This week I hoped I wasn't vulger 11-21-16

iaorana kiddos happy thanksgiving!!!! it was just BARELY halloween, what in the world is going on???? how are they days slipping through my fingers?? tomorrow is like... gonna be christmas! and ive been on my mission for 7 months now.

7 months? whats happening

well i dont know where to start with this week. so many things happened. i cant even count them. we had everything from conferences with a member of the 70, to drawing pictures in the sand to teach a bearded man about repentance, to going to the most awk birthday party of my life. and we missed a plane because we fixed a baptism instead of watching the clock

thats kind of how all weeks are though, anything goes here in polynesia. i have been realizing lately that i see the most strange things and it doesnt even phase me anymore. im becoming desensitized to biarre behavior. like the boy that rides on the shoulders of a man who is riding a bike and his sister is sitting on the handlebars. or the fact that every single person ever is missing like 5 teeth. and then they eat all these gooey looking things with their bare hands and make really loud manly slurping noises. its all normal now and i feel that im becoming all sucked into it. i forgot to brush my teeth one time this week, my hair is in a bun on top of my head im not wearing makeup im really excited every time i see a coconut and i can yell funny phrases in tahitian. hope they arent vulgar.

but yes i was so blessed this week. comme d'habitude. one of my best friends in my last sector was baptised on saturday and she called me to thank me for my work in helping her find her heavenly father and her place in life. it was really really special to me because dang it there were so many problems in her life and she should have been baptised about a month ago but her parents threatened to throw her out of the house, so she wasnt. then i changed sectors. but she told me this whole story about how she just KNEW she needed to be baptised, and her dad eventually did throw her out on the beach where she slept for a night, reflecting on the persecution of dear joseph smith haha. someone in that ward took her in and answered her prayers and voila, now she is a part of God's army :) i was so humbled at this girls courage oh my goodness

pres cardon and his wife came this week to do a conference and holy smokes was it good! i know that general authorities are turly called of god to lead us and give us the counsel we need TODAY. im so grateful we have a prophet and that we can know what to do.

some other random facts

- sr james is going home in t-2 weeks!!! ahhh not trunky at all its so sad i dont want her to go home i dont want to kill her i never asked for this. why do bad things happen to good people. but she deserves to say hi to her fam

- one night this week we were praying to end our planning and all of a sudden sr james starts gasping in the middle of her prayer and jumps onto my lap! shes just hyperventilating, screaming, and shaking as im trying to stop panicking as well cause thats just not normal. i was like WHAT WHAT IS HAPPENING and she was like AHHH AHHH DQGQJKDSJ. all she could do was point to something that was on the floor and i realized it was a cocroach! the vile thing had landed on her back durning the prayer! it crawled like a monstrous creature towards my knees and i flipped. we were both running around our room at this point and throwing things at the villain, screaming who knows what. maybe vulgar tahitian hahaha :) jk but that was scary. i hate cockroaches so much. too bad they are everywhere

- prayer is literally the best thing ever. everyone pray all the time

god loves you, kids. thanks for the time. have a happy week of thanksgiving and dont forget your blessings you have. Heavenly Father is a wonderful man.

pics:

our zone with elder and sis cardon and pres and sr bize I LOVE THEM

typical tahitian and me

everything is so pretty. just look at it. WOULD YA JUST LOOK

eating with bishops fam

we love neature

the mami who lives with us. shes from heaven

 emails this week: winners. all i can say is thank you

hahahaha but seriously i hope you tell that story to everyone. does aaron know what happened? i bet he will make pancakes for thanksgiving and tell evryone they came fresh from the clinic. too bad youre not eating durrant side this thanksgiving.

but have fun in blanding! say hi to everyone for meeeeeeeee send my love. i had a dream that curtis came to tahiti and i got so excited! he was just vacationing here all alone hahaha. i havent seen that kid for so long. also kellis hair is so SHORT! whatttt

and i wanna see these wedding pcs dang it yall are hape (that means youre messed up)

mom i just laughed and laughed at your email. your long story of the conquerer of the mouse. im so proud of you and your action plans with the stinky swiss cheese, keep progressing in life mom! and dont buy new dresses apparently. shudder. ew thats gross

and i laughed really hard also because sr jamess mom sent her this big long list of edifying quotes from the womens session and how these are the most wise and wonderful women in the world. im pretty sure "we are you and you are us" or whatever mea was on there too hahaha. women are so funny in the church.

also you need to accept the friend request of stacey james (sr james mom)

dad man 15 hour day. i dont know how you do that. people here are bluntly honest after 10 minutes with you. theyre like "you have lots of zits" or "wow you dont speak french very well huh" hahah but its all in love :) i dont see augustine anymore at all, sometimes we can talk on the phone for like 10 min or email a little but its fine :) shes good im good. and I WANT TO SEE THAT MOVIE i read that little book i dont know how many times when i was younger i love magical beasts and eddy redmayne

ok all is well

i love karen and david suisse also! way to go for them wow thats crazy

aj touched the pancake poop hahaha the hard life of a vet tech. at least you havent made a dog blind

ian way to go speaking spontaneously in the priesthood meeting. i keep thinking about how boss of a missionary youre gonna be

teesh give me an update child

isaac you also

and theo
`

love you little cheries you are my best pals. thanks for all the entertainment :)

this is the dog, biboo, who lives at our house. hes really funny

i hope this video loads. it explains lots of things i cant explain in emails. this is a member named Rava and she makes me laugh so hard

some missionaries 

Maurice: wufe hunter 11/14/16

First. Sorry fir my spellîg its really hard ro controlthis keyboard. 

