MARCH 19, 2018

WEEK 42

ONE YEAR MARK!

"Success is no accident. It's hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, 

love for what you are doing or learning to do."

♥♥♥

"I've made it this far.. Literally, Thursday was my 1 year mark. (I don't know how I've done it, but I have)."

 In my personal email, Mickey mentioned to me that being in her new sector, 
with a new companion has been an adjustment (obviously.) but I'm proud of her for making the best out of the new situation and working to be a good team with her companion, Sr. O'Hara.  
She knows the magnitude of their example and is anxious to work hard and be obedient.  
Mickey's French has gotten really good and she has even been putting to use her "gift of tongues" to help the other Sisters in her home learn to speak more confidently. 
....always in the service of others. ♥

Speaking of service, Mickey said...

"The very first day in my new house, I looked in the fridge and yelled.. ahh, it was SO gross!! 

Before even starting to unpack I took everything out of the fridge and CLEANED!" 

^^"My cute companion and myself."  (At the church.)^^

"Oh, did I tell you? - We're in a biking sector, and it POURS rain. I had a little bit of amenesia this week with that poncho. It smells like the tube we use when we go boating, except I definitely don't use it for that, and it's kind of sad." 

"I do love being on a bike! It's like something in side of me feels so FREE! haha (: It's much faster than walking, but I think it would be a lot more fun if I wasn't in a skirt every day. Ahhhh. Ya know, the sister missionary life. I do love it!"

"AHHH BOATING SEASON! 

We have a big sector right next to the ocean and we literally ride right next to it every day. 

We always have people out on their boats having a party and it reminds me all the good memories I have at the lake! (: So COOL!"

^^"The hidden pathways to get to the beach. #LOCALS ONLY!!"^^

^^Mickey's district is comprised of eight missionaries.^^ 

Elder Madsen, Elder Harrison, Sr O'Hara and Mickey are all from Utah. 

Sr Battezzato is from Massachusetts. 

Elder Bayart is from France and Elder Tetuaearo is from New Caledonia. 

Mickey told me they have so much fun together and even have "sleepovers" almost every night!

"We hike the bottom of Vaitavere.. AGAIN! this morning. 

I wanted to die, but "Do it for the people" really got to me today." 

"Literally the closest thing to home that I've seen all week.. Yes, those are HORSES. 

Of course I made my companion stop so I could pet them." 

"​Funny, but not so funny story. 

As we all know, I am a super sensitive person, right? 

Anyways I was at this party for the Relief society birthday and I was asked to cut the cake. 

So I did. 

All of a sudden some Tahitian lady starts telling me that I need to cut smaller pieces because the cake is small and we have a lot of people to feed. 

The moment I said "Sorry" she rolled her eyes and said something in Tahitian like I was stupid 

so of course I cried.. Because I am Sister Wright and I cry. 

WELL the members felt bad and made me a new cake! 

En PLUS it was in the shape of a heart! haha "Made with love!!" hahah (: " ​

^^Uru (bread Fruit)^^

(Side note: Doesn't Mickey look SO cute in that blue dress?!)

​Pretty sure I did this wrong, but I cooked Uru..​

^^​My new view of Moorea!​^^

^^Literally my cute companion again, because why not?^^

MARCH 12, 2018

WEEK 41

TRANSFERS!

"I am in Punaauia!

M new companion is Sr. Ohara from Riverton! Sr. Ohara! She's blonde. haha I'm pumped. 

We are in the sector of Manotahi.

She's already been in this sector for 5 and a half months already, 

so I know that I won't be with her for long." 

"I was sad to leave Sr. Mortier, but I was excited to have a little bit of change. I love the people that I met in Fariipiti! I will be back to visit, that is for sure. But the mission isn't about staying in one place forever. We must move on."

"It was hard to say goodbye to all of my ami's this week! BUT, it was a great time for me to ask them all to share their testimony with us! haha

I do know that the testimony grows in the bearing of it. It was cool to see that they even have testimonies and that the were willing to share with me. 

