The Calm Before the Storm, Our Island Cat - Bri & When Pres Bieze Told Us to Stay In!

February 29, 2016

Hello tout le monde!

For a quick recap of my email last week; I said that we finally got sun, but that was shortly lived. We had rain ALL week and wind ALL week. Our showers were cold ONCE AGAIN. But hey...who knows, we may get some sun today. We are expected to get hit with a cyclone after this week of getting the "depression", which is what they call it.

With the weather we were told by our mission president to be wise and stay inside. We have the mountain sector and we had a lot of flooding at member and ami homes. We brought the other soeurs with us and asked anyone we could find if we could help them clear out water from their homes or clear out debres that damaged some homes, but we were also turned away from helping members and amis too. If we try hard enough, one day the members and amis will let us do service for them! ONE DAY!!

I wasn't able to work in the sector a whole lot this week, because I was helping Sr. Lawrence in hers (I have the car and she is on bike), so we had our comps work together in Taravao 1. Sr. Lawrence has had really bad back pain for the past 2-3 weeks, and all the docteurs we have been too find her situation "bizarre et on ne sait pas qu'est-ce qu'on doit faire avec toi....mais tien...prend doliprane." Doliprane is the French version of Ibuprofen. We figured it could be one of two things, but we hope it's nothing too serious. Not gonna lie....when you're injured or sick on the mission the one thing you long for is home. But right now our home is our mission, and the love of Jesus Christ is stronger than we could ever imagine.

There really is not much to report on this week....bummer I know. Our house has been pounded with the storm that we had, but we have remained our of harms way #blessed

So, to end this tiny email of mine; here are some quotes I find rather....PRETTY AWESOME!

"We would do well to slow down a little and focus on the significant, lift up our eyes, and truly see the things that matter most." - President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"I believe music heals the soul." - Alex Boye :)

Je vous aime beaucoup. Merci pour vos prieres chaque jour et pour votre amour!

Ua here au ia outou!

-Tuahine/Soeur Morrill :)

p.s. It's now been 9 MONTHS!!!!!!! WHATTT!!!

Just sending a little love!

Cyclone Scare and Cold Showers

February 22, 2016

Chers tous,

J'espere que vous aviez passe une bonne semaine!!

This week has been beyond gloomy. Today is the first day we've seen sun since last monday! We heard about the category 5 cyclone hit Fiji these past few days, and we've definitely experienced the aftermath of that storm with super stong winds and obnoxious rain. Today was also the first time we had warm showers since last week as well! It's been pretty cold here which is beyond rare, but he we have sun (and humidity) again so that's always worth a SMILE!!

And: Isabelle got baptized. It was super great, even though it was a small bapteme with not that many people. She was just so happy, and what kind of made me chuckle: after she came out of the water after being baptized she yells "MERCI...MERCI" haha...at least the spirit is still here. Isabelle is awesome, and I couldn't have said it better myself!!

Had lecons with Vairea this week and she told us that she was finally going to "break the news" to her very Catholique famille that she's taking the missionary lecons. She said "I have my cousins' support and the love from Heavenly Father to back me up. Set my bapteme for the 12 Mars." ....oh..woah...OK!! Might as well! "I wanna work for that date, and nothing can get in the way of MY salvation." No lie...her courage kinda of surprised me, because she's been timid for a while about talking to her famille, but I now see her love for the gospel and her testimony in her face every time we see her! "I CAN DO ALL THINGS."

Funny little story: So Dawson is our other Bapteme fixe for the 19 Mars, and he absolutely loves church and reading the Livre de Mormon. We were blessed from la famille TEIHO to get two more amis who loved coming to their soiree familials on monday evenings, Arii and Wilder. We had a lecon with them this past Saturday, and their friend in the TEIHO famille, Kawkehe, was there too, AND so was DAWSON. Hahaha...he's acting like a member integrateur before he's even baptized. He's a cute kid, and he even told us he thinks his bapteme will bring his famille to take the lecons too! We had a lecon with Dawson about familles and the temple; we talked about how great it is to become an eternal famille and be sealed to your loved ones for ETERNITY. At the end of that lecon he literally said "wow....je veux ça." Haere maru, haere papu...petit a petit....little by little (or slow and steady) his famille will know of the blessings of the gospel too!!

