how do you say.... STOP MAKING US WORK


 English class adventures


Iaorana tatou! Eaha to outou huru? Maitai?

It's been a very good, if not very very tiring week. 

Some events: 

1. Went on an exchange in Taravao/Faaone with the lovely Sœur Thurgood! Faaone is gorgeous- just tons of waterfalls and huge green mountains. It was a lot of fun. We talked a lot about confidence and just going for it. One of the adversary's tactics is FEAR- the fear of messing up, the fear of not being perfect, the fear of judgement. While in Faaone, Sr Thurgood and I walked past a Mami who was weaving ni'au purses. With our conversation on confidence still in our heads, we went for it and did the contact in Tahitian! We were afraid of no one. Sr Thurgood prayed in tahitian at the end of the contact and her smile afterwards was HUGE. I love the joy, love, and confidence that this language brings and it was amazing to be able to share that with Sr Thurgood who is a new missionary.

2. Ate sea urchin! 

3. I have officially been a missionary for 18 months! 

4. I was on an exchange with Sr Hamp. Our power went out. The housing inspector of this mission, Elder Yao, does a good job, but he is not very kind or patient with the missionaries, especially with non-native French speakers. We called him and even though he could understand us, he immediately and repeatedly asked if he could just speak to a tahitian, but Sr Mapuna was not there. 
We were outside at the electrical boxes on speaker phone with him. Suddenly, this DRUNK man comes up. Voilà the conversation: 
Drunk man: "helooooooo seeeesssterssss how are you all doing tonight?"
Me: hi
Drunk man: is drunk and weird and makes us uncomfortable. 
Elder Yao: Sr Hatch who is there? 
Me: oh it's just this Drunk man but what button do we need to press? 
Elder Yao: pass me over to him. 
Me: what? 
Elder Yao: give him the phone 
Drunk man: helloooo frère!!! 
Elder Yao: iaorana mon frère. What you need to do is press this button. 
Drunk man, who is so incredibly drunk that he can't even form a fist to press the button, smashes his arm into the electrical box. He just whacks his arm and hits the box. 
And then all the lights in the beach house turn back on. 
And then we went into our lovely lit house and locked the doors. It was a hilarious experience. 


5. I found out about this a few weeks ago, but one of my friends from Mahina is finally going to be baptized! Her name is Heihere and I found and taught her for 5 months. She is 12, studies the scriptures, goes to all the activités and to church, and has a super strong testimony- she has asked to be baptized every year since she was 8. I love her. However, her dad didn't want her to be baptized. 
Finally, after months of fasting and praying and the Mahina ward welcoming her with so much love, HER DAD SAID YES AND SHE WILL BE BAPTIZED ON CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!! God is good. 

For à little parau poro'i, I have been thinking a lot lately about how you never know how much good you do. As I've looked back on my missionary service, it is sometimes easy to wonder if I even made an impact. I re-read one of my favorite verses in the Bible this week. Mark 14:8 reads: 
"She hath done what she could." 
I have the trust that even if we don't see the results of our actions, we are doing so much more good than we realize. If we do what we can to "go about doing good," I know that we are blessing others. 
You are all doing so much more good than you could ever realize! God loves you! 

And I love you! 

Pictures: 
Sr Temanihi! Spiritual giant I love her. 5
Kids. I love and miss children. I got called "tati missionnaire" by this toddler--- essentially aunty missionary- and it is my favorite title I have ever received. 








From: Elise Hatch <elise.hatch@missionary.org>
Date: Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: how do you say.... STOP MAKING US WORK


Hello! This is not my Weekly, but I wanted to send à little message about my email from last week. I want to apologize for speaking rudely about our housing inspector in my email. After sending the email, I realized how what I said was mean and didn't reflect how hard working he is and how much good he does for me and the other missionaries. 

That is all! Enjoy (or don't read it's really up to you) à Weekly coming soon to à theater near you. 

Sœur Éclore 

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