Texan in Tahiti

Bonjour tout le monde! 

Yeepppppp, this Tuesday will mark ONE YEAR at Tahiti! I’m so excited. I can’t believe it’s been a year. I remember when we first got off the plane at like midnight and even though I couldn’t see anything of Tahiti because it was dark, I was so nervous and excited to start my journey here. And now, after everything that I’ve been through here, I never thought I would get to this point. Funny how time works huh? 

Overall I’m doing super great. This past week was crazy but we loved it.
Tuesday, we re-contacted a few former investigators and one of them accepted us to come back! It’s a family where the husband is an inactive member and all of his family are non-members. They've had a lot of trials and just at the end of their rope, we came by and the wife (Olivia) was so relieved to just talk about everything and confide in us. She wants her husband to change so badly and go back to church and so we're working with this family to help them become an eternal family. I’m excited to teach them. 

Wednesday, we took off to do our split in Moorea! There are 4 sisters in the Haapiti sector so we split off and worked with the sisters there. President called us the day before we left and basically told us that Moorea needed miracles and that he was counting on us. I was like, “thanks for the pressure President, but we can do it.” It was Soeur Ntsiete's first time to go to Moorea so we had fun on the boat. We were having a good time taking pictures when I reached for my badge and I realized that A BIRD POOPED ON ME. I was like, “what the heck!!!” Soeur Ntsiete was laughing so hard but then like 2 minutes later, a bird pooped on her too. HA, we were laughing so hard on that boat. The split went really well and I really loved to go and work at Moorea because it’s still just a branch and needs a lot of work done. We worked hard and I got to meet a lot of different members and potential investigators. We had a good conversation with two women who were at one of the members house in Tahitian and I really was happy to see that my Tahitian has progressed. There are SOOO many advantages to knowing the languages here, it’s not even funny. We've been teaching a lot more in Tahitian so I’ve really been enjoying improving my Tahitian. We saw a few miracles in Moorea so that was fun. 

Moorea! Gorgeous, huh?

My frenchy companion. 

HAHAHAHAHA Ignore my double chin and baldness but I couldn't resist, this picture is priceless. 

Friday, we saw our investigator, Sonia, who is 72 years old and really sick but she has a strong desire to be baptized. SHE IS SO CUTE. Seriously, one of my favorite investigators. I’m sure that because she is so sick, she has a hard time remembering our lessons so my next project is to make her a book with a bunch of pictures and simple summaries of the lessons. I did this for Papi Teuira (remember him who got baptized last December?) in Tahitian and then little books as well for our kids who got baptized and all of them loved it. Sonia is definitely at a child's level of understanding and when I showed her the first few pages of the book that I started, she LOVED it. She knows she can’t remember a whole lot but I really do see the light of Christ shine through her and I will forever be grateful to have met her. 

Friday and Saturday we saw a TON of miracles in our sector and had so many lessons with potential and new investigators! We were so excited. We met one family who is Sanito (RLDS) and we invited them to conference and the next morning (at 5:30 in the morning). THEY CAME! We were ecstatic. 

We also got a call Friday from the couple at the office saying that our car (which was in an accident before I got into the sector) is getting fixed this week so we need to bring it in today and we will be on bikes all this week! So yep, this week is my week to lose all my chubbiness because we are going to be on bikes in our mountains at Mahina! I was laughing so hard when he told me. So in an effort to train for this week, we decided to go on bikes Saturday and that was hilarious. We died going up one mountain to go all the way to a lesson that was cancelled but let me tell y'all, it was AWESOME riding down the mountain. Ha ha, this week is going to be fun. 

Conference weekend was incredible (especially since Margarita ended up coming on Sunday!!!!!! ) and we were REALLY hopeful that all of our investigators were touched by the messages. I especially loved how much they talked about the family and the importance to spend time with the family. With each conference, there are always different focuses (like the prophet and sustaining church leaders this conference) but there is always one focus that is always repeated, the family. We are incredibly blessed to have families here on earth and I definitely am SO grateful for mine! 

During one of the sessions, the screen wacked up a little bit and we watched conference as if everyone had extremely bad fake tans. LOL

I hope y'all enjoyed conference and for those who didn’t get a chance to watch- https://www.lds.org/general-conference/sessions/2014/10?cid=HPSU100514465&lang=eng 

It’s worth it to watch. 

Love yall and I hope yall have a great week!!! 

Soeur Taylor