Tyler In Tahiti

Ka oha nui from the Marquesas once again - the land where I finally got better from being sick, but it sort of killed our week. This week we didn't have a whole ton of success in terms of lessons. Like, at all. Between me being sick and all our regulars cancelling, we ended up with less than 10 lessons; something I've had yet to do on a mission. It's been super discouraging. Still no word on our trip out to Ua Pou and Ua Huka. I guess it'll be some time in July (despite all this partying). Speaking of parties, that's about all that's happened this week. The Catholics hosted this crazy jubilee where a bunch of people from Ua Pou and Ua Huka came and sang and danced, and there was more food there than I've ever seen in one place in my entire life. Probably. ... and that's truly all I have to write about this week. It was honestly really long and kind of lame in terms of work. Love to everyone, Tumu Hakako Harrah -this pill looks ...

Ka oha nui from the Marquises - where I'm running out of titles and not-so-witty jokes for these emails. This week was, as I said, eventful. On Tuesday, we went and worked down on the docks. Kevin and Soeur Ellis had a really full day and needed a bit of extra help, and Davis and I are not ones to turn down a service project. We helped bring in a bunch of boxes that Kevin had ordered (ice cream ordered for the shop, navigation books, tanks of fuel, a new printer, the likes). On Wednesday, we had a day where everyone kept their appointment, and everybody read the scriptures we gave them! It was truly a miracle. They were all really quality lessons, and two of them were with Catherine and Suzanne just to make things better. They're progressing a bit more now than before! On Thursday, the universe was like, "What? You guys can't have success," and I was struck with what we found out later was the zycca (Zika) virus. This was the worst day of it. I ...

Ka oha nui from the Marquises - the land where "#thirdworldproblems" could actually be a social media phrase. I honestly don't have that much to say for this week. I'm really having trouble remembering it. Things are still moving slowly with work. No word on Catherine and Elaida. We had a really great lesson with Suzanne and Carl though, and a really special moment when they opened up to us and were super honest. They said that if they lived in a bigger country they'd already be in our church. It's just that it's so small out here. Everyone is family. EVERYONE. And they see everything that you do, always, at all times. The gossip is really harsh. And if you leave the Catholic faith you risk seriously and extensively losing your loved ones and close friends. This was obviously something we had a general idea of, but hearing them talking about it personally and just how honest it was was really special to me. I really like that family, and I really hop...

Ka oha nui as usual from the Marquesas - the land where we went fishing today, so who knows how long this email will be. This week none of the investigators I wrote about worked out at all really (Catherine is going to take a bit more work than I thought, Suzanne still moves slowly, and we've still got to see Elaida again), but despite that, it was a pretty good week. We honestly just had a lot of fun. Literally no appointments worked out like ever, so we've been getting creative. We played a lot more sports this week, and kicked some serious trash and earned some serious respect from all the teenagers. No lie, Saturday when we were walking down main street, there was a party going on on the basketball/volleyball court, and EVERYBODY waved to us. It was great! And we knew them all from one time we played soccer. It's crazy, but people actually kind of like us now and wave to us. It's a pleasant change. Apart from that I can't think of much else that happe...

Ka oha nui everyone from The Marquesas - the land that the church considers a third-world country (that's why we don't have iPads), and yet basically everybody has a car. This week was pretty chill. Things are really a bit the same. We're still just living  large and trying to do some form of missionary work out here. Literally all the people I talked about in last week's email didn't work out, so this week we'll be trying again with them. But in it's place we've had some pretty fun stuff happen this week. We were chilling at this restaurant (that's actually a lady's house), and then friggin everybody showed up. We played guitar and everything. It was Pareo Day! (no lie May 27 is a legit holiday here for the pareo (if you saw that Rai & Mana video from a couple weeks ago you know what it is). People will just  wear them to work and everything), so I took a picture with one. It was also Mother's Day on ...

Ka oha nui from the Marquesas - the land where we sing Secret Prayer like 10 times a week (seriously dude, every sacrament, every family home evening, every everything). This week was pretty great too! Things are going really splendidly with Elder Davis. We have a lot of fun together, and just do lots of cool things. Something I forgot to mention, is Elder Davis's being on the basketball team! Coco had told President Bize he wanted a missionary who was athletic this last transfer, so Bize sent Davis, and now he is officially on the basketball team. Like, the one that played with Air Tahiti. It's crazy! I wasn't so sure at first, but I frankly just saw the potential that all the practices we do have for finding people and giving us work, so I'm certainly on-board. The only trick now is figuring out just how to properly use it (engaging people to lessons can be a tricky business). We've also had two new baptism potentials this week. Catherine, an investigato...