The Reset Button-- Week 51

NOTE: It is recommended that you read this email whilst listening to the Elder Smith/Elder Brown classic "Big City Life" by Mattafix.


Ia ora na tatou from Papeete - the City That Never Sleeps! ... sort of.

To be honest, I feel like I've started my mission all over again. Frankly every transfer I've had (all two of them), has felt this way. The Presqu'ile is nothing like Tahiti in general, the Marquises was literally another island, and now I'm in like a real city. In Toahotu I was learning how to speak in general, in the Marquises I was really honing my French (as they speak so much more French there) with some Marquisian, but now I have to learn an entirely new language - Frenchitian. I literally found myself not understanding what people were saying again, and I've been on a mission for 11+ months now. I was not amused. And of course, after seven months of dealing with people of one mentality, I'm now in a sector dealing with people of a completely different mentality. I've begun again, in a way.

My companion, Elder Taurere, is the man. We work super well together, and he's great to be around. He is also 27 and engaged (not joking). It's kind of different seeing the Tahiti Missionary World from the perspective of a Tahitian. He hasn't really left home (it's the same island after all), so he sees the mission a little differently. It's very interesting. We also live with our zone leaders, Elders Ford (a filmmaker like myself) and Elledge (chillest man alive).

Working at the visitor's center for the temple is really cool. Missionaries from all over the island come in with their investigators, and we're the masters of disaster that get to help them. None of the lessons at the center count for our numbers (they are other people's investigators after all), and I kind of like it. It's helped me to get away from focusing on numbers, and it just makes me happy to help further other missionaries' work. Also, President Bize (me being his personal secret agent) informed me that my newest task is to try and go nuts with this center. He's given me permission to get creative, contribute new ideas, and even potentially make movies.

I really like my new sector too. It's fun being in this city. It's certainly no New York, but it's very unique, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit. I showed up, and on Day 2 we already had two new baptisms fixed! It's a big change from the Marquesas.


Sincerely,
The still-"Tumu Hakako"-tag-wearing Elder Harrah



P.S. - all the computers at this geneaology center where we do our emails either have or have had viruses, so USBs/SD cards of any kind are super prohibited; thusly, no pictures. However, we can do that at the visitors' center at the temple, so I will try to send pictures during the week when we're over there.








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