Iaorana! Eaha to outou huru?

This Monday we officially moved into Tahitian, which is super exciting and also has caused a mass headache epidemic. Je blague ;) I remember our first week here, we were especially tired and 'slap happy' by Saturday, our third full day. Our third day of Tahitian went pretty much the same. Lessons in Tahitian have more or less resulted in "Um... book.... true.... Book of Mormon? Prophet true Joseph Smith... Read book.... pray....good?" And then we'd attempt to ask them a question and they'd go off in rapid Tahitian, probably saying something really deep or asking us an important question, to which we respond "Yes. Um. Good. Read book? Good. Bye!" Some of the elders have resorted to randomly singing hymns in Tahitian in the middle of lessons. At least, if we don't know any Tahitian at the end of these three weeks, we will be pretty fluent in charades.

In all seriousness, this is a really awesome language. It's tough, and we have to try really hard to not compare it to a Western European language because it's just so different. But it's really awesome. We are constantly amazed by the deepness of the multiple meanings that some words carry, such as "faaroo" which means "to listen, to hear, to believe, to have faith in." We are constantly confused by the bizzare translations of words such as "faaho'i-faahouhia mai" which means "restored" as in "restored gospel" but loosely translates to "the return agained that came." Yay for Tahitian logic. We are constantly amazed by the culture, such as what they call the days of the week: Monire, Mahaha piti, Mahana toru, Mahana maha, Mahana pae, Mahana ma'a, Sabati. In English: Monday, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five, Food Day, Sabbath." It's weird now how much a relief even speaking in French is after trying to communicate in Tahitian. As Sœur S pointed out, our first day we might have complained, "I can't teach in French!" so at least now we might complain "Je ne peux pas enseigner en tahitian!" And as Elder P said a few days ago, "it feels like I'm sinning or something when I speak in English now" because we are trying to "speak your language(s)" as much as possible.

[editor's note: if anyone wants to see some Tahitian, I found the church's website for "te Reo Tahiti" (Tahitian)]

Even though we occasionally despair and wonder how we'll ever be able to be communicate comfortably in te Reo Tahiti, we all know deep down that it's possible. We don't know how, but we'll figure it out. I've been thinking a lot his week about something we call "the gift of tongues," In Doctrine and Covenants, chapter ninety verse eleven, it says: "For it shall come to pass in that day, that every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language, through those who are ordained unto this power." Throughout the scriptures it speaks of the gospel being taken unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. The scriptures also say, "But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold, he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words." Therefore, if the Lord has said that the gospel will preached in every tongue, including Tahitian and all its dialects, it must needs be that somebody is ordained unto the power of learning this tongue and preaching in it. Guess who?

I've been talking about this concept with my district, and it's been helpful to keep this in mind as we muddle our way through. We've been called to help the people in Tahiti come into Christ, and if I have to learn five new languages to do that, then I know that the Lord will help me, because "he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words." In the scripture that my blog name comes from, the Lord says "I remember those who are upon the isles of the sea." I choose to take that literally. Our Heavenly Father knows all the people of Tahiti personally, and He has prepared the way for a bunch of 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds to tell them that.

I've been told from a reliable source that my mission is the oldest foreign speaking mission in the world. There is a series of videos about the gift of tongues that I think most foreign-speaking missionaries are asked to watch before they report to the MTC, and it's all about Tahitian missionaries. We are infamous for learning two languages. (or more, because guess what, Tahiti has several dialects that some of us will have to learn one or two of as well) There are plenty of special cases where missionaries in all parts of the world pick up a second language in the field, but, correct me if I'm wrong, I think we are the only group that is actually taught two separate languages in the MTC. As we welcomed six new Tahiti-bound missionaries to the MTC this Wednesday, we decided that yes, our bags of books are indeed bigger than any other.

Point is, my mission is cooler than yours. The words "I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things" come to mind ;)

Anyway, speaking of new missionaries, we got to host again this past Wednesday! Major coincidence weirdness: I hosted two missionaries, the first being one of the new Tahitian missionaries, and the second being one of my new roommates! Our previous roommates abandoned us this past Monday morning for Indiana, so we got four new ones on Wednesday. This makes roommates 7,8,9, and 10! Since Sœur S and I are the only sisters in our district, the extra four beds in our room are Grand Central Station!

