Bonjour Tout le Monde!!! 

 

So guess what!! Remember when they filmed me and Soeur Carter when we were at Papara? So I still haven't heard any news but they used a tiny clip from what they filmed in a video about the first Sister Missionaries! 

 

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/first-mormon-sister-missionaries

 

Go to the end - 8:00 and the clip of me and Soeur Carter is like at 8:12! 

 

Its literally like 1 second but hey! I'm in a video! haha 

 

Other than that, this week was a good one! 

 

Tuesday, we had interviews with President which was cool. When we had my interview he was like, so we're going to do this a little backwards- What advice do you have for me? I was like uhhhh.... what? Ha ha ha so that was interesting but helpful at the same time.

 

We also got to see one of our golden investigators, Rosemonde! Remember her? She's the one that came to church by herself to find us because we didn't pass by her house. Well, she was at Papeete for a few weeks so we finally got to see her again Tuesday night.  She just started working and her job hours are terrible so she works Monday- Saturday from like 4 am- 7 pm. So we were a little scared that we wouldn't be able to see her anymore but she was like heck no, I need you guys! Ha ha we love her. 

 

We saw her Tuesday AND she wanted us to come Thursday so things are going really well with her. Her only obstacle is coming to church on Sunday. It's at 7:30 so it's hard for her to wake up and get her THREE little kids to church. Her boyfriend still hasn't accepted to see us BUT he did tell her that he wanted to stop smoking so that's a good sign! 

 

We had a great lesson because despite her situation, she continues to pray and read her Book of Mormon and Soeur Terooatea and I were practically in tears during that lesson because she understood the gospel so well that she was willing to do anything to keep the commandments and progress with her testimony. Incredible!

 

Wednesday  we saw our convert Teapuarii who has been struggling and is a little inactive because of her family situation, but she is progressing again! She told us she prayed, read, and she shared with us more of her feelings and questions so that helped us a lot. She was supposed to come on Sunday but I think that because her Mom worked, she wasn't able to. It's definitely hard to see a convert fall when you knew how strong they were before. The good news is that she's progressing and that things are getting better. 

 

Thursday was my YEAR mark!!! SO CRAZY huh? We had a busy day so it was fun.  We started off with Weekly Planning (Soeur Terooatea's favorite part of the week haha) and then we were in lessons the rest of the day. I decided to be a little creative because I know that Elders burn shirts or ties or something but since I'm not too in to those kinds of things, I decided to just take a bunch of pictures with my 1 YEAR letters with all of our amis that we saw. Our amis got a kick out of it so that was fun. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do I feel about being out a year? I feel like it was YESTERDAY when I was eating Mexican food with my cousins, Audrey and Brenn before they dropped me off at the MTC and now that it's almost AUGUST, I feel like it goes by way too fast! WAY too fast.

 

Friday I did a split in Tuauru with Soeur Utatao which was just way too fun. She's a crazy Australian but I just love her to death.

 

Saturday, we had our activity with our amis and recent converts where we made my famous Double Chocolate "Cookies American"! It was great! The majority of people that came were members but hey, it was our first cooking or crafty activity so Im excited to see if that improves for the activities in the future. Maybe we'll have more amis that come! 

Our cooking activity.

 

 

 

Other than that, transfer calls are this week and I'm a little anxious to see who will end up leaving the sector and everything. I think President will open up more sectors for the sisters so I'm interested to see which sectors and where that will be! 

 

I hope yall are doing well!!

 

More pictures from the Heiva 

 

Our ami Melanie made us these beautiful lais. We felt so special wearing them to church.

 

 

We went to Keanus' house after church for Maa Tahiti. (Traditional Tahitian food) I ate Fafaru which is raw fish in fermented sea water.  I almost threw up! Yippeeee.

These rubber band bracelets and jewelry are HUGE here in Tahiti.  Every kid makes them so needless to say, I'm starting to collect them too.

 

Love yall!! 

 

Soeur Taylor

 

Bonjour Ma Famille! 

 

This week was great! We had a great weekend because Saturday was the big Heiva for our stake. The Heiva is a big traditional celebration where everyone competes in games, there are a lot of dances, and we all eat a TON of Maa Tahiti (Traditional Tahitian Food) The whole celebration is really Tahitian and cultural so I was loving it all. It was wayyyy fun and it lasted all day so we were pretty roasted at the end of the day. All the missionaries in our zone were there and we set up a little table at the entry and did a lot of contacting with all of the investigators that were there. I met a bunch of people and even met again a couple I contacted at the baptism of Heinono. We were laughing because I didn’t think I would ever see them again but what do you know... everything happens for a reason :) 

Heiva Celebration 

 

 

 

