Soeur Isaacson's Mission

Merry Christmas last week! We made a bajillion and a half sugar cookies and gave them to members and amis. It was fun to see everyone and spread the light of Christ of course :) We exchanged presents with all the sisters in the house Christmas eve and ate WAY too much chocolate and food. For Christmas eve and Christmas day, we ate oysters, mussels, another shellfish, the best lobster EVER, caviar, turkey, potatoes and breadfruit, ice cream, buche de noel, etc, etc,etc,.... and for dinner we had a fancy cheese, bread, meat bar thing. Soeur Ruiz picked the cheese because I'm cheese illiterate. Also there is sooooo much cheese here it's ridiculous. Anyway, last Monday we made poe banane with our ami and ate waaay too much. It's a dish made from cooked bananas and all the coconut milk. Sooooo good.  This week we didn't have a whole lot of lessons, but the Lord helped us see miracles. It's awesome to see people accept the gospel and find blessings in ...

Soeur Ruiz and I spent the week making our own dresses WITH A MACHINE this time! (Faking it seamstress PART 2!) and I might have sewed my finger. And since I'm super chill and calm with needles, I almost passed out while my lovely sisters Ruiz, Lunt and Agustin were trying to un-jam the machine to raise the needle to get my finger unstuck. That was a fun night.  BUT we did finish our dresses the MORNING OF our missionary Christmas party (aka soeur Ruiz finished my dress because the night before she was playing surgeon and she's an angel). And I gotta say they aren't bad. And the Christmas party was awesome! We made little sketches that were super cheesy and missionary appropriate (which makes them insanely awkward) and... yeah fun. But it was good to see all the missionaries!   Another story of someone passing out! Our ami Adeline was sick but decided to go work in the garden with her family and while they were taking a break when we got ther...

Yes you read that correctly... A member in a soeur Lunt's old ward wanted to thank her by giving her food so he bought a 2.5x1x.5 ft box of frozen chicken legs. So what did we do? Spent an hour dethawing all the chicken legs in the sink to separate and give to others. Obviously.  Anyway, Tepiu FINALLY got baptized!!!!!!!!! She is sooooo dang strong and has so much faith! Her parents were against her and kind of disowned her, her husband and kids "supported" her but no one came to her baptism. But she came and was filled with the spirit and says she regrets nothing and is happy. What a miracle. This week we went caroling with the other missionaries in our zone and it was a party. Invites the Spirit into their lives.  We also had a present exchange and I drew elder Tehaamoana (goofy Tahitian elder) so I bought A Santa tie and I put a 6 in poisonous centipede (THAT I KILLED AND ALMOST DIED MYSELF) in a truffle box and gave it to him. When he opened it he thre...

Happy happy Christmas season!!! Hope y'all aren't freezing to death! I'm not thanks for asking... For Light the World one day soeur Ruiz and I cut snowflakes (FIRST TIME SOEUR RUIZ HAS EVER CUT A SNOWFLAKE) to hang up in the other sister's room but then as we were driving from a lesson a mamie called at us to stop so we went over and she told us she's an inactive member and she confided in us and we talked and sang and then we used those snowflakes to decorate her house for Christmas and she loved it! As we left, we saw that mamie has a goat living in a little shack so we went and said hi. That's chill. Also that day our amis gave us cucumbers bigger than a Lamanite army and bananas the width of my ankle (not kidding with that one).  So Tepiu is getting baptized this week and I'm SOOOOOOOO EXCITED FOR HER!!!!!!! She is sooooo converted and has so much faith! We taught her about...

Happy thanksgiving! I'm thankful for this opportunity to be on a mission and for my companion's patience whenever I forget the phone, or the keys, or my back pack, or the time, or my head... also grateful for my family and for the joy they bring in my life. I love this gospel! Last pday we went to a botanical garden and it was beautiful!!! We saw a giant turtle and walked around and I swear it was the Garden of Eden. Wednesday we had a "car fast" and we spent the day on foot and wow it's been a hot minute since I've gone a whole day on foot... Finally, Tepiu accepted to be baptized!!! She prayed and studied all this week and she said every scripture she read was screaming at her to get baptized. SOOOOO happy! One of our amis just turned 8 so we visited him for his bday and gave him his fave chocolate and some punch balloons which he LOVED (thank you Mindy!!!) and we played a game about the Holy Ghost and was dying with laughter! Love teaching k...

