good news and bad news. well, alot of both news, so i'll start out.

We had our zone conference with our mission president, President Tarati. It was his last one ever as our president. It was pretty awesome. Our new president, President Smith, arrived last night with his family.

We got a car! No more riding those hills in the rain! It has already helped alot, it makes contacting alot easier, and now we can make a ton more appointments. Its awesome having a car.... seriously.

But the bad news, Elder Maoni and Elder Temarono came to live with us while their house is being redone. The maintenance guy first said, One week. later he told us 4 months. WHAAAAA???? Its tough being with Elder Temarono, and you'll have to ask me why later ;P no pessimism allowed here on this blog!!

Anyways, things are going great. Were making more contacts, and the languages are finally coming well, but this time of the year here is party time. seriously, all of July is one huge party. phew.

I hope all is well at home! I miss you all!

~Tama

Tama says:

"We live in Hotopuu baie, it's on the northern side, right on the water, and on the inside of the bay. It's really, just as close as you can get the the northern side of the inside."

We take that to mean that they live close to the head of the bay (all the way inside) on the north side.
There is a link to Google Maps in the link section. We don't know his exact house yet, but we'll update if we find out.

How gracious the Lord has been to us. I can hardly count the blessings recieved this week. Its been difficult, but we've had it all end up well. Its truly amazing instilling a sense of drive in these people. especially since they naturally live a simple life, and are simply content with it. Then when you inspire them to come closer to our Savior, they develop a sort of drive, and resolve to become better, to work harder, to develop.

We had a baptism this week. I performed it, and it truly was powerful. She spoke afterwards to us, and she truly felt gratitude to its highest degree. it was powerful.

Anyways, Its been great out here, but i have to go. time is expensive

Things are going good out here. its pretty rough sometimes, especially since im now on a bike, and it likes to rain out here. since, pretty much the only road follows the coastline, you usually get a pretty heavy blast of wind too. its pretty rough when it does that, but oh well. thats life out here.

the people are great here, though. most of them are sooo friendly that even though they wont want to talk to you, because youre wearing a white shirt and tie with a tag that says Jesus Christ on it, they'll talk to you anyways. and lots of them even offer to give you food. tons of times people have just given us some rambutan anyways.

nothing much is going on tho, and im running out of internet time. gotta go!!
~Tama

Tama is still on Raiatea. He is on the opposite side from where he used to be.

I can't make a link to Tama's new area because the website that showed his previous area inexplicably doesn't have any listings for the towns on that side of the island.

To see an approximately where he is now, look at the previous link, and slide to the east and south a little bit. He is on the south eastern part of Raiatea.

His area ranges from Avera to Fareatai. If you go into Google Earth, you can type in Avera Raiatea, or Opoa Raiatea, or Fareatai Raiatea and you will be taken to that area.

We will post the location of his house as we find it.

Well, now i've been transferred again, but now im with Elder Horton in Fareatai/Faaroa. Yup, things are good, but still hard. Now im in a very hilly area on a bike without hot water in the house, and theres tons of fleas in the house. its sooo hard to sleep sometimes with those things all over you. especially when all you have is a mattress on the floor. whew, good times, good times.
But anyways, things are great here, i love the people, and even though this secteur is pretty recent and theres a lot of work to do, theres some really great people here. REALLY great people here. the definition of light-heartedness, for sure. anyways, my internet time is running out, gotta go!

All the missionaries went to Tahiti this last weekend to attend a conference with Elder Dallin Oaks presiding.
Many changes were made then, too. Tama's companion, Elder Yann Colombel was to stay in Tahiti, where he'll finish out his last remaining weeks close to home.

Tama has gone back to Raiatea with Elder Temarono, who is the new Zone leader. He has quite a challenge now, to familiarize the new companion with the territory after having only been there a month.
He could use some encouragement. It would be nice if he received letters from his friends.

He celebrated his 20th birthday on June 2nd.

Happy birthday, Tama!

So last Monday was crazy. We were told that they were going to move us out of our house for a while, because they were going to redo a lot of the house, considering it is poorly made, but oh well. Thats pretty much all of the houses out here.

So we packed all the things in the house, except the 2 mattresses, the stove, and the fridge, and we took them all to a friends' house for temporary storage. Then we went to the other building to check how it was coming, since we were to move there, and guess what? it wasn't done yet. BOO. so then we have been sleeping in our same house with absolutely nothing, not even a fork or a spoon. good stuff.

So this week, i went on yet another companion split with Elder Horton in Fareatai. That area of the island is nuts!! Were on bikes, and theres some really killer hills. And not to mention i am on Elder Maoni's bike for that area, and its ghetto as ghetto can get, especially with the brakes. the brakes in the back don't work, and going downhill with just the front brakes is scary. BOO.

we were singing in choir for some missionary program that we're putting together, and we invited some lady to come and help critique. i sang a small solo in one of the songs, and afterwards, she said, "you don't need to practice. you have it mastered, and when you sing, we feel something special." Elder Horton said, "you know what that means? it means that you'll sing all the time now, and that all the girls will like you." i was like "DANG IT!!" seriously, cant help it now. stupid choir practice. ever since then, all the girls giggle even more. stupid.... anyways, she was awfully energetic. but at the end, she was telling how she got "converted" to music. it was because she sang in Grandpas choir. she said that he inspired her to continue in music. thats when Elder Horton yells out, "Elder Shutts is his grandson." anyways, it seems she knew mom, 'cause right off the bat she asked, "OH! You're one of Roselyne's kids?" im guessing that she knew, considering i don't know French ;)

But all in all, everything is good and hot and sweaty, as they should be out here. Still getting eaten by the mosquitoes out here, but whateva.

Hope to write again soon.