WTG (Way to go) My Good Neighbors!
So I'll
get right into it. This week was actually super good. We made a lot
of progress in the area. Monday was a bummer as always--we were stuck
at the office and in Apia for our whole p-day doing ZL stuff and
shopping for the zone. We didn't get back to our area until after 6:00
in the evening and then we ate dinner and had two family home evenings.
The FHEs were way good though. We had one with an inactive guy and
invited him to church on Sunday and he came! So sweet bones. I would
pull the ol Garfield "I hate Mondays!", but it's all good actually.
Someday, my friends, someday.
On Wednesday we had our Zone Leaders Council. It
was okay, but afterwards we got hamburgers with real slices of goat
belly cheese. I was so stoked. I haven't had cheese since the MTC. So
that was pretty exciting. Also this week I went on a split with this
Maori elder from New Zealand for a few days. We usually try to do
splits with the zone every once in a while. It's pretty good, I guess.
We got two new investigators this week--Sione and
Ainoama. They're both young. Sione is 14 and Ainoama is 11. They're
the kids of this lady, Uila, who we have been working with and who has
just come back to church. Uila is Tongan and her husband is Samoan.
They both came to church and are set for their baptism on March 23rd.
Me and my comp have a goal of 4 baptisms this month, so we'll see if it
goes down.
Also this week we contacted this guy named Tulesa.
Tulesa grew up in California, but he's been in Samoa for like 8 years
and looks and sounds like a legit Samoan even though he didn't speak it
before he moved here. He's freakin' tight though. He was a thug back
in the days and was in prison for like 9 years. He's got tattoos all up
his arms and gives people tattoos for money. Anyways, he's not a
member and his wife is inactive. They have a couple of small kids as
well. But we had a way spiritual lesson with him, so we're hoping he
reads the the Book of Mormon and prays.
Also this week we had to take this little member kid
to the hospital cause he cut up his hand gnar bones. I guess he cut it
with a machete. We went to visit their family and the little kid was
just laying on the floor, obviously in a lot of pain. So we looked at
his hand and it was cut from the back of the hand all the way to the
middle of the palm in between the thumb and the forefingers. So we
hurried and drove him to the hospital in Lafilufi. As we were waiting
outside, we could hear him screaming like crazy land as they stitched
his hand--cause I'm not sure if they used antiseptic (I think he meant
to say anesthesia) or not. Little Samoan hospitals are sketchy to the
days. But it was pretty sad. I felt bad for him. It reminded me of
that Joseph Smith movie where he gets the surgery without any antiseptic
(anesthesia?) and it's all gnarly. But long story short, he was okay
and it was all good. Haha--it seems like lately we've just been
firefighters and ambulance drivers all day. It's a noble work.
We're hoping to get some tin roofing stuff and
boards and stuff for that family whose house burned down. The man's
name is Taua. They've been in Apia all week, but we talked to him one
day when he came back to work in their plantation. We haven't started
lessons or anything yet, but hopefully this week. We're going to wait
until the stake president visits cause he said he was going to.
Also this week I had a really interesting
experience. So I found an extra bottle of contact lens solution under
the sink in our house that had been there when we got transferred into
the area. I felt myself pretty lucky for such a great find and decided
to use it that night. Then when I woke up in the morning and put my
contact in my right eye, I received an instant feeling of fire and
burning and pain. So I immediately took out the contact lens and tried
to flush out my eyes with water, but it kept burning like crazy bad.
And then I got even more freaked out cause my right eye got all extra
blurry and foggy even when I put on my glasses. I had assumed that the
bottle of solution was like old or something. But when I actually
opened it up and poured out the liquid, I realized I had been duped! It
wasn't actually contact solution I had used to soak my contacts in, but
actually just plain old bleach! Haha--it kind of reminded me of the
time I went with my friends to Lake Powell and put ear drying drops in
my eye instead of eye drops. Haha, that burned too. But I called the
mission nurse who called an opthamologist in Salt Lake who said my eye
would be cool. I just had to wash it out real good and not wear my
contacts for a week or so.
And then on Saturday night at 9:30 the branch
president asked us if we would speak the next morning in church. So we
got up early and tried to prepare our talks before church started. So
anyways, I started my talk by explaining the story of how I put Clorox
in my eye and then related it to the scripture in D&C 88:69 about
having an eye single to the glory of God to be filled with his light. I
explained that if we put Clorox (sins) into our eyes, they become
blurry and it makes it hard to be single to the glory of God. But if we
use the solution (repentance), we can be cleansed entirely and again be
single to God's glory. And then I talked about how if we do this, we
will be filled with light, and explained a bunch of good scriptures
about gaining light. I thought it went pretty good. The only problem
was that I was wearing my glasses and since they're an old prescription,
everything was still blurry and I couldn't see the clock on the wall.
My comp gave the first talk which was like ten minutes and then I
accidentally spoke for the rest of the time and the branch president
didn't get a chance to speak. I think he was trying to get my attention
cause everyone was laughing, but I didn't notice cause I couldn't see
anything. Haha, I just sort of laughed with them, not knowing what was
going on. And then he kicked me in the back of the leg and I realized
the time was over. So then the branch president stood up and said that
he's not going to let us speak in church anymore. Haha, but he was just
joking--it was all good. I guess it's better than going under time
like the first talk I gave back in Aleisa. It was actually only the
second one I've given since I've been in Samoa. (My companion is
chonking really loud right now on a pig's foot from the soup we got
earlier. It's really loud, but I'll forgive him cause I love him.)
Anyways, this week was cool for sure. Not much else is going on. The work is excellent though. I'm loving it in this area.
Keep
your eyes in your pocket and your nose on the ground. "I'm betting
with Elder Johansen--he's got clean trousers. He's got the cleanest
trousers around."
--Samaufaatasi Elisapetataitasipolo, King of Samoa.
Love,
The Fresh Prince of Samoa
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