Fgamanu Fulu ma Malumalu

Friends, family, missionaries, strangers,

It Has been one heck of a week!!!

We went to the temple which was so awesome!! We did initiatories and a session!! The New Zealand temple is so beautiful!!! 

We also had our baptism on saturday!!! WOOHOOO!!! So exciting!!! It was so cool!! While Fagamanu was getting changed back into his clothes we had to give a presentation on the restoration. I was terrified!! But the Holy ghost helped me, and Sister Taituuga told me she didn't know i could speak samoan like that! I can't... the spirit can ;)

The struggle has been real this week with learning samoan! In the beginning of the week i was to afraid to even speak. Now i will speak, but i over think what i am trying to say. BUT I AM TRYING!! Everyone told me there would be lessons where i wouldn't understand the investigator, but i didn't realize i wouldn't understand my companion either!! In the instances i dont know what to say!! Baahah!!

Sister Taituuga and i have worked out a plan this morning that we think will help immensely with this situation. We breakdown everything we are going to teach that day into parts and divide it, that way i know exactly what to study. I will have to let you know how that goes!

Have i mentioned lately that sister Taituuga is an angel for being so patient with me??

SHE IS!!!! Oh my goodness I am so lucky!!!!

Padre asked me if I covered the whole zone by bike. Yes We do, but we never bike because sister Taituuga doesn't like to bike in sunday clothes, so we walk! The members are so nice and if ever they see us walking they will pull over and give us a ride!! The members are great!! They are constantly feeding us!! I didn't eat breakfast yesterday and i didn't even notice until 5 minutes before our feed (faufauga)...

We joke that we could not buy groceries and be fine because we get fed so much! We are buying more food though because not doing so could lead to some uncomfortable mornings ;)

Funny stories:

We walked past a street called arnwood, and my soa started singing "onward ever onward..." LOL!!!!

My Soa Doesn't have an accent except on the 'g' sound. So I always tease her about the cold and gold... or as she says: cold and kold. 

I LOVE YOU ALLL SO MUCH!!!!! THANK YOU FOR YOUR LOVE AND PRAYERS!!!!!!!

Alofa tele atu,

Sista Peo

P.s. I received two letters and a package this week!! How blessed am i??? THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!

 Fgamanu's baptism

 Hospital Selfie (from 2 weeks ago)

 First Temple Trip in Hamilton

Sister Peo

Kia ora!  Greetings from the New Zealand Hamilton Mission.

Sister Peo arrived safely to Hamilton, and is already labouring in her new area. Her companion is Sister Taituuga.  They will be serving in the Redoubt Zone, up in south Auckland.   I have enclosed a picture of them, one of the entire group that arrived the same day, as well as a picture with us.  We love Sister Peo already!

We look forward to serving with Sister Peo in this wonderful work as the missionary wave floods this great country of New Zealand!  We need her and are excited to serve together!  Her testimony will grow as she helps others receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

Arohanui,

President and Sister Rudd

Papatiso

Family, Friends, Everyone else,

I ASKED SOMEONE TO BE BAPTIZED ON WEDNESDAY AND THEY SAID YES!!!!! HE WANTS TO BE BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!! We are working so hard to make sure he will be ready!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I am so excited!!!

His name is Fagamanu, he is 63 and has been going to church for 3 months now! It's kind of a long story, BUT he was being taught by the elders then something happened and was referred to the sisters. But the previous sisters lost his referral or something because they never contacted him! We Found him through a family in our ward: The Tui's!! He is living at their house! We taught the 3rd lessons because the Elders taught the first two, and I asked him to be baptized and he said yes, next week!!!! I am sooooo excited!!!

We are also teaching 3 brothers who live in a flat next door to us. Their Mom just came back from samoa and isn't interested in learning from us and doesn't approve of her sons taking lessons while she was gone. We tried to go over and meet her but she wouldn't let us in! The Brothers talked to us yesterday and apologized! Then straight up told us they wanted to be baptized but their mom would be furious. It's very sad! We are praying for her heart to be softened so that Joe, Harold, and Toloa can be baptized. (Just a funny side note Toloa asked me if I had a boyfriend!! BAHAHAHA!!! I about peed my pants I was laughing so hard!!)

I haven't had any asthma problems this week!! I am much better!!! I am still on the inhaler!! WOOHOO!!

you pronounce sister Taituuga (tie-too-oon-ga)

I realize my letter last week really sucked. I profusely apologize!! I will try and fill in some of the gaps I created!! 

I am serving in the Alema ward, Redoubt Zone. Because we are in the Samoan program, we cover the WHOLE ZONE!! It is Giant!! We are praying for a car ;) There are only 3 wards in my mission that are Samoan speaking. So there are only 3 sister companionships that are Samoan speaking in our whole mission. Because of this President Told me I will not be in the Samoan program for all of my mission. I will we switched eventually to the palagi (English) program. I WOULD RATHER DIE THAN BE SWITCHED TO THE PALAGI PROGRAM!!! President assured me that i will still use my Samoan in the English program, just not for teaching.... -.- 

I don't want to be switched. SO! That just increases the pressure i put on myself to learn Samoan as fast as humanly possible!

