Tyler In Tahiti

Hello my friends! Before the big news, the weekly update: The missionary Christmas party was a good time. I got Legos, I saw (almost all) of my MTC friends, and just had a good time. President and Soeur Bize take good care of us. Love those guys. The next day, on the 24th, Elder Darguence was sick, so Elder Smith and I went and did the radio! We talked about how both the Bible and the Book of Mormon talk about the appearence of a star at the birth of Christ, and how it's for us to follow Christ too. I said that "Wise men still seek him". Then, on Christmas day, after Skyping and stuff, we had a baptism that went off without a hitch. Nailed it. And now my dear little sister Hanaley is baptized. Look how cute she is! And she seems so much older now. But now, on to the big news... ... chers freres et soeurs, I am going to the Marquises. THE BLOODY MARQUISES! There is a crapload of envy coming my way right now. There are only 5 people cur...

   On Christmas day, we were able to Skype with Elder Harrah for about 45 minutes.  We had some technical difficulties, but we were finally able to see him and talk to him.  It was the best Christmas present a mom could ask for!  I am so thankful for the modern technology we have so we can Skype.  I think of those early missionaries and families who never got to see each other and had to wait months and months for the mail to get back and forth....I don't think I would have made it!  I wish I would have thought of filming it sooner, but I did get a couple of short video clips that I will share here.  In one he's talking about his favorite Tahitian food and in the other, he's teaching us some French.   In the video, Ty is wearing a new tie he got for Christmas that is made in an aweome floral Tahitian fabric.  I think the tie was a gift from the family who's house he was able to Skype us from, but I am not certain.  It is even red w...

Ia ora na tatou from Tahiti; the land where random people see you waiting on the side of the road and give you coconut water. I hope everyone is doing well and with their families this Christmas. This time of year is a great time to be a missionary because of all the miracles that happen, but kinda crappy too because everyone here is drunk. Mostly I'm excited to take a bit of a break. Elder Paulsen and I have been working really hard these last two weeks, and are currently at an all-time high of lessons in a week. Also, our zone has gone from being next to last to second in terms of most successful. Our district has really been turning things around here! In the spirit of all these lessons though, I'm excited to take a little break. This next week is really going to have like one real day of work. We've got a Christmas party with all the missionaries on the big island this Wednesday, and I'll finally be reunited with one or two of my man-crushes from the...

Ia ora na once again from Tahiti; the land where everyone tells me I'm way too small and need to eat more. Seriously, they use their pinky to describe me. Sorry for the explitive last week. In my defense it was a quote from Elder Smith's uncle. (that actually really does nothing for my case) Things are going really fantastically here. We actually achieved the Standard of Excellence this week. (For those that don't know, the Standard of Excellence is the set number of baptisms, investigators at church, lessons, etc that your sector should have, and is something that the president gives us to show us what to shoot for). This was especially encouraging because we have such a difficult sector and we basically did it with just us (Elder Paulsen and I) and the Lord. We were so very close on Saturday night, and I was praying fervently for us to have our 6 investigators at church and just one more baptism fixed by day's end. We got there, and we only saw 3...

Ia ora na encore from Tahiti! This week was especially great because we finally baptized Kevin. After much fasting and prayer on our part, and lots of trials and temptations on his, he is now a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This baptism was really special for me. It was technically my first real baptism. The other two that we had were kind of fixed before we got here, but this was my first investigator that we personally engaged, taught, and brought to the waters of baptism. It was truly a great experience. They say in the scriptures how great will you be your joy if you bring one soul unto God, and I will attest to that with great conviction! When he got baptized and received the Holy Ghost, I honestly felt the peace and comfort that I felt the day of my baptism. It was really great to be reminded of that in such a personal way, and of course to bring this dear friend of mine to that peace and comfort as well. And with his baptism finished, we...

Hello everyone. Just had day 100 on the 27th. May I continue to rack those up like nobody's business. Things have been crazy this week. Things are finally going better with Kevin (his baptism is this Saturday) and we managed to fix another with this 9-year-old girl named Hanaley. Our third, Yvon, fell through though. His parents are rather opposed. Still working on that situation. This week I did my first split with Elder Smith (and on Day 100 no less). We went and saw this investigator that Elder Paulsen and I have been seeing for a bit, Tamatit, and have been having a bit of trouble with. After like 20 minutes of waiting for him, and him talking to his GF in the other room (who, by the way, is innactive and we don't know for sure but she might be one of his impediments, according to our bishop), he came out and said he didn't want to take the lessons anymore. Of course he still hasn't read or prayed yet, even after weeks of seeing him. What followed was a...