Ok Heavenly Father loves  w orking His magic holy cow. This week w e've been praying for the family of our ami Tepiu to accept her decision to get baptized  for weeks now. Saturday we fasted for her and another ami and when we showed up for the lesson, bishop, his 1st counselor and his wife, our ami, an inactive member in her family, and FOUR other members of her family (not members) were all there waiting for us for the lesson!!!!!! Before, they wanted NOTHING to do with God or us or anything. They had a huge trial the night before and through that, they all started praying and reading the B of M and all wanted to hear the word of God. At the end of the lesson, bishop gave them priesthood blessings and we gave them as many B of M as we had in the car. Fasting and prayer works!!!!! The Lord always hears and works with our prayers if we're patient and keep working. Sunday, Tepiu and her nephew came to church and they were both starry eyed, the nephew found answers to his qu...

E ua roa mea ma! Its raining tons people! I felt like we were running through peanut butter this week holy cow! Lots and lots of work, not a lot of progress. But that's ok, we ain't stoppin anytime soon! We saw our friend Tepiu again, and as always, she is so strong and in-tune with the spirit and amazing. We talked about covenants and she was in tears. Excited for her to finally make these covenants with the Father. Tuesday we visited our ami and they have a cacao tree IN THEIR YARD and they gave us cacao fruit! Haven't opened it yet but cacao people! legit or what? Did a split with a Tahitian missionary, soeur Gendron and she is SOOOOO powerful and energetic and AMAZING! She hasn't gone to the MTC cus visa problems but she teaches with more faith and authority that I've ever seen. The Lord loves working with the humblest of His children.  Sunday we had 8 of our amis come to church and they loved it! I gave a talk and it was awesome to see all t...

"Personal revelation! The secret to Tahitian is that the eyebrows are in the books!" -me and Soeur Ruiz trying to understand Tahitian We've decided that the accents in written Tahitian are actually eyebrow movement indicators. So secret of the universe is discovered. You're welcome. Went to the temple and as always, it was wonderful. The temple here is like an island castle, seriously. Yay for personal revelation. It rained a ton this week! We spent a super super rainy day planning and visiting bishop. He cut us some cane sugar (on the cane yes!) and we chewed on it while we talked about how to help the ward progress. Awesome bishop! We had SO many miracles this week seeing our amis progress and grow all on their own. The Spirit is so amazing, He guides us and them constantly without us even realizing. The Lord really just takes care of our lives if we focus on the small things He asks us to do.    Yes I do eat coconuts! I drank almost the whole...

Achuru everybody?  Went to the dentist and I still have all my teeth! Wahoo! Low key was pretty sure I'd leave with less teeth that I came with and more root canals than I ever wanted and maybe a couple magic spells but LUCKILY I was wrong haha. We helped our ami make bouquets for Halloween and they kind of judged us and our lack of Tahitian bouquet-making skills but they were still grateful and we had a good time! We visited our wonderful ami Tepiu several times this week and wow she's amazing!! We were prompted to give her a scripture at the end of a visit and she read it that night. Then that scripture applied EXACTLY to a situation she fell into THAT NIGHT. Thanks to her faith and that scripture she chose to follow Christ and help others around her even if Satan was telling her that they don't deserve it. She was in tears, so thankful for the opportunity to become more like Christ and help others which then later had a huge impact on her family and others...

I love Papeari!!! It is sososososo pretty here holy mango guacamole and coconut water. Here’s some of the billions of pics I’ve taken so far.   Yo girl is a professional manual driver now! Yesterday I only stalled the car 3 times and that’s a new record. There’s a road that has a suuuper steep hill to get off the main road and we almost died. Twice. We were trying to get back on the main road on a 80° uphill slant with gutters on both sides waiting for cars to pass so I could try to start the car. There’d be a clear and I’d try to start it while my comp hold the e-brake until another car would pass then we’d wait for another clear, then wait, then go again... it took almost 10 min... but now I’m basically ready for a Tom cruise car chase. Happy bday Soeur Ruiz!!!!! Our amis gave her a palm tree for her birthday. Yes a real palm tree. Yes it was a small new one. Yes we put it in our car. No do not tell the people in charge of our car here. Yes we planted it at 8:00 at night....

Said good bye to my darling Ulunga and the epic Faaa and moved to the countryside today! Gonna miss Faaa tons and tons but I'm excited for the new adventure! Also I forgot to say but for the baptism last week me and soeur Ulunga were the witnesses!!! It was awesome! We took our vitamins and were jumping on! Monday we went to a members house named Hawkins (a man but veeerrrry fabulous) and he made me THE CUTEST SKIRT EVER!!! Yellow Tahitian print, I'm in love! He was the sassiest person, let alone man I have ever met but also so so so kind! Thursday we had a 7 hr CLEANING DAY, as directed by our mission president. We scrubbed every inch of that slightly falling apart, darling, bug infested house. We made a good cleaning squad. We had so many miracles this last week!!! Our dear ami who we thought wasn't interested wants to get baptized after being taught the restoration, we started teaching 2 kids whose fa...