Halloween in Samoa!

Talofa Lava
O a mai outou?

How is everyone doing up there in The United States of America! I'm just doing great and been just as busy as ever! I hate to break it to you all but there is no Halloween in Samoa... So I don't get to see a bunch of costumes or anything like that. But i'm glad, so I can actually e-mail you all this week! So the World Series is over huh? Sounds like my boy Holliday came to play... Ha. So our Cougars are having a rough year huh? That's too bad. Thank you all for the letters and mom I got the package! Loved it, down here cereal is a luxury. The cheapest half decent cereal is 20 bucks. So we enjoyed them a lot! Thanks

So since I got some letters I can answer some questions! Ha...
The houses... Everyone is wanting to know what the houses look like. Next week I will send some pictures on what some of the houses look like. There are two kinds. There are houses that they call 'White-Man' houses and then there are the traditional Samoan Houses. White man houses have walls around them, thats the only difference. Most people have there regular house, a house that they hang out it, and a little tiny house out in the back that they cook in. Most of the houses are about the size of dining room we have back home. Some houses, the richer people own a house about the size of the merrill house. People really don't have much down here. If you remember on the Other side of Heaven, the traditional houses look like that. The very fortunate people have a little 15-20 inch t.v. and very few have a little mini fridge. Our meals we have a morning meal, usually cereal and a little snack, and then we have a dinner at night at one of the members houses. Sometimes you feel really bad because they are so poor and you are taking away from their meal... They sacrifice more than you can imagine sometimes to feed us. But if you don't eat there food you hurt their feelings really badly. One because of all the effort they did to go and get that meal for you, and two they wasn't blessings. Ha, sounds bad, but if you were in their position, you would do the same thing. And they truly believe that they get blessed if they feed us, and I believe that they do too. We specifically ask God to bless them in our speeches and we always remember to pray for that family that sacrificed so much. Our house is NW of the chapel and it's all by itself, and Andrea helped me realize I was exaggerating a little bit. The house is more like 12*12 not like 8*10. And the other day I went to take a shower and there was a huge like 8 inch spider sitting there waiting for me lol. Angela i'm sorry about the migraines and Chase's talk made me smile.

Well the work has been really good, I can't write a very long e-mail this week sorry but I will get a longer one next week with some pictures next week I promise. We had a really amazing blessing experience this week. This boy that lives next to us went to the hospital because he was really sick. He woke up one time and he said he saw this really weird man throwing cards on the table and doing all kinds of weird things while he was sleeping. They think he was practicing witchcraft. He was really sick for about a week and couldn't stand up on his own. The father asked us to stand in the circle while he blessed his son. So we did and he commanded that any evil spirits that were in him to leave immediately. Within 30 minutes of giving the boy a blessing the boy was sitting up and felt a lot better. It was such a testimony builder to me. I was also able to baptize an old lady and a nine year old and then they had me baptize a primary baptism too. The old lady, a week before she was baptized we had to bless her so she could walk. She couldn't even walk a week before her baptism and then she could barely walk the day of the baptism. I was so scared when I had to baptize her. It was scary! But I guess I won't be as nervous the next time I baptize an old person. ha ha. So, the work is progressing really good. We are taking part in a service project. We are going to build a bus stop and the people that are helping us want to name it after me and my comp! LOL they are awesome! Anyways I want you to all know how much I love you and your dedication to serve our Savior. Please continue to keep up the good work. I do need to check up on how everyone is doing with the PMG reading. Thanks for telling me mom how you and dad are doing. So next week I want to hear how everyone is doing lol! Keep up the good work!

love you all!

--
Elder Boren