Second. I just read a whole ton of stuff about donald trump taking over the world. Honestly tahitians dont give a care, they just wanna dance, sleep, and laugh so theres not too much political talk that goes on in this little island pradise. I think its an exception to the world bcause trump wont get here. 

I dont know anything about politics but All i habe to say to those who freak out is from d&c six 

fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell (or donald trump) combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail.

Now i cant change the font. But it doesnt matter. Heavenly father has eerything planned out for us and as the well acclaimed Mario Durrant says: "the important thing is not to panic." Just dont worry everyone if you keep the commandlents everything will be ok!!!! Be good kids and maybe dont riot too much.... Stay in the boat

But really the commandements are so very important. Pres has been saying missionaries are nit seeing success because of a lack of obediance. So Sr james ànd i have decided to put our faith to the works and we are trying to be SO OBEDIANT. its honestly so cool to see what happens. We do what we are supposed to when we are supposed to be doing it, and we dint do what we arent supposed to do, and sometomes we even make random other rules for ourselves. This is why sr james is cool. Cause shes helped me see that this is actually fun and we arent robots. We can keep the rules all the way and still have a wonderius time with a smile on our faces! and whats better is that the mission rules have a way of aligning us with the savior so thzt literally we are always "going about doing good" a little like he did. 

Its very humbling. And joyful. There was a day this week that we had about an hour od nothung planned and se we did some recontacting finding yadda jazz. We were about to givr up one one road cause everyone was like "nope im sleeping" when we saw a little papi walking wayyy out there in the distance. We decided to be obediant to the "talk to everyone" mission rule and wait it out for him. There was a member with us (who is a total gangster) and our cute mami. The member was like "go to the other side of thr road in case he goes there and ill stay on this side" so there we went. Sure enough the papi changed sides of the road as soon as we left the car. Then we switched sides and he chanfed again only to meet up with our member. Mwahaha. Anyway the conversation was actually all in tahitian so i got bits and pieces of it that his name is maurice and wasnt at all interested. Just wanted to talk and talk. He was abiut to leave and mami shouted thzt she wanted some uru and he helped her pick it off'the tree. Our member was like "speak with these sisters" so we shared the beginning of a message haha. Then this young man just popped out seriously out of nowhere so happily and said "iaorana!" James said "a faaroo to maua parau poroi!" (Listen to our message!) and he was like "dude i love the word of god!" Then after he walked off we talked to papi maurice who told us he would get baptised if we found him a wife. Sr james and i couldnt stop laughing even when he told me i had to say the prayer. I said it and i finished, opéned my eyes, and he was jusr glarîng at me. So scary.  He said "that prayer was awful, you did't even ask god to givr me a wife"

Sorry maurice 

Anyway. The point of this story was to tell all yall that the random young màns name is jason and is like so cool and told us during the firdt lesson he was lost in his life and wanted to find the truth. So we gave it to him and now he wants to be baptised. hollah

Obediance = blessings miracles and lots of laughs 

I love my life. Seriously this is 100% the best decision ive made in a hundred milleniums. Go on a mission all of you. I never thiught anthung could be so hard. I also never thought i would love learning or people or fruit or my scriptured or my family or JESUS as much as i do at tjis moment. and i really loved those things before. I feel a kind of joy that does't leave and thats what this gospelis. 

JOY 

love you all thanks for tuning in to the audge durrant channel 

ill send some personal stuff that no one else will read also because i want to. well i guess you have permission to share it haha but im only writin it to you

i was feeling guilty this last week for my behavior the first few months in my first sector. being with someone who is such a good example and teammate has opened my eyes to how hard i didnt actually try to.. do everythng i could to help my sector. in my defense i had no idea what i was doing hahaha. and we had many problems which i see now werent normal. but unsurety turned to discomfort and then to stress and finally after lots of failed efforts to a bad attitude and thats when i was like sad and stuff. and then i come here and learn that REALLY everything depends on your desire to do something very simple: the will of God. 

