Howdy all!
It’s been a really good week here in the down unda! (er, under, I suppose is how you’re supposed to say it but I’m trying hard to hold on to the accent I have and I’ll explain why.)
Well first off, I’m the only white person in the ward as far as I can tell (excepting one of the other missionaries). Everyone else is Polynesian. It’s great in a lot of ways, and not great in others. First off, you’ll never need to worry about me being fed. Ever. We were at a member’s house or members dropped us off food basically every day this week, and that seems to be the normal thing. You may need to pray I’ll actually get nutrition out of this food though, five nights in a row I had KFC. I’m not sure what it is with Polynesians, but they love their KFC. Having so many islanders also means that when we do visit members, it’s hard to get out of there on time. They spend forever with the missionaries. Our mission president is really trying to crack down on this, we actually had a mission conference addressing it on Monday (hence, emailing you today, I should be emailing on Mondays normally.) Our president has told the members that feeding us isn’t important, and they should be more concerned about helping us find, teach, and fellowship investigators, and he told us that we need to spend less time at the members unless we have an investigator or less active there. I think he’s right, but man it’s going to be hard to get the members to realize that. It seems like all the members here have the attitude “we’ll give the missionaries a rest from their work at our place”, down here, and they all want us all the time, therefore leaving very little time to actually do the work. Elder Lavulavu and I are working hard though and were taking the members with us teaching, so we’re on the right track.
Living in the flat right now is pretty awesome. I’m the only one who isn’t studying a language at the moment. Elder Lavulavu studies Tongan (he’s actually mostly Tongan, part Samoan and Fijian, but was born and raised in Hawaii), Elder Rose is studying Samoan (he’s caucasian, from Utah, not even called to speak foreign, but placed in the Samoan ward) and Elder Tuipolatu, who’s full Tongan, speaking Samoan, but he grew up in America Samoa, Hawaii, and Texas (he also speaks fluent Tongan). So sometimes I’m just stuck outside the conversation because at least two of the elders understand each other and can speak to each other in another language, and I just sit and listen.
Alright, time for some answers to your questions:
I thought you could only teach people in your area. Is that not right?
It depends on what you mean by that. You can’t leave your area to teach anyone. However, in this case, he’s been leaving where he lives to come be taught. We’re way closer to where he actually lives now, he’ll have to pass right by us to go to where we were before. There is a little matter of getting him to come to the ward he lives in, but it’s universally understood it’s better for him to join the church than it is for him to not join the church because the church forcing him to go somewhere. The Paramatta ward is in actuality, the place I would recommend for him. That’s where his friends go, that’s the type of environment he’s looking for.
Please tell us a little more about this investigator. You haven’t told us his name, how you found him, how old he is, or anything about him.
Well, to be fair, that’s not entirely true, you just may not have put all the incoherent pieces together. His name is William, he’s 17 years old, and we had a member refer him to us. He was invited to a youth dance by this member where he met missionaries and decided he wanted to learn more about the church and set his life in line with God. So this friend invited him to church and introduced us. He’s Tongan, loves to play rugby, and wants to join the church.
Also, tell us a little more about your companion and your other flat mates. I bet that will be fun to be in a foursome!
Well, elder Lavulavu worked in the PCC before he came out, he’s into computer hardware, and he’s a really great teacher. Elder Rose is still scared to death to be in the samoan ward, and now training, but he’s doing alright. Elder Tuipolatu is brand new, but on fire. He’s not afraid to do anything, and he’s super exited to go to work!
What is new your area like? How big is it, where does it cover?
I think it’s really small. The general feel is that the people are really nice, but not interested. That’s a lot better than not nice and not interested. We have a couple of really good part member families we’re working with as well, and one investigator who seems really keen to learn, but will have difficulty making it to church because her son has severe autism, and will need someone to look after him, and she doesn’t want him to cause a disruption in church.
What are you eating/cooking?
Good ‘ol Kentucky Fried Chicken
How many missionaries in this ward?
Four
How many missionaries in your district and did you know any of them from before?
Eight. I know only one of them who was a district leader in my last zone for two transfers before he got moved here.
Love you all!
Elder Shelton