Monday, February 29, 2016

Leap Day!

The road leading into our neighborhood.

La Mission- one of the quartiers in our sector.

Our House.

At the mission office!
Hi family!

Papeete is a fun zone! We cleaned our house a little tiny bit this morning. Elder Porter cleaned the kitchen and I cleaned the bathroom downstairs. The assistants are cleaning the upstairs and their car. Our current house doesn't have anywhere to do pull-ups, but I make do by using the spiral staircase. It wraps back around and I can do pull-ups from hanging on the highest step. More of a wrist workout than anything, but it's better than nothing!

Apparently there's a cyclone (this part of the world's word for hurricane) coming. We've been experiencing some wacky weather from that. Mostly tons and tons of rain and it is very humid. This morning our zone leaders picked us up from our house to go do mail at the chapel and I got soaked during the 5 second or so transition from opening the car door, closing my umbrella, and climbing into the car. Lots of water here! Luckily it is not as hot when it rains though.

Dad mentioned that I am in the complete opposite position of where I started my mission, and it's totally true. I am so blessed to be here. Whenever I feel down, I think of where I started and I realize that I am so much better off. I learned a lot at Ahe, but I am glad I don't have to go through that trial again. Living with the assistants is interesting. Anyways, can you believe it is already March (as of tomorrow)?! February went quick! February always seems to go quick, probably because it has less days than all the other months. Ha ha.

This week was good. It rained a lot and we didn't teach as many lessons. But we have 2 baptisms now for the 12th of March, and potentially 2 or 3 more. We had a new amis this week from Skyano, the boy we baptized a few weeks ago. He brought us his cousin. She is 19 and she took the lessons when she was younger. Now she is old enough that she can get baptized without parental permission. The first lesson she started out by asking us: How many lessons do I have to take before I can get baptized? Elder Porter and I did a mental fist bump. But then she didn't come to church yesterday. Hmmm... the life of missionaries, right? Anyways, we have some amis en progrés (progressing investigators), so that's good.
Elder Porter and I also tried to eat better this last week. We bought stuff for PB and J's, and made sandwiches for lunch all week. I also brought an apple and a big carrot each day for lunch. As a result of eating healthier and more often, I think I lost a lot of weight! That is very encouraging for me. I have more of an appetite when I eat more often too, which is good.

 My French continues to improve just from being immersed. I haven't studied French for a while now. I want to study it, but I have to learn Tahitian first, it's more important in my mind. I've been studying and I am starting to understand more words! This morning I walked into the genealogy center here at Fariipiti (where we do emails) and a Tahitian papi asked me "Where are you from?" in Tahitian, and I totally understood and replied in understandable (apparently) Tahitian "No Marite mai au, Washington." Which of course means, I'm from America, Washington. Cool! That made me happy. Haha. Last night also Elder Thia was reading te buka o moromona out loud to me, and I understood absolutely nothing! So it's an up and down thing. Everyone here speaks French, and not really Tahitian. Only the old people or people from tiny islands really know how to speak pure Tahitian. But I can learn anyways, haere maru, haere papu (slowly and surely). Elder Porter and I are teaching a Tahitian papi the lessons in Tahitian. He speaks understandable French too, but he expresses himself in Tahitian. So it's a good opportunity to learn.

The week was overall normal. Last night we went to the office with the assistants and zone leaders while they made their reports for the week. That was fun. There's always Hershey kisses at the office too, so we snacked and joked and checked out all the reports and stuff. It was fun! I'm glad to be here on Tahiti right now. Thanks for the prayers.  Have a good week, ua here au ia outou! (I love you all!)

Love,

Elder Barlow

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