O te le manatua.....

Family, Friends, and everbody else!!

The title of my email today is I don't remember.. LOL! I really don't remember what happened on specific days this week... BUT I remember moments! SO forgive me as I share moments of this week with you!

Our Tongan District left earlier this week. So we sang to them one song from each of our languages as a parting devotional. Everyone was crying, and The spirit was ridiculously strong. The new Tongan districts came on wednesday, and the zone leaders and Sister training leaders (us) were in charge of orientation for them!! Yikes!! It went well though! I spoke on the blessing of companionship which is an awesome subject!! There are only 4 new sisters in the tongan district. So we lost 7 and only gained 4. but they are awesome!!! One of them is Sister Hosea, and her little brother (Elder Hosea) was in the tongan district that left right before they got here! Crazy!!

We taught Silao (Uso Kinnison's persona)  twice this last week. The first time, I finally did my part without any notes of any kind (WOOHOO!!!) but all of us felt like something was wrong the whole lesson. Kinnisone called us back in after the lesson and told us we were awful. LOL! Not really but kind of! We were teaching lessons not people! Basically the problem was we moved on to the second lesson before we made sure he understood the first lesson *sigh*. We were scared to test his understanding because we were afraid we wouldn't understand. Yes I am aware we are ridiculous. So the second time we went over each section of the first lesson and had a great discussion about it. Our lessons are only supposed to be ten minutes long... ya that one was 35!! BAHAH!! Go us! Kinnisone said we crushed it, which is basically the best praise anyone has ever gotten from kinnisone ever!! 

We taught Faletui (Uso Haws's Persona) and it was also a disaster. I misunderstood what he said: He wasn't 100% sure joseph smith was a prophet.... I then asked him to be baptized...

......

.....

.... awkward

The good news is he wasn't scared away (probably because he can't be scared away) and he said he'


d think about it. We are teaching him again tomorrow... We are probably going to do something similar to what we did with Silao and then talk about the spirit. We haven't ironed out the details yet.

The worst mess up was Damuni though!!! While he was teaching Silao he had him read matthew 24:19 instead of 24:9-10!!! LOL!!!! They were meaning to talk about the apostasy!!! 19) "And woe unto them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days!" They made poor Faletui read it twice!!! He realized it was the wrong verse but didn't know what it said until he came back into class and read it in english!!! Uso Haws came in crying because he was laughing so hard!!! whew, good times!!

We had TRC on saturday which was hard. We had legit Samoan people and they both talked fast and very little.... but it went alright. We were also supposed to have SKYPE TRC LAST NIGHT!!! AAAAAAAAHHH!!! We were terrified!! ACTUAL PEOPLE FROM SAMOA!!! Sister Corrigan had an anxiety attack (she gets them occasionally), and everyone was planning on reading everything from notebooks. BUT MIRACLES HAPPEN EVERYDAY!!! All of the volunteers backed out last minute so there wasn't anyone to talk to! SO we just taught the people in our district!

This was a tender mercy as well because President Willes had asked us to sing our district's favorite song (lua Sefulu fitu)(that means 27) to the new tongans and then also sing their song (the song they sing for goodbye devotionals) to them. We had to say no because we would have TRC! But since TRC fell through we were all able to sing to them and President Was Thrilled. President Willes is an amazing man. I am honored to have him as my branch president and be able to serve as a sister training leader under him. He genuinely loves and knows each an everyone of us... And when he looks at us you just know he sees you the way heavenly father does.

OH!! More Good news!! Sister Garvin gave me the okay to play volleyball this week!! Yay!! I'm still not allowed to run though unless it's on an elliptical ;)

Uhhhh.... Part of sister training leader duties is interviewing all the sisters on saturday nights! WE HAVE THE MOST AMAZING SISTERS IN OUR BRANCH!!!! I can't believe I have been giving the opportunity to serve them! I am so honored!!

Another funny story:

Wednesday is the day we change out our linens. I make my companions' beds when they forget (which they hardly do anymore). But while sister Garvin was getting ready I was changing her sheets for her and making her bed. Sister Beckwith (from the other Samoan district trio) was distracting her so that she wouldn't get mad at me for serving her!! But sister garvin set me up and I couldn't resist making a sassy comment!! So she turned around to roll her eyes at me and there i was on her bunk!! LOL!!! I was totally caught red handed!!

