1/2/2012

Wazzup in the hood,
Yeah, it's just me here.  Not a whole lot goin on.  Just thought I'd write you guys some words and stuff.  Everything is going really good.  Lately we haven't been able to get a whole lot of work done cause it's fa'alavelave, which just means like a big holiday or occasion--like the Christmas season, or a funeral or something big like that.  So it's impossible to do work because everyone just drops everything to prepare for the festivities.  But it's alright--things will go back to normal pretty soon.  The good thing is that there is one of the villages in our area where the missionaries weren't allowed to proselyte in, but now they changed the law, so we're gonna be able to go hit that up, so that should be sweet. 

My week here in in Samoa was a day shorter than yours in Utah cause they changed the international date line, so it went from Thursday, the 29th to Saturday, the 31st.  On the calendar it said "No Friday for Samoa!"  So that was cool, I guess.  Since I came on my mission I've lived a day twice and skipped an entire day.  It's just wild. 

But yeah, pretty much this week I've just been doing a lot of studying and stuff.  We've had like fifty ward Christmas parties that we've had to go to, so that's cool, I guess. 

So we have to do all our laundry out of a bucket.  So I left all my darks to soak over night, but something was all messed up cause a bunch of my shirts got dyed blue, and all my socks are grey now.  I think it was that blue microfiber towel--it's tie dying all my clothes.  But it's alright, it's just my p-day clothes.  It looks kinda cool anyway.  By the way, next time you guys send me a package, I have a list of demands.  JK though, but really I need you to send me some gym shorts, like two pairs, and send me a few of my t-shirts, just pick a couple cool ones from my tubs.  I also need stamps, send a bunch.  And that Samoan Bible I left you guys--I need that back.  And any good gospel doctrine books we have, I would really enjoy that.  And I need deodorant, like three sticks of Old Spice would be nice.  And I need G's.  Send me a bunch of the mesh.  I'm a medium tall in the tops and a medium in the bottoms.  That would be just lovely.  And there's this dope cd I was listening to on the plane ride here from New Zealand that I would love you to death if you scored it for me.  It's called "Islands--Essential Einauds."  It's piano music and it's sweet.  Oh yeah, and some duct tape would be dope to have.  And a roll of that clear tape would be sick.  And can you print off this Ensign article for me?  It's April 1971 by Kent Neilson about other worlds.  I started reading it on LDS.org in the MTC, but I never got to finish it.  But it's dope sweet for sure.  I also need some writing paper  I've been using pages out of my journal to write my letters  But yeah, no worries.  Don't feel pressure to buy any of this stuff.  I'm perfectly fine and functioning how I am.  That's just a bunch of stuff I would like to have. 

Anyways yeah, something cool for today was that I got to learn how to make Koko Samoa.  What they do is pick off the big coco bean fruit from off the tree.  It takes alike a billion of them to make just a little bit of coco.  The fruit looks like this (Eric drew a picture).  And then the inside is like this (Eric drew an arrow pointing to another picture.)  The fruit is like the size of a small puppy.  And then you take the beans and roast them over the fire.  They use a sheet of metal that they lay out over hot rocks and coals and they roast the beans.  And then you take off the outer skins and mash them into a pulp with this big metal thing and a wooden bowl.  (At this point, Eric drew another picture of him making the Koco Samoa).  Eventually it turns into this sticky, pulpy brown stuff, and it smells way good.  Then you mix it with boiling water and sugar, and that's how you get Koko Samoa.  It's good too.  We drink it like every day.  But yeah, so that was cool.  (Eric has another drawing of himself with monster or some type of amphibious legs wearing a white shirt and missionary tag holding a cup of Koko Samoa and saying "Howdy-Ho!")

I got to shuck the outside part of the coconut once.  That's hard work.  That's why all the guys here are so buff.  But yeah, I just barely ate a big guava and I look down and there's a bunch of maggots in it.  Yum, that's good stuff.

