3-5-12

Sup Peeps,
It's me here.  Not much goin' on, just chillin' around the house right now.  Oh yeah, so continue sending me emails from my boys and my cousins--it's always nice to hear how they're doing.  I write them every once in a while, but I've only heard back from Wyatt.  I know Kevin has a blog as well.  You should send me his letters if you can.  I just got a letter from Wyatt saying he gets all the ones that you send to him and he really appreciates it.  He said that "his smoochie bottom gets all giddy and excited when he hears news from me."  And that's a direct quote from Wyatt's letter.  I also told him to tell his mom to forward his weekly emails to you, so you might be getting those at some point.  It's fun to see how my boys are doing cause I'm pretty much cut off from any contact without emails.  

So yeah, not much has been going on lately.  We've been doing a split all week with Elder Tafiti and Elder Bailey, so it's been the four of us for most of the week.  They're in Sagone, which is only like a ten minute bike ride south of us.  Tafiti is really cool.  He's from Hawaii and he does fire knife dancing and cool stuff like that.  Bailey is a good guy, but he's kind of a rango.  He got really mad cause he didn't want to be on a split anymore and started throwing his bike around and threw his helmet.  So my comp had to stay and talk to him while me and Tafiti went and taught a lesson to one of our investigators.  The investigator's name is Auvasa--she's fourteen.  She's gonna be baptized this Saturday.  Her little sister is Talalelei, one of the girls we baptized the week before last.  She is also Silia and Evelige's cousin.  They all live at the same house in Samataiutu.  

Oh yeah, so yesterday was fast and testimony meeting and it was the best.  First Silia got up and bore her testimony about how much she loves the church and that she knows it's true and then right after, her grandma, who is not a member, got up and bore her testimony about how she started reading the Book of Mormon and that she knows the church is true.  But we haven't even taught her yet.  She stole her granddaughter's Book of Mormon and read it on her own.  So that was awesome.  And then right after that, Silia's aunt, Talulelei and Auvasa's mom, got up and bore a similar testimony.  It was awesome.  We're hoping to work to get their whole family baptized.   That would be so sweet.

But yeah, we've just been doing a split all week.  It's because Elder Tafiti and Bailey are brand new to their area so we're supposed to help them get to know the people and help them get the work started.  On Wednesday we rode our bikes all the way out to the last village in their area to teach some lessons and meet with the bishop and stuff.  It was like a two hour bike ride.  The village is called Taga.  It's like the bottom left lump on the island if you're looking at the map.  Anyways, it is really far.  We went and visited the lady that runs the blowholes.  That was really cool.  We didn't get to go explore them cause it wasn't p-day, but we got to kind of have a look--it was cool.  Anyways, then after that we were all supposed to go teach a lesson, but Bailey said he was too tired, so it ended up being me and his companion that went and taught their lesson.  I don't mind though--it's good practice so I can be better at teaching my own investigators.  So yeah, that was a good day.  I actually didn't mind riding all the way out there.  I designated myself as the leader of the group and named us "The Johansen Bike Brigade."  Everyone else wasn't as enthusiastic about it as I was, but that's okay.  

So yeah, that's pretty much all that's happened this week.  We're gonna get back to doing work in our own area now, so it's good.  I'm excited to get in and teach Silia's family.  They seem really keen on the church.

Anyways, all is good here on this island.

Love,
Elder Johansen, The Fresh Prince of Samoa
PS  Send me that SD card from the MTC that I sent you guys with all my pictures and videos on it.

2-26-12

Wazzup in the hood,
It's just me here, shreddin' the gnar down here on some island.  It's the dopest, most definitely.  This week was good--we've been doing a split for the last few days with some elders in our zone.  But really it's not a split, they've just been staying at our house.  So that's cool, they're cool kids. 

Oh yeah, so last Monday was transfers.  Me and my comp are staying in Faiaai, which is good cause I like it here.  My comp's dope too, so it's good.  I'm the only one from my MTC group that didn't get a new area or a new companion.  Haha, but I guess it's a good thing.  It means things are going good.  One of the kids from my MTC intake got punched in the face by his comp, so I guess I'm lucky.  

