Because in all things & new favorite food

September 7, 2015

Hey y'all,

Just checkin' in again after a not so hectic week here in Huahine.

We were super excited though to find out that Toofa and his "wife" Victorine are officially GETTING MARRIED on NOVEMBER 13, and Victorine is getting BAPTIZED on NOVEMBER 14. And Toofa and his youngest son are getting BAPTIZED on 12 DECEMBER after Teiva turns 8 on the 6th. Those dates don't count as a bapteme fixe because they are still too far out in advance, but the entire family is so ready for baptism that we want to talk to them about pushing their wedding, Victorine, and Toofa's baptism up so that Toofa can baptize Teiva when he turns 8.

Soeur Spackman and also have few English classes we are teaching now. We are helping a converti recent, Roger, learn English and in return he is helping us keep up Tahitian and its pronunciation.

Soeur Spackman and I also decided to do a little service this week for our members and a few investigators. We made a few batches of gateau banane and delivered them to some members and investigators who helped us out when I got sick. BUT...after we gave a few them our thank you gift they turned around and GAVE US SOMETHING BACK IN RETURN. NO...don't do that. Don't go thanking us after we thanked you....we want to have the last say in this gratitude war. It was funny, because a lot of our members and investigators here in Huahine always want to have the last say in every thing even if it is a gratitude war.

I finally got to see a beautiful sunset. We stopped to look like tourists and take pictures, and we were late for a lesson, but it worked out anyway because our amis was still getting her kids ready for bed by the time we got there, so it all worked out just fine.

I found my NEW FAVORITE FOOD. It's called SASHIMI (I think that's the spelling), but it is so good. From what I understood, they take the dark red tuna and they cook it half way or keep it raw and they give it a little taste with citron BUT then they have this SAUCE...I don't even know what's in it, but daggum it was good. And they put the fish, with the sauce, and a type of nut over white rice (sorry mom it's not brown rice). SO SO SO GOOD.

When we had our Sashimi fatamaaraa with members there was a little bit a the dish left, and I was already full but all of us could see that Soeur Spackman could eat a little more so Dumeur (the husband) said "Soeur Spackman...tu peut manger plus." and in the most American southern accent Soeur Spackman said in English "might as well,".....and she takes the fish in her hands and eats it without anything else on it hahaha. It's kind of a  "you had to be there" moment but it still made me laugh.

Being on an island has also allowed for me to have my eyes opened a little more every day to the difference of culture. I'm and animal lover...mostly of cats as many would know, and it makes my heart hurt when I see dogs or cats on the roads walking along and they look so skinny and sick. I just want to give them the care they need. But that's the culture here, and I can't do anything about it. It's taking getting used to that's for sure. It makes me thankful though that back home I have a healthy pet of 15+ pounds (how embarrassing) who is safe and sound.

yesterday we had an AMAZING lesson with this couple, Antonina and Teahi. They live in concubinage, and a lot of their family lives with them. We taught them about the Restoration, and how the church is centered around the FAMILY. They are golden investigators, because they have such great questions. A part of me is like "why are you both not members already? you have the perfect mind set about every thing we are teaching." Both of them wan to start a family of their own, but they KNOW they can't until they get married. They both want to be married too, but they don't have the money, and so we helped make it a goal for them to both find jobs by the time our next lesson rolls around, because if they do it will increase their hopes of finally getting money so that they can get married and start a family. Oh man they are so great, and they have a little cat named Princess who sits on my lap and sleeps every time we have lessons there.

And lastly, before I go. tourist tip #1: when it rains here (which it does a lot these days) natives don't wear rain jackets or carry around umbrellas, so if you want to somewhat fit in don't carry those around.

                                     tourist tip #2: you scream tourist if you are walking along the road holding hands or drinking out of a coconut. natives don't do that here in Huahine.

Thank you everyone for the emails. I really appreciate them, and they sure brighten my day.

I hope everyone is enjoying school, work, and good ole American football.

Go Cougs and Roll Tide!

Ua here au ia outou!

Soeur McKenzie Morrill :)

Flat tires and baptisms

Baptisms, Weddings, and the Other Side of Missionary Life:Disappointment & Rejection

August 31, 2015

Hello Hola Bonjour,

So this week has been pretty good but also really hard.

