Iaorana tatou!

Formal apologies again for last week. P-days at busy busy busy sometimes. Like this morning! Six sister missionaries showered, dressed, and out the door in 30 minutes flat, that's an achievement. The H's, a senior couple, did an activity with our district this morning for our exercise, so we got back to the house at the time when we were supposed to be leaving for our choir practice downtown. 6 sweaty missionaries, 2 showers, half an hour, and only 15 minutes late (thats below average for the Soeur D and Ladd standard), that's what I call teamwork. In other news today, I saw a pig the size of a cow!! If any of you know me and my affinity for pigs, you'll understand that that pretty much made my day. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, but if I see him again, I'll be sure to let y'all know. Anyway, back to this week. Tuesday we had exchanges with our Sister Training Leaders, so Soeur Daniels spent the day in the car with Soeur A while Soeur R and I got slightly drenched on our bikes. C'est pas grave. It was a lot of fun, and apparently I won't be totally lost in our secteur if Soeur D gets transferred.

Other things that happened this week:

We had interviews with President Bize, during which immediately after the prayer he said "Teach me the first lesson in five minutes. Go." So that was fun.

Also during my interview he suggested that I practice French by reading the Book of Mormon out loud with a pencil in my mouth. He told this to my companion afterwards (the other sisters were present too) and so guess what Soeur D does in the middle of district meeting the next day? When Elder B, our Zone leader, asked me to read a scripture, she taps me on the shoulder and puts her pen in her mouth. So I start laughing in the middle of the scripture and all of the elders just look at me like I'm crazy. Ça faisait honte.

We found some really cool new investigators! Well, actually he found us. We were at the beach looking for someone we'd fixed a lesson with but wasn't at home. A man came up to us and said he had a question for us. I'm still not quite sure what his question was, something about marriage and divorce, but we talked for a while (he did most of the talking) and were able to fix another lesson with him. Anyway, point being, I think he and his daughter, possibly his son, are a miracle just waiting to happen. T and C are two awesome investigators that were on track for marriage and baptism, but then they were gone working at a festival downtown for three weeks. We finally had lessons again with them last week, and while we had to push back their date indefinitely, I know that they'll be ready soon. It's interesting because they told us that when they came back, they weren't sure if they even wanted to get married anymore. They also told us that they hadn't read their scriptures very much while they were gone. Even just in one week, they've realized what a difference regular habits like that can be. I often share a scripture in 3 Nephi 18, verse 18:"Behold, verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must watch and pray always lest ye enter into temptation; for Satan desireth to have you, that he may sift you as wheat." It's so important to realize that the simple things like prayer, scriptures, and church attendance make all the difference.

I don't think I ever got a chance to share a quote from General Conference that especially touched me. It comes from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, the last talk of conference:

"If we give our heart to God, if we love the Lord Jesus Christ, if we do the best we can to live the gospel, then tomorrow—and every other day—is ultimately going to be magnificent, even if we don’t always recognize it as such. Why? Because our Heavenly Father wants it to be! He wants to bless us. A rewarding, abundant, and eternal life is the very object of His merciful plan for His children! It is a plan predicated on the truth “that all things work together for good to them that love God.” So keep loving. Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever." How great is it to remember that Heavenly Father is always cheering us on! He just wants us to be happy! He wants us to have success in keeping the commandments and progressing, so certainly He will help us every step of the way.

Je vous aime trop! Faaitoito!

Tuahine Ladd