So yeah, Monday was cool though.  Me, my comp, the two guys that are living with us, and one of the kids from next door went up to the forest to get oranges.  We got so many.  They're way good too.  That's pretty much all I eat now--we had a huge bag of them.  It was cool--the kid from next door just climbed up the coconut tree and cut down a big palm leaf and then weaved a bag out of it in like five minutes.  So we ended up collecting like a hundred oranges--it was a ton.  I climbed up a coconut tree for the first time too.  It was sweet.  What you do is you climb it barefoot and use an ie lavalava that you tie around your feet.  It was sweet.  I got my arms and my feet all scraped up though cause you're supposed to come down really slow, but I just kinda hugged the tree and slid down like a fire pole.  I guess that's not the most proper technique.  I'll have to do some more practice.  So anyways, that was cool and fresh coconuts always taste awesome, so it was good. 

So yeah, not much else has happened this week.  I've had a lot of really good study sessions this week--it's been awesome.  Every opportunity I get, I just love to study the gospel cause it's not allowed to proselyte in the evening and we always have tons of time after the fafagas to study.  So it's really goo.  I started reading some stuff out of "Jesus the Christ."  It's deep stuff man, it's real good.  And all the books you sent me seem like the dopest.  I only just started "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder."  It's good.  

We also had a baptism on Saturday--that was really good.  It was for a girl named Tava'e.  She's fourteen.  She's dope though.  The baptism was really good.  I got to do the ordinance.  Oh yeah, so like fifteen minutes before the baptism is supposed to start, we look in the font and there's only like four inches of water in there.  (Sometimes water runs out in Samoa.)  So we had to get a bunch of buckets and made a big chain of people going from the big water tank that collects the rain to the baptismal font.  It was fun.  It was like one of those water parties you have in the summer, except that we were all in our church clothes.  But yeah, we ended up getting enough water in the font and the baptism was saved.  It went really well--the Spirit was strong.  The work here is going really well--it truly is amazing.  

My life is awesome--I get to do cool stuff every day.  Everything is legit, dope, sick, dank, double bones tight.  

Love,
Taupolo Alii

2-19-12

Sup Goat House,
How are your dog faces doing?  Mine is really good.  This week has been really sick.  We've been busy as heck.  All week we've been teaching tons of lessons--it's been awesome.  We haven't really even had time to proselyte cause our day is just filled with lessons one after another.  So it's been really good.  I'm getting a lot better at teaching.  I taught one of the lessons pretty much all on my own.  My companion just bore his testimony at the end.  He said he was trying not to cry, he was so proud of me.  Haha, he's kind of a weird kid.  JK, we're like brother's.  We're having a good time down here.  

So yeah, we've been real busy.  Last Sunday we got a referral for a girl in a couple villages over who wanted to be baptized.  We taught her the first lesson on Tuesday, second on Wednesday, third on Thursday, fourth on Friday and the ZL's came and did the baptismal interview on Friday afternoon and she was baptized on Saturday along with the other three baptisms we had scheduled.  Man, the work is just awesome.  It seemed like right after we fasted, the work just exploded.  I really believe in the power of fasting.

So yeah, Saturday was really busy for us.  In the morning we went to Fagafau for Tasi's baptism.  She's eleven.  She's the referral we got last Sunday.  She's awesome.  She loves the church and she has a lot of support.  I got to do her baptism.  It went really well.  It was a good service.  You could really feel the Spirit.  So then we went down to Samata to prepare for Talalelei's baptism.  We wanted to get there early so we could fix up the water in the font cause the last time we had baptisms there, they only filled up the water like a foot and a half, so it was really hard to get them totally immersed.  So I had to redo a few baptisms there in the past.

But yeah, I think I've talked about Talalelei. She's 12.  Her cousin and sister were baptized last month, so they've been a good influence on helping Tala to get baptized.  But she's tight.  We're hoping to get her whole family baptized.  Her mom and her aunts came to her baptism and confirmation and they seem really interested in the church so we'll have to keep making visits and see if they want to take the lessons.  Her whole family is Methodist and the preachers get really mad when we take people from their congregation.  But yeah, the ylive in that village that just opened up for us to proselyte in.  That's props to my comp.  I don't know how he manages to do it.  The people just love him.  He's got hookups with some important people so we can make it happen.  

But yeah, so then Talalelei's baptism was really good.  Her cousin Price did the baptism.  Price's family is the one you guys were calling on Christmas.  They're dope.  They help us out with everything and Price just got his call to Samoa.  Everyone's joking that I'm gonna be his trainer.  LOL.  But yeah, Tala's baptism was really good.  She was baptized  in Samata--that's the ward we've done a lot of work in during the past.

