IAORANA!!! Eaha to outou huru?

Alright first off I'm going to warn you of any future spelling or language weirdness for the next 16 months, these keyboards are weird and the only language I speak is Franglaitian.

I'm in TAHITI!

I don't even know where to start, so much has happened since my last email! All Saturday and Sunday we were getting ready to leave the MTC, saying goodbye to our zone and teachers, which was sad and exciting and stressful all at the same time. Then all of Monday was spent from airport to plane to confusing airport. But we made it just fine and surpising not even that jetlagged!

After training from President Bize and his assistants on Tuesday morning, it was time for MTC district 21-C to part ways. It was carrément triste to say goodbye to everyone but I was so overwhelmed I didn't have much time to think about it. More time than Elder I, though, who shipped out for Bora Bora less than 45 minutes after transfer meeting!

Now to the exciting parts though - my secteur is Matavai, in the Mahina zone, about 25 minutes from the capital Papeete (so on the 'mainland.' We say that any missionaries not on Tahiti are 'dans les îles' even though, hello, Tahiti is an island too...). I've been told several times that President gave me the best secteur in the mission, and I totally believe them. Our ward is so awesome! But more on that later. My maman is Soeur D and she is carrément top!!!! (in missions, your mom/dad is your trainer and your daughter/son is your trainee. Missionaries love to talk about their genealogy at transfer meetings). We both love to work hard, which is good because there is never a dull moment in Matavai. We are right on the sea (well, yes, pretty much everything is right on the sea here but we are especially right on the sea, like you look out the window at the church and you see the ocean, and some of the families we visit are about three steps from the beach). We are so often in lessons that we hardly have time to find new investigators, which will be interesting once all of the baptisms we have lined up go through and we need someone to teach. It is, as expected, so beautiful here, even though yesterday was the first time I really saw the sun. It's been raining more or less nonstop all week, something about a hurricane in Fiji? I hope everyone's alright over there because it sounds like we only got the edge of it and it was pretty intimidating. But the sun is back today and I can't wait to see what the Tahtian sea really looks like!

I'm in a biking secteur which was a bit of a struggle at first but I'm starting to get the hang of it. I haven't crashed yet so that's good! And as far as the language we don't use very much Tahtitian here, which is sad, but I'm determined to learn it anyway. This country is so blessed, literally the scariest animal is poison centipedes and there are rarely hurricanes and things like that.

The people though! Hyper chouette. We are working with members all the time, and they are so sweet and funny and humble. Our investigators are strong, despite their various struggles. I think what stands in the way of a lot of them, everyone really, is what I titled, my message last week - te tape'araa e tae noat'tu i te hopea ra, holding on until the end. The gospel of Jesus Christ includes faith, repentance, baptism, the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, but too often we pretty much stop at baptism. Teaching someone the gospel is no good if you just get them to baptism but don't make sure that they have enough faith to endure.

Anyway, that's the big stuff for this week! Hopefully I'll have more details for you next week. The work is good - c'est bien les amis!

Tuahine Ladd

We had a ward activity at the beach on the other side of the island, little town called Mataiea. All the beaches on Tahiti have black sand, which is awesome! Can't wait to see it in the sunshine!

La jolie Soeur D à la plage!

Gravel roads after rain are interesting.

(te tapea'raa e tae noa'tu i te hopea ra = enduring to the end, more or less)

First of all, I apologize for the length, grammar, and lateness of this email. It's been a CRAZY day! Reason being... I leave in 3 days!!!

We ship out dark and early at 3:30am on Monday, and we'll get to Tahiti late that night (Better, I admit, than some of the missionaries formerly in our zone and their 5-day trek to Vanuatu, or what will be a 5 day trek when they finally figure out their visa issues). Anyway it's been a crazy preparation day trying to pack and everything.

