Ia Ora Na e Ia Oaoa outou i teie matahiti api! 

(Hello and Happy New Year (in advance)) 

This past week had its ups and its downs but I was so happy to talk to my family on Christmas. I was happy to see the Christmas tree and Christmas treats because there wasn't a whole lot of that here. It was pretty much like any other day here. 

On Christmas Eve and Christmas, we had fun being Santa and spreading Christmas spirit when we went singing for our investigators and members and giving them either cinnamon rolls or little presents that we pulled together between all of our little toys and stuff that we had accumulated. We really felt the Christmas spirit when we did that so that was nice, so we had a great Christmas.

Spreading Christmas Joy. 

We also had our baptism of our little friend, Walina! She was baptized on her 9th birthday and it was very rewarding to see because it was her Dad who baptized her! When I got to Raiatea, they were inactive and little by little they came back to church. Walina started the lessons and now they're all active and they are preparing to go to the temple to be sealed for time and all eternity. 

Nothing is better than that for a Christmas present! 

Walina chose me to give the talk on baptism and I talked about how when we first met Walina, she was VERY shy and didn't talk to us at all. We were obligated to talk through her Mom and have her Mom help us out in the lessons. But because Walina committed to take the lessons, little by little our friendship grew and we became good friends. I compared that to when we are baptized and we make a covenant with God. At first, we don’t really know Jesus Christ and our relationship is weak. But when we commit to take upon us the name of Christ, little by little our friendship grows until we become good friends and this friendship is what helps us during our whole entire life. Making Covenants with God is how we come to know God and his Son Jesus Christ. That's why in John 17:3, it explains that that is how we obtain eternal life. 

It was really great to see her baptism but recently we've had such a hard time finding new investigators, we are slowly falling into a big slump with the work here in Avera. With the sickness and the holidays, it's been slow. But that’s okay! This week will be better. Even though everybody rejected us this past weekend, I know that we will find those who are ready to accept this gospel. 

We were really tried this past weekend but that's just how it is in our life. We need trials in order to strengthen us. And thank goodness for that as well. 

Thank y'all for all of the prayers- I love y'all! 

Have a great week and a good New Year! 

This picture with Walina blowing out her candle makes me laugh so hard because of her little sister- Apetahi in the picture. Not sure whats she is doing but I got a good laugh with that picture.

Faaitoito, 

Tuahine Taylor 

Bonjour Ma Famille, 

This past week was probably the worst week and the BEST weekend of my entire mission. Why? Because remember last week when I was sick with Chinkungunya? Well I thought I would get over it in like a day or so but I was out the WHOLE week! It was awful. I could hardly move and I was so wiped that I spent the whole week in bed. It was lame. It's not fun being a sick missionary. 

But then this weekend we had the marriage of Dewis and Laetitia and our FOUR baptisms on Saturday!! That's why it was the best weekend. 

Dewis and Laetitia's wedding was so great and the members did so much so that they could have a great wedding. Dewis made me laugh with his gloves and everything and Laetitia was gorgeous! Everybody loved it and it was really great because we talked with a lot of her friends and family that came. Saturday morning was the baptism and it was really one of the most rewarding baptisms ever. 

Every investigator has a journey that they take before they are ready to enter into the waters of baptism. 

Dewis and Laetitia have been prepared for a LONG time. We didn't make a huge difference in their life but they really made a huge difference in mine. They both had a testimony when I met them. Dewis just had a hard time to stop smoking and Laetitia didn't have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. We taught and encouraged Dewis and we decided to fast together. We did our fast and we were ecstatic to know that the Sunday afterward, he had finally stopped smoking.

When Laetitia couldn't say that she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, we committed her to read and pray and to ask God if it was true. She made this commitment and the next lesson we had, she bore one of the most powerful and simplest testimonies of the Book of  Mormon that I've ever heard an investigator give. 

Dewis and Laetitia just have this desire to know and to understand so that they can follow Christ. Seeing them baptized was really a tender mercy of the Lord because they are FINALLY members of the Church of Jesus Christ. 