Yesterday I auditioned to play a special musical number in a meeting or devotional. I brought out a piano solo I learned a few years ago, a medley of hymns about Joseph Smith. Fortunately it can only be four an a half minutes, so I cut out all the especially tricky parts ;) It's frustrating, because I can play it really well in private, but as soon as you put me in front of an audience, my hands get shaky and it's really hard to play when your hands are shaking. I wasn't even really nervous mentally. Curse you adrenaline. Anyway, the audition went all right, and they said that they'd like to have me play it as long as I think I can play it for an audience... It's a really beautiful song though, and I've noticed that I usually play better when I focus on the meaning behind it. When I was learning it the first time, I wrote some of the lyrics of the three songs on the sheet music, and right now the last line of the last song, "Praise to the Man" is my favorite: "Wake up the world for the conflict of justice, Millions shall know Brother Joseph again." I especially love that line because it's my job right now to bring the knowledge of the restoration to as many as I can! I highly recommend listening to this arrangement, you should be able to find it on youtube if you search "Joseph Smith Medley D. Spencer Mangum." While you're at it, look for a beautiful french hymn called "Souviens-toi." I think there is an English version called "Going Home."

I apologize if any of my spelling is weird. English words look weird now, we've noticed. To everyone in the east half of the United States it seems, good luck with that snow! Tahiti does indeed sound very welcoming right now.

Ua here au ia outou,
Tuahine Ladd

[editor's note: she's still doodling :-)]

Iaorana!

So. Last week, we finish emailing an hour or so before dinner, I practice piano for a bit, and we head to dinner to end our p-day. (P-day only lasts until dinner, and we go back to class after.)

We walk into the cafeteria and swipe our cards, like any other 8:10am, 12:35pm or 5:40pm. We get a few feet past the door however, and all of a sudden we are mobbed by our elders, who are yelling and waving these strange papers in our face that say "Travel Itinerary."

Wait, what?

As some of you may remember, the MTC has been saying that my departure date is 26 janvier, which would about be six weeks from when we got here. However, on one of our first days of classes, we asked our teachers about the whole learning-two-languages thing, and they said, "oh, no, you'll be here for nine weeks, six for French, three for Tahititan." So we figured that the travel office just had it wrong, which happens a lot, and eventually they would start crossing out our departure date on our mail (our address is what says our departure date), which is what generally happens when dates are changed. Funnily enough, I had a suspicion in the back of my head that maybe when it got close to the original date they would suddenly change their minds and ship us out in January as planned, since I hadn't seen them change the dates yet. (Then again, I don't get much mail anyway so how would I know... ahem.) But I'd forgotten that thought and the fact that we were getting closer to that original date, so the travel plans still were quite the surprise. Anyway, that's what we've had in our heads all along - we leave vaguely sometime in fevrier.

(okay, now, before y'all get your hopes up, that is still what is happening, but it's more fun to tell this story all dramatically so bear with me.)

Nevertheless, at approximately 5:50pm last Friday, we were holding in our hands evidence that perhaps we had been terribly wrong and we now had 10 days to take a crash course in Tahitian and stuff our clothes into a bag. Which, I've been told, it's not unheard of in the Tahiti mission to have about three hours warning to pack your bags before a transfer, so I suppose ten days would have been generous. Anyway, the best part was... it was holiday weekend and the travel office was closed until Tuesday, so we couldn't even talk to them to sort out the confusion. The elders had apparently tried to go and talk to them before dinner but were told to come back Tuesday (which would have then been a 6-day warning, if anyone's counting). So basically we spent dinner on Friday night until breakfast on Tuesday morning completely in the dark about what on earth was going on. The only witnesses we had were contradictory: Sœur C, who said we were absolutely staying and refused to teach us Tahitian, Frère T, who thought maybe we weren't staying and started to help us learn a little Tahitian between our French lessons, our branch president who apparently had no idea we were ever maybe not leaving (which explains why I was asked to speak the other week), and a short email conversation with our Mission President. It went something along the lines of "Hey President Bize, we were just wondering, we got our flight plans yesterday but we thought we were staying for 9 weeks to learn Tahitian?" "Yes, I've been expecting you on the 25th, the Tahitian program is only two weeks." "Okay then, I guess we'll tell our teachers to start teaching us some Tahitian." "When did you get to the MTC?" "A month ago." "So you haven't learned any Tahitian?" "Nope." And then nothing for about two days.

