This letter will be short because I am out of time...Oops...but anyway this week was good. First off three things to understand about Tahiti.
1. The stars here at night are incredible.
2. I dont know how but it is freezing here at night so a cute missionary couple gave me blankets and I was so happy.
3. People here never just drink water. It is a rule you have to drink juice or some sweet drink.
Ok sorry that was random but I just thought you would like to know random facts.
Almost all of our lessons were canceled, and the ones that were not canceled were with children who have a 2 second attention span, but they are adorable so it is fine.
Do you remember Augustine? We started to teach her and then she moved to Moorea with her boyfriend and baby. She is my age and she is one of the sweetest people. She really wanted to be baptized when we asked her but her boyfriend didn't want to change his ways. Well we got a call from Augustine two nights ago that her boyfriend had a change of heart and they will be married December 21, and she will get baptized the same night. I cried I was so happy for her. I guess the Elders over there on Moorea really helped her boyfriend where we couldn't. Unfortunately we can't go to the baptism because it will be on Moorea but I don't even care I am just so happy for her.
Basically all of our investigators are what you call forever investigators. They keep commitments but don't progress. It is super frustrating but we continue to do our best for them. In the end it is them who has to decide to have the faith to take the next step.
Faith is such an interesting concept and I have learned a lot about what it really means to exercise faith here. I have learned that this work is not the work of man. There is no way. There is no way I could do any of this without the Lord, and that takes a lot of faith on my part. I just have to do my best and have the faith that in each situation if I have been obedient and done my part, he will make up for the rest, and He does. I know, even though it is really hard for me to see right now, there are people being prepared for me to teach in Tuauru. Where they are I have absolutely no idea, but they are there. The best I can do is just do my best to be in tune with the spirit and I know miracles will happen. I love you all. Remember the Lord is always there.
Soeur Kimball
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Mahina, Tahiti October 28, 2013
Bonjour famille et mes amis,
What can I say? Slowly but surely things are getting better here. The transition has been without lies pretty rough but I am starting to settle into things now. I had some pretty amazing experiences this week so lets start with that.
This week I really saw the power of the Preisthood. Last Sunday one of the other sisters I live with got a blessing for spiritual strength from the elders, and my companion asked me if I wanted one too. I did but I said no because I didn't want to bother the elders. Anyway, since then I had the impression over and over that I should get a blessing. I kept putting it off until we had an experience with the Preisthood with one of our Amis yesterday. Klann one of our amis was really sick and he had been sick for a while. Soeur Ferrence and I visited him and his wife and Soeur Ferrence asked if Klann maybe wanted a blessing for healing. He said yes so we had Dan Taumihau who usually is the member who comes with us to the lessons come. We sat down and Dan explained the process of the blessing of healing to Klann clearly and explained that it only worked on faith. After we all knelt and prayed for the spirit to be there. Following Dan gave the blessing to Klann and the spirit was so strong. I could feel the love of God for Klann so strongly. After Dan gave the blessing we just sat. And nobody said anything. One of the things I have learned as a missionary is that silences are good things.
Silence gives time for the spirit to work through reflection and pondering. I really hope Klann and Laurette felt the power of the Priesthood that was there that afternoon. I can't even really explain it but it was just so powerful, and it was an answer to our prayers because the doctine Klann and Laurette struggle with the most is the idea of a modern prophet that holds the power of the Priesthood. We have a lesson with them this week so I hope they really will have open hearts and have the desire to be baptized.
After all that, I had the impression again that I needed a blessing too,we called the Elders and they gave me a blessing (in English thank goodness). I have been having a hard time sleeping in the morning from anxiety for the language and I am just so grateful for the comfort I recieved from the blessing. I know the things that were said were directly from Heavenly Father; That Elder giving me the blessing knew absolutely nothing about me, but the things said were exactly for me. It was so perfect and that is why I am just so grateful for the Priesthood. The head of the church is truly Jesus Christ. This is His work and Thomas S Monson is His prophet.
So I guess Sunday was a good end for the week. I guess what I have to say is there is really no reason to worry about me here. I actually really enjoy all of the food here except the fatty chicken. Actually, raw fish is my favorite thing to eat, and the avocados here are super delicious. Unfortunately we don't eat raw fish often because it is expensive, but when we do, I love it. We are really lucky in our house here and we have a lot of luxuries. I think that we have the nicest missionary housing on the Island, even though there are still a thousand mosquitos and some cochroaches. Life here is good and I get to wear sandals all the time. Me and my companion run to the beach every morning and it is beautiful.