For Vahinetua and Mihiura, the journey that they took was really a tender miracle from God. Vahinetua didn't take the lessons anymore when I first got here in this sector. She was stubborn and a little prideful. She would purposely tell us that she wanted to smoke to show us that she was far from being ready to be baptized. When we did our service project with them, I just knew that she would end up being baptized with her daughter. I knew that is what God wanted for her. 

So when she came up to us after doing our lesson with her daughter and asked us when her lesson was, I knew that she had humbled herself and knew that seeking our help would finally help her to stop smoking as well. We had countless lessons about repentance and the importance of following Christ and she got to a point where she was so sick of smoking that she decided she would quit that week. SO SHE DID! She quit smoking and was baptized 2 weeks later.

For Mihiura, she was an investigator that really found the purpose of being baptized while we did the lessons with her. She gave a very powerful and simple testimony at her baptism that warmed our hearts. 

I'll never be able to express my gratitude for these wonderful people that we were able to teach. I know that God loves me because he let these people become some of my greatest friends and that is something incredible. 

After such a wonderful weekend, that definitely motivated us to work even harder because y'all have no idea how much work we have to do to make up for the time we lost with the sickness. We have so many new investigators to find so this week will be fun. Christmastime is always a little difficult to see our investigators but that's okay. We are going to have fun going around singing and giving out cookies and cards. That should make it a great Christmas.

JOYEUX NOEL A VOUS TOUS! 

Merry Christmas y'all! 

Soeur Falesii's birthday!! She turned 20 and we were both sick! That's ok, it was fun anyways.

Lots of love, 

Soeur Taylor 

Ia Ora Na tout le monde! 

So right now I'm dying a little bit because I came down with the lovely Chikungunya which has been an epidemic here in Polynesia. Ha, it’s a sickness passed by mosquitoes sooo yippee, it’s been quite awhile since I've been sick so I guess I was kind of expecting it too. I feel like I got beat up and I’m covered in red splotches so this week should be an interesting one! Ha ha. 

I can't believe it’s already the middle of December! That went by fast. This past week was great because the miracles kept happening! One of our investigators, Hereiti, told us in our lesson this past week that she really wanted to be baptized and when we committed her for the 27th of December, she was like "Ça me va!" (That works for me!) I laughed because I've never heard an investigator respond like that. We have a lot of work to do with her still so hopefully we can keep this goal but I know that if it's not this month, it's next month for sure. 

Thursday, Soeur Falesii got sick with the Chikungunya for most of the weekend, I was with a missionary couple that came back from serving in the islands of Tuamatu but who are finishing their mission this month here with us in Avera! They are HILARIOUS so I had fun hanging out with them all day and going to teach all of our lessons. Saturday night Sr Falesii felt better so we went to a birthday party for one of our investigators and then when we went to our dinner appointment, we had the blessing to meet a woman who is traveling the world and is from Spain! She was staying at the 1st counselor's house and she only speaks Spanish and English so we got to teach her a little bit and explain who we are and what we do. It was WAY cool because she was so interested and she was like, "Maybe you guys are going to change my life!" I was like, “Yeah we are!” Ha ha, no but really she was so touched because she got to go to the stake Christmas concert as well last night. 

Yesterday, I was not feeling good but we both really wanted to go to the Christmas concert. We debated whether or not we should go and finally we decided to go. Aka- BEST DECISION EVER. We got to see our Spanish friend one last time and give her a Book of Mormon and then we ran into Elder Groberg, the missionary that is in the movie The Other Side of Heaven! We were like freaking out. Ha ha #starstruck. 

This coming weekend, we have the marriage of Dewis and Laetitia and their baptism with Vahinetua and her daughter, Mihiura! We're so excited. This week is going to be a great one :)

Hey family, for Christmas what time do y'all want to skype? 

I’m so excited to talk with y'all. 

Have a great week! 

Tuahine Taylor 

I made a chocolate cake for Soeur Taarea's birhtday. It succeeded.

Our cute little investigator Takihei and her cousin.  

I was laughing so hard because she was so happy just sitting in a bucket. 

One night Mamie was sick and wanted a coconut so I went to go break and cut one open. It took forever #American.

