na Mapeva lo'u vae

Lo'u Aiga,

This week was a bit of a disaster in the health department!!

Sister Ulu gave me the flu and I thought I could work through it but it made my asthma act up and I went to the hospital last Monday... Did I mention this last week??

They told me to rest until Thursday... ugg so long in the flat!!!

Wednesday night I woke up fast and tried to walk, but my foot was asleep.... ya I totally fell and twisted my ankle. Sister Cummings just told me to stay in for a few more days and keep it iced and elevated... I did that but tried to go proselyting on Friday afternoon... we ended up going to the hospital that night.. BAHAH!!! They made sure it wasn't broken and taped it up for me!!! They told me to rest and I told them that I was SICK of resting, so they gave me some crutches! I HAVE BEEN ROCKING THE CRUTCHES!!! People who don't normally let us in TOTALLY LET US IN on Saturday because of my crutches!!!!

We had a really cool experience with one of our less active families who hasn't been to church in years, and whenever we go we always just talk at the doorstep. BUT THIS TIME I was on crutches so they let us into their house, and we were able to have a really good conversation about some of the doubts the Father had about the church. He didn't believe that Joseph Smith could have seen Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father because it says in the Bible no man can see God and live. I had an investigator express a similar concern earlier in my mission so I was well prepared to open the scriptures and explain it to him! I shared how Moses saw God face to face and spoke to him as man spoke to a friend, and how in Deuteronomy it says if there be a prophet among you I will reveal myself unto him in a vision or a dream! I also explained that the verse he read was incorrectly translated and what it means is that no NATURAL man could see God, only HOLY men or worthy men can see God. He was very happy that he finally understood and we recommitted him to read the book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true. Then his daughter felt confident in our abilities to teach and confided in us with some of her questions. We set a return appointment to come back and reteach her the lessons, and she is going to try and invite a friend for this appointment!! WHAT A BLESSING!!!!! I now have a very strong testimony that everything we experience is just preparing us for success in the future! When my investigator asked me that question at the beginning of my mission I had no idea how to answer, so I spent hours studying it! Look how much of a blessing it has been to me later in my mission!

I also learned a great lesson from my health problems... They came because I wasn't taking care of myself. I wasn't letting my body take the rest that it needed to cope. Our bodies are temples of God, the spirit dwells in them! We are expected to take care of them! Also Jesus had to rest... He repeatedly retired to the mountain sides to pray... AND HE SLEPT THROUGH A STORM THAT WAS SO BIG IT MADE HIS APOSTLES FORGET THEY WERE WITH THE SON OF GOD. Everyone needs to rest, including Sister Peo....

That is it for this week...

Love you all so much!!!!

Look for miracles!!!
Don't forget to let yourself rest!!!

Alofa tele atu!!
Sista Peo

 Sister Seuili, Sister Tui (ward member who took them to the hospital) and Sister Peo

 Proselyting on crutches

Lo'u Aiga

Lo'u Aiga,

Man this week was crazy as!!

I was the official driver for practically everything (but not the airport! SO thank heavens for that! otherwise I would've used WAAAAAY more K's and I have already used heaps!!)

We were covering 3 areas for a while (they stuck all the sisters who were alone in our zone together) So I taught in English lots... and also had to teach Taua this week by myself in Samoan! But it went well and the spirit was strong so that's all we need eh!!

I got my new companion on Thursday!!

Sister Taugaele!!! She is from Samoa!! She is awesome! I am pretty sure she is the tallest companion I've had so far (besides Sister Corrigan of course ) in my mission!!

The ward is really opening up, trusting us which is so awesome!! We had trade offs Saturday morning and we were met with great success!! Also we got 2 really good referrals from some of our members and upcoming lessons with them this week! I think we got three new investigators this week!! What a relief because we are hurting for investigators!!!

