February 4, 2013

Pono's older sister has graciously to translate Sister Santos' French for us. Yay! I don't know about the rest of you, but I was starting to have a bit of trouble understanding her letters. Hope this helps some of you!

Ma chere famille,

 I love you sooo much! Thanks for the emails this week! I tried to respond personally to some of them, but I'll try and include most of the info in this one.
 So, this week was good! Comme d'hab. As usual (short for comme d'habitude) And I am so happy to be here in Paita with these people, meme s'il n'y a rien de faire ici. Even if there is nothing to do here.  hah. People keep coming out of the woodwork for us to teach. And it's really just a miracle to see how the Lord leads and guides this work. If we are obedient and do this work His way, with His Spirit, we cannot help but be successful. I have a strong testimony of that. Mostly because of this week.

 We were doing port a port door to door, Tuesday I believe. And, no one wanted this grand message that we have to share. hah. That happens here sometimes, but, I was walking down the road, starting to have a little pity party, making excuses to myself, saying, "Well this is a hard mission." Stuff like that, when all the sudden! Lightning struck my brain! (Well that must have hurt...) But seriously. I realized that I needed to stop and keep on walking and working until I'm past ready to keel over, because this mission is not hard. And because this work is rolling forth. And Heavenly Father is hastening this work across the world right now. Now, when I say this mission is not hard, I mean that it is no harder than any other mission. All missions are hard. Even Brasil, is hard. And I realized that as I was walking that day. So, from now on, this mission is not hard. And when I train, I will not say that this mission is hard to that new missionary, we will simply hit the ground running and find people to teach. Because that is how this work works. It is WORK. But it is marvelous. And the blessings that come are much greater than the daily hardships. Also. We are going to get more missionaries here! And I'm stoked. We're getting 6 more Soeurs before the month of June. And I'm so excited! We need more missionaries here. And It's just thrilling to see the work take off and the army of Helaman grow before my eyes!

 This week, we had our second exchanges, and I got to stay here in Paita and Soeur Marae came here. My first mother! And it was great! We found an ancien ami! (literally: old friend.  I think this means an investigator who was never baptized?  I asked Pono, but didn't get an answer when she wrote me back this week.) Her name is Aimee. And she is an older lady that we found while doing port a port door to door on Thursday. She took the lessons years ago, (When Soeur Cummins was here!) And she already has her testimony! Soeur Marae and I didn't know that though, til she let us and and we started talking. And we were talking when she pulled out a Cantique hymn book and a Livre de Mormon Book of Mormon and we were both like, "what the?" It was super cool! So yah, we talked with her and found out that she took the lessons quite some time ago and she knows that this church is true! And Soeur Marae lanced the invitation to be baptized on Feb 23! So we are going to work with her for hopefully that date! The truc trick/ thing is that her sister is sick, so she's in Noumea a lot. So we kinda just need to stop by and see when she's there. So hopefully that goes well. But yah. She's great! I love her! We also got a coordinee referral this week for a lady named Katherine. So we're gonna start teaching her this week. Stoked!

 And, I think it was Tuesday night, we came back from port a porting going door-to-door and were eating and talking a bit before dinner when the zone leaders called. And! They said that the Tahitian sister was coming here to Paita!! So, we have a new collegue! companion Soeur Tere. But that night, I was super excited, so I was running around like a crazy yelling, "We're getting a baby! A Tahitian baby!" hah. I'm crazy. But yah! She's here! And she's taller than me! By like one or two centimeters. She's super great! I love her! She has that MTC fire under her and asks everyone and their dog for coordinees. referrals Which I love. I gotta be more like that! But yah. We work hard together. So it's good. Plus! She speaks Tahitian like a boss. So, with any luck, I will speak at least three languages when I get back! English, French, and Tahitian. But yah! She's kinda like an answer to prayer. Cause Soeur Kailiponi and I are horrible at speaking French. hah. We set the goal during weekly planning chaque semaine. each week But the second half of this week has been good! Because we finally have a french speaker! So it's good. I'm loving it. Next week we're getting the American Soeur, Soeur Hall? And she's going to Magenta with Soeur Madsen and Lamb. Elder Santos knows her cause they were in the MTC a le meme temps. at the same time But yah. It's great! More Soeurs! And more on the horizon!

 I think that's about all for now. Oh! I think Becs like has a baby... Can someone fb stalk that crazy and tell her to write or email me and send me pics?! I wanna see!! But yah. I love this work! It's the best. I want to be a missionary a jamais! forever Because I have never been happier. I love you family! I miss you! Sache que vous etes dans mes prieres! Know that you are in my prayers! Et que je vous aime tous!  And I love you all! Vous Etes les meilleurs! You are the best! Merci pour vos prieres!  Thank you for your prayers!

 L'evangile est vrai!  The gospel is true!