i cant tell you how many nights ive been up praying and begging heavenly father to change my eaustace dragon heart, hahaha. :) and let me be capable and brave enough to do this great work. cant tell you how close ive felt to him through this hard process of trying to change not only my behavior but my actual nature as a human

but last night was really especially cool. id been praying for at least 15 minutes and it hit me, suddenly that i hadnt asked for ONE SINGLE THING for me. nada. it had all been really sincere and concentrated for the people we are teaching, for the other missionaries, and for you guys. the spirit came so strongly that i had to open my eyes and look around!  i realized that throughout this day also, i had rarely had the thoughts of "i cant do it, im not enough, im not good at this, i dont think they like me," yadda yadda. not because i think im super amazing, but simply because i hadnt thought about me. just didnt give myself the time of day. nothing changed about me except this fact that my thoughts werent concentrated on me. dad, i cant explain it well but i just knew last night as i kneeled on my beloved thin mattress that sits right on the ground in our loft, with the humid wind that blows sometimes through the open windows,

 that it clicked.

 for at least one day, i lad lost myself in this work. truly forgot about me. it wasnt even a conscious effort, and thats why i laid there and stared at the ceiling forever and just couldnt sleep until like 1 am because i couldnt wrap my head around these blessings. these miracles that i have seen in other people, in how god prepares them to hear us, and how the answer is always ALWAYS christ. these are the times when we ask ourselves "is this real? did i do anything to deserve this giant amount of joy?" 

god is so merciful. 

thats just my thoughts and one of the best experiences ive had here yet. :) this is the joy, to look at others through God's eyes. 

fighting for Jesus, and for dishes 11/7/16

 I think i cried when i read that story that dad sent me. thank you fam for still embarrassing yourselves endlessly hahahahaha i cant even stand it. oh man im excited to receive moms version also. sr james was like "what the heck is so funny"

good job isaac keeping the family proud. if no one else is proud of you guys, i sure am. stay the way you all are hahahaha im still giggling about it. i have this image in my head of poor sister authority "oh my" hahaha lol 

i have an experiece like that maybe ill tell you one time when i have more time 

mom to answer that question, i dont get letters for like a month after they are sent and then they all come at once usually. since im on a different island right now we have to wait for the boats to come with our things that are shipped from tahiti. so theres that lol island probs 

for halloween sr james and i made some hilarious videos about our strange experiences on mission already. it was like our videos we make at home hahaha ill find a way to send them to you but they wont make sense 

i dont have tons of time but i dont think i can vote! i tried and the site said there are no more ballots for me! and i never recieved an actual ballot in the mail... but good luck to evan. i wish you all a good election and the falling of our country. 

just kidding i have faith in heavenly father that he knows what he is doing! all will be well even if we have to hide from the governement 

ISAAC GOT TALL 

hey the wedding is coming up, hows everything going with that? its like a fixed baptism i think. its always possible it might fall through ;) just kidding but let me know. keep me updated erryone 

thanks for the update on doctor strange 

i shall try to write more spiritual details in my groupie sorry im never that spiritual in my emails to you guys. i promise i am a spiritual missionary hahaha 

heres some pics of me i dont know what i have or have not sent to you guys 

also i need a watch if you ever have no more ideas for christmas and none of you replied to my question last week!! lame sauce 

ok love you all really i do :) REALLY A TON AND IM NOT KID

 sorry short email this week! but its SO GOOD lolol read me

We fixed a couple of baptisms on Friday because of this AMAZING spiritual lesson we had (actually with pres of the mission and his wife). All we did was talk about christ and sing a song and bear testimony and cry a little. Incredible how just the knowledge of our savior brings that heart softening spirit into a room. I will never forget all of these experiences I have where all that Was needed to change the course of s lesson is just a picture. Just a picture of his face and a small testimony of his love. This changes people so quickly and so powerfully. It's one of the most profound things I have learned here on my mission. I know he lives and cares for INDIVIDUALS. he is there and his presence is physically there when he is testified of, which is why we have his name on our hearts. i feel so so grateful to be able to do this great work!! HE LIVES! he is real! i just wanna shout it from the tops of mountains! which works because we did a cool hike today to the top of a raiatean mountain. so pretty. why am i so lucky

Turns out that spirit doesn't last forever unless you make the efforts, because yesterday they told us they want to stay catholic. They didn't even have a good reason but we know it's because they just thought too much and went back to their comfort zone! After tons of talking and encouragement and sharing, they agreed to give it another go and keep praying and reading. Man it's hard to see things like this. I KNOW they are ready. They just have to do their part also. Step out of the comfort zone and into the miracle zone. 

Other deets... 

Every day I see the ocean and that's cool. 