So then we went down to Faiaai after we had dinner for our last two baptisms.  They were for Taulosa and Sepi.  Taulosa lives in another village south of Faiaai that just opened as well.  She's dope.  She's 12, I think, or around there--real strong in the church, she's the illest.  And Sepi was actually raised in a member family, but for some reason he was never baptized.  He's ten, so they had to pass it over to the missionaries.  His parents aren't married though.  I think they only just recently started coming to church.  It would be sweet to get them married and sealed as a family--that's the ultimate goal really.  But yeah, Sepi and Taulosa's baptisms were really good too.  We had a kid from the ward do the baptisms.  He lives next door to us and just got his call to Australia, so we thought it would be good for him to get some experience.  And it was his family that referred us to Taulosa--they're super dope.  Seriously, they take care of us.  If they know we don't have any food, they'll feed us or if we need anything, they're always there.  They're like our family here, it's legit.  

So yeah, you don't need to worry about me--I'm being taken care of.  So yeah, Saturday was a really good day.  You could feel the Spirit real strong.  I feel really blessed to be a part of this--it's amazing.  I really am just having the time of my life.  All the cool stuff is awesome, and all the spiritual stuff is even awesomer.  For example, three days in a row this week we've been fed these giant massive crabs, and they're soooo good.  Seriously, especially the first night.  They pulled out the biggest crab I've ever seen in my life and put it in front of us like, "Well, here ya go."  I was stoked.  You know those lunch trays that they use at cafeterias and stuff--the big plastic ones?  Well they had it on one of those and it was so big it was still hanging off.  It was gigantic!  I took pictures (here you see Eric's drawing of the giant crab on a school lunch tray) and that is an accurate representation.  The crabs we ate the next two times weren't quite as big, but still huge.  And one night this week they came out with this bowl of whole cooked baby chickens floating on this weird yellow grease stuff--like they still had the heads and feet and stuff.  They just strangled the chicken, plucked the feathers and cooked it, I guess.  There was one for me, my comp, and the head of the household.  Haha, it was good though.  Chicken is chicken.  

Oh yeah, so the other morning I was studying at my desk and I went to grab my Preach My Gospel, and on the underside was this gigantic centipede!  It was so huge, it freaked me out.  Those things will mess you up.  I got tons of pictures.  It was cool.  (Here, Eric has a drawing of the actual size of the centipede--about 4" long) I got tons of pictures--it was cool.  We cut of its head after we played wit hit for awhile.  Then I laminated it with tape and put it in my bug collection.  I heard one time one of these centipedes crawled into a guy's neck once.  That kind of stuff happens all the time.

So yeah, this week has been eventful.  One night after our fafaga (meal with members), we got a ride from this dude in the ward back to our village.  Haha, and on the way that dude squashed a pig.  Haha, it was funny.  A whole bunch of them came running out in the road right as we came by, and one of the piglets got plowed.  Stuff like that is what keeps me happy.  I always knew this mission was right for me.   Haha, the dude goes, "10 points!"  It was funny.  I might keep a tally of how many pigs I run over.  I'm already at two.  Of course not that numbers matter--missionaries who only focus on numbers don't really grasp the true importance of running over pigs anyway.

So anyways, things are good.  Everything is just getting better.  The work is picking up a ton.  The language is coming along quicker.  Me and my comp are getting along better (not that we had any huge problems), but it's just good.  Everything is amazing.  I'm happy as heck.  Oh yeah, so last p-day was freakin' awesome.  As a zone we went to the zone leader's area and did service in the morning.  And then that afternoon we went to this dope secret beach.  You had to hike in through the jungle for like twenty minutes and climb down this kinda steep rock-cliff thing.  It wasn't that sketchy though, nothing worse than anything I've done in southern Utah--some exposure but nothing terrible.  So then we went down to this beach.  Man it was so sick--pure white sand, coconut trees, blue sky, it was dope.  We were doing back flips and stuff off these sand hills and then we played rugby in the sand.  It was so sweet--it was like the greatest thing that ever happened.  I took tons of pictures.  I'll send them to you when I get that other memory card back.  This mission's dope cause we can go to the beach and do all the cool stuff there.  We just can't swim.  But in my opinion, half the fun of the beach is out of the water anyway.  So that was good--so far my favorite p-day here.  This place is beautiful.  I've taken some dope pictures.  

