Two stray dogs fighting over a baguette: a symbol of French Polynesia
I hope you all had a wonderful week! This week was pretty challenging for Sr Young and I, but we worked very hard to find some new work to do and saw a lot of miracles on the way!
For example, we learned that the only thing keeping Reid from being baptized was the fact that he didn't have a tie. I don't know who told him that you have to have a tie to be baptized but whatever. Sœur Young and I swooped and set his baptismal date for August 27! He is super excited to be baptized. Also a member bought him a tie and Red exclaimed "nooooo I can't wear the tie I'm not baptized yet." This man.
Reid is honestly the miracle of this transfer. One day, Sœur Young and I went street contacting. At one house, this man came out and yelled at us for several minutes in incomprehensible Tahitian. We had very good reason to think he was crazy- bloodshot eyes, bare feet in the mud, just yelling at 2 sisters. One of the only things we understood in that first contact was him asking us to come back.
So we came back. We thought he was not interested or absolutely crazy, but something made us come back over and over. Finally, we brought a member and that is when we learned that
1. Reid is super interested and wants to join the church and
2. He wants to go to the temple to do temple work for his ancestors.
We were shocked.
Since then, Reid has come to church every week and he even participated in the ward choir yesterday! Yay for Reid!
We also had lots of other friends come to church for the first time yesterday! Manulani (our recent convert) taught the 2nd hour lesson and oh my goodness she is incredible. It was so amazing.
We got transfer news and I will be staying in Mahina and training a new missionary! I am super excited. Sr Young is heading to Pirae in Papeete so wish her luck!
My petite pensée spirituelle comes from Joseph Wirthlin's talk "Come What May and Love it." Give it a listen! I really loved it.
"I think she may have meant that every life has peaks and shadows and times when it seems that the birds don’t sing and bells don’t ring. Yet in spite of discouragement and adversity, those who are happiest seem to have a way of learning from difficult times, becoming stronger, wiser, and happier as a result."
Let the trials in life come and learn to love them. As I said, this week was very challenging. We were emotionally and physically exhausted, but there were so many little tender mercies and miracles that energised and motivated us to keep going. One day during street contacting, for instance, we met a woman who was not interested, but she gave us necklaces she made out of Red seeds. The simple act of kindness made our whole week and it was easier to find joy in our trials. Another example is our next door neighbor, who, after a particularly difficult day for us, sat on his porch and practiced the ukulele for an hour as we got ready for bed. 
I love you all! Je vous aime fort et ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!
Sœur Tuahine Hatch
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