Chère Famille,
Je me trouve toujours à Paita! I am still in Paita - no transfers; you can stop holding your breath. No, for some reason missionaries get excited about transfers and who's going where and what companionships will be. In fact, we play the "transfer game" - each person deciding who they think will go where. I don’t like playing it when the sisters get moved around; it’s only fun to do it for the elders. We are a funny brand, we missionaries. I thought, for example that I was going to go to Magenta (a walking sector) where I would hopefully walk off all this extra baggage. The gossipy elders (who are worse than girls, I tell you - haha, that's was in Ann Dibb's talk:"I tell you") made me think that I would be transferred, but alas, President has seen it fit to keep me in Paita for a time. I am glad. We have gained the confidence of the members and are working more and more with them - which, if you didn't know, is très important to the work. I would like to invite you (because good missionaries always give commitments and "invite" others to do things) to go work with the missionaries. Do you do that? Have you asked the elders if you could help them?
On Monday of last week, Soeur Seiko and I went to do our shopping in Tontouta and on the way home we took a shortcut. We came over this one hill and BAM, there was the most gorgeous Pacific island ocean view anyone could ask for. On top of that, we found a man with a beachfront location and he said we could take his road down to the ocean front. He then came down and talked to us. We found out that he lives in Paita and that he is family with some of our amis. We gave his a brochure.
On Tuesday at our district meeting we heard the testimony of a Tahitian elder, Elder Aiho, who is going home this Wednesday. He is a great missionary.
On Wednesday we went to an amie’s house, and she had left us a note outside on her porch that said she didn't want to meet with us anymore. We wondered what we had done and felt pretty depressed. However, I know that it was her decision and we left her a note of encouragement and told her that we were always there if she wanted to talk. There are the highest of highs and the lowest of lows on the mission. That was a low.
On Saturday we had a good English lesson with our friend Janne. It wasn't even really an English lesson. We didn't have any books in English besides the Gospel library so we gave her a copy of Our Search for Happiness and kept one for us to follow along with. She read one of the pages for this week where E. Ballard talks about his convictions for Jesus Christ, and she said she was touched by that and she had a bizarre, but wonderful feeling come over her. We talked about Christ for a while and other Gospel topics. We then went into our English conversation topic for the week: Our favorite book. I began and I pulled out a copy of, what else but my favorite book, the Book of Mormon. I bore my testimony in English (the first time on my mission) and Soeur Seiko bore hers testimony too. Then we gave her the book and expressed our hopes that it would become her favorite book. The Spirit was SO strong in our lesson. She is a humble, sweet person and I am excited to do a follow-up on her reading at our next "English" lesson.
Anyway, the rest of Saturday was spent trying to visit Michel, who was apparently having some major problems with his renters and had to call the police. The renters haven't paid for over six months and he had to kick them out, and there was a bit of a commotion (that is a euphemism for the situation, by the way) and we had to leave. We went and visited our amie Aimée who was celebrating her 75th birthday! When we found that out we ran to the patisserie and bought these heavenly French cake things with fruit on top and brought Soeur Toyon to teach with us. It was a happy afternoon.
On Sunday we had district conference with all the branches, and later that night we had a missionary fireside on the Restoration. It was the usual - singing, visuals, and a narration. The narrator had the most amazing French accent ever - I fell in love. With his accent, of course. Not Frère Leau himself. We had invited Mikaele and Helene and their girls and they came. Imagine that.
Today we are having a FHE with President Ostler and tomorrow is Zone Conference. I had a good interview with President today and played volleyball with the elders. The mission is the best place on earth. I appreciate every minute, even the hard ones.
Let me not forget a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Alex and Glen. I love you both!
Love,
Soeur Cummins
Je me trouve toujours à Paita! I am still in Paita - no transfers; you can stop holding your breath. No, for some reason missionaries get excited about transfers and who's going where and what companionships will be. In fact, we play the "transfer game" - each person deciding who they think will go where. I don’t like playing it when the sisters get moved around; it’s only fun to do it for the elders. We are a funny brand, we missionaries. I thought, for example that I was going to go to Magenta (a walking sector) where I would hopefully walk off all this extra baggage. The gossipy elders (who are worse than girls, I tell you - haha, that's was in Ann Dibb's talk:"I tell you") made me think that I would be transferred, but alas, President has seen it fit to keep me in Paita for a time. I am glad. We have gained the confidence of the members and are working more and more with them - which, if you didn't know, is très important to the work. I would like to invite you (because good missionaries always give commitments and "invite" others to do things) to go work with the missionaries. Do you do that? Have you asked the elders if you could help them?
On Monday of last week, Soeur Seiko and I went to do our shopping in Tontouta and on the way home we took a shortcut. We came over this one hill and BAM, there was the most gorgeous Pacific island ocean view anyone could ask for. On top of that, we found a man with a beachfront location and he said we could take his road down to the ocean front. He then came down and talked to us. We found out that he lives in Paita and that he is family with some of our amis. We gave his a brochure.
On Tuesday at our district meeting we heard the testimony of a Tahitian elder, Elder Aiho, who is going home this Wednesday. He is a great missionary.
On Wednesday we went to an amie’s house, and she had left us a note outside on her porch that said she didn't want to meet with us anymore. We wondered what we had done and felt pretty depressed. However, I know that it was her decision and we left her a note of encouragement and told her that we were always there if she wanted to talk. There are the highest of highs and the lowest of lows on the mission. That was a low.
On Saturday we had a good English lesson with our friend Janne. It wasn't even really an English lesson. We didn't have any books in English besides the Gospel library so we gave her a copy of Our Search for Happiness and kept one for us to follow along with. She read one of the pages for this week where E. Ballard talks about his convictions for Jesus Christ, and she said she was touched by that and she had a bizarre, but wonderful feeling come over her. We talked about Christ for a while and other Gospel topics. We then went into our English conversation topic for the week: Our favorite book. I began and I pulled out a copy of, what else but my favorite book, the Book of Mormon. I bore my testimony in English (the first time on my mission) and Soeur Seiko bore hers testimony too. Then we gave her the book and expressed our hopes that it would become her favorite book. The Spirit was SO strong in our lesson. She is a humble, sweet person and I am excited to do a follow-up on her reading at our next "English" lesson.
Anyway, the rest of Saturday was spent trying to visit Michel, who was apparently having some major problems with his renters and had to call the police. The renters haven't paid for over six months and he had to kick them out, and there was a bit of a commotion (that is a euphemism for the situation, by the way) and we had to leave. We went and visited our amie Aimée who was celebrating her 75th birthday! When we found that out we ran to the patisserie and bought these heavenly French cake things with fruit on top and brought Soeur Toyon to teach with us. It was a happy afternoon.
On Sunday we had district conference with all the branches, and later that night we had a missionary fireside on the Restoration. It was the usual - singing, visuals, and a narration. The narrator had the most amazing French accent ever - I fell in love. With his accent, of course. Not Frère Leau himself. We had invited Mikaele and Helene and their girls and they came. Imagine that.
Today we are having a FHE with President Ostler and tomorrow is Zone Conference. I had a good interview with President today and played volleyball with the elders. The mission is the best place on earth. I appreciate every minute, even the hard ones.
Let me not forget a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Alex and Glen. I love you both!
Love,
Soeur Cummins
la famille teugaisiale
