Soeur K returned to visit Soeur D and Soeur Ladd (thanks for sharing!)

Happy Conference Weekend!

General Conference is the best, it's basically like Christmas for us missionaries. more on that later though.

Tuesday started off strong, we'd decided to make a new goal that we'd leave everyone we talked to, ami de l'église, nouveau converti, peu importe, with at least scripture and a prayer. Et voilà, one of the first investigators we talked to on Tuesday said she didn't have time for a lesson right then, but we begged her for like 2 minutes to share a little scripture and after a few minutes she finally said yes. And we had an awesome hour long lesson with her! Soeur D shared a scripture she had read that morning, and it was exactly what she needed. Funny how that works, huh? The Church is true!

The other main news for this week is the son of our ward mission leader (DMP, or Papa). He's been kinda sickly and not himself for about a month, and they took him to the doctor several time, but the doctor said it wasn't a big deal, he'd get better soon, and gave them some medicine that didn't work. Finally last Tuesday they took him to the hospital and it turns out he has RAA, a heart problem. He and Maman (DMP's wife) flew to New Zealand last friday for surgery. They'll be gone for about three months so he can recover. We just got the news about an hour ago that the operation went well! But it will still be hard over the next few months as he recovers. And for us too, without Maman around! I'm not even kidding, Maman and Papa are our adopted parents here. So just send some prayers this way for Tauaroa! Conference was awesome, comme d'hab! It was also very early, 6am. But better early than days later for the translation. I especially liked a talk from Elder Hallstrom of the seventy, who talked about God as our loving Heavenly Father. That's actually the first principle of the first lesson we teach. And for a good reason! That knowledge can guide us in our life if we let it.

As usual, the members are going to kick me out soon because I've spent too long writing. Je vous aime! Continue to study General Conference! I know if you listen with a question in mind, you will receive the personal revelation that you've been looking for.

Avec amour,
Soeur Ladd

Today is transfers which means I've been here for one whole transfer, and les bleus will be coming in tonight which means I will no longer be the baby district! I know several of les bleus, those that will be coming from Provo. Transfer calls came in last Friday night - the big sporting event of the Tahiti Papeete mission. Apparently some sisters had a whole March Madness transfer bracket going or something. As for me and Soeur D, President had actually confirmed a few days before, via our Ward Mission Leader, that we will be staying together to finish my training. Phew! These next weeks will be awesome, another chance to make our companionship even better.

So last P-day after I finished my mail, we went shopping in Papeete with Soeur D's MTC companion, Soeur K, which was a lot of fun and I can now say that I have drunk out of a coconut (spoilers: it's not all that great). Afterward, our housemates had planned for a hike with one of the members in their ward. Soeur D and I said we'd probably stay home, since she was just barely getting over her cold and I was pretty tired too. But soeur ma said that don't worry, it'll only be half an hour, more of a walk than a hike really, and besides, the Elders want us all to be there. (Tahitian lesson for today: ma loosely translates to "and the people/thing with it" so like Soeur D ma means Soeur D and her companion, elder ma or soeur ma means "that group of elders/sisters over there." I hope that makes sense somewhat. It's really convenient and I wish we had it in English!) Anyway, we somewhat begrudgingly go along, calculating that we'd still have about an hour afterwards for a nap. QUELLE BLAGUE. We drive up the mountain and find our guide and his daughter, get to the cute little trail, I'm thinking, well this is nice and pretty, not too hard, just walking down a nice path in the mountains. A while passes and I start wondering when we're going to start hiking back up, because all we're doing is walking down, and our cars were still at the top. But we just keep walking, and the trail isn't so much of a trail at some points, but this papi seems to know where he's going. And then after what felt like at least an hour or more, he looks at us and says, "are you ready to go back up?" and proceeds to lead us straight up through the bushes on the forty five degree mountain side! Needless to say, we were late to our family home evening and we didn't get a nap. We did get some nice pictures though, so there's that.

