6-16-13

une 16, 2013

Hello There Neighbor,

This week was like blades and pizza--they go together and they're always nice.  I, again, have little time to write.  We're bizzy as a bone here hittin' the Lotofaga kush.

Firstly, Mum and Pum, thanx for the package.  It was the dankest.  It was full of candy and now, one week later, it is all gone.  I guess if it's there, I can't help but sit there and eat it.  Also, we gave out a lot to little kids and stuff so it was good.  Also, the tooth was grody (a gift from Katie put in the last package?) and the picture of Matt is taped up in front of my desk.  However, he is making the "Kevin" look and makes me wonder whether it is actually just Kevin with a beard.  The lame aeropostale shirt is a telling sign.  

But this week was mean--meaner than Mrs. Kestner (his 3rd grade teacher.)  We contacted this inactive family who haven't been back to church in like 4 years and invited them to church and they all came!  They have a son who isn't baptized and is 10 years old so we're going to plan for that for the 29th of June.

Also our other previously inactive family came to church as well.  This family is freaking tight.  The mom's name is Moevanu and the Dad is Sipara.  It's been two weeks now that they've come back to church.  And they're stoked on it.  THey're not married.  So we're trying to make that happen this Saturday (June 22nd) so then Moevanu can receive a calling because she really wants one.  Sipara smokes, but says he wants us to help him quit.  They're way cool.  We've been visiting them quite a bit.  It's been way cool to help them.  One day we went over there to visit and Moevanu asked us if we could give her 4 month old baby a blessing because he was sick.  So then we did and the next time we came, the baby had been healed.  So they were mega stoked and Moevanu asked us if she could name her baby after my companion and I.  Haha, so we were stoked.  Also, we're trying to get them to the temple eventually.  That would be way cool.  

Also, we've been teaching our investigator, Siafausa.  He is good and is definitely ready to be baptized this weekend.  He will be baptized together with our investigator, Sita, who is 11.  Siafausa lives with a member family in our vavau, and his wife is a member as well.  Sita is funny and way stoked on primary and church.  I'll let you know next week how the baptisms went.  

Also, we taught our new investigator, Epenesa.  She's 18.  She has a lot of good questions.  Her aunt and uncle are members so we did the lesson at their house. The member guy was being way distracting and saying random irrelevant stuff the whole time.  Haha.  Sometimes members suck.  Nah, it's good though.  We'll probably just have to go over the lesson first with the family before we're actually with Epenesa.  She seems good though.  We'll see what happens with her.

We have big plans for this upcoming week.  So hopefully we can see some great miracles coming up shortly.

Things are really good though.  The area is really picking up right now.  We have quite a few investigators who could potentially be baptized this month.

The mission is going by crazy fast.  I'm just trying to kill it and destroy it and shred the gnar before I have to leave.  It's so sick though. I love it.  It sort of hit me how short of time I have left.  I just want to make the best of it and do tons of good before I'm gone.  I guess I have been inadvertently living my mission by mom's (shopping) rule "In, out, quick, quick, quick!!!" at least that's how it feels anyway.  It's good though.  

I'm looking at the picture of the giant turtle I pasted to the wall and I'm wondering what it's thinking.  

I'll leave you with a quote:  "There is no end to badboys, there is no end to blades."--Daunte from Boyz N Blades

Love,

Elder Eric "The Squire of Samoa" Johansen

6-23-13

June 23, 2013

"Elder Johansen is TERRIFIC".  Some wise words spoken from a wise man.  I think the mission sent you guys a copy of my big debut that came in the news.  That was a direct quote from a doctor which then was posted all over the news.  Terrific indeed my medicine minded friend, terrific indeed.  

This week I had a dream that Bate and Cleo got married.  Theo was jealous.

We've been ballin' it up this week like Vince LaSalle, captain of all the teams.  I schooled my companion and this less active guy from California in 21 like three times and then destroyed them in Horse as well.  Every p-day we play ball with this less-active dude named Faivule.  He has started to come back to church though, so I'm stoked.  

