Season 1 Episode 5: Sickness is Spreading

Talofa Lava Aiga!!!

So this was my last week in the MTC. I finally made it! It honestly doesn't feel like I have been gone for six weeks! I just feel like being here the days are blurred together haha and it is super weird. This week was pretty good though! A few really cool experiences that I will share later on in this letter! 

First off, I want to say THANK YOU for the letters you all sent!!! It was so good to get those right before I head out! Definitely needed! So thank you! I hope you guys had a good week back and are adjusted back to the normal Utah life haha! As for Sunday my flight takes off at 4:15 and we leave the MTC at 12:45. I have a 3 hour layover in San Francisco so, I probably won't call until I land in San Francisco because you will all still be in church! I will talk more with Mom to figure out what we will do! I am super excited to talk to all of you though! 

Okay so this week was a super crazy week! Mainly just because it just flew by super fast and I don't feel very prepared to leave to Samoa. Who would be though? Anyway there is a sister in our district Sister Dodd who is from Montana and her and I have gotten a long really well. Anyway, one day we had all walked in to class and there was just a different feeling to the class and I could tell that something was wrong with Sister Dodd and her soa Sister Fakauho and so I had asked if everything was okay and they just answered with a slight nod and I just felt like it wasn't my place to say anything more so I didn't. Later that night we had our Tuesday night Devotional and The Young Women's General President came to talk to us. It was a great message but the part I liked the most is when she showed the video about the Farmer who cuts down the bush and the bush was upset asking the farmer why he had done this to him and the farmer responds "I am the gardener here and I know what I want you to be... and some day when you are laden with fruit you are going to say thank you Mr. Gardener for loving me enough to cut me down." and for some reason I just had a million thoughts run through my head about times when I have questioned why God isn't "helping" me or why he is allowing bad things to happen in my life and I have seen this video before but I just got this voice saying "You are going to have hard times on your mission just remember that I am the Gardener and I know what I want you to be and in the end you will look at yourself and say thank you Mr.Gardener for loving me enough to cut me down." It was a really cool experience and in a way it made me excited for those hard times because it's in the hard times we learn to grow the most. Anyway after the devotional was over we went back to our classroom for a evening district review of the devotional and we were sharing some thoughts and it came to Sister Dodd and she kind of broke down and let everyone know that her mom had emailed her saying she had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Instantly the mood of the room changed. I felt so bad for her and finally came to me I shared the scripture about allowing Christ to bear our burdens. You know the one that talks about his burden is light? Afterwards we gave her a blessing and the spirit was super strong it was awesome! Then the next day she got a notice saying she had to Visa wait!!! So she won't be flying out with us and she was so sad but, it has been super cool to see her because she is still super dedicated to the work and exercising a lot of faith! I really look up to her!

Also this week, there has been a sickness spreading around our entire zone and so I have been trying to stay as clean as possible but, I wasn't able to avoid so ever since Tuesday I have had a super stuffy nose and a cough! It's supper lame! I think I am getting better though so that's good news. Just in time for Samoa!

So there is a new teacher Brother Anderson who just got back from serving in Samoa like a month ago and he has seriously made me so excited for Samoa! He has been telling us of all these cool experiences he has had and honestly I can't wait to serve the people of Samoa! I already feel a tremendous amount of love for them and I am going to work my hardest out there! I only have 23 months to try and change the lives of the Samoan people! The message of the gospel really does bring happiness. I can't wait to share it.

As for funny stories this week let me think...hahahahahaah ohhhh myyyy gossssh! Okay for warning this one is a little bit gross but it is so hilarious!

Okay so I love my companion to death! He is a great person and I asked his permission to share this story and he said it was okay so here we go. Alright so one day after gym we had gone back to the residence to change and we were all getting ready you know? Well I was putting on my church pants on and I looked over at my Soa and he was in his garments and he had turned around so his bum was facing me and there was just this super bad poop stain!!! HAHAHAH Oh my gosh I felt so bad but we all just started busting out laughing! He ended up disposing of those garment bottoms really fast and now his new nickname his poopstain hahahaha! Poor guy.

Anyway I love you guys so much and I hope all of your guys week was busy in a good way! I can't wait to call you guys on Sunday! Make sure you are all reading your scriptures I can testify the blessings it brings! The Church is true and it is good! Love you all!

Love, Elder Barton

Season 1 Episode 4: Take Me to Samoa!

Talofa Lava!

This week has been a pretty tough week. It's weird being here for so long and I know four weeks isn't that long but, when you are in here doing the same thing everyday you start to feel weird and locked up in a way! Luckily, I leave on the 21st! I think I can only bare one more week hahaha! 

So, This week I was feeling really weird and just kind of low energy and not really finding purpose in what I am doing and I thought to myself that it would wear off. I was wrong. By the time Tuesday rolled around I was feeling not so hot. Every Tuesday we have a Devotional and so it came time for the devotional and guess who came to speak??? Elder Neil  L. Anderson!  So crazy! We have had two Apostles come and talk to us! Anyway he gave a really good talk about a few really good things that I needed to hear! Just basically talking about keeping the flame we already have and kindling it. The subject was "Being a Missionary isn't complex but, it's not easy." SO TRUE! Anyway I had a really distinct feeling that I should ask President Willies who is our Branch President for a blessing of Counsel. So I emailed him and he said he would give one to me Saturday! I'm really looking forward to the blessing and I am preparing myself for it. I will let you know how it goes!