To start off: on Monday we had another lesson with Elie and we brought a member (Hina) with us who is fluent in Tahitian and who is preparing for a mission, so it was gonna be me and her teaching in Tahitian bc my companion is working at getting her Tahitian back. So the rules our mission president told us is that we aren't allowed to leave the house until 10 because our studies are super important. We left at 10, picked up Hina, and drove up the mountain to Elie's house. The first thing Elie told us is that we were late and to start the lesson. The Spirit was definitely not there but began anyway. Half way Soeur Spackman spoke up and asked her what she wanted out of the lessons and if she ever wanted to get baptized. Her response..."no." She just liked listening to our message and was trying to support us on our mission. In the end we had to put Elie on standby, because 1. she wasn't progressing 2. wasn't willing to change around her life 3.had no desire to be baptized. It was disappointing for sure, but we planted a seed, so maybe one day she'll be ready.

Next: Not even an hour after Elie's lesson we went to Matai who is a converti recents and before we even got out of the car she came to Soeur Spackman's window and told us that she didn't want us coming back to teach her anymore, turned around and walked back inside without an explanation of why. So apart from our first disappointment with putting an amis on standby we also get rejected. We later found out from bishop that Matai may have felt pressured by her family, because they don't like the missionaries, so she started going back to the Adventist church.

However: Two days after that Soeur Spackman and I got to help our paroisse (ward) set up for Martine et Simeon's wedding. So we helped braid coconut branches to decorate the fences and the reception tent. And in French Polynesia it is law that Tahitians have a civil marriage first and then (if they are members of the church) they can go to the temple for their temple marriage. BUT at their civil marriage I got to experience my very first foreign WEDDING CRASHER...the belle fille of Simeon. We later learned that the tears Simeon and Martine were crying were not happy at the time but sad, because Simeon's belle fille was there to tell him how upset she was that he was getting remarried. BUT apart from the upset at the wedding the reception at the church was great...there were tons of carbs to eat which is big (which rice and pasta and bread) here.

The next day: We had FOUR BAPTISMS. Stanley, Martine, and two little kids from the Toofa family (their new to our ward in Fare) were baptized in our ward by the elders from Haapu (Elder Tama and Elder Toame) so we had to drive over to Haapu to pick them up.

But: The baptisms went great. It was hot and humid like always, and I played the piano for the program and Soeur Spackman directed the music. So as a little reward for the baptisms me and Soeur Spackman and the elders got pizza! BUT on our way back to Haapu to drop off the elders we got...A FLAT TIRE. and someone decided it was ok and we didn't need a flashlight in the car, so the elders fixed the flat tire by the light from inside the car and the hazards that we had flashing from the head and tail lights.

Last: On Sunday we finally had a lesson with the Toofa family who had just moved to Fare. BUT when we drove by we saw Toofa (the dad) with 3 French police officers, and we later found out that while we were all at church a drunk neighbor had climbed that huge muddy hill they lived on and TORE DOWN all four of their (tin) walls of their makeshift house. So that night they slept without walls around them and with only one big mattress to fit 3 kids and their mom and dad. We got to do a "get to know you" with Toofa and his "wife" concubine and found out his "wife" prefers Tahitian which is awesome bc we are really trying to stick with our Tahitian.  But Toofa the dad was super intimidating at first. He had literally memorized the entire Bible in Tahitian and had taught a lot to his kids when they were young and was starting to memorized the Book of Mormon too. He, however, was being super difficult and kept saying "give me a reason why I wanna be baptized." SO we read 2 Nephi 31 with him which explains a lot of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and Soeur Spackman was getting a little more frustrated than I was and said "you KNOW that the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that you know it's true and that is what the Holy Ghost just manifested to me. You KNOW it's true. so WHEN you OPEN your HEART and let the Holy Spirit soften your heart to it's truthfulness and you accept the fact that the Book of Mormon is true will you be baptized on SEPTEMBER 19th by someone holding the proper priesthood authority?" He laughed and then told us that he knows he's going to be baptized but he needs to save his youngest son first (and get married) before he can be baptized. he then told us a dream his "wife" had about their youngest son and how all of them were in the church but their son was surrounded by the worldly things in life like drugs, alcohol, smoking, etc. But we emphasized that the best way for him to help his son is for him to get baptized (and married) first and then be the one to baptize his son. Toofa and his family are so great and golden and I know they all will someday be baptized and later sealed in the temple.

