A few differences from the meeting but we haven't seen to much fruit yet. We are trying to get some progress, it is easy for us to find people to teach, everybody is keen for us to visit but we are looking for people who are ready for baptism, or ready to make changes. Most of the people we teach aren't very close to making covenants. We still visit but we are trying to change our focus into finding, which it is hard for us to go finding when we have so many people we could visit instead. We like teaching a lot more than finding but we are going to change things this week. Glad you got to see the dance, it wasn't anything too flash but it was a lot of fun. I wish there was a cousins temple club back when I was home. Sometimes I feel like members don't understand the work we put in, they think that just becuase we don't have anyone set for baptism right now means that we aren't really working hard enough, no one has said that but it feels like that when we talk with them. I feel the same way with working sometimes, on the mission it is probably easier though because your testimony gives you the purpose in working not the members, or the leaders in the mission, or even the other missionaries. It is funny the people we run into on our adventures, it is cool for me to run into people from my old areas just randomly on the street. Keegan looking into buying a house, Cooper finishing, Kody adopting Tate it sounds like it was a busy week. The Hangi is pretty much fun because of the tradition, it is pretty inconvenient and the food is average for me, but it was always the people that makes it one of my favorite cooking methods. It is one that I probably wouldn't do very regularly but maybe everyone once in a while. haha. It is fun that everyone got to taste it. Cooper sounds a little mission trunky, but who could blame him. As far as going to BYU-I Preston has been asking me to go with him every week for like the last 3 months or so, we had talked about how it would be cool to go to uni together but that is about it. haha My plans right now would probably be just finish my associates at SLCC and then transfer to somewhere else for a bachelors but I haven't really put to much thought into it or looked at too many options. I am realizing that I have pretty much only planned up until my mission in life haha. It is crazy that people are starting to finish, I will be one of the last ones home but that is okay, I guess I am the lucky one!
This week:
You could probably guess but This week was a pretty good week. I think that it would be unfair for me to say that it was the best week ever there were some hard days but it was a lot of fun. The hard times were that we haven't really been able to see our main people. I went on trade off with Elder Faa'moe and he had a migraine so we had to spend a day inside. Our ward mission leader accused us of not visiting very many people and even asked us how we felt the quality of our teaching was - like our teaching was what kept people from progressing. It was hard to be humble, but I guess I have learned how to hold my tongue and reply nicely when I have a chance. As far as the results from that meeting what has happened is that we were able to talk with our bishop and he has pointed us toward about 5 part member families to work on. We have been trying to visit them but the ward has a renewed focus. We brought them up in ward council and all the families should be visited this week, and invited to church by different people then just us.
The best part of the week was probably a couple of experiences. The first one is that we were able to have a really good FHE with an active member family with a LA [less active] man named George that we were working with. He expressed his testimony during the lesson and showed us a song that he had written having to do with how he is so grateful that Heavenly Father had given him his mother who was his main support before she passed away when he was about 10, he then went into foster care and has had some really hard things happen in his life. It was amazing to see how his life has played out and how hard he is trying to change things. He is making some really good progress.
Another fun experience this week was when we went over to teach Bro Malua Fatialofa. He was baptized just before I came into the area. He is from Samoa, has been married for a long time to an active member, his kids are all members, and he is in his late 50's. He doesn't speak English fluently - enough that he can communicate but not enough for him to be able to be easily understood all the time. He is so awesome. He spent about 20 mins explaining to us how his daughters are trying to get him to eat healthy because he had gained a lot of weight since he left Samoa. They don't allow him to eat taro more than once a week and he is very sick of eating fish and salad. He then told us about a machine that you put things into it and it comes out as a drink. He just couldn't believe it, he had never seen this machine before. We were laughing as he explained to us that they were putting celery and carrots and fruit and spinach together and then they would make him drink it. He hated it. Hearing him explain it to us in broken English was so entertaining. We were all laughing at his sheer disgust as he was talking to us about it. He is a good man who is very loving and he gave a talk in sacrament and it was awesome. It was one of the best lessons all week.
Love,
Elder Summers