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.