hiiiiiiiiiiii all of my loved ones,
this week was a pretty solid one. we had a lot of lessons and were able to get a lot of new investigators--8! which is always a good feeling. we're happy with the progress that we're seeing in some of our investigators, and disappointed in the lack of progress in others, but that's all normal stuff you know.
let's talk about some of our investigators, ok? ok. we met severine during tracting, and at first it was kind of like a well, that was nice, but i'm pretty sure she doesn't really want to see us again. but we left our number with her and said we would pass by again and she was like ok yeah. a few weeks go by, and one day we're trying to find a plan to replace our back-up plan that didn't work, and i'm like hey let's go see severine. so we went to see her and man is this lady totally into da gospel. we were able to finish the first lesson and teach about joseph smith and the restoration and she was like...so receptive! it was awesome. we left a book of mormon with her and set up the next teaching appointment. when we went back, she had already started reading the book of mormon (up to chapter 3, which is seriously like...ground-breaking because tahitians hate reading.) and she had so many questions. GAH! guys. do you understand how AWESOME it is to have investigators like this? let me assure you that is puts the bounce back into your step. we invited her to pray about all the things that we had taught and to ask if they were true, and then we invited her to be baptized once she got her answer. she was a little taken aback, but honestly, i think she is open to the idea. she didn't say no, she just told us that she would pray and think about it. so that's a good step, right? right. we're happy about it. and her little sister has been coming to the lessons too, which is also great.
one of our other investigators, lydia, had some big progress this week. i'm really happy for her. last week we fasted with her so she could stop smoking. we started with a mini-fast since she's never done it before--we decided to fast from 10-3 just to baby-step it, you know? but when we went for our lesson this past week, she told us about how after we finished together at 3, she decided to keep going until 7 and she made it! we were super proud of her. and we committed her to come to church on sunday, and BOOM! SHE CAME! love it when that happens. lydia is really great. and she really wants to change. we're trying to do our best to support her in her good decisions.
ok funny story. yesterday, all of our plans fell through. which is dumb and frustrating when that happens, but whatever, it happens. so we are wracking our brains for people we can try to track down and we go to this one house to see our investigator, and sure enough, she's not there. but there are little kids playing marbles outside (tahitian kids are ALL ABOUT playing marbles.) and so we start talking to them--one of them is a member, and i was like hey, mihimana (that's her name), do you know anyone who you think would be interested in talking with the missionaries? (i know it was kind of a stretch to ask her, because she's like 10, but hey! i was trying!) anyway, she was like "hmm...hold on a second." then she turns around and runs over to her friend and is like "HEY DO YOU WANNA BECOME A MORMON?!" and he looked up from his marbles and looked at us and was like "ok!" hahahahahah! i wanted to laugh and cringe all at the same time. it was so great. so we go ask the parents if we can teach them and the mom is like sure ok. so we go and teach a lesson about the importance of prophets with all the little neighborhood kids under the mango tree. guys, that is my life. isn't it great?? also, i found out that the little boy is the grandson of someone i taught in faaa. coincidence? I THINK NOT. aah little kids. they kill me.
anyway, things are moving along. it's already october! gah! weird. we went on a hike today in the jungle with the missionaries in our district. it was sweet. and i free-climbed a cliff (mom, don't be mad, and tristan higbee if you read this, be proud of me!). i included pictures for your viewing pleasure. one is our district in the river, one is me climbing the cliff, and then another is me contacting an asian lady. (LAUGH!) welp i'm gonna wrap this up. hope everything is going well back in good ol' america and hopefully the constitution isn't hanging by a thread or anything. EVERYBODY! GO LISTEN TO CONFERENCE! IT WILL HELP YOU! i love you all. OH. and by the way. i've only gotten ONE letter in the mail since i've been here in paea...and it's been almost two months. :( have pity on a missionary? i know i'm the worst at writing but...what would jesus do? think about it.
