Iaorana tatou! :)

The work is picking up here in Uturoa. We're especially finding success with the local dog population. When we do door to door contacting, they are generally more interested in hearing the gospel than the owners, it seems.

Indeed, one even accepted to sit down with us for a short message about the gospel.



I'd say she's got a lot of potential. The language barrier is going to be pretty tough though.

(Soeur K teases me because all of the photos on my camera are of dogs and cats and pigs.) Haha all joking aside, we had a pretty good week! We found several cool new investigators. They all have awesome questions and seem to have a sincere desire to learn and find the truth. Even just how we found them were tender mercies.

For example, a week and a half ago we talked to a man on the street and fixed a lesson for the following Tuesday. I had my doubts that he would be there though, seeing as he was holding a beer when we talked to him. We kept our hopes up though and went to his house at the appointed time - and nope, he wasn't there. BUT, his brother C was. He immediately accepted that we pass another day to talk with him. He's already talked with missionaries before, Mormons and from other religions, but he isn't yet satisfied that he's found the truth. But he is willing to try again. We had a proper lesson with him on Wednesday, and he asks all the right questions (and some weird ones too, but that's okay). For example, we sat down for the lesson, introduced ourselves a bit more, and then before we could even start the lesson we had planned to teach, the Restoration of the Gospel, he asks "Is it true that there's a life after death?" So we're just like,"Um, well, yeah," and quickly change gears to talk about the Plan of Salvation. Long story short, the lesson was all over the place because as soon as we start to answer one question, he would ask another really great question on a completely different topic!

One of our other new investigators, R is a small miracle as well. Sister O, Elder G, and Elder P flew to Papeete last Thursday for the Conseil de Dirigeants (a monthly conference with President Bize for zone leaders and sister training leaders, which yes, our zone leaders and sister training leader FLEW to. Island missions are weird. Fortunately, they're the only ZLs or STLs not on Tahiti, otherwise that would be even more expensive.) Anyway, Sister O explained to us that as she was sitting on the plane reading the Book of Mormon and going through the internal debate of whether or not to talk to the man next to her (aka R) she read a verse about these things blessing her and those around her. (I think Alma 34:27) That gave her the courage to talk to him, and he accepted that Soeur K and I visit him another day! We were able to do that on Saturday and we explained more about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He said he would read it and wanted us to come back and teach his wife about it too! Excited to see how everyone (and their dog) progresses.

Like Soeur O learned, the gospel can and will bless you, and all those around you: your wife, your brother, the guy next to you on the airplane, your dog! So open your mouth and share it. Take it from me, it might not be easy or natural, but it's worth it.

E mea maitai te ora, e parau mau te evanelia, ua here au ia outou!!

Tuahine Ladd