Glad you could make it out to Providence. Elder Johnson is the man! He was a great missionary and I am glad he was wearing his tupenu and jandals - he did not disappoint! The weeks are flying, days are slow - you are right. I am pretty much feeling better. I have overcome it mostly. Just a few random coughs here or there. I get along with my companion when we aren't trying to work. During proselyting it is pretty hard to do everything, all day, everyday. I keep asking him to do stuff and he will do the very minimum of whatever I ask. It is kind of annoying. We keep working but this transfer seems like it might drag on so far. I knew Xoch would get the job. Coyotes were that close? That is pretty cool. Good choice on the gray suit for Keeg. Sounds like the family is busy and life is pretty exciting right now. No Poly's up north just white people and mostly Māoris. It is a totally different culture. I miss Islanders.
This week:
So this week we had most of our appointments fall through. Including our dinner appointments. It was pretty disappointing and it was really hard to keep focused. We weren't able to see any of our progressing investigators so hopefully we will be able to see them this week.
We had a cleaning inspection this week from our property manager. So last p-day we spent the whole day cleaning inside. It was a bad day but we did spend the whole day planning our p-day for today. We are going to visit a waterfall and we found Nerf guns on sale for $5 each this week and we are going to have a war after the waterfall. The guns work really well. We had the zone leaders sleep over at our house and we were playing Nerf Zombies until about 12 - I am exhausted but it was a lot of fun and a good morale booster. Today should be fun.
We were able to see Mohe (aka Choncho) yesterday. Unfortunately we were going to a tangi [a traditional Māori funeral ceremony]. Mohe's uncle died in a motorcycle accident this past week. It actually happened right in front of the chapel. It was really sad,. He was a less active member that I had met briefly before. He was in his late 20's. It was on another marae [a marae is a spiritual community meeting place and is used for many important events.] and we were welcomed onto it and then we did the awkward hongi greeting and I kissed about 100 girls on the cheek. Feels weird but at the same time it feels like I am back at home re-livin' the glory days ;) It was sad to see the family. I gave a talk again during the funeral. They asked my comp to do it but he just looked at me so I had to do that too. He told me he was nervous after but he has been on a bunch of maraes in the past. No worries I will probably end up speaking again at the second service tonight. Unfortunately with Mohe we we're waiting on his family to decide when his baptism is going to be. Understandably though the family has kind of put everything on hold. It was another good experience. I just kept thinking about how weird it was, and I never expected to be here a year ago. Some pretty cool stuff happens on the mission.
Love,
Your Elder Son
[For more info on the traditional Māori funeral or tangi please click here]