First off, I will agree with Colton when he says that this week has been a little stressful (haha) President Bingham asked me to train a new missionary straight from Samoa (I've been in Australia for one transfer). I laughed when I read mom's email this week because she said "just be glad you don't have to train in Japanese." Elder Falaniko started learning English in the MTC, so proselyting sometimes ends up looking a bit like charades haha :) On the up side, I'm learning a little bit of Samoan :)
Life is good though. Elder Falaniko is super excited to learn everything, which makes it easier. He was the first person in his family to join the church 2 years ago and since then, his entire family has been baptized.
We got two new flat mates! Elder Aiono (American Samoa) and Elder Olson (Alberta Canada). Elder Aiono is a big guy. He started as a nose tackle (I don't know what that means) for the Oregon Ducks before the mission. He's a super funny guy and it's nice to have another Samoan speaking missionary on hand to translate if we need it.
Elder Aiono's uncle (lives in Sydney) dropped off some stuff from Samoa this week. I got a really nice lava-lava (it's olive green with black tribal patterns). I feel like doing a haka every time I put it on. I also got to try some Cocoa Samoa. I'm not sure how they make it, but from what I understand, it's mostly straight cocoa and it comes in a hard block. To make the drink, you grate some of it off into boiling water and add sugar. It tastes slightly burnt, but it's pretty good. I'm probably going to try a timtam slam tonight with Cocoa Samoa. Ote fiafia ile Cocoa Samoa. Manaia
Spiritual Experience:
We were teaching Brooke last Saturday and she had some questions about families in the plan of salvation. She was a little upset because we stress the importance of families so much, but she is currently going through a divorce. She couldn't see how there was a place for her in the church. I felt impressed to turn to Elder Falaniko. After some brief explanations (he was mostly following along with the discussion, but we had to explain her question), Elder Falaniko shared his conversion story with Brooke. He then pulled off the sleeve that he wears and showed her the tattoo on his arm. He told her about how before he became a member, he made some bad decisions, but when he was baptized, all those sins were washed away. We shared about how ours is not a religion of mistakes and punishment, but one of forgiveness and growth.
Elder Nelson
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