Also, thanks a ton for the packages.  It was like the best thing that ever happened to me.  For real, I started reading "A Marvelous Work and a Wonder".  It's really good.  And I'm excited to read the rest of them.  And the cd is freakin' good.  I've been listening to it all day.  And the ukulele book--I'm gonna be the master by the time I get home.  And all the Valentine's stuff.  I love getting candy and zany things to decorate the house with.  Haha and you sent me about 900 envelopes and stamp.  I'm still baffled as to what that means.  And thanks for all the clothes--you got me everything I asked for, so I really appreciate it.  So yeah, you can take a break from sending me packages.  I feel bad, all that stuff must have cost a ton.  I really don't want to be a financial burden.  Don't worry about me, I'm fine.  But I really do appreciate it. So don't go out of your way to do stuff for me anymore--just continue to send me letters, that's just as good.  Also, thanks for the cooties.

But yeah, things are good.  I also appreciate you sending Austin's and the cousin's letters.  That's always good to see how they're doing.  So it's been dope.  Dad--I got your letter.  It's always nice to see how all our favorite characters are doing:  The pirate, blue silk shirt kid, "Bucky C", killer, shining head man, bullethead, the insurance salesman, purple backpack man, Mark Hackings 1-6, that dude with the neckfat (another drawing of the back of a fat guys head) that looks like a menacing eye, horseface baby, basically everyone that we've known and grown to love.  There's plenty more, I just can't remember any right now.  Shame.  But I'll send you some scriptures too.  I'll have to check my scriptures and find some good missionary ones.  But yeah, I'll hit you up in another letter, no worries.

Also, one last thing--Just so I don't cause a big argument between mom and dad as to whether centipedes really will bury into your neck, let me assure you--I'm 80% sure that they don't.  Haha.  JK bros.  You needn't worry about me.  I know Mom looks for secret underlying meanings in my letters and the nassumes that I'm dying or that I have turned into a goat or something awful like that.  Let me assure you--I am very safe.  The Lord is watching out for me as well as all the people in this area.  It really is uncanny how safe I am.  It's the safest safe that has ever existed--I define the meaning of safety.  I'm so safe, I make bicycle helmets look like gun crimes.  People tell me all the time here that their first impression of me is "Boy, that sure is one safe fellow, by gonnit!"  So you have no reason to worry about me.  Getting quite serious now--for real, Mama, don't worry about me.  I am safe, healthy and happy.  There is nowhere I would rather be--it's amazing here.  There are no gangs, no thugs, no dangerous beasts--just pigs, chickens and palm trees.  So it's good--don't stress it.  I'm real careful not to get hurt or anything like that.  "Safety Steve" they call me.  And I truly do fulfill my namesake.

Love,
Elder Johansen
aka Safety Steve

PS  Here's a cool picture of a dog!  (Eric has drawn another very weird random picture at the bottom of his letter.)

2-13-12

Sup Goat Faces,
First of all, here's some pictures and stuff.  I'll leave a narration so you kinda know what's going on.  The first 28 pictures are from the day I left the MTC.  That's when I started taking these and then it goes until about last week.  The next ones are all the pictures I took in New Zealand.  That place was beautiful.  Gte some prints done al all the cool pictures on this card and send them to me cause there's nowhere to get pictures printed here.  #104 is dope--get some extra prints of that.  Also #110.  The pictures are mostly of me and two other guys from my MTC group exploring New Zealand.  #132-134 are pictures of the shore I took.  All the the Baginses came and wished us good tidings and invited us in for a feast (you know how hobbits are).  That was quite lovely.  And then there's pictures of us on the airplane and stuff, and then arriving in Samoa.  The video of us eating breakfast is misleading--nobody eats stuff like that in Samoa.  Then we hit up the temple.  Then there's pictures of our house in Faiaai.  #160 is of me standing on my porch--that's what it looks like from our house.  Then there's me with a lizard--there's tons here.  I made it into an ornament for our Christmas tree.  Then there's some pictures of these little kids from the family next door--those dudes are always over.  Then there's a picture of me looking really chubby standing next to an A Team poster.  That was probably the height of my chubbiness.  I've actually lost weight now.  I lost all my MTC weight.  Now I'm down back to what I was when I left on my mission.  #205 is my first baptism--that's Angela.  We forgot to get a picture before when we were in our white clothes.  And then there's some other stuff and then there's pictures of me with a black eye--that's from when my companion punches me.  JK--nah, it's from basketball.  This dude elbowed me on accident.  Get prints of #225 as well.  That's the sunset in the reflection of those Church of Jesus Christ things that are on the chapels.  Then there's some super long videos of these dudes gutting a pig--it's pretty dang cool.  And then 267-274 are our baptism with Ulia.  That was sick for sure.  And then me and my comp showering in the rain cause our water was broken, and then some really dope pictures of me in the jungle.  Get like ten prints of #289--that's the best picture ever taken.  What a stud, that handsome guy.  That was last p-day when I was on a split with Elder Bailey--that's him in some of the pictures.

