Ia ora na mau taata! Bonjour tout le monde! Week 8 done! I'm a little short on time this week so this may be shorter than usual. 

This week has been really good for me, with the languages and spiritually. We didn't have any general authorities come this week but something interesting that happened was they fit all the missionaries that are staying on the main campus into the MTC gym for devotional this week! This is impressive because in the past they have had to use three overflow rooms that fit about 500 missionaries each.  So there have been a lot of missionaries that have already left for the mission field while I have been here. And it was crazy because all the elders going to France (that got here when we were about three weeks into our stay) left this morning.  Our hallway is nearly empty now which is almost eerie. We only have three more weeks now though so we are all just doing our best to be prepared as possible when we get out to Tahiti finally. 

I'm just so grateful for my time here in the MTC. There is really no place in the world like the MTC and I have learned more here about French and Tahitian and also just about myself than I have in my whole life. And I think 12 weeks is definitely a good amount of time to learn two languages also.

Oh so something interesting we did this week. Our teacher, Soeur Buswell, had us practice street contacting with her in French. So she pretended to be some random person and we really had no idea how it was going to go down. So she gives us about three minutes to prepare our approaches and guess which companionship gets picked to go first. Yep. So Elder Edwards and I start to attempt to contact her with our poorly thought out approach and boom. About twenty seconds in, I ask if I can share a spiritual thought and she just walks away. It was harsh. I was shocked really. It was really humbling though. We were so nervous we forgot to even introduce ourselves. We learned a lot from it though and tried again a little later and again got denied. I didn't feel as bad though after I watched every other companionship get denied too. Our main problem was that we weren't being quick enough to the catch so she just lost interest. English missionaries have it so easy! Anyway, moral of that story, we are all greenies and still have a ways to go. 

And last cool thing that happened. We taught in TRC again on Thursday, this time in Tahitian. Yeah, that was very humbling also. I understood maybe like three words he said in the whole twenty minute lesson. I have been working very hard on learning Tahitian but its difficult when we have to keep improving our French at the same time too. This is really good for time management though. I would really appreciate like an extra three hours in the day with all the things we have to learn. I know that I can do it though with the help of the Lord and the gift of tongues. Speaking Tahitian really makes me appreciate French that much more and I really realize how far I have come. I went from barely being able to say hello to roughly being able to teach (very basically) any lesson from PMG. I know the Lord has been helping me learn these languages and that the gift of tongues is real. Thanks to everyone who keeps me in your prayers. When things get tough I just remember that and I honestly feel lifted. Its an amazing feeling. 

Oh and one last good scripture I came across this week Romans 8:18. It helped when I was feeling down about struggling with the languages. I know that everything in our lives happens for a reason, good and bad. I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us and that he loves us. It helped me to read this and know that in the end it was all for the good. That this would all pay off. Anyway I'm out of time now but I'll write again next week! Faaitoito! Je vous aime! Merci pour tout les gens que ce lire! Until next week

Elder Rose  

Just got here from France because he already knew French. Lucky!