Samoa

Howdy yal!

Ha am I still enough of a country boy to be able to say that? Or am I turning into an islander? LOL I don't think you'll ever be able to take that away from me, no matter where I am at. How are all of you? How is the weather like where you are all at! Thanks for writing me everyone! I still haven't received any letters through the mail, are you all sending the letters to the American Samoa address? Because if you send them straight to Samoa, then they cost twice as much and take like 3-4 months to get here, because they come on a boat. That's why we send them to American Samoa so they will get here a lot faster. Anyways how is the United States? How is football? Are the Broncos doing any good this year? Down here all the talk was about the Rugby World Cup that New Zealand just won. They all love their Rugby, and if Samoa doesn't do as well then they all cheer for the All Black (New Zealand) because they have a few Samoans on their team. Ha they are always making fun of football because we wear pads and helmets and stuff, but the funny thing is none of them have ever played football so how would they know ha, but who cares right. Are the Cougars doing any better or are they not playing well this year again. I guess it's alright to have a couple of re-building years right? So I heard what Shauni's kids are for halloween! That's legit, they all sound awesome! Especially the cowboy theme! Ha ha, what about everyone else, what is everyone else going to be for halloween. No, I don't think they celebrate it down here, maybe they do, I'll have to tell you next week.

So I think i'm a little more adjusted to the lifestyle down here. Some people have a really hard time getting fa`amasani (becoming acquainted/getting used to) with the culture and lifestyle here. The hardest things for me is the sitting crossed-legged all day and the language. Some of the food is hard to get down, not going to lie. And eating here gives me some bad habits. Like you eat with your hands in every meal and stuff like that LOL. There isn't much hygiene practiced here. They do wash their hands before and after the food though, so that's good. I think my stomach is just barely getting used to the water here, lol. Ha my MTC comp said you have to bless the water and all of the parasites in it, LOL. It's good though, the members are always feeding us big meals, and they always try to provide the best they can. Yesterday alone I had breakfast, like 3 times where people brought snacks, ice cream, and two dinners. It was hard to get all the food down. That was the only day that was like that though, like usually I try to eat more because I feel like I will lose weight if I don't. I'm still the same weight so I'm not too worried about it. I guess if you are in Savai'i you usually lose like 20-30 pounds and if you are in American Samoa you usually gain 20-30 pounds. Ha so it's quite the interesting mission.

The work is going good though! We have a baptism set up for this Saturday and next so I'll try to get you guys some pics. This will be my first time actually doing to baptism so it will be cool! We have some other investigators too that seem like they could potentially become baptized too! We are working hard, and mom didn't I say what my companion's name was... Elder Tanuvasa. He is from L.A. area and he is a Samoan too. He is a hard worker and we are having a great time, I don't think our companionship could get any better. I have been really lucky so far. I have had two really good comps! I think it helps a lot because we don't ever have to worry about having contention between each other. I'm starting to be able to read a lot better in Samoan. Like I am starting to be able to understand the meaning of most sentences. My vocabulary still isn't very big, but it's getting bigger every week. The conversations are still shaky though. I can pick out a lot of words I know but I can't put them all together by the time the sentence is over. But Hey I can't complain too much, it has come a long way since day 1.

Our Mission just had our Mission Tour. Elder Pearson from the 70 came out! He was so good! He got up in our faces a little bit and challenged us to get better. But I know that anyone that has a testimony of Jesus Christ, If they were to meet him, would know that he was a representative of Jesus Christ. He flat out told us that our mission could be doing a lot more. That we aren't using Preach my Gospel enough. He was sure that he wasn't going to leave Samoa before he tried to help fix everything. He thanked us for devoting 2 years of our time and for sacrificing everything we had in our lives and that most people are age wouldn't even consider doing this. But he said that if you want success, it's going to take even more faith and more sacrifice then that. He helped me realize that PMG is the only book in our times that was written by 15 apostles of the Lord. So use it! It's inspired, it has everything we need to become better missionaries. I believe that if we all read PMG that it can help everyone of us. Don't read like Ch. 7 learning a mission language, and the last 2 Ch. 12,13. But I believe that the rest can help everyone. It even states that in PMG itself. Especially Ch. 3, read the lessons please! That's your commitment! I will check up with everyone in 2 weeks and see if you read Ch. 3 with all the scriptures. K! I know that as you do, you will be able to feel a lot closer to our Heavenly Father and His will foryou. Please don't take this gospel for granted, and especially don't take the Boof of Mormon for granted. It can help you and bless your lives more than you can know if you read it, and search, and feast on it's words. Like Elder Scott said. Scriptures are like packets of enlightenment. They can help fill our souls with light. I promise you all that if you start reading the scriptures a little more diligently than you already are, then you will start to feel life's everyday stresses easier. You will be able to get through them without as much of an effort. You will feel a happiness inside of yourself that you won't want to lose. There's a reason that all of the prophets that wrote these inspired writings sacrificed a great deal to bring this message to us. If you don't take the scriptures serious, then you are telling them that you don't appreciate their sacrifice for you. Especially Joseph Smith who went through all of these challenging storms of the adversary to bring this to us. Read the WORD, it's a commandment. Read it constantly so you can be the person that is holding fast to the Iron Rod, and when you get to the Fruit of the Tree, God's love for us. You won't be the one to walk away from God's Glory when a little persecution comes your way and you don't have the testimony to stand up to it. Remember President Monson said When the time comes for testimony the time for prep is over.. Love you all

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Elder Boren