MALO LO'U AIGA!! MANUIA LE ASO!!!
So
glad everyone's safe and doing well this week!! This week I thought I'd
just go through a Day in the Life of a Samoan Missionary!!!
6:30-Prayer
for the days activities, interpretation of tongues, to not have the
runs, and to thank for all the blessings I've received with all yous at
home and here on the mission! We then usually get a solid workout in. The food here isn't exactly on the "healthy, better homes and
garden health page"! Anyways, we then shower in the cold rain water that
fills the tank from the mountain above us, so sometimes we get some
leaves which is always fun! Then we get dressed and ready for the day!!
8:00-Prayer
to begin personal study, and throughout personal study, faitau le Tusi A
Mamona, sauna (prepare) mo lesona ma tagata sailili le aso na (for
lessons with investigators that day), then study PMG!
9:00-Comp Study!!
10:00-12 Week Training!! Basically just go over how to become the BEST missionary the Lord knows you can become!!
11:00-Language
Study!! Wonder what the heck everyone is saying around me first of all,
then usually sing some hymns and read in my Samoan BoM to better
understand! Then I've got a fat language study book that I hit up for
about 20 minutes or so!
12 noon! We usually get a nice lunch
of peanuts, water, and sometimes a muffin! Trying to eat healthy, but
sometimes it gets a little sketch! (like Keato said, sometimes we get
some pringles and ice cream cause we're way hungry!
Then
around 12:30ish, we begin Preaching the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST!!! We
have appts set throughout the day, our first with Pilikaki ma Chris!!
(they're getting baptized this week hopefully) We walk around the bend
to the next village where they are, Asili! Then we finish the lesson,
well my comp teaches most cause I have no idea what they say half the
time, then we go to our next apt wth Lui ma Mau, which is about a 20
minute walk to Se'etaga, 3 villages over. We teach him in English, cause
that's what he prefers, and he has a way strong desire to be baptized
but he hasn't commited to a date yet because he wants to attend church
for a couple weeks which is awesome, cause he needs to anyways if he
wants to be baptized, but we heard he didn't attend this week, so we'll
have to see what happened. (Quick tangent, each week we switch off from
Leone 3rd to Amanave branch because our area is so stinking big, so we
can only attend church with one or the other so our investigators in the
other ward or branch that we're not in sometimes don't come because
we're not there, which isn't good, but we're trying our best to work
with the members to help our investigators but it's coming along as best
we can!) Then when we finish that lesson, we'll try and contact another
referral at the edge of Amanave, in a village called Agagulu, but we
can't get a hold of her, so we come back to Se'etaga and contact a less
active, while he was drunk he asked to have us come over, so we met with
him and the bishop has also been working with him we found out, so
hopefully we can get him back to church! We then go to a lesson with
Mindy, we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, leson 3, and she's
commited to baptism the 14th of November which is awesome! The family
she lives with is all LDS, her husband and his family, and she's been
coming to church the past two weeks which is phenomenal! Haha because in
Samoa you'll get heaps of people telling you they'll come to church,
yet no one will...it's sad because every 1 in 3 people we will meet in
Samoa is LDS, (from our mission pres, President Hannemann, which we met
with him on Friday which was way sweet!! He's awesome and he served here
in 1974, he's a little tougher than Pres. Tolman, but I think they're
are missionaries that need that push! Anyways sorry for the tangent!)
and there are so many in actives its so sad! They've already made those
covenants with the Lord, yet they won't renew them each week and it
hurts to see because they don't receive as many blessings as they could,
if they came to church and has really opened my eyes and made my
testimony grow about the importance of the sacrament each week!! Then
about this time, we have our fafaga with a member family in the ward,
and we get to eat stuff like taro(a purplish root), pisupo(basically fat
and cabbage soup), fa'i (boiled bananas), fried chicken(the fattiest
chicken you can find basically), faiapilikaki(basically a tuna and other
fish soup that's really good with taro!!), niu (coconuts with the top
chopped off and you drink the water inside which sometimes is
carbonated), and there's heaps of stuff that I haven't gotten to try yet
cause I'm on Tutuila but we don't usually have this all at once usually
just a couple but it's great food, heaps of protein and fat so it's a
love hate relationship but it's all good! Then afterwards we go to an
appoint ment at the edge of Leone with a lady we met getting off the bus
named Samoa, she paid for our fair and then we just got to chattin and
her entire family is LDS but they're all back in the states, her
daughter just got baptized, and we're going to meet with her tonight
actually so I'll letcha know if she actually wants to take lessons,
we'll see! And then we walk 30 minutes back to our house so we get in
before 9, plan for the next day, and then shower and pass out!
So
that's kind of a normal day as a missionary in Samoa, at least in our
area which it's so big a lot of our time is spent walking to appts which
is kind of a bummer, but we look for opportunites to help God's
children a long the way!! I LOVE IT!!
Mom Dad- Loves yous both and I cannot
believe how much I miss you guys!! It's so comforting to me though
because one of the typography quotes I brought from Audrey was one from
Elder Holland and I can't remember it exactly, but it says along the
lines of, "Because of your faithful call to the response of the Lord to
serve Him, He will set You and Your families free!" Something like that
but know that I love you both and cannot express the amount of love
respect and admiration I have for yous!! Hopefully I'm becoming the son
you want me to become!!
Glad everythings going
great this week with yous all and glad that the party that went down at
the barn wasn't as messy as the last!! I know the Lord is blessing yous
all when you serve Him and continue to strive and become more like Him!!
Good job on the "ponderizing" this week!! My comp and I are trying,
he's doing well with it but I'm struggling a bit just cause my samoan
isn't quite up to par, it's like at a +12 over right now but I'm working
on it! Training half way done, we finish in Dec 1
I think, and I have a way strong feeling I might train whether it be
this next transfer or another but we'll see!! I will go and do the
things which the Lord hath commanded for I know that the Lord giveth no
commandment unto the children of men, save He shall prepare a way for
them to accomplish the thing which He commandeth them!!!
Love yous all FOREVER!!! And so glad our family can be together forever with this amazing gospel!!!
Elder Larson
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| Taking a pic in front of some beautiful flowers |
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| On the road with a flower for a tail |
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