In class we play this game called trashketball. Uso Haws (uso kinnisone is way to serious to play this game) writes something on the bored and one person from each team has to translate it. whoever translates it the fastest correctly gets to try and make a basket with a wad of paper and the garbage can. If you make the basket you get a point. But uso haws decides where you stand and where the basket is placed...

no one has ever made a basket LOL!!!!!

Uso Kinnisone takes after the Samoan chiefs, he is very serious and is always right. Uso Haws takes after the children and hunchs to anyone superios to him, makes faces at us, says unnnhhhh alot (which is an improper way to say right?), and sticks his tongue out at us a lot. We consider Uso kinnisone our teacher and the other district considers uso haws their teacher. But we love them both!!

We really love it during story time!! They both tell us about their missions in Samoa!! About being attacked by packs of dogs, foot long centipedes that bit you and make you sick, being fed 8-10 HUGE meals a day, Prayer time, The super long speeches everyone makes (we have learned two: one when you want to talk to someone for the first time, the other when you are talking to them again). We LOVE story time!!

The elders got their travel plans yesterday.. they leave on the 5th!! So we are all getting sung goodbye to on tuesday. Ours are in the mailbox (we can see them) but we don't know where our district leader is to get them for us... UGGG!!! We will get them later today i guess.

This means we will be released as sister training leader on tuesday. I'm trying not to think about it. It makes me sad.

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS AND LETTERS!!!!! Gramma thank you so much for your package my district loves the candy!! Family thank you for the package, We will have a very happy sunday!!! Thank you for your love and prayers and support!!! I love my mission. the spirit is so strong. The MTC is an amazing place. I know Heavenly Father loves us. 

Alofa Ia te outou!!!! (I love you all)

Sister Peo

Photos: 

Bumped into Mary Lambert at the temple! 

sketch of floor 

schedule

sketch of room

O le a 'ou tautala i le tala lelei

Family, friends, everybody else!

I apologize for my confusion last week!! NOW i leave two weeks from monday! Time is very difficult for me to keep track of here!! Bahaha ;) Our tongan districts are leaving us on monday and sunday (leaving us to be the "oldest district") , so our branch got shaken up a little bit calling-wise this week! Which means I have some very exciting news to share with you (thus the subject line which reads: I will speak good story):

We have been called as sister training leaders for our zone!! Woohoo!!!  All three of us!! Isn't that crazy?? President asked to meet with us after devotional on tuesday and we started immediately after that. WE have a phone, so president and the front desk can contact us whenever. SIster Garvin is in charge of it so that way we dont lose it!! ;)

TRC is ridiculously fun!! You just chat with people and then share a spiritual thought and challenge them to do something! They said our samoan is good... What liars!!! THey said all you need is pigeon samoan/caveman samoan and the spirit. I can handle that!!

 On sunday the Nashville TRibute band came and performed for us. Needless to say i about died from excitement!!! Sister Garvin and I were in the choir (sister corrigan is now... but wasnt at the time) so we got to sing back up for them on a couple of songs (i was born and the john song). Sister Garvin now loves to listen to them so now we have jam sessions in our room on the speakers!!

On tuesday another samoan teacher was hired to start in the fall! SHE!!!!! She has been shadowing Uso kinnisone!! We love talking to her because it is easier for us to mimic her inflections than it is to mimic Kinnisone. We stilll go to Kinnisonne with our questions because he knows how to explain things better, but we listen to her for pronunciation. After we got our calling, held zone prayer, and went to sleep everything went wrong. I tried to lay down to sleep but started coughing like crazy, and had an asthma attack. from laying down.. ugg. I ran out into the bathroom and just sat on the floor. My Soa (companions)(plural things are weird in samoan.. sorry about that!) were right behind me. We spent about 30 minuter on the bathroom floor until the coughing eased enough that we could go back to the room. THat was the worst 1/2 hour ever. I was just sobbing/dying on the bathroom floor while sister garvin held me and sister corrigan looked confused as to what to do. Bless them!