So yeah!  That's most of the pictures I've taken so far.  Just save them all somewhere.  Make sure you have back ups and then just wipe the card clean and send it back to me.  Actually don't wipe it cause I think it's still got plenty of memory on it.  I'm just sending this to you for your benefit.

Anyways, this week has been crazy awesome busy.  We've been teaching lessons like mad men.  Yesterday we taught five lessons, had three hours of church, and had our fafaga (meal.)  We've been busy as heck--it's awesome.  The members are working wit hus like crazy.  They keep giving us tons of referrals for people who want to get baptized.  It's awesome.  We have three baptisms this Saturday and we have more next week.  The three baptisms this week are Taulosa, Sepi and Talalelei.  Taulosa is a referral from the family next door.  She's twelve years old and she's stoked on the church.  So it's sweet.  And then Sepi is 10--his family is actually members.  For some reason they just didn't baptize him when he was eight so now it becomes a missionary baptism.  His parents aren't married though so we want to get them married so they can all eventually be sealed in the temple.  And then Talalelei is a referral from one of our recent converts, Silia.  She's Silia's cousin as well.  She's twelve years old.  She's stoked as heck about the gospel though.  So it's good--the work is crazy good.  We've been working like crazy, you can really see the benefits of hard work.  

Also I can really see the true power or fasting.  We've done a few fasts lately and it's crazy how much of a difference it makes.  Everything just comes together, we have greater success, my Samoan improves, everything just becomes better.  So I can definitely see the rewards of fasting.  So yeah, not much else has been really going on this week other than than.  We've just been teaching tons of lessons, making tons of visits, doin' the work man.  This is where it's at, I'm lovin' it.  

On Saturday I had to give a talk at the zone leader's baptism.  I was kinda mad cause they didn't ask me until like fifteen minutes before, but I humbled myself and did my best--it actually went alright.  I still have pretty broken Samoan, so I was a little nervous to talk in front of all those people, but it was good.  I just spoke about baptism and the importance of being baptized.  So it's sweet.  

I got a haircut the other day--it's really short, like shorter than I've ever had it.   Some random dude from the ward showed up with scissors and said he was gonna cut my hair.  It looks alright though for some reason he left a little tuft right up front--it looks like that little little curl that Oscar used to have.  So it's cool, I'm kind of the man.

Anyways, good luck.  Keep it fresh.

Love,
Elder Bojangles

2-5-12

Sup all you people,
Yeah it's me.  Yep, yeah cool.  So this week was dope I guess.  It was mostly just a ton of meetings.  Monday we had p-day.  We went into Pia and bought some stuff.  I finally had the chance to buy stuff and I probably won't be able to again for a long time, so that's why I pulled out a bunch of cash.  Also there's nowhere to withdraw money in Savaii, so I pulled some out to save for later.  But it's all good.  

But yeah, then on Tuesday we had a training meeting for all the new missionaries.  It was dope though cause I got to see all my boys from the MTC so that was sick.  

Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you in my letter from last week--So last week when I was sick, we broke into this closet and watched all these church movies.  And you'd better believe it--we watched the heck out of cypher in the snow.  And the one with the lady that only writes with her feet--it was very inspiring.  On VHS even too.  So I guess being stuck at the office wasn't all that bad.  

So yeah, then we had zone meeting pretty much all day on Thursday.  Thursdays kinda suck cause we can't really proselyte at all cause our zone takes up a sizeable portion of the island, so we spend a lot of the time in the ZL's van picking up missionaries from their areas.  It's like a 1 1/2 hour drive from my house to the furthest house in the zone.  And then we have to drive all the way back to falelima where we have zone meeting.  So it's kind of a drag.  I try to read or do something productive, but it just makes me sick.  But it's alright though, the guys in my zone are pretty cool.  There's only eight of us in Savaii South.    There's actually only three zones on the island, 28 missionaries all together.  

