Bounjour, tout le monde! Coming to you live from Paea, Tahiti. Well this week has been a really great week. Today we started off by having breakfast with Tatie Liline, and flying bamboo kites on the beach whilst waching whales. #thoushaltnotcovet Actually I learned that the ocean knows how to fly kites! We were flying a kite that Elder Purau made with about 300 feet of sewing thread attatched when the string broke right at the bottom and the kite started to fall into the ocean. After that the strangest thing happened: the kite began to rise back up again! I thought it would fall but instead it just continued to stay at the same distance from the ocean while continuing to move out to sea! We sat there and watched with our mouths hanging open as it slowly remained about 70 feet above the ocean and became so small we couldn't see it anymore. Turns out the friction of the string in the water and the amount of wind ballanced to make the kite able to continue to fly. I personally believe that it's possible that that kite is still flying the way that that thing moved. We could not believe our eyes!! Anyway that was our morning. We spent the rest of the day running erands and saying goodbye to some of our friends who are going to Rangiroa (an Island somewhere) for school. Tatie Flo (reminds me so much of a cross between grandma and susan), Teua(her daughter), and Heitini (practically a sister now.) They were some of my best friends here and I'm going to miss them but I'll see them again eventually.
We didn't have as many lessons this week but we did have a marriage and a baptizm! The marriage was a big deal and because we are basically family with Tatie (Tatie=auntie) Liline and Poerani (who lives with her) we did a lot of the set up and help with the wedding and of course the baptizm (of Poerani). That was an awesome experience! She really has been a lot happier since then and so has Henry (her husband) although he's still not interested in the lessons. But! He did come to church for the first time to see his wife recieve the Holy Ghost.
We also made 160 T-shirts on saturday for all the missionaries of Tahiti...which we had permission from the president to do and that took basically all day that day too. Elder Purau knows a member in Papeete that does silkscreening at his house for a living. We got to do a little of everything from making the design of the T-shirt, to making and developing the form, to imprinting the shirts, to folding and packaging them. That night we went to "Beach Burger" with Tatie Liline and Tehina (yes, our recent convert who also lives with Tatie Liline) which was awesome. It's a place that's supposed to be just like an American buger joint. Country music, posters of '57 Chevy's, burgers, and a vegas "spin the wheel" game where Elder Purau won the jackpot of 10000 XPF ($100!).
I had the very special opportunity yesterday to have a discussion with Jehova's Witnesses missionaries. That was...interesting. We all were very kind to each other although many a bible verse were shared. That actually strengthened my testimony in the Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints quite a bit. I realized that no matter how much the bible says about something, a real, solid testimony built upon the rock of Jesus Christ is necessary to know if something is true. To gain that testimony, we have to pray and then act upon our faith.