O a'u seki a

Tagata (people),

O a'u Seki a... I am awesome ;)

I definitely left this email for last, and I definitely ran out of time! I am terribly sorry!! 

HIGHLIGHT: CAROLINE'S BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOP WHOOP!!! She is so cute!!!

Friday was as crazy as!! We were running around inviting people to the baptism and then we went up to the chapel for her interview and no one was there!! We hung around for 20 minutes and no one came!! We ran to her house and she was dead asleep with no one to give her a ride!! WE WEREN'T ALLOWED TO GIVE HER A RIDE!! We called and asked for permission but were told no!! The Samoan zone leader had an appointment to go to and we had no way to get Caroline there!! NOOOOOO! Finally we got a member to give her a ride, and we all got up there, but the chapel was locked!! Our Zone leaders forgot to open it!! The elders ran over to the MTC to see if they had a key and we called everyone who might have a key. Did I mention it was pouring rain? ;) The MTC didn't have a key and the Zone leaders sent the AP's to give us a key but the Samoan zone leader's appointment was imminent! So they did the interview in the car! LOL!!! 

Moral of the story: Satan does his absolute best to stop things from happening. But Heavenly Father will always provide a way for things to happen. It might not seem like it in this email but we weren't sure that we'd be able to get Caroline to her interview... and then she wouldn't have been baptized on Saturday! BUT THE LORD PROVIDED A WAY!! AND HE ALWAYS DOES!!!

Transfers are Thursday, Sister Taituuga thinks I will train someone. Pray that isn't true ;) supposedly transfers are shown on our mission portal but nothing is different so maybe nothing is changing? I hope so! Sister Taituuga wants to go back to the visitor center though! ;)

Side note: For Thanksgiving we did service with the elders at the L'io aiga! They fed us and then we went and ate again at our fafaga's house... not turkey but two meals I think is enough for me ;)

FUNNY STORY!! I had lots but I will just write this one: Caroline slipped in a puddle up at the chapel and one of the elders said "Easy there, I know you're excited but that isn't deep enough! Just wait for tomorrow!" LOL

Alofa tele atu!!

Sista Peo

 Caroline's Baptism

 Caroline scared of Moea'i

 Sista Peo

O'i Aue

Peeps,

Prepare yourselves for a story of a lifetime:

Did I tell you that members complained to Brother Fu's (the ward mission leader) that I wasn't eating anything and it wasn't worth preparing a fafaga? The struggle!! So I have been trying to eat more... and not get fat at the same time... miracles happen right?

I kept telling Sister Taituuga: Soa I'm going to throw up!! And she would laugh as at me!!

Oh man... Friday there was an Aualofa (relief society) activity (side note: everyone goes to activities no matter who its for in Samoan wards) and it was a dance. We invited and got lots of investigators there!! So that was waaaay good!! We got permission to go, and the ward made us sit at the special table of honour with the bishopric and their wives. The YSA came and filled our plates with food! I will attach a picture. I tried to finish my plate and didn't' even come close, no one did. Soa, Moea'i and Ngungutau wicked laughed at me for how much I ate.  They didn't even try to eat very much! But I was worried about being rude!! I felt sick as!! Ya, woke up Saturday morning and threw up all the food. Fa'anoanoa!!! It was palusami too!!! My favorite!! So who knows when I'm going to be able to eat that again. I didn't eat anything for two days.. Sister Taituuga almost made me go to the hospital again. Sister Fu'e is awesome and brought me some medicine though!!! So that was waaaay good!!! 

That was my fun story for the week!! moral of the story: don't over eat! :D

Heavenly Father Loves you!!! 

I love you!!

Alofa tele atu,

Sista Peo

Photos:

My full plate from Aualofa

 The devil palusami i would throw up 10 hours later

Sis Taituuga squishing Sis Peo's head while she was sick

Sis Taituuga, Sis Fu'e (WML's wife) and Sis Peo

Valea

Tagata,

Thank you for your concern concerning my fleas (bedbugs?)!! We sprayed and washed everything!! All seems well... we will have to see if they are just lulling me into a false sense of security so they can kill me in one fell swoop OR if they are truly gone ;) I will keep you posted!!