Today was the best because we had the baptism at Keanu! He's an adopted son of a family who was baptized in January. We started the lessons and he told us himself that he wanted to be baptized the 21st of July because it’s his birthday! We've had a lot of fun with Keanu and his attention span but he's really progressed and his service was one of the best services I've ever been to. Right when DMP started to give his talk on Baptism, he started crying because he felt the spirit so strong. He asked me to give the talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost so when I got up there, I didn’t really feel like I needed to talk about the Holy Ghost because every person in the room knew really well what the Spirit feels like. At the end of his baptism, we all went outside to eat the refreshments and Keanu blew out his cake. He loved his baptism and we were really happy for him. He's definitely the happiest 9 year old in the world right now :) 

Keanu's baptism 

 

 

On Wednesday, we had our first leaders meeting with President Bize. It was super great and we talked a lot about the mission and established different rules and things we wanted to change or improve. I’m excited to serve with President Bize. 

 

The work is still a little slow because of vacations, but we've managed to still meet some new investigators and I still feel so lucky to be serving here. 

 

Tahiti really is the best mission in the world :) 

 

Love yall!! 

 

Soeur Taylor 

My family!

 

Wow... I can’t believe it’s already been 40 weeks here at Tahiti.

 

Life is great here in Tahiti and I am loving Mahina. I have really come to love all the members and amis here but I am so scared to be transferred soon. I hope I don’t get transferred.

 

This week was pretty dry with the work because everyone is on vacation or preparing for the Heiva (a really big festival where they dance and sing) or watching the world cup soccer tournament. So needless to say we had a lot of people cancel on us and even when we went to do contacting, nobody was there or listened to us! Yippeeeee.

 

Despite the slowness, we were able to find or recontact a couple of new amis that are really big potentials so we're excited. We'll see how it goes this week. 

 

Remember David? Our "Ghostrider" ami? Well this past week we talked about baptism and the Word of Wisdom. It was a great lesson where we read Alma 7:14-15 and we asked him what he thought the sins that kept us from being baptized could be. We didn’t even have to tell him. He told us then that smoking and drinking were sins. We talked about how smoking and drinking destroys our bodies and when we become dependent, we no longer have our free agency or ability to choose. It was one of the coolest lessons we've had because he totally understood!! I really saw the power of the spirit testifying to him that it was true. The only bummer is that when we asked him if he wanted to stop smoking and drinking he said, “no, not right now.... Maybe when I’m 50?” (He’s 44 right now) I was like what! I hope you live until you're 50 because you're not helping your chances by drinking and smoking buddy. No but really, even though he may not decide to stop, I know that we did our part in teaching him and now it’s up to him to choose. It stinks sometimes because when our amis don’t make the right choice, we can’t do anything about it. But when they do the make right choice, that’s when we really feel the greatest joy.

 

Like for our wonderful ami Heinono! She was baptized!! It was a great service and I really was incredibly happy to see her finally be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. I made some chocolate chip cookies and everybody LOVED them. Ha ha so Heinono told me to try chocolate, chocolate chip cookies and so I did and everybody asked me for the recipe. "American" Cookies are really a huge hit here. I can’t help think of you mom when we made all those cookies for your luncheons. Good times.

 

Other than that, all the missionaries in our zone went into the sector of Tuauru to do a ton of contacting and help them out because the sector is really suffering. It was fun because I got to do a split and work with Soeur Summers!

 

Yesterday, we went to the temple with our amis because we now have a little visitors center next to the temple which presents the Plan of Salvation with the Restoration and Gospel of Jesus Christ all mixed in and super great. We are going to start going every two weeks with our amis because Mahina is only 15 minutes from Papeete so it’s really convenient.

 

This Wednesday, we have our leaders meeting with President Bize and all the STLs and Zone Leaders. I’m excited to see how that will go but I know it will be good. President Bize is a great president.

 

Hope yall are doing well!

 

Love yall!!

 

Checking out cool views with Soeur Utatao. 

 

Cute puppies we found while contacting.

 

Rosemonde. She is the greatest!

 

Christian. We always eat a ton of oranges from his tree every time we see him.

 

Our wonderful Relief Society President and my best friend, Soeur Martine.

 

Christian's 3-legged dog, Bella. She's a cutie.

 

Missionary splits in Tuauru.

 

Heinono's baptism. 

 

Helene and Rumea. I ran into them at the temple. I was so happy to see them.

 

Our wonderful group of amis (investigators). Papi Teuira, Helene and Rumea joined our ward group for the picture.

 

Papara :)  I sure have missed all these cuties. 

Soeur Taylor

Ia Ora Na tout le monde!

 

I hope y'all are doing great. Life is still the same in Mahina and I’m doing great.

Soeur Terooatea is at her 10th week of her training so that means the transfer could come soon. AHHHHH I don’t want to be transferred. We're really just starting to get going here at Mahina!