So, each week my Soa and I have to teach lessons in Samoa to Ane and Faletui who are our language teachers just playing a role! Our lessons are usually planned from a book with prepared sentences about the subject but, this week I had a feeling to prepare it in English and then Translate it to Samoan... so that's what I did. I had written them all on the board and I asked Uso Haws to come and check the translation and I was honestly so surprised when he only added in a few i's and changed one word that I had out of context!!! That taught me to rely on the spirit more haha! We taught Ane the other day and it was so crazy we had our lesson on a notecard, but Elder Bethea and I didn't look at it once and we were able to understand like 50% of what she was saying!! I usually understand like 5% hahaha! It was so cool! Tonight we have T.R.C. which stands for Teaching Recent Converts but since there aren't a lot of Samoans here so we just teach Returned Missionaries. Tonight it is over Skype and we didn't use any books to help us translate so I am praying it will all work out!!! 

We are all praying that we get our flight plans today haha! I hope you are all doing well! I love and miss you all so much! I love reading your emails each week it helps me stay motivated to this work! Thanks for all the support and love! I know this email was short but, honestly every single day here is the same haha! Let me know if you have any questions!!! 

Ou Te Alofa Atu!

Love, Brock!

Season 1 Episode 3: The Good News

Talofa Lava Aiga!

I hope all of you had a terrific week and were able to realize how much and how often the Lord has blessed you this week! If not recount your week and "Count your many Faamanuiaga)! 

First off, I need to take care of some Buiizzzeeneeesss

Okay so Samoa is actually a letter writing message! A lot of the places don't have wifi and if they do it is super expensive! So who knows what will happen! That's about all for Buiiizzzeeeneeesss!

OHHHHH ALSO GUESS WHAT?? I GOT MY DEPARTURE DATE! AUGUST 21st is the day I leave to Samoa! Which is perfect because it's a Sunday and I will be able to call you all!!! More info will come once I get my flight plans!

So on Tuesday we had a devotional and Bishop Wadell came and talked and it was soooo good! He talked about the difference of Going on a mission and Serving a mission as well as teaching baptism and baptizing CONVERTS. It was a really, really good Devotional! 

I haven't really told you guys but my companion and I as well with all the other missionaries have to teach are teachers lessons in Samoan and they act as different people! That has been going on since the first week and it is seriously so hard haha! Also we had T.R.C's this week and that's when the bring Returned Missionaries and we have to teach them a 20 MINUTE LESSON! It was so hard but it was actually way less scary than I thought it was going to be they were super nice! That is where I ran into Mookie! Which reminds me will someone check with the Casuga's and see if they got my letter haha? They sent me some food and I just sent it to the address on the package! Also I need their emails!

Other than that this week has been a really big blur! On Wednesday I was able to do hosting! That's when we bring in the new shipment of missionaries and I was able to host ANDY! So that was super cool. Him and I both have the same lunch so I see him everyday! And that's super nice. I don't know if I said in my last email but Mckay got Transferred to the Spain MTC. Crazy! 

Oh! So in the new shipment of Missionaries we got some ASL missionaries and they are in our residence and classroom building and there is one Elder who is Deaf and I was having someone translate for me and he was a really big inspiration he was telling me about how it was growing up and how had to learn ASL and all this stuff and I could see the tears in his eyes as he signed and it was a really touching experience! 

Everyday we get to have an hour of Exercise time and I play volleyball every day! I don't want to be prideful but I am getting pretty good! 

*STORY TIME*

So this during gym time you have a few districts in there doing whatever they want right? So I decided to play Volleyball as per usual. And you get a lot of different experience level volleyball players and there is this one Elder who I gave the Name Barcelona because all he wears is a Barcelona t-shirt. Anyway I was playing in the middle in the front row which I think is the Setter's position and I set the ball to Elder Vest who is in my district and all sudden out of no where freaking Barcelona comes in and flys into the net and misses the ball hahahaha! And he gets out of the net and looks at me and says in a super nice way "When you hit the ball you need to get out of the way" hahahaha oh my gosh. So I was just like "Okay yeah for sure" and so a few turns later it was my turn to serve and I don't know what it was but I was killing serves and Barcelona looked at me and was like "Wow you really know how to play" hahaha! Anyway Barcelona has like no vertical jump he just flys straight into the net every single time! It is the funniest thing in the world! I wish you guys could see it haha I just think of a monkey when ever I see him fly into the net!

Anyway that's about it this week! I'm really excited to leave and finally be in Samoa! I love you all so much! May God be with you this Week! Alofa Atu! Tofa Soifua!

Love, Elder Barton!

Season 1 Episode 2: When the Madness Sinks In

Talofa Lava Aiga!

