Coucou !
It's your favorite French missionary back with another weekly update! This week was kind of a slower week again because EVERYONE is on vacation. Not gonna lie, it has been à bit difficult to get rendez-vous with our amis because of vacation. So we have been putting our efforts more into finding friends, getting to know the members, and service. And still, through it all we have had some INCREDIBLE experiences this week! A lot of these experiences happened thanks to the amazing members in our branch, so this week I want to share these lessons with you, and I have to say these may have been some of the best lessons I have had in the past 9 months as a missionary!
As I've mentioned before, my area has a lot of Tahitians due to the regiment/military base here. Most of the members in my branch are actually Tahitian and it is always à party when we are invited to their homes! However, I want to highlight a specific family. BUT let me give you a little fun fact first, which is super cool! Often times both parents in Tahitian families here work. Both are either in the military, or the Father is in the military and the mother works at another job. If both parents are working...who is home with the kids? The mother's parents! Often times the maternal grandparents (more-so the mom of the mom 🤣) will come and live here in France for 3 years and help with the kids until they can all go to school and then come back during the big school breaks to care for the kids while the parents work. This is the case for one of the families in my branch, the Tehahe and Tefaaite. I think I mentioned them in my last update, but Holy cow they are so so so amazing! Almost everyday this past week we attended rendez-vous they had set up with different people in the Tahitian apartment complex and invited us to be a part of. We visited with members, old and new, and even made some new friends all thanks to these amazing members!
The first rendez-vous we had was with some members we hadn't seen at church for a long time. The Tahitians have such a talent for making everyone feel like they are family. From the moment we got there to the moment we left, we did nothing but smile and laugh and even shed some tears together as they shared their story and testimony. We talked to them about being humble seekers of happiness (Alma 27:18 in the Book of Mormon). We shared that through humility we are the most receptive to the whisperings and blessings of heaven. It is through humility where we can actually find and feel true happiness. The Spirit was so strong, and of course, the Tefaaite couple we were with shared their story along with powerful testimonies (in Tahitian of course). At the end, one of our member friends asked if we could sing a song, and we of course said yes! He asked if we knew the song, "I will Go and Do" from the Church youth album, which we were able to pull up in French. He pulled out his guitar so we all sang it together and the spirit was so strong! It's amazing how music can so easily bring the Spirit! We then shared some delicious crêpes and as we left they asked us to come back whenever we wanted!
Our next day in Tahiti was actually with the Chaterina's husband! We were there again with the Tefaaite couple, and again it was amazing! Chaterina was out on a trip with one of her sons. We had conducted a lesson with her husband once before and he seemed pretty interested so we all decided to go see him again. We talked about faith (Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon). We talked about what it means to have faith and how it is something we need to constantly be nourishing, and that it is okay if sometimes our faith is greater than at other times. We also compared it to a seed (a well beloved parable). If we have even the smallest amount of faith, that is enough to do extraordinary things. He told us he would rather go and hangout with his friends than go to church, but after talking with us he said that religion is more important than his friends, and that he wants to continue meeting with us. We even set up an appointment to come back this next week! So excited! 
On our last day in Tahiti 😉 we had a rendez-vous with the Tehahe and two of their friends they knew from work (a.k.a the military). Two days before we met with the friends Frère Tehahe and Frère Tefaaite went and talked to them to get to know them more and see how interested they were in learning about the church. When we saw them the next day, they kept telling us how ready and open they were to meeting with us! Fast forward to our lesson with them...wow! The Spirit was so incredibly strong! We gave them a Book of Mormon and explained what it was and then we started to talk about faith, kind-of like we did in our other rendez-vous, and we could tell that what we were talking about was really resonating with them. One of them even seemed to be a bit teary-eyed. The Tehahes even shared their testimonies and stories, which was so powerful and touching. These two guys made absolute eye contact the entire time and just seemed so eager to learn more. That lesson was completely driven by the Spirit and it was incredible! At the end we all finished by kneeling in prayer. When we all finished and were standing Frère Tehahe went over to each one and gave them each a hug and honestly it was the most wholesome hugs I've ever seen! It was so precious! Then we all had pizza and had a great time together! 😄 
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