December 26, 2011

Hey mom, bet you didn't think I'd email today. I didn't think so either because a guy took us out to one of the outer ring islands today and we were there all day. The pictures are really cool. It was just nice and relaxing. I'm sorry this will be real short because my companion is waiting on me. I'm just so happy we got to talk yesterday and I know it will be like ten times better in person. I'll keep you informed for the memory cards and pictures. Just real quick- I don't let this distract me but I am realizing when I get back I have to get some stuff organized. School, job, phone, etc. I don't know how any of that is going to work. I'll probably buy an i-phone and school is March 1st? Where will i work? I dunno, It's crossed my mind a bit. I guess we'll see. K Sorry this is short. Thanks for the call yesterday. I'll talk to you next week. Elder Oldroyd

December 19, 2011

Well here I am. Just hanging out. I think we're going to ride our bikes around the whole island today. I think it's smaller than Rururtu actually. But there are a lot of people here. I think it's the most since my first sector. And yes there are tons of tourists. I've talked to a couple. Have fun with Christmas. We were talking about Christmas traditions the other day and I realized that I really prefer Christmas at home. Whatever. It'll work out. Christmas I'll just call you when I can. Don't wait around too much. I'll for sure be calling in the afternoon here (between like 1:00 or 3:00) so that will be four hours different from your time. Good? We'll see. If I don't get a call I'll just call anyways Christmas and we'll try and figure it out. Anyways, this week wasn't all that interesting. We did a lot of looking and not a lot of finding. People just didn't wanna hear it this week. There was good news though. Finally I got my stuff and a much needed piece for my bike. The whole week rode my bike around with the seat all the way down and it was retarded. The other good thing happened yesterday. After all of our searching two people called us over and asked us about family search. We explained it and why we do it and then asked them to take the lessons. Everyone the whole week had said no but they said yes. So we taught them the first lesson right there on the side of the road and they totally accepted it. So that's about it. This is going to be a tough week for the work but I'm sure we'll be fine. Then once January comes the work should get a lot easier. It's weird to think about but the end is quickly coming. It's going to be a fight till the finish though. Okay see you Sunday! Thanks for everything. Enjoy being home and pray for snow. Also if you guys ever see Davey give him a big German hello for me. Talk to you soon!

December 13, 2011

                                                         The Bora Bora Airport Runway

Hello from yesterday. Today president told us we could have a kind of half P-day since yesterday we were on Tahiti. I'll try and be brief. I got here Wednesday with no problems at all. A french lady sat next to e and I guess her job is to go stay at different hotels around the world. That is so cool! I don't think she felt the same way about the gospel.. I was absolutely shocked when I got off the plane. It was quite a site. I saw the other guy off whilst my companion and the other two guys were waiting for me. We took the boat to the main island and it was so beautiful with the sun setting and everything. We got to work the next day and I really like the sector. There's not a whole ton of investigators because it just got split. But we have been handling it pretty well. Me and my companion get along great. He's not crazy like his brother at all. We're pretty tight. The other two guys are Elders Neimela and Mulford. We live in the same house between our sectors and it's pretty cool. Except for every one's sick with the cold I'm getting over. Otherwise, we went back down to Tahiti Sunday morning in order to sing that night. I've never seen more people in my life. The thing was too full and members had to give up their seats for investigators that came because there were so many. We absolutely killed it singing too. People were in tears. The spirit was rockin it there. We all ate and slept by the temple together that night. The next day we had our big P-day all together then ate Turkey. How random, turkey. Later on at the airport I saw my companions parents. They were totally cool and kind of apologized for their son's behavior. I told them it was totally cool. I feel like that whole thing is finally over now since I now know his family.. Anyways, now we're back and I'm excited to go out and work. Wish me luck. I'll talk to you next week and then on Christmas. I'll try and tell you guys when I'll call. Time is going by so fast I can't believe it. See you next week.

December 5, 2011

Family, I am being transferred tomorrow to Bora Bora. That's about as cool as it gets for the last two months. I take the plane tomorrow afternoon. Mo is transferred too. He'll go to Tiperui. So our poor sector will have two new guys - Elder Coulson and the Elder he'll be training. It's the same deal at Taravo. Both Elder Bell and his companion are being transferred. Bell's going to Tahaa. It's a weird transfer but I won't fight it. I'm just so stoked to no longer be with my companion and to go somewhere where I can just work normally and have fun on P-days. It's kinda weird though because I'm going to serve with the brother of that guy who freaked out and hit me. He seems like a nice and not crazy version of his brother. Plus two other missionaries are coming with us. It'll be a riot. This week was like any other. It was really hard to get out and work. As usual our companions just did their thing. Then Hamula came and we all slept in the motel next to the temple. It was sweet. Saturday we had two meeting with him and they were both a lot like the others. Just these life changing, question answering spiritual bombs. Yesterday I got to go and see a bunch of people to say goodbye. I certainly couldn't see them all but I was really happy to see those who I did see. We also had a miracle happen. We were low on gas and because my companion refused to stay in the sector and see people, he wanted to go to Taravo. Okay, whatever. Anyways, while we were going I realized we were almost out of gas but it was Sunday... So my companion gave me a whole speech with a somewhat loud and angry voice about why I should go fill up the car. He told me I was really stupid for thinking it was a bad idea to go on a Sunday. I ignored him and prayed that we wouldn't even get on reserve. Afterwords me and Bell went out to see some people and the very first family we saw (the Tehaavi's) offered us gas.. We took it! They filled us up quite a bit saying that they were the answer to my prayer. I dunno.. Little random miracle. I was so happy. Also we did a baptism for that old grandpa on Saturday. My companion didn't want to come. But it got done anyways. He was really super old and slow moving. I baptised him and despite all the difficulties it worked out. He was so stoked to get baptised. Well that's about it for this week. Finally the nightmare is over. Elder Mo is gone. I'm just going to go kill it out there in Bora. There's lots of work to be done. I'll tell you all how it goes next week. I'll be here on Tahiti actually because we are doing our big singing project. So I'm going, coming back, and going again. Cool stuff. Wish me luck. Also I did get all three packages. Now I just need to stuff them all in my suitcases and send them to Bora. Thanks for everything.