Another funny moment of the week... actually no, i think it was two weeks ago but oh well. We were watching the movie about Joseph Smith with all our investigators, and there's one part where Joseph Smith is talking to Brigham Young. Soeur D leans over to me suddenly and says "Hey look it's our ancestors!" Soeur D is the great grand something niece of Joseph Smith and I'm the great something niece of Brigham Young, so it was a nice little moment that we shared.

I hope everyone had a happy Easter! President Bize asked us to read 2 Nephi 2:5-8 last week, so I add that to what I already said about Easter last week. I'm out of time but just know that I hope that you remember the true purpose of Easter - to celebrate the Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This season we celebrate our very salvation! "Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth!"

Avec amour,

Soeur Ladd

This week we've been packed; lots and lots of lessons. About a third of them were actually with inactives and recent converts, they seem to really need our help right now. Enduring to the end is tough! Especially because, some parts of our secteur, well... Let's just say it's hard to be a Saint in Babylon. But the Gospel and the Book of Mormon are powerful! In the strength of the Lord we can do all things.

Dad pointed out that I haven't said much about the food here. It's really good! Lots of rice and bread as promised, and poisson cru is as good as promised. I've only had poisson cru chinois as far as I know, it's like raw fish and carrots and cucumbers in some sort of yummy sauce. You know that cucumber and tomato salad that mom makes? It tastes kinda like that I think. I haven't yet tried poisson cru au lait coco (coconut milk) but apparently it's even better. I also have not tried fafaru, the infamous terrible smelling but supposedly good tasting fish dish, but I've been promised that we're eating it this week... tune in next Monday to see if I survived ;) I haven't eaten anything too crazy. Soeur D has eaten poison shark, before I was here, so that's cool. She's great friends with the local ambulance driver.

I don't think I said either how much Tahiti reminds me of my years in Morocco. That was one of my first impressions when I got here. There are obvious differences as far as culture and religion of course, but as far as French occupation making it's mark, and the presence of the French bread and chocolate I missed, it reminds me of Morocco in lots of little ways.

Well apparently it's Pâques already! I feel like it was just Christmas. Mom asked me an interesting question: If you had 30 minutes on Easter Sunday with a congregation of 7,000, what would you base your talk on?

As President Uchtdorf said, "On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most long-awaited and glorious event in the history of the world. It is the day that changed everything. On that day, my life changed. Your life changed. The destiny of all God’s children changed." Parau mau, tera. You remember those scriptures I shared a few weeks ago, in my discourse on hope? I think that's the message of Easter for me this year "And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise." Many people wonder why Mormons don't use crosses. The answer is, simply, His Atonement is about more than His death on the cross, it's about the fact that He lives again, He lives still, and He lives to "succor his people according to their infirmities."

If we don't feel like we're good enough, if we don't think we're worthy of His Atonement, then we don't truly understand what the Atonement is, much less have faith in it. We're inevitably gong to make mistakes, often the same ones over and over again, but the Lord cares much more about the direction we're headed than the time it takes to get there. (I think that's a quote from someone but I don't know who)

"He lives to silence all my fears.
He lives to wipe away my tears.
He lives to calm my troubled heart.
He lives all blessings to impart...
Oh sweet the joy this sentence gives:
I know that my Redeemer lives!"

Joyeuses Pâques!
Tuahine Ladd



#hallelujah

So.

There's this one couple, and they've been taking the lessons for months. We visit them usually about four times a week (that's a lot) and to be honest, I usually would leave frustrated. Their baptism was fixed for the beginning of March, but in the weeks leading up to it I would just look at them and honestly I wasn't sure if they would ever be ready. As B, the husband, would say - "Qui ne veut pas douter?" (Who wouldn't doubt?) Anyway, it's a week before their original date, and they haven't finished their papers for the wedding so we have to push it back a week. We hoped that the extra time would help them get ready.