Tahiti is beautiful, but more beautiful are the people here. I am so blessed;
Love
Soeur Kimball
What can I say? Slowly but surely things are getting better here. The transition has been without lies pretty rough but I am starting to settle into things now. I had some pretty amazing experiences this week so lets start with that.
This week I really saw the power of the Preisthood. Last Sunday one of the other sisters I live with got a blessing for spiritual strength from the elders, and my companion asked me if I wanted one too. I did but I said no because I didn't want to bother the elders. Anyway, since then I had the impression over and over that I should get a blessing. I kept putting it off until we had an experience with the Preisthood with one of our Amis yesterday. Klann one of our amis was really sick and he had been sick for a while. Soeur Ferrence and I visited him and his wife and Soeur Ferrence asked if Klann maybe wanted a blessing for healing. He said yes so we had Dan Taumihau who usually is the member who comes with us to the lessons come. We sat down and Dan explained the process of the blessing of healing to Klann clearly and explained that it only worked on faith. After we all knelt and prayed for the spirit to be there. Following Dan gave the blessing to Klann and the spirit was so strong. I could feel the love of God for Klann so strongly. After Dan gave the blessing we just sat. And nobody said anything. One of the things I have learned as a missionary is that silences are good things.
Silence gives time for the spirit to work through reflection and pondering. I really hope Klann and Laurette felt the power of the Priesthood that was there that afternoon. I can't even really explain it but it was just so powerful, and it was an answer to our prayers because the doctine Klann and Laurette struggle with the most is the idea of a modern prophet that holds the power of the Priesthood. We have a lesson with them this week so I hope they really will have open hearts and have the desire to be baptized.
After all that, I had the impression again that I needed a blessing too,we called the Elders and they gave me a blessing (in English thank goodness). I have been having a hard time sleeping in the morning from anxiety for the language and I am just so grateful for the comfort I recieved from the blessing. I know the things that were said were directly from Heavenly Father; That Elder giving me the blessing knew absolutely nothing about me, but the things said were exactly for me. It was so perfect and that is why I am just so grateful for the Priesthood. The head of the church is truly Jesus Christ. This is His work and Thomas S Monson is His prophet.
So I guess Sunday was a good end for the week. I guess what I have to say is there is really no reason to worry about me here. I actually really enjoy all of the food here except the fatty chicken. Actually, raw fish is my favorite thing to eat, and the avocados here are super delicious. Unfortunately we don't eat raw fish often because it is expensive, but when we do, I love it. We are really lucky in our house here and we have a lot of luxuries. I think that we have the nicest missionary housing on the Island, even though there are still a thousand mosquitos and some cochroaches. Life here is good and I get to wear sandals all the time. Me and my companion run to the beach every morning and it is beautiful.
Tahiti is beautiful, but more beautiful are the people here. I am so blessed;
Love
Soeur Kimball
Mahina, Tahiti October 21, 2013
Hey everyone!
I have so much to say and I dont exactly know where to begin.
Lets start with my amis this week. We dont have a ton of investigators but the ones we have are super hesitant about the gospel so we have to take it super slow. The super difficult thing here is that there are a lot of people who have been investigators for years and it just takes them a long time to realize the blessings of the gospel. We have a lot of those.
This week was titled the book of mormon week. We had the opportunity to testify and give a lot of lessons from the book of mormon. And I felt the spirit so many times. I am sitll kind of drowning in the language and such so I dont say a ton but I have a really strong testimony of the book of mormon and I was able to share that this week. We taught a lesson to one of our investigators Poema in Tahitian and it was good but she refused to read the book of mormon. We are going to have another lesson with her today and I hope she can understand the importance and start to read. We also extended 2 baptism commitments this week to a couple Klann and Laurette and also to a sweet girl my age named Augustine. Augustine really wants to be baptized and already has a testimony after 2 lessons. She is great. Unfortunately her boyfriend is not and they are moving to another Island this week and we cant teach her. It was bad news but we are going to make sure that she gets taught by the missionaries over there.
