Bonjour mes amis! Iaorana! This week marked our first week of the beautiful re'o Tahiti, learned through the beautiful Français. Ooof. This week was a wild one, but I got through it thanks to maybe too many Reese's peanut butter cups (what am I saying there is no such thing as too many Reese's peanut butter cups.)
On Monday, my district got 4 more lovely wonderful people! These 4 new missionaries are all fluent in French, and 2 of them are Tahitians! Not going to lie, when I joined our first Tahitian class and heard these French speakers rattle off in french, I was WORRIED and quite flustered. I was pretty sure that about 90% of my Tahitian learning journey was just going to be me sitting in silence as the French speakers laugh at what is apparently a hilarious joke. Mais, ça va! Things got better. I love these new district members! We have now one Elder in our district, Elder Takaio! He has only been called Tuahine Takaio (sister takaio) once so things are moving along pretty smoothly. I feel way more confident with my French ability. Who knows if it has improved but I feel more confident!
Life lesson: when you want to feel that your ability in 1 task (such as speaking french) is fantastic, start learning an entirely new, more difficult task (such as speaking Tahitian)! It works every time!
Tahitian is pretty fun and I have learned A TON- how to word questions, how to noun verbs and verb nouns, the past, present and future, etc.- but for whatever reason, my mind CANNOT remember which Tahitian phrase is "how do you say ___" and which is "what does ___ mean." I have gotten these phrases mixed up maybe... I don't know... 10 times? Probably more haha.
During one of my Tahitian studies, I decided to start reading the Book of Mormon and translating every word. 40 minutes later, I had learned 1 Nephi 1:1. Woohoo progress!
One last story: on Friday we did a huge Tahitian review. We were asked to bring in a pet or person to introduce to the class in Tahitian. James said he would come IF he could sit on the floor the whole time on his phone. The camera angle made it so you could only see his hair. Tuahine Staker later told me that "I was like-Sister Hatch doesn't have a dog! What is that?!?" His hair has been compared to a dog. Amazing.
D&C 64:33: "Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great."
This week, I focused my studies on how I can feel a greater amount of love for those around me. I have learned the lesson that if we do good and serve others with pure love, we can find ENERGY. Energy to push through long classes or days, energy to get up in the mornings. Service gives us the energy and motivation to serve MORE! We need not be weary if we are doing GOOD. All kindness, all service, no matter how small, testifies of God and His goodness. Our small good actions testify of the greatness of One who is willing to give us the motivation to keep going in goodness.
Je vous aime! Ua here au ia outou!
Parau paro'i! (All that means is "message" but it is so fun to say so I thought I would share.)
--- Love your Tuahine who cannot keep "nafea e parau" and "e aha te auraa" straight for the life of her.
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