(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