We anxiously awaited Tuesday morning, and two of the elders headed to the Travel Office first thing to sort things out. We met them after breakfast for their report, and the news was we absolutely have to leave on Monday because the next transfer isn't until March. By this point, we'd felt everything from anxiety and fear to utter excitement to be out in the field, but most of the anxiety had gone away so we were just really excited. However, when our teachers came after lunch, we told them the official news... and Sœur C still refused to believe it. She sent Frère V to talk to the Travel Office, and when he returned, he told us that the Travel Office had indeed gotten it wrong, because Salt Lake got it wrong, because the Tahiti mission is sort of a mess when it comes to this sort of thing. So final consensus: we leave 16 fevrier! We think! We were disappointed at first, but I think now we all recognize how much of a blessing it will be to have that few extra weeks here. Sœur C finally told us why she never believed us: pretty much the exact same thing happened to one of the last Tahiti districts. It comes down to two things, I'm thinking: one, the transfers in Tahiti are a bit weird because of the massive size and spread out nature of the mission (transfer=the (usually) six week intervals mission are divided into, so called because that's when missionaries are transferred to other areas, or in our case, islands). Two, it's only been a few months since they shortened Tahitian MTC stays from 12 weeks, and they're still trying to figure out what works best. Don't you just love being a guinea pig?

Anyway, so that's that. I won't even get into the part about it maybe being delayed to March 9th, because that's a whole other story that I'm pretty sure I don't need to worry about. Next Monday we officially start Tahitian, and I'm stoked! We've been learning what we can in our free time, and it seems hyper chouette. Or, even better, nave!!! I can almost say a decent prayer, and when I read the Book of Mormon in Tahitian, I actually recognize every twentieth word! (Usually Nephi or Lemuela or something like that, haha).

Some other hyper chouette things that I've neglected to mention:

Sunday, our devotional was from the lovely Janice Kapp Perry! She only wrote like every children's song in the songbook, no biggie. She and her husband were so adorable. Probably everyone's favorite part: Sister Perry talked about how they met, which was in a clarinet class at BYU. She had her eye on him all semester but he didn't say a word to her until she was standing up to play her piece for the final exam, and this is what he said: "Those lips look like they were made for more than clarinet." After Sister Perry said that, Brother Perry stood up, walked to the podium and kissed her! That's scandalous here at the MTC, haha! Later she said "You know, I think I know him like a book, but some days I just don't know what page he's on!"

Wednesday was a busy, busy day. We finally got the chance to be hosts for the new missionaries! Basically, every Wednesday a bunch of new missionaries get dropped off at the curb by their families, and missionaries that have been here for a few weeks get to help them get their books, take their bags to their room, find their classroom, etc. We've been looking forward to our chance for weeks because new missionaries are so fun. Every Wednesday all the missionaries with orange stickers on their tags get "WELCOME TO THE MTC" yelled at them at least a thousand times, because everyone remembers how scary and exciting and surreal the first few days are. Anyway, after hosting we watched a later showing of the worldwide missionary training broadcast, for all the missionaries everywhere. Apparently this is the first one they've done in over ten years or something. I think one of my favorite messages from it was something Elder Anderson said, similar to what he shared with us in the devotional last week: "No matter how much we testify of Christ, it will never be enough. No matter how much we love Him, our adoration is only beginning."

Wednesday was also our first day in a new classroom! Well I say new, but really... let's just say it's cozy. We used to be on the third floor of 4M, which is one of the newest buildings with slightly bigger classrooms, better desks and chairs, fresh air. But they decided to rotate the classrooms for whatever reason, and we are now in the basement of 8M. The Tagalog speaking missionaries apparently fondly call this basement "the telestial kingdom." We prefer "le cachot" or the dungeon. It's really not so bad, but it is rather cold, and the only window we have is tiny and hidden behind the TV. And there is nowhere to put our small child size pile of books. Other than that, it's great!

I haven't got much time left, but some quick notes on our lesson this week! At the beginning of the week, we started teaching lessons to Elders L, D, and I, pretending to be investigators. Elders H and P started teaching Sœur S and I as we pretended to be investigators. It's fun and actually really helpful to see lessons from an investigator's point of view. We also had two more lessons with Brian, which are so special and I'm glad we get to continue them! That would have been one of the saddest parts about leaving early, because Brian is just awesome. The Spirit is so strong in those lessons, and we know he can feel it too because he says so!