I am not going to lie and say this has actually been the hardest week of my entire life. I have miny anxiety attacks that I am never going to learn the language and basically it is a struggle every day to tell myself what I am doing good because it feels like I am super unuseful right now because of the language. It has been a good opportunity for me to excercise my faith on the Lord. There is no way I could do this without Him. It has been humbling but really good. Trials just mean that the Lord wants to give the opportunity to grow and improve, and I am grateful for that.
Besides that I am still adapting to the environment. We have some really poor people in our are and some pretty wealthy people so it is an interesting mix. All the stories are true and for real they give you so much food here. For just me and my companion one night a family dropped off 2 pizzas 5 sparking sodas and a huge gallon of icecream. I dont really eat a lot of fish here, it is mostly a lot of chicken and who knows what kind of meat because fish is super expensive unless you catch it yourself. I have found a lot of the food bearable and even delicious. Last night we had the best cake made out of breadfruit.
Basically my situation here is super hilarious. Most of the Tahitians just think I am cute, bewildered american who doesn't understand what is going on, Haha, and it is kind of true. Tahitians talk super quiet and super slurred and super fast so I am still struggling to understand what they say. Luckly everyone else tells me they were the exact same way and that one day it just clicked. I really hope that day is soon. It is really beautiful here and the people are so happy with just their shack house things. I dont actually know how to describe the houses. We are just so blessed in America that is for certain.
Well I love all of you and I hope you are happy. This week I am really going to work on my attitude because it hasn't been the best. I am super impatient, but even though the work is hard, and I have 300 mosquito bites, and I look like a sweaty animal, I am so grateful to be here. The gospel can help every single person no matter how their life is. So don't be scared to share it. Faaitoito
Soeur Kimball
I have so much to say and I dont exactly know where to begin.
Lets start with my amis this week. We dont have a ton of investigators but the ones we have are super hesitant about the gospel so we have to take it super slow. The super difficult thing here is that there are a lot of people who have been investigators for years and it just takes them a long time to realize the blessings of the gospel. We have a lot of those.
This week was titled the book of mormon week. We had the opportunity to testify and give a lot of lessons from the book of mormon. And I felt the spirit so many times. I am sitll kind of drowning in the language and such so I dont say a ton but I have a really strong testimony of the book of mormon and I was able to share that this week. We taught a lesson to one of our investigators Poema in Tahitian and it was good but she refused to read the book of mormon. We are going to have another lesson with her today and I hope she can understand the importance and start to read. We also extended 2 baptism commitments this week to a couple Klann and Laurette and also to a sweet girl my age named Augustine. Augustine really wants to be baptized and already has a testimony after 2 lessons. She is great. Unfortunately her boyfriend is not and they are moving to another Island this week and we cant teach her. It was bad news but we are going to make sure that she gets taught by the missionaries over there.
I am not going to lie and say this has actually been the hardest week of my entire life. I have miny anxiety attacks that I am never going to learn the language and basically it is a struggle every day to tell myself what I am doing good because it feels like I am super unuseful right now because of the language. It has been a good opportunity for me to excercise my faith on the Lord. There is no way I could do this without Him. It has been humbling but really good. Trials just mean that the Lord wants to give the opportunity to grow and improve, and I am grateful for that.
Besides that I am still adapting to the environment. We have some really poor people in our are and some pretty wealthy people so it is an interesting mix. All the stories are true and for real they give you so much food here. For just me and my companion one night a family dropped off 2 pizzas 5 sparking sodas and a huge gallon of icecream. I dont really eat a lot of fish here, it is mostly a lot of chicken and who knows what kind of meat because fish is super expensive unless you catch it yourself. I have found a lot of the food bearable and even delicious. Last night we had the best cake made out of breadfruit.
Basically my situation here is super hilarious. Most of the Tahitians just think I am cute, bewildered american who doesn't understand what is going on, Haha, and it is kind of true. Tahitians talk super quiet and super slurred and super fast so I am still struggling to understand what they say. Luckly everyone else tells me they were the exact same way and that one day it just clicked. I really hope that day is soon. It is really beautiful here and the people are so happy with just their shack house things. I dont actually know how to describe the houses. We are just so blessed in America that is for certain.
Well I love all of you and I hope you are happy. This week I am really going to work on my attitude because it hasn't been the best. I am super impatient, but even though the work is hard, and I have 300 mosquito bites, and I look like a sweaty animal, I am so grateful to be here. The gospel can help every single person no matter how their life is. So don't be scared to share it. Faaitoito
Soeur Kimball
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