Tai and their cute family. Soeur Carter's last Sunday in Papara.

Mami Tufariua! My favorite Mami. She's a hard ami but she just loves us so much and loves being taught. She was pretty sad when she found out Soeur Carter was getting transferred, but we got one last picture together.

Last picture with my mom, best trainer ever! I am going to miss her like crazy.

Well that's about it!

LOVE YALL et Bonne Année!! 

 

Tuahine Taylor

 

OH MY GOODNESS- LIFE IS CRAZY. Let me tell you.

We have yet to have a normal Pday (Preparation Day) for the past like month and so I can definitely say that it is EXHAUSTING. Pdays are definitely there for a reason and I have lately been feeling the side effects from just going and going and not really resting at all. Haha needless to say, I think this next Monday should be somewhat normal haha.

So anyways A LOT has happened in the past week or so and its definitely been a roller coaster in all aspects.

First of all, on Friday we got to go to the temple! It was wonderful and so great to be able to go inside again! And then Friday night we had our ward Christmas party. It was a great turnout and we even had some amis show up that we weren’t expecting to come or who don’t even come to church so that was SO great as missionaries to see them interact with the ward. I got to talk to a lot of members and a lot of members brought nonmember family members and so yeah- we were definitely LOVING it.

Temple Trip

Vaheana and her ADORABLE kids.

 

They love to wear our plaques.

 

 

It was all going great until we got the news that the two sister missionaries in Maraa (the sector right above our sector), Soeur Taylor and Soeur Moli, were in an accident and they were both hit by a car on their bikes. Umm, what. I don’t know if I have ever felt my heart drop so much. They were hit by a drunk driver and for the moment, Soeur Moli is fine- just bruised everywhere and pretty shaken up, but Soeur Taylor is still in the hospital in a coma. She got pretty bad head trauma and so she had to be operated on and is now in a medically induced coma to help her body heal. We haven’t been able to see her yet but her parents are here from America and we've just been praying and fasting like crazy for her. We don’t know a whole lot but I do know that she’s got the best doctors and will be flown back to America as soon as she is stable enough.

It was definitely hard to hear about it because Soeur Taylor is such a great missionary and is so loved. So many people have been asking about her and at the same time, so many people thought it was me too. A lot of people didn’t realize there were 2 Soeur Taylors serving in the same stake.

So anyways, just keep her in your prayers! She is definitely so loved and receiving a lot of support here.

Saturday and Sunday were pretty normal and then on Monday we had our Noel de Mission! (Mission Christmas!) It was SO great to see everyone from my MTC (Missionary Training Center) family and to hear about the work all over in Polynesie Francaise. We had a good time catching up and it was definitely so so so great to see everyone. It was a little sad too because Soeur Taylor couldn’t be there, but we still had a good time all together.

 

Noel de Mission! So Fun!

After such a great day on Monday, we had another hard day on Tuesday because Soeur Weller finished her mission and we dropped her off at the Mission President’s house to go home. SO SAD. We were all keeping it together but as soon as we stopped at a member’s house and they gave her a bunch of presents, she started crying and then voila, we all broke down and started crying. And we cried all the way to Papeete. I know, we're pathetic, but it was just hard to say goodbye because we have had SOO many good times all together in our little house as 4 Americans just trying to figure out how to share the gospel and change these Tahitians lives.

It was definitely sad, but at the same time it definitely made me realize how blessed I am to have a little over a year left here in Tahiti. Even the thought of leaving here was hard to bear so I can’t even imagine what it was like for Soeur Weller to have to leave this beautiful country. At the same time though, she was an INCREDIBLE missionary and I know that she did all the work she needed to do here. I hope to be able to feel that when I leave, but seeing as I still have a year to go, I am just going to keep going and doing my best :)

So after Soeur Weller left, we are now a 3 companionship until the transfer at the end of the month. Soeur Fisher, Soeur Carter, and I now have 2 sectors and SOOO much work. It’s so great but a little stressful at the same time trying to schedule and make sure we see and teach both of our sector’s amis. It is only for 2 weeks so it'll be fun and adventurous for sure but not forever :)

Soeur Weller. Lover her to death.

Our new mission shirts.

Soeur Fisher snapped this picture at our lesson. We made rice krispies together and talked about faith. I'll let you use your imagination to figure out our object lesson.

