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.