I'll leave you with a few Tahitian words to think about. On of the best and worst things about Tahitian is that many words have multiple meanings, which is the worst because it makes it easier to misunderstand but is the best because some words just have a bunch of beautiful meanings all wrapped up in one idea. A few of my favorites that I've learned are "haapao" which means to obey, to care, or to matter, and "tiaturi" which if I remember correctly, means to trust, to have confidence in, to believe, to wait on, to have hope in. I always liked how the French translate "waiting on the Lord" to "hoping on the Lord," but Tahitians take it even farther. "Hinaaro" means to want, to need, or to desire, making 'aau hinaaro much more than just 'willing heart.'

Anyway, think on those. Ua tiaturi au ia Iesu Mesia.

Ua here au ia outou! Sœur Ladd

Week 4 down and we've been here almost a month! Weird.

Let's see, after emailing last week p-day was almost over because we spent so long emailing! That evening though we started another jeûne d'anglais (English fast) and his time Frère T challenged us not to say a single word in English, even to ask how to say something. It was fun though, because we had motivation: he brought us something from his trip to Tahiti, but we had to earn it. In the end we were more or less successful and he gave us some super chouette seashell necklaces! (chouette = cool in french. well, actually directly means 'owl' so don't ask me why they say that). It amazes me how they could possibly find that many perfect little seashells, but they did and I love it. The Elders are jealous of us because they hardly ever get to wear theirs here, doesn't really match their ties, I guess. Ha, you'd be surprised (or maybe unsurprised) by how much Elders discuss their ties. I guess you can't blame them, it's pretty much their only form of self expression. Frère T picks who says the prayer every class based on who has his favorite tie (which really threw him off yesterday when all five of them bought and wore the exact same tie).

Saturday was also a jeûne d'anglais. By the end of the day, I guess you could say we were pretty French-fried. (I wish I could take credit for that one, but one of our teachers taught us that.) Honestly though, sometimes I get stuck in French-mode and it's weird switching back to English. On Saturday I had to keep reminding myself that I was still allowed to think in English. One Elder says he can't say or write 'with' anymore, he always goes for 'avec,' such as when he and his companion were giving a rare lesson in English and in the prayer he said they were grateful for this time avec the investigator. And I think it was Elder L the other day who couldn't even remember how to say Atonement in English. It's a struggle. I think Sœur S nearly cried when she tried to talk to someone in Spanish yesterday! And probably the weirdest part was when one of our new roommates said that Sœur S and I have a slight accent in our English when we get back from our last class, just for a few minutes at least. Both my French and my English will probably have an odd accent by the end of these 18 months!

Anyway, Sunday was lovely as usual! Sœur S gave an awesome lesson about Faith in Jesus-Christ, and props to her because the wife of Elder Brent Nielsen of the Seventy was visiting our class, along with Sister Burgess (the MTC President's wife) and our Branch President. She did really well, and as Elder P likes to say, it was "right in the Honey Nut Feelios." Sacrament Meeting was great as well, except maybe for the terrifying part where I had to give a talk with about 30 seconds warning! Every week they choose two missionaries to give a short talk in the mission language (so French in our branch) and I was the lucky chosen one. They don't tell you in advance if you're speaking though, you find out when everyone else does! We all thought they would pick from the district that left on Monday, because they usually choose from whoever is leaving soon, but alas, we were wrong. I think it went okay? At least, people said they understood me, so good enough. Hymns were interesting during the meeting however, as our branch was joined by one of the English branches (the schedule got all mixed up due to the previously mentioned visitors) so I could just hear the English lyrics being sung on top of the French around me. That was weird. It was funny though - since we had two branches, I spoke in French from our branch and then a sister from the other branch spoke in English. One of the Branch Presidency told me that they told her "you and Sister Ladd gave the exact same talk!" and her eyes got all big, "wait, really?" I don't think I actually made eye contact with anyone in that branch (or probably anyone for that matter) but I imagine the poor things were about as lost as we were when Sœur B was asked to give her talk in Tahitian. I should have told them "it's okay, I don't know what I'm saying either."

Anyway, Monday we were back to class as per usual. We've been learning/reviewing more of the heavy grammar this week, and I've also been trying to get a head start on Tahitian, so I've been focusing on learning how to pray in Tahitian this past week. I can only say a very simple prayer though, so I'm just trusting that Heavenly Father understands Franglaitian! (French, English, and Tahitian? Let me know if you've got better ideas.) Our lessons have been going well I think! We have a cool new investigator, "Brian", who is a 'gold tag' which means (or so I've been told, have not verified) he could be an actual investigator! We don't usually get those for French. He is actually one of the Spanish volunteers, but he wanted to practice his French so he asked our teacher if any of us would be willing to teach him. We've only had one lesson so far, but it was fun! Very different, but fun, and definitely some great practice for the field.