I even got Poerave to say a prayer during our lecon!! SO COOL!!!!"

"When I found out I was coming to Manotahi, I wasn't excited or sad...all I wanted to know was if it is a hard sector or not. I know Sr. Ohara works hard (so I wasn't worried about that). The first person I asked told me it was a really hard sector and my heart just broke!!! So I called Sr. Ohara and asked her about it and she said we already have 4 baptisms fixed and every one of our ami's have a member integrator, or multiple. She's really worked hard in this sector and I am SO pumped to come help her out!"

"Sr Ohara has been in a trio the last 6 weeks covering two sectors. One of the sisters was in Training and actually, the other two sisters were always in the other sector, so Sr. Ohara went on Splits with members nearly every day...

That means she was a SINGLE missionary doing all of the work! 
SO crazy! 
Everyone says this ward has had only one missionary (strange) and they are excited to have me!!"

"I have learned that my calling in the mission is to find new investigators... I just talk to everyone!

(Teaching is not my strong point!) but I have a burning testimony of this gospel and I am more than excited to share it with everyone I meet! (: That is one thing I learned serving in the city!

I LOVE talking to people!"

"Well HEY!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!"

MARCH 5, 2018

Week 40

Break-Ins and Interviews

"It was a great week. 

A lot of things seemed to fall through, but we did get a lot accomplished as well.

^^  "I got to play the piano this week. It was a tender mercy." ^^ 

We had interviews with the President this week.

He asked me how I'm doing, I am doing well. He said that my companion really loves me which says a lot about me. (:

He offered a prayer for me, but it was more like a blessing. He said that there are many souls who are waiting for me to share the gospel with them. He asked that I may be blessed with the courage to go, and teach with love. 

That reminds me, transfers are Monday which means I could be getting transferred, but who knows. 

We found out that ever since Heremono has decided to get baptized he has been really rude to everyone in his family and now his mother doesn't want it to happen. He's been lying to us in our lessons and we have cancelled his baptism. 

We had another lesson with Poerava this week. She's just so cute. 

I asked her to pray to know if the gospel is true and the things we teach are true, she looked at me and said, 'Of course it's true!' She then explained that it's the only place she feels good.

I told her we want her to get baptized, but I strongly felt that I needed to invited her to pray and ask God if it is what God wants for her. 

SO COOL!

I am excited to see what this week will bring for us!

2 FUNNY STORIES!!!!

Someone broke into our house.

It was last Monday (because we don't have a key to our house) we just use the window to climb into the house. Apparently someone found out somehow and just climbed into our house. He walked around (right after we had cleaned everything and he got footprints everywhere) he opened our sliding glass door to make it look like we left it open. haha

The other Sisters got home and saw that our door was open 

(mind you, we have a HUGE gate that you have to go through before you can get into our house) 

they stood there for a second, didn't see our shoes then freaked out a little bit as a Tahitian man walked out of our house saying that he was looking for the elders. 

He had a sack in his hands, but it was empty. He said, 'I don't have anything in my sack!' 

...but he looked through all of our cupboards in our house and all of our bags. ahhhh...

Needless to say, he came in through our big gate climbed through our window looking for the elders with an empty bag. annnnnnnyways.

hahah

So we locked all of our windows and got a key for our door. 

We don't have a key for the door actually, we just have a key for our dead bolt. 

Out of habit, we used to just lock the door because we could climb through the window. 

Anyways, Sr. Siale locked the door out of habit and when we got home, I saw that the deadbolt key wasn't working and freaked out a little bit. Like I said, we don't have a key for that lock. 

We walked over to the elders house because it was raining and pitch black at our house (they live on the same street as us). 

Elder Peck says, 'I can pick a lock.' 

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

ELDER PECK?!?!?!?!

