Sister Kofford in Tahiti: Week 4

10/14/14

IAORANA!! Wow! What a week! haha I seriously do not even know where to start! I guess the beginning would be an ideal place. So last Tuesday night we got a new district in our Zone! Nine Elders and one cute Sister. All of the Elders are from France except one from New Calidonia and Sister Stevens is from Vanuatu. They all speak about as much English as we do French so it has been a little bit of a struggle haha! But things are getting better. Its crazy how different our cultures are and it has been so neat getting to know them. They ask me to smile several times a day because they like looking at my teeth. They say I have "milk teeth" haha because they are straight and white. This blows their minds. They are all super funny in their own way. It has been fun helping them with their English and them helping us with our French! So its been good. Sister Stevens has honestly been such a blessing to us all. She literally came from such humble circumstances. The church provided all of her clothing for her along with personal hygiene supplies and much much more. She had never before worn shoes, been on a computer, or seen a digital camera. We have tried to provide her with everything she needs and I think she is finally starting to feel more comfortable in the United States. This has seriously been such a humbling experience for us all having her in our Zone and in our room. She has already taught me so much and I already have such a strong strong love for her. I gave her a little notebook and told her that she could use it for a journal to write down what she did that day. She liked this idea and asked all of the Sisters in our room if we would write her a note in it. We all happily agreed. At the end of the day she pulled me aside and said, "Sister, you write in my book first?" In her broken English. This almost brought me to tears. It meant so much to me that I already meant so much to her. Each morning I take her into the shower and turn her water on to make sure its not too hot and not too cold. I gave her some pjs because she did not have any. I just try to help her in anyway I possibly can. All of the Sisters in the room are so nice and giving. I cannot fully describe how Sister Stevens has changed my life. So on Sunday I gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting. This was cool I guess. I was the first Sister chosen out of our District and new Zone which is exciting. I talked for 5 whole minutes completely in Tahitian about enduring to the end. Several people came up to me after saying that they did not understand a word I said but that they could feel the spirit that I brought into the room so this was way neat! It felt good! We had a great relief society on Sunday as well! The speaker compared drivers licenses to credit cards. She said that they each tell things about a person. She explained that if we ever get a ticket in life, that we can go to traffic school and erase it off our record. Similarly to this, if we mess up in life and make mistakes, the atonement can erase those sins for us, if we choose to repent. I thought this was a cool metaphor. The speaker also talked about how we were all intelligences before we were even spirit children. I had learned this concept before but obviously it never stuck. As intelligences, we were unique and individual. We made the decision to ally ourselves with God in order to progress. And then to progress even more, we chose to come down to earth to receive bodies and be tested. Cool. So sure enough, the other day in personal study, I came across the scriptures in the Pearl Of Great Price that talked about us being intelligences. I was not even really looking for this. It talks about it in Abraham 3 I believe. But the point of this is that I know that God will answer our questions. Super cool experience for me. Our Sunday night devotional was also so amazing!! It was a man that works in the media department of the church. He explained that the church has bought out several billboards in Time Square, several adds on facebook, and also on December 7th the church bought the big add on Youtube! So be sure to check that out!! It was just amazing to me of how much the church is doing and how many people actually view these adds and are converted because of them. Anyway, I am almost out of time but things are going well. Remember that "If you walk with God you will never walk alone." This church is so true and I am absolutely loving being a missionary. I am the happiest I have ever been in my entire life! I love the joy the truthfulness of the gospel brings! Keep it real my friends! Have an amazing week!

Love, Sister Kofford