9/18/17 Huahine Week 14 - Whales, Christelle's Baptism, Belief a Choice

Bonjour toute le monde!!!

Christelle with Husband, Arthur and Hazael

 Ping-Pong P-day

So I actually had a super crazy awesome week, I have so much to tell y’all!!! So for starters for P-day we played ping pong with the elders and a member, and I was actually decent by the end! Take that, college friends, who always kicked my butt at ping pong! We also went on an adventure to the beach and took some super awesome pictures so be prepared for that! 

Real Whales Sighted

WE SAW WHALES!!! We didn’t have a Faatamaaraa (dinner appointment) one day so we ate our lunch at the beach because why not, and Soeur Miller noticed a bunch of water blowing up and we saw a huge family of whales just chilling chez nous! (At Home) None of them decided to jump for us, but we saw tons of tails. How cool is that???

Soeur Mapuhi and Her Aunt from America

So do you all remember Jean and Eugene? We’ve been at their house a lot for dinners because Soeur Mapuhi is super kind, and since we’re there for lessons if she finds out a Faatamaaraa canceled she takes matters into her own hands (and she’s the relief society president, so she is kind of responsible to make sure we get fed). They

had an aunt visiting who grew up here, but married an American and has been living in California for a long time who lost most of her French. Anyway, she and her husband were visiting so we went over and talked to them a lot during the dinners to make sure they didn’t go crazy from not being able to communicate. They are super cool! They both served missions and he carves props for movie sets! They’re super interesting and it
was so good to talk to other people in English. Speaking of which, my French is so much better!!! Thanks for all the prayers and everything! It’s still a struggle trying to talk about things in any kind of past or future tense, but I’m improving so much! The gift of tongues is real folks! 

A Beautiful Birthday Surprise                  

CHRISTELLE GOT BAPTIZED!!! We’re soooo happy for her! She’s been waiting for a long time to see if her husband would ever be interested, but she decided to take matters into her own hands and went ahead and got baptized! It was such a beautiful service and it was a surprise for her mom. Her whole family are members and it was her mom’s birthday, so needless to say it was a very special day! 

Loving the People of Huahine

Transfer is this week, so we’ll see if I stay here or not. I would love to stay in Huahine for another 6 weeks with Soeur Miller! She’s super awesome and sometimes during lessons I just stare at her doing her thing teaching so wonderfully and I’m in awe. She is actual gold. Also, Huahine is actually the best. I would hate to leave before I am able to see all of my little brothers and sisters in the gospel (the small army of children we teach) get baptized. If I leave, I will be heartbroken, so we’ll see what happens! 

Belief is a Choice

Little spiritual thought for the week: I was reading an old Liahona (a church magazine) because sometimes you just need to read the words of living Prophets, and I came across a quote I really liked! It’s from Dieter F. Uchtdorf (of course, pretty much everything that comes out of his mouth is pure gold) and in reference to everyone who says “I wish I could believe the way you do,” he says “There is no magic to belief.” Sure some people are born with more believing hearts than others (for example the people of French Polynesia vs. the people of France), but no one is absolutely incapable of believing. Belief is a choice, and once you make the choice to believe wholeheartedly in Jesus Christ and his restored church you are choosing a better life. 

Anyway, things are going awesome here! Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers! I love you!