#13 - Brazil!

Oh my heck, Brazil! AMELIA! HUZZAH!!!  This is all so crazy!  Missionary work going nuts all over the place!  Millzie, I love you.  I am so, so, so happy for you!  This really is the work of Heavenly Father.  It really is all about bringing joy to people.  Hooray for Irma Mann!!!

Okay, some updates from Tahiti!
This email is way late because we had a zone conference today!  My very first zone conference.  I love President Sinjoux.  Hes one of those people who just looks straaaaight into your soul when he looks at you.  But not in a scary way.  Hes wonderful.
This email is going to have references to the Grandmanns!  First, Grandma Mann, I have found you a Tahitian best friend!  Her name is Mami Brodien.  Everyone her over the age of 50 or so is called Mami or Papi, which means Grandma and Grandpa.  Its extremely confusing.  But anyhoo, I love Mami Brodien with all my heart.  She reminds me of you, Grandma.  I had a sweet experience with her, sitting on her porch, and she taught me some French while I taught her English.  And she spoke so slow and softly and kindly, and for an hour or so, and she truly made me feel loved.  She is just like Grandma Mann, so aware of peoples needs, so hospitable and gentle and funny.  I will love her forever.

The next reference to the Grandmanns:  This weekend I thought a lot about Grandpa Mann's story from his mission when he got an ulcer and his companion told him over and over, Just dooon't get toooo excited   Why did I think about that story?  Because I was on the verge of ulcer this week? I think.   We got a call after we'd gone to bed telling us that my companion was taking a trip the next morning to attend the baptism of a couple who'd requested her presence.  So she left at 7 AM the next morning, and I had a new companion for the weekend.  Who didn't know the area or the investigators or anything.  And it was hard.  I'm gettin' nauseous just thinkin' about it.  I learned a lot of humility, and when my companion returned, I ran into her arms yelling, Mamma!  Ha ha.  Sometimes we learn to appreciate our companions the hard way.

Other picture, a family home evening we did tonight.  Crazy, loud, disorganized, family home evening.  Just how we like em!

I love you all so much!  I miss you to death.  I love you.

Na na for now!
Soeur Mann

#12 - Love You to Death

Family! I love you so much! I miss you so much! I love you!  Oh, reading your emails just did me so much good.  And I got your present with all the letters- you saved my life with that.  Really.  That was the best present I ever received for my birthday. Thank you!

How I WISH I could say everything I want to say to you all!  First of all- AMELIA MANN.  YOUR MISSION CALL IS COMING.  HUZZAH! I cant wait to find out where youre going!  I hope its Tahiti!  Heh heh.  But really.  Im too excited to sleep for you!!!!!   

In answer to some of your questions:
1.  I am eating... everything.  Remember how I'm kind of a picky eater, especially with meat?  Na-na.  (Tahitian for goodbye)   I am just eating whatever they put in front of me, including raw fish.  And they think I'm cool because of it.  My dear friend Papi Opuu is so proud of me not being a picky American.  Most of the time the food is really good.  The other part of the time it is revolting.  But I don't even care.  Raw fish!  Yum!

2.  The bike is working.  One thing that isn't working is riding a bike with a skirt.  I'll keep working on that.  But its really fun to ride a bike here.  When all else fails, I can at least say, Hey.  I'm ridin' a bike in Tahiti.  This is cool.  You can't even imagine how beautiful it is here.  It literally rains flowers.  This morning I was sitting on the ground and this exquisite yellow flower just plopped on my lap from the sky.  They are everywhere, all kinds!  Its so frustrating because all I want to do is talk about how incredible everything is, but I can barely talk, and when I do, they're like... yeah.  The ocean.  We know.  Ha ha.  It's truly paradise.

3. I email from the bishops office.  You can email me!  It takes time from writing, but thats better than waiting forever for one word from you.  But you can write letters, too.  Please do!  

4.  I have a bathroom!  And toilet paper!  The first one is not too rare here, but the second one is!  There is no hot water anywhere, so every day I say a prayer for courage before I get in the shower.  I really do.  I am looking very Tahitian these days.  No make up, hair in bun on top of head, sandals with skirt.  I even have some tan lines.

