Iaorana tatou pauroa!

Let's get right to it.

Tuesday we saw several investigators, and it was just an all around good day because we were in an all around good attitude all day. I think the new transfer gave us a good kick of motivation and hope. Amazing what a good attitude can do right? Especially when both my companion and I are feeling it at the same time. Even that evening when we did some tracting in an upper class neighborhood for a few hours, talked to literally no one (well like two people finally, but they were not at all interested) but you know what? We had fun. We laughed it off.

Wednesday and Thursday were kind of the same, just trying to keep our spirits up and find anyone that would receive us. My favorite was probably Hi-, a nice man who invited us right in. He talked to us about his beliefs and unbeliefs, and a lot of things he said tied right into our message. Unfortunately he just kept talking so we couldn't get a word in edgewise, but that's okay. We'll do better next time, I think he's really cool and really needs the gospel.

He-'s been keeping us laughing all week. Half the time, he says stuff that's just random and funny, and then half the time he'll say something unexpected but very intelligent.

For example:

1. As we're about to leave, he calls out "Hey, my baptism's the 22nd!" then, pointing one by one to the 5 or so dogs and a pig "And he's the 23rd, he's the 24th, the 25th, the 26th, and the 27th!" And we reply, "Ok, you can baptize them. You'll have the Aaronic priesthood by then."
2. Every time we ask him "So who's going to baptize you?" "Me." "How are you going to baptize yourself?" "I'll just jump in the water."
3. Lesson on the Sabbath Day. "So on the Sabbath Day, everything you do for God, is good to do. Whatever you do only for yourself, is not good to do. For example, read the scriptures. That's for God. So should I do that?" "Yeah." "Exactly. What about going surfing? For you or for God?" "For God" "Um... yeah right. Try again!" "Hey, you have to show that you're grateful for the waves He gives us by not letting them go to waste!"
4. "So we talked about several commandments today. Will you keep these commandments? Will you try your best?" "Hey, God didn't say to do our best. He said to do it." (That's a yes in my book)
5. So he wasn't really giving us a straight final answer about if he feels ready to be baptized this Saturday. During a lesson on Wednesday, Soeur Ke- asked something like "So what are your doubts, what's keeping you from knowing right now if you're ready or not?" to which he just replied "... Well, it's important to think about it first." Fair enough, my friend. Anyway, we did end up pushing it back a week, Soeur Ke- and I both felt he needed just a little more time and finally he admitted yesterday that he felt the same. He's definitely going to be baptized, but needs a little more time to prepare. He has no major blocks, he doesn't smoke or drink, his family is okay with it, he has a testimony, and everything is going well, but this week just felt too rushed.

Anyway, that's the pretty much the week. Friday we went to the homecoming of our former Assistant to the President, who is from our ward. It was kinda weird because we're used to seeing him as a missionary but now he's released! We're not sure if we should call him by his first name or Brother Fa- (like his dad?) so we usually just go with Fa-. Saturday we visited inactives and new converts and helped out with a fireside about Joseph Smith and the Restoration. Sunday was Easter! It was lovely, everything at church was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection.

I love the words of the primary song, "He Sent His Son"

How could the Father tell the world of love and tenderness?
He sent his Son, a newborn babe, with peace and holiness.
How could the Father show the world the pathway we should go?
He sent his Son to walk with men on earth, that we may know.
How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice, of death?
He sent his Son to die for us and rise with living breath.
What does the Father ask of us? What do the scriptures say?
Have faith, have hope, live like his Son, help others on their way.
What does he ask? Live like his Son.

For God so loved the world that He sent His Only Begotten Son. I know that's true and that God loves you too! My go-to message this week was Alma 7:11-13 as well as Hebrews 4:15-16. Go look it up! Christ took on everything for us, for me, for you, so that he can help us overcome everything!

I love you too,
Soeur Ladd

Matavai Bay at sunset

Hello!

(I felt like changing it up a bit)

So transfers came around again, but Soeur Ke- and I will be staying together again! She is now officially my longest companion (one transfer in Raiatea, two transfers in Mahina) The only change in our house is that our roomate Soeur Ji- finishes her mission this week, and will be replaced by Soeur Te- (my mission niece, kindof, she's Soeur Sa-'s daughter.) However we did get a new automatic car so that's fun. It's all shiny and clean and smells like new car.