But yeah, the work is coming along good, it's hard for sure.  We have a bad reputation in one of the villages cause my comp's last companion before me had a girlfriend in that village, so nobody likes the missionaries there.  But I don't really know what the deal with that is.  But it's all good.  I think the work is gonna start picking up now that the festive season is coming to an end.  Anyways, I can't think of anything else to say.  Good luck.  Keep dopin your steeze and let the sick lips be tight, legit, ill, mean, bad, cool!

Love, your friend,
Elder Johansen

PS  Please also send me a gospel study journal.  The one you gave me is super dope, but I'm running out of pages.  I like it though.  I don't know where you got it.  It says, "Gospel Study Journal" in big fancy scrawly letters.  I would love to get a new one cause I need one.  Anyways, thanx!

PPS  Print off a thing on the internet about how to play the ukelele with chords and stuff.  I'm trying to learn.  Thankx!  EJ

12-26-2011

Sup Bamily,
So today is the day after Christmas.  It's also p-day.  We're just kinda chillin' right now, it's all rainy.  It's been pretty rainy the last few days, but it's okay cause I like it.  It's way nicer than it being all hot all the time.  But yeah, I just talked to you fools yesterday, but I couldn't really hear you half the time, cause the reception was really bad.  But yeah, so I'll just hit you with some stuff that I didn't tell you on the phone call, cause I couldn't really think of anything to say.  So yeah, Saturday we had a baptism--it was really good.  It was to a girl named Angela.  She's like fifteen or sixteen.  She's been living with a member family for a few months now.  They found her living on the street in Apia. But yeah, so I got to do the ordinance.  It was cool.  But my companion didn't really run through anything with me on what to do, so I didn't really know what was going on.  Haha, but I memorized the prayer and everything, so that was good.  So yeah, the baptism was good--all went well with that.  And we have another one set up for next week or the week after.  That one's with a girl named Ulia.  She's like twelve.  But she's really stoked to get baptized, so that'll be sick for sure.

This morning we helped the Elder's Quorum with their service project.  They were building new benches to sit on outside the church building, cause everybody chills on these benches and watches  people play volleyball.  So yeah, we went into the jungle and hauled out these big ol pieces  of wood that these dudes were cutting out from a tree they cut down.  It was sweet.  It was raining super hard, we got soaked.  And we ate mangoes straight from the tree.  The mangoes here are way good.

This week we haven't been able to do a lot of proselyting cause everyone has been busy with Christmas stuff.  But we went caroling with the zone on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  So that was cool, the guys in my zone are pretty dope.  There's one kid from my MTC group in my zone, but he was the only rango of the group.  Haha, jk for sure he's a good kid, he's just strange.  But yeah, what else...there  was a ton of stuff I could have told you guys when you called, but I already wrote you a way long letter with all kinds of stuff in it.  But yeah, sorry for making you guys wait around forever.  We were supposed to stay the night at a member's house two villages over.  So that's where I set up for you guys to call.  But then that didn't work out, so you guys were calling them, and I was back in Faiaai, so there was nothing I could do.  But yeah, so I just had the AP's call you guys.  But yeah, the reception is way bad out here too, so sorry about that.  It was nice to talk to you all though.  I couldn't really think of anything to talk about, but there's tons of crazy stuff that happens for sure.  My area is on the ocean, but it's kind of a drop off to the water, so there's not much of a beach, just cliffs.  But it's really pretty.  There's a spot by our investigator's house where you can look down like 200 feet off this cliff into the water and see the sea turtles swimming around.  It's pretty sweet.  No matter where I go, it's way pretty.  The mission is definitely different than I expected, but I love it.  The work is really different, but it's good though--I like it.  

We don't get to wear lava-lavas when we proselyte, but I do have a couple that I wear in the evening and stuff.  But everyone else wears them, (just not the missionaries) like to church and stuff they wear them.  And almost all the chapels have baptismal fonts now, so they don't baptize in the ocean.  But I think for the next one, I wanna see if we can go in the ocean anyway.  I want to have at least one baptism in the ocean, that would be so sick.  And our house is just a regular house built on the chapel grounds, it's pretty small but not that bad.  We might move in with some members a couple villages over, just so we can be closer to the investigators and the ward we're working in right now.  So if we end up doing that, we'll be living in a more traditional Samoan home with the posts and no walls and what not.  But I think I would like that better, it would make it easier for us.  