The first photo of me with two girls- Me, my companion Seour Ruaroo, and an incredible person named Hereti, who does everything with us just because she wants to help.  I love both these girls so much.  They are so kind and patient.  Soeur Ruaroo has actually already served a mission!  She came back out because they needed more missionaries to train us new Americans!  Can you believe that?  She is beautiful.  
 
You may notice that Im smiling a little too hard in the photo.  That is the face of a girl who has no idea whats going on.  Wow, its hard! It is SO hard not being able to communicate well.  I have so much going on in my head all the time, and it drives me nuts that I can't communicate.  The good thing-  I am praying like never before.  I have never felt so close to God with such consistency.  I am learning some true humility.  He is real.  He is real.

The second picture- I family I will love forever, the Opuu Family.  Papi and Mami Opuu are my surrogate parents here.  This picture is at their home- the gave me a bunch of hand me down clothes because I don't have the Tahitian build they all have.  Real Tahitian clothes!  And I had to do a fashion show and take a picture with every skirt.  I wore one of the skirts to church, and I felt quite beautiful, even without make up.  I'm learning a lot about beauty from these people.

It's all much, much harder than I imagined.  Just the language.  But I'm learning little by little.  And already I have had some very special moments of real communication, heart to heart.  I love these people so much already.  There are some actual angels in Tahiti, people that I will love forever because of simple kindness they've offered me. 

Family, here is the goal for this week.   Help the missionaries.  Get their number, call them up, and do something to help them.  Go visit people with them, help them brainstorm for how to help the area, teach them English, do something. 

 And with everyone, be kind.  Ive never been more lost or lonely, but I am continually saved by the truly simple kindness of a few people who take the time, and that 

I love the Savior with all my heart.  He is there.

I love you all so much! So, so much!  Faaitoito!  -Seour Mann 

#11 - In Tahiti!!!!

People! I am in Tahiti!!!!

Oh, there are SO, so, so many things I want to say right now! Unfortunately the keyboards here are not the same, so its taking forever to do this.  So if you see errors, just keep reading and pay no heed.

 

OKAY.  The first thing I need to say about Tahiti: the people are incredible.  I know that missionaries say that in every single mission, but this is really amazing. I've really never seen anything like it.  They really are just like Id heard, all one big family.  I think I will just start from the beginning.

 

I'll start with a question: Have you ever been trying to make a connection flight to Tahiti, realized you left your passport on the last plane, run back to find it, had your companion taken away from you, actually done the movie thing where you say to the people in the security line "Excuse me, everyone! I'm in an emergency!" and cut every single person in line, sprinted to and fro by yourself in LAX airport, carrying a heavy bag, for 45 minutes straight, while getting all sorts of directions from all sorts of strangers, been absolutely totally lost on the very first day in the field, finally found your passport, said a deeply sincere prayer, miraculously found your companion  and received a ride out to the actual tarmac where the jumbo plane to your mission is waiting?

 

I have.

 

So that's that story! True adventures already!

 

I wish so bad that I could just send you a live stream of everything that is happening in my life and that I had the time to explain everything! I guess I'll just have to tell you the main things:

My companion is wonderful.  I will always, always be grateful to Heavenly Father for giving me Soeur Ruaroo as my trainer.  She is so kind, so patient.  She's from Bora Bora, and she actually finished her mission, but she extended to stay and train.  I love her so much.  We are reopening an area called Papenoo.  Can you imagine how she felt when we got to our house and she has a brand new American girl to train and she has never been here, neither of know a soul?  Well let me tell you a miracle that happened.  Five minutes after we arrive at our home, we walk across the street to see the ocean.  (Yes.  Across the street.)  We run into a sweet old lady who is walking down the street for some reason and happens to be a member.  Mami Opou.  Our first friend! (Every old person here is called Mami, its so sweet.) She immediately took us to meet our dear friends, the...somethings.  Viahio or something. I still cant tell what they're saying.  The second we entered their tiny wooden home, they gave us hugs, food, and real pearl earrings.  That's the kind of thing I'm talking about:   There is no "Who are you, we have to get to know each other before we're friends" business.  Instant family.  They live right by us, they park their car in the church lot, so we can see if they are home, which is great:  Oh yes, I didn't say yet that our home is practically attached to the church. Just a little apartment.  Frere Viahio is extremely kind, he talks slow so I can understand.  They are probably 30 years old or something.  I told you they have a car, but its weird that they do because they are very poor.  They have a baby who is adorable.