Tuesday we had a temple trip, wonderful. That evening we presented a fireside that we've been preparing for awhile, and it turned out well. Our zone prepared some funny sketches and short trainings to show our members the difference they can make instead of just telling them. We were a bit overdramatic but everyone laughed and they got the point. For example: Two elders knock on a house, are answered by a little girl. "Is your mom there?" "Yeah, just a minute." Little girl talks to mom, comes back. "Mom said that she's not here." (Elders later return to the same house, with a member, are received warmly by the mom.)

Wednesday we took a vaccine for one of the mosquito borne diseases, and were super tired for the rest of the day. Whoops. But hey, now we're protected so c'est bon. It was a good day anyway, we were able to see several investigators and inactives. Thursday was mission leadership council with President and Soeur Bize, which is always great! We set a mission goal for this month that will definitely push us all - fix three new baptisms in every secteur by the end of the month. We also talked about charity and unity, and like Elder Holland's talk that I mentioned, I was reminded of the importance of unity in our companionships, our wards and all other relationships. But I was also reminded that unity doesn't mean uniformity. We don't need to have the same ideas or opinions or personalities. Quite the opposite; true unity is harmony. Just like in music or art, there can be many instruments and colors, highs and lows, louds and softs, brights and darks, and all of that is what makes it more interesting! "Now, this is not to say that everyone in this divine chorus can simply start shouting his or her own personal oratorio! Diversity is not cacophony, and choirs do require discipline—for our purpose today, I would say discipleship—but once we have accepted divinely revealed lyrics and harmonious orchestration composed before the world was, then our Heavenly Father delights to have us sing in our own voice, not someone else’s. Believe in yourself, and believe in Him. Don’t demean your worth or denigrate your contribution. Above all, don’t abandon your role in the chorus. Why? Because you are unique; you are irreplaceable. The loss of even one voice diminishes every other singer in this great mortal choir of ours." -Elder Holland ;)

Awkward family photo of the Mahina Zone March 2017

Friday we followed up with a zone meeting and discussed our plans to attain the challenge previously mentioned. And we helped Na- with genealogy, so that Saturday we could go to the temple together for her to participate in proxy baptisms for the dead for the first time! It was lovely, I'm so proud of this girl and her testimony. 

Na- at her baptism

Na- at the temple

After the temple trip on Saturday we felt rather spoiled. (Let me remind you that Mahina has some very rich neighborhoods) First of all, our friend Ma-, that inactive woman we meet a few weeks ago, had invited us to crash a birthday party she was hosting for her friend's 4-year-old. I'm sure the (also rich) parents of the children were a little confused when we showed up, but Ma- pulled us right in and introduced us ("These are the Mormons, yeah us three we're all mormons!") and handed us some cake so we took advantage of the situation and got talking! Unfortunately we had missed the clown. Anyway, that evening, a member took us out for dinner. First stop, a beautiful hotel on the beach at sunset for non-alcoholic cocktails, followed by a nice Chinese restaurant, and a quick stop at McDonalds for dessert on our way home. Kinda makes me grateful I get to stay in Mahina :)

Tahiti Pearl Beach Resort

Matavai Bay at sunset

And to end the week, our ward's Primary organized a beautiful Easter/Passover fireside last night. Highlights were the music, three young future Celine Dion's singing "When You Believe" from Prince of Egypt, Soeur Si- sang "O Lord, My Redeemer", and Soeur Me- played "I Stand All Amazed" on the violin. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and remember the true meaning of Easter. It's as if not more important than Christmas. I know that our Redeemer lives and loves us, He suffered and died so that we can become someone better, and rose again the third day so that we can as well and so that we can be with our families forever.

Lots of love,
Soeur Ladd

#PRINCEdelaPAIX

Iaorana tatou pauroa,

We had a great, busy, and spiritual week this week with multizone conference, stake family week, a split, lessons, and general conference! General Conferences are my favorite weekends. It's like a second Christmas with the best gifts ever - the word of God straight from His Prophet and Apostles! But more on that later.