Also, Tuesday's devotional was hyper-chouette! This week has been the training for new international MTC Presidents, Visitor Center Directors, Church Historical Site Directors, etc., which means that several of the Apostles have been on campus. We didn't see them, only the mysterious blocked off and fancily decorated hallways in the main building, except on Tuesday our devotional was by Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Twelve! How cool is it that I got to be in the MTC for two devotionals from the Twelve! He taught us to always have Christ's name on our lips, and never hesitate to testify of Him, whether it's a 45 minute lesson or a 2 minute conversation on the street. No matter how much we testify of Him, it will never ever be enough! Elder Anderson said he'll be using some similar thoughts for his broadcast next week to all of the missionaries around the world, so anyone who is watching that, sorry for the spoilers! If you can watch it though, I would definitely recommend it! Also, I sang in the choir again, and that was a lot of fun, as always. The choir director teaches us so much about the songs that I never knew. His lesson for us this week (Joseph Smith's First Prayer) was that, as Elder Holland taught, if you are ever struggling to bring the Spirit to a lesson, just tell the Joseph Smith story again.

On Wednesday Sœur S and I got four new roommates! It's been a little lonely in our room ever since Sœur M and Sœur L left. They are all going to the Indianapolis mission, English speaking, and it's been fun to welcome them and help them settle in! Unfortunately we don't see them all that much because our schedules are completely different. Our rooms been packed but it's fun! Oh speaking of new missionaries, Elder P was only able to keep up the "I'm from France" thing with our new French missionaries until Sunday, when they found an actual French Elder on our Sunday walk. They still have trust issues ;)

Okay I think that's all I got as far as the what of this week, now I have a few thoughts as far as the 'why.' (i.e. here a few spiritual thoughts to think about this week!)

First, one thing that stuck out most to me from Tuesday's devotional was a scripture that Elder Anderson shared, Moroni 8:25-26 : "And the first fruits of repentance is baptism; and baptism cometh by faith unto the fulfilling the commandments; and the fulfilling the commandments bringeth remission of sins; And the remission of sins bringeth meekness, and lowliness of heart; and because of meekness and lowliness of heart cometh the visitation of the Holy Ghost, which Comforter filleth with hope and perfect love, which love endureth by diligence unto prayer, until the end shall come, when all the saints shall dwell with God." I loved that line 'love endureth by diligence unto prayer.' If you remember last week I shared the scripture "perfect love casteth out all fear." That's been my motto all week whenever I feel particularly nervous for a lesson. And this scripture gives the how! Perfect love is a blessing of having the Spirit with you, and that love endures with diligent prayer.

The other thought I had comes in two parts: First, if any of you were there at my farewell talk before I left on my mission, I talked about the outrigger canoe on the Tahitian flag. I related it to families then, but I used it as an analogy for faith in my spontateous talk this past Sunday. Basically, Tahitian canoes have three parts: te va'a, the canoe, which represents you and me. Then there's te ama, the outrigger, which is what keeps the canoe from capsizing in the ocean waves. I think of that as Jesus Christ, which Helaman chapter 5 describes as our foundation "that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you." Then there is te mau 'iato, the poles that connect the canoe to the outrigger, which I think of as our faith. Would you ride your canoe out into the ocean if the poles weren't sturdy and strong? So must our faith be strong in order for our foundation in Christ to be truly firm.

Second, as it turns out, our teacher, Frère T, is a Tahitian champion in canoe racing! He taught us the one word that his mother (a world champion canoer) always said: TAHOE, 'all together!' For racing, canoes usually have 6 riders, and if they don't paddle exactly together, not only will they slow down but they may risk breaking the boat. I think we should be tahoe in two ways: as missionaries, we need to work in unity with our companions, or district, the members of the area, and the investigators as we strive to invite them to come unto Christ. And individually, we should be tahoe with Christ, as He teaches to "take my yoke upon you." As we bring our lives into unity with Christ's example and the promptings of the Holy Spirit, we can truly become champions!

So: TAHOE!

Ua mauruuru roa vau no i te Tamaiti, o Iesu Mesia. E ua here au ia oe! (Translation, maybe, I hope: I'm thankful for the Son, Jesus Christ. And I love you!)

In any case, je vous aime! Sœur Ladd

P.S. it's pronounced "ta-ho-ay"

Salut!