On Friday we had island conference.  That was pretty sweet.  It's dope to see all the elders every once in awhile.  The prez had a training--it went for most of the day.  I still don't understand 100% Samoan, so I don't think I gleaned as much from it as everyone else did.  But that was cool, I guess.  

So yeah, on Saturday we got a call from the family next door saying that they have a referral for us.  SO we went over there and like fifteen minutes later we taught the first lesson.  It went really good.  That's the lesson I'm best at doing in Samoan.  It was to a girl named Taulosa, she's like eleven.  She lives in a village that just barely opened up for the missionaries to go proselyte in. That's the second village that has opened since I've been here, which is really quite a miracle, cause that rarely ever happens.  We've been working real hard to open up these villages--my companion has hookups with a lot of the important chiefs, so we've been working with them a lot.  But yeah, there's been four villages in our area that have opened in the last six months since Elder Nansen has been here.  He's a dope missionary.  I'm really learning a lot from him.  We get along super good--this guy's the man.  He's always really helpful with everything and he's teaching me how to speak good Samoan too.  

So things are going really good.  Everything's starting to come together a lot more.  The language is coming crazy fast.  I attribute that to reading from the Book of Mormon.  Once I started reading from the Book of Mormon in Samoan, my language got a ton better.  SO that's sick, it's all good.  I'm loving it here, things are really picking up.  The work is amazing.  It's really starting to get good.  We're working hard.  You can really see the benefits of your labors.  So yeah, it's all dope.  

So lately the water has been broken at our house, so we've had to shower out of a bucket for like the last week.  It's cool though.  It's all the same.  The other day it was raining really hard so we just waited til it got dark and then we showered out in the rain.  But we wore ie lavalavas--that's how all the Samoans do it.  But that was cool.  We had a wild time.  

Not much else has been going on this week.  Saturday we had to go to the ZL's baptism cause my comp is the District Leader so he does the baptismal interview for the ZL's baptisms.  But other than that, the DL doesn't do anything.  It's sort of just a title, I guess.  So yeah, we went to their baptism and stuff, it was good.  And then on Sunday we just had meetings all day.  My comp and some other elders from the zone taught this fireside in the evening.  But it was good.  Oh yeah, so the more I talk with my companion, the more I'm surprised about him.  He got $15,000 when he was 15 to sign on to play rugby.  I guess he's like super good, it's crazy.  He got private tutoring from Sid Going even, which is really crazy as he was making a ton of money, but then he decided to go on a mission.  SO this guy's the man--he gave up a professional rugby career to come on a mission.  And I found out he's a chief too.  He's a Tulafale, which is the highest of the chief titles.  Some guys go their whole lives and don't even get a chief title, so it's pretty crazy.  That's why a lot of people in the village really respect him cause he's a talking chief and he's young.  So it's tight, my comp's the man.  He knows how to work with the people really well.  

But yeah, so that's what we did this week.  Today I'm on a split for p-day with Elder Bailey from my MTC group.  I slept over at his house last night in Asau--it's more north of our area.  This morning we got up and biked up the mountain.  It was freakin' awesome.  Elder Nansen's freakin' dope--I love him to death--but he's not very adventurous.  So today was like the best thing that ever happened to me.  I was freakin' stoked as heck.  It started raining super hard and we were just plowing through the jungle, it was so sick.  We found this old abandoned mill or something and we were messing around there.  It was sweet.  We found this old abandoned airport we played around at for awhile.  Today was a good day though.  Me and Bailey just went and explored the jungle all morning.  And the cool thing about Samoa is that you can go to the beach, you just can't swim.  So we might go down to the beach later--we've still got a few hours of p-day left.  It cool cause you'll never see bikini clad girls or anything--it goes against the Samoan culture to be immodest.  Girls can't even wear pants or shorts--they have to wear an ie lavalava.  SO it's good.  The Samoan culture goes hand in hand with a lot of the teachings of the Church.   So it's dope. We got a lot of cool pictures today.  Tonight we're going out to do some visits--that's gonna be crazy.  Haha, we'll have to see how it goes.  Neither of us speak very good Samoan.  Bailey struggles with it a lot.  But we'll just hit it up anyway.  I'm sure it'll be good.  I can say enough to get by.  Every time you go to a house, you have to recite these certain speeches for different things--like to get in the house, and then when you sit down and when you're done eating, and then when you're going to leave as well.  BUt I've got all the speeches down so we should be good. 