 

I love y'all and I hope all y'all are staying safe!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Tuahine Taylor

 

Bonjour tout le monde!!


Oh my do I have a lot to tell y'all!! This past week has been CRAZY!


First of all- GUESS WHAT.


 So the Church is in the process of making a film for the Missionary Training Center about the Gift of Tongues. They chose the mission of Tahiti because well, we learn and speak two! For the film, they chose three missionaries- one elder right at the start of his mission at the MTC. The second was SOEUR CARTER who is right in the middle of her mission and the last is another elder who finishes his mission next week.


What does that mean?

 

Soeur Carter being interviewed.

That means that we have been hanging out with 3 guys from the Church who have been filming us for this film!!! It has obviously mostly been Sœur Carter but I am definitely the luckiest companion in the world because I will definitely be in it!! That's why I couldn't email on Monday because we were busy filming and what not. They came to two of our lessons yesterday- our lesson with Famille Tufariua and the other with Papi Pupure. It was so great because both Mami Tufariua and Papi Pupure were hilarious with all of the Equipment they had to set up and all. It was a lot of fun. But yeah, basically, I get to be a part of this super cool film about the gift of tongues!! Not a big part at all but I'm really excited that they're spotlighting this mission because it really is the BEST mission in the world :)

Besides that, we had the baptism of Nuihau this past Saturday!! That was definitely such a great baptism even though NOBODY showed up. Oh my gosh, that is definitely the worse feeling in the world as a missionary. We called literally everyone in the ward and invited all of the amis we had lessons with and not a single person we invited was there. But it ended up being okay because his family was there, a few of his friends showed up, and then a few other leaders in the ward. His family brought a TON of food so at least there we had enough food and everything. Remember Mautini? Our pumpkin child? Well.... we ended up cooking the pumpkin and we made some pumpkin bars for his baptism and it was quite a hit. Nuihau told me he wanted the recipe. lol

 

Nuihau's baptism.

DMP baptized Nuihau

Nuihau is pretty much the most golden investigator ever. We thought Charles Willy was pretty golden, but Nuihau is just someone who really just gets it. He has got a really strong testimony and all the desire in the world to do what is right. He's 24 years old and in the middle of training to become a police officer. That's a big deal here because the second part of training is in France. So if he makes it through, he'll move to France and finish the training there to become part of the police force. We have high hopes for him to serve a mission but seeing that he is in the middle of training, we don't know if that will end up happening. Nonetheless, we have really just been blown away by his testimony and the strength he has. That's one of the BEST feelings as a missionary- watching someone change and progress and then to watch them get baptized and become a member of this wonderful Church.

 So needless to say, his baptism was a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions but in the end, it was one of the best baptisms ever. So great.

On Monday morning (before we started filming) we had to head into Papeete to take care of a few errands en ville. On our way up there, we took a wrong turn and stopped for a second to call and get directions. Well, apparently, when I got out to do the back-up, my wallet fell out of the car but I didn't see or realize that it did. When we got to the mission office, I realized that I didn't have my wallet and so we turned my backpack and the car upside down but we couldn't find it. I was kind of freaking out because it has my license, my temple recommend, my personal debit card, and of course some cash as well. When we didn't find it, I figured we would just have to figure something out and I even had Sister Hemming email dad to cancel my card BUUTTTTTT yesterday we got a call and apparently some kind Citizen found my wallet and turned it in and they ended up getting a hold of the mission office and gave it to them!! EVERYTHING is still in it which is definitely a miracle especially since we are going to temple Friday morning for Christmas. My hope in humanity is restored!

Other than that, life is pretty good here. ITS HOT but I love it. I actually feel really bad for all y'all freezing in every other part of the world :)

 I got another stack of letters this past week which was super great. Hope all yall are doing well! Love yall!!

Sœur Taylor  

 

A lychee tree. Not common in Tahiti so the fruit is expensive to sell.

Split with Soeur Fisher in the rain.  We were soaked the whole day.  Fun stuff!

Tuera. She is hilarious and LOVES US. She always hangs out with us at church. We're besties.

 

The most gorgeous sunset I've ever seen. Can't seem to capture a good picture. It was a thousand times better in real life.

 

Ia Ora Na tout le monde!
 

