Iaorana tatou,

Not much to report on this week! The work goes on.

Tuesday we had several lessons as usual, Wednesday I had a split with the wonderful Soeur No-. She served in Tuauru ( the other secteur of Mahina ) while I was in Matavai, and we reunited for a day in Mahina. It was lots of fun! She has a habit of doing the dishes after members feed us, whether they like it or not, and they always get very flustered which is funny. She said that people have even hid the dirty dishes in their fridge or stood in front of her with a knife but it doesn't phase her and she always wins out of pure stubbornness.

Thursday we watched Meet the Mormons for a neighborhood family home evening, and Friday we visited inactives. Saturday we were tracting in a richer neighborhood and found Ma-, an inactive woman who wants to come back to church! She's been inactive for a long time, so long that I'm not sure the ward even knows about her, but now she think's she's ready to try and come back. She has lots of questions and has probably forgotten a lot, but I'm so excited to help her!

Sunday we had a stake fireside, the same fireside that helped Br- from Matavai decide to be baptized a little over a year ago. It was a huge success last year so they decided to bring it back. It's a play about genealogy: in short, spirits in the spirit world ask if anyone has found their name to take to the temple to be baptized or sealed to their family. The actors represent their actual ancestors that they've found while doing family history work. It's hard to explain but let's just say everyone was crying. Side note: one of the character's middle name was Ladd! Maybe we're family!!

For my spiritual thought, I want to share a quote from a talk called the Fourth Missionary, about giving our will to God. "Trust Him that He will make of you, immeasurably more than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create of you an ordinary man. He will create a god." That's one thing I've learned on my mission! We of ourselves probably won't ever be enough, but with him we'll always be enough!

That's pretty much my week!

Are y'all ready for General Conference? I am!!!

Soeur Ladd

Iaorana tatou pauroa!

Na- is officially a member! Woohoo! Her baptism was Saturday morning, it was absolutely perfect! Her dad and brother came to support her, as well as lots of members. Two sisters in the ward gave the talks, and Frère H- did the baptism (as my companion described it, the most graceful and professional dip ever.) Then we sang for her, all 14 of us missionaries - our whole zone, plus Soeur Je- and her companion, with Soeur Me- on the violin: "Lead, Kindly Light." Then Na- bore her testimony, which was super powerful. It was raining really hard, but then it stopped all suddenly and dramatically right as she finished by saying "I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is true." And then there was a sweet moment after as her dad (not a member) hugged her. He came to church yesterday for her confirmation and stayed the whole three hours. We hope to maybe teach him too one day.

On Saturday we also had the opportunity to go back to Mahaiatea for the baptism of Sh-, an investigator that I knew. I didn't teach her extensively, but we were friends with her because her dad is a convert and she always came to our regular family home evenings. We were really surprised when we found out she would be baptized! She was pretty much against the Church and Joseph Smith. But hearts can change! Miracles can happen Plus, it was nice to see everyone again. We picked up Soeur Lu- on our way. It was a real party ;)

That's the most important parts of our week! Things are moving along. I've got to go pick my classes for next semester now. Yikes! Less than three months left, can you believe it? Hoping that these will be the best three months of my mission yet.

Love you all!

D&C 112:10 "Be thou humble, and the Lord thy God will lead thee by the hand and give thee answer to thy prayers"

Soeur Ladd

Iaorana tatou pauroa!

Miracle #1: N- chose this coming Saturday for her baptism! I'm so proud of her, she's very brave. She'll be the only member of her family, she hardly knows anyone at Church, her parents aren't even that okay with it. But she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that it teaches the correct path for us to return to our Heavenly Father, so she's going forward. An amazing example of faith. Salvation is personal so don't let anyone stand in your way.

Miracle #1.5: The members are doing an excellent job of welcoming her into the ward, even though she can be a bit shy.

Miracle #2: On Monday night we stopped by to check on a less active family. As we were leaving a young boy came up and said that his grandfather wanted it see us. Turns out the grandfather and his family are members from Bora Bora who were staying with the friend of a friend for a few days. Upon seeing us next door, he started talking to this friend of a friend (who he hardly knew) and asked if he'd like to meet us. He accepted, and we fixed a lesson for the following day. He's very nice and wants to learn more about God. Take every opportunity to open your mouth!

Miracle #3: H-, who we started teaching the other week didn't seem like he was really paying attention as we taught him about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon, but when we ran in to him the next day, he said he had started reading the Book of Mormon and ended up reading until 3 in the morning! Gotta love the power of the Book of Mormon.

Miracle #4: we found C-! Turns out she had been right there in the valley all along. Luck would have it, (more than luck probably) we had parked right in front of their house to try and see someone nearby, and her boyfriend say us and motioned for us to come (I hadn't recognized him). It was a relief to finally see her again.

Miracle #5: A less active mami that we've been visiting for months finally made it back to church. Plus it was Ward Conference, which turned out very well. Coincidentally, they mentioned several times helping less actives come back to church and feel welcome there.

So as you can see, it was a great week! I especially liked our Bishop's message yesterday, about that Little Engine That Could. Unlike the bigger, more capable engines who passed by because they were too busy or tired, the little blue engine, like the Good Samaritan, searched no excuse, but stopped to help with the well known saying "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can" which soon turned into "I knew I could" as he reached the summit of the hill. Let us think we are capable and we will find that we are! Or at least with God's help, we will be. "For I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day" (Alma 36:3) I also read a cute quote yesterday: 


Je vous aime! 
Soeur Ladd

Iaorana tatou pauroa!

How has your week been? We're doing well here in Tahiti! Soeur K- and I are together again, and Soeur Me- is our new roommate too, so the Raiatea gang is back together!

Not too much to report this week. One highlight was the baptism of L-, who you might remember was a reference from a couple in our ward for the secteur of Matavai. L- and R- came to all of the activities the week before last, and during one of the firesides L- received a direct answer to her prayer, so the next day they fixed her baptism for less than a week later. It was super quick, one of those obvious miracle baptisms. R- is on the path to become fully active again as well. I'm so proud of them, as well as the members who have been with them every step of the way.

Wednesday morning we had a lesson cancelled and while driving to the next one we saw them walking in the opposite direction. It was a fun start to the day. While thinking about what we should do instead, I thought of a potentiel investigator and a few houses nearby that I hadn't talked to yet, but when I saw that the investigator wasn't there it wasn't too encouraging. But we tried the other houses anyway, and after calling "Iaorana" in front of the last one for a few minutes, we were about to leave - but then they came out, pulled up some chairs and we talked for a good hour. Despite me following grudgingly, I know Heavenly Father led us to them.

Thursday was Mission Leadership Council. President Bize focused on faith, specifically what can impede or destroy our faith and what we can do to overcome that (based on a talk by Elder Pearson of the Seventy). Elder Pearson named six destroyers of faith: doubt, discouragement, distractioin, lack of diligence, disobedience, and unbelief or skepticism. We named lots of things that would overcome these blocks, such as gratitude, sincerity in prayer and scripture study, planning, optimism, and a fake it till you make it attitude. But most of all, a correct understanding of why we're here and a correct understanding of the Atonement. As President Uchtdorf said, "doubt you doubts before you doubt your faith."

Lots of love,
Soeur Ladd