Sister Kofford in Tahiti: Week 9

11/18/14

IAORANA! Friends and family! I hope that things are going well for you all out in the real world! I pray for you each and every day and hope you feel the blessings that come daily, because they are always there. All you have to do is seek them out and notice them! So basically we have officially been at the MTC for nine weeks. It has been so long that its hard to imagine life outside of these walls. We love going to the temple each week and the occasional doctors visit with Sister Stevens but that is all of the real world experience that we get. The MTC is so magical and special but I think we are all about ready to move on to the next chapter of our missions and head out to Tahiti! And we get to do this in two weeks from today!! So we are happy about that! It has been an excellent week. As a district and also personally with myself, we have really been doing well at staying diligent and focused. My wonderful mother sent me this legit new waterproof watch that I love and the great thing about it is that it ticks super loudly. Each and every time I can hear it tick, it reminds me that I am on the clock. I am on the Lord's time and I do not want to waste a second. About a year ago in my AP literature class, my teacher had us all turn and look at the clock for exactly one minute. After this, she made the point that we had just obliviously wasted an entire minute of our lives looking at the clock. A very valuable minute and a minute that we would never get back. I have thought back on this lesson many times on my mission and truly do believe that if we are ALWAYS striving to do the things that please God, that we will be blessed. We have been speaking a lot of French this week. In fact, we only speak French! Sixteen hours a day. I feel like personally I have improved a lot which is so cool to see. Also just simply speaking the language seems to solve any problem. If there is ever any tension or an unfocused atmosphere as long as we are speaking in French things get a whole lot better very quickly. At the devotional on Tuesday night some big wig from the MTC came to talk to us. It was cool but the thing that Sister Erekson and I loved most is the fact that he had a down syndrome son who would pass the microphone around to different missionaries to answer questions. This little boy stood right in front of Sister Erekson and I in the isle and it was so fun to be able to think about our brothers together and have a little moment. So . . . our flight plans come on Friday! We are extremely excited for this! We learned from our teacher that we will not be leaving the MTC until December 2nd. I figure that if I can survive eleven weeks here, one more day is not going to kill me haha! I played the piano in sacrament meeting on Sunday which was cool. We sang Christmas hymns of course because the Chrsitmas spirit puts everyone in a good mood. Sister Erekson and I continue to memorize 40 words a day, share our testimony 7 times (switching off between Tahitian and French), memorize one scripture everyday, and try our hardest not to speak any English. I think that the biggest thing I have learned this week is that blessings truly do come through working hard. Heavenly Father absolutely wants us to succeed. He wants this so badly that He is willing to help us in any way that He can, we just have to do our part. Another thing that I have realized for myself is the importance of faith and prayer. In every lesson, Sister Erekson and I stress the importance of faith and praying with faith. It is true that these things are important for our investigators, but they are equally as important for us as well. I am going to try to improve my faith this week in the things that I do. I have said it before but I will say it again, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13) Life is good. The church is true. Have a fabulous week!!!

Love, Sister Heather Kofford

Beautiful fall temple walk!

We LOVE the Markhams!!!

Still smellin' the roses . . . even though they are a little bit dead hahaha!

Classic jumping pic! Also, note the lovely entirely pink outfit . . . and I am definitely wearing socks! My legs are not that white!(;

We love TALL . . . not really but sometimes we think we're cool talking into the little microphones!(;

Played restaurant with our teacher yesterday . . . hymn books for plates and markers for forks . . . also everything was like $3,000 so that was cool! Probably one of the funnest moments!