That was pretty much the events for this week. Thank you again for your prayers. They really do mean a lot!!

Until next week!

Ua here au ia outou!

Tuahine/Soeur/Sister McKenzie Morrill :)

Photos - 1 week late - leaving language center & entering Tahiti

August 24 - on outer island of Huahine - French Polynesia

Bonjour all!!!

I hope all is well with everyone!!

So I have just finished another week here in Huahine and it's been pretty great! And I've been able to meet more of the ward members.

One cool thing that I am able to do here: so the ward Soeur Spackman and I go to is the Fare ward, and they have a piano, but NO ONE in that ward knows how to play the PIANO....so of course when they saw a fresh very white face they asked me "tu joue au piano?" And later on Soeur Spackman told me that they have gone a long time without actual piano music during the sacrament service....soooooo I get the opportunity to bring music back into that ward on sundays by playing the piano for all the songs. When I was little I wanted to quit piano so bad but of course my mom never let me quit....and now I'm thankful for that. I'm glad that I am able to share my talent while on my mission and make their sacrament services more enjoyable now on sundays.

We had a lesson this week with an amis named Hinerava. She is so sweet and lives with all of her family. But the day we were teaching her we were supposed to go over 3 Nephi 11 which talks about when Christ shows himself to the people of the Americas. However, when we got to the lesson she told us she was having a rough day, because her cat who was really old was probably going to die that day. And for all who know me...I love cats, and it hurt my heart to see her so sad. And in the middle of our lesson she goes to check on her cat, but when she came back she said "Il est mort," (He died). Hinerava wanted to continue with the lesson to keep her mind occupied, and as she was trying to read her favorite verses from that reading she couldn't see because she was crying so hard. SOOO naturally when I see someone start crying I start to cry so that's what I did. And Soeur Spackman told me that that was the time I could use to share a personal experience about one of my pets, because she never experienced the death of a pet before. So, with tears in my eyes I told her about one of my cats my family had when I was younger, Clancy, and I was crushed when she died, but I knew she was old and she was no longer in pain. I told Hinerava that our Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us (in very broken up French), and we may not know why certain things happen, but I know it's for a reason that will help that person or animal later on in the after life. She was so cute, and she later told us that she felt comforted by the simple testimony I gave. Our lesson did not go as planned at all, but that's always expected in the field. Our lesson was supposed to be 30 minutes later than when we actually showed up, and both Soeur Spackman and I believe it was the Spirit telling us "don't worry about being early. Hinerava needs you right now."

We have another amis whose name is Elie, and she lives up in the mountain and she's an older Tahitian Mami, so naturally Tahitian is her preferred language. We started to read Moroni 6 with her which talks about some of the purpose of church members and the importance of going to church is, but 2 verses in she stops us and says "Je suis fiu," (I am done). She then explains to us that she loves the spirit we bring when we teach her the lessons, but she is frustrated because she can't understand what we are teaching in French, but she understands better in Tahitian. She is one of the reasons we want to keep up with Tahitian, because there are older amis on the island who would love to hear the message we have, but they are hesitant to accept the missionaries, because most of them only speak French and have lost what Tahitian they learned at the beginning of their mission. So the rest of the lesson I taught her the best I could in Tahitian and Soeur Spackman taught a little in French but also Tahitian. We invited her to church, but she said she couldn't because she can't go to her church (Protestant) and then go to our, because she's afraid of the judgment she will get from the people at her church when they see her going to "that Mormon church." It's frustrating that our amis don't want to come to church because they're afraid of judgment, but it only means Soeur Spackman and I work harder to let her know that there is nothing to be afraid of and the judgments from her friends are worth nothing in the eyes of Heavenly Father.

