Texan in Tahiti

Bonjour tout le monde et Happy Belated Mother’s Day!!

We had zone conference pretty much all day yesterday so that’s why we had to do emails today.

 

Our Zone minus Soeur Kuhn and Soeur Teinauri. They had to leave early.

Our zone conference was really great and really inspiring (like always) but it was a little bizarre because it’s the last zone conference we'll have with President Sinjoux. CRAZY. I can’t believe how fast time flies. It’s already the middle of May! President Sinjoux and the Zone leaders talked a lot about the different things we can do to be more unified with our companion and all the little things we need to be doing in order to advance the work in our areas. With everything that was shared, one thing that was definitely emphasized was that the reason we do missionary work is for Him. It’s not for us, it’s not for our amis, but it really is for Him. This video was shared which was really touching-

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

I hope you guys have seen it and if not- WATCH IT. I know that it’s definitely easy to get overwhelmed and stressed with everything that we have to do and accomplish as missionaries (and as member missionaries :)), but it’s not very complicated. Not at all! The gospel is simple. Our message is Jesus Christ. Our goal is to invite others to come unto Christ and he has given us everything we need to do that. It’s because of Him that we live and that we can return again to our Heavenly Father. What a blessing.

This past week was full of little miracles. To start off, I have a new companion! Ha ha, the assistants called me on Tuesday and were like soooo, President had a revelation and there’s been a last minute change. You’re going to be training Soeur Terooatea now. I was like whhhatttt? So we had to cancel practically everything that day and go into Papeete to pick up my new companion! Ha ha, so for the moment, we're still 3 with Soeur Faana but she will be transferred soon, probably next week- we're not sure yet... But anyways it’s been fun! I’m excited to train Soeur Terooatea because she is really great. She's got the greenie fire and desire which I always love.

Wednesday, we had a meeting with all of the leaders at the Mission home so I was in Papeete again pretty much all day. The cool part about it was that we had to go pick up Soeur Derrick in Taravao which is all the way at the bottom of the island. I've never been on the right side of the island so it was pretty exciting for me to take a little road trip with Soeur Teinauri to go pick up Soeur Derrick. I took a ton of pictures and loved, loved, loved how GORGEOUS Tahiti is! I can’t ever get over it. The meeting was really great too because it really motivated me to work harder and to make changes in my life so that I can be a more effective missionary.

 

 

 

 

 

Manaura, the cute little baby of Hina. He followed us out when we left. Cute little future missionary.

 

Saturday was the baptism of Teapuarii! This young woman is incredible. She has been through a lot with her family but despite it all- she keeps going. She was so cute when she gave her testimony and started crying. She said, "I wasn’t sure at first if I wanted to be baptized but right now, I’m sure. I know I made the right choice." I know that through her example, her whole family will come (or come back) into the gospel and that one day they'll be an eternal family.

 

The baptism of Teapuarii.

 

She hates pictures and the little baptism jumper.

 

And speaking of Eternal families- Sunday I got to skype with mine!

That was great. I loved being able to see all of yalls beautiful faces and to talk with yall. I loved it but at the same time I realized that the next time we skype- I’ll be in the last month of my mission. CRAZY! 

Over all, with all of our amis, we saw little miracles in their progression all week. I love my amis. There really is nothing better than seeing somebody change their life to fully follow Christ.

I hope yall never forget the role that yall have in the lives of everyone around yall. There are people waiting for you to share what you know is true so never be afraid to open your mouth and help them find the path.

 

Love yall tremendously!

Bonne Semaine!

Soeur Taylor