This week we dunked Siafausa--he's good.  He was stoked as a bean.  The baptism went good.  My boy, Gasio, did the baptism and it was way good.  We were supposed to baptize our other investigator, Sita, at the same time as Siafausa.  But when we were teaching her the 3rd lesson, this angry chief guy from their family came and banned us from doing any more lessons and called off the baptism.  It was the worst.  Sita was so sad.  

I'm glad I don't serve overseas in another mission cause stuff like this doesn't happen too often in Samoa.  I think if I served in the states, I wouldn't know what to do.  The chief guy was rather rude, which was very disconcerting because everyone is always very nice and respectful to the missionaries.  Yeah, so we just left.  It was sad though.  Sita's parents were all sad too cause they want their kids to be baptized.  Samoa is hard cause they give a lot of power to the chiefs and they can pretty much do whatever they want.  We'll probably go talk to this dude though.  I'll let you know what goes down.

Also this week my porcelain crown broke.  We went to the dentist, but they don't have the equipment to replace it.  The dude said it's cool to just leave it how it is though until I get home and then get a new one.  I think if I have any cavities I'm going to get them fixed now cause they have a mission dentist and it's free.

Also, I know the Pauga family, but not too well. We've dropped off mail at their house a few times for the missionaries that live there.  That's pretty much it though.

This upcoming week we are planning for 3 baptisms and 3 marriages.  So, hopefully, it all goes down.  Only one of the marriages are for sure.  The other two we're going to try and make something happen.

Our once inactive families are doing well.  Ulia goes to church every week with her kids.  They're still waiting til the village has their meeting to decide whether to kick them out of the village for going to the Mormon church.  They're staying strong though.

Moevanu and Sipara have also been going every week with their kids.  We're hoping to get them married this Saturday.  But I guess we'll see.  They're going to have their baby blessed at the beginning of next month, little Eric Lupe Tipasa.  Being a godfather is no easy task.

Fuipisia and his wife, Tiose, have now been back for two consecutive weeks after about 4 years of inactivity.  We're planning to baptize their 10 year old son, Fuipisia Jr. on this Saturday, June 29th.  

We're also planning our marriage and baptism for Babi for the same day.  We were trying to get it going for this past Saturday, but it didn't work out.  So we're really hoping for this weekend.  So I guess we'll see what happens.

Also, we picked up a new investigator this week, Ma'agaima.  I guess he has been going to church for a little while now.  We just never knew.  We started lessons and if he is ready, we're going to baptize him too this Saturday, June 29th.  But if not, for sure in the near future.  So that's good.  

So it's good.  We're being blessed like crazy with the work.  Sometimes we get weiched, but we just get back on the rails and throw a back wizz into lady walk and let the enemy know that we're smorking on the Lord's team.  And His blade crew is just as strong.  ONe day deacons will all be passing the sacrament on blades, mark my words.  Also, keep an eye out for the new 2013 publication of the church standard hymn book.  They added hymns #321 and 322--"A Blade With Me, Tis Even Tide" and "Ye Bladers of Israel."  I guess the prophet is a huge Boyz N Bladez fan and was able to pull some strings.

Hags,

Elder Eric "Racoon Family" Johansen

PS:  If you can find any information about my buddy Cody Touse that passed away, I'd really appreciate it.  I haven't really heard anything about it--only that he died.  So that would be great if you sent me any articles or anything you find.  Thanks.  

6-9-13

June 9, 2013

Dear Mom & the Magician,

This week was good.  We just spunked around with these navy dudes every day.  From Tuesday to Friday we just went to other villages with the navy doctors and translated for them as all the people came in to get checked.  It was really good, and there was like only one word I couldn't really convey--ultrasound, which I don't think there is a Samoan word anyway so it's good.  The doctors seemed appreciative that we were able to help them.  Plus we just got to hang out and eat food and translate all week, so it was definitely a good one.