We had exchanges this week!1 I STAYED in my area with our sister Training leader, Sister Boligor, she is Filipino and 4'10" so we probably looked really funny walking around!! She is in the palagi program!! Ya Thursday was interesting trying to teach and converse by myself in Samoan... I did okay though I think! Everyone took sympathy on us and tried to speak English, then asked me every ten minutes when Sista Taituuga was coming back!! LOL!!!!!!!!!!

We have another set for the 28th!! Lol!!! A family we are Re activating has an almost 9 year old daughter who will be baptised on the 28th with Caroline!! 

The work is so strange!! Our investigators are struggling and a couple are progressing but SUPER slowly. But people keep falling out of the sky for us to baptize ;) not really but we are kind of blindsided by them. I wish our other investigators would progress though!!! Everyone has there agency...

Yesterday after we blew through half of our plans in half an hour we saw a short cut that we thought would lead to our next appointment, so we took it! LOL!! NOPE!! It took us to the botanical gardens!!! LOL!! it was cool though!! 

Some fun things I don't think I told you:

My church building shares the parking lot with the Aukland MTC! man it's tiny!!! Only 50 people in there right now! I'm so glad i went to the Provo MTC ;)

Sister Taituuga sends her love!!

Alofa Tele atu,

Sista Peo

P.s. It is pouring rain right now and my hair is not to be contained ;)

*Extra questions Jeff asked her this week that I thought I'd include*
1- how many discussions do you teach in a week?
2- are they always in Samoan?  if no, how many in English vs Samoan.
3- you haven't mentioned struggling with the language lately.  I'm sure it is still hard.  how is it coming along?
4- how many Samoan speaking sisters are there in the mission?
5 - is the ward conducted in Samoan?

1- this week we had 12 other lessons and 18 LAC lessons  and 8 member present

2- No, it depends on who we visit. for example Caroline our baptism doesn't speak Samoan, but she understands it. Her family speaks Samoan and she is attending Alema which (my) Samoan ward. So we teach her in English so she can for sure understand completely. there are other people we visit that are fia-palagi (want to be white) and will only speak to us in english. Right now i would say half our lessons are English (just because of how many lessons we are having with Caroline ;))

3- I am awful at Samoan. I can hardly understand anyone. BUT I am working hard and trying not to get discouraged! :)

4-Right now there are only 3 sets in the mission. Lots of people were called to the program apparently but requested to be moved out because they were struggling too much with the language.

5- Yup all of my meetings are in Samoan. Primary and YW are in English so when we have taught those we speak English but aualofa (relief society), gospel doctrines, and sacrament meeting is all in Samoan!!

 All the sisters in my zone (Sister tai, fifita, green, boligor, davison, me) (yes i'm fat..:(

 Sister Taituuga straightened my hair a few days ago.. (I immediately put it in a ponytail after this)

 pine trees in NZ

weird birds

FA'ANOANOA

Friends, family, loved ones,

I bear sad news... *sob*

Sister Taituuga and I... Are fighting a noble battle. Spiritually.. yes! But also physically. You see... I have.. FLEAS!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Those itchy bumps were flea bites. We are out for blood! MAN! I HATE FLEAS!!! Sister Taituuga only has like one bite on her whole body... I HAVE THEM EVERYWHERE!!! GAAAAHHH!!!! It's okay though!! We are going to get some poison and put it all over everything! Should be fun!! ;)

THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THE COOLEST THING HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So our companionship goal for this transfer is a baptism!! We have been talking A LOT about baptism in district meetings and zone meeting because the baptism numbers for the mission are SOOOOOOOOOOOO LOW :( Our district leader challenged us to pray about things we can specifically do to progress our investigators for baptism! I was doing that Thursday morning when I received revelation that IF I did everything i needed to do (Sister Taituuga and i had just been discussing things i could improve on in lessons) in the lesson and continued to do my absolute best, we would have a set by District meeting on Tuesday!! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????!!!!!!!! 

