Texan in Tahiti

Ia Ora Na et Joyeux Pâques!

Nobody really celebrates Easter here, but well, I figured I have my whole life to celebrate it like it should be. So I hope yall celebrated extra for me! Ha ha.

Life is going really great here in Mahina and the work is really starting to pick up! I spent most of the week with Soeur Kuhn and then finished it off with Soeur Faana. We had so many great experiences that I wish I could share each and every one of them! But I’ll keep to just a few of my favorites.

SO, do yall remember when I talked about doing hard things? Like bearing my testimony in front of a gazillion people? Okay well this past week we went to our lesson with Christian and he starts talking about the concert and how much he enjoyed it. He tells me that when he saw me get up and bear my testimony he was really touched because when I spoke in Tahitian he could see that I was blessed by God in order to speak in Tahitian because I spoke even more than he did in Tahitian. (Just to clarify, I only spoke like 3 sentences in Tahitian during my testimony) ANYWAYS- I was so touched when he told me that because I really felt that YES, it is worth it.

There are so many blessings that come from doing hard things.

Christian is definitely one of my favorite amis. We gave him a few chapters to read in Alma (Alma 40-42) after we taught him the Plan of Salvation and when we came back, he told us that he didn’t want to just read in the middle of Alma so he started from the beginning of Alma and only got to chapter 28 before our next lesson. We were like, WHAT! We could not believe that he read all of that in just a few days. He told us that he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and he came to church for the first time yesterday! He loved it. He told us he wants to be baptized like Jesus Christ, but that he just wants to be sure of everything. We were planning on engaging him for a date after we talked about the Law of Chastity and marriage (because he lives with his girlfriend) but yesterday at church he told us that he had a date already in his head and that we will talk more Wednesday at our lesson. We were like OKAY, that works!! So great.

Another cool experience we had was when we came to see one of the families we teach that is semi-member. The mom is inactive and so is the oldest son, but her other son and daughters are our amis. The whole family has been coming to church, but Tevaiarii (the son who is like my age-20ish) and Teapuarii (the daughter who is 14 years old) still have doubts and hesitate because of the bad examples they’ve had in their life. They don’t want to make the same mistakes after being baptized, so they still hesitate. Well anyways, we came for Tevaiarii and we started talking with his mom a little bit. She tells us that Teapuarii has decided she wants to be baptized. We were excited and then a little bit later Tea comes out and we start talking with her. She doesn’t know that we know and so we're talking a little bit and then we turn around to go and she says- "hey, wait a sec! I want to tell yall something. Soooo, do yall remember when yall talked to me about baptism? For the 25th of April??" We're like- yeessssss :)

"Well... I'm ready." (Inside we're dying of happiness) Okay!

"But do I have to get baptized in April? I want to get baptized in May."

Ha ha- yes Tea, you can be baptized in May.

So yeah- she's getting baptized the 10th of May! So happy.

Now we just have to get her brother to make a decision!

The sector of Mahina has really been picking up and we have been meeting so many great people and so many great members. I love it!

My mission is the best.

Oh- hey, guess what?! So the church is making a documentary for when the first missionaries came here to Tahiti and they chose a group of missionaries serving here to be in it and I got chosen! So this week they are going to be filming and all we have to do is just act out different scenes and be missionaries! Like normal. We don’t have to speak- just act.
I’m excited! It’ll be fun and I’m excited to be a part of something like this!