As for the work, this week was a little slow.  We did have a good lesson with Babi, and hopefully, she will be baptized this month.  We also had a bomb lesson with our investigator, Siafausa.  This dude is totally ready.  He was set to be baptized this upcoming Saturday, but since he is only available on the weekends, teaching has been slow.  So we were just afraid they would get everything ready for the baptism but he has some unknown Word of Wisdom or chastity problem or something.  But then we talked to him on Sunday night and he's good.  We baked them a cake and they are stoked (Thanx Chin & Scott).  So Siafausa will be down for baptism next week.

We also picked up a new investigator named Genesa.  She's like 10 or so.  Her aunt is the primary president in the ward and their family is way cool.  We talked to her for a little bit, and she had good questions about the the plan of salvation and eternal families, so I'm stoked on her.  We're going to teach her and, hopefully, her little sister as well at the primary president's house this week, so that should be way good.  

Also we contacted this new family this week who have all been baptized but haven't been back to church for several years.  We talked to them and then invited them to church and they totally came!  I was stoked as a bumbling bean.  The man's name is Tipusa, and his wife is Moevanu.  They have like 4 or 5 kids, so we're definitely going to help try to bring them back into activity, which is sweet.  That's just as rewarding to me as baptizing a person.  THe only thing is that the parents aren't married, so we're hoping to get that done as well.  They said they're cool to get married, but we just have to wait for our stake president to come back from New Zealand.

So I guess this week wasn't that slow really.  It's just that we didn't get that much proselyting work in because of our translation work.  But what missionary work we did get in was dopeage and totally sick.  So mean bones, my friends.

No much also to really report on for this week though.  All is good.

Elder Johansen

6-3-13

6-3-13

Quit the Hoopla, Sup Z, And other people, sup too.  This week has been fast, even faster than a McTimmy rap.  Not much really happened though this week.  We had a zone conference and temple trip which was sweet.  They put our zone together with another zone from Apia to do our conference.  My son, Elder Jackson, is ZL over there as well, so we sat next to each other and ate jelly beans when no one was looking.  So that was a good time.  And then the temple was the best as always.  I feel very lucky to be in Samoa where we have a temple.

As for the work, the area is coming along.  We have two couples who we're trying to get married and baptized.  The men are both members, but the ladies are both non-members.  Both couples are in our Aufaga ward, so we'll try to get them married on the same day.  The one woman, Babi, is totally ready and, hopefully, we can get her married and baptized some time soon.  We were supposed to have the marriages this weekend, but the bishop is a ranjo and never arranged anything with the stake president.  We may just end up having to set it up ourselves (cause in Samoa only stake presidents can do marriages.)  Babi is tight though, so she will definitely be baptized this month.  The other couple is Tavita and Sopeta.  Tavita is a member but is just barely starting to come back to church.  And Sopeta isn't a member, but has been going to church forever.  Sopeta's only problem is that she works every Sunday.  So we'll have to figure out something with that.  But we want to get them married first and then we can sort out the rest of the problems.  Sopeta is good though, so we'll see if we can get something going.  We also have a guy named Siafausa who has been going to church forever but hasn't been baptized.  We committed him for baptism on the 16th of June, so hopefully that will go down.  Also we have these two kids, Ioga and Sita.  Ioga is an 8 year old boy and Sita is his 11 year old sister.  They've been going to church for the past few weeks and really like it.  We're going to try working with the parents and see if we can get a whole family thing going.  But the mom said she's cool if her kids go to our church, so we'll have to see what happens with that.  So the work is going good.  We're hoping to have a few baptisms in the next upcoming weeks.

This upcoming week is going to be really busy.  I got asked by the mission president to go to the hospital and translate for all these people that are coming from America to do some work over there or something.  I don't really know what it entails, actually.  I guess this company called Pacific Partnership is coming to do some stuff at the hospital out here on this side of the island, so I'll have to translate what all the white dudes say to the Samoans and vice versa.  It should be good though.  The only thing is that it is all week, 8 am to 4 pm, so it's going to kill the work in the area.  I'll let you know next week how it was.