We fasted on Friday!! And on Saturday our district leader called and said that they ran into the Esekia family in our ward and they had someone for us to baptize. We thought he was kidding, but went over anyway! HE WAS SERIOUS!! Her niece is 10, her name is Caroline and her mom is less active but asked Sister Esekia if she could get the missionaries to give lessons to Caroline and baptize her!! WHAAAAT!?! Caroline has been going to church with Sister Esekia!! We taught her the first lesson yesterday and SET her for the 28th of November!! Her mom is okay with that date and we meet with her again on Wednesday!!!!! So good!!

I know that Heavenly Father love us. He knows exactly what we are going through and how to help us. He has so many blessings to give us if we will only ask him, and be willing to work!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Serve the lord and receive your miracles!!! ... and fight the fleas  (pretend this hammer is a sword)

ALofa tele atu!!!

Sista Peo

alley.peo@myldsmail.net

(Fa'anoanoa means sad)
(I am sad about the fleas not about the baptism ;))

Do you think Alma and Amulek had fleas when they suffered all manner of afflictions?? If so that alone qualifies them for the celestial kingdom in my opinion ;)

Aua le valua

Peeps,

Hows it rolling?

We've had a rocking week in the down under ;) TELE LESONA (many lessons)!!!!

We had 4 progressing investigators this week!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! Our lesson with Taleleo Fruen fell through last week so we are going to try invite her to papatiso ma lotu (baptism and church) today. If all goes well and she seems keen we will set her for the 28th!!

Have I told you about the Panapa Aiga? they are a couple in their late 50's early 60's. Uileta (Juliet in Samoan) Panapa is a RM, but her husband is a strong Catholic. She is less active. Every time they go to our house they feed us a meal... whether it's meal time or not...

We taught *funny story for later* them a lesson yesterday. We left them lesson 1 pamphlet AND THEY READ IT!!! WOOOHOO!! So we taught lesson 1... it was sad. THE SPIRIT WAS SOOO STRONG!! But his heart was hard and wouldn't accept a copy of the book of mormon. We gave him the second pamphlet and he said he would read it before our next lesson. We are praying for him.

After that lesson they fed us.. ugg... A WHOLE FISH FOR  EACH OF US. The head and tail were chopped off but everything else was still there! There was a mug full of what I thought was milk, but actually was coconut cream and fish oil. You are supposed to take a bite of fish and then drink a little bit of the cream. I had no idea what I was doing BAHAHA!!!! I keep getting bones in my mouth... there are lots of little bones in fish! What the heck!! That was fun.

I am a bit of an alligator now (heh. Alley-Gator. Heh.). I can eat just about anything. I eat chicken, fish, you name it. I have eaten food that has definitely not been cooked enough and not gotten sick. Siste Taituuga has drinken (druken.. drink? drank? drunk? what?) milk that was in our car for 3 hours and was just fine. I think that must be one of the missionary superpowers: Alligator stomachs ;)

What other news? 

I AM COVERED IN BUMPS!!! We don't think we have fleas, their bites look different, but we are covered in itchy bumps. I can't stop scratching so mine are HUGE! Thus my title for the email (it means don't itch).

We referred the Solo Brothers to our elders, hopefully they will be able to teach them lessons since we can't really. There needs to be a women in the house for us to teach them, and their mom still doesn't want us to. So hopefully the elders will have more luck.

.... OH! funny story from earlier

In Samoan teach and learn are the same word: a'oa'o. You know the correct meaning based on context. When My soa wants to say " we taught a lesson to..." what she says "We learned a lesson to.." BAHAHA!!! It cracks me up!! She is so cute!!

UMA! I think that's it!! I love you all!!

Manuia le Vaiaso!!

Alofa atu!!

Sista Peo


Sistas Taituuga and Peo

Sista Taituuga, Auntie Rima (who came to church this week!!!) and Sista Peo