Bananas can be cooked

Someone gave us bananas, so we decided to experiment.  We fried bananas in oil and even microwaved a banana and ate it wrapped in a slice of turkey.  Cooked bananas are super delicious. 

Hi family,

Well, the story of my life the past every p day ever is that there is never enough time. So this email will be quick. Today we cleaned our car and the house a little bit, and now we're going to go shopping really fast before driving to Papeete to go to the mission office and then go on a hike! Woot woot! We're going to hike to that one waterfall I already did when I was still in Papeete. But this time we're doing it with several other zones so it should be pretty fun. I'm excited at least for the exercise.

This last week was kind of tough. We didn't have very many lessons planned all week, and then every day at least one lesson or more seemed to be cancelled. It was frustrating. What do you do when you have 4 or 5 hours of unplanned time and door to door is not recommended because it's so uneffective? It's tough. I've already visited everyone I know, including members,several times over. I had several moments during the week of "oh man, I hate this. I'm tired of people seeing me and running inside and closing the doors and windows and saying 'we're not interested,' etc. I miss a smile and 'hey, how are you?' " Yes, those moments exist on missions.

What else is new...  D is still getting baptized this weekend. Our bishop called us last night asking if D was ready. Bishop didn't think he was ready, and he asked us "who did his interview, I want to talk to him, who are your zone leaders?" etc. So we got D to meet us at bishop's house and did a lesson with them all last night. We explained to Bishop that we are the zone leaders (it was a moment of 'we are the brute squad'... 'we are the zone leaders' hahaha sorry hope you get that reference), that D had satisfied the conditions for baptism, and then we taught them. Luckily D came in clutch and asked Bishop to be the one to baptize him. As soon as he asked that, Bishop was touched and everything went smoothly. So yeah, that was super stressful yesterday.

For the week, overall pretty normal, besides not a lot going on. I had fun cooking some bananas.
Last night we ate with an older Tahitian couple, so they were talking to us in a lot of Tahitan. And I actually understood quite a bit! The tahitian is coming little by little, I understand a little more each week. But I am far from fluent, or even able to communicate effectively. French is good though, I can express myself and do everything I need to. It's weird to take control of situations in a language I didn't even speak a year ago. The gift of tongues is cool.

Tonight we're going to eat with some members for family night. We ate at their house a few weeks ago and they asked what our favorite foods were. We told them fresh fish! So tonight should be a good meal! Next week for my birthday I have already been invited for family night with C and his family. Should be fun.

Oh, so we're teaching this young french boy named D. He's 18 and super smart and talks in really fast Frenchy french and he's awesome!  And we started talking about marshmallows, and it turns out tomorrow we are going to have a s'mores night! He has never eaten them. I can't wait.
Elder N and I get along great together. He's super nice and happy. He's my little sidekick, it's fun stuff.

Hope you all have a good week. I restarted the book of mormon this week and I am loving it. I'm impressed by the difference between Nephi and his brothers. Don't forget to thank the Lord for all the blessings he gives us, gratitude makes a little worth a lot.

Love you all!

Elder Barlow