Happy belated Thanksgiving to all (Canadians)! Canadian Thanksgiving is not the biggest deal here, but it's not like Thanksgiving really was at home either. We had a turkey lunch but no one knew it was for Thanksgiving. It wasn't even important enough to make it to a dinner lol.
Nothing really that interesting happened this week honestly. As far as language goes, I'm getting better and am learning more grammar rules! I can now say two things are different, two things are the same, and one thing is better than the other. I told my teacher my mom was better than hers and she didn't find it very fun. Oh well. I can make my own sentences, but need lots of practice since the order is messed.
We also had our last practice lessons of the mission! From now on it's real people only. So scary jeez. I'm not ready, especially for Tahitian. We had a few lessons with members out of the MTC, and then a few practice lessons with our teachers who pretend to be people from their mission that they taught. All in only Tahitian of course. I had my worst lesson play of my life this week too. I started a sentence I don't have the knowledge to finish, then literally sat in silence thinking for 55 seconds. That feels long when you are mid thought, making eye contact with the person you are talking to. I just quickly and quietly said it in french, hoping he wouldn't notice.
I got a Book of Mormon from lost and found and am reading through highlighting every time it says Christ, God, the Holy Ghost, or repentance. I'm only highlighting those words so it looks so cool. It's incredible how often I'm highlighting still. It's a super fun activity! I've been doing a lot of reading lately as I'm reading the Book of Mormon in that fashion, reading it in french, and reading the New Testament!
My finesse of the week is trading my lost and found tie for a quality floral one. Best exchange ever. I am a bit sad to see my tie go though :(
We had some banger devotionals this week. On sunday we had Shari Dew come! I had heard the name so I knew she was a big deal. She was amazing and talked a lot about the importance of questions which I loved. They truly are essential to revelation and growth! On tuesday, we had Quintin L Cook, from the quorum of the 12 apostles. In other words, A big Boy. We sang for him too! To make things even better, I was sitting next to sister Clement! It was also the day we got our travel plans to Tahiti. What a day it was!
Elder Cook talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and brought some artifact type things! I had been praying before that to know and have deeper knowledge that the Book of Momron is true, and got my answer from him. I felt the spirit so strongly in the meeting and just felt so so happy. The smiling kind of happy. The Book of Momron brings me joy and comfort each time I read it. Na roto i te Buka a Moromona, e farii tatou i te oaoa e i te hau e i te tamahanahana! (If you didnt understand that sentence, dw. It just means you don't understand Tahitian!).
Elder Cook impacted me through feelings, but also dropped some facts about how it was translated and stuff. Feelings are of course the most important thing to having a strong testimony, but some of the facts help me reinforce my testimony and build off my foundation. No way could an uneducated man write that Book in 60 days! There are so many little things like that that reinforce my feelings!
Hope everyone has a fantastic week, and my P day ( day off when I email) is gonna be Mondays from now on I believe. Next email ill be in TAHITI!!!!!!! Im excited.
Love,
Elder Fiore
Somehow I was able to fit many pictures today! Lucky you guys!
1. Donuts from Uncle Jamie and Aunt Judy!
2. Thanksgiving Picture With Sister Clement
3.Thanksgiving meal
4. Thanksgiving meal, but with others now! Not their thansgiving tho :(
5. Selfie w clement, but also french sisters!
6. My study area. Very beautiful wow!
7.The district at choir!
8. Half of the Tahiti group!
9. Me and Swenson in front of a beautiful lit up tree thats new. Like the tree of life one might say
10. the tie trade. Which is nicer. Respond with your take!
11. Last temple trip in Utah!
Mom's Note:
This was Zach’s last week at the MTC.
Unfortunately earlier in the week my aunt passed away suddenly. The funeral was scheduled for Friday so I wasn’t sure when we’d get to talk to Zach , but I knew I’d be finding time as this was our last chat before Tahiti! We were able to attend the funeral service, then during the reception we were able to slip out and talk to him from the car. The fun part was near the end of our talk, my Mom (Gran) and sister were ready to move on to the family reception so came out to the car and were able to talk with Zach! He was able to speak Tahitian to them!
Zach said his Tahitian is coming along. He spoke a lot in Tahitian for us too - so good! He’s certainly ready to go to Tahiti and start his journey there. He’s been learning a lot about what it’s like in Tahiti from returned Tahitian missionaries who come in to practice teaching with them. It sounds so different and so cool.
Here's the "extra photos" from this week:
He asked me what my Dad's nickname was in Tahiti - and I said it was "Timi". He texted back: "I understand his nickname now"... "Jim (my dad's name) - j in Tahitian is a t sound. No word or name in Tahitian can end with a consonant, so they add vowels (the I)." How cool is that to understand that!!
However, I'm not gonna lie, he has to hand his phone in on Sunday - the day before he leaves - and I'm feeling very anxious about it. Even if we can't communicate during the week, it was reassuring to know he was at the other end and could text back and forth on his p-day. Some missions are "technology missions" where they get to use technology for the purpose of teaching in their mission field - and then use their phone to contact home on P day. Zach's mission is not a technology one, so he doesn't have a phone. He will have to go to a church, an Internet cafe or a church member's house to access email and video chat - if the wifi is good enough. So it will be an adjustment.
He leaves Monday morning - leaves Salt Lake 11:49am to LA (12:50)pm. Then he leaves LA at 4:40pm and arrives Papeete 9:45pm (Tahiti is 6 hours behind Toronto time - so it will be 3:45 am Toronto time). I'll be tracking those flights you can be sure!!
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