Birthday party.

Christmas Concert.

\

The marriage of one of our investigators and an excommunicated member. It was great!

Malo lava le soifua! 

(That’s Samoan for Hello Everybody!) 

I’m learning Samoan too. 

Just kidding, not really at all, just the little words with Soeur Falesii. 

This week was great. 

We had the baptism of Heiarii, a teen that took the lessons with the missionaries before us but had to wait to get the authorization from his parents who live in Bora Bora. He was so happy to be baptized and he gave one of the most powerful testimonies. He knows that God lives and that he made the right choice in following Christ. There were so many people at his baptism so that was heartwarming for a missionary. His baptism was a great way to start off the month. 

So remember when I was talking about a miracle that was in the works last week? Well it was one of our eternal investigators, Vahinetua. Remember when we went to go do Cobra (with the coconuts) with two of our investigators? Well she was one of them! Ever since we went with them to do that service project, she started opening up to us and she finally decided to take the lessons again. We've been doing the lessons and she has a very strong desire to be baptized. The only thing that holds her back is the fact that she smokes. Well after lots of prayers and fasts, SHE QUIT! She told us yesterday that she's getting baptized the 20th with Dewis and Laetitia as well as her daughter, Mihiura, who was scheduled to get baptized the 24th. 

We were ESTACTIC. 

I never seen her so happy when she finally overcame her addiction and she announced that she was getting baptized the 20th. Lots of little efforts really built up until she finally is ready to follow Christ by being baptized with the authority of God. 

Que de bonheur!! (Nothing but happiness)

We have another investigator, Temanava, who is 11 years old and super active when it comes to activities. He is ALWAYS at the chapel playing with the other youth. He used to come to church a lot but for the past couple of weeks, we haven't seen him. When we had our lesson this past week we realized that he didn’t come to church because he didn’t have a white shirt and tie and didn’t want to come with his colorful flower shirt. We told him we would find one and not even 1 day after, we found one! We found him a white shirt from one of our neighbors and I had a tie that I had made from Mahina so we tried to find him that whole Saturday (because he's never at home) but we never found him. Finally, it was Sunday morning and when we didn’t see him at church, we headed out to go find him because he doesn’t live far from the church. Ha, we woke him up and gave him his shirt and in the end, we all made it to church (a little bit late but that’s okay). 

It was rewarding to see him at the chapel and I know that it was definitely worth it to make the extra effort to go and get him because that is what Christ would've done, 

 14 I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
 15 As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
 16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be onefold, and one shepherd. - John 10:14-16

Thursday night we had our sport activity and then right after the Christmas party for the Relief Society so that was kind of crazy, but everything went so well! For our sport activity we played water balloon volleyball (something they've never played here) and then played different games with balloons and it was so fun! (PS- If yall have ideas for good group activities, we're open because we are in need of some good ones) The only problem is that we were so gross after our activity but oh well, we went to the Christmas party and it went so well. There were so many investigators there and we met someone from Argentina! She married a French man who teaches here in Raiatea so that was way cool. I thought of you Dad, I wanted to speak to her in Spanish so bad but it’s too bad that I know NOTHING in Spanish. Whoops. 

Christmas party.

Well right now it’s POURING down rain. It’s either burning hot or pouring down rain here. Gotta love island weather. 

Soeur Falesii dropped our phone through a hole on our porch so she had to crawl under the house to get it.

Alofa atu ia outou!  

(Love y'all!)

Tuahine Taylor 

Bonjour tout le monde!! 

So in case y'all didn't know, December is a month of miracles! And it already started a week early! 

Miracle #1
WE'RE NOT GETTING TRANSFERED! 

Seriously, I was so nervous. A LOT of people were transferred but we were not affected. Thank goodness too. 

Miracle #2

I taught my very first missionary lesson in ENGLISH. 

