Oct. 31
hey errbody!
first of all, happy halloween! let me explain how halloween goes down here in tahiti: it doesn't. yeah. halloween is an american holiday. i was talking to my companion about it, and she was like dude, candy is already expensive enough here, we're not just gonna buy it and give it away to dumb kids just because they're in a spiderman costume. haha! but we're going to have a little halloween party with our investigator family tonight for FHE. we already have our orange shirts and black skirts (the one that still fits) ready to go. and then today is the last day that we get to eat candy because from november to christmas, we goin' on a diiiiieetttttttttt. yup. wanna know why? because this week, all the sisters had a super special meeting with our mission president and his wife so that they could tell us that WE'RE TOO FAT.
not kidding.
seriously. that was the topic of the meeting. our clothes are too tight because we're gaining too much weight, and the mission president's wife told us "don't write home and tell your parents to send you bigger clothes. that's not fixing the problem. you're all going to get even more massive if you do that. if your clothes don't fit, it means you need to lose weight." don't worry, i burned plenty of calories that night CRYING MYSELF TO SLEEP!! just kidding. i didn't really feel too targeted in the meeting because she was like "the american sisters aren't fat. the tahitian sisters are." she was pretty blunt. although admittedly, i can't comfortably wear about half of the clothes i brought here. whoops. anyway, so my companion and i were like "welp, guess it's time to stop compulsively eating candy..." we were gonna start the diet last week, but then it was our investigator's birthday, and then it was halloween....sooo....we were just like "hey why not start fresh in november? yeah ok!" haha. i have a feeling i'm going to be really really grumpy until christmas.
good news though--my companion is totally teaching me how to dance tahitian style. before her mission she was in a dance group that participates in a nation-wide competition called the heiva (i think that's how you spell it)...so she teaches me all kinds of stuff. and one of our investigators is a professional dancer--she dances so crazy good it's unbelievable, and she made me a cd with tahitian music (mostly just the drum type stuff) so we could do that for our daily exercise. it might sound like light stuff, but seriously, my legs are crying by the time our 30 minute exercise time is up. if i keep this up, i'm going to have the quads of a thoroughbred by the time i get home. anyway, s. taie and i prepared a dance for our investigator nass' birthday and then performed it for her at her party. it was hilarious. i look borderline handicapped dancing next to her, haah! but nass was all about it, which was the point, so i can't be too prideful. hah. oh and we did a service project this week for nass and her family--planted a garden. i felt legit. hopefully the stuff i planted will grow.
anyway, this past week was pretty solid. are investigators are cool and most of them are making good progess, which is really cool to see. we're teaching two brothers right now, 18 and 15, and for a while things were touch and go with them because their parents were threatening (are threatening, actually) to kick them out of the house if they get baptized, so we were nervous that they were going to back out on us, but actually they're even stronger now than they were before. it's pretty amazing what prayer can do. at our last lesson, they were so awesome! they asked tons of questions and had lots of things to say, and they had even prepared a song to sing for us--"the army of helaman." it was the greatest thing everrrr! i loved it. it's awesome to see the changes in their countenances. they are so eager to learn. i couldn't help but picture them as future missionaries as they sang that song, and it made me happy. i was talking to my companion about the challenge of the parents not wanting them to get baptized, and she was like "yeah it's always like that. when they get close to deciding to get baptized, there's always something that comes up to try and stop them." satan definitely tries to stop people from progressing, but like it says in 1 nephi 3:7, there's always a way to accomplish what God has commanded us to do. we just have to keep moving forward with faith, because it's not until after the trial that we get a witness. scripture talk, uhn! but seriously, these boys are solid and i know that they will be strong in the gospel. i'm grateful for all of our investigators. i love going to teach them. obviously some days are better than others, and i don't have miraculous experiences every day, but each day i do have things that strengthen my testimony and my resolve to spread the message of the gospel.
anyway, i gotta wrap this up. hope everyone is doing well. thinking of you and sending my love!
love,
soeur Hansen