Not much really also happened this week.  Today is a national holiday so none of the stores in Apia are open.  So my comp and I get to actually relax today and not have to go to the office to do ZL nonsense.  So we're stoked on that.  We played a game of basketball this morning and then later on we're going to this beach resort to get a free meal.  The lady that owns the place promised us free fish and chips, so we're gonna go hit that up.

Oh yeah, you asked me on Mother's Day what I want to eat at my homecoming--I'd say I want it Mexican themed.  I think I miss Mexican food a lot.  We can make like burritos and Tres Leches cake.  And then everyone can be wearing sombreros and we'll have loud Mexican music playing in the background.  Oh yeah, and homemade mashed potatoes.  That's what we'll have.

Also, my comp and I have a dog.  Her name is Dole, and she lives at our house.  She is the best dog ever and sometimes even follows us when we go to make visits.  Best dog ever.

Your friend,

Elder Eric "Strap on your Bladez" Johansen

5-26-13

5-26-13

This week was the sickest!  We shredded it and killed this week until there was no more gnar to be gnagged.

So first of all, we got the call with the transfers.  My Samoan comp (my trainee) got transferred to another area in the zone and now I'm staying as ZL in Lotofa.  He, Elder Levave, is going to Malaela to finish his training.  I guess I don't really mind staying ZL.  I'll miss being comps with Levave though.  He was way easy to prank.  I was sort of surprised though.  I thought they would call someone else to be ZL and then I would finish the training program. But I'm happy too actually cause I didn't want to get transferred from the area.  

Also this week was way tight cause I achieved two of the goals I set at the beginning of my mission within two days--that being:  eating a dog and also baptizing a minister.  The dog was awesome, if you want my honest opinion.  I think the American culture has too many preconceived notions about what is good to eat.  We read in D&C 49 that those who forbiddeth to abstain from meats are not ordained of God.  Who's on the Lord's side, who?

For real though, dog meat is like a mix between pork and lamb--it was tasty.  We had it at this Tongan family's house with some other missionaries in the zone.  I feel a lot closer to Zeek now that  I have consumed one of his own.  Good stuff.

And then my other goal was our baptism we had this past week with Pule.  Pule actually has a pretty interesting life.  He was a Seventh Day Adventist minister for like 10 years and then was in jail for like 10 years as well.  He's a cool guy though.  I guess he's not technically a minister right now, but it's still pretty cool.  He's the one that had the dream about Moroni and Joseph Smith and they told him to quit smoking and join the church.  Way sick.

We did the baptism in the ocean as well at this cool spot in like a little cove-like area with these little islands right off shore.  I got to do the baptism which I was stoked on as well.

Work wise, overall this week has been one of the most successful ones I've had in awhile.  We picked up quite a few new investigators and some that have really good potential.  For sure we're in for some good work in these upcoming weeks.  Elder Gasio and I are just trying to be obedient to the days and we're being blessed like crazy for it.

Things are the dopest.  We're crazy busy, which is good.  I'm loving it here.  Everything is the sickest.

Love, 

Elder Johansen

5-19-13

May 19, 2013

Yoyoyoyoyo brothers,

Not much time this week.  Happy Mother's Day Mom!  I think I again forgot to mention it when we talked last last week.  But it's cool.  This week was dope pants.  We had a lot of success and picked up some promising investigators and stuff.

One man name Pule that we have been teaching had a cool experience this week.  After we taught him and committed him to pray whether the Church was true, he said he prayed that evening and that night he had a dream where he met Joseph Smith and the Angel Moroni and they told him he needs to quit smoking and to join the Church.  It was crazy when he was explaining it.  I was way stoked.  Pule is preparing to be baptized this upcoming week.  We also gave him a blessing so he can overcome his smoking, but he said he rarely smoked anymore so it won't be too hard for him to quit.  This man has been way prepared.  He's been going to church forever but was never baptized cause he said he was baptized in another church and didn't see the need to be re-baptized.  But now he's totally down, so I'm stoked to the days.

Also, we picked up a few new investigators who we committed to be married and baptized the first week of June.  So, hopefully, that goes down.  So the work is excellent.  I'm really hoping I get to stay in the area.  The transfer is next week.  However, I still have 2 companions, so something is for sure to change.  I think I may get transferred, actually.  But I'll let you know next week.