Nooooooo seriously, he is the most unlikely person I would ever believe could do that.

I asked him why he knows how to do that and he said, 'I taught a class on it once...' 

Oh boy, but he did break into our hose for us (:

hahahahahaha

We got everything locked up now. 

I don't know what he was looking for, but apparently he didn't find it.

I actually think he was there the week before as well because the window was open the week before but I thought it was just the other sisters who forgot.

Apparently, it's normal in Tahiti.

There are not many photos this week. I am sorry. Our sector is really boring.

Have a great week!

I love you!"

♥♥♥

FEBRUARY 26, 2018

WEEK 39

The work is PROGRESSING! 

"AFTER ALL THAT HAS BEEN SAID,

THE GREATEST AND MOST IMPORTANT 

DUTY IS TO 

PREACH THE GOSPEL."

-Joseph Smith

"WELL! We finally were able to really address the concerns of our Ami Ripo! He is a 56 year old man who is single and has the BIGGEST heart! He's really big...and he's just like a teddy bear. 

Anyways, he knows the gospel is true, he knows he needs to follow Jesus Christ but he is scared to lose his friends if he becomes Mormon. He also said that he doesn't want to become a member if he isn't planning to stay a member. He doesn't like the examples of all of the inactives that he knows. He doesn't want to be that same way but because so many of his friends are like that, he is scared that he will be too. 

We invited him to pray this week to see if he really should get baptized, to see if is the will of God."

"We then started teaching a young woman named Poerava. She's SO SO SO cute!!! Sh'es 17 and has a heart of gold. One of our YW invited her to the YW activities and now she comes to church and all of the other church activities (we have an activity every other day here in Tahiti). In our first lesson with her she asked us how to become a mormon...we ended up explaining the Joseph Smith story and I could see that she thought we were a little crazy, so I shared my testimony with her about Joseph Smith then asked if we could see her again.  She said, "Of course!" AH!!!!!!! This week we are going to try and fix a few dates for baptism."

"We also teach Heremono (still) his baptism is fixed for June 2. We can't move it any sooner because he wants his dad to be there and his dad is currently in Prison."

"Our meeting with the Stake President went well! We shared with him all of our concerns and he said he will discuss with all of the people involved and we will need to give it 3 weeks to see if things have changed."

"Also, we talked to President Fox last night about the missionary work in our sector. We told him that we have a member at almost every single one of our lessons and he was pleasantly surprised. He said, "That is wonderful!" I really have seen this sector grow! We started with out with maybe 6 ami's and now we have at least 10 PROGRESSING ami's! Which means the baptisms are coming! A lot of times, it just takes time, BUT I am seeing the results to our efforts."

I was telling Mickey what a great leader she was - this was her response:

"This week I noticed that I am not really a great leader (I prefer others to lead), but I do like when things get done! Even if that means I have to do all of the work." 

 ^^ "I am a bun pro! ^^

Mickey was able to go see Euliette at the temple the day she was sealed! 

She didn't actually get to attend the sealing, but she really wanted to! 

Mickey said, "I heard they even did it in English! SO special!!!  

She (Euliette) looked beautiful though." 

"It was so sweet, Euliette pulled a flower out of her bouquet and gave it to me!! 

She said, 'Here you go Sister Wright. Something to remember me!' 

SO CUTE." 

 ^^ "I was caught eating CHEERIOS!!!!!! YES! I found Cheerios on TAHITI!! ^^

Who would've thought?"

^^ "Enjoying my Valentine's ♥♥" ^^ 

^^ I found a man in the tree. I guess it's normal around here. ^^

 ^^We found a homeless puppy and took care of it!! (: ^^

 Hopefully it has a home by now, we don't actually know where it is.

^^ "The difference between a used cantique and a new one!" (: ^^

...until next week! 

Please keep Mickey's ami's in your prayers if you can remember 

- it's one way we can help her from afar!

xoxo -Aunt Jess