Iaorana tatou!

First of all, sorry about last week, it was our last choir practice before the concert last night, so it went long, and plus it was transfers! So by the time I got to my mail, p-day was almost over. Speaking of transfers, I have a lovely new companion, Soeur T! She's Tahitian and awesome, but more on that later.

As for the other week, nothing too big and exciting. We knew that transfers were coming up and Soeur D would soon be leaving since she spent six months in Matavai. We got the official call on Friday night, and she is now Sister Training Leader of Faaa! (not far from Papeete)

Talking to my family on Mother's Day was obviously a main highlight! It's a blessing to see that they're doing well, and plus I got to meet Joe, my future brother-in-law! And I got to say hi to Quigley, even if he didn't say hi to me ;)

As I said Monday we had our last choir practice, at which I met my new companion! Sister T is from Faaa, and she served the beginning of her mission at the St. George Temple Visitor's Center in Utah. She came back after a few months because of health issues, namely her knee, but last September she re-entered the mission field here in Tahiti. As of last week, she was pretty sure she would just finish her mission here in Tahiti, but last Tuesday President Bize called and said that Church Headquarters had approved her to return, but it was up to her to make the final decision. And she had about 6 hours to do it. Finally she called him back that night and said she would return. But she told me later that all of Wednesday she felt confused and worried if she'd made the right choice. Finally, she called President to say that she would stay, and she felt immediately better; that, my friends, is the Holy Ghost. As it explains in the Doctrine and Covenants, "But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right. But if it be not right you shall have no such feelings, but you shall have a stupor of thought..."

So Soeur T will be staying with me until further notice! (i.e. one of us is transferred) She still has her knee problem, so we've had to make some adjustments since she can't ride the bike too much. That along with it being my first time leading the secteur made for a stressful week! It's a good thing I'm surrounded by very patient people, because most of the time I have no idea what I'm doing. I learned a lot though. For example, it's often best to just go out and do something rather than staying home and worrying about how you're going to do it. I'm not saying you don't do your best to plan before hand, but there's a difference between planning and worrying. Personally, I unfortunately do a lot more of the second. I'm working on that.

Take for example last Thursday. We only had two lessons fixed, when on others days we often have lessons almost every hour. So I honestly had no idea what we should do. We did our first lesson that morning, and on our way home to finish our studies, I saw T and C, two of our investigators. I asked if we could meet them later and they seemed a little hesitant, but said that I should call that afternoon. We did our studies, ate, even helped some neighbors rake leaves, and afterwards I tried calling them and some others to fix a lesson but nobody was answering. Finally we decided on my last resort, street contacting. We got ready to go and said a prayer, and as we were saying the prayer, T called back and said that we could meet them at the church for a lesson! For me, it wasn't unlike that one scene in The Best Two Years when the investigator finally calls back in the middle of their prayer.

Last Saturday we ran into the missionaries! Haha we met some non-denominational Christian missionaries on the street, one from New York, one from Atlanta, and one from Switzerland. Apparently there's a whole group of them here for a few weeks for a program. We had a good talk with them, and it was interesting to preach the gospel in English for once! We might talk to them again later this week.

Yesterday we had our first concert! All the missionaries on the island have been practicing for the past few weeks, and now we're doing the island tour of all the stake centers. It's a lot of fun and a great missionary opportunity. The theme of the concert is the Light of Christ. I've got to go now, so all I'll say is that it's pretty fun to hear 60 Elders singing "J'irai, je ferai la volonté du Père!" with all their heart. Go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded!

Love love love you all!

Soeur Ladd