Also this week we went and talked to the Pulenu'u in Matatufu, a village in our area.  The Pulenu'u is kind of like a mayor, I guess, or the guy who oversees the village, like on of the important chiefs in the village.  He's not a member and isn't super happy with the church either.  We went to talk to him cause like a month ago the village put a fine on all the people who have converted to the Mormon Church and banned them from the Church.  So we went to go talk to him about changing the rule or trying to work something out.  Honestly, I was pretty 'skeered' cause when you talk to an important chief, there is like a whole different language that you use, with different words than people use just talking colloquially.  Even my comp, Elder Levave, doesn't know any of the chief language and he's from Samoa.  

So we get to the house and the guy was sitting there looking all angry-like.  And then he asks us, very rudely, what we were doing there and what our purpose was.  But then we "soothed his soul" and he let us in the house.  We ended up talking for like two hours and he really softened up to us.  I had to do most of the talking cause my comps aren't super confident with talking to people yet, especially not orators and high chiefs and stuff.  

We didn't really get a definite answer about changing the rule, but the man ended up feeding us and asking us to come back, so I take that as a victory.  Perhaps someday the village will be open to the church and then our investigator family can come back to the church and be baptized.

But it's cool.  I just thought that was sweet and it was sort of fulfilling the scripture in the D&C -- "The fulness of my gospel might be proclaimed by the weak and simple unto the ends of the world, and before kings and rulers."

The mission is dope.  

Keep spunkin' around the dunk bunk,

Elder Eric "Angelo from Boyz n' Bladez" Johansen

PS  Thanks for the package!!! The speaker is way nice and I am loving the jalapenos.  It's been like 1 1/2 years since I've eaten spicy food.  Also my comp thought the leaf fossil was way cool.  Slapmaster Ice

5-12-13

May 12, 2013

Sup,

This week was alright.  We had another baptism this week.  We dunked the heck out of Metuli. My comp, Elder Gusio, did the baptism this time.  This one was also in the ocean, which was neat as a bone.  So, I’m stoked on covering Vavau cause all our baptisms will be in the ocean cause they have no baptismal font. 

This week we picked up a few new investigators and now we cover another ward, Aufaga.  We went and did some work over there and contacted a referral from the bishop for a young couple who wants to be baptized.  Pretty much the only thing that is keeping them back is that they’re not married.  So we’re gonna make it happen.  We committed them to be married and baptized on May 25^th, so hopefully that goes down. 

And then there’s this other guy in Vavau named Pule who has been going to church forever but hasn’t been baptized.  The only thing keeping him from being baptized was that he was already baptized in another church and so he didn’t feel the need to be baptized twice.  But the bishop talked to him on Sunday and explained to him the importance of baptism by the proper authority.  So anyways, he now wants to start lessons.  We’re going to go this week and see what’s up.  I have high hopes for Pule though.

Also, Simolo moved to New Zealand this past week.  We went to visit her one last time to say goodbye.  She’s stoked to get sealed in the temple in a year’s time.  So that was kinda sad, but that’s how it goes.

But yeah, not actually a ton to report on.  I’m going to call you dudes tomorrow anyways.  By the way, we usually write letters on Sunday nights here in Samoa cause we never get the chance on p-days.  Usually p-days are like the busiest day of the week.  We mostly just do chores for the zone all day.  All good though.  Sundays are tight though—I love Sundays.

So yeah, it’s all good.  My comps are good.  We’ll probably end up continuing our triple until the transfer on the 24^th of May.  But I’m stoked on my two comps.  We get along good.  Sometimes we get into a “tiffy” about who has to say the prayer in the evening.  So I came up with a solution—now we just play spin the bottle and whoever it lands on has to say the prayer.  Sometimes we try to spice things up I guess.

But it’s good.  Missionary life is tight.  I’m hoping to stay in Lotofaga, however, I’m thinking Levave and I will get moved to a new area and then Gasio will stay here as ZL and get a new comp.  We’ll see, I guess.

