And I am still loving my missionary life. I am very excited for tonight because we are doing a family home evening with a family who are all investigators except for two sons. Yesterday their sister came to church and said that they have been reading the Book of Mormon as a family... wha? We are definitely going to be teaching about the Book of Mormon tonight. We have been praying a lot to find a family to teach, not just one person at a time, and maybe this will be the one! I hope so!
Yesterday I was just sitting in a meeting and making this little clicky noise with my fingernails, and I could barely hear it. I brought my hand up to my ears and kept making the clicking noise, and it was very loud once it was right next to my eardrum. I started thinking about this Jack Johnson song that I love, which I think is called, "It's All Relative." (Editor's note: "It's All Understood") Was my little clicky noise loud or quiet? - it's relative, it depends on how close you are to the noise.
One of the lessons I have learned on my mission is that lots of things are relative. People's opinions, perspectives, attitudes, reactions can be so very, very different. Some little comment at church might be for one person a tiny little click that goes in one ear and out the other, but for another person it was loud, hurtful attack. You can spend forever debating on what it actually was and who is to blame, but it in the end, it turns out that truly the same exact thing can be taken many ways. Sometimes that makes it hard to "get" each other.
Something I am learning is that that's okay. Especially living with a companion, I have had to learn that my vision, way of teaching, sense of humor, basically everything, is not actually the only one, true way. Surprise. Lots of times I've sat in lessons and thought, "Oh my heck, this is not going well, this is not the route we should be taking..." and so on, and then the next thing I see is the investigator's head nodding up and down- my companion is saying exactly what needed to be said. I've realized that I need to trust people more and let them be them because their perspective is just as valid as mine.
With this same thought, I've been thinking a lot about the Atonement. It really makes a lot of sense- of course we needed Him. We need one Person who understands every single one of us, who "gets" our perspective even if no one else does. There's so much comfort in knowing that there is one Person who understands us. It's also comforting to know that there is one Person who understands the "other" person- why they think that, why they are acting like that. And the most important thing: He loves both of us. Infinitely and perfectly, and just the same. I think the challenge of all this is to filter out and determine what things are relative and what things are not. But one thing that is sure- we can love everyone and anyone, no matter what their perspective may be.
Now for some regular old Tahiti stuff- this is a picture of me being a real Tahitian vahine. (Tahitian woman) You can tell I am a vahine by a couple of things. 1. I am holding some pineapples that I am about to eat. These pineapples were given to us by a recent convert that sells them at a little stand on the side of the road next to the ocean. We stopped over there to see how she was... and we both secretly hoped she would give us some fruit. Our wish was granted! 2. I am wearing a pareo, the little skirt-y things you tie around your waist. I love them. I intend to wear them forever. Something I am not looking forward to in my future life- wearing jeans again. Those things are not meant for humans to wear, in my opinion. I think we should all convert to pareos. Might be a little cold, but we can deal.
Last night I was just sleeping in my bed, and I heard a loud BANG. The door had slammed shut, and I really, truly believed there was a scary guy in our room, and he'd just slammed the door shut. My poor little heart. I said, calmy and loudly, "Soeur Paraurahi." She woke up. And I promptly began to speak to her in English. Ha ha! Too scared to remember French! The sweetie pie turned on the light and I finally got it together to explain myself. She was not even bugged and got up to search the house for the imagined scary guy. Turns out is was just the opened upper-window in the bathroom, the wind had shut the door. I will love her forever for not being mean about that dumb moment.
A few nights ago we ate with a young couple for our nightly dinner appointment. I love their house- it reminds me of the wooden-y, boat-y houses like on the movie "Popeye." So tiny and cozy, and I felt so comfortable with them. We finished eating, and I started to ask them about their conversion story. I was so touched by their story- the husband was a serious, deep bible studier before he met the missionaries. He was invited to a family home evening and was really touched to see a family interacting like that. The first time the missionaries came over and told him about Joseph Smith, he believed. He said that he knew God could and would call a prophet after the time of Christ, and he felt the Spirit instantly tell him that it was right. The Spirit was so strong in that little room. After he finished telling his story, I asked if we could say a prayer together, just before heading out. He asked me to say the prayer. As I knelt down, my heart was so full of thanks. So thankful to be here, so thankful for kind people, thankful for prophets and scriptures, and the Spirit that we all felt together. I just said a prayer of thanks.
I am thankful for life. I am thankful for all of you.
All my love,
Soeur Mann
