This week we've been packed; lots and lots of lessons. About a third of them were actually with inactives and recent converts, they seem to really need our help right now. Enduring to the end is tough! Especially because, some parts of our secteur, well... Let's just say it's hard to be a Saint in Babylon. But the Gospel and the Book of Mormon are powerful! In the strength of the Lord we can do all things.

Dad pointed out that I haven't said much about the food here. It's really good! Lots of rice and bread as promised, and poisson cru is as good as promised. I've only had poisson cru chinois as far as I know, it's like raw fish and carrots and cucumbers in some sort of yummy sauce. You know that cucumber and tomato salad that mom makes? It tastes kinda like that I think. I haven't yet tried poisson cru au lait coco (coconut milk) but apparently it's even better. I also have not tried fafaru, the infamous terrible smelling but supposedly good tasting fish dish, but I've been promised that we're eating it this week... tune in next Monday to see if I survived ;) I haven't eaten anything too crazy. Soeur D has eaten poison shark, before I was here, so that's cool. She's great friends with the local ambulance driver.

I don't think I said either how much Tahiti reminds me of my years in Morocco. That was one of my first impressions when I got here. There are obvious differences as far as culture and religion of course, but as far as French occupation making it's mark, and the presence of the French bread and chocolate I missed, it reminds me of Morocco in lots of little ways.

Well apparently it's Pâques already! I feel like it was just Christmas. Mom asked me an interesting question: If you had 30 minutes on Easter Sunday with a congregation of 7,000, what would you base your talk on?

As President Uchtdorf said, "On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most long-awaited and glorious event in the history of the world. It is the day that changed everything. On that day, my life changed. Your life changed. The destiny of all God’s children changed." Parau mau, tera. You remember those scriptures I shared a few weeks ago, in my discourse on hope? I think that's the message of Easter for me this year "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." Many people wonder why Mormons don't use crosses. The answer is, simply, His Atonement is about more than His death on the cross, it's about the fact that He lives again, He lives still, and He lives to "succor his people according to their infirmities."

If we don't feel like we're good enough, if we don't think we're worthy of His Atonement, then we don't truly understand what the Atonement is, much less have faith in it. We're inevitably gong to make mistakes, often the same ones over and over again, but the Lord cares much more about the direction we're headed than the time it takes to get there. (I think that's a quote from someone but I don't know who)

"He lives to silence all my fears.
He lives to wipe away my tears.
He lives to calm my troubled heart.
He lives all blessings to impart...
Oh sweet the joy this sentence gives:
I know that my Redeemer lives!"

Joyeuses Pâques!
Tuahine Ladd



#hallelujah