THey stacked up all the extra pillows in our room (we have the biggest room with only us 3 in it. but 3 bunk beds still! Maybe i will take a pic for next week!) so that i could sleep propped up. I didnt end up sleeping at all and when i "woke up" my throat was completely raw!

I only tell you all of this so you can know the miracle that was Wednesday!! Otherwise i wouldn't have said anything because i know it will freak you out!

Sister garvin wanted me to go to the doctor wednesday morning, and i of course would rather die than go to the doctor! we finally settled on asking elder reid and elder holt for a blessing. BUT WE HAD SO MUCH TO DO!!! the other trio in the other samoan district was sick! So we had to bring them meals since we are Sister training leaders now! SO as quickly as i could move (which i couldn't move very fast at all.. LOL!!) we ate, delivered meals, asked for a blessing, then met them in our class room. Our room and class areon the third floor of different buildings so we are always climbing stairs. I couldnt do that. I would start coughing my brains out and because it hurt my throat so bad i would cry again. it was humiliating. I'm sucha baby.

Elder Reid and Elder Holt gave me such an amazing blessing. THey promised me things that were also mentioned while i was being set apart. THe spirit was so strong!! We are so blessed with such amazing elders! I am so grateful!!

I was almost immediately better!! We avoided stairs and hills like a plague, but i was remarkably improved. SO much so that when i hosted later that day I was normal! I hosted 5 new sisters! It was an amazing experience! (and I even did stairs!! Whoop whopp!!) 

Mentally I was pooped though. The last chunk of class (3 hours) with Uso Haws, I had zero idea of what was happening. My head was basically underwater. But apparently our lesson with Uso Haws's persona Faletui went well... BAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Yesterday we hung out at music auditions for devotionals like usual. We originally went because Elder Wolz sang Savior Redeemer of my soul beautifully on sunday for our branch, so we convinced him to audition! But after Sister Garvin was done accompanying him, other last minute auditioners asked if she would help them too. She is such an angel I swear!! She helped 3 other people, we were basically there for another 2 hours! Bahaha!!

I recorded elder Wolz singing during a practice!! But it is too big to eamil home... YOu guys can see it when i mail back my camera chip though i guess!!

I GOT PACKAGES TWO PACKAGES THIS WEEK WOOHOO!!! Thank you so much Grandpa Jeff and my family!! They really brightened my week!! Mom and Maggie: I don't know how but the flower made it!! I was so excited!!! I wore the new skirt yesterday!! And we polished off all the chocolate chip cookies yesterday!! Grandpa jeff your cookies were a hit with my district! THank you!! THank you so much for all of your emails and dear elders i really love it!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU SOOOOOO much for all of your love and prayers!! I feel them every day!! It sounds like everyone is doing well and having a party without me!! I love you all so much!!

Miracles happen every day!! Heavenly Father wants to give them to us, we just have to apply our faith!!

Alofa,

Sister Peo

P.s. I hope this letter makes more sense than last week! I wrote it on paper before typing it up so that I wouldn't keep FObing out!!

P.P.S. A really good line that was made during the FOB game this week:

Aisea- why

Someone was writing Aisea on the board and saying it really slowly while they wrote. Elder REid said "Aisea was a prophet"!!! BAHAHAHAHA!!!! 

I'm sorry if you don't think these are funny but i seriously almost wet my pants!!

P.p.p.s. img 65 sister garvin and i accidentally matched earlier this week... BAhaha (yes that is not my belt.. I borrowed hers! She basically styles me in the mornings! BAhaha!!)

img 66 Yay packages!!! Notice the flower that somehow survived the mail!!!

Faiga

Family, Friends, Random people,

I can't believe it's already P day... It feels like i just emailed everyone yesterday!! Time is so strange here. The days are long but the weeks just slip between my fingers. Samoan is one of the prettiest languages ever! But it is soooo hard for me. I'm working hard, sister garvin and i basically live for vocab. Over meals, in between class, in class, we are always speaking vocab. I know speaking was the wrong word to go in that sentence but it's the correct word in samoan.. I'm wicked fobing out. 

