First week in Samoa!

Malo Aiga! (Hello Friends and Family!)

Well this week has been super crazy! The last weekend was so long with out 13 hour flight to New Zealand and a 8 hour layover then a 4 hour flight to Samoa! Getting off the plane was kinda weird because first off it was like walking into a bathroom where a hot shower was going for like 30 min and because when I got off I felt such a piece come over me that confirmed to me that this is the right place!

Elder Johansen from Tooele, UT is my comp! He is a cool kid! He has been in the field for 10 months and his Samoan is awesome!! He is basically fluent haha! Good thing because they speak totally different here then in the MTC! It really is the hardest thing for me becuase in everything that we do I dont understand what the investigator, ward member, or person on the street is saying or what my comp says to them! So you can imagine me in lessons and yesturday in church! haha! But I am learning and I bare my testimony and say some stuff in the lessons so its coming!

So my area is called Vaimoso and it is in Apia on the island of Upolu! It is one of the biggest areas in the mission and we cover 4 wards! It basically goes from the ocean to the top of the mountain so you can imagaine how big that is! haha! We have the SICKEST house in the mission! We technically live with a family but it is a house on their property so its not like we are with them all the time so we have are space so its awesome! And the best part is we have ICE COLD showers:)

Its kinda weird cuz dogs are just everywhere! They are just street dogs and it is the saddest thing to see. For the short time I have been here I have seriously humbled myself so much because these people have nothing.. They live in huts with barely running water and their kids sleep on the bare concrete.

We have lots of lessons with Investigators and Inactives so we are always busy so thats awesome!

Its crazy being here because we have 1 hour in the morning for personal study of the scriptures and they mean so much more to me and I look at them with a whole new perspective! And as I have been read through the Book of Mormon I have noticed a pattern of words:

FAITH+DILIGENCE+PATIENCE=BLESSINGS

Its awesome to get home and go right to sleep haha! I have never been so tired in my life! I lay right down and knock out! haha! I have never prayed so much in my life nor have I ever prayed so hard in my life! I have learned to depend so much on my Heavenly Father because we cant do this alone!

It takes about 2 or 3 weeks to get mail where I am at!

Thank all for everything you do for me and all the love and support! I love and miss you all!

Love, Elder Fawson