Iaorana tatou!

We had a great week this week, and as it turns out, it was my last week with Soeur K! She is heading back to the 'mainland' on Wednesday, and I'm going to be a maman! Haha in other words, I'm training a new sister. I don't know who she is yet, but my first 'daughter' or trainee will arrive in Raiatea on Wednesday as well. I'll miss Soeur K, my Maori kiwi, so much! But I'm also excited for new opportunities to learn as I teach a new missionary. In other news, Soeur K will also be adopting a daughter (finishing the training of a baby missionary) AND whitewashing her new secteur (both of them are new to the secteur) so faaitoito to her! Also, Soeur S, my companion from the MTC who is in the secteur right next door, will be training too!

Not too many updates as far as our amis, their progressing slowly but steadily. Highlights of the week include:

A couple in our ward took us to lunch at a fancy restaurant. Well actually it was at a training school for adults where they learn cooking and serving skills and practice on us. But it was the fanciest place I'd every been to in Tahiti, they put the napkin on your lap for you and everything. And the food was really good Farani (French) food.

I've been trying to improve my OLB* (contacting) approaches to be less awkward. Soeur K and I were asked to give the training at district meeting, and we chose to talk about OLB. Our theme was more or less 'just do it!' For example, Thursday, the day before the meeting, it was raining all day. We went anyway and did the lessons that we had planned, and finished by mid-afternoon. After we had planned to do some more contacting to find some new investigators (especially a girl! almost all of our investigators are men!) but since it was raining and we had just found out that we were supposed give the training (we had assumed so but weren't sure), we considered going home to prepare for that. But then, we looked at each other and I said "if we're going to talk about OLB tomorrow, we should probably go do some OLB." So we did and we found 2 cool investigators, including a woman! At the training, we focused on a scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 24, verse 12: "And at all times, and in all places, he shall open his mouth and declare my gospel as with the voice of a trump, both day and night. And I will give unto him strength such as is not known among men." As members of the true church, it is our responsibility to open our mouths to share the true gospel with everyone! And we ought to do so cheerfully, with the voice of a trump! And the promise is once again, as we give our all, Heavenly Father will give us more 'all' to give. Contacting, I've found, isn't just about the words that you say to convince someone to listen. It starts with our perspective. If we are true disciples of Jesus Christ, then we naturally desire to help those around us, our brothers and sisters, come unto him!

Ua here au ia outou!

Soeur Ladd

P.S. FÉLICITATIONS Kylie et Joe!!! Faaitoito te faaipoipo!

*[editor's note: OLB = ouvrir la bouche, open the mouth]