18 March 2014, Tiapa
Paea, Tahiti
Firstly, I’d like to
offer my condolences for the death of Morfar (ed. note: Morfar is Norwegian for mother's - mor, father - far). However, I have to be honest, when
I heard that he was in assisted living, I told myself "aita haere
tera" (no go that), I thought he was gonna pull the plug himself and it
looks like he did.
I have absolutely no doubt that he is happier on the other side, no doubts at all. He wasn't exactly happy to be here. He loved his family, but I think it would have been too much
for him to watch the country go down the tube. By now he’s met ALL the ancestors that he is
endlessly talking about, and he’s been reunited with Mormor (ed. note: mother's mother).
Plus, he will now be able to understand the importance of what all his grandchildren
are doing in random places in the world (ed. note: 3 grandchildren; one in
Norway, a cousin, Nathan Sperry, one in Tokyo, his sister Kirstin and one in
Tahiti). Don't worry about him, he wouldn't want you to, I've received my
confirmation that he is happy, and doing better than ever. :] So don’t stress, know that it’s not a long time and we will all see him again, and now his
temple work can progress!!!
President Sinjoux called me with the news. I don’t
know, it’s funny but I was actually expecting it that day, there seemed to be
some kind of somberness in the day. Then when I saw that President Sinjoux was
calling, I was like, “Morfar died.”
We had a zone activity on Monday. That’s why I didn't write.
My companion is getting transferred next week.
Bummer! We don’t know where he is going yet. Oh, and I’m training here and will be the district leader here
too. The District Leader here is over all the sisters’ areas, and if
I need anything else done I go to the Zone leaders, who I live with, so that
makes things easy.
I will be staying in this little neighborhood
of a sector and train next week. I’m pretty excited, and at the same time a
little nervous just because there is not much to do to fill up the day. If I get
some gung-ho elder he might feel like what we are doing is useless, because let
me tell you, its nothing like what your expectations in the MTC are like here.
But whatever, plenty of opportunities to speak Tahitian here!!!! So I’m
content. In fact this teeny tiny sector is like a cultural Tahitian melting
pot. There are people from all the islands here. There are people that speak Magarevian,
Marquisian, and Puamautu.
My new companion is
going to speak lots of Tahitian with me! So that will be good for him, since
most trainers here don’t speak Tahitian, to be honest. So he'll have a good
foothold on the two languages at the end of this area. I hope he's cool and
"flexible.” Elders that are too stiff end up not having a good time here,
and the people aren't exactly fond of them as well. And in a sector like this,
the only way we get new investigators is through the people. I also have a bad
habit of singing Tahitian love songs (maybe it’s a bad habit *cough* cough*),
or maybe it’s a good thing he won’t understand what I’m saying at first. ;]
I haven’t quite gotten used to this area yet; I
just feel a little like I’m in a hamster cage but that will change once I know
the members better.
I have a fear that the roads in my current
sector will absolutely destroy my bike. The roads in this sector have a
reputation of breaking frames. Yes you read me right, frames. If my bike was
having trouble with flat Raiatea, it will not hold up here. I'm using a bike
from one of the zone leaders who has a car, but he is being transferred too. I’ll
see what I can do to get another one.
Aside
from that, there’s not much to report on. Things are going well. The work is
the same as ever, but we've got some plans to move it forward. I'm feeling just
a little bit of what Kirstin feels right now, except here people are always
home so we can do member visits pretty easily. And to organize a family night,
it doesn't take much; just tell everyone to be there and whatever you do they love it! So probably not the same atmosphere as Japan!
OK. We have a lesson. I have to go!
Have a good week.
