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