There's a cute little Mami who lives here with us in our cute pink house 

Yesterday a woman fought me physically when I tried to do her dishes. This happens more often than it should 

Mangoes are GOOD 

Tahitian is hard hahahaha how am I Gonna learn it. Prolly just the same way I learned French lol 

heres our halloween pics. we didnt actually have basketballs but it worked. lebron and kevin forever. 

we watched a part of a thing that happens only once a year only in certain islands of polynesia, the hawaikinui. its when large amounts of muscular people canoe from island to island and its insane. 

heres a pic of a giant fish head we ate. and other things

Happy day of Fear 10/31/16

today ive been trying to be scary but ive only succeeded in scaring my companion. but we have a lot of action plans to freak people out. like... repentance. that is some scary business right there. no procrastination all yall!!! watch it you could die like next week hahaha 

uh. what happened this week? i dont even know where to start. writing emails is so hard. 

we ate with this crazy mami who taught us a halloween song: "halloween, halloween, donner les bon bons! halloween halloween merci halloween!!!" and then she ate a thousand ice cream cones and candies. we asked her, "mami, do you like sugar?" she said "no i cant eat very much its bad for me." as shes munching on an ice cream cone again. she also said we cant speak if we dont speak tahitian, but when we spoke tahitian, she replied in french. confused. 

we taught so many lessons and found so many more people. the thing about this culture is that normally it is SO EASY to start talking about religion with people. they actually want to teach you most of the time all about how god is everywhere and we breathe because of him and we should thank him every single second of every single day. 

then its usually pretty easy to get a lesson with someone. they are so open and not worried about it. like 'yeah come over and we can talk about god!' 

once you get them to stop talking and talking and talking about how grateful they are that god protects them, you can teach about all the doctrine very simply and give them very simple engagements. they usually take them. sometimes they are mad about the book of mormon that its not the bible. but usually its fine

but then. when it comes to changing religion. oh dear. hahaha 

but we have seen lots of miracles! god prepares people and its up to us to find them by our work and through the spirit. its so obvious. i am beginning to really understand by experience the power of the process of faith, planning, and ACTION. action by prayer and by postivity. even if things dont go your way, you DO NOT STOP trying to do the will of god. its the only intelligent thing to do. 

this week we were helping tons of women cut some flowers for a service project that we didnt wanna go to. we didnt think it was going to be very effective and we had better things to do, but for some reason we ended up going because we felt like we should every time we tried to change. at this project, we met a lady and found out that she is actually the mom of a young boy we teach! she told us all about how she loves that hes reading the book of mormon and that shes proud of him. we were like, 'and you dont want the lessons with him?' she was like 'YES I WANT THEM' almost violently. hahaha oh man it was funny. i think she will get baptised prolly 

but yeah. 

we are individuals. 

god looks at us as such. 

go help one person today. :) the work of god continues through his children. be of the army. 

by the way for halloween i am kevin and sr james is lebron. ill send pics next week

lolz love you all dont be nul keep rigoling.

hahahah after i read dads email and understood the costumes i died!!! that is amazing you guys are so creative. hahahaha the one where teesh is laying on the ground as an ice cube is just... the best. 

well i am sorry for aj who almost died this week because of finals. yikes. i helped my comp choose her classes for january when she goes back to school.. that was weird. dont really know what school is anymore. 

im also happy that dad had the experience of scooping a thousand carrots with the treacherous carrot shovel!!!! that was rad i want a shovel for carrots

dad! also is is bishop the one that told you to read the shackleton book? because i totally know what that is. he gave a whole byc on shackleton one time and willpower and stuff. putting that on my list to read when i get home. this list is really long and mostly consists of churchy stuff like cs lewis. but yeah thanks for that letter i got it this week 

hi and please make me a movie book music list someone its not gonna distract me i promise i just wanna know whats happening 

like elections, i didnt vote because i have 00000 ZERO idea whats going on. i cant even say i have any sort of opinion or knowledge. 

i vote jesus

mom hahaha that was so funny seeing your high school friend because we were going to the bathroom somewhere and these people came walking towards us like they were our best friends! i kind of recognized the boy because id met him. one time for like 5 minutes. but she was talking twenty miles a minute about how she wanted to meet me and i was already surprised they were saying english words... im sure i had the most confused look on my face. especially when she yelled AND I KNOW YOUR MOM!!! hahaha it came together after a minute but i was so lost for just a bit. 

anyway, super cool family. she seemed really outgoing actually and very friendly! she has very blue contacts. 

uh. i dont know what else i wanna say. news... hm. tahiti ruins skin. or my skin is just fragile. i have had so many weird things and ACNE bad bad bad. 

oh and the egberts send me a package hahaha SO MUCH CANDY! i guess they still claim me. no idea about ryan though. honestly thats my honest and final answer

sr james is finishing real soon. yall should go visit her if you ever go to eagle mountain in december. cause i love her. best comp ever 

oh! and if youre sending christmas stuff... can i ask for music and skirts? and just funny things. just go find weird stuff. ;) 

and send me more photos of my past life and your new life 

what do yall want for cmas

10-24-16 The land of milk, honey and Mami

one day, i got transferred to raiatea and had to drive everywhere around tahiti late at night with some stls to the city to sleep for the night. this one day, i started sneezing a whole ton and thought it was the cat that i had just attemted to hold for 15 minutes. but then my whole entire head began to pound and my nostrils refused to breathe and my eyes began to sweat profusely. like i was gonna explode. this was at 1 oclock am and my temporary companion was a crazy tahitian sister who was awake at the same time for some reason, and she gave me a very intense head massage which hurt a lot but actually made me go to sleep. tahitian remedies baby.