Oh yeah, thanks for the package.  I really appreciate it. I don't want to be like a financial burden or anything.  But I was stoked on all that stuff.  I don't really have access to buying stuff so I appreciate it.  Whenever you decide to send me another package, I need rechargeable AA and AAA batteries and a charger cause my camera, my cd player and my speakers all use batteris and the batteries here are super expensive.  So it would be nice to just have  rechargeable ones if it's possible.  Also Ibuprofen--I gave all mine away, but I get headaches and it sucks when I can't do anything about it.  But yeah, just whenever.  It's not pressing so no worries.  

So yeah, again mother you asked about fifty questions in your letter.  I think you're under the impression that if you ask a lot of questions that I'll actually answer them.  Ha ha jokes.  But really.  

Q:  Are things back to normal missionary work?
A:  Yes
Q:  Did Ulia get baptized?
A:  Yes
Q:  Any new investigators?
A:  Yes, the work is good.
Q:  Did you get to go into the village where they had not allowed missionaries to go?
A:  Yes
Q:  Do you own a ukulele?
A:  I purchased one.  I'm just waiting for the elders in American Samoa to send it over.
Q:  Do you have a 3 hour block and do they have manuals for teaching classes like Primary and Sunday School?
A:  Yes, they sure do. The church is the same everywhere.
Q:  What are church meetings like?
A:  They're dope.
Q:  How often do you give a talk or teach a class?
A:  Not really very often.  I get asked to bear my testimony sometimes.
Q:  If people don't have electricity, how do they know what time it is and when it's time to go to work or to church?
A:  I don't know where you get these ideas.  Everyone has electricity.  You shouldn't make stuff up.  Also, nobody has jobs.  They all have their own plantations that they to to every day to get food.  They're all self sufficient.  Everything they eat is something they grew or shot or caught in the ocean, for the most part at least.  Sometimes they have rice or corned beef that they buy at a little shop somewhere.
Q:  How do they light their homes at night?
A:  Magic.
Q:  How close are the houses to each other?
A:  Not a valid question.
Q:  What do they do about privacy or stuff getting stolen with open walls?
A:  They deal with it.
Q:  How many people have cars?
A:  There is one moped given by the government to each island and then they do a big raffle to see which family gets the moped for that month.
Q:  Do women and children work at the plantations too?
A:  Yep.
Q:  Do they have gas stations nearby?
A:  They have like 3 on Savaii--it's like 1 hour away.
Q:  Do you get a bike and how far are you riding it?
A:  We have bikes but we don't use them cause it's more efficient to walk so you can talk to people.
Q:  Are you getting sunburned or rashes?
A:  Nope.
Q:  Did the Deet work against the mosquitoes?
A:  Deet is cool.
Q:  Are you out?
A:  Out where?
Q:  How do you dry your clothes?
A:  We hang them up out back.
Q:  Do they have laundry soap?
A:  Yes, they sure do.
Q:  I noticed you are wearing glasses?  Do you not wear your contacts?
A:  I wear contacts now.  I gave my glasses away after like the first week to this old dude who needed them.  I've got another pair though--no worries.
Q:  How is the language coming?
A:  Ava le fesili valea.  Ou ke fiu a lou fesili.  Ou ke oulelei
Q:  How long do you think you'll be in this area?
A: 18 months for sure.
Q:  What shoes do you wear mostly?
A:  I wear the sandals every day.
Q:  What do you do on pee days?
A:  We play volleyball mostly.  My comp doesn't like adventurous stuff.  It's cool though.  I'm down with whatever.
Q:  Have you gotten to see any other areas?
A:  Yep.  I've driven around the whole island of Savaii!

Also, mama, this "love ya mucho mucho mucho" garbage is not gonna fly.  Just say Alofa atu or figure something out.  Spanish is for wimps--forget that nonsense.  Soamoan is where it's at.  

Keep it steezy,
Alofa aku kele,
--Alil Elder Johansen
PS:  I was stoked on all those emails from the cousins and  and Austin too--hit me up with those again if you ever get the chance.  Also, Kethy, send me Kevin's too.  I was stoked on reading those.