Texan in Tahiti

Bonjour, bonjour tout le monde! 

This week was one of the best weeks of my mission! 

First of all, let me just say how grateful I am to have such a great mission president. President Bize really is one of the greatest people I've ever met. So last week, in his letter to everyone, he said that two elders (who finish at the same time as I do) challenged each other to finish off their missions with 10 baptisms. President then asked if anyone else was willing to join in on the challenge. I didn't think much about it until President called us on Tuesday and asked me personally why I didn't reply joining in on the challenge? I told President that we already baptized everybody in December and that we were starting over from zero because of the slump from the holidays. He then proceeded to basically give me a pep talk, saying that if anyone could do it, we could because of the success we had in December and because we were among the best and a whole bunch of nice compliments. His goal was basically to motivate a missionary who is finishing soon and what can I say, IT WORKED. We both committed to join in on the challenge and even if we don’t make it to 10 baptisms, our biggest goal is just to be able to fix 10 baptism dates. 

We are working with our miracle family right now for the middle of February and we actually do have a whole lot of other potentials for March and the end of February so thanks to our wonderful mission president, we are motivated and ready to see some miracles. 

After all that, we had our zone conference on Friday which REALLY helped us as well because we realized that we are a little weaker with our commitments. One thing President said that really stuck with me was that I had a lot of time left. I was like, “you're right, I do!” 

Overall I have really been feeling a fullness of joy through missionary work. This Saturday is the baptism of Heiti Tauhiro! Remember the Tauhiro family? Well they are progressing incredibly well to be sealed in the temple next month and their daughter who is turning 8 will be baptized on Saturday. I really was hoping to be there but well, being on a different island makes things complicated. 

Other than that, Sunday was the 1-year mark for our miracle baptism, Torea Mendelsohn who is married and waiting for his first child who will be born next month. He married a member and they are preparing as well to be sealed in the temple. And yesterday, I found out that Nuihau got his mission call!!! Remember Nuihau? Well he got his mission call to serve here in French Polynesia and he starts at the end of March. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to hear so much good news from all my converts that got baptized. 

We have quite a few investigators that have miraculously been progressing and so I really hope that I will be able to be here to see some of them get baptized. We shall see :) 

I hope to share more experiences next week, but that’s it for me this week. 

This morning we went on a hike to get an AWESOME view of Raiatea, Tahaa, and even Bora Bora in the distance. It was great.  

The Tiatia couple!! They finished their mission serving in Avera with us and they are incredible. It is a JOY serving with them

RAIN. Saturday is a huge day for us because so many of our investigators can't see us much in the week so of course it decides to pour ALL day. We had fun on our bikes. ha ha.

Cows on the trail. lol

We had to go through a huge mud patch.

I hope y'all are doing well- love y'all!! 

Soeur Taylor