I Lied--Week 96

Or rather, I was mistaken.

Last week's picture of the map made me look really dumb! I figured out that we weren't exactly on the presqu'ile, but I didn't know we were that far away! I assumed that with us being part of the presqu'ile zone we'd be a lot closer! Apparently our sector used to be part of the a different zone but now we're part of the presqu'ile even though we're so far away. Me and my assumptions. These were all things that I found out later...

That being said, things are going very well right now. This week just flew by. The first couple of days we were in a trio (Elder Hollowell's plane to Hao wasn't until Thursday), and it was fun to finally serve with Hollowell (we're friends/know each other from zone conferences, but this was the first time we'd ever been in such close proximity). Each day passed at lightning speed. Tuesday was especially cool because the other coaches and I got to go to President's house and receive instructions on our coaching assignment. It was mostly awesome because I got to see President in a type of "leadership council" again, as well as some missionaries that had been out on islands forever (namely Elder Dalton). It was just like old times. President Bize's last bit of instruction to us was "kill 'em all". He even said it in English.

The district meeting on Friday was also a highlight (Elder Lasson is my zone leader now. I was overjoyed. We spent the entire meeting referring to each other by callings that he, "the stake president" had assigned. He said I was the high councilman, and that my companion was the young women's president. Elder Fillis was the stake patriarch). We also had a Father's Day activity that night and that was fun. Had some fried chicken with lemon sauce.

But the best part of the week was the concerts! As it is the long vacation from school right now, as is tradition in this mission, we are doing a choir concert in every stake on the island of Tahiti. I missed out on last year's concerts because I was in the Marquises, and this year I missed all the rehearsals and two or three of the concerts, but don't worry, I'm in them now! And we've got like 4 or 5 left! They're actually a lot of fun. They've helped me to see a lot of old friends; missionary and otherwise. This one missionary couple (the husband is a professor at BYU for film-related stuff) is actually filming these concerts, so I feel like all you folks at home will be able to see some footage too. We've got some songs I'm really proud of, and that I don't want to forget about, so I certainly hope we'll be getting videos of it...

My spiritual bit for you people is this - in church on Sunday, one of the counselors in the stake presidency talked about how the enemy attacks when our defenses are down. I found it to be important enough to share with you guys. He said, "Sometimes we're spiritually sleeping." We get lazy where we shouldn't and we let important habits just fall away. We say to ourselves, 'Oh no worries, I don't have any troubles or temptations, so I don't need to be as gospel-focused each day', but it's exactly at that moment when the adversary tries to have us, or if not, disaster strikes and frankly, life happens and we're faced with problems; we can either choose to be ready or not.  "May we all be spiritually vigilant and dilligent" is my hope and prayer.


-Elder Harrah


-the trio
-we decided to joke around a little with this one lady in our sector (we said that I was Elder Hollowell, and Hollowell acted like he was brand new and spoke bad French and everything).
-the first presidency. no lie, lasson took special care to make sure everyone was doing the right poses (Fillis on the left as Eyring, Eperania is Monson, and Lasson is Uchtdorf (Lasson's new companion, McGloughlin wasn't there yet)). Also let it be known, Fillis and Eperania are the Elders of Toahotu (my old home)





-at the Father's Day activity. in this picture they've got like balls on strings that they're swinging around. I dunno. I've never seen that dance before in all of my Tahitian career
-the Moorea veterans with Mama Rose, Poeiti and Falakika after the concert at Papeete (from left to right: Jordan, Frazer, Gonzalez, Lasson, fetch, Dalton)
-the Jamet family (Djulia-ly. her dad is now baptised and they've already done baptisms for the dead!)





-at the concert of Paea (Sunday night). the second person in the photo is Elder McGloughlin; Lasson's new companion and my new zone leader
-Jordan and his real dad, Lasson (I'm only his step-dad)







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