Highlights of the week:
Jenny Oaks Baker gave our devotional on Sunday! She's a super awesome classical violinist, and she (and all four of her kids accompanying her) gave a beautiful concert. She shared a lot of stories about how the gospel has helped her in her career, bringing to mind a quote from Grandpa Don "Everything I have ever achieved or accomplished has been through the gospel and it's influence" (or something like that). In-field Orientation was yesterday, where all the missionaries that leave next week came together for a conference sort of thing with activities on topics that maybe we didn't get the chance to study in our normal classes. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot!

We've had a lot of 'lasts' this week, like our last choir practice, last p-day, last lessons with several investigators (only two or three lessons left tonight and tomorrow). Even though they aren't "real" investigators, it's still hard to say goodbye when we've seen them come so far! Alright that's really pretty much all I've got time for... Next week will be much more exciting, promise! It will probably be more than a week though, as my p-day will be changing to Mondays I believe.

Since I haven't got time for a spiritual thought either, here's a quote to think on:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendours." -C.S. Lewis (fondly referred to as the unbaptized Mormon)

Goodbye, cold dry Utah! Iaorana TAHITI!
Tuahine Ladd

Iaorana, to'u mau hoa!

So! Today we will hopefully be getting our REAL flight plans! I can't believe my time at the MTC is quickly coming to an end. Just last week I was telling everyone that we've still got three more weeks, which let me tell you, is a long time in MTC time. But the English missionaries that came in this week finally will not be leaving before us! The district that came in with us left at the beginning of the week for Canada/Africa, so we are officially the oldest district in the zone. Which makes Soeur S and I the 'oldest' sisters in the zone. Wow, that's weird. Yay for Tahitians not staying 12 weeks anymore!

Not too much has happened this week, we've mostly just been focusing on learning the language(s) and attempting to teach in it. I'd say the most frustrating part (see title) is that since there is literally no word in Tahitian for 'sorry,' we can't even tell our investigators "Hey, we're really sorry we don't speak this language very well yet, because we have a really great answer to that question we just don't know how to tell you." If we can even understand their question, that is. It's been fun though! Our teacher (posing as our investigator) may or may not have been laughing at us a little during our struggle of a lesson yesterday. And our 'gold tag' investigator, Brian, who we use a mix of French, Spanish, and English with, was making fun of our phrases like "le meaning" and "le Church" (as opposed to the meaning or le signification). Oh, and when we were pretending to be investigators for Elder P and Elder H, I opened the door and Elder P exclaims, "Hey, how are you!? *face palm* I mean, um, bonjour!" So yeah. The struggle is real.

Tuesday's devotional was pretty cool, we had Elder Zwick of the Seventy come visit! The MTC gets the best speakers. The choir also sings the best songs. This week was an arrangement of "Precious Saviour, Dear Redeemer" and it's been stuck in my head all week. I don't even mind. It's a different tune than in the hymn book, and after than I don't know why anyone would ever go back to the original. Look it up on Youtube, I think it's by Brett Stewart or something.

Oh, and after the devotional on Sunday, we tasted the most amazing grape juice in the world. Chateau Markham is no ordinary grape juice, and sorry but you can't find it in stores. Brother Markham, one of the counselors in our branch presidency, has a vineyard in his backyard with some seventy variety of grapes from around the world. Apparently when they were starting this vineyard, they bought the houses all around theirs, sold the houses, and kept the backyards for their vineyard. They harvest them every year and make Chateau Markham. Calling it 'grape juice' doesn't even do it justice, but I don't want to call it wine because it's not alcoholic or anything. Anyway, it's a bit of a tradition that the Markhams have to sit the missionaries down, take them through Jacob 5 (the vineyard chapter) and then toast to missionary work with some Chateau Markham. Other than that... yeah, it's been a pretty chill week. Apparently Elder I is not coming with us to Tahiti, or just doesn't exist, because three of the Elders have now had dreams involving the all the others, except for Elder I. Well actually, Elder I was in Elder L's dream last night. It was about getting our flight plans today, only Elder I was the only one who didn't get his. Pauvre garcon.

But speaking of flight plans, we leave in ten days, so I'd better get packing! Sorry for the shorter email but there's so much to do!

Faaitoito!
Tuahine Ladd