I want to start biking this week but my companion doesn't seem too keen... so we will see if I can talk her into it or not! But I have got her into running every morning with me which is nice.. we don't go for very long but its nice of her to do it with me :)

I had to go back to the hospital this week for one of my boils in my armpit... It got bigger from the antibiotic... So the doctor/bishop cut it open and squished all the pus out! The nurse asked if I wanted to record it (because I mentioned how my mom loves watching stuff like this) and I told her no thank you... So sorry I declined that great opportunity for all of you Now I just have to keep changing the bandages every day!! They are all just little red dots now!! Yay!!

What else?

President gave us permission to eat lunch with the Atwoods so that was fun meeting up with Aunty Ann, Uncle Warner, Mike, Hoana and their new little baby!!!

I can't remember if I mention but I got Grandpa Jeff's letter and the CA Peo's package on my birthday in America!! So that was so fun!!! Thank you!

I SAW SISTER LUALUA TWICE THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS SO RIDICULOUSLY EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!!!

Our zone is almost completely different... they only kept enough people here to lead the areas!! So it will be fun getting to know everyone!!

We have interviews with President tomorrow!! Which I am so excited for!!

Ya I think that's pretty much it....

I love you all so much!!!!
I hope everyone's lives are hard and faith is strong!!! That's the only way we can improve and become more Christ like!! Love yous all!!!

Alofa tele atu!!
Sista Peo

 Sistas Lualua, Chang, Peo and Taugaele

 Auntie Ann, Sista Peo, Sista Taugaele, Uncle Warner

Sorry for the late one...

Lo'u Aiga,

Sorry for the later-ish email!! I bet yous thought I wouldn't email today eh? Hahaha!!! I almost forgot!! Good thing Sister Tehotu reminded me other-wise I probably wouldn't have remembered until 2 am tomorrow!! BAHAHA!!!

Man today was crazy!! I was the official car for everyone going home so I had to drive to the bus stop in Auckland mission (eep! had to go out of mission!!) heaps today!!! My companion Sister Puaina left, as well as my Sister Training Leader, Sister Nakagawa, Sister Freddy also finished, and Sister Ete (Sister Lualua's companion)(I GOT TO SEE LUALUA TODAY!!!! I LOVE HER!!!!! I MISS HER SO MUCH!!!!!!!)(am I using too many of these() things today?? Maybe! sorry!!)

So now I am in a trio until transfers on Thursday!! I am with Sister Urgel (sounds like your-hell which I really enjoy saying BAHAHAHA) she's Filipino and Sister Tehotu who is Tahitian!! I tried to convince my zone leaders to put me and Lualua together but they weren't game because we are in two different zones... *cry*

I have no idea who my new companion is... But both Sister Lualua and I are training so that should be very interesting! I don't know her name or anything at all actually but I will meet her on Thursday... That means we have to do 12 week again... oh 12 week...

My companion didn't let you down mom... she gave me a very special birthday!! We went to our zone games and in the middle we played "hide and go seek" so everyone "hid" and me and Puaina looked for them... Well they all hid in the Relief Society room where they had bought heaps of pizza, fizzy and chips and set up decorations, and Freddie made a HUGE cake that caught on fire and I couldn't put it out!! It was so much fun!!! I have the best zone eh??

Now I know everyone is concerned about my boils... please don't be!!! I am on an antibiotic!!

It wasn't quite enough because I broke down sobbing because they hurt so bad on Wednesday and my companion was worried about me! She wanted to keep me home!! How ridiculous! pfft! We had a lesson with Taua!! I insisted on going to the lesson (where we set her for baptism on the 20th of August!! SO exciting) which was so cool because the spirit sustained me through that lesson, and then right as soon as we left, I almost couldn't drive home!! BAHAHA!!! My companion called Sister Cummings (mission president's wife) who sent the Zone Leaders to us... they gave me a blessing and then took me to the hospital against my will! Sister Cummings called one of the bishop's in our stake and he was there and waiting for me!! He popped two of them and doubled my antibiotic for a few days (which was so strong it made my skin hot and gave me hives for a while BUT NOW I'M OKAY!!!) and then I fell asleep for the rest of the day! Now I am very much okay except for the one that is deep under my skin.. I might need to go back to Dr Maine for that one... we will see!!