This past Tuesday we had to go en ville all day for transfers, and Soeur Lawrence got a new fille straight off the plane from Provo, Soeur Sanchez. At the end of the meeting Elder Tia-soi-chang and Elder Pruett (the assistants) were talking about what it's like to be in a car sector....no lie I like the car, but I really want to be on a bike #beeninacarsinceday1 SO Elder Tia pulls the cat out of the bag and tells me that I may as well get to love the car, because I'll be called as STL (sister training leader) soon.....WHAT??? I mean that's great, but normally you get that assignment when you're at your YEAR mark...not your HALF WAY mark. But hey...we'll see!

Other than that this week has been pretty chill like the people! I hope y'all have a great week full of sunshine, smiles, and some snow (or rain for those in the south).

I love y'all! Je vous aime! Ua here au ia outou!

-Tuahine/Soeur Morrill :)

Another week, another sunburn and other adventures!

February 15, 2016

Chers tous,

Bonjour ou Ia ora na!

J'espere vous avez passé une bonne semaine!

This week was super great!

First of all: We've been having lecons with our new ami, Dawson! Super cool kid, and he has gained a testimony so fast. In our first lecon during the week we were discussing L'Evangile de Jesus Christ, and I had a distinct impression that we needed to engage him to baptism again. Though I wasn't sure, I had to figure out how to talk to Soeur Lasso about it DURING the lecon. So what do we do? We passed notes, like you all know y'all used to do in middle school, during the lecon to make sure that both of us were feeling the same prompting haha. It was so great. We both felt that the 19 March was his bapteme date and engaged him for that day. And he said....YESSSSS!!! So we fixed his bapteme for that day, and we told him we would do everything in our power to help him prepare for his baptism....y'all he's already ready, but the 19th of March just stuck out to us #theholyghostisreal

Second: This past Samedi Abraham got BAPTIZED!! He asked me to give the discour about the Don du Saint-Esprit. As I was speaking, I looked around the room, looking at other people, and then my gaze rested on Abraham....he was crying....dangit. For those of you who know me pretty well, you can pretty much guess that I started crying too. After Abraham was baptized and we went to féliciter him he shook my hand and told me how much he appreciated the words I said and how touched he was by the Spirit I brought into that talk. It's amazing the little things you say that can touch a person's heart. That's why we should always Ouvrir la bouche!!

Thrid: We had another lecon with Willy et Teivaiva this past week and it was Teivaiva's 18th birthday! So naturally we sang and brought him cake...that we tried our best to make! After all of that he tells that he has signed up for the ARMY in France. WHAT!!!! First of all that's awesome, but second of all NOOO! We don't want him to go, but I know there is more for him in France. A little background on Teivaiva: He was adopted when he was super little, and later on he was forced to go to a reform type of school. He dropped out of school at the beginning of the new year, and still has trouble reading. He's improved on his reading ability so much every since we've been teaching him. But he'll find out where in France he is going after the 22nd, AND he asked us to contact the missions over in France to find him and continue the lecons with him!!!

This week has been super duper hot, and it's been unbearable some days, and those days I've gotten absolutely fried. Yes...mom....sunscreen is life. But...we have found some pretty legit people. for example: we contatcted the PRESIDENT of the BILLABONG surfing competitions. He totally lives in our sector and told us that we could come back anytime, and later on after our missions would "hook us up with sick surfing lecons" hahaha. His name is Max, and he's super chill. He's super famille oriented and would not stop talking about him. Totally going back there this week!

P.Bize made an appearance at our Saint-Cene yesterday, and gave a pretty killer talk about missionary work. He taught our Gospel Principles class too, and told all of our amis and converti recents the importance of working towards ETERNAL LIFE! At the beginning of the lecon he starts talking about how the church of Jesus Christ was restored, and he turns to me and asks me to stand up and racont to everyone what happened when Jospeh Smith prayed in the forest grove that one day. Normally when I recount the first vision I get chills, but rarely do I cry. Yesterday was that day, not only did I cry while I recounted the first vision, but after I finished I was looking around the room more and saw a lot of our amis and converti recents were crying too. Not gonna lie....it's amazing the message you bring when you know you are just the transporter. Yes, I am a missionary, but the Holy Ghost is the real teacher her. I wasn't really aware that I had touched so many people that day until afterwards a lot of them came up to me and told me how stronly they felt the spirit. Advice: If you are a soon to be missionary. Never forget; when you recount the first vision, always allow the spirit to work through you. Don't make it sound like your just reciting it over and over again. Make it a special and spiritual experience for your amis. You may recount the first vision about 100 + times on your missions, but your amis will normally only hear it ONCE....so make it special every single time!! #peace

Y'all this week has been great, and our district got together in our sector of Taravao 1 to do district contacting. It was super fun, and our district helped us find more potentials. It's amazing how many more people you can find with missionaries in on small area!