So Tuesday was multizone conference. I led a discussion on teaching clearly for understanding, and Soeur Ke- led a discussion about helping investigators overcome their preoccupations. There was also a helpful discussion about commitments, and I, as usual, concluded that I still need to be more bold! President Bize also shared the Church's Easter video #PRINCEdelaPAIX (www.mormon.org) and talked about peace and unity. The assistants to the President also talked about unity, and both of those messages reinforced my understanding that all tension or disunity results as a lack of understanding. As we learn more about, get to know, and try to understand other people, we will be more easily filled with love and can overcome hatred. That's why God loves us so perfectly - because he knows and understands us each perfectly. I can recall several occasions where I've been short on patience or frustrated with certain people or their actions, but then when I find out their side of the story- maybe they'd had a rough day, or were going through a certain trial, or were simply oblivious to my feelings - I realize that my patience was completely ungrounded, and it goes away, and we forgive, and we feel better and are filled with more love. "Learn principles of peace from the Prince of Peace." Our split with the sisters of Tuauru on Thursday was wonderful - Wednesday, we looked at our schedule for Thursday and realized that we had no lessons planned and weren't sure what else we should do. But throughout the day (Wednesday) we fixed lessons for almost every hour the next day, and then even when lessons cancelled we still had something to do. AND during that first lesson He- accepted a date for baptism! He's got a good testimony of the Book of Mormon and he loves Joseph Smith. Actually it was pretty funny - during the soirée cinema a week before, when we watched Meet the Mormons, one of his friends who has already taken the lessons told him that there was a Joseph Smith movie, and He- asked if we could watch that for the next soirée. We said we weren't sure when there would be another soirée but that perhaps we could watch it together during a lesson. So when we showed up for the lesson, before he even said hi, he just asked "Do you have the movie?" We didn't have a computer to watch it on, so we let him borrow the movie, and throughout the lesson he was anxious to finish the lesson so he could go watch it. So of course when we came back Thursday, naturally the first thing we asked was if he liked it, and he said "nah, it was too fast. The book is better." That works for me. Keep reading, my friend. But yeah, then we had a great lesson and engaged him to baptism and he said yes! Friday we had a great training in our district meeting about goals and plans, and it was based on math, which made me think of Mom ;) It went something like:

So xa+xb= x(a+b) for example 2x5+2x10= 2(5+10) 
Well: Goal + Plan + Action = Result. But what is the x? 
Jesus Christ (Goal+Plan+Action) = infinite results.

If we set goals that are in line with His will, if we plan as directed by His Spirit, and if we act relying and His power, we will have results with an infinite potential. "If Christ can multiply loaves and fishes, imagine what He could do with our lives." (This training was wonderfully supported by Elder Ballard's talk on Saturday about goals and planning)

Which brings me to GENERAL CONFERENCE!

What a wonderful weekend! We were able to go to our Ward Mission Leader's home, because they are so so nice and also speak fluent Englsih so they watch confrence in English (our chapel only does it in French). Plus they made pancakes. But more important than eating was feasting spiritually! Lots of talks stood out to me:

-Elder Holland - everyone has a place in the choir. Also reminded me of Mom ;) and also reminded me of the MTC - My dear Soeur Sa- had the courage to join the MTC choir with me even though she had never sung in a choir before. And she loved to sit by the Polynesians because they sang loud and always on pitch! Elder Holland explained that we should always stand as close to the Saviour as possible - "He always has perfect pitch." And that everyone is welcome in our choir! I also thought of the quote I shared a few weeks ago "The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best."

-I noticed throughout all the sessions that the scripture "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son" was repeated several times. If it's repeated, must mean it's really important! There were also many talks about the Holy Ghost, citing Doctrine and Covenants 130.

- So many other talks too but I don't have time for them all! Just one last one: Elder S. Mark Palmer talked about the need to teach with love, citing the story of the rich young ruler and the quote "Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him." True teaching always comes from love, not frustration, not fear as President Uchtdorf reminded us, but simply loving.

- And don't forget President Monson's invitation (reminder) to read the Book of Mormon EVERY DAY!

What did you learn this conference? I love you all so so much.

Soeur Ladd

[Editor's note: You can find all of the talks from General Conference HERE]

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