So Wednesday, we had a young adult in our ward call us up to tell us that he has a reference for us! He gave us the day and the hour but he didn’t say anything at all for what her name was or where she was from or anything. We show up for the lesson and he tells us that it’s better to speak in English because she doesn't really understand French as well. Her name is Ane, she was born here, but grew up in New Zealand. She is here in Raiatea to visit her family and has a TON of questions. She's already met with the missionaries before and she really wants to know if the church is true and it was literally the COOLEST lesson ever! At first, it was weird to teach in English and I struggled a little bit (even Soeur Falesii) but I was actually proud of myself because hey! I can teach in English too! Unfortunately we didn’t have any English resources so we called up the office to send us a Book of Mormon and the brochures in English. I mean, WHAT ARE THE ODDS that she comes to Raiatea, she has all these questions to know if it’s true, and there are two English speaking missionaries in the area where she's living?? The work of the Lord is incredible. 

Miracle #3

DEWIS STOPPED SMOKING! 

Remember when I was talking about them and how Dewis has been trying for like a year now I think to stop smoking and it wasn't until last week that he finally succeeded. We did a fast together and after that- he stopped completely! We didn't even know until yesterday during our Sunday school class when we were talking about the Word of Wisdom and he announced that he doesn’t smoke anymore. We were ecstatic and so relieved because we wanted him to stop before this month anyways. This couple is literally incredible and I can’t wait for them to finally be baptized. They always ask us so many questions because they both want to start preparing to go to the temple right now. Their motivation and desire to learn is inspiring and heartwarming. Being a missionary is definitely very rewarding. 

There are so many more miracles in the works. One of which I hope will take place this weekend. I won't say much for now, but I'll tell y'all all about it next week for sure. 

Other than that, Happy Late Thanksgiving! We ate at our neighbor's house and it was soooo good! It’s been over a year since I've eaten turkey so I was happy :) I made a pumpkin pie too and it was a hit. We have so much pumpkin so I’ve been making lots of pumpkin bread and everything pumpkin. Ha ha.  

Saturday, we had a big stake missionary activity where we had these games and different competitions between the wards. It was SO fun and so successful but the only problem was that we were on a white sand field and I got ROASTED. Like seriously, the worst I've ever been burned. I can already hear my mom asking if I put on sunscreen and the answer is YES, several times but it all sweated off into my eyes sooooo yeah, that was a fail. The worst part is that my face was burned everywhere but my eyelids and like right under my neck.... 

Please enjoy the picture attached. Yep, it’s the worst. 

Stake missionary activity. 

Among the sectors where I've served, I have to say that here in Avera is where we have some of the hardest investigators. One of our investigators that I love is Roselyne who is "Sanito" (RLDS) She is great and is very accepting but it’s very challenging sometimes because she has a lot of the same beliefs and she believes in the Book of Mormon, but she hasn't realized yet that if she really reads the Book of Mormon and gains a testimony, she'll know that Christ's true church is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We've had quite a few lessons and talked a lot about the priesthood and the prophet and the Book of Mormon and we finally had one of the greatest lessons this past week where we just taught so boldly, but with the spirit, and we invited her that if she really found out that it was all true, would she be baptized in Christ's true church? At first she told us no. She didn’t' want to leave her religion. But after she thought about it for a second, she said she wasn't sure. She searches honestly for the truth but she's confused because she's had a lot of good experiences in her church and she doesn't feel like she needs to leave it. All we could do was to strongly testify that the FULLNESS of the gospel was only in Christ's restored church and that the blessings she will receive will be greater than she's ever experienced. I don’t know if I've ever felt the Spirit so strong when he added his testimony with ours, but I can’t help but feel sad when she said no because even after everything that we can do, everybody still has their choice. We will always be able to choose. I pray that she receives this confirmation of the truth and has the courage to act upon it but as a missionary, I can only be content with the fact that we are doing our best and all we have to do is leave her the choice. 

Thanks all for y'alls prayers. I really am blessed to have y'all. 

Have a great week this week.

Off to the right in the distance is the island of Tahaa.  Bora Bora is way off in the distance to the left.

Oh yes- LOL at that photo of Soeur Falesii with one of our favorite babies here. That was not intentional when she made that face but we were literally laughing so hard.

LOVE Y'ALL! 

Soeur Taylor 

Bonjour Ma Famille! 