That is not going so well. I am very frustrated with myself. I WANT TO BE FLUENT NOW!!!!! Bahaha! Sister Taituuga just keeps telling me that i have a long journey, and i need to be patient with myself. The struggle is real. I am working very hard though!! 

Yesterday was especially rough! We taught 3 lessons and i butchered all 3 of them. My words wouldn't come out. Sister Taituuga has to pick up so much slack because of me! my part in lessons right now is mostly double testifying and sharing scriptures. I try to do more but i mess up BIG time. I was very frustrated with myself. Sister Taituuga thanked me for my hard work and told me i said exactly what heavenly father needed me to say at that time. she said that, maybe he didn't want me to say any more. Bless her. I cried and when i thought about why I couldn't tell if they were frustrated or grateful! That surprised me! Why grateful? I was grateful that this is so hard for me! I have been looking forward to doing this for so long. I am so glad this is so hard for me! I m so glad Heavenly father gives me such challenging things to do, and that he trusts me to do my best! I was at peace after that.

Miracles happen every day. You just have to look for them!! When you find them, thank heavenly father for them and then he will give you more!!

I Love you all so much!! Have a great week!!!

Alofa ia te oe,

Sista Peo

Malo soifua

Family, Friends, Strangers,

Malo Soifua!!! (just another way to say hello)

I have had a very exciting week and a half!!!!

Honestly i don't remember much of our last few days in the MTC... I have it all written down in my journal but i didn't refresh my memory before we came... faamile atu!!! (sorry)

I do know that the asthma struggle has been real! The last couple days in the MTC where brutal! We didn't have time to go to the doctor in the MTC because it was a long weekend and we were flying out on monday!! So sista Beckwith and Sista Garvin made me promise to tell my mission president about my asthma and go to the doctor ASAP. I didn't want to do that. BAHAH!!1

Sista Corrigan Sister Maire (english speaker from Australia, came to Provo mtc for visitor center training. Everyone kept getting us confused because we are within 2 inches of each others heights-I'm taller- we are Brunette and we both wear glasses! LOL!!) and I left the MTC at 1pm on Monday!! Uso kinisone and sista kamaleti came and said goodbye!! Leaving Sista Garvin was impossibly hard. If I wasn't so excited to get on the plane, I probably would've died!!

When we got to the airport they literally just dumped us at the curb and said peace out. We were all like 'so this is what the outside world looks like... I'd forgotten!!' LOL!!! We got cafe rio!!!! WHOOP WHOOP!!! and I called home. That was impossibly hard too. They made me cry and i was not expecting that.THE PLANE RIDE WAS SOOOOOOOOOO LONG! I had asthma problems pretty much the whole flight. 

Customs would've been fine if Sister corrigan hadn't announced her sutifed (cutifed..? Red pill--Mom edit: sudafed) as a controlled substance.... as a result all our bags were hand checked and we were there for like an extra hour!! uggg.

We met President Rudd and had some briefings! I met with president Rudd and told him about my asthma. The next day we got our areas and trainers!! I am serving in the Redoubt Area, Alema ward!!! My trainer is Sista Taituuga!!! SHE IS AMAZING I LOVE HER SOOO MUCH!!!! She is from Samoa!!! She was originally a visitor center sister but got pulled into the Samoan program. Lots of the old Samoan missionaries got sent home. They are trying to fix the areas now so have brought fresh missionaries into these areas. So we are both new, that's been interesting!!

We went on a run my first morning and I did just fine. But as soon as we stopped I died!! We got permission to go to the doctor and he put me on 2 inhalers and some pills. They didn't quiet work in time and I had a very bad asthma attack Friday night. We went to the hospital and spent all night in the hospital... ha ha!! I took so much inhaler!! They kept me all night because my heart rate wouldn't come back down!! They put a ton of water through my IV pic and i had too pee all day long on Saturday ;) We got permission to sleep the rest of the day Saturday. I felt so bad wasting the lord's time.

On SundayI  introduced myself  and bore my testimony during sacrament meeting.. IN SAMOAN!!! whoop whoop!! That was fun!! The members are so wonderful!!! The non members too!! Everyone is so surprised when I say malo soifua!! They love talking to me even though I don't understand!! Everyone is so awesome and tries to help me every time I meet them! One lady we visited tried to teach me head shoulders knees and toes!! BAHAHA!!!!

I have had lots of fun food!!!

-Cocoa Samoa (SOOOOOOOOOOOOO FREAKING GOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!! THe cocoa beans are chunks so you chew them as you drink..... yummy!!!!!!!)

-Taro (it's kind of like a potato...? not really... kind of. its good if you dip it in something!!)