 

I have no idea what anyone is saying! If they talk slow I can usually follow, but most of the time not really.  And there is tons of Tahitian going on!  I understand 0% of that:  I bore my testimony yesterday in both our wards, so that was good.  Everyone understood, they say. Who knows.

 

The chicken thing is real! The cockroach thing is real! The homeless dogs are real! But none of that has bugged me at all.  Heavenly Father has blessed me with a lot of calm.  Its so different here, but I feel totally fine. 

 

It takes a long time to attach photos, so here are just a couple.  More next week!

 

Photo 1: Our home on the left, church on the right, jungle in the back, horribly sick dog named Pluto on the side.

Photo 2: First arrived in Tahiti! At the Temple! They let us take a shower and a nap at the apartments there.  I'm thinking it was the last warm shower of my mission!  We then ate at the Presidents house and got assignments and stuff.  I don't really know what we ate.  I never quite know what I'm eating:  I think there was fish?  But I'm just taking an " up for whatever" attitude.  Its working so far.

 

I miss you a lot. A lot.  I'm definitely feeling those beginning of the mission feelings that everyone talks about:  Its alright though, all will be well.  I love you, I love you, I love you!

#10 - That's What Colleagues Are For

10/30/12

Dearest, Funniest, Helpfulest, Loving, Good Family!

Here is my last letter from the MTC! Which, by the way, I still love!

One night this week we walked into our room, all five of us roommates and I said, “Let’s pretend this is a hotel!”  It was an absolute stroke of brilliance.  For the next twenty minute we gushed about this “amazing hotel where they serve continental breakfast, lunch, and dinner,” and how, “it’s so fancy that everyone has to dress up all the time.”  We found so many funny little things to love.  Pretty sure I learned this trick from watching, “The Little Princess” with Shirley Temple.  Thank you, Shirley.

I’m learning a lot through being a companion.  One thing I learned about this week is real help.  Soeur Barker had a rough night the other night, feeling stressed about Tahitian.  She started to tell us how discouraged she was, and Soeur Green and I did the wrong thing.  We immediately tried to cheer her up.  Before she could really finish her thought, we were saying, “Don’t say that!  Think positive! Come on, you just need to keep trying!”  And we just said all this blah, blah, blah and eventually she stopped talking about it.  Later I thought about it and realized, “I hate when people do that.”  The truth is that most of the time when you are discouraged, you know what to do.  You know about being positive and keep trying and all that.  Sometimes you just need a friend to say, “You’re right.  That is really hard.”  I’ve been thinking about the quote that says something like, “You can’t help someone up if you are not on higher ground.”  I think that’s true.  But you can’t just stand up there yelling at them to climb out.  What you’re really supposed to do is bend down and give them a hand.  My relationship with God has grown a lot since I’ve been here, and one of the greatest comforts I’ve found is that I can tell him how I really feel.  I think I used to feel a little bit like I had to be perfect in front of God.  But, I’ve realized that, for one thing, he already knows how I really feel, so there’s no point in trying to appear like something I’m not.  And for another, a true loving relationship is one where you are comfortable enough to say, “I’m struggling, will you help me?” and trust that the other person will hear you, feel for you, never judge, and reach down with gentleness to pull you up.  So I guess there are a lot of ideas in this thought.  It’s okay to admit weakness.  And if you’re the one on “higher ground” in the situation, remember how it feels and bend down and give a hand.

One of our companionship’s greatest strengths is song-writing.  We have a couple of good ones, but I think we just created our greatest hit.  We wrote it while we were brushing our teeth.  It’s called, “That’ What Colleagues Are For.”  In French, you call your companions, “colleagues.” That’s funny in and of itself.  Anyhoo, this song is really good.  The way it works is you think of a situation in which a colleague really came in handy.  You sing about it.  Then you finish with the chorus.  Example:  “Remember that time when I borrowed your toothpaste?  (chorus) That’s what colleagues are fooo-ooor!!”