the next morning i got up at 4 so i could go fly to the other island. but the assistants didnt give me my passport so we got on a little different flight.

then i met my new companion, ate a giant tahitian breakfast, and did work all day! i really loved it cause this place is BREATHTAKING and i like missionary work and stuff but i swear i have never felt more close to death in my life. by the end of the day i actually couldnt do more and i didnt eat my giant steak that they gave me, i just laid on the table and died.

we went home soon after, i threw up, and then i went to bed.

but holy smokes my companion is sr james from eagle mountain utah who i am gonna kill in 6 weeks, and i really am so blessed. how am i so lucky to be with this girl. shes so easygoing and hilarious and we run around in the pouring rain and climb trees and stuff. put our hands in the air like we just dont care. im bummed shes finishing real soon.

we live in the cutest pink house and sleep in the loft.

i really need to work on my tahitian if i wanna survive here. bye bye french iaorana i te reo tahiti.

theres a random lady who lives with us. her name is mami. shes been doing misisonary work undercover for 13 years hahahaha. so funny. we laugh a lot.

ive eaten a lot of coconuts this week. we cut up some calf hearts for a service project. hashtag heart breakers. nothing too new. i think we are going to go fishing today also. rad dope rad. raiatea really is paradise. like i thought tahiti was beautiful but i think this is the land of milk and honey or whatever. polynesians are nephites too, so says a book i found in our house that i found.

theres a crazy person in our ward who only talks about cake but she never actually has the cake she promised us. im sick of this anticipation. theres also a crazy man named alfred who calls from time to time to ask for the lessons, even though hes actually a member who had his records taken out, then put back in, then i dont know. but he calls us saying he wants the lessons and calls again 5 seconds after to say he hates the book of mormon and he wants us to take it away from him.

everyone go hug my mom it was her bday on friday!!!! and my little bro whos bday is the 29!!!! HUG THEM TIGHT HUG THEM

2 Nephi 9:10

oh, comme elle est grande, la bonte de notre Dieu.

it is grande. dont forget to be grateful because that is what leads to true happiness!

`

MOM! HAPPY BDAY nobody talked about your bday to me so i dont know what you did? what did all of you do? me, i ate some pie on friday night in your honor. hope it was really fun! really i still have a package i meant to send so long ago and its still in my house in papeari... so.. yeah. but it will be sent before christmas and then ill probably send another one for christmas and then youll have double blessingssssssssssss

hahaha! oh my, i have so much to say and no where to start. i havent ever had too much time to be detailed in my letters but heres a story i never told from my last sector. this concerns the story that augustine mentioned.

so there was a man in my old ward whos like 43 and has a 8 year old son. he teaches our class of amis and hes really awesome spiritual you know, and seriously like 3 weeks into the mission i asked him if he wanted to work with us. like a good missionary.

well he took this invitation seriously. WAY TOO SERIOUSLY; and he spent a whole 2 weeks following us around. my comp acted natural and indifferent so little new missionary me thought yay! lessons with members.

the next week we had an activity and he was talking to me. my comp wasnt really w me in sound range officially cause i realize now she and i were really disobediant but i was surrounded by babylon missionaries at the time and was really confused. anyway, thats all finished now haha. but he proceeded to profess his greatest hearts desires to me randomly and talked about how he couldnt stop thinking about me, he even went to the temple and told me about this great spiritual moment he had... with my... spirit? im not even sure anymore because i didnt understand french well at that time. for this reason, i stared at him for a long time wondering if it was my french or his insanity that i wasnt understanding. this encouraged him to keep talking until finally i stopped doubting what i was hearing and i panicked and was like ahh no im a missionary and youre old and yadda yadda

hahahaha this is so funny now. but anyway i told the right people about it, pres didnt ever transfer me cause i guess this happens often in tahiti. but frere laborde continued until the end. one time he sent me a message about how hed prayed that we would be eternally together.

and bishop called him as assistant dmp.

and he wrote me a 9 long page note before i left.

and he found our raiatea number and sent me a message about carlos santano? i have no idea.

hahaha but that explains that dramatic little time of my life. kind of everything is so dramatic here its funny. thats kind of how the culture is, EXTREME EVERYTHING. its really so fun, i think i have the funnest mission in the world but also i think its the weirdest and most insane. i used to think it was just me not being able to adjust to the culture but now i realize that actually people are insane and thats not gonna change hahaha. i love them so much though. if they love you, they will do literally anything for you. theyre like EAT AT MY HOUSE WE ARE MAKING CREPES TONIGHT! TONIGHT CREPES EAT TAMAA QKDFMLQKJSFOIE

then if you dont come they save you 5000 crepes and bring them to your house

im gonna get fat soon. Watch out.