Despite all that ,we were able to have a really wonderful last week and were able to have heaps of lessons for my companions last week!! Which is so good!! Sister Puaina's 21st birthday is next week and for New Zealander's when you turn 21, you gt a KEY! so I got her a key and did Samoan drawings on it!!

Uggg I feel out of breath!! Sorry for the long letter!!

Bottom line:

 ~I'm "healthy"

~We worked way hard this week

~We have a baptism for next month

~transfers are on Thursday

Se that was way easier... maybe I will just do that next week eh?!?!? BAHAHA!!!!

Love you all so much!! Keep looking for miracles!! Choose to be happy~its the only logical thing to do !!!

Alofa tele ia te outou!!!

Manuia lou vaiaso!!

Sista Peo

P.s. I taught gospel principles yesterday... by myself... in Samoan!!! I'm so cool!! ;)

I'm laughing not crying in the birthday cake picture!

Lots of pictures!!

Oh man and we met the Cummings which is so cool! They are awesome!!! We will have interviews in 2 weeks!!!!  We went on exchanges with sister Nakagawa and Sister Urgel!!! It was so foggy that day!! Man heaps happened this week...

I would send a picture of my boils but.... alas they are not in very good places for pictures...

 Birthday Party for Sista Peo with The Zone: Ma, Freddie, Peo, Puaina, Urgel, Mias, Nakagawa, Hazlet   Front:  Tehotu and Vailea

 In the car: Peo, Puaina, Nakagawa and ?

 Key for Sister Puaina's 21st birthday

 This little boy who thinks he's Elsa the Disney princess and likes my braid

 Peo and lola sa'u

 Peo and Freddie

 Peo, Nakagawa and Freddie

Peo and the foggy day

Goodbye to Sisters Nakagawa and Puaina who are headed home.

faamanuiaga (benefits)

Lo'u Aiga!! (family/loved ones)

Yesterday Julia's baby was blessed in sacrament meeting!! Here are some pictures!!! Sister Taotua (lady in our ward) bought the dress and everything for her baby how nice is that??? 

And a family in our ward brought their friend to church!! So we went to their house afterwards and begin teaching and will go back and teach him lesson one later this week!! A lady got up and bore her testimony in aualofa (relief society) and the lady I was sitting next to nudged me hard and told me she wasn't a member!!! so while Sister Lualua was playing the piano and as everyone was leaving I ran over, introduced myself and asked if we could visit her this week!! YAY!!!

We have had some complications with Julia's baptism... She didn't tell her parents... So her and Lualua talked to them about it last night (I sat there and tried to keep up). They said they didn't want her to get baptized and if she did, she was no longer welcome in their home. hmmm. As you can imagine it was a rough night last night. We are going to go spend p-day with Julia... watch the long restoration, eat french fries and kopai and decide what to do. Her parents want to talk to us (and by us, I mean LuaLua) again tonight... so hopefully their hearts will be softened!! I am not worried. I know this is all part of Heavenly Father's plan and He will take care of everything.. Whether that means Julia lives somewhere else, or she isn't baptized yet, it's all part of the plan!

Have a great week everyone!! Love you all so much thank you for your emails and love and prayers!!!! Look for miracles and pray for missionary moments!!!

Alofa tele atu!!

Sista Peo

PS (from Mom) last week right before she finished emailing, she said I'll send you pictures of my eye next week and then was gone...here is a picture story of her eye problems from last week.

Sore sty in her eye.  Got some medicine and that didn't work...

So...she went and had a Samoan fofo...when I asked what that was, she said is a type of Samoan healing, sometimes a massage but they didn't touched her eye, she took a video but it is too big to send home, we will have to wait to see it until February.

After the fofo...looks better at least!  Poor girl, said she couldn't even wear her glasses it was so sore.

Then this morning (May 2nd for her) she woke up with this...

"Here's the rash I woke up with this morning.... isn't that annoying.... Sister Rudd made me go to the doctor... they said it was an allergic reaction to something... to what?  my deodorant???"

