February 12th, 2011

Family,

 So this week has been a little trying. Lots of people missing their appointments and very trying of my patience. Got some news this morning as well. Elder Whitney will be leaving me on wednesday. He's been having a really hard time with his asthma. All the time he doesn't have enough oxygen so he's very fatigued. He's going back on a medical release. His mission time will continue while he gets checked up at a legitimate doctor in Australia and likely transfers to a new mission because the climate was the thing affecting him along with the uncleanliness and smoke. Just the 2 of us now.  Thanks for the package! The contents were great! I ate very well on my birthday. Started with the blueberry pancakes in the morning and had the christmas dinner you sent me at night and also the cheesecake. I had something kinda lame happen on my B day though. The sisters gave us  a referral in blacksands. We went in there and asked around for a bit until we found where he lived. We got to his house and a woman and an old man were there. I asked if Lemai lived there. He said yes and asked how I got to this house. I said a little girl showed us here. He asked the name of the girl. I sensed something so I didn't say her name. He started getting upset and saying we were trespassing. I apologized calmly and he said we were being "un-christian". I apologised again and said we would leave. I asked if we could ever come back with his permission. He said ,"it's too late, you've already trespassed." so we left. The funny thing is he doesn't own that ground, no one owns ground here. Whatevs. Also this week I was feeling a bit discouraged. As we were walking I said a prayer in my head asking for a successful day or to be lead to someone. Not long after this  a small woman approached us and said "I'll come to church on sunday". Her name is Emi and she's a less active who was baptised in 2000. We didn't say much of anything but seeing us sparked something haha. She came to church on sunday and looked very happy. Also this week we started teaching a man named Santi. He's one of our investigators' dad. He is an interesting guy haha. He talked about a vision/dream he had in which he saw adam and eve and the dream told him to stop drinking kava and alchohol and using tobacco. Also this week we had another baptism. Sam Thomas Iwai. He's an awesome kid. He's 17. I love all our converts here. After the baptism we were just walking out when a woman approached us pleading for us to pray for her. We went and gave her a blessing of comfort and counsel. She said she had a devil? but from what some others said it sounds like she has a mental disorder. We went to go check on her yesterday but she's in the hospital. I hope we'll be able to help her out. Also, this week we had a branch activity. It was a "drama" . All the youth and elders quorum made skits. My favorite was the Elders quorum. Brother Garae played satan and he was tempting Papa saksak and Charles. Brother Garae wore baggy clothes and glasses and a beanie he looked way funny haha. Anyways besides those stories same as usual, just working hard and trying our best despite a hard week. Thanks for all the packages! If they're getting too expensive you can stop though  .FYI, check the church news on the 17th I believe? They will be announcing something thats very cool related to my mission. Can't say what it is,haha, I'll just let the suspense build.

Elda Sears