Iaorana tatou!

Hey guess what day it was?

HUMP DAY!

♫♫  Ohhhh we're halfway there ohh ohhhh livin' on a prayer! ♫♫

Last Friday marked my 9 months with the plaque (nametag). I felt the song reference was very applicable. Last December Soeur S and I entered the MTC together, and last Friday we were together again during our district meeting. I still find it funny, and awesome, that we both came to Raiatea together and now are both training. What's more, our 'daughters' were companions in the MTC as well!

Speaking of our district, we've officially changed our name from the Raiatea District to the Relief Society District. Before, we were 6 sisters and 4 elders, but Elder T and Elder I from the secteur of Fareatai left last week, and in a few weeks will be replaced with a senior couple. But for the moment we are 6 sisters and 2 elders, and they fell a little overpowered. We even had refreshments after district meeting (cake for Elder G's birthday last week). In any case, we had another good week. Papi P is getting closer and closer to baptism, and we hope to set a date this week. D is still struggling, he's got a lot of blocks he needs to get over before he's feels ready, especially alcohol. But the support of members will really help.

Mami R is doing awesome. It was pretty funny last Saturday - we went for her lesson at 10, and her daughter was with us but her son-in-law, our translator, wasn't there yet, so we waited around for a bit. Eventually we gave up waiting and started teaching with our broken Tahitian, and her daughter trying her best to translate as well. Finally her son-in-law arrived and re-explained everything we'd taught. By the end of that, we had spent three hours with her! In the afternoon, we came back to teach her daughter-in-law, and she came back and listened to us again! Obviously she wasn't sick of us yet! Compare that to her attitude before, when she would never even talk to the missionaries. When she came back for the lesson with her daughter-in-law, we were able to invite both of them to baptism - they didn't say no, they didn't say yes. They had a lot of new information to process, so they aid they'd think about it, pray about it. We're starting to notice some suspicious opposition in the family, it seems like some of the sons and daughters are trying to keep her away from us. But that's okay, Heavenly Father is on our side.

This week we taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and ended up focusing a lot on the pre-mortal life. She's got a strong Christian background, and knows the Bible very well, but she'd never even thought about a pre-mortal life and was really surprised by that idea. I've taught the Plan of Salvation so many times, but it's the first time I really focused on that, and why it's even important for me personally.

Our life started long before our birth. Heavenly Father is literally our Father, for He is the Father of our spirits. We lived with Him as spirits before our birth, and He knows each of us individually. However, we were not like Him, and in order to receive the blessing He has, He sent us here to earth to learn and progress. It's a pretty big deal.

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16) He knows me personally. He knows you personally. Ua here te Atua ia tatou.

Ua here au ia outou!
Tuahine Ladd 

 Oh, happy news - C, an investigator I taught in Matavai, was baptized on Saturday, and H, who I talked about several weeks ago, will be baptized this coming Saturday!