oct. 3
hey everybody,
not too much time to write because we're sharing the computer between 3 people. but i do have some exciting news: today i became a real woman. i drove for the first time in tahiti, even into the city. and it was raining. i was cool as a cucumber, zooming in and out of lanes, just like a native baby. haha not really. but in any case, i made my debut driving in the mission, and i am alive to tell the tale.
anyway, how 'bout that general conference, eh? so great! definitely just what i needed. although i will admit, it made me a little homesick to see temple square and the conference center! just thinking about going to kneaders to get french toast before heading up to the session....sigh. it was weird not to be there! but oh well. i really loved president monson's talk, but all of them were good. i was disappointed not to be able to hear elder holland's talk, but i guess i'll just read it when it comes out in the liahona. oh yeah by the way. remember how conference is at 10am in the US? oooh right remember how tahiti is 4 hours behind america? guess who watched conference at 6 in the morning? THIS GIRL. and believe it or not, this was the first conference where i didn't fall asleep in any of the sessions. i've got special missionary powers, man. but no, it was way good. and i was so excited to hear about the tabernacle being rebuilt into a temple! that's so awesome.
hmmm what else. oh, we got a new trainer. her name is soeur taie. she's way cool, and has definitely brought a little more life into the house and our companionship. this past week was pretty hard in the beginning--it's been kind of slow going with our investigators who weren't making any progress. but we just got a new ward mission leader in one of our wards that we're over and he is WAY motivated and enthusiastic about missionary work. we had a meeting with him and he was like "yeah we're in the process of preparing like 14 people for you to teach." whoa! and the other week doing contacting we found two sisters, 16 and 18 interested in receiving the lessons and we've met with them twice so far. they are really awesome! they actually participate in the lessons and share their thoughts and are excited about the message--it's a nice change of pace, haha. most of our lessons are in french, except for a few in tahitian. mostly all the old people prefer to speak tahitian so luckily s. taie speaks it and helps us, ahah. but i'm getting a little better at understanding and speaking. so little by little, as with all things. anyway, so things are picking up here, which is nice. the three wards we're over are puurai, pamatai, and oremu. they're all good wards and the members feed us very well. thank goodness for elastic waists. this week was pretty awkward with the ward members because everyone kept asking us where s. terooatea (my old trainer) went and we were like "errr...well...she's not with us anymore?" and they're like "oh did she get transferred?" and we're like "uhh...yeah but...permanently transferred...to her home." whoops! seriously. had that conversation like fifty million times. still just as awkward every time. there has been quite a bit of drama surrounding that, which is weird and makes me feel like i'm in a soap opera or something. oh well, i guess it keeps life interesting, especially when you can't watch tv. but i really like the new trainer. soeur harline has been like deathly ill this week, which sucks. she's kind of a teeny bit of a whiner, so being sick does not help that at all. i love her though.
anyway, i don't really have too much to report. things are pretty constant here (except for the whole my trainer getting sent home thing...whoops!)--still trying to work hard, still getting fat. it's funny, because i get more sleep than i've ever gotten in my life (8 hours a night! who does that?? infants??), and yet i'm still more tired than i've ever been. i guess that just means we're working, haha. we have two baptisms coming up next week--the couple that got married that i sent the pictures of. that should be exciting, my first ones since i've been here. ummmm i really can't think of anything else, hopefully next week's email will be a little more exciting and witty. sorry! but i love you, and miss you!
love,
soeur hansen