And then that next week we really started to feel hopeless, and couldn't tell if they were really progressing enough. Plus, B decided to cancel his baptism indefinitely because not only did he feel forced into it, he had some serious drug problems he wasn't willing to give up. But, in case you missed my last few letters - apparently I did - we should NEVER be hopeless!!! Sorry, backtracking, we'll start with Saturday before last. We'd fixed the interview for him and his wife (well, soon to be wife, it's complicated here), and though he had cancelled his baptism, we decided to go forward with the interview for his wife. She still wanted to be baptized, but she had her own problems and frankly we were a little skeptical. Anyway, they have the interview, and decide that she was almost ready but needed one more interview on Tuesday. She then fasted that night and was able to quit smoking!!

B on the other hand was still struggling. But Monday our ward mission leader calls us and tells us to schedule a second interview for Tuesday. Um, what? Come to find out, B had had a major change of heart - like I'm talking Alma the Younger sized change of heart - because of the fireside on Sunday (about ordinances for the dead). We talked to him after his interview, and, well suffice it to say that we were cynical and needed to be humbled. He had changed so quickly and the only way to describe it was a miracle. Our district leader, who did the interview, said that T (the wife) was good to go for Friday, and for B we would wait for the next Friday to give him some time to "haapapu." (make things sure/steady) We were cool with that because it was much much better than we'd ever believed.

Well our lesson on Wednesday rolls along, and all of a sudden he seems to be wavering a little. After what we'd seen the day before, we couldn't believe it! He was once again doubting his faith in himself and obviously his faith in the Atonement. But those feelings are normal so we figure we'll still sort things out for the next week.

Thursday afternoon/evening. Ward mission leader calls us - "B wants to be baptized tomorrow, with his wife. Is it possible?" Once again we are hesitant. Is it sincere? Is he feeling forced again? If he gets baptized tomorrow will he be able to hold on and stay active afterward? But before we can even leave the lesson we were at, B tracks us down: "I'm getting baptized tomorrow, with my wife."

Anyway, enough blabbering - long story short we had a marriage and two baptisms and it was beautiful and possibly the biggest miracle I've seen so far on this mission!

That pretty much took up the whole week, so there's not much else to say. Well actually, a few funny stories because Saturday was just a really funny day for some reason:

1. During our morning studies WE got tracted by the JWs. Our nametags didn't even phase them, they gave us pamphlets and everything.

2. Soeur K was exploring some of the more obscure and sketchy pockets of Soeur D's bag and found trail mix from the plane ride here (7 months ago) and a who-knows-how-old squashed panini.

3. Elder and Sister H from the mission office stopped by that night, and as we were standing in the hall watching Elder H change our bathroom lightbulb (more on that later) Soeur D finds some ants and asks where ant killer spray stuff is. Soeur K grabs the spray from her room. Sr H: "That's for cockroaches." Sr K: "Oh, no wonder it hasn't been working for the ants." (I dunno, maybe that's one of those you-had-to-be-there moments)

4. And the crowning moment: our bathroom light. Our bathroom light hasn't been working for the past few weeks, but the light cover is weird so we couldn't get it off to change the lightbulb. There's a light above the mirror that works occasionally, but we've pretty much been showering in the dark for the past three weeks. Elder H was at the house Friday night because Soeur D has a minor infection on her foot (it's better now), so we asked him about it and he came back Saturday to fix it. He figures out how to get the cover off, changes the light, but... it still doesn't work. So we stand around stumped for a few moments, and then he walks over and flips a switch. On the other side of the room. That had been there THE WHOLE TIME. Not to mention, this is the bathroom that is shared by Soeur D, Sr K, and me, the three almost blonde-ish Americans. Apparently Soeur D had noticed the switch a few weeks ago, flipped it a few times, "Huh. Doesn't do anything." And we've been in thee dark ever since.

