Week 67 - A Love Greater than Myself

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Te Hepetoma Hopea i nia i te Raiatea nei

[The last week in Raiatea].

Transfer calls came! I am going back to Tahiti, back to Papeari, back to right next to where I started! I'm incredibly sad to leave my secteur on this island - yesterday I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting and shared, "My time here was a miracle." That is true. Here, I have seen the pure kindness and love of a people who give their entire heart right to you, and in doing that make it impossible not to love them. I don't know if there's a real way to describe the kind of love that I feel in my heart for the people in Uturoa, Raiatea. I thought I understood when people said, "This island is special" or "These people are special." Apparently, I have to leave them before I can totally understand.

My time here was, truly, a miracle. I am in awe of the amount of tender mercies and "hand of God" moments that I've seen in this secteur, and I cannot believe that I had the privilege of being in the story of Uturoa. 

(Nostalgiac selfie from Raiatea. Dang it I love it here)

(Us on Sunday with a couple of our members. More pictures to come of the saddest goodbye in the world.)

Way too much love from across the Pacific,

Soeur Sperry