hey well im really happy that you all got to go to uea weekend at a slot canyon!!! i miss that like the dickens. i had a weird dream about ian last night that we were all chillin in a hot tub and he was being himself. i dont remember what else happened but something i miss being able to do is just chll with you guys. ive also gained a big testimony of hard work and patience. these last 6 months have been without doubt the hardest of my life. ive never questioned my testimony, myself, the church, the world, and my hair more in my existence. at first i really wanted to go home because of lots of companion, ward, and mostly self problems. but now, after a third of my mission, which is crazy haha, i realize how much i am supposed to be here even if success was hard to see at the beginning. ive started to learn by actual and real experience that faith WILL LEAD TO MIRACLES. even if sometimes the miracle is just you.

you are my miracles!!! sorry for the cheesy email theyre important sometimes.

good luck facing the world this week. are you having a haloween party? whos who this halloween? ive been thinking about my costume and i think im gonna be sr james.

teesh haha sorry you have to wear a face mask of rubber bands every night.

ian and isaac write meeee

dad im upset there is no more truck.

hey if you want pics youve gotta send me more. actually i really would like some printed pics of all things hahaha

aj good luck with all this homework. what classes ar you in? dont have to think about that for a while. lol

ian hows jr year treating ya? actually what classes are you in?

movies? music? elections? news? what am i missin?

FROSTY HAPPY BIRTHDAY OAOA FAAOAOARAA!!!!! YOURE GONNA BE A DEACON WHAT THE WEIRD

amen.

i would send way more pics but there is never ever enough internet or time in tahiti. its just so slow and silly haha. youll see all of them one day!!!

dead, dead, dead, dead 10/17/16

hey there everyone this is the last email my dear Sr Ho wrote about our adventures in papeari vaiari together. just read and laugh. this isnt even the smallest part of them. but yes anywho ill write more in my group email too. im getting transferred to another freaking island and im pumped but i wish sr ho could just come along with me and we could battle more crabs and deaf man together. shes funny. ill miss all of her noodles and sass and good talks when we really should be sleeping or something.

ok love you all tatou!!!!

they say some people come... some people go

coldplay.

ook so heres a fun little scoop of my life!!

i wish i had more time to write all these things and details

IM GOING TO ANOTHER ISLAND its called reatea i think thats how you spell it. but yeah its gonna be real fun! im super pumped to go experience a whole other island. i feel like there is no more america. theres only tiny pieces of land in the ocean where people cut up coconuts and drink them. and dont wear clothes.

this is bonkers.

IM SO SADDDDD theres a flipping baptism on saturday for this girl named samantha and she does tai kwon do and she loves to cook and then talk a ton and IM MISSING HER BAPTISM FLIPPPPPPPPPPPP \\

 AND im saying bye to sr ho and i really dont know what ill do without this little crazy. and her noodles. and her sass. and that she protects me from swallowing dangerous things.

weve had so many flipping adventures here in vaiari. from dead people in the chapel to ultrasounds to crabs in the bedroom to being so sick we wanna die. to eating lots of rice and chinese food and crap.

shes really just cool. im sad.

LIFE IS INSANE!!

heres a spiritual uplifting thought.

YOU are you most important work in this life. no matter how many people you WANT to help or how much service you WANT to do, if you dont live up to your potential that god has for you, youll never help them as much as you COULD HAVE with that potential.

pray for it. plan for who you want to be. read the dang scriptures.

thats all, tatou. love you

give em heaven.

The attack of mister crabs 10/10/16

malheuresement 

i dont have time today to write too much but here are some big points! 

aside from eating chinise food everyday with my hong kongian companion, i ate a lot of fish meat and unhealthy things! woot today we went to mcdonalds!! 

i opened the door to my bedroom one day this week and there was a giant crab and i think i almost pooped my pants

we have two baptisms coming up and its thanks to the book of mormon and the priesthood. 

jesus is real. 

we can live with our families forever. 

its important to follow the prophet

amen. bye everyone

i really dont have any time right now again. its because tahitians are insane and we dont have keys to the church. 

heres some photos. 

I GOT YOUR PACKAGE I LOVE YOU ALL AND I LAUGHED MY BUM OFF hahahaha thanks so much everyone. 

geez i have so much to say but i really cant

sorry 

these photos wont attach either

10/3/16

hey there tout les mondes we are going shopping soon and then a service project planting pineapples! so i cqnt really talk too much but love you all :) thanks for the support and all. i havent gotten the package but this week i got a letter that was from aug 30 so i think it takes like a month at least for things to get here. not a problem things come at the right time! hahaha

i love you all and the sun is hot the sin is hotter and we are cleaning up the hot mess. lol sorry i hope you all loved loved loved conference :) i sure did and we got to watch it in ENGLISH! so amazing. hashtag love everything. i will try to write more later. 

faaitoito. ua imi ia outou no i te maramarama.

