January 24, 2011

I'm trying to keep the delicate balance of trying to work without upsetting my companion. It's good though, the more success we have the more he is encouraged to go. Me too, actually. We're finally starting to get a little more settled here. People are starting to get to know us and like us. Just yesterday we were with our branch president at this guy's house but he wasn't there so we started talking to these two old guys. They just loved us; they couldn't get over their excitement that I spoke Tahitian and some Rurutu too. They were just like "You gotta come back so we can get you perfect". I hope they realize that they will feel the spirit and they will be baptised. Hah, seriously though it was the most fluent I have ever spoken; not one word was out of place. I felt like for that moment there I was truly given the gift of tongues because normally my Tahitian and my Rurutu aren't so clear and easy. Anyways, point being we've made a lot of contacts and most of them fixed lessons for this week. Although as we all know just about when this sector has lots of lessons and baptisms and stuff I'll get transferred just like the other ones. It's OK I'll just live with it. If that's the life I'm supposed to live so be it. Oh also I forgot to tell you last week.

You asked me if I had found out that thing that I was supposed to do on my mission that no one else could. Well Sunday morning I was reading in D&C and I was kind of distracted by that question. So I asked to receive the answer. In the subtitle alone I received my response. It's all like "The Lord tells Oliver to be patient" Crap. Well there's the answer. I don't know if the rest of the section is applicable or not but either way I know that I've just got to keep looking. Not just asking but searching too. Otherwise it was a pretty normal week. I guess actually my companions bike broke and he had to poop and we were blocked at every turn. No one was home and everywhere was closed. Well finally w"e figured it out. Then we had to get to another city with only one bike... Yeah basically we looked ridiculous. I got on the handle bars and held his bike whilst he peddled. Everyone loves the Mormons cause they do weird stuff like that.. Point being we made it to our two lessons who both bailed on us. Dang! Well anyways that was that. We're still saving the world one service project at a time. Saturday we planted tapioca so that the Ward can go to the temple. Cute huh? Lots of people got stung by the evil bees but it's okay because we burned them and I got some funny videos of it.

January 17, 2011

The work goes on. I am saving people's souls one service project at a time. This week I built a wall again and also looked for more rocks. Which taught me a very important lesson about cement - it's super heavy and it is destructive to flesh. And I even raked a guys yard and burned like a million coconuts. It's okay though, our investigators are starting to come back into existance. Someday we'll see progress, someday... Seriously though it's all good, time's scootin along until that year mark. The future is looking bright though. The gospel is still true and our investigators are still at least listening to us. We've certainly got some potential in this area. I'll tell you how they are next week.

January 10, 2011

Here are some of my stories since we last spoke- three wild horses came into a guy's yard the other day and destroyed a whole bunch of stuff before we chased them out. Those things were sent by Satan himself. They even broke his grandmother's tombstone. It's weird how people bury people in their yards here. Let's see here, then on New Year's Eve we went to do a service project for a guy in our ward. When we got there he explained our work - kill the pig. Wow, that's an interesting service project. Well okay. So we're walking the pig out to the killing point and rather randomly this guy tries to stab it. But he missed the heart so the thing freaked out. Then he tries again and misses again! So it really freaked out and charged on us but right before it got to him the other guy got a better hit. It fell down then they started calling me "marite marite". My name is hard for the small island folk so they just call me American... Anyways they wanted me to be the one who put the blade through his heart. I guess it's cause I'm white? Anyways I did it and by the end of all the cleaning and stuff I realized a pig is a huge project. But in the end it was all worth it cause I got to eat part of his heart and stuff. Also we went on the tour of the island with about three quarters of the population on Thursday. It was sweet. Everyone just gets in their trucks and on the scooters and dirt bikes and everyone goes around the island stopping in each little village where they lift up big rocks. It was sweet. But the last and final competition a buddy of mine dropped the 145 kilogram (319 lbs) rock on his leg. He was cool on the outside but you could tell he was kind of stressin about his leg. Well anyways everyone just ate snacks and watched as they took him to the hospital, animals. Well just to show you how crappy the hospital is here they told him he was fine and they gave him the equivalent of ibuprofen. Well the family decided it was broken so they sent him to Tahiti, yup. The final story happened last night. At about 3:45 we heard a frantic tapping on our window and when we woke up and looked there was, how do you say, a maniac. So we went outside to see him and he was lost, man. He was walking in these weird small circles and then rolling on the ground and stuff. But the thing that made it weird was just that he wasn't laughing. Normally people like that are laughing but he was beyond that. He was also like pulling something out of him. Some invisible string that ran from his heart to his head. Then he was trying to throw up on our porch and when we told him not to he said he had a problem with his heart. Dude go the fetch home. We were so sick of him. Finally we took him home and he ran into the forest. Seeya dude. It was weird; he wasn't just high, he was possessed man. Well anyways that's really what has gone down here. The past couple weeks have been kind of discouraging because everyone is just on vacation no one is taking their lessons right now so we are just doing service projects and stuff. I like the service projects but I don't like the "and stuff." MY companion is real hard to get moving but I think we'll do alright in the weeks to come. Just know I am always still kicken. I mostly just move rocks and rake leaves, though. Whaterr.