Tyler In Tahiti

Ka oha nui again everyone, from The Marquesas - the land where it's been raining all week and we've had not a whole ton of work. Lessons have been cancelled, contacts have not showed up, and it's been an all-around mess. And as the islanders get lazy, so do we. It totally saps our motivation and drive, and we don't go for as much because there's nothing to go for. The two are connected and it makes me mad. A quick miracle this week was an open window in our house when we locked the keys in there. And on a Sunday no less right when we were leaving for church and needed the keys for the office. In the words of the Jehovah's Witness pamphlets - "au hasard ou conception?" (I think that one translates itself) One of the few lessons we did have was incredibly cool though. One of our investigators from last week that Bize magically fixed is now basically set for baptism. All we had to do was change our teaching style as Bize suggested and he eng...

Ka oha nui encore from the Marquesas - "The Land of Men" (in Marquesian). This week was definitely not as filled with lessons as last week. We had some heavy rain this week, and let me tell you, islanders get LAZY in the rain. People just cancel lessons and sleep like nobody's business. We went contacting all day after this crazy storm, and we barely talked to one guy. But the important thing is that we were out and working. In terms of crazy miracles, when it rains here, our water gets really dirty. That's for our shower and our laundry. And then that night our power went out too (around midnight. For some reason I stirred awake and I heard the fan go off). Then, at like two in the morning, I woke up and needed to go to the bathroom. I hit the lightswitch and no light (I didn't think things through at two in the morning), so halfway asleep and in the bathroom, I just sort of casually prayed that  tomorrow  we'd have the power back and clean water. No ...

Ka oha nui from the Marquesas! The land where everybody's Catholic, and people ask me if I'm Arabic when they see/hear my last name. In terms of work, things are definitely an uphill battle out here, but I'd say it's going well. We had 14 lessons this week instead of the traditional 5, and 14 is the number of lessons for the Standard of Excellence in a branch, so that's a least a start. We've still got so much work to do though. We have no baptisms fixed right now, one progressing investigator, and one brand new little branch. Everybody there is really still just trying to learn how to be a church. Elder Poirier is the first counselor in the branch, and sometimes it really feels like we're really teaching these guys how to do things. I'm not terribly frustrated, rest assured (that paragraph kind of makes it sound like I am), I'm just stating how it is. Honestly, I think part of the reason why I'm not frustrated is because of how theraputi...

Hello my friends! Before the good stuff, on to the wrap-up in Toahotu... Ia ora na encore from Tahiti! The land where I was on a split for my last few days and this chick like bro/basketball butt-patted me and told me I have pretty eyes... um, yeah. We ran into some Americans! Only not just Americans - Mormons! I was never so happy in all of my life to see one-piece swim suits. Also, I found myself in the lair once again; the place where every missionary wishes they were - THE MAIL ROOM. I feel like I've been there the most out of every missionary besides the assistants (from going into town for my being sick and stuff). Then I spent the night in Faa'a. The missionaries' house here is really nice and has this cool view. When your airplane terminal is like, a roof... All them islands man! Or, spits of land. Either way -Jurassic Park -landed in St. George, Utah -drove through Forks, Washington ...