Zach Fiore Tahiti Mission: Week 7 :Ia ora na i teie poipoi!

Hello!

Or should I say Ia ora na now that we're learning Tahitian.

Thats kind of the big news for this week. After 6 weeks of french, we have finally started Tahitian!

With the language change, came personnel change as well though, as 4 elders in our district are going french speaking Africa and headed out this week. We had some reminiscent and great last french classes and ended with a super powerful testimony meeting. We said goodbye to our two amazing french teachers who were so inspiring for me.After, wesang the classic leaving song of God be with you till we meet again.We then chanted our district chant of "nous nous confions, nous croyons, nous baptisons" (we trust, we believe, we baptize) so loudly and then finished with a cheeky "Fear no man". I yelled so loudly my voice and back hurt. Those were our district mottos, and yelling it was powerful. Fear no man is a lesson I will live my mission and life by. Its simple but powerful.

Perkins and young left to the Ivory Coast, Cortes to the Congo, and Taylor to Madagascar ( visa waiting in Michigan lol). It was sad to see them go. And disruptive. Cortes left at 3 am, and perkins+Young at 5. Both turned full lights on so I was woken. taylor then 4 am, same deal. Some rough sleeps.

With them leaving thought, we got two new sisters going to tahiti! They are both from France and only speak french which has been great. They are so cool. I cant tell if they compliment my french genuinely or sarcastically though.

With french we got over 10 days to learn the basic core, which is a bunch of units, phrases and vocab. For tahitian we got 3 days so ive been grinding and am way behind. We also taught our first two lessons on day 2 less than 24 hours after starting. It was so awkward as I understood literally nothing and could only (kind of) confidently say where im from and my name. Tahitian is so cool but so hard. Ive been stressing. After 4 days of Tahitian I know how to do a basic intro, prayer, testimony and invitation to do certain things which is cool. I also have a scripture memorized!

We've learned one sentence structure form where you start with E and then say two equal things its wack. E Paurau Mau Te buka a mormona. So that means "the book of mormon is true!" How you ask? Well, Paurau= word and mau after a word= true (not to be confused with mau before a word which means plural). Te buka a mormomona= book of mormon (Pronounced te puta a moromona). So due to the E, True=Book of mormon. So book of mormon is true. All because they have no verb to be. Its fun though

I also realized today that instead of asking to go to the bathroom, ive simply been saying "Can i urinate?" all week to my teachers. oops.

To conclude, me and Davis are also zone leaders, which means we "look over" around 40 missionaries in our zone. That means We got to do orientation on first night and a tour which was fun. I made them all stop and make a wish on a star. i also started a new tradition of tucking new missionaries into bed and tucked them all in nice and tight. It may sound like im kidding but im not.

This week has been a grind learning tahitian but ive come far considering its been a matter of days. I have really seen Gods hand in my life and with the language. Its been so crazy. I know I couldnt have even gotten this far alone for certain. I should not be able to pray, and be teaching lessons already. Bad lessons, but still. Its been crazy. I struggled more to see Gods help with french, but when thrown into tahitian and taken fully out of my comfort zone, being made humble, I can really see it.

Hope all have a fantastic week!

Elder Fiore

1. District with frere Brenchley (middle) our teacher!

2. District with Seour vogel (Only girl) our other teacher. We cant put our arms around her lol

3. Last night as a room!

4.Taylor and Cortes, departing missionaries

5. Young and Perkins, even more missionaries heading out :( but :)

6. Class sign changed to Tahitian! its official!

Mom notes:

Have I mentioned how much I love Fridays? I love first thing in the morning having a text exchange with Zach - just catching up on a few things before we talk. Then having some back and forth during the day as we remember different things to say or ask.

Today I almost told him to FaceTime earlier than usual bcs Rob was away, and being Friday the little boys often don't come home from school.. but I decided just in case to wait. And right as it was time to talk, Sam, Josh and Rob walked in! Then Zandra texted me to FaceTime, and we quickly texted Gabe and he happened to be around! It was awesome to have the whole fam together and catch up a bit! We did a family photo! lol

Zach shared with us his amazing Tahitian. Wow! He is able to say so much in one week! Of course he is stressed and down on himself for not being good enough. We reminded him to be patient. We loved hearing all about his experiences here and got to share with him more about his every day life - the ups and downs - the good and bad. Overall, he's doing awesome. Has a bit of a cold this week and a cough and is tired, but it's going well. Two more weeks before he leaves for Tahiti! I already sent his Christmas gift as Canada Post said it could take a couple of months!!

I love in his letter he talked about how he stopped and made every one wish on a star. Ever since he was a tiny boy we would go out to the stars and recite: "Starlight, Starbright, first star I see tonight, wish I may, wish I might, have the wish I wish tonight". We talked about no matter how far away we are, we are always under the same sky and can look at the same stars and moon.

Our call:

Here are some more photos too that he didn't include in his email:

Ok so he might not have wanted to send this first one! lol. He gets a bleeding nose frequently so I guess he still gets them (interesting note - for me, but maybe not for you - I used to get bleeding noses all the time when I was pregnant with him!)