Elise's mission letters

  Iaorana tatou!  What a week!  -Papi Reid got baptized!!!!! Also learned that his first name is not even Reid which would be less embarrassing if this wasn't the second time that this has happened to me. Being able to teach Papi Reid has been a huge blessing for me. It has pushed me a ton intellectually- learning how to teach all the missionary lessons in Tahitian, figuring out ways to teach when the missionaries cannot understand the friend, etc- but I am very grateful for this growth. However, Reid asked Sr Smith and I to give the talks for his baptism. I countered his request by listing all of the amazing ward members who speak Tahitian who could give better talks. He countered my counter move by telling us that we would give the talks AND be the witnesses. Yikes.  -Someone knocked on our door which doesn't sound weird until you realize that NOBODY knocks on doors here (you just yell in the front yard until someone comes out). It put me in panic mode. I thought s...

  If we can't touch the chicken can we at least touch the egg!?!?!? -my room-mate trying to justify wanting to cross an illegal river for a hike. Don't touch the water folks.  Iaorana!  This week was absolutely incredible BUT I have no time so we are going to give with a bullet point list of all the events.  -Red will be baptized this Saturday! We learned that  1. He speaks ancient Tahitian like in the Bible which is why we can't understand him. 2. Regret is the same word as repent in tahitian. We asked him what repentance meant and he said that he has no regrets but we understood it to mean that he has never repented. Again, I cannot understand this man. But he is so ready for baptism and we are excited.  We found Teivai who asked us to come back before we could even introduce ourselves! We came back and oh my goodness she is so ready for the gospel. Such a huge miracle. We put our room-mates' badges in jello. Get pranked.  And most importantly: Elder...

  Immediately after p day ended last week I realized that instead of sending a pretty picture I sent a screenshot of our grocery list! I love it when I make mistakes!  But anyway.... Yorana my friends.  I hope this week was good. We did à lot of work, saw many miracles, got stuck in traffic, and just barely got back from Papeete because we had to practice shaking hands and singing hymns as a mission. The fist bump culture here in French Polynesia has ruined me and I now have a limp noodle handshake.  We were in an English class with our favorite friends Tehaunui and Hereani, who are 10 and 11. We acted out sports and had the kids guess the sport in english! Sr Smith acted out one sport and the kids started yelling,  "SMASHBOOSH SMASHBOOSH!!!! It's smashboosh!!!! Sœur ma how do you say smashboosh in French?!?!? It's SMASHBOOSH!"  baseball  They were looking for the word for baseball.  Other events---  -Papi Reid taught himself how to pray in F...

  Iaorana tatou!  The highlight from this week was Sr Thelin showing us an object lesson where you smash your finger with a can over a Book of Mormon and you don't get hurt. However, she somehow did something wrong and just smashed her fingers with a can of corn and then started crying. Honestly thought she broke her fingers but it was very funny and I will always admire her for the bravery and confidence.  We were in quarantine for most of the week, and then as soon as we got out of quarantine, the mission sent Sr Erickson and Sr Temanihi to join our companionship for the weekend. It was very crazy being in a quad companionship but it was still really fun!  Some fun events:  -went on a walk to the beach to get out of the house during our quarantine. Sr Smith found a coconut, took it home, and then unhusked it with nothing but sheer willpower, bare hands, and a hammer. The coconut was honestly not that great but we learned along the way. As Sr Smith herself said...

  Iaorana tatou!  This week was one of the strangest, busiest, but also least productive weeks of my mission.  Here is a brief summary of the week:  1. I had to drive to Papeete 7 times in 5 days.  2. I now have covid.  BUT! Before the covid sickness mess and in between multiple trips to the airport, we still saw many miracles!  I miss Sœur Young a ton, and it was hard to send her off to her new area in Pirae. I am now with Sœur Smith. She is absolutely amazing- super courageous and bold and compassionate towards our friends' needs. For example, Sœur Smith's first lesson in the mission field happened to be a Word of Wisdom lesson in Tahitian (Te Parau Paari.) I felt guilty that she had no time to study the vocabulary and that I was just throwing her into a difficult lesson, but my worries and guilt were quickly put to rest when Sr Smith bore her testimony in Tahitian and prayed for the lesson.  I've learned this week that God has given us gifts an...