Life is good here in Papara, Tahiti and I've really been enjoying the work lately. I think it helps when the languages start to come faster and easier and also seeing my first ami get baptized this past weekend was so great!! Definitely one of the happiest moments since I've been here.

Baptism day for Willy CHARLES!! Such a happy day.

He wasn't sporting his usual Colgate smile in the font, but I think he was just trying to play it cool. Haha

Other than that our amis are doing pretty well! We've been having a hard time getting to church on Sundays but we've been trying to work on that. Its just hard because nobody has a car and tout le monde is sick right now with ZIKA (sickness passed by mosquitoes). Soeur Carter has been sick with it but has been a real trooper and still went to church and everything. So anyways, it definitely is just the worst feeling when an ami says they're coming to church but don't show up! Haha especially when you know how badly they need to come to church to progress. But anyways...

I had an interesting experience the other day that has just really made me realize how important and urgent this work is. It was last Tuesday and we were on the bikes. It was super hot and I had been sick all that day. But we still kept going because Tuesdays are one of our busiest days right after Pday. We were at the chapel and we were waiting on an ami for a lesson and so we were just going to do our studies until he got there. I was exhausted because I hadn't been able to keep any food or liquids down and so I just decided that I was going to lay down for 10 minutes and then continue studying. We were outside the chapel because it was cooler and so I layed myself down on the concrete and put my bag as a pillow. I was feeling pretty crappy but as I was laying there, I kind of just had a question pop in my head -" Where am I? How did I even get to this point?" Haha it was just one of those times when I just had a realization that I was in Tahiti and that I was a missionary. I had that moment of questioning why I was here but the second I questioned, I was just immediately filled with the Spirit and the love of my Heavenly Father. It was the same feeling and confirmation that I felt when I decided to serve a mission. It was great too because in that moment where I was just feeling like a complete mess laying outside the church building, I really felt like I was exactly where I needed to be and that I wouldn't be anywhere else. I imagine every missionary goes through these moments every now and then but ever since then, I have just been so happy and loving being a missionary. Its not always easy and it seems like every other day I'm sick again BUT I have never met so many wonderful people and been so happy to be living and teaching the gospel in such a beautiful place.

Speaking of the beauty of Tahiti, we went and visited these two wonderful sisters who are amis in Mahaiatea this morning and they took us up to this place on their property which is way back in the mountains. It was so great and they were so fun to hang out with for a few hours. When we got to their faaapu (field is the translation but its basically like just a nice clearing I guess haha) they surprised us with some of the greatest and sweetest Tahitian fruit I have ever eaten! Man it was so good.

Cutting sugar cane...

Eating the sugar cane.

The best way to cut a pineapple.

We had interviews this past week too with President Sinjoux which was pretty cool. He is definitely somebody who just looks straight into your soul. Haha just like President Lauck from back home! Haha if I had anything I was trying to hide from him it would be IMPOSSIBLE because I mean he just gets you and you don't even have to say anything. I asked him what he could tell me about the future (because transfers are coming up at the end of December because they are every 3 months) and he told me that I'll be staying in Papara (which I already knew because Soeur Carter will have been in Papara for 9 months at the end of this transfer) and he gave me an indefinite answer when he brought up training. Haha he asked me if I could and I said that if he needed me to train, I could train. So we'll see what happens but it's definitely a lot of pressure to train haha Luckily I have the best trainer in the world sooo at least that's good! I'm actually getting pretty sad because Soeur Weller (in Mahaiatea) ENDS her mission Dec 17 (the day after Noel for all the missionaries in the mission) and then Soeur Carter is getting transferred at the end of the month. SO SAD. We've had some good times and I'll definitely miss them but for now, I'm just going to enjoy the time we have left :)

We celebrated Thanksgiving this past week and it was so much fun. We cooked up some good chicken, corn, bread, and I made your famous Fettuccine mom! It was sooooo good and so fun to have a dinner all together.

Thanksgiving dinner in Tahiti

Other than that, life is pretty good! Ive gotten SO much better driving manual which is such a stress reliever now hahaha Dad, you would be so proud. Thanks for the advice! :)

Well that's all folks.

We've got the baptism of Nuihau on Saturday and I'm SUPER excited for that. He's one of our favorite amis (if that's even possible). Ill explain his story next week!

Tahitian babies are the cutest!

 

Love y'all!!

Tuahine Taylor