Monday, July 16, 2012

6-11-12

Zup there fampants,
It's all dank up in here.  Everything's beans gnarly.  It's like we're having a goat-face hamster party where the gnar is always the star.  It's a shred fest though, to the days.  This week's been pretty sick, though.  We've just been spankin' it out all day, every day.

So yeah, not much has really been goin' on, just the same stuff really.  We started teaching lessons with Pato--that was good.  My comp asked her to be baptized during her first lesson and she said yes, so that was cool. She'll be baptized this Saturday, so that should be good.  Also, Palepa is supposed to be baptized this Saturday.  Her wedding is planned for this week, so that should be sick--cause that's the only thing keeping her from getting baptized is that they're not married yet.  So that should be good.  We also started lessons with Failelei this week.  She's tight too.  She's probably in her 40's or so, and she goes to church every week.  We just have to get her married and she'll totally be ready to be baptized.  So we'll see if we can try and make it happen.  Also, Faautu, the girl we baptized last week, has a brother who wants to start lessons with us, so we're gonna do that tomorrow.  His name is Perenise.  We'll see what goes down. 

And then when we were eating dinner with a family a couple of days ago, they told us that they have a daughter who wants to be baptized, so we're gonna start the lessons this week.  We baptized the girl's little brother, Ailua, back in April.  So that should be good.  She goes to church every week, she just hasn't been baptized.  And then we also have Panalisa--he goes to institute every week and has a bunch of friends in the ward.  Word is that he wants to start lessons, so we'll have to go visit this week and see what the go is.  And the nwe have Faasinoala--she's dope.  She goes to church every week too.  She just still needs to be married before she can be baptized.  Her man/boyfriend kept putting it off every time we would schedule a date for them to be married.  It's the dumbest.  But then we found out the reason is cause he thought you had to fill out a bunch of paperwork and he was all afraid cause he doesn't know how to write.  Haha, but pretty much all he has to do is write a signature, which could pretty much be anything.  So hopefully we'll get that marriage soon, cause Fasinoala's totally ready.  So that should be good. 

But yeah, not much else has really been going on.  We're just making visits and teaching some lessons and stuff.  My comp's cool.  We're shreddin' the gnar all day every day.  It's pretty tough, like I think it would be tough to do it all in English, but in Samoan, it's like extra hard.  But it's cool I guess--we try our best.  I try and let my comp take the lead in teaching aand stuff--it's good.  My goal is to have him ready to train by the end of this 3 months.  We're just gonna have to read the BofM like crazy in Samoan so he can get good Samoan.  That's probably what helped me most with the language.  I finished it on the boat ride over the morning I picked up Jackson. So it's good. Things are cool.  I'll probably have pretty good Samoan by the end of this three months.  I pretty much just talk to people all day.  But before pretty much Nansen did all the talking, so it's good. 

We're real lucky, though.  This area is mega good.  There's tons of work here.  But yeah, not much has really been goin' on lately--just work, work, work. I think these last two weeks have been like the most serious I've acted in my entire life.  I pretty much just have to stay as closely in tune with the Spirit as I can or else I'm totally lost.  Cause, seriously, if it was only up to me, this area would die very quickly.  Cause my Samoan's still on the rocks.  I only understand things when they're really important--like if an investigator has a concern or something.  Pretty much the rest of the time I'm just winging it and guessing what people are saying.  Talking to chiefs is especially the suckiest--it sketches me out.  We're trying to reactivate this girl and her little brother, but her grandpa is like this super important chief in the village so it's always super sketchy going over there, but we just go anyway.  Cause within the Samoan language, there is like four languages.  It's like words that you would use with a high chief, and then totally different words to use when you speak to a talking chief, then there's the common language, and then there's like the slang.  It's pretty tough.  If you don't use all the respectful language and stuff, you can offend people.  And you have to learn all the different chief titles of the people in the village and figure out if they're a high chief or a talking chief before you go visit them so you can know what words to use when you speak to them.  But it's rude to ask, so you just have to figure it out before you go visit.  Anyways, its dumb.  I don't really know any of that stuff very well--so it's sketchfest.  But I don't spend that much time trying to learn it cause I'm busy learning how to teach lessons and other more important stuff.  So it's cool.  The mission's dope though.  I'm stoked on it.  Everything's going good.  We're  "smiting the earth with the word of God."  And that's the dankness.

Keep shreddin' 100% gnar,

Elder Johansen

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