BAHAHA!!! Yesterday we were leaving the classroom for the night and sister garvin said "no we come back"!! The struggle is real!! The worst is that our english is slipping but WE DONT EVEN KNOW SAMOAN!!!!!! We had to teach Uso (same gendered sibling... but he is a brother... they don't make us change it) Hawes last night in samoan spur of the moment.. no notice... *insert correct english here*. The whole class taught him and no one knew what to do. Most of us just sat there trying to fabricate something to say. (i can still remember words like fabricate... what is wrong with me?) 

After that atrocity we basically went and cried frustrated tears to "our teacher" (they claim that they are joint teachers but uso kinnison taught us way longer than haws) Uso Kinisone. He offered to come early to his shift (our dinner) and just talk to us in samoan. BLESS HIM!!!

It has been a rough week. The realization that I am leaving the MTC two weeks from monday (Mom's note: she leaves Sep 7th) is not helping anything. It's kind of like: Here are all of the sentence structures, here's a dictionary, find some vocabulary and leave. I never thought I'd want to stay in provo longer than I had to, BUT THIS IS GOING TOO FAST!!! I STILL KNOW NOTHING!!! that's not true but it feels like it.

Next week we are teaching a lesson every single day alternating betweeen Faletui (Uso HAw's investigator) and Silao (Uso Kinisone's investigator). We teach Silao for the first time on monday. Not to mention that we have TRC for the first time on saturday. TRC is when we teach two different sets of people that are members for 20 minutes. with nothing but our brains. what. i'm going to die.

THATS TOMORROW!! WHAAAAT?!?!

I really do love the MTC. Sister Garvin and I hold eachother accountable for eating healthy (which is basically impossible in the MTC by the way). Today was a bit of a fail... we ate all of the sage butter popcorn... it was delicious. OH! and we at all of the canadian smarties my family sent us in basically one sitting. Which reminds me sister Garvin humbly requests that you send us more if you guys still have some from the drive home ;) We also wake up early and go running. I was doing really well initially, until i pushed myself too hard and had an asthma attack. sister garvin was furious with me. since then i haven't really been able to run but i'm okay!! 

What else...

ummmmmmmmm

My scheduled leave date is the 7th not the 8th? haven't heard anything about my visa.. but i should this upcoming week!

other news...

the struggle is real. I don't know that i have anymore..

 img 56 is of me and sister garvin (sister corrigan skipped temple walk and stayed with a sick sister)

img 59 is our distrcit minus sister corrigan 

               Back row: Wolz , Anae, brooks, holt, damuni

Front row: REid, Garvin, Peo (check out my awkwardness.. Whoop whoop!!)

the companionships are: Wolz and anae, brooks and damuni, holt and reid, peo garvin and corrigan.

Anae and reid have Samoan families, which i personally think is like cheating. Everyone asks if my last name is samoan... I just look at them and laugh. I am so palagi (pa-lang-y)(slang for white people). But Peo is pronounced the correct way in samoan. Just some fun facts!

img 60 is how we practice our lessons for investigators

Despite how difficult my week has been I KNOW my heavenly father is watching over me. The spirit is always helping me and editing things i'm saying in my mind. I know he cares about me and everything im doing. I cry to him all the time and i know he is listening. Every vocab word i get stuck on, he is there to help me. I have never prayed so much in my entire life, and never before have i felt the spirit so strongly inside of me. No matter hard time i am having i would never trade this experience for anything. I am so happy i am here, and I couldn't be having more fun. I can just feel all of the incorrect verbs... I apologize! let me sum it up: Heavenly father love me; heavenly father love you; heavenly father love everybody! I'm going to stop now.

Thank you so much for the packages and mail!!! sister canaan you are great!! It was so awesome to see Jansen Sears this week!! 

Alofa,

Sister Peo

P.S. the title to my last letter meant"I love my tripanionship!" this one means"difficult"

E Alofa a'u i tripanionship

Talofa Family Friends and Whomever else is reading this!

Very exciting week over here in Provo! The biggest news I have is that I am now in a tripanionship (I have two companions instead of just one). Sister Fiti went home to California (not Hawaii.. sorry for the false info in the last letter) super early monday morning. So Sister Garvin joined Sister Corrigan and I!!! THANK HEAVENS FOR SISTER GARVIN!!! I LOVE HER!! I really would've died about 19 times this week without her! 