We're doing super well here in Avera and I can't believe another week has passed by! That went by fast. This week was a pretty normal week full of lessons and good contacts. 

Recently we’ve been teaching a lot of kids ranging from 8-11 years old and I have been loving it! These kids crack me up. With every lesson we do with them, we always promise them a little surprise at the end if they listen well and if they respect the commitments we gave them. Of course, they always listen well and so we usually let them pick out a few stickers or a lollipop at the end. On Saturday, we had a lesson with a little girl named Tauhere. She LOVES the surprises so she is always so excited to tell us that she prayed every day and answers every question we ask. During her lesson, she had a friend hop in and listen too. We were happy because she is 9 years old and she actually was participating too. The funniest thing was that during the lesson, when her friend responded to a question, Tauhere got a little annoyed and told her to go away because it was her lesson and that it was not fair that she was going to get stickers too because she didn’t even pray this past week. What happened after that was that we told her friend that she could stay but then after they got in the cutest little cat fight saying that the other was not nice and little digs like that. The best part is that we were in the middle of talking about Jesus Christ and his life and how he was really nice and always helped others. We were laughing so hard because we were trying to be the peacemakers and at the end, we told them that they had to tell the other that she was a child of God and that she loved her. They were both hesitant but when we bribed them a little with the stickers and candy, they finally did it and it was so cute. 

After our lesson, I thought a little bit more about this experience and I thought, If we as adults could always do that every time we have a little dispute with someone, the world would be a better place. All we have to say is, "You are a child of God, and I love you!"  Just a thought. 

Other than that, we finally had a good Split this past week with the Primary and Sunday School auxiliaries which was super effective. Things are really going a lot better with the ward and I am hoping that will continue because we've been having a harder time lately getting members to lessons. 

We had a fun evening with our ward missionaries where we had a little training and made crepes at the end. It was way fun and our ward missionaries loved it so hopefully that motivates them to work with us. 

December is going to be a big month for us because we have 5 baptisms fixed for the moment and so much potential but we're a little nervous because there is a HUGE transfer next week and we find out this week if we'll be transferred. I'll be so sad if we do because my companion is incredible and we both want to be here in December, but we'll see. 

Hope y'all have a good week and a good Thanksgiving! We are going to celebrate it at our neighbor's house. We already found a good pumpkin and I’m excited to make pumpkin pie and pumpkin bread this week :)

I read a cool article the other day, thought y'all might enjoy it- https://www.lds.org/ensign/2012/07/always-in-the-middle?lang=eng

A little friend

Our sport activity when it was pouring rain. Ha, ha they didn't even care.

There was a transfer so Mamie was making flower leis and I made one too.  It's the lei that she is wearing.

Beautiful Raiatea

Love y'all! 

Soeur Taylor

IA ORA NA tout le monde!

Today we had another incredible Pday on the Motu!! This motu is like 100 times prettier than the Motu at Mahina so that was fun. We had a zone activity but half of the zone ended up not coming so we were less missionaries but it was WAY fun. Super relaxing. It was great because this past week was CRAZY. 

So remember that Family Home Evening that we planned for overcoming addictions? Well, ALL of our investigators and the families that were supposed to come ended up canceling at the last minute and we were sad. But that’s okay! We are going to try and do it again or try to modify it a little bit but hey, at least we were ready huh? 

One of our investigators who is trying to overcome an addiction to smoking is Dewis. He and his future wife (Laetitia) have taken the lessons for a LONG time and they are getting married the 19th of December and getting baptized the 20th. They were investigators that restarted the lessons with Soeur Green when she was here! (Cool huh?) But anyways, we had a lesson after like 3 weeks of not seeing them for a lesson and it was almost entertaining because they are such a typical couple. Laetitia used to be a HUGE smoker. She hasn’t smoked for a while now (ever since she read that our body is a temple in the bible) and ALL she wants is for Dewis to quit as well because the marriage is getting close and she's nervous that he won’t stop before their marriage. She was explaining this in our lesson and at the same time sharing her testimony and Dewis is getting defensive saying that he made the promise that he'll stop before the marriage and that all he wants is for his family to stop repeating the same thing, stop smoking, stop smoking, stop smoking. Ha ha. He kept saying that he could do it, but that he didn’t need help. After they both finished, we were like- Dewis, do you know what will make your family stop repeating the same thing? If you actually do what they say and stop smoking!! He laughed and said that we were right. 

