Texan in Tahiti

Ia Ora Na!

THIS WEEK WAS AWESOME. 

I’m getting more used to the sector now and I really feel like we can do so many great things here. After all the work we did these past few weeks, we are finally seeing the fruits of our labors with new investigators and a lot of potential! 

With one of our new investigators, we started teaching in French and as we were continuing in the lesson, she didn't say much and when we asked her her feelings on the restoration, she told us that she had a hard time expressing herself in French! We were like oh! So we started teaching in Tahitian and it made all of the difference!! It was a very cool experience.

"11 For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fullness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power, by the administration of the Comforter, shed forth upon them for the revelation of Jesus Christ." D&C 90:11

 She opened up and she said that she thought it was great and maybe it was true, she wasn't sure. We committed her to pray and I think that she has a whole lot of potential to join the church one day. 

Wednesday, there was a HUGE event here in the Raromatai islands (Raiatea, Tahaa, Huahine, Bora Bora) called the Hawaiki Nui. In Pirogues or these large, long canoes they start at Huahine, canoe until Raiatea, then Tahaa, and the last part is the canoe from Tahaa until Bora Bora. I have NO idea how to translate or explain in English, but y'all can just see in the photos. Anyways, what they do in this race is in these long racing canoes (consisting of 6 people in one canoe) is to see who can canoe the fastest between all of these islands. It’s a huge deal because it’s VERY difficult with the distance being so great. Because it's such a big deal, we decided to go and set up a table and try to contact people who were there. We made our famous cookies and set up a table and everything but we didn’t have our table up for very long when we had to take it down because of miscommunication. Apparently, it wasn't confirmed that we could have a table but with the 10 minutes that we had it set up, we had one lady come by and take a Book of Mormon who is from Avera!! She said she would call us. #success

The Hawaiki nui. 

Our famous cookies that we made to pass out to people.  It still works! 

I could go on forever sharing our experiences, but I’m excited for tonight because we planned a big family home evening with a couple of our investigators and their families who are still trying to overcome addiction. There is a great program in the church with a 12 step program so Soeur Falesii and I are in the middle of finding activities and different things we can do tonight to help our investigators stop smoking and drinking. 

We've got a lot of different activities in the works so needless to say we are kept busy, but I love it! It’s better than being bored, huh? 

Life is going great here, I love being in Raiatea. Saturday, we fixed a baptism for a little girl who is turning 9 in December and wants to be baptized on her birthday. Her family is returning to the church and I’m excited to see this family come back and receive again the blessings of this gospel. 

Remember Sonia and Hinatea?? From Mahina? I sent pictures from when I left Mahina and Sonia is our Mamie we saw who is really sick and Hinatea is the young woman (16) who's dad is an less active member. THEY WERE BAPTIZED. It was always planned for Hinatea to be baptized the 1st of November but it was a good surprise that Sonia was able to be baptized too. I’m so sad I couldn’t be there, but I was so happy to find out that it was a great baptismal service. Ashley was supposed to be baptized as well but at the last minute, he decided he wasn’t ready yet... Soon! I know that it will be soon.

Hey mom! I got 3 letters this past week! One from JULY, one from AUGUST, and the last one from October. HA, got to love the Post Office here. 

Ariioehau and his nephew, Albert. He's a new investigator but look at Albert. Does he not look like my cousin, Byron??  Melissa, I thought of you when I met him.

Rain!!! So much of it this past week.

Garden of Eden? Ha, ha, ha. So many kids who just run around naked.

Well that’s it for this week. Have a great week y'all! Love yall! 

Tuahine Taylor