Okay, so this week was pretty much the exact same as the schedule I sent you guys last week so there isn't much new! But, I have some really hilarious and good stories so here we go!

Story One: Laughing is A Remedy for anything

So first off, I met Elder Edwards! He is seriously one of the funniest guys I have ever met. However, he is in the other Samoan district which is probably a good thing. On occasion both Samoan districts will get together and have a lesson. So one of our teachers Sister Kamaletti was teaching and then she had start doing some work with our Soa (Companion) and then all of the sudden a few a us were talking in like this sassy white girl voice and we just couldn't stop laughing and me and Elder Edwards would keep looking at each other and we would just bust up. Anyway Sister Kamaletti told us to stop so we kind of stopped and she began teaching again. And for some stupid reason I decided to turn around and look at Elder Edwards and I totally just lost all control of my laughter to the point where I had to exit the classroom. hahahah I am laughing so hard as I write this. So I finally compose myself and walk in with my head downs so I can avoid eye contact with Elder Edwards and as I sit down Sister Kamaletti turns on a video of missionaries in the MTC and then just my luck an Asian guy comes on and English is his second language and so obviously my whole district including myself just bust up laughing!! Not because of the Asian but, because we all the thought of Elder Ping!! Oh my gosh seriously it was so funny! (Nichole and Mason I hope you are laughing)

Story Two: Patience is a Virtue

There is one guy in my district named Elder Fano who is from Hawaii. I like him for he most part but the other day we were all studying language in class and there wasn't a teacher because it was P.C.L.'s anyway, We were just doing our thing and for some reason when I memorize phrases I will on occasion use a tune of song to help. So, I started to do that and it was even loud and mind you that, that day was already pretty stressful and high anxiety because I was worried about the Family and Elder Matthews who will be in a future story had done a few things that got me annoyed. Anyway, there I am doing my thing when out of no where a pen just smacks me so hard in the side of the head and I look over and Elder Fano is looking at me and said "SHUT UP" Now you may all know that sometimes I am very quick to get angry! Anyway for some reason I just had this feeling that I shouldn't react. I immediately just put my head down and prayed so hard that the Lord would calm down because I honestly just want to go at it with Elder Fano! Like who does that?! He could've just asked if I could stop and I would have. Anyway So asked my Soa if we could go the bathroom and as were walking out I give Elder Fano his pen back and go into he bathroom while my Soa was siting outside and I just broke down for a moment because of everything that had happened that day and it was only like 11. Anyway so I really had to exercise faith that the Lord would help me exercise patience and in a way understanding. It WAS SO HARD NOT TO FREAK OUT AT HIM!! But I'm grateful for the way I handled the situation! 

Story Three: When Madness Sinks In

Okay, so there is his Elder in our District Elder Matthews who is from Northern Utah and throughout the first week he was really cool and dedicated. But at the start of this week I noticed that he had started to become less motivated and he started popping off to everyone including our district leader who is my Soa. And It was so weird to see him seriously go insane in these last few days. He is like a little kid! Honestly! He won't stay focused he doesn't study with his companion he is always being loud and obnoxious and rude. And it has really tested everyone's patience especially when he does things on purpose that knows will bug us. Anyway two nights ago I was up thinking about some stuff when I heard some crying coming from he top bunk. Elder Matthews is the one that sleeps above me and I just had a feeling that I should talk to him and I did. Turns out that he was super sad and homesick and I began to understand why he was acting the way he was and I felt more of an understanding of where he is coming from. He is sill pretty wacky but we are trying to work with him!

Things he would do: Rub his cracked gross feet right above me at night getting his gross skin flakes everywhere, He would always make stupid faces during serious times, He would always tell us no when we asked him to do something, He would complain about almost everything, He would become super competitive during sports and just be really rude, and he was always off task and he would talk inappropriately!

Anyway like I said we are working with him and things are getting better. 

Story 4: Nashville Tribute

On July 24th the Nashville Tribute came and they are an LDS Band and they sing country which you all know I'm not a big fan of! I will say they were really good! The last song they sung was "The Hardest Two Years of My Life" and it talked about his mission and one of the lines that stuck out was something along the lines of him hugging his Mom and walking down the halls away from his Mom for the next two years. 

I remember when I hugged you all and had to say goodbye. I remember rounding the corner and looking back one last time to see you all waving from the car and then I entered "The Hardest two years of my life" I just remember thinking during that time of all of you and how alone I was. It was super scary and sad to be honest. At the end of the song he talks about finally seeing his Mom and giving her a kiss on the cheek and I thought to myself I can't wait for the day when I am able to walk down the stairs to see all of my family standing there and giving my Mom the biggest Hug ever as well as the rest of the family! I am so excited for that day! But, I have also gained a broader perspective now that I am here and can't wait to serve the People of Samoa! This week was overall Really good! 

I love you all so much and look forward to reading your emails each week! However, if you any of you ever want to send me a letter throughout the week use DearElder.com and I will get it the day you send it! I hope all of your weeks are going great! 

I challenge you all to see how the Lord has blessed your life this week. If you really look back at it you will see how blessed you truly are!

Love you all so much!

-Elda Patoni