Wow

So this week has been crazy!

We are having our mission tour with Elder Pearson and so the whole schedule has been switched around. So our P-day is today. Lol but how is everyone doing? Dad, Mom, Lindsey, Andie it was good to get your e-mails! Hey I have received one letter! Mom I got your driftwood letter! Ha it was nice to get a handwritten letter! So how is the fall season! Here it's just hot and humid. Yesterday I thought I was going to die how humid it was! Still not quite used to it, don't know if I will ever be though. Our area is huge and we went and got our bikes fixed last week and they already broke. So we get to walk again. I think they lasted about 3 days, oh well, they weren't that great anyways. I only had one gear and so I couldn't even peddle up; the little hills, I had no breaks except for my foot, and our helmets that we get to wear are about to fall apart. Ha so I don't know what I would rather do, walk or ride those things lol. Made me realize how lucky I was with my bike at school. Ha, so I guess I am not talking enough about Samoa, so here is a rundown of the day.

Wake up... 6:30
Prepare...7:00
Breakfast...7:30
Personal St...8:00
Comp St...9:00
Language...11:00
Proselyte...12:00
Dinner with Member...6:00
Return Home...8 or 9

We get 2 hours of companion study with the new 12 week program that greenies get. The reason we return to the house before 9 sometimes is because in Samoa people find it disrespectful to come to their homes after 6, unless you have already made an appointment. So we try to get appointments after dinner but it doesn't always happen. You have to be very careful about not being disrespectful to their culture, especially since they consider us ministers. Most people respect us but some still don't like Loko Mamona ha mormons... You can tell that Satan works everywhere in the world. One thing that Samoan's have problems with is their Samoan Pride. You would think with the way their lifestyle, being meagle and everything they would be a lot more humble. But some of them are so stubborn it's not even funny and they think Samoan is by far the best place in the world LOL. They think that America is full of gangsters because of all the TV shows they see and movies. Because I guess in American Samoa is a bunch of wannabe gangstas! LOL The people are nice though, they always get after me for not knowing Samoan though, gets annoying. Ha and they always through in random english words to show how smart they are, lol. Most of them have very broken english. Because they watch TV and Movies in english all the time so they can pick it up. Some people though have really good english, but in my area there aren't very many people that can speak English and I'm glad so I can try to learn Samoan.

People's main concerns are: Wonder what others would think about them, their family will dis-own them for switching religions, they are scared of the Chiefs. The Matai's are dumb. They are the ones that make up all the rules and some of them think they are kings. Like in some villages they made it so if you switch religions you have to pay $500 or something dumb like that. We have two villages where the church can't build a chapel their because of the Catholics have taken that area over already. So everyone in those villages are Catholic and if you switch then everyone will gossip about you and all this dumb stuff. So the work is hard that way. Like everyone gossips, I guess that is just how people on islands are. There isn't very many people so everyone knows everything about everybody! LOL... People even talk bad about the Bishop, and their is a lot of pride about being the bishop or in the Stake Presidency, lol. But I love the people. If people weren't scared about what others thought then there would be a lot more people joining the church. Everyone I have talked to besided one street contact, likes what they hear about our church. It's good though. We just baptized our first investigator Saturday, it was legit! I get to baptize for my first time this next Saturday probably. A little boy named Day... LOL Samoan names are hilarious! Then next week we are suppose to baptize a really old lady. We are working hard and my companion is a really good teacher. When we are in lessons I can understand a lot more than I can everywhere else, because that's all they taught us in the MTC. He helps me a lot with the gospel side too. The language is hard, it's not like spanish or german or other big languages where you can translate it completely over to english. It's such an old language it's almost like cave man talk lol... But the main thing is I just have to be patient, because it will come with time.

Well I love you all and thanks for all of your support! I can't wait to get some of the letters that some of you have promised lol... But I hope that life is going really good up their in the U.S.A. It's a lot different here than there I can assure you that. Kind of hard to keep up with all the culture rules. My buddy from the MTC that had surgery finally arrived Saturday I guess. I bet he was glad to get out of the MTC, lol. I'm so glad that I chose to come on a mission. It has already taught me so much about our Savior's love for all of us, I have learned so much about the gospel, and I will never get another chance like this to spend all this time devoted to the gospel. So I need to make the most of it. The work is good, we work hard, sweat a lot, my legs kill in almost every visit, get laughed at a lot. I seriously get to embarass myself everyday! It's a very humbling experience, I guess I needed to shrink the size of this head a little! LOL I love you all and please still write...
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Elder Boren