-Palusami (Taro leaves with coconut milk IT IS WICKED GOOOD!!!!!! YUP YUP YUP!! I HAD IT YESTERDAY!!!)

-Lamb soup (it is what it is! It was way good! they leave all the bones in when they cook so you just pick it out... that's fun!)

-Oka soup (I had this yesterday too! I didn't know what oka was.... Oka means raw fish in samoan! The soup was cold and tasted really salty. I basically just told my brain not to think about it and ate it. I couldn't help avoiding the chunks though!! LOL!!! It was good!!)

-Banana (They peel bananas and boil them and them let them sit out. They are all dry and hard and don't taste like anything... not my favorite ;))

We have to leave because the elders are here and we can't email in the same place at the same time (because of the previous missionaries)!!

Alofa ia te oe!!

Sista Peo

fai eteete i lei mo'i lalolagi

Family, Friends, Everyone else!

THIS IS MY LAST P DAY AT THE MTC!!!!! WOOHOOOOOOO!! when i opened my call i never thought this day would come! After my first Sunday in the MTC my departure date looked waaaaaaay too close!! Then i blinked and here we are!! Dang!!

First off let me tell you about this week:

I GOT FIVE PACKAGES THIS WEEK!! WHAT THE HECK!!???!! I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY EVER!!!!! THank you so much for the chocolate Gramma, we ate all of it during zone prayer! Grandpa Jeff, We scarfed down your brown sugar butterscotch cookies... we are attempting to save some for our flight... we will see how that goes! Aunt Jenni OREOS!!!!! WE ABOUT WET OUR PANTS WHEN WE OPENED THAT BOX THIS MORNING!!!! Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!!!!!!!

Yesterday we had In field training all day. It's training elders and sister who are leaving do... you practice contacting and other stuff like that. The first half was boring but the second half was super awesome!!! I learned that if you are genuine and have the spirit with you, you can't fail!! 

This whole week and a half i have been straining to find Elder Carol!! I was so worried i was going to leave without seeing him!! Funnily enough he got called on to answer a question during training!! LOL!!! So during i break i ran around and said hello!! I also saw him this morning while i was waiting for my clothes in the dryer! Sorry no picture of us together!! 

Last night Sister Kamaleti showed us a bunch of her mission pictures (she went to Aukland, New Zealand) before we did Skype TRC. It got me all jazzed to leave!!! I AM SOOOO EXCITED!!!! TRC went well last night. It was our first skype session since last week got cancelled. The guy we taught was IN Samoa!! CRAZY!! He was very nice! We were trying something new during this lesson. We took in a list of points we wanted to cover and tried to make up sentences on the spot...

ya it didn't work too well.

I went first and I wanted to ask "Why do you think we are commanded to attend church?" but instead i said "Why do you think we command the church?" LOL

Bless his heart! He was like "Toe fai mai?" and i repeated it again and he was so confused!! Sister Garvin had to jump in and save me!! LOL!!!

On our way back from TRC The elder's were saying goodbye to sister Kamaleti and Uso haws and Elder Reid said "Fai eteete i lei mo'i lalolagi!" Which means be careful of the real world! We were dying!!

They had to say goodbye because they ARE LEAVING TOMORROW AT 1pm!!!!! WHAAAAAT?!?! We are going to be left here!! :( They have a cafe rio count down though!! They are so excited to eat it in the airport!! 

We went to the temple and did a session together one last time!! Then we got breakfast at the temple afterwards.... TEMPLE BREAKFAST IS WAAAAAY BETTER THAN MTC BREAKFAST!!! TELL EVERYONE!!!!

Hmmm what else?

I got my mission t shirt today!!! YAY!!! I ordered it from the MTC store so that's cool! I also got this awesome t-0shirt that has a captain america sheild on it but says captain moroni!! It's my favorite!!

Okay i really don't remember what happened the rest of the week... funny story time??

All of the Polys are related to each other. So the 3 poly elders will be talking about family members and one of them will always be like "OH! you know joseph?? He's my uncle!!" its ridiculous!! So their companions started this joke where they will pretend to do that too. "Oh you know steven? How do you know him? From school right?" elder Damuni got irritated with them and said "It must be from Polagi club"!!!! LOL!!! Polagi means white or american. We were dying laughing!!

I fell asleep during quiet time a while ago and sister Garvin threw her pan cap at me to wake me up. she missed me and hit the door, but it ricocheted off and hit me in the face!! BAHAHA!!!

Things I've learned from the MTC:

- The atonement can be used every minute of every day

-There are crazy people that you would never talk to that become the most incredible spiritual beings you have ever met

- Food in the MTC is nothing to look forward to

- Doing your best does include relaxation time

-Grace doesn't 'fill in the gaps', it is the gap. you just have to accept it's help.

-Heavenly father Loves you and is mindful of you CONSTANTLY. He knows what he's doing even when it seems like he doesn't (*cough* samoan *cough*)

-social networking is over-rated ;)

Alofa a te tatou!!!

Sister Peo