Texan in Tahiti: Le prèmiere semaine à le MTC!

IA ORA NA! (ya-rawh-na!)

Ma famille,

I am so happy it's p-day! Monday really is the best p-day because Saturday is more relaxed and we get to exercise for longer in the morning, Sunday is like the best day EVER because you feel the spirit SO much in the meetings and devotionals and talks we get to listen to. So having a monday p-day is like having a long MTC weekend! It's great.

So hopefully, y'all got the letter I sent last thursday with my thoughts on the first day. I'm kind of laughing at my enthusiasm and how positive I was in that letter because the second day of the MTC was definitely the hardest day. That was when we started class and studied for literally the WHOLE day. We sit in class sometimes for like 4 hours at a time and by the end of the day- I am seriously so physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted. I love learning French though! I'm so glad I had some background in it because it's made the transition just a little easier. French is such a BEAUTIFUL language. I memorized our purpose as a missionary in French and am working on the 1st vision and I love it so much because it means just that much more. You have to think about every word you are saying so the spirit is always so strong when I read the first vision in french. The spirit speaks all languages :) But yeah, learning French is definitely very difficult. I know that I am hard on myself a lot because I just want to be fluent SO BAD. We taught our first investigator on Friday and then on Saturday. His name is Vetea (Vay-tay-ah) and he's from Tahiti. He's living in Provo with his aunt and doesn't speak English. It went well, but it was SO scary at first. The most frustrating part for me was that I knew what I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't figure out how to say it in french! A lot of the times, me and Soeur Aniel (my companion) would be saying something, turn to one another and ask each other in French how to say a word. Our lessons were a little rough at times but we could feel the spirit and I think that Vetea was able to understand our testimonies and the gist of what we were saying. I love teaching. It's really challenging, but thank goodness for the spirit! The spirit is the real teacher. I have already felt the power and influence of the gift of tongues, but I know that the spirit is what really touches the hearts of investigators, and especially Vetea. We taught him about Joseph Smith and how to pray. At first, he wouldn't pray because he didn't know how, but at our last lesson, we got him to say the closing prayer! It was so great. We were so happy. Now we just have to get him to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet of God. We teach him tomorrow morning, so we'll see!

My district is SO great! We have 2 other companionships of soeurs and 3 companionships of elders. We're already such great friends and it's fun to be in the classroom with them. I don't have a lot of time today (I'll have to figure out how to type faster, but I'm trying to figure out how to attach pictures. I will send it in another email!

I love y'all!! Dearelder me with what's going on!

Beacoup d'amour,

Soeur Rachel Taylor

These first two are with Sister Udall and Sister Spjut! I am so happy I got to see them!