Hey mister tally man 9/26/16

honestly im not even mad you sent it to people hahaha i figured if i send my true feelings i might as well just make them known. hahaha im just a person right?

doing better, i feel kind of bad about sending so much negativity because thats all i do lol and i feel like im just this super frustrated stressful person sometimes. but last week i had this horrible fever and butt cheek painful sickness when i was writing!! i didnt wanna tell you that too haha but we are better now. i think that affected lots of emotions also.

this week ive been trying to have a more eternal perspective and just breathe. life is ok and this is just a time to learn. i cant control everything about my situation right now but i can control the way i feel about it. and i feel like its time to work and stop moping. time to learn, time to pray, time to learn. i am comforted knowing that im never alone. i have a thousand angels right behind me, and the best 7 of them live in hyde park utah.

im so grateful for this time. i need to just show heavenly father where my faith is

2 ne 4:19

heyooooo

me say dayooo

hows everyone? ill make this sorta quick because i am not blessed with tons of time today. i have been thinking lately about how everyone that i know is literally all over the WORLD. thats just a crazy thing, like this world is a pretty big place! but everyone is making their own little impact on their own little group of influence. i know some pretty awesome people too so this is gonna be good (thats the voice of that old lady in hercules)

so there was a transfer and what not! my new companion is sr Ho from Hong Kong and we are still kicking it in vaiari. life is getting different and im learning lots from my chinese companion, including how to make cool different kinds of soup with tofu. i really love this addition to my life. shes very wise, sassy and talented.

my sector has been difficult for the last... starting of my mission. we have at least 6 people who want to be baptised but there are just PROBLEMS. and little old me doesnt know how to solve them. how can i make people divorced or make peoples parents accept the baptism of their child when they have been protestants for generations and generations. or how can i make silly men stop abusing their wives and vise versa. problems problems problems. ive learned so much about how strong satan is, how well he knows how to attack our weaknesses personally. ive seen this in others and especially in myself. but ive also seen that GOD IS STRONGER

and with faith, and perseverance (even if we dont know why we persevere), there are tiny miracles that turn into great brilliant miracles after.

after the faith.
dandc 63:9 through11

keep going everyone. dont stop and dont doubt because when you stop, thats when satan has time to do something. never quit learning about how God looks at you. look at yourself through his eyes.

i love the sisters in my house. freaking love them. even if our house is kind of nasty

this message is approved by the giant spider in our bathroom.

Mommy 9/19/16

mommmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

mom holy flipper doodles i dont know what to send you but i just wanna talk for a long time: maybe forever: that works? cool. maybe ill just send you randoms until i drop.

you write me sufficiently and i appreciate it with all of my heart. your letters are all in this little bag that i have in my room and from time to time i go and i read them if i need a good pick me up.

which is often. im sort of ashamed to say that im not as positive as i used to be or thought i would be. everyone told me i would just make the best of everything and feel good about any situation but MAN MOM THE MISSION IS HARD

ITS HARDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

ok i just had to let that out. hahaha its a new therepy im working on. teretts. lol remember when my eye wouldnt stop twitching and then we said i was gonna start swearing at the pulpit? i miss your sense of humor, mom. i think i took it here sort of and i talk about toots sometimes. youre just so flipping rad and funny mom. never forget it.

it really is fine. theres just lots of changes and stupid things that happen and i am already tired of these responsibilities that i have at this point right now. i always ask myself how im gonna be a mom if i cant handle these responsibilities right now. i dont wanna worry about other peoples problems anymore and holy smoley mom, these people have SO MANY PROBLEMS. I wish i knew all the answers but i dont.

you went on a mission, is that how you felt sometimes? tell me some story or some advice.

on the bright side, and there are many, i freaking love my new companion. she makes me feel better and more like myself because shes just herself too. we are figuring things out together and shes teaching me a ton of things also. shes chinese, makes chinese food, shes tiny and sassy as heck. i love it. i hope we start picking things up in this sector eventually. i just have to find motivation because sometimes that is a little bit lost. oooh.

theres lots of nice and caring people. even if they are insane they are really top.

i love the sisters in my house right now. what would i do without the laughs we have had this week. transfers can be good.

i tripped on the same doormat three times the other day. still a clutz.

i still love to do accents.

im still sad im not gonna be there for the wedding but im pumped for aj. hes all grown up.

i think aj had a really hard mission and if he can do it, that makes me feel like i can do it. tell him he can send me advice anytime.

emily left the mission and the church. im really upset.

and sorry im venting so much. something that sr ho does is we have venting times. she tells me about how mean her other companion was and i tell her that i dont know how to be a missionary.

but i wanna stop blaming other people for how i feel. because a lot of the time i feel really good. its just some other times i feel really really crappy.

i saw a mini cooper here yesterday (which is rare because the cars here are trash) and i thought about you but what the heck crud? send me some pics of this marshmallow car that you have:??? you got some splaining to do mom

sorry again for the vent. im doing alright. love youuuuuuuuu

tell me more deets in the family. youre the best. loves and kisses and sweet sweets.

The poor dead slew 9/12/16

so....

i just finished reading all these things about marriage and broken trucks and what not. hahaha i screamed a lot and started crying and all of the sisters in our office here just freaked out too. we love the ring AJ hahahaha and they say you are beautiful. "ooooooh ils sont beau!!!!!!"