So y'all remember Heinono? She called us this past week to confirm our lesson that day and she said hey, “I have good news for yall!” My heart stopped for a second and then she said, “I chose my date! I chose my baptismal date!”  I was like, “oh yeah? When?” (In my head I’m thinking please, please, please, don’t be for like December or really far) She said, “Saturday!! Next Saturday!!”

I’ve never been so happy on the phone. We had a little party after we hung up because FINALLY Heinono is getting baptized. We've been through a lot with her. I’m so happy. So we have her baptism this Saturday and I’m excited.

 

Other than that, we saw one of our amis, David, and committed him to be baptized at the end of the month. He's a cool guy but he's definitely interesting. He refers to himself as "The Ghostrider" and he refers to God as “our Great Father.” He was really touched when we explained why he needed to be baptized like Jesus Christ and he told us that he really wanted to be baptized. The only problem is that he lives with his girlfriend, he smokes, and he has a fear of coming to church because there are too many people. SO, it will be a miracle if he gets baptized at the end of the month but we are going to keep working with him and if he doesn’t get baptized this month, it will sometime soon :)

 

Wednesday, we had our multi-zone conference with our new mission president! I’m really excited for President Bize and for the difference it will be to serve under him. He bore a very powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon and it was definitely what I and my companion needed to hear. There are a lot of people with closed minds and hardened hearts and that was the answer that we needed to know that only the power of the Book of Mormon will convert them. It was a great conference.

 

Other than that, we continue to work with our amis and I’ve really come to love so many members and people here. It makes me want to never leave... That’s all I’ve got for today, until next week!

Love yall!!

Soeur Taylor

PS Sorry this week is a short email…next week will be better! :)

I didn't notice that the pictures were blurry. They looked good in the camera.

 

 Yesterday we went to a concert in front of the temple! It was great and the spirit was really strong.

We went with our ami Lysiane!

IA ORA NA.

 

This week was FULL of contacting and going door to door. One neighborhood we haven’t proselyted a lot in is in the mountains where a lot of wealthier people live. So this past week we decided to check it out. We didn’t have a lot of success, it was mostly the dogs who came and greeted us, BUT at the last house we went to before we had a lesson (it’s always the last house) the man who came to the gate told us that he met the missionaries that past Sunday in another sector and he was really interested in learning more. We gave him a Book of Mormon and told him we would come back this coming week.

​

Other than that, we had progress with our ami, Heinono this past week. She's been struggling to recognize her answer and she's pretty shy too so she doesn’t always share everything with us all at once. It comes out little by little.

 

Well, this past week she told us that maybe she received her answer as to if she needs to be baptized. One of the answers came at church when we showed a video which talked a little bit about baptism and then the other came when we were in a lesson and I bore testimony at the end. She told me that right before the lesson, she prayed and asked if she needed to be baptized and when I was bearing testimony, I said specifically, “Yes, we need to be baptized.” We were SO relieved that she finally received her answer but now she needs to know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. We worked with her a lot on her testimony and we talked a lot about the Restoration and we know she is SO close to finally choosing her date and being baptized. I’m not sure if I've said it before but Heinono is pregnant and is married to a returned missionary and I know that their family will receive so many blessings by her choice to follow Christ and be baptized like he was and how he taught us that we need to be baptized.

 

If there is something I've learned about baptism, it’s that we don’t need to be baptized by immersion by someone who holds the authority of God just to become a member or to be called a "Mormon". Yes, we become a member of his church when we are baptized and confirmed but the reason we need to be baptized is so that we can follow Jesus Christ. At baptism, we make certain covenants which permit us to have his spirit with us and become more like him. Our baptismal covenant also prepares us to make more covenants and complete certain ordinances so that we can one day return to his presence. This path is simple and it leads towards eternal life!

If only every person we talked to could understood the importance of this path and how all we want is for them to take that path too so that they can have eternal life.

 

But anyways.... On Saturday, we went to an activity with the youth to find some new amis and strengthen relationships with the members. It was a Color Run! It was fun and we contacted a good number of amis, but most of them weren’t super interested. The only youth that was lives in Punaauia (west side of the island). Either way, it was a fun activity with our youth.

 

Yesterday we had our missionary concert to say goodbye to President and Sister Sinjoux and to welcome our new president, President Bize! It was really sad to see President Sinjoux finish but I am very excited to see the changes with President Bize. We have a mulitzone conference on Wednesday so it will be interesting to see how that goes with him and all of the missionaries on Tahiti and Moorea.

 

This past Tuesday, I hit my 11 month mark and Soeur Pehrson finished her mission today,

 

CRAZY! Time is such a crazy thing...

 

I hope yall are doing well- Love yall!!!

 

Soeur Taylor

 

 

 

Our color run.

 

From our color run and a truck I saw in a neighborhood that comes from TEXAASSSSSS. Not sure how that got here.

 

Frere Roney!! What the heck, he showed up at our concert and we were all like so surprised to see him.