So fun fact: since i'm a new missionary in Fare I have to introduce myself a lot. So basically I simply tell them that I'm from Alabama which is in the southern part of the United States and that fried chicken is very popular there, because who would have guessed....they eat fried chicken here too hahaha. So when I said that all the members thought that fried chicken was my favorite meal, and every faatamaaraa (meal) we had with members since I've been here they've made fried chicken haha. It's not my ultimate favorite food when i'm in the states but it is my favorite food here, because it's the most familiar food to me here.

And we also have 2 BAPTISMS coming up this Saturday. Martine and Simeon are getting married on Friday and then Martine is getting baptized on Saturday, and Stanley is hopefully getting baptized Saturday too!! IT'S SO EXCITING!!! Both of our amis are so ready, and can't contain my happiness.

So today is also my pday and Soeur Spackman and I, and Elder Toame and Elder Tama went to a non-members land and they taught us HOW TO MAKE......VANILLA!! Basically how you join the pollen of the plant with the other part of the plant to make the vanilla stalk.

After the vanilla lesson we went with an amis family, the Famille Teavae to collect shells on the beach. The dad, Tama, has an old old beat up jeep that we were able to take to go farther down the beach when not many people go to search for shells. and the beaches on Huahine is sand but most of the beach is covered now with pieces of coral and rock that have been dragged in from the ocean. It was beautiful, and thankfully it was a little cloudy for a bit, but then the sun decided to show its face and who would have guessed it....I got FRIED. Like I'm not even kidding. My knees, my arms, my face, my neck are red red red....but not my shins which is weird haha.

A few days ago we also got the opportunity to have a mission conference. We had Elder Pearson who is an area 70 for the South Pacific Islands and Elder Rollins who is a member of the Quorum of the 70 come and speak to all the missionaries. They had the mission conference in Papeete, so we weren't able to be there in person and it would have been too expensive and pointless to fly us back in for a day SO we watched it through live video transmission. The entire mission conference was centered around being obedient and our ability to receive blessings when we obey the white missionary handbook. Elder Rollins also spoke about the Gift of the Spirit and how all of us have the gift, but AFTER we are baptized we are endowed with a more "amped" up version of the Gift of the Spirit.

My favorite quote from Elder Rollins: "like fireflies, light goes unappreciated without a dark backdrop."

One of my favorite lessons we had at the end of the week was with an amis named Maire. She is so ready for baptism and she loves the lessons, and we had planned to teach her about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost that day, but she was so sick. Bless her heart she felt miserable, but we were more than welcome to come back the next day, but as we were rescheduling the lesson with her she asked what the lesson was about..."bapteme and le don du Saint-Esprit," we said. She then said "oooh..venez venez. oui je sais je suis malade mais je veut cette lecon." So we went inside to begin teaching but we ended up rescheduling because she was still so sick. How amazing she is, because no matter how sick she was she still wanted to hear about baptism. She wants to be baptized, but she wants her daughters to start taking the lessons too. We also explained to her that the power of prayer is amazing and we invited her to pray for her daughters that they may soon accept the lessons.

There as been so much that has happened now that I have entered the field. I'm getting better at understanding the language(s) but now that I hear actual natives speaking it's kinda made me a little discouraged but Soeur Spackman told me that the first 3-4 months in the field is gonna be like that, so I just gotta keep doing what I'm doing and it'll come. The Christ like attribute of Patience is such a big thing to work on while in the field.

I don't have much time left, but I will also send more pictures. I hope everyone can see them, and if you can't just let me know and I'll will try and fix that.

Good luck to everyone who starts classes or who have already started classes back home. It'll be great!!

Ua here au ia outou!!

Tuahine/Soeur/Sister McKenzie Morrill :)

Service at a vanilla farm & our humble abode

Arriving in Tahiti - adventure has really begun!

8/17/15

Bonjour everyone!!!

I hope everyone is doing splendid!

So I arrived in Tahiti with my district at about 10pm ish Tahiti time last Monday evening and we were greeted by an awesome welcome party. It was so sweet! And we got to meet President Bize and Sister Bize (my mission president) for only a short bit because it was so late.

