Episode 63, 64: River Of Dogs

WEEK 63

joyeux noël tout le monde ! I hope you guys had a wonderful christmas! kinda fun that it falls on pday/monday this year hahah. 

this week we had our mission xmas conference -- it was super fun to see everyone! we had some talks given, some trainings, etc, then we ate and played some minute-to-win-it games. no mean to brag but I was the captain of my team so I'm basically super cool.

I also did MyPlan this week, which is basically a course for planning your life after the mission. it was kinda crazy that we were already doing it, cause that means we're old missionaries, but again it was super fun to see all my MTC friends !

Christmas eve was super fun -- we started out with church, and church itself was pretty interesting. they had like a Christmas music program going on and they started sacrament meeting by singing "walking in a winter wonderland", which I'm pretty sure isn't very allowed lol. after that they sang a few more songs that weren't hymns, but at least they talked about Jesus so I'll take it. after church we met this family from Dubai. well, they live in Dubai, but the wife is tahitian, the husband is German, and their kids grew up in Australia, so... I don't know lol. but the husband is basically the head Formula One chef, and that's why they live in Dubai. pretty sick. anyways, after that we went and ate with a family, did some contacting, our studies, etc. good Xmas eve !

Christmas was really fun too. we got together as a zone in the morning and ate some Mexican food (a blessing from heaven), then did a white elephant game. the funniest gift was probably some pearls that someone sealed into a McDonald's mayonnaise pack. anyways, at noon we went to a big party that our members were throwing on the beach, and ate some slammin tahitian food. overall great day!

WEEK 64

happy new year! having all these holidays on the mission is pretty fun. but it's also kinda hard because literally everyone uses them as excuses not to take lessons. they always tell us to come back after the holidays, hoping we forget, but we never forget. so next week everyone that brushed us off is gonna have a wonderful little visit.

anyways, this was a good week. lots of contacting! it's becoming increasingly difficult to contact because our sector is pretty tiny, and everybody and their moms already know who we are. but fret not, because we're searching high and low. one day while we were deep into the valley, I asked my comp about some houses on the other side of the river. she said they'd never been over there. jackpot. so this entire week was spent trying to find a way over the river. we asked around and got a bunch of different answers, but all of them basically said "we don't go over there". but we decided to specifically ignore that. so yesterday (sunday) we decided to execute our grand plan to traverse the river. we found this shallow entrance that we assume is used by big trucks to cross. we go on foot tho, cause why not. we were so excited when we were crossing, about to discover untouched contacting land, when suddenly 10 angry dogs materialize from nowhere. they start barking and chasing us, and we just start booking it back across the river. we looked so dumb to all the neighbors lol. so ya anyways moral of the story, if you want to go contacting in sketchy land maybe bring a member with you to throw rocks at the dogs.

one of our members unexpectedly passed away this week. very sad -- he was friends with a lot of people, which was evident by the turnout for his funeral. the funeral itself was good, with tahitian funerals they usually do it where the body is just lying on a table at the front of the room (sometimes covered with a sheet, sometimes not), and this was the same. it was kinda interesting. what was more interesting was the fact that someone used the body as a phone stand to set their phone up as they recorded the people giving speeches. not so sure about that one lol.

my message this week is simply about the life changing power of the atonement of Jesus Christ. it's hard to explain just exactly how important this single event is for the history of mankind, but that's why I invite you all to read about it instead. each one of the 4 gospels (Matthew, mark, Luke, and john) testify of His earthly ministry and atonement, so I encourage you to pick one and read it. I promise that it'll increase your testimony of His Atonement, and your own personal love for His sacrifice. 

anyways voilà! I hope you all have a great week. I love you !!

- sœur snuggs <3