Before I peace out for the week I want to leave y'all with a quote that I absolutely LOVE:

    "God left the world unfinished for man to work his skill upon. He left the electricity in the cloud, the oil in the earth. He left the rivers unbridged and the forests unfelled and the cities unbuilt. God gives to man the challenge of raw materials, not the ease of finished things. He leaves the pictures unpainted, the music unsung, and the problems unsolved, that man might know the joys and glories of creation." President Thomas S. Monson

Ua here au ia outou!

Jusqu'au semaine prochain!!

Peace out home slices!

-Soeur/Tuahine Morrill :)

Tahititan banana delight, beautiful ocean again, knocking on portals, Abraham's baptism, soccer Tahitian style with kids

Weddings, prayers, and hand surgery

February 8, 2016

HEEEYYYY yooouuuu guuuuuuys!

I hope y'alls week has been fantabulous!

So first of all: yes....I had hand surgery. If that's what you would even call it. So throughout my mission so far I've gotten my share of sicknesses. I've gotten shots and these medications that Americans do not have, but it's worked. I've also gotten these verrues (warts) on my hands. HOW? no idea! Being here has made me super aware that washing your hands is not something to be taken lightly here. So yea....I had to go into the docteur this past wednesday and get that taken care of. And normally with verrues they would either burn or freeze them off...NOPE. Everyone....they numbed my hand (and I was so glad they did) and SCRAPED them off. I don't know what I would have done or said if my hand wasn't numb, but NEVER have I been so thankful for numbing medicine in my life. So after that my hand bled a lot, but they gave me medicine to help wash out any virus I have in my system that would cause the verrues to appear on my hands.

2nd of all: Last week I told you about the miracle that is ABRAHAM! Well...THEY GOT MARRIED!! I can't exclaim how happy I am for him and Hapai. They got married and Abraham is getting baptized this Saturday! It's been a long up hill battle for Hapai, and we've fasted and prayed with her a lot. For a while she thought he would never change and was close to giving up and kicking him out of the house, but then all of he sudden he flips that personal spiritual switch and wants to get married and baptized. Soeur Hapai came up to me and Sr. Lasso in church yesterday and said "Je suis trop heureuse! Pere-Celeste a repondu a mes priers!" He answered her prayers! That one moment was a testament to me: no matter what your situation is...PRAY!! He hears you prayers, and He WILL answer them. But don't forget....you are also living the plan that He has made FOR you specifically, and you agreed to it in the pre-moral existance. He will answer you prayers, but only when He knows you are ready for it and only when He knows you are best equiped to handle His response. He loves each and everyone of us, even though there are some days we think our prayers go unheard and unanswered. JUST KEEP PRAYING!

Also: We've been teaching this famille MARCANTONI for about 2 weeks now and it's been AWESOME! They are so golden! We taught them Le Retablissement this past week, and afterwards talked about bapteme. They said they really want to get baptized, but "il faut que nous aillons doussement avec eux." Why? Y'all....a little background on this famille. They are active Protestants, and that's rare for us missionaires to get people that are active in their own church and want to hear the gospel at the same time. They asked to follow the lecons. And they want to get baptized, but they told us they want us to go slow with them, because they have callings in the Protestant church and they're en train de quitter la religion ils on grandit de dans pendant toute leurs vie. C'est dur. But they said they would do whatever it takes to gain a testimony which was so cool to hear!!!

This week has been great, and we found another golden investigator named Dawson who got permission from his parents to take the lecons. He's so nice and has only 15 years! But you can just see the light slowly coming into his life. He's become happier and talks more than from the first time we met him. Golden I'm tellin' ya..GOLDEN!

Other than these blistering hot days, we are supposed to get an actual cyclone at the end of Fevrier. If that actually happens who really knows...on verra! But as for now, I hope y'all are all do SUPER!

N'oubliez pas les benedictions qui viennent de l'Evangile de Jesus-Christ!! Je vous aime!

E mea oaoa ia'u d'etre ici a Polynesie Francaise! (I'm so happy to be here in French Polynesia)!

Jusqu'au semaine prochaine!!

-Tuahine/Soeur Morrill :)