2 Weeks in Samoa

From: Collin Boren
Date: Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 1:27 PM
Subject: 2 Weeks in Samoa

Well hello world! How are you out there!

Ha i'm starting to like this island thing! It's hard not understanding but I can pick out a lot of words! But I can tell I'm getting better each week. We have a lot of pretty views of the crystal clear water. I can't wait for you guys to see this one picture of me and the water! It looks so good! Ha the island is pretty and the people are nice! When we are at church I like it though because I can understand a lot more! Because that's all we learned in the MTC was gospel talk. Noteverday talk. And in church they talk with the T's and N's and not the K's and G's... You wouldn't think it would be so hard to hear the difference. But when they talk as fast as they do, my mind can't register it ha ha. I'm in the village called Tuana'i. My companion said that it's probably the biggest area in the whole mission. We have 3 villages in our area and my bike broke so we either have to walk a really long way or we have to get taxi's to drive us all the way down there. Sometimes we get lucky and the members will see us and give us a ride. Mom yes we have a fridge, shower, and bathroom. We use the church bathroom and our shower is really nice! Nice cold water every night and you get to become well acquainted with the dozens of spiders in their. Oh yea, sometimes you get to see some long centipedes in their with you as well... But it's better than bathing with a bucket right! We soak our clothes in buckets all day with detergent. And then we scrub and rinse them out in the shower. It's fun! But it takes too long! Makes you miss the machines ha ha... We don't have stoves but they are suppose to install stove tops here pretty soon... I don't know where we are going to put it. Our house is so small... Like 8 by 10 i bet... Just big enough to have two small beds and two small tables we use as desks. Oh I thought the beds were uncomfortable in the MTC! Oh my goodness. We have little tiny foam pads as our whole bed. And when I lay on it I am practically laying on the wood... Ha ha but I'm ok! It's making me tougher huh! I don't mean to complain, I actually don't mind this life style!

We are working with a man named Agele and he is supposed to be baptized the Saturday after General Conference. We are excited. He has a smoking problem though so it might not fall through if he relapses.
But me and my companion are working hard. Trying to be as good of missionaries as we can possibly be! We have a really neat family that lives next to us. They are considered the missionary family because
they always have the missionaries over. We go over on Sunday nights and they give us some treats... Ha, its fun and they are trying to help me with my Samoan. Being hear has taught me to appreciate my life
back home, and how good I had it. It has also taught me the value of the things we have in our life. Things we take for granted or think are trash in America, is worth a lot here in Samoa. I have also learned to try and face the challenges I have been given and become stronger from them. I know that if I am obedient and work hard and do the will of the Lord's he will help me become stronger. I know my Savior lives! I know that his sacrifice was the ultimate sacrifice! I know that if we follow this gospel of his. It will make us happy. Too often we think Commandments are holding us back. But I have seen already how it is sins that are holding us back. We can't be happy with a sinful life.

I love you all and hope the best for you! Thanks for everything!

--
Elder Boren