Well that's all for today folks. Happy Pi Day! I didn't even notice. Probably because here it's 14/3/2016, not 3/14/2016. Also, Soeur K heads home tomorrow - wish her luck!

Avec amour, Soeur Ladd

Photos: (sorry they didn't work last week)

We went on a hike last week on the other side of the island. The sun's back!

T and B at their marriage!

Chère famille et chers amis!

Well yesterday I finished my second planner, in other words it's been almost 12 weeks!

One highlight of the week was the baptism of T - if you think you know what a golden investigator is, you don't because you haven't met T. As I understand it, the first time the missionaries met him, he came up and said, "Hey, I'm going to be baptized on March 1st, can I take the lessons?" "Um... Sure! That would probably be a good idea!" That was a month or two ago, and last Tuesday the day (his 20th birthday) finally came. The week before as we were finishing up the lessons he said "I'm just fiu of waiting for my baptism!" He was baptized by his best friend, K, which is the reason he is such a model investigator - he was so well prepared by the members, K and his family, that we had hardly any work to do. T is already preparing for his mission, and A (our ward missionary and basically best friend because he works with us so much and brings us food when we're busy but hungry) predicted that he'll be stake president in about four years.

On Saturday we had an awesome lesson with la famille T - they are an adorable family that was baptized together about 5 months ago perhaps. 8 baptisms at once! That lesson was one of the moments when I get reminded suddenly of "yeah, I live on an island and I'm basically real life the Other Side of Heaven here." We're sitting on the floor of their half built new house/hut about 10 yards from the sea, just after sunset, singing "Sercret Prayer" by lamplight (as a general rule that's the favorite hymn of Tahitians) with a humble little out-of-tune choir of one big family. All of the children knew it by heart. That's one of the happy little moments that you never quite forget. These past few days were certainly a light at the end of the tunnel after some craziness. Literally - the sun is coming back after weeks and weeks of rain!

My advice for this week would be Moroni 7:33 - with faith, we can accomplish all that Christ asks of us. Whether it be overcoming an addiction, like many of my investigators and recent converts, or learning to love a new culture and language, or having hope even when it seems everything is going wrong, the light at the end of the tunnel is always the Atonement of Jesus Christ. As I said last week, that's how hope is even possible anyway!

I know this email is short but hopeully last weeks discourse will make up for that. Ua here au ia outou! Faaitoito!

Tuahine Ladd

[editor's note: she included these descriptions, but attached no pictures!]

Bonjour les amis!

So apparently the theme of this week was HOPE. Here's why: It starts, actually, with my mom's email from last week. She included this excerpt from an article about hope: (from: Hope: The Misunderstood Sister By Larry Hiller)

I think of them as three famous sisters whose names are frequently linked, always in the same order: Faith, Hope, and Charity. They are mentioned several times in the New Testament and with remarkable frequency in the Book of Mormon.

Of the three, Faith may be the most well known and popular, the one whose companionship is sought most often. She’s active and energetic, definitely the can-do type. Faith can move mountains, if necessary.

I picture Charity as being modest and refined, beautiful and gracious. In her presence you feel genuinely loved and accepted. She’s unfailingly kind and generous, patient, empathetic, aware of every need, and responsive without being asked. How could you not want the companionship of someone like Charity?

Then there’s Hope, who seems to have a problem with the way people perceive her. It may be her name and the way it’s commonly used: “I hope the car passes inspection.” Or, “I hope the weather will be nice for the wedding.” Used this way, the word hope is the verbal equivalent of keeping your fingers crossed. Consequently, many seem to think Hope is unsure, even fickle—she may or may not grace you with her companionship. But surely that’s not the kind of hope our Father in Heaven commands us to have. Nor would it be the kind of hope our Savior offers.

...
I see Hope more clearly now. She is serene. Her eyes have the deep, knowing look of someone well acquainted with sorrow, the luminosity of recently being wet with tears. Hope has the confidence of one who clearly sees a bright future even when the next hours seem fog shrouded. Hope is steady and strong, a friend I am glad to have beside me during my own trials.


