I'm a pastry chef, piano teacher, make up artist, personal trainer, and I'm a Mormon.
Oh, and I was NONE of these things before my mission.
The things you do for people you love... Like, making wedding
cakes, teaching piano lessons, face painting 15 kids for Halloween, and
helping your 15 year old neighbor get in shape every morning (I promise
he's 15). Um. I am so NOT qualified to be doing any of those things, but
hey, "ASK THE MISSIONARIES, THEY CAN HELP YOU." With everything. Take that literally world, I'm here to serve. As long as I get some of that wedding cake I make you.
This
week was awesome. My favorite holiday is Halloween. Because I love
horror movies. But. That doesn't really mesh well with the mission, the
most horror I've seen in 6 months is 17 Miracles (which is so good, we
watch it every week; because it's the only movie we own, but it's so
good!) This Halloween was the best Halloween ever thought. We were
invited to two HUGE parties. They were both at member's homes, but
anyone was invited to come, so we met a ton of new potential
investigators. :)
On of the parties was at the dock. I know I talk a lot
about they dock, but hey, they're my Tahitian family. At this party they
had a bunch of stations with games to play. One of the stations
required the kids to run into the ocean and try to catch the hanging
prizes over the water. Well, we had to pause that game because there
were sting rays in their path! Only in Tahiti... It was so good, we
didn't get a very good picture though... Next time.
The ocean here is crazy. This lovely photo was taken right from the edge of the dock. It's a literal aquarium down there. :)
This week Soeur Moli and I caught crab to eat later this month.
This
is also the cutest child ever. Her name is Juanita. She's the
granddaughter of my Tahitian mother, Vero. (At the dock, where else of
course?)
We met a man this week named OtiOti (which means finishfinish).
Which is a problem for me. He doesn't speak french. He speaks
English. And my English... is ridiculously awful. Thankfully Soeur Moli
can still teach in English for us. Hello grammar out the window. (It
takes a lot of effort to write these lovely emails in English....)
Anyway, he has done an incredible amount of his family history. He's
travelled to New Zealand, Australia, and all the outer islands gathering
what he can on his family. So, naturally we were going to explain that
he needs to do more than look has those names. We started talking about
the Restoration of the authority a faire le bapteme pour le mort. (I
can't speak English...) Well. Then he throws out that his great great
grandpa was the God Rangiroa (guessing on the spelling again...) and his
ancestors are all demi-gods. Well. What do we do with that one? At that
moment his wife came out of the house and literally chased us away. So.
Next week we'll explain there's only one God, and there's only one
literal child of that God...
How
is my companion? Um. Incredible. Soeur Moli is so, so good. We're
having so much fun, and we're teaching a crazy amount of lessons during
the week and talking to more new people than I've ever done before. I
can't explain how important it is to be obedient to ALL the rules of the
mission. Even the little ones that don't seem that important. When you
do that, miracles start to happen.
It's
also so important just to talk and have fun. That's how you become
friends, and I firmly believe if you're friends with your companion and
you want to help her/him do better, that's when you're going to find
success.
Why? Because we do everything because of Love. We love
the work we're doing. We love helping everyone we meet, and we always
want to do more. This gospel is centered on love and the family. One of
the first things God created was the mariage de Adam et Eve, and he gave
them the first commandment to have a family. It's centered on
progression. That's what the Plan of Salvation IS. The progression of
our life. And we do all of that within our families, because we love
them, and because we have a loving God.
Granted,
Soeur Moli and I are thousands of miles away from our families, but
we're trying to help the families of Tahiti make it to the temple. We
don't teach to baptise people. We teach because we truly love each
investigator, and we want to help them live with their families after
this life. We don't want anyone left out.
No Soul Left Behind.
(Hehe, see what we did there? We decided that was our new slogan. Thank you US Department of Education.)
But really. That why we're here. That's why we're
members. That's why missionary work is a commandment. Nobody gets left
behind. (No toy gets left behind!... name that movie!)
I love you all. We all have people that are looking up to us, so spread the love.
Love,
Soeur Taylor
--
Tahiti Papeete Mission
Soeur Taylor, Morgan
B.P. 93
Papeete, Tahiti
98713
French Polynesia.
No comments:
Post a Comment