After that we went straight to the temple grounds in Papeete and stayed in the temple guest housing for a night. And then the next morning we had breakfast with President Bize and his wife and me and Elder Toame (from Vanuatu) were told to start off the interviews with President Bize, BUT when we finished with our interviews we were told to go right to the temple to do a session inside.....WHY? BECAUSE....I am in an outer island now!!! Missionaries who have been assigned to an outer island are told to go do a temple session because there isn't another temple anywhere in Francais Polynesia except for on Tahiti. And Huahine is about 100 miles from Tahiti. And I flew from Tahiti to Huahine Thursday morning with Elder Toame. Huahine basically splits almost evenly into two circles but is connected by some small land and a bridge. Elder Toame is on the Haapu side and I am serving in Fare. My companion Sister Spackman and I are the only sisters on the island and Elder Toame and his companion are the only elders on the island too. Our zone consists of  the missionaries in Huahine (us) , the missionaries in Raiatea (another island), and the missionaries in Tahaa (another island).  So we do zone meetings by Skype and phone.

And YES...for all who are wondering...they do have internet, cellphone service, and cars on the islands.

So Thursday and Friday and Saturday Sister Spackman and I just went. We had 3 lessons on Thursday, 3 lessons on Friday, and only 1 lesson on Saturday.

So basically the way the island works on the weekdays is that a lot of les amis d'eglise like having lessons early in the morning, but when it RAINS we normally have to cancel our lessons because we have our lessons outside bc it's not common for missionaries to come inside the house to teach lessons unless the investigator says it's ok. And it gets dark around 6-630 and there are no street lights to guide ppl so you better have lights on your car or bike or you won't be able to see anything. And after 630 we aren't supposed to go porte a porte (door to door) prosylting because no one is ever out after dark on foot. And usually the entire island goes to sleep at 8 so we don't even have lessons that late either so we use that time to go back to the house and finish up our 4 hour study block we weren't able to complete earlier on in the day because of lessons.

On Thursday the first lesson I had was with a man named Stanley. He is married to an almost inactive member and we fixed a baptism date for him the day I was there....August 29th! He is doing great and he loves the gospel. The only thing we are helping him work on is to stop smoking, because he himself as already seen the bad effects of smoking and is willing to stop which is awesome.

Later that afternoon we taught an 8 year old little boy named Munro. A lot of his family are members but his parents aren't because they live in a concubinage and they need to be married first before they can be baptized, but they are letting Munro take the lessons and decide for himself if he wants to join the church which is awesome. He is super shy but when I got to know him a little better I broke out of his shell and started talking to me more (which was slightly hard for me because he was talking really fast and I could only pick out a few words from every sentence he said but I pretty much got the gist of it). AND that lesson we taught him about faith. We used the analogy of FAITH is like a COCONUT tree (because those are everywhere in Huahine) and told him how our faith can start out as a little seed and then grow and grow into a big tree.

Friday morning we taught a Tahitian Mami name Elie! and she's hilarious. and she loves reading the Buka a Moromona in Tahitian. So we mustered up the best Tahitian we could and read to her some of King Benjamin's speech in Mosiah 2 and explained to her that King Benjamin was not a mean king like some in the Bible but that he was caring and told his people that he was a servant to God. That the people are not serving him but are serving God, and that he tries to help his people in any way possible as well. and we compared King Benjamin's actions to our actions as missionaries. As missionaries we always try to look for little acts of service which we hope may turn into lesson opportunities later on down the road but we always look to help others out. So we taught that lesson in Tahitian and French which made me and Sister Spackman motivated to not lose our Tahitian but practice it a lot.

And let me tell you about the food here....interesting...and good. It's different of course from the MTC and a normal home cooked meal and it'll take some getting used to. Oh and I got a stomach bug early yesterday morning and had to stay home from my first sunday because of it. Not really sure what it was from but I'm all better now. IT just totally took me out yesterday. BUT NO WORRIES!!!

This place is beautiful and i'm in a bit of a culture shock but that's expected. I love the people; they are so nice and willing to help you with the language!!

I'm running out of time but I hope these pictures i'll send as well will suffice for now. hahaha

AND my NEW ADDRESS!

Sister McKenzie Grace Morrill

Tahiti Papeete Mission

BP 93-98713

French Polynesia

Ua here au ia outou and I couldn't be more excited to start my adventure here. Even if it also involves getting sick my first week here hahaha

Merci,