We testified a lot about how much his Heavenly Father loved him and about how much his Savior knew how hard it was for him. ALL he had to do was to turn to them and ask for help. We fixed the goal to fast for this past Sunday but we ended up having to move it to this coming Saturday. 

So we've been doing a whole lot of contacting but this week it went a little differently. Do you know what we did? We followed the spirit!! Funny, normally we should be doing that EVERY time but I guess that's why we are here to learn. Normally, we pick a neighborhood and we just do the whole street or keep going. But this week, we decided to just ride our bikes and when we felt like we needed to stop, we stop! Simple huh? Well EVERY time we stopped, we found potential investigators. The Lord was merciful to us this past week and we really saw some miracles. Most of them were former investigators that missionaries had never written in the area book or they were people that had already assisted at activities or been to church. IT WAS AWESOME. I promised myself I would never go back to normal door to door contacting! 

One of these contacts we did find was a Mamie that had recently gotten into an accident and was confined to a wheelchair. She is an excommunicated member because she isn’t married, but lives with her boyfriend (basically Husband, they're just not married). It was pretty clear that she had some side effects from the accident and so we weren’t totally sure about sharing a message, but she started talking about how she knew a lot of hymns and so we sang a few hymns with her. We were wrapping up to leave when she said- " Je suis pas fiu de vous, vous pouvez rester et chanter un peu plus avec moi si vous voulez!" (Im not tired of y'all, y'all can stay a little bit longer and sing with me if y'all want!) Her words touched my heart and so we sat and sang with her because it was pretty clear that she was lonely. She told me that I had a pretty voice (ha ha. I thought of you mom) and we left her with a prayer. I learned a lot by this visit. I learned that the worth of souls is very great in the sight of God and that it doesn’t take a lot to make an impact on somebody's life. We are going to stop by every week because she loves to see us and sing with us. :) 

Life has been pretty fun on bikes. Soeur Falesii and I race home every day and she always wins!! Ha ha. I get so frustrated because I’ll totally be ahead but at the last minute she pulls ahead and wins the race. I always tell her that it’s her islander strength that kicks in and that I was not blessed with that, ha ha ha. 

Other than that, my study in the Book of Mormon has been going so well. I love the Book of Mormon. I’m up to Jarom and Omni now and I have loved strengthening my testimony.
A story to share with yall- In Jacob Chapter 7 it talks about Sherem, an Anti-Christ, who turns the hearts of many away from God. He knows that Jacob is a man of faith and so he searches out Jacob to come and persuade him as well (verse 1-3). Jacob knows his bad intentions and he explains that even though Sherem was good with his words, he had a testimony and at the end of verse 5 he says- "wherefore, I could not be shaken." From a lot of experiences on my mission, I know that the devil seeks us out! He seeks us out to try and persuade us because he works extra hard on those who have faith and believe in Christ. How do we protect ourselves? With our testimony. Our testimony that is centered and built on Christ. If we have this hard rock testimony- we will not be shaken.

I hope y'all are doing well, I love yall! 

Special shout out to my best friend who is longer a missionary!! I’m still freaking out about that..... Time is flying. 

Mamie Salome 

A pirogue and my companion. Our lesson got cancelled, but hey, look at the cool view.

We ended up running into our investigator on the road, we had to stop and do a lesson on a member's porch and then had to go to the church. We only had 2 bikes so our investigator took mine and I rode on the back of Soeur Falesii's bike. So Funny! We laughed all the way to the chapel.

Cows! They come on the road and oh my goodness, it reminds me of Texas to see pastures of cows. 

The boat heading to the Motu 

Paradise. 

Look how tan I am and how burned at the same time. Never in my life will I be this tan again.

Mamie. She makes me laugh so hard.

Our zone, well half of it.

Lots of love, 

Soeur Taylor