This Week in the Lord's Vineyard

Lo'u Aiga,

Man... this week was ''fun''

After we left emails and went back to our sister training leaders flat, Sister Lualua stepped out of the car wrong and hurt her ankle. So all of us stayed in so she could rest it and played phase 10... I won just in case you were wondering ;)

The next day after district meeting Lualua was still limping like crazy and trying to pretend like she wasn't in agonizing pain (She thought she was being sneaky but I'm not blind). This is the second time she has hurt her ankle so I was very worried and she said it only hurt when she put weight on it... to me that sounded like a fracture but what do I know about medicine? NOTHING!! Bahahaha!!! So we called sister Rudd and got permission to take her to the hospital. We were there ages! Man socialized medicine is the pits!! They said no fracture, just a bad sprain and told her not to walk on it for 3 days. Neither of us were very happy about that...

After the doctor, we went and checked on our flat which we were supposed to move back into on monday but definitely didn't. IT WAS SOPPING WET AND SMELLED LIKE WET DOG!! HECK NO AM I SLEEPING IN THERE!! AND THERE WERE DEAD BUGS EVERYWHERE!!! THE WINDOWS WERE SHUT THE WHOLE TIME!!! WHERE DID THEY COME FROM!!???!??!?!?! I vacuumed them all up and we went back to Sister Lewis and Sister Frederick's flat.

To make a long story longer, we didn't move back into our flat until friday. Sister Lewis didn't want us to leave so threw my favorite yoplait vanilla yogurt at me while I was getting into the car!! LOL!! this is the picture after we got half of it off already!!

Speaking of cars! We will get a brand new one on friday!!!! YAY!!!! Friday is our temple trip!! So after we finish and are about to leave we will go to the mission office and switch cars!! I AM SO EXCITED!!! 

Investigator updates:

Faleata- between our crazy week and his daughter getting married we were only able to see him once, and very briefly :( but he's still progressing so that's good!1 As soon as we teach him word of wisdom i think that's when he will have problems progressing..

Kika- is crazy busy still... is she avoiding us? maybe..

John- John is the man! We couldn't meet with him this week but we were texting him!! His girlfriend (our less active) says that he just always wants to talk about the plan of salvation and prays all the time now! Then she told us that he asks her so many questions about the gospel that she has started to ignore him.. *facepalm*

Tino- met with him on saturday, hes good! Taught him lesson 1. He recognized himself that he was feeling the spirit! Agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith but didn't want to come to any of our wards activities this weekend.

Those are the main progressing ones.

Benjamin is still trying to get used to the English ward. He keeps trying to just keep coming to our ward and activities... we get dirty looks from the ward council every time they see him. He came to an activity last night and he told me that he just loves the people in our ward even though he doesn't understand. BENJAMIN! GO TO THE ENGLISH WARD!!

Yup I think that's about it eh? Have a great week!! Look for miracles!! Happy Easter!!!!

Alofa atu,

Sista Peo

This is Sister Lewis with the yogurt!!

She is from Southern Utah! We spent the whole week trying to figure out how we know each other, but we definitely don't... that's embarrassing eh!! But we both felt like we knew each other before hahah!!!

My favorite Sister Lewis quote from while we stayed with her:

She was reading a letter from home and she said "whelp I'm glad my mom thinks we got the flat bombed for fleas! I'll just let her keep thinking that!"

LOL!!!! She's a crack up!! I'm so blessed to have her as my sister training leader eh?

2nd email....

Man sorry I'm such a crazy emailer eh? My thoughts are all scattered!!

I finished the tusi a mamona on the 16th of March!! YAY!!!! I'm now trying to read the New Testament but it is so hard! 

Since its Easter over there I will also bear yous my testimony.

I know God is our Heavenly Father.

I know Jesus Christ is his son, our brother, and suffered for our sins. He waits for us with open arms. He wants to help us. All we have to do is turn to him. 

Please turn to him. Run to him. "cleave unto him as he cleaves unto us".

The tomb is empty. He has risen. Happy Easter!

Alofa atu,

Sista Peo