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8/27/18 Puurai Week 7 - Zone Conference with Elder Halek, Sister Baptism,

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Iaorana Tatou!!! So this week was pretty darn incredible. First of all: I saw a man trying to dig a hole with a machete. Could this day get any better??? Second of all: We had zone conference and guess who decided to show up? Elder Haleck from the 70. Before it had even started yours truly was randomly selected from a bunch of other missionaries to be interviewed by him. It was a very cool because I had had a couple questions and by the end when he asked "do you have any questions?" he had single handedly answered them all. We had an incredible zone conference that I'll never forget. I think my favorite quote of the day was "You need to help your investigators make it to the kingdom of God, but you also need to live so that you can join them there." Good stuff! Zone Conference with Elder Haleck This week we also had transfer calls and I'm staying in Puurai, but I had to say goodbye to Soeur Randriantsoa and hello to Soe...

8/20/18 :Puurai, Week 6 - Baptism, Smelling Kitchen--Bad Idea, Shark Attack

Iaorana tatou!!! So this week was awesome! We had another baptism, members personalized a song for us, got attacked by millions of maggots, met a kid who got bit by a shark, and got asked if we were middle schoolers. Where to begin? Ok, maybe we'll explain the maggots first. I think before my mission I had seen maggots like twice. Here I have become a maggot killing machine and they almost don't gross me out anymore. Almost. Anyway, Here we keep our trash inside the house, and if we throw away anything that smells or that the cats can eat we throw it outside for whatever gets to it first. (Cats, pigeons, cockroaches, etc.) The other night I noticed before I went to bed that our kitchen smelled bad, like REALLY bad, but I was lazy (or as tahitians say hupehupe) and said "I'll do it tomorrow." That was my first mistake. Wake up the next morning to MILLIONS OF MAGGOTS EVERYWHERE. In the kitchen, in the garage, even inside the kitchen cabinets. I...

8/13/18 Puurai Week 5 - Baptisms, Cats, I'm sleeping

Iaorana Tatou! So I totally forgot my camera at the house like the punk I am, so I apologize in advance. This week was a week of miracles! First of all we will soon be having 3 baptisms! One this week for M__ who is so ready and has changed so much in his life! I got here almost right at the beginning of teaching him and it has honestly just been amazing. Talk about someone who has been prepared by the Lord. He stopped drinking and smoking even before we talked about the word of wisdom because he knew it wasn't good for him... The 25th we'll be having the baptism of K__, the twin of H__ and we're so excited for her! She's really been inspired by the example of her sister. And the 8th we'll be having the baptism of He__. She's someone who has also been prepared by the Lord and already took the lessons before when she was young, but it never went farther than that. We watched a video about how our bodies are temples and she just said "I ne...

8/6/18 Puurai Week 4 - H_'s Baptism, Sister Training Leader

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Iaorana tatou! This week was super awesome, but if I'm being honest I forgot most of it... apologies  to my family, friends, and future posterity.  For pday we watched a church movie with our district which would have been awesome, but the computer kept starting the movie over... oh well. We got to see everyone when they're at their worst, so it was a good time.  We got to go to the temple this week! It's such a privilege to go, and we really enjoyed it! We tried to take pictures at the end on self timer... it kind of worked, but there are some epic fails coming your way. ;)  I had my first STL split as the STL ( sister training leader), and it was so fun! It's always a party to get to see how other people teach and work. We might have gotten lost a couple times, and I might have said a few utterly stupid things, but life goes on. We ended up getting pizza at the end and celebrating. Good times.  Ok, Best for last: the...

7/30/18 Puurai Week 3 - Weddings, Change of Heart

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Iaorana Tatou!!! So this week was pretty crazy. We had like 75.5 weddings at our chapel (actually 2, but with how hard these people party it felt like 75.5) and somehow we ended up at both of them and ate more food than either of us needed/wanted. The first wedding we helped decorate for with members (you know, service) and we stopped by later to congratulate the couple, but there were a lot of amis there, so we ended up contacting at a wedding and eating a ton. Good times. The other wedding we weren't even invited to, but we had to drop off Soeur Ma (who were invited), and thought, maybe we can do our weekly planning in a small classroom instead to on the side of the road like normal? So we went in, battled 6 waitresses who were young single adults who tried to give us food (one succeeded by bringing the cream puffs to us), and finally found a room to do our planning in. It was intense. The Wedding Celebration  We should be having the baptism of H__ this...

7/23/18 Puurai Week 2 - Spiral Staircases, Swiss Shoes, Soeur Randriantsoa

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 Iaorana Tatou!!! This week was super crazy! It's always weird changing sectors and learning names and streets all over again, but it's even weirder after being in the same sector for 6 months... It's like leaving home all over again. Little by little I'm starting to kinda figure out where things are and who all our amis are, and I'm really coming to love Puurai! Our house is GIGANTIC and is more than enough space for all six of us who live there. My only complaints about the house is that we have a spiral staircase (I'm coming to find that I have a slight fear of spiral staircases) that is actually the devil. It is so steep and I think I say a prayer every time I go up or down. My second complaint is that our toilet is in a space made for dwarfs. I am not a very tall human being, but I am certainly not a dwarf. I have bonked my head more than once... There will be photos next week so y'all can appreciate my new home!  This ...

7/16/18 Puurai Week 1 - Transferred, J_'s Baptism, Tour of Island

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IAORANA TATOU!!! More Moana Ocean This week was crazy! First of all Soeur Fowers got super sick while we did our P-day activity of criving around the island. I thought she was crazy for always turning the AC off because I was DYING, but that night she had a 104 fever. Members came and drugged her up and two days later all was well. We did get some pretty cool photos though. (Not from here being sick but from sightseeing) Soeur Fowers in pain and very cold. She's such a trooper. Ok, So transfers were a thing this week and I GOT TRANSFERED! Not very far away, but now I am in the city of Faaa and it's a party. My new companion is Soeur Randriantsoa and she's from Madagascar. She's super short and cute!!! I'm very excited to serve with her. A few of you might be wondering "What happened to Soeur Fowers?" and LET ME TELL YOU! Drumroll please.... She's training. That's right, my little baby missionary who got here 3 months ag...