love,
soeur hansen
this week was a pretty solid one. we had a lot of lessons and were able to get a lot of new investigators--8! which is always a good feeling. we're happy with the progress that we're seeing in some of our investigators, and disappointed in the lack of progress in others, but that's all normal stuff you know.
let's talk about some of our investigators, ok? ok. we met severine during tracting, and at first it was kind of like a well, that was nice, but i'm pretty sure she doesn't really want to see us again. but we left our number with her and said we would pass by again and she was like ok yeah. a few weeks go by, and one day we're trying to find a plan to replace our back-up plan that didn't work, and i'm like hey let's go see severine. so we went to see her and man is this lady totally into da gospel. we were able to finish the first lesson and teach about joseph smith and the restoration and she was like...so receptive! it was awesome. we left a book of mormon with her and set up the next teaching appointment. when we went back, she had already started reading the book of mormon (up to chapter 3, which is seriously like...ground-breaking because tahitians hate reading.) and she had so many questions. GAH! guys. do you understand how AWESOME it is to have investigators like this? let me assure you that is puts the bounce back into your step. we invited her to pray about all the things that we had taught and to ask if they were true, and then we invited her to be baptized once she got her answer. she was a little taken aback, but honestly, i think she is open to the idea. she didn't say no, she just told us that she would pray and think about it. so that's a good step, right? right. we're happy about it. and her little sister has been coming to the lessons too, which is also great.
one of our other investigators, lydia, had some big progress this week. i'm really happy for her. last week we fasted with her so she could stop smoking. we started with a mini-fast since she's never done it before--we decided to fast from 10-3 just to baby-step it, you know? but when we went for our lesson this past week, she told us about how after we finished together at 3, she decided to keep going until 7 and she made it! we were super proud of her. and we committed her to come to church on sunday, and BOOM! SHE CAME! love it when that happens. lydia is really great. and she really wants to change. we're trying to do our best to support her in her good decisions.
ok funny story. yesterday, all of our plans fell through. which is dumb and frustrating when that happens, but whatever, it happens. so we are wracking our brains for people we can try to track down and we go to this one house to see our investigator, and sure enough, she's not there. but there are little kids playing marbles outside (tahitian kids are ALL ABOUT playing marbles.) and so we start talking to them--one of them is a member, and i was like hey, mihimana (that's her name), do you know anyone who you think would be interested in talking with the missionaries? (i know it was kind of a stretch to ask her, because she's like 10, but hey! i was trying!) anyway, she was like "hmm...hold on a second." then she turns around and runs over to her friend and is like "HEY DO YOU WANNA BECOME A MORMON?!" and he looked up from his marbles and looked at us and was like "ok!" hahahahahah! i wanted to laugh and cringe all at the same time. it was so great. so we go ask the parents if we can teach them and the mom is like sure ok. so we go and teach a lesson about the importance of prophets with all the little neighborhood kids under the mango tree. guys, that is my life. isn't it great?? also, i found out that the little boy is the grandson of someone i taught in faaa. coincidence? I THINK NOT. aah little kids. they kill me.
anyway, things are moving along. it's already october! gah! weird. we went on a hike today in the jungle with the missionaries in our district. it was sweet. and i free-climbed a cliff (mom, don't be mad, and tristan higbee if you read this, be proud of me!). i included pictures for your viewing pleasure. one is our district in the river, one is me climbing the cliff, and then another is me contacting an asian lady. (LAUGH!) welp i'm gonna wrap this up. hope everything is going well back in good ol' america and hopefully the constitution isn't hanging by a thread or anything. EVERYBODY! GO LISTEN TO CONFERENCE! IT WILL HELP YOU! i love you all. OH. and by the way. i've only gotten ONE letter in the mail since i've been here in paea...and it's been almost two months. :( have pity on a missionary? i know i'm the worst at writing but...what would jesus do? think about it.
love,
soeur hansen
