Email time! Well this week was hectic to
the extreme, yet one of the better weeks in my life, maybe. So the last time I
emailed I was under quite a bit of stress; the office kicked my butt a little,
but I’m back on my feet now. Last week I forgot to mention that I got an
infection on my foot, which made it annoying to walk. Luckily, the mission
doctor gave me some stuff and it fixed me right up so now I’m at operating
speed! Later during the week, there was an Elder who had to be flown in from Vava’u;
he got an infection in his hand that was really bad! Like nasty, gross surgery
bad. He got released and sent home because of it. I am not going to include any
pictures in the public email because they are not very pleasant. He got
released because he didn't have very long left to serve in his mission and his
hand required surgery. We got to hang out with him for a while the night before
he left, he's pretty cool, and he is a cousin to Elder M.
So Elder M got transferred out from the
office the night of the really bad infection guy. I never saw him again, but I
supposed he's good; finishing his last transfer in Sopu. He was a really
awesome companion and I really enjoyed serving with him. The best part about
Elder M was teaching with him. He is a really awesome spiritual teacher; he can
make the gospel so simple and easy to understand, it makes it illogical to not
follow it. Plus, he knows his Bible, at one point I told a member, “Man, this
guy can quote the Bible like a Methodist Minister!” I don't know how accurate
that statement is, but he can just throw out verses like none other. We had
this awesome experience where we taught a girl who's already heard all the
missionary lessons. She wanted to be baptized but moved to Vava'u right before
the day. She came back and we taught her and the spirit was so strong. I have
trouble following everything in Tongan, but basically we reminded her of how
she felt before she went to Vava'u, how it made her happy, she said she got the
happy feeling when the missionaries taught her and when she read the Book of
Mormon. She said she stopped reading the Book of Mormon in Vava'u because her
family didn't want her to join the church. She also said that was the last time
she felt that happy feeling. We told her it was the Holy Ghost and we talked
about how she can feel it again if she will start reading again. We also talked
about before she left, she felt good about being baptized, we committed her to
be baptized this weekend if she could meet with us everyday and read a certain
part of the Book of Mormon. The spirit in this lesson was palpable; afterwards
when we were walking away I almost spontaneously hugged Elder M, I was so happy
and that feeling is pretty much the greatest! Sadly, in spite of our and the
family’s best efforts, we haven't seen her since. I asked the missionaries
before and they said she would just disappear of the face of the planet
sometimes so I guess it's normal. I just hope she didn't return to Vava'u. Oh
well. But anyways yeah, I love Elder M; he's awesome!
I got a new companion halfway during the
week. His name is Elder C. He's been out on his mission 6 weeks longer than I
have, which is interesting when it comes to speaking Tongan. I end up speaking
a lot because I’m not afraid of being embarrassed and awkward. I figured it
going to happen anyways, I might as well say as much as I can and hope it makes
some sense. Sometimes it doesn't and I awkwardly say goodbye from a
conversation or something, yeah that part sucks. On the other hand, it’s way fun
to talk to people! I will literally stop and talk to everyone on the street, no
matter who they are or what they’re doing. It's hard to think of what to say,
but I manage, I know if I try as hard as I can to speak, then Heavenly Father
will bless me with learning.
Funny experience this week, I lost my
keys during a dinner with an investigator. This is bad because the office key I
have is like a grand master key; it unlocks a lot of the Liahona high school,
lots of churches, the mission office, and who knows what else. We were hanging
out with Me, the guy from Whales. Then we went to Malakai's and had an umu,
which means underground oven. We made some Luu, which was super delicious. Me
had a good time taking pictures and all that. We kind of had a short little
discussion about faith right before and it gave me some ideas on what I want to
teach next. After all the fun I went to grab my keys and was like, oh no, crap,
I can't find them! I looked everywhere I could think of, even Me’s house, and
couldn’t find them. I was praying my head off because I had to go open the
office so the new missionaries coming in had somewhere to go. I ended up not
finding them, and went and woke up the Senior missionaries who work in the
office and asked to borrow their keys. Luckily, they are pretty nice. We went
and looked for my keys the next morning but couldn't find them. I was quite
worried and I found out if I report it, the church would go through and re-key
all the locks in the places where mine works. Uh oh... I said a little prayer
and later during the day I went to grab something out of my bag and I saw a
little shiny thing. Sure enough, my keys were with me the whole time and I
didn't notice. Haha gotta love life. That's all I can think of.
Ofa lahi atu,
Elder Sitaki
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