Ian i really hope you had a good birthday too!! i ate a piece of cake on the 8th in your honor but i forgot my camera so you cant see the ah man... im not gonna hide it from you guys that i just hate missing things. i hate it hate it hate it i just wanna be present for these fun times in the life of my family. and sometimes i dont know what im doing here. like, i get all worried that maybe i am doing everything TOTALLY WRONG and i am failing the Lord because of these silly personal problems i cant overcome. how does one overcome so many all at the same time while also trying to learn two languages, motivating an unmotivated ward with an unmotivated bishop, and unmotivated investigators with thousands of problems of their own? then i feel... unmotivated. and selfish.

at the same time, i will NOT deny that i have had some of the most personally spiritual and edifying experiences of my life here. I have felt the most love and comfort in my very worst moments. i have been driven to my knees so many times to simply ask for the strength and motivation to keep smiling. if anything, i know that HE LISTENS. that this church is true and that God loves his children. i know that jesus christ our savior and he will not leave us stranded. he has done everything and so much more. he has already conquered these things that are hard for me.

2 Ne 4:15-19

ok. well i have some time today so im gonna write some other longer things :) mom, i think i already talked about the food? but we eat various things here.

-bread bread bread and actually its really good. like french baguettes. theres really good cheese here also.

-fruits that are either really good or just scary and give diarreah. things ive never heard of

- tons of raw fish mixed with veggies and unhealthy sauces. really yummyyyyy but also gives me diarreah hahaha. i eat it anyway.

- tons and tons of chicken, fatty pork, steak, fries, all sorts of really heavy stuff. tons and tons and tons of meat and fish. they love to pour mayo and ketchup on everything too, or other weird sauces that ive never heard of. i just eat what they give me.

- SO MUCH CAKE

i actually like the food here most of the time. if its the traditional food, thats scary.

dad im glad you cried when you read the jungle book. its a good book i need to read it again someday

nooooo first coldplay now mumf and sons ahhhh you lucky kids

i am chatting with spencer felix right now and just the happiest person :) tell his fam hi for me please and congrats to brit crazy sauce

congrats durrant frisbee make yourselves some t shirts hahaha

the poor slew.............. almost dead. ill keep it alive for at least another 13 months hahaha but after that there is no promise. theres all these.. people who wanna marry me and stuff

serious you were in indiana a year ago??? ah man ça passe vit

mom: are you excited to plan a christmas and a marriage at the same time and to be a mom in law and stuff? hahahaha lololol have funnnnnnnnn

dad: your poor eyes. just glue the glasses to your face or something

aj: you are a little rushed? fixing the temple date before the proposal even! thats confidence hahaha. qsjdrfopqziejrnk you guys are cute!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ah man i am pumped for you. dont hesitate to send details. christmas is soon! so soon. where for the honeymoon? wink wink

ian: send me some pics im still waiting! and i cant belive you cheated out on the opportunity to wear a morph suit in a tree for brooklyn fowers. silly boy. hahaha youre still searching for a little friend? wink wink

teesh!!! give me some life deets. are you playing the piano still and always cooking weird stuff or doing science experiments?

isaac: happy birthday carl comes from when you told me you all said that at the fireworks or something. tell the rest of our crazy family please. youre not getting married anytime soon right?

say hello to everyone for me. moms side of the family too i dont have a ton of emails :)

looooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu you all are my rock and my force! stay strong my fam and happy trails to you until we meet again

i think tarzan came out? how was that?

"Not the centipedes"

hey world, the bigger world outside of a tiny island in the ocean someplace :)

this week. same old same old. actually there isnt really a same old in tahiti. too much stuff happens. for example, i have this allergy to mosquitos or something and so my bites sometimes turn into infectious owies... sorry not too pretty. its really not a big deal but the tahitians decide that they are going to save my life. each different tahitian. you have to understand that they are very loving and very determined to really fix this problem for me with their strange remedies... so far they have tried:

-slathering me in mono'i (locally made oil that smells good but doesnt do smack)

- making me drink ginger and water and i hope not other things

- rubbing garlic on my skin

- coming to our house with all kinds of medicine that has no relation to infections

- heres the winner. someone killed the giant centipedes that live here, put them in a jar with alcohol and ginger and water, and let it sit there for a long time. then they PUT IT ON MEEEEE noooooooooooo

theres always a new story like this. i cant tell them all.

but anyways. there is a transfer and im staying here in vaiari but bye bye sr xowi, my favorite new caledonian. i have no idea actually when my new companion will come because shes actually on a different island right now! oh no. but her name is sr ho and shes from china! like the only chinese missionary in the whole ocean i think :) im pumped to meet her one day.... for now i will be alone with the other sisters and work with my members. :) pray for me the little lonely just finished training missionary.

also pray for my bro who just got HITCHED!!!  or just attack him or something.

#teamajandnicole #mignon

love you. love you all. keep it real and remember that christ has done it all for us already, we just need to show an effort.

stay strong my friends

#swag

sorry i forgot my camera procaine fois