Texan in Tahiti

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