My meltdown count is at three: 1) was on saturday and I was just so frustrated with not being able to speak the language. 2) was on monday when I still couldn't speak the language and 3) was monday night when I really just couldn't memorize the spiritual thought schpeel. But Everything got way better when sister garvin joined our companionship! She likes to work super hard just like me and she expresses confidence in me that I can do things. Bless her!

I'm all good now though I promise!!! I now know how to say a prayer, give a spiritual thought, I know 3 sentence patterns, and 100+ vocabulary words. Whoop Whoop!! 

Our investigator we were going to teach for the first time last week was named Fa'asavalu, he was super cool! He turned out to be a teacher: Brother Lolofie. He taught us a few lessons this week but got offered a full time job at Vivint so he's leaving. Tomorrow is the last day we will teach him and we've decided to invite him to be baptized... As an investigator he is ready, and it's our last lesson.

We are getting a new investigator... I don't know "investigator name" but he teaches the other samoan district in our zone. We call him Baby Hawes because he is fresh off his mission to samoa and he looks like he's 15 years old. He will be taking Brother Lolofie's place for us. Our first lesson with him is on monday, and we are not allowed to use notes. We will have to make up sentences while we are in there... it's taking a lot of preparation!!

We are also teaching our district meeting and our relief society meeting on sunday!! Whew! Our preparation has been jam packed with action! Speaking of which we went to the temple today and did sealings which is SOOOOOOO COOOOL!!!!!!!

Okay funny story time?

The Elders in our district play something we call the F.O.B (fresh off the boat) game where someone says a random word, and they have to incorporate it into a sentence with a FOB accent. If they are really good they will change the meaning of the word with their accents. I will give an example but I don't know how effective it will be without hearing it:

Really

My friend has a motor bike and we do weally on it.

Sounds dumb. BUT WE DIE LAUGHING!!!!! THey play it all the time! The best is when Uso Kinisone (brother kinnison) joins in!! He is hilarious when he's not condescending ;) speaking of brother Kinisone he is crazy!! we are totally allowed to wear maxi skirts!!! he was just making stuff up!! I know because I asked Sister Willes and she said she had never heard that and sister wear them all the time!! BAHAHA!!!!

another funny story:

Our brains are not liking having to speak two languages, so everything ends up all jumbled. We call it Fobing out. I in particular have the tendency to Fob out:

A couple of days ago sister garvin and i were walking through the cafeteria and I said "hang on, let me get a thirst".... definitely meant a drink. Also Wednesday we were studying vocab hardcore so we could reach our goal of 100 vocab words in a week, and that night I had a dream that I was just saying Fa'amoemoega over and over and over. I woke up and apparantly I was sleep talking! Fa'amoemoega was one of my vocab words, it means purpose. I WAS SLEEP STUDYING!!! I have problems. I am desperately hoping that Samoan will click soon. I have a hard time with the vowels... and consonants.... and words... and samoan....

But I am drastically improved from last week!! Woohoo!!

I have gotten SO Much dear elder mail!!! I LOVE IT!!!! Sister Garvin and I bug our district leader All THE TIME for mail (otherwise he forgets to give it to us)!!! So keep it coming!!! Thank you soooo much Gramma, Grandma, Mom, Padre, Mitch, Bugs, Aunt Darci and anyone else who has written me a letter (thats all I can remember off the top of my head, so if you wrote me but i didn't mention you I am sorry!!!) BUT please sign your name... There were a couple where I new who i figured out who it was from from context, but otherwise i wouldn't have known... (Mom) ;). I love you all so much!! I feel your prayers everyday!! 

Alofa Ia te 'oe!!

Sister Peo

I literally can't see what my pictures are and it's not letting me attach anymore (im borrowing someone elses card reader)(I need to go buy one at the MTC store) so i hope it's the one of my tripanionship in front of the temple... if it's something random I'm so sorry!!! LOL!!!!

(I SAW SISTER WELCH!!! SHE CAME ON WEDNESDAY!!!!!!! Also here's more pics!! of my zone in front of the temple!)