Iaorana tatou,

Hope you all had a good week! This week felt like we were "back to normal" because the past few weeks have been so busy getting ready for the baptism and zone conference and all that good stuff. We taught a ton of lessons and found some potential investigators and worked with members and all around pretty normal week. Sorry to disappoint but we did absolutely nothing to celebrate Thanksgiving. Hope you all had a great holiday! To make up for it, here's some tender mercies I'm grateful for this week: 

• We had some time to spare when a lesson fell through so we tried some contacting and the first "door we knocked on" (gate we yelled "iaorana!" at) was a woman who had just gotten home from her aunt's funeral. The aunt's family lived next door and as we were talking to her, the aunt's brother came over, turns out he's a member from another island and he asked us to teach his nieces. We were able to share a message of the Plan of Salvation with them and I hope it comforted them in their time of need! We've stopped by a few other times and will see them again this week.
• We may have found a loophole so that J-Y- and G- can get baptized sooner that we thought! They are getting fiu (sick and tired) of waiting.
• Th- had a few doubts early last week and wanted to quit the lessons, but thought over it and decided to keep going.
• A- is so awesome about encouraging Th- (and sharing the gospel with his other friends too). Who would have thought that A- of all people would be encouraging his friends to go to church! He even taught family home evening last night! He's a great little missionary, we're so proud of him. 
• M-'s judgement went all right! It's not over yet, but at least he's not in prison. J-Y- and G- are amazing, they've basically adopted M- and 3 or 4 other young new converts.
• Yesterday we met Al-, who goes to the english classes that our roommates teach. We taught him the first lesson and he came to church after, he loved it!
• Primary Program. Adorable. (plus I got to enjoy it because I didn't have to play piano) 

Dad asked me to talk more about my secteur. At first it was weird to be back on Tahiti with so many cars and people but I've gotten used to it. Mahaiatea is actually quite big comparatively, not as long as Uturoa but very deep, if that makes any sense. From the main road that goes around the island, there are a bunch of neighborhoods that stretch back into the mountains. One of the bigger sister's biking secteurs on the mainland, let's go with that. So there's plenty to do and our ward is great. This year they've had several new converts, most of them young adults, who are super cool and help us a lot. We've got probably one of the biggest, nicest houses in the mission (and the landlord has hinted at moving us into the bigger, nicer house next door). Unfortunately the chapel is not in our secteur, it's kind of far, but we make do. If I stop being lazy about it, I might send some pictures of the secteur soon.

My spiritual thought for you this week is to GO WATCH THE CHRISTMAS VIDEO. And then share it. And share it again. Let's light the world with our Christlike service!

Love,
Soeur Ladd
#éclairezlemonde
#lighttheworld