Texan in Tahiti

Ia ora na to'u utuafare e mau hoa!

This week was CRAZY. I can finally say and understand that I REALLY can do hard things. Why? Because sometimes missions are hard. That's not a complaint, that's a fact. I promise y'all that after my mission, I fully believe that I can take on any and all things.

First of all, this past week I was on a split with Soeur Kuhn after being in the area for only two weeks. So it’s been interesting trying to figure out and remember where everyone lives and who the members are and how things work in the ward. We did do a LOT of contacting this past week which was really great because we witnessed a lot of miracles.

One of my favorite contacting experiences this past week was when we were in this neighborhood on a mountain. We left the car to the side of the road because there was this house that was up on a higher part of the mountain. (that made no sense but I can’t really describe it better) We walked up to this nice, big house and there was this man in the yard. He's got a dog who was running around the yard and so when we walked up, he said- "Viens, viens!" (Come, come!) I of course thought he was talking to his dog because well, nobody ever says that to us. They mostly just look at us weird and ask us what we want first. When we didn't move, he said it again and we finally realized he was talking to us! We walked over, and we started talking to him and had a little lesson with him. We talked about families and Jesus Christ and we shared a scripture in the Book of Mormon. We introduced the Book of Mormon and gave him one and he told us that he was going to read it. It was way cool because he told us that he's been searching for the truth and he totally agreed with us when we talked about how the Bible was changed and translated differently and so that's why God gave us the Book of Mormon to clarify and to give us all of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We fixed another appointment and when we went back with DMP, he had totally read part of it! He read 3 Nephi 11 and got stumped over baptism. He had a lot of questions and when we explained and asked if he wanted to be baptized like Jesus Christ, he thought really hard about the answer and said that he had never thought about it before but he told us that he thinks he would really like to. We were dying. He came to our missionary concert and LOVED it. We are really excited to meet with him again on Tuesday.

Secondly, like I said, we had our missionary concert in Mahina this past week. During the concert President always chooses two missionaries who serve in the stake to give their testimonies. Well what do you know, President asked me to bear my testimony and I was so nervous I thought I was going to throw up. For those of you who know me well, I do not love getting up in front of a lot of people and talking. As y'all can imagine, that's been encouraged a lot on my mission. Well anyways, there was like a gazillion people at the concert and I got up there and bore my testimony in French and Tahitian and it ended up being just fine. I stumbled a little on my words but well, I tried my best.

Lastly, so the ward of Mahina doesn't have a piano player. Nobody knows how to play the piano for church and it’s always been the missionaries! I played the piano for 4 years but stopped when I got to high school. I haven't lost all of my ability to play the piano but I can’t play very well and not very fast at all. So anyways, they asked me to play the piano and it was AWFUL. I only could play the right hand and even with the right hand, I messed up so many times. It was stressful and I pretty much just laughed myself through that and tried to keep a smile on. The whole time I kept asking myself, “WHY did you ever stop?!” I think it was Heavenly Father’s way of telling me that I need to work on sharing my talents more too. So yeah, I’m dreading having to play next Sunday, but you know, I’m just going to go with it. I know it'll be fine.

It’s been a blast with Soeur Kuhn this past week and she'll be staying with me until Friday. Mahina is really starting to pick up and we're excited to see how much our amis will progress this week.

With all the hard things on my mission, I really do know that it is TOTALLY worth it. Why? Because not only do we see changes in people’s lives and witness miracles every day but I am building true friendships that will last for eternity. Remember Nuihau?? Our golden investigator from Papara? Soeur Carter and I found out that he's going to serve a mission!!! I was so happy, I almost cried. He's started his papers and he's going to submit them next year after school is done.

THAT is why I do hard things.

THAT is the reason I know and experience TRUE and PURE joy.

THAT is why I am a missionary. And I love every bit of it.

I love all y'all- Hope y'all are doing well!

Beaucoup et BEAUCOUP d'amour,