But yeah, what else...the food is good.  We eat pretty much  the same stuff mostly--a lot of taro, which is a starchy potato kind of thing, except it doesn't look or taste like a potato.  I don't really how how to explain it.  We eat lots of meal and fish and good stuff like that.  One of the weird things they eat is oka, which is a big slab of raw fish.  It's actually pretty good, i like oka.  And fe'e, which is octopus.  I like that too.  Sometimes they feed us these giant raw oyster-mussel things--they taste like salt water.  The texture makes me feel like I'm swallowing a big pile of snot or something.  But it doesn't taste too bad, the texture just makes me gag, cause you have to eat the whole thing at once.  So that's probably the only thing I don't like that much.  

All the people here love to play volleyball.  You see people playing it constantly.  There's like a volleyball court every two blocks--that's like all the people do.  And I suck at volleyball.  Even the old ladies put me to shame.  Hahha, but it's something to work on, I guess.  And my comp is teaching me how to play the ukelele, so hopefully I'm the master by the time I get home.

The people here are really poor, but everyone is super nice, especially to the missionaries--the people love the missionaries.  So that's good.  Yeah, last week I had to go back into Apia cause one of the crowns came off my tooth when I was eating a piece of candy, but it wasn't that big of a deal.  There is a senior couple at the mission office that do all the dentistry for the mission.  They're way nice.  They're from Elk Ridge--I know their son.  And they're in Jess Muni's ward, so we have lots of connections and things.  But yeah, my teeth are fine, no worries.  And the day that it happened was actually p-day, so we got to spend the rest of the day hanging out in Apia.  We even got McDonalds.  Haha, it was sweet.  Upolu is like an entire other country, for real.  There's tons of people and cars and worldly stuff.  In our area in Savaii, there's just dirt and jungle and ocean.  Some people only have like two shirts to wear, they're poor as heck.  But I like it.  I get to experience the real Samoa--we're pretty far from anything.  The people get their food from their plantation, or if they're good at fishing, then they get fish to eat.  But they work hard.  It's not uncommon to see a guy hauling a huge load of coconuts tied to a big stick down from their plantation to their house, sometimes several miles.  And I've held on of those things--they're way heavy.  I guess that's why all the guys here are freakin' ripped.  But not me--I'm just getting fat.  Every night they give us these big feasts, it's sweet.  I've had lobster a bunch of times.  And they cook up a whole pig, but it's just a little one.  So we have that a lot.  So I'll be fat Eric by the time I come home--good stuff.  

Let's see...everybody here has tattoos, like everyone.  All the members have tattoos, everybody.  I don't know what the deal with that is.  It's kind of just a part of the culture.  A lot of the native missionaries have them too, and one of the guys from the senior couples.  Haha, one of the bishops in our area has a swastika tattooed on his hand.  I don't really know why, that's just how it is.  But yeah, it's cool.  The people are dope though.  I love it here so much, it's so sick.  Yeah, I don't think I sounded properly excited on the telephone when I talked to you guys.  I was just tired as heck.  And I couldn't hear you.  So go figure.  But it's freakin' amazing here--I love it.  Sometimes it's hard, for sure, but it's totally worth it.  And the people are dope, my companion is dope as ever, everything is totally good here.  It's hard work.  I don't think I've every been more tired in my entire life.  But I love it all, it's the greatest.  I feel sorry for you guys--Utah's boring. Samoa's dope, sick, tight, mean as.  
But good luck!
Elder Johansen
PS  By the way, thanks for all the Christmas presents and stuff!  The cds are dope.  I especially like the guitar one.  Thanks a ton.  I don't think I remembered to thank you when you called on Christmas!  LOL