Questions: My week has been good. Elder Johnson and I were pretty much the same person before the mission, same video games, same foods, same activities with our friends, it is pretty cool. He really is becoming a good friend. As far as missionary life goes it feel normal now, there is still a lot of new stuff, everyday we have people to see all day, not all investigators but some less actives, and a lot of members, referrals etc. The guy from Brazil moved so hopefully he talks to other missionaries some time. I want you to see Will but, I didn't go over and visit his mom even once so if he doesn't come it is probably fair. :) I can't believe the Honda turned up! and it had my In-N-Out car kit!
This Week:
One of the things that I am struggling with that I never imagined I would have a problem with is food. Every missionary always has a story about gross food but that is not what I am talking about even though I did have an experience with that this week. The thing I am struggling with is simply the quantity. When we go to a members house for Fefanga (dinner) it is always good food but man they just keep feeding us and we have to finish everything on our plate. I can't keep up. This has never been a problem for me my whole life, I have always been able to eat a lot but I can't keep up with these people haha. It is not my fault that each plate they dish out for us could feed a family of four, and then they give us three plates each. I am eating way too much, this is a struggle that isn't really that bad though I mean who doesn't love food?
I did have a gross dining experience this week however. We went over to a Tongan members house for dinner and we were greeted by a man who didn't speak English. The way the culture works here is that the man of the house eats with us and everyone else leaves, it is a little weird to get used to. But anyways this brother started going off in Tongan and we had no idea what he was saying, he is a big old guy that is in a wheelchair, he actually reminded me of like a Tongan version of grandpa Harvey. :) He had us sit down and pulled out of the oven an entire pig head! I am not joking it was an entire head that was cut in half and put flat on a pan. It was cut in half so you can guess what happened next, he served a half to each of us, and put some taro down on our plates. I just kind of sat there looking at it. We prayed over the food and as he said the prayer in Tongan, I said a prayer in my heart to be able to eat it. It was probably the most sincere prayer I have ever said. My companion just dug right in, it didn't even phase him. He just broke the jaw and started chowing down. I just kind of stared at him and then I realized that Tongan Harvey was just staring at me so I followed my companion and started just eating. it was actually surprisingly good, like I thought it was going to be awful but it was pretty good as long as I didn't focus on what I was actually eating. I did however manage to avoid the brain and the eyeball. My companion spent the rest of the night making fun of me, and said this was not going to be the last time we had a meal like that. So I better get used to this. But my prayer was answered and I ate almost all of it.
The funnest part about this week was definitely our ward Christmas party. First off I need to confess, back home the ward parties were never my favorite thing to do, it was good to go and support it but I never really wanted to go. Here is totally different I love them not just because I am missionary. The islanders go hard on the ward party. The was obviously a ton of food, A DJ and a Dance floor, hundreds of balloons, A blow up slid for the kids in the courtyard, a talent show for part of the night, and was completed by two brown dancing Santas! It was amazing and as an added bonus we had 3 investigators come and 2 less active families.
The party was great but it wasn't my favorite part of the week. My favorite part of the week wasn't until yesterday (Sunday). We were greeting people as they came into Sacrament meeting hoping to see our investigators that we invited, none of them came which was sad but this is when we met Kim. Kim is a man from China that is staying in NZ for the next 2 months. He has a wife and two kids back in China, he came to NZ to find a better place for them to live. He told one of our members as he walked in that he wanted to become Christian and asked if it was okay for him to stay for church. This member said, "Yes!" (Very excitedly) and then pointed him right to us. As we were able to talk to him he explained that he was never religious in school they told him that God wasn't real. He didn't believe until he went to Europe and visited a Christian church, he showed us a picture and I am pretty sure it was the Vatican, or at least it was Catholic. He told us that he saw a statue of the Savior and made a wish and it had come true so he wanted to become Christian. This was a while ago I guess, he was to busy to learn about it and become one, and then last night he had a dream, He said his deceased father had visited him and told him to become a Christian or at least that's what we understood, he doesn't speak English that well. He said he woke up and came to the closest church to where he was staying, and that is where he found us. He stayed for all of church, he came to our Gospel Principles class and we asked if we could come and teach him more later in the day. At first he said no which was confusing for us, he seemed so keen to learn, but as we asked again he explained that he doesn't want his friend that he is staying with to be mad so we asked if he could come back to the chapel at 3 for a lesson. He said yes and we were able to teach him The POS [Plan of Salvation] (that looks bad if you don't know about the lessons haha that piece of..) He understands English very well but man it was such a hard lesson to teach, the words he isn't familiar with like, Celestial, Terrestrial, Premortal, etc. He was looking up all of them as we taught. He was very excited though. That is when I was able to invite him to be baptized. I did not expect it at all. You know when words are just like coming out and you don't even know that you are saying them, like "When's that baby due?"... This time it was kind of like that but it was definitely the Spirit, what an amazing feeling. He accepted, and we are planning his baptism for the 3rd next month! After this amazing lesson the ward member started showing up at the church for a ward activity, they were going Christmas caroling, one of our members invited Kim to come and he went! We had another appointment so we couldn't go but man it was awesome. In one day we met an investigator, he attended Sacrament meeting, we had a Sunday School lesson, a POS lesson with a member present, a new investigator set for baptism, and he attended a ward activity. Elder Johnson said that this is probably the fastest he has ever seen an investigator progress! It was amazing. This is really when I felt like a real missionary!
It has been an amazing week. Sorry for such a long email. If you don't want to read it Keeg and Xoch I would suggest printing it out, it hopefully was a good one. I love everyone back home, you guys sound like you are having fun. As far as the christmas call goes I think the president sent you an email or I hope he did. Talk to you next week
I love you "three"
-Elder Summers
My camera just died so I can't send more pictures sorry, I did manage to get these on here though.