Elder Braden Kerr Mission

 Maea's family, I love them so much! Crazy week this week! First off I don't have a lot of time today because of transfers, so sorry I didn't get time to respond to anybody! Next week will be better. But that being said, I got transferred! But hardly. So I am on the island of Tahaa, and there are six elders on the island, four in my house and two on the other side of the island. For the transfer I switched places with one of the elders on the other side of the island! It is a way bizarre and super small transfer, but I am excited!   My new sector is Haamene, no longer Cumorah. I am really excited to stay on this island because it is one of the best places to learn Tahitian, and that is my goal in this sector! French isn't really a worry anymore, so time to start hitting up that Tahitian! My new companion should really help, he loves studying Tahitian.   Well, I wrote more, but then the computer crashed and only saved that, and now I am out of time, sor

From Holly -- Braden sent a VERY short e-mail this week because he was at a zone conference on another island and did not have very much time to e-mail.  I'm sure (actually, just hoping) that he will send a much longer one next week.  January 26th marked the six month point of the boys' missions.  They are 1/4 of the way through.  We miss them very much, but love to hear how happy they are to serve.  Thank you all for your love and support. From Braden (He doesn't seem to like to add Salutation lines!  So funny story. We went to an inactive member's house for a lesson, and as is customary here, you take off your shoes to go inside. (Even though we just ended up walking out on the other side of the house and stayed outside). Anyway, I wasn't wearing socks that day (Pro's of an Island mission), and lets just say my feet aren't exactly the tannest part of my body. The son, Haunarii, who is 14, put his feet next to mine and just started laughing, he was like

This is probably my favorite picture, This mami is the cutest old lady, and the night we took the picture she was joking with us how she was gonna win her fortune from the lottery then take us on a world tour. A super cute little kitten at Heimana's house.  Well, I hate to say it, but all this Tahitian food is starting to stick. I came back from a dinner the other night sooooo full! The problem here is I have to eat everything and sometimes there is just so much. The classic meal is called "Steak frites" which is basically a greasy slab of meat about a quarter inch thick called a steak, and then 20 pounds of french fries, with enough grease to justify eating it with a spoon. So after downing one of those I came home and was just dying and Elder Schlitters was getting such a kick out of it. Not gaining weight is officially impossible.   But other than eating my body weight in French fries, this week has been super solid! We had a baptism for a l

  It rains a lot in Tahaa. Especially this week for some reason. The biggest problem with rain is that everybody just camps at home and tells you to go home too. Even bishop saw us out and was like, "what are you guys doing out here!?" so that was funny. At one point it was storming SUPER hard and I had to bike around the island for a split. I decided to whip out my handy dandy poncho, and everyone was getting pretty good laughs out of how it looked. But they sure weren't laughing when I made it all the way to the other side of the island (about 90 minutes on bike) completely dry! Well, that's what I would have said if it was true, but unfortunately the poncho didn't stop the rain at all and I was totally soaked. Got some funny pictures though!   So apparently in French Polynesia there is a tradition. It goes something like this: "The new years party goes half way through January and nobody talks to the missionaries." That's just a rough tr

FROM HOLLY- Braden told us that he had been sick with a stomach bug and so he didn't feel up to sending a group e-mail this week.  He did say he was fine and loving it there though, and he did answer some of the questions I sent him.  Here are his answers: 1)  How is New Years celebrated where you are? ANSWER :   Basically for every holiday the celebration is simple, eat even more than usual and if you aren't Mormon go get drunk. We were in bed too early to see the real parties, but I'm sure it was a hoot. We have an investigator, Heimana, the body builder, and I saw him during the day holding a thing of beer. I jokingly asked if it was full of water, he said yes and we had a nice laugh. Good times. Don't worry about him though, he is starting to stop drinking and smoking on the 8th, and I actually really trust him on it, so that's exciting! 2)   What was your favorite thing I sent you in your Christmas package?  (For future reference) ANSWER:   Wel