So I read that on Monday, thought it was pretty cool, but didn't think too much about it after that. Then I get to mes études on Tuesday morning, and with that article in the back of my head, everything I studied was about hope (and the Atonement, you can't have one without the other really)! I'd made a new goal to start every personal study by studying a hymn, so I read hymn number one, "The Morning Breaks," the first verse of which says:

The morning breaks, the shadows flee;
Lo, Zion's standard is unfurled!
The dawning of a brighter day,
The dawning of a brighter day
Majestic rises on the world.

Pretty hopeful, huh? It may or may not be even prettier in French. Next I was reading in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah chapter 16, and I read this:

6 And now if Christ had not come into the world, ... there could have been no redemption.

7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.

8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.

9 He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

As I said, the Atonement of Christ, which this teaches about, is all about hope. It gets better though. The night before, I'd decided to read a favorite conference talk during my personal study the next day, "Where Justice, Love, and Mercy Meet" by Elder Holland. And guess what? It's about the SAME THING. You should go read it, but here's my favorite parts: (sorry if you're getting tired of my scripture study recap, but it was really cool and it's worth your time to read this. But skip to the bottom for more mission stories if you must.)

What a plight! The entire human race in free fall—every man, woman, and child in it physically tumbling toward permanent death, spiritually plunging toward eternal anguish. Is that what life was meant to be? Is this the grand finale of the human experience? Are we all just hanging in a cold canyon somewhere in an indifferent universe, each of us searching for a toehold, each of us seeking for something to grip—with nothing but the feeling of sand sliding under our fingers, nothing to save us, nothing to hold on to, much less anything to hold on to us? Is our only purpose in life an empty existential exercise—simply to leap as high as we can, hang on for our prescribed three score years and ten, then fail and fall, and keep falling forever?

The answer to those questions is an unequivocal and eternal no!...

...today we celebrate the gift of victory over every fall we have ever experienced, every sorrow we have ever known, every discouragement we have ever had, every fear we have ever faced—to say nothing of our resurrection from death and forgiveness for our sins. That victory is available to us because of events that transpired on a weekend precisely like this nearly two millennia ago in Jerusalem.

And to finish it off, last one I promise, I spent the last few minutes of my study time looking up scriptures about hope, because at this point I couldn't help but think about that, and this last scripture in Moroni chapter 7 sums it up well:

40 And again, my beloved brethren, I would speak unto you concerning hope. How is it that ye can attain unto faith, save ye shall have hope?

41 And what is it that ye shall hope for? Behold I say unto you that ye shall have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of your faith in him according to the promise.

42 Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope.

Can you see how these all link together? We all could use a little more hope in our lives, and we find that by gaining a better understanding of the Atonement. (And that was just Tuesday morning, but as I said this was the theme of our whole week!)

After personal study every morning, an hour for us to spend time studying the scriptures and other materials on our own, we have companionship study, an hour of us studying together. I was sharing with Soeur D about my study and she said something along the lines of "it's really cool when personal study has a theme like that, and usually it's preparing you for something you or someone you talk to needs to hear later." I said she was probably right, and throughout the rest of the day I kept it in the back of my head ready to whip it out in case someone needed it. I figured myself a pretty hopeful person, so it didn't really occur to me that maybe it actually was for me too.

Apparently not only did I need to work on humility, but I did indeed need to learn about hope. That night we had a lesson where I was really struggling to feel the Spirit, even though based on what we were talking about it should have been really strong. The reason was mostly because we were meeting with investigators that were supposed to be getting baptized this week, but we could tell that they were still struggling to keep certain commitments, if they were even trying at all. I came home that night and told Soeur D, "maybe you're right, I could use a little more hope for our investigators." Wednesday evening was emotionally actually pretty awful. We went on splits, and a member and I returned to visit the investigators previously mentioned. It was obvious that they were anything but ready to be baptized this week, for several reasons that I won't go into. Meanwhile, my companion was visiting an awesome investigator who was supposed to be baptized last Friday (actually she's had about seven baptismal dates so far) and once again pushing back her baptism. So that day was fun. Not really because baptisms were pushed back or whatever, it's not about numbers or anything, but just watching wonderful people who know the truth letting Satan do n'importe quoi with their lives!