French = great.  Tahitian = still really hard.  But I had a great moment last night.  It was our last class as a whole district with Frere Coulsen (teacher) because the French elders are leaving tomorrow.  It was a strange moment because everyone could sense the reality of us actually going.  It was my turn to say the closing prayer, and when I stood up, my heart was just pounding.  I was amazed when I opened my mouth and said a sincere prayer in Tahitian and truly expressed my feelings.  It was one of the first times I’ve felt like I was actually speaking Tahitian, not just stumbling through memorized words.  I can’t wait to meet the people who actually speak this amazing language!

Yesterday we made some Halloween treat bags to give away.  Soeur Green’s mom sent us some supplies and candy, so during our little break after gym, we all sat on the floor and put them together.  We’re going to give them to our elders and I guess just people who look they could use some Halloween love.  And speaking of Halloween, I would like to discuss something.  One thing I was excited about for my mission what the idea of not losing things.  We all know how often I lose things.  I figured that when I’m living out of a couple of suitcases I wouldn’t have enough things to lose track of.  Wrong.  I am constantly misplacing things.  I imagine it’s pretty obnoxious to my companions.  Luckily they are kind enough not to make me feel stupid about it.   Instead, we blame it on “All Hallow’s Eve”.  We’ve just decided it’s all a result of the spooky Halloween atmosphere, things just disappearing left and right.  Well, tomorrow Halloween will be over, so I guess I had better get my act together.

Last night I was too excited to sleep.  You know when you’re seven years old and you’re sleeping at Grandma’s house on Christmas Eve and you keep curling up your toes and squeezing the covers around your chin because you are simply too excited to sleep?  That was me last night!  And all my roommates!  Because Tahiti is in three days!  It’s funny though, because we were all trying to be obedient and go to sleep at 10:30.  So I’m just laying there silently on my bunk bed, not saying a word knowing full well that there are four other girls lying silently on their beds next to me, also too excited to sleep!

During gym yesterday, Soeur Green and I were running around on our beloved field, and we decided to take a minute to just lie on the ground.  So we walked to the middle of the grass and did that.  And for a few minutes we just felt the grass and stared at the mountains and breathed the cool, dry air of Utah.  I’m so excited to go, but I’m going to miss home.

And I suppose it’s time to go.  By the time you actually get this, I will actually be in Tahiti, smack in the middle of the Pacific, maybe peddling around in my skirt and helmet.  So here’s the last thing I want to write while I’m still here.  This week someone asked us a really good question.  They were wondering why we think we can claim that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the only true church on the earth when there are wonderful churches and wonderful people all over the world.  I’ve thought a lot about it and this is how I feel. 

I believe in goodness.  I love good literature and art, I love good conversations and ideas, and I understand that people all over the world believe in goodness too.  People in Mozambique and Hong Kong and Israel, who have never heard of the church, are loving their families, studying scripture, working honestly, and successfully worshipping God.  I realize that am from Cache Valley, Utah, and I have only a very small understanding of religion and spirituality in a world-wide sense.  Sometimes I get a little confused by this.  Sometimes it does seem a little crazy for me to leave my country and walk around telling people that I, a little white girl from Utah, happen to know the truth.  But the reality is, I’m not claiming to personally know everything.  I don’t understand all things spiritual.  I frankly don’t know a whole lot.  But I do know that God lives.

I don’t know everything, but I can say with all my heart that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ live.  They love us.  It is my personal testimony that we lived with Them before, and that They sent us here with a purpose.  We are here to learn and grow and become and eventually return home, changed and saved by the Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is not a good idea or another branch of American culture.  It is reality.

I can speak for myself and say that the Book of Mormon is true.  I can say that because I’ve read it and thought about it and prayed about it, and I know it.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was restored by Jesus Christ through a real prophet, Joseph Smith. And because of that, I am sealed to my family forever.  And I am a truly, truly joyful person.

So, here I go!  I’m gonna do it!  I want all my family and friends to know how much I love you.  Even when we’re not physically together, I am constantly blessed by the relationships in my life.  I’m not really sure how the mail will be in Tahiti, so there may not be great communication for the next 16 months.   So if I don’t really hear much from you, or you don’t really hear much from me, it’s okay.  I love you.

Alright, goodbye United States!  See you soon!

All my love,

Soeur Mann