The First Tahitian P-Day (Week 7)

Bonjour tout le monde!

I finally made it here. And I have many stories to tell.

Firstly, I'm not gonna lie, that flight was kinda long.

Secondly, we are four hours earlier here, and we watched conference live (in English thank goodness). And we live twenty+ minutes away from the church where we watched it, so I'll let you do the math on when we had to get up...

My favorite talk was probably D. Todd Christofferson's. He speaks with such power and authority. You can tell he's a man of God.

I'm currently on the main island in an area called Toahotu; nicknamed the "Presqu'ile" (the "almost island"). It is the tiny little patch of land that connects the two fat circles of Tahiti. It's actually a brand new sector (nobody says area) that we're opening! How exciting is that? Elder Sovereign was so kind when he heard that I was opening a new sector and said, "Pfft! I could've told you that." He's so nice.

We've been doing  a lot of groundwork here, and have been trying to establish a base. As a result we haven't taught that many lessons yet, but we will. The ones we have taught have been incredible. So often they've been taught on dirt. The houses are very humble, and the investigator will just bring some rundown wooden chairs (a wooden bench for us) into the dirt road and we'll sit and teach a, given these circumstances, one of a kind lesson as a chicken or two runs by. It's really something special. I love how simple their lives are. Everyone is happy, but most of all, VERY chill. It's kind of the best. I love and feel the Savior's love for basically everyone I see. Like really, we'll drive by some random guy and that'll be the case. The culture shock here has been nonexistant. Everything feels right, and like, normal. Also on a sidenote, all the tattoos here are tribal, so they're all rad. There're no dumb barb-wire rings or women tattoos here. I mean, we shouldn't admire sin, but it's like their culture, and when I see a shirtless, tattooed old dude with the sweetest beard and long hair, I am impressed out of my mind.

My companion's name is Elder Paulsen. He's been out here for a year, and has been nicknamed my dad. He's super nice and helps me lots.

Our house is super nice. We have hot water and electricity and everything.

Breakfast here is very French. It's quick, easy, and probably involves hot chocolate. My favorite has honestly been these great chocolate cookies you dip in milk.

Lunch is either back at our house or at a member's; it's really whatever.

Dinner however, is always the greatest meal, and we always have it with a family of members. They genuinely love us and want to serve us and give us dinner. It's so nice.

Honestly, for every new Tahitian dish I've had (I got to try poisson-cru on my first night), I have regular chicken and rice. And for every drink of mango juice I have, I get an "American Wine" also (Coca-Cola, of all things).

Now, on to the crowd-pleasing stuff that moms never want to hear.

- I rode in the back of a police car...

we had lunch with the cops and he gave us a ride back

- I ate Fafaru. Like, legit. Only, it wasn't used as sauce on a good fish, I had to legitimately eat a slice of the fish in the jar. Hardcore, man The trick is honestly just to eat it fast so you don't have to taste it, and hopefully have a Coke Zero (like I had) to help wash out some of the taste.

- You are guaranteed to cast out at least one evil spirit from a person on this mission. Our zone leader was sharing the scary stories and everything. You're likely to get more than one.

- There is a storm coming soon. The strongest storm in 50 years apparently. We're prepping 72 hour kits. Service projects!

I think that's it.

Until next time, everybody keep the faith and stay awesome! I love you all.

P.S. - I can only send a small amount of pictures each week, so this is what you get

* Note:  I am not sure what happened with this picture. 

 Lucky for us Ty is short enough we can still see his face!  Ha!