So Wednesday was generally rough, but there's always another day and we were determined to have HOPE. And even though the problems didn't/haven't gone away, Thursday was much better because we were determined to have a darn better day, whether the day liked it or not! And actually it was just a really funny day. For one thing, we are in the middle of companionship study and we hear Soeur K and Soeur R, two of our roommates, scream from the other room. We go out into the salon and THERE WAS A CHICKEN IN THE HOUSE. Literally one of the funniest things I've seen here. There are chickens everywhere here, like seriously everywhere. Like you know all the stray cats in Morocco? Here it's the dogs and stray chickens, with a good number of cats thrown in too. Anyway, the poor terrified thing ran all around through the house, jumping in some of the sister's closets and everything and basically just hilarious. With that start to our day, we were in a much better mood, and we shared that verse in Moroni 7 with several people we visited. We're still struggling to work on our hope, but the work is good and it will all work out if we have trust in the Atonement. It's still raining all the time, the mosquitos are eating me alive, bikes on dirt roads turned rivers are an experience and C'EST BIEN LES AMIS! A few quick funny stories to finish off:

One day we finally found a few minutes to OLB, or ouvrir la bouche, in other words contacting (the work is always busy here in Matavai and we spend so much time in lessons with amis that we hardly have time to find new ones! can't really complain there though). It was the first time that Soeur D was asking me to walk up to a random stranger on the street and start talking to them, and while I knew that was inevitable it was still a little bit terrifying. So as I'm standing there in the middle of the street wondering what to do, I see a friendly looking young man down the alley. Soeur D had her back to him but he looked over and I sort of waved to him while I was talking to her, and, well, long story short, he basically contacted us. This man loves to talk. He could see we looked a bit American and he wanted to practice his English with us. It's hard to describe other than he contacted us - he started the conversation, he asked us for our contact info and said we could come back for a lesson, and this sounds like he was creepy or something but I promise it's not like that, he's just super funny! We haven't gotten a chance to go see him yet but I'll let you know how it goes if we do. I think he'd really like our message, if we get a word in edgewise that is. It was truly a tender mercy though, because I was nervous for my first contact so Heavenly Father sent someone to show me how it's done!

Okay so our neighbors across the street have a habit of playing obnoxiously loud music, mostly bizarre Tahitian-y island remixes of vaguely pop music. It's rather annoying, but that's okay because we love everyone. Anyway, yesterday I was enjoying the peace and quiet during personally study, the occasional bells from the bright pink Protestant church across the street, but by the time we started comp study, the music was back on. We were trying to be patient, but I jokingly said "makes me want to blast my MOTAB right back at them," and because Soeur D was so fiu (sick and tired of everything) because the way the rest of the day was going, she actually grabbed her speakers and did it! It was pretty entertaining. Plus the three houses around us are all members, (the ones with the music are inactive) so I'm pretty sure they all could see what we were doing. We are great Christlike missionaries, huh?

Anyway that's about it for this week. I had my first baptism! G is so sweet and funny. But yeah I hope this email is long enough for y'all ;)

God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!

Tuahine Ladd

the beautiful Tahiti temple!

Hitimahana, a poorer area we we do some of our work, and despite the poverty this country is beautiful!

the lighthouse at Point Venus, a park on the beach where we do some lessons

I saw the sun! This is the beach next to Hitimahana.

Soeur S and I at the temple on the first day, before we got separated!

G's baptism!

there was a chicken in the closet

our little buddy, the fat dog with giant eyes