Haamene! Send February 5, 2018

Me and Elder Ballsteadt, my new companion.
  Well, just finished off my first week in Haamene! It has been pretty awesome, I already love it here. It is so beautiful, I am so glad I get to look at the other side of the Pacific Ocean now, great change of scenery from the other side of the island :).

  I have a lot of random things to share, so I am going to try my best to not say too
An awesome shirt a member here gave me.
much, but still send some good stories. First thing I wan't to share is that Tahitians are really bad at guessing ages. We always ask them to guess our age because it is pretty funny, and I got a new high and low this week. The guesses ranged from 16 to 35. I know that sounds a little far fetched, but to be fair the lighting wsa really bad for the guy with the crazy guess, I'm sure if he had a better view he would have said something higher than 16.

  One thing that is really funny is that all of the members here love American missionaries, and they don't like Tahitian missionaries. We had one member show us this thing, I'm not sure what it is called but it is like a bunch of sticks tied together and it's used to chase dogs away. She told us she had never used it to chase out American missionaries, but she has used it to chase out Tahitian missionaries. I feel kind of bad sharing this, because it makes Tahitian missionaries sound bad, and they are awesome, but it was just super funny.

  We got invited to a birthday party this week and it was awesome!!! It started with both of the grandma's taking about 5 minutes to talk (all in Tahitian, so I'm not sure what they said), and then we all sung happy birthday. And it is traditian here to sing that in french then english, and it just makes me so happy to here everyone try to sing in english, I love it. Then all the little kids went and kissed the birthday guy (he is in his mid 20's) and it was awesome. That's how every birthday should be.

  Speaking of Tahitian, that is my goal for this transfer. I need to learn how to speak it! We speak almost 100 percent French at the house which has been way good for me, the French is coming along great, but now it is time to learn language number 2. And it is do or die this week because my companion has the goal to only speak Tahitian, not French or English. So I might go crazy, but pas grave, it's for the best!

  On a more spiritual note, we were totally led by the spirit on Friday! First off, for some reason our water was off, so we couldn't shower. Luckily we were getting driven to the Cumorah house on the other side of the island for district meeting, so we just planned extra time to shower there. After the meeting, we asked our ride to come a little later to pick us up so we could have time to use the water, and he never came. We didn't have our bikes either, so we didn't know what to do. We literally just started walking around my old sector, and totally got led to talking to someone who really needed the missionaries right then. It was awesome. But we pretty much just spent all day trying to figure out how to get back to our sector, and finally Bishop was able to give us a ride. So it was a crazy day, but definitely led by the spirit!

  I just want to say sorry for making this letter so huge. I feel bad because whenever I receive missionaries emails that look this big I just chuckle a little bit to myself and think "Ya right" then move on. So I guess I'm a bit of a hypocrite, Sorry. Also sorry for all the spelling and grammar mistakes, English is not getting any easier. But to end I love you all, and the only way to truly find joy in this life is through Christ, so go out and follow his example! Have a great week!
An oar a member of the ward gave me when I left!  It is awesome, but I have no clue how I am going to get it home.
This is the view from the back porch.  I do most of my studies here.
A map of our sector.  It is the biggest biking sector in the mission.  If I don't lose weight here, I never will!

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