Love,

Elder Johansen

PS  Happy Mother’s Day Mom!  I totally forgot when I called you dudes….

5-5-13

May 5, 2013

Hey there,

This week was mega sick.  It was like opening up the Sunday newspaper and finding two Family Circus comic strips instead of just the usual one.  Those little kids can be quite a hoot sometimes!  I’m going to go home and read the last two years’ worth of Family Circus comics—I can’t wait.

This week we finished teaching Sauaga and he was baptized, but Metuli was gone one day and we couldn’t finish his lessons, so he’ll be baptized next week.  Sauaga’s baptism was the sickest thing ever.  Since that ward (Vavau) doesn’t have a baptismal font, we all loaded into the back of this dude’s truck and went down to the beach.  It was a glorious Sunday morning, with the sun rising over the coconut trees and the smaller little islands off the coast.  So yeah, then I totally got to baptize Sauaga in the ocean—it was the dopest.  I took some pictures, so hopefully I’ll get those to you soon.  That was one goal I set for my mission—to baptize a person in the ocean.  So I was really stoked to finally get the opportunity.  One of my companions will do Metuli’s baptism next week.

But yeah, so that was definitely the highlight of the week.  I only have a few more goals left that I have to achieve before I finish--one of them being to eat a dog.  So let’s hope and pray that I can accomplish all my goals. 

This week we also picked up a new investigator named Faalau.  She lives over in Saleapaga, which is like a 25 minute drive from where we live in Lotofaga.  She wants to get baptized, but she works in Apia and is only around on the weekends.  So, we’re hoping to have her ready for baptism sometime this month.  So the work is going good.  We’re hoping to have a few more baptisms this month. 

My comps are doing good.  They’re nice and new and fresh and, subsequently, subject to a lot of awesome pranks.  Like one night a family brought us our dinner and it was mostly good, except for these two cooked pigeons with bloody feet.  Nobody wanted to eat those.  I don’t mind pigeon, but these ones were weird looking.  So anyways, that night I tied it up on a string over Elder Levave’s bed and had it swinging around so that it was almost kissing his lips.  He pretty much spent the whole night snuggling with it—kind of like the time Scott slept with the old deer carcass on one memorable April Fool’s Eve.  It brings back all sorts of lovely memories.

Also my other comp, Gasio, is a bit of a prankster himself.  When we first started being comps, he told me he was half Tongan, half Samoan.  And then we had our Sunday dinner with Uila, the Tongan lady we’ve been working with, and I was explaining to Uila that Gasio is half Tongan as well and uila got all excited.  But then later that day Gasio was like, “I’ve got a confession to make…I’m not actually Tongan.  My parents are both Samoan.”  But it was okay because earlier in the week I pranked him by telling him I was from Czechoslovakia and that now it is called the Czech Republic and Slovakia and I went into detail about it for like a good ten minutes about life in the Czech and that I didn’t move to the states until 2009.  So it was sort of like a confession session and then I had to confess, “Well, I’m not actually from the Czech Republic…I’m from Utah.”  It was like something from a soap opera. 

So yeah, it’s good.  My comps are tight.  Elder Levave for some reason thinks I go by “John” and I haven’t really had the heart to tell him otherwise.  So now I’m John.  It’s cool though.  Most people just call me “Jo” cause Johansen is too hard to pronounce.

Also we planted the watermelon seeds and they are sprouting like a steeze bone.  So I’m stoked on that.  This year should be a good crop, I reckon. 

But that’s pretty much it for this week.  It was all way good.  I’m loving the mission.  It’s all the sickest to the days.

 “Snap on your blades and hit the pavement.”

--Elder Eric “Also King of Helpers” Johansen

PS:  My eye is fine.  It only hurt for like a day and then it was alright.

PPS:  I’m cool if you wait til mid summer to sign me up for school, but I want to try at least one semester of Snow and if I don’t have the cash for another semester I will transfer to UVU.

PPPS:  Please send me some stamps.  Not 400, but maybe 20-30 pleeze.  Thanks, Chim