oct. 10
hey everyone,
another week, another 5 pounds gained. just kidding. but seriously. i'm getting fat. it was kind of an exaggeration before, but the rolls are starting to muliply. this week was a particularly brutal food week because EVERYONE WANTS TO FEED US UNTIL WE CRY. seriously. the past four days, we've eaten 4 dinners. please kill me. guhh it feels so wrong but it tastes so right!! haha. there's this ice cream that they have here called taro ice cream--now taro is a type of root that is kiiiiind of like a potato but not really. how they came up with the idea to make ice cream out of that, i have no idea. (like "oh hey, here's this potato thing, that'd be a good dessert, right?" ooook...)anyway, it's the color of purple playdo. not sure how that happened either. but it is seriously the most delicious thing ever. i can't even explain what flavor it is. but IT'S SO GOOD. s. harline and i made a BTS cake (or as mom calls it "better than almost anything" cake) to take to one of our dinners, and it was quite the success. everyone was very impressed with our skills, especially since we didn't mention that we used a box mix for the cake. haaaWHOOPS. anyway, long story short: i eat a lot of food, and it is starting to show.
BUT. i'm going to learn how to tahitian dance this week! they're having a cultural night this friday with dancing and singing and story telling and duh, food, and we got invited to go to the practices, because there are investigators who are participating. so it'll be a nice double-whammy--supporting investigators, and learning how to shake it. UHN. i'm way excited though--the dances are so cool! i'm sure i'll look like a handicapped wild animal, but whatever. it'll be fun. and members love laughing at americans doing stupid stuff, so it'll be a great way for me to win affection by my stupidity. maybe if i get a video and figure out how to send it via mail you all can enjoy the show too. and then you can see how fat i am! haha.
this week was an AWESOME week. we taught like a bajillion lessons and got 5 new investigators who all seem really cool and ready. it's pretty amazing how you can see how peoples' paths have been prepared for them to receive the gospel. like this one family that we just started teaching--the dad is from france, and he met the missionaries when he was 24 but it didn't really stick, but now he's married and has three kids and is living in tahiti and they've all been coming to church for a month and he's like yeah i know this is true. i mean he comes to church in a shirt and tie and looks like he's been a member his whole life! and they prayed for the first time in our lesson without us even having to prod them along. it was so great. and their kids are super cute and funny--it makes it all the more awesome because they'll all get to go to the temple together someday. we just started teaching these two brothers too--18 and 15. the 15 year old is a little reluctant, but the 18 year old is totally solid. he really surprised me the other day in our lesson, because he was like "so how long do these lessons go for?" and was like "well there's 4 lessons that we have to teach you...what are you sick of us already?" and he laughed and was like "no i just wanted to know how long it was going to be before i could get baptized." WHAt?! OK! and he told us about how he prayed to know this was the true church and he got an answer and felt really good about it. hooray! he's a cool kid. and he trains roosters. so that's cool. haha.
so one of our recent converts is an old guy who only speaks tahitian, and he doesn't know how to read or write. so we're teaching him. it's really hard, but i love it. he's really eager to learn and it's really awesome to see his face light up when he gets a letter or a word. i made up little cards with the letters (luckily there's only like 13 letters in the tahitian alphabet and everything is phonetic) on them and a picture of something that starts with that letter to help him remember the sound. so we've been working a lot with that. it's slow-going for sure, but it's really cool. it feels good to know that we're really helping him. and since we started doing that, one of his daughters (not a member) has been sitting in on his lessons and she seems to like us a lot. i invited her to come to the cultural night, so hopefully she'll take up that invitation. our other investigators are doing pretty good. hahaha, we have one who's a 9 year old girl and she seriously has the memory of a goldfish. i'm not kidding. we'll tell her something, and 30 seconds later she can't remember what it was. for example, we were teaching about the spirit world and how the body stays in the earth and the spirit goes to paradise or prison, and every time we asked her "so where does the body go after you die?" and EVERY TIME she was like "...to paradise?" NO! GAH! seriously. at least 10 times. hahahaha. sometimes it makes me want to punch myself in the face. but she's really really cute and is starting to be less shy with us, so patience is just an attribute i'm going to have to work on. haha.
anyway, things are rolling along here. it's really fun to get new investigators, and it's definitely thanks to our ward mission leader who works hard. i'm learning more and more that ward members are really crucial to missionary work--without their references, we wouldn't have any of these new investigators. so this is my missionary pitch for this letter--help the missionaries! give them references! be brave! you don't need a tag to be a missionary. you will make the missionaries in your ward SO happy if you help them with references. it helps us to be more effective for sure. anyway, just remember that. other than that, things are good. transfers are coming up and we think that s. harline is probably going to get moved since she's done being trained and there are a few sisters going home in other areas that need to be replaced. it'll be weird to just be in a two-some like it should be normally. but s. taie is way cool--she is really funny and laughs so easily, so it brings a happy and optimistic spirit into our work. and she laughs at my jokes, which obviously makes me love her. we have private dance parties in the car driving from lesson to lesson, listening to church music. oh, did i ever tell you how contemporary church music makes me want to set myself on fire?! but i'm getting used to it.
ANYWAY. this is long, and harline is waiting for the computer. i love you all, and think you're great. OH BY THE WAY. written letters would be lovely, if you get the chance. i haven't gotten any since i've been here (a month, weee!), and i'm starting to feel neglected. boo hoo. write me.
Mission Mormone, B.P. 93
Papeete, Tahiti 98714
Polynesie Francaise
much love,
soeur hansen
