I love Christmas but I hate Samoan cocoa.

It's almost Christmas!!! 

Who's excited to skype?!?!

I can skype for a solid 45 minutos with family on Christmas day and I asked if I could have multiple skype convos with my family since they are dispersed in different countries/continents.  I got a yes and I asked how many convos/how much time I can use and my answer was to "be a good missionary." Translation, skype all day!  I kid, I kid.  So I don't know how all you Kyles, Danners, Possins, and Yams want to do it; that mess if for you all to figure out.  What are your secret skype combinations?

 

We have a lot of fun things planned for this next week including carolling as a zone, Christmas Eve steak breakfast with the whole mission and our Samoan unit Christmas dinner.  What I'm most excited for though is the Polynesian dance fest this Friday!  We get to go to all the fun events because we need to support our new unit even though we can't participate in the dancing.

 

It's so much easier to do missionary work during the Christmas season because even though people are stressed, the Spirit of Christ is in the air.  We have been reading a lot of Luke 2 with families and discussing the importance and significance of the birth of Jesus Christ.  There is one less active family that we have been focusing on for a while and finally, after many days of being barked at by their angry dogs, we got to visit with the mom.  She invited us in and we sat on some folding chairs that she found for us because the only other furniture around were matresses in the living room.  The house was a refrigerator because the heat wasn't on since it makes them sick.  We froze as we taught this sad widow.  She said that for Christmas, she wants her and her children to come back to Church and remember their covenants so that they can all live again with her husband.  We've been helping one of her sons to get back on track and even though he's kind of intimidating and has lips tattooed on his neck, he is doing all the right things to get his life back in order.  This woman told us about how she thinks everything will come back together with her family when her other son gets out of prison.  She said that he really didn't do anything too wrong; he just beat up his girlfriend.  Yikes.  Later, I found out that he beat her up with a knife.  Double yikes.  So, the mom just lives with one of her daughters and stays in her bed all day because the house is so cold and she says her sin is watching so many movies instead of taking the time to read her scriptures.  Most of her children are alcoholics and so she stays in bed most days, feeling the pains of their mistakes.  We got to help her remember Jesus Christ and His atonement.  We promised her as she got her life back in order now, she would see improvements with her family.  We ended our lesson singing Silent Night/Po Filemu to try and bring Christmas to her sad house.  Teaching this lady was really an answer to prayer for me because finally I felt like I was fulfilling my purpose in my new area.  The Church is true. 

 

I love Christmas but I hate Samoan cocoa. 

I'll email again on Christmas Eve.  Happy Christmas!!!!

Love, Sister Elva

1) me and my companion with ginormi lemons that we picked off a tree from a ghetto area

2) Islander marshmellows.  We dropped in on a member home and found THESE PIGS A COOKIN!  Living the island dream. 

3) Drinking a coconut, island style

4) my zone at the Christmas crèshe

Poly 4 Life

My people!  

My world has gone topsy tervy.  I now serve in Redwood City with my new companion, Sister Alaalatoa from Western Samoa.  

Sister Alaalatoa is a Spanish speaking missionary but we serve in the Samoan unit (it's hasn't been made a branch yet).  So we teach people in Samoan, Spanish, and sometimes English.  We mostly cover Redwood City, San Jose and East Palo Alto.

I am just a lonely palangi (white girl) surrounded by very very large Samoans at every Church function.  Church service is mostly in Samoan but there's some English here and there.  The Samoan people are so generous and so humble and the music sung in Church is impeccable.  The people are so nice- even the speaker blessed me over the pulpit when I sneezed in Sacrament meeting.  The hardest thing for me so far is having Samoans feed me like a Samoan.  I've never eaten so many carbs and so much dead animal in my life.  I miss vegetables.  I seriously don't know what to do about how much food they give me.  Even when we don't have a dinner appointment, we drop in to people's homes and they shove food at my face.  After feeling some consequences of eating like a Samoan one night, I decided that I was just going to be that bratty white girl and not eat any desserts that were given to me.  The next day we went to the home of some less-active members.  We talked to one young man then sat down on the couch and then a very large ten year old boy came out of nowhere and set up two tables in front of us.  The next thing I knew, I was eating a Samoan portion of spaghetti.  As soon as our plates were empty and cleared, they gave us each a big bowl of ice cream, two cupcakes and some milk.  I didn't even know where the food was coming from!  I didn't have the heart to refuse the desserts so now I'm in a pickle.  Should I make up an allergy?  Maybe I'm vegetarian.  I'll be in this area for five more weeks; I don't know if my body can handle this poly diet.  It's easy to refuse food when it's offered but people keep giving without asking.  I never thought this would be a problem of mine.  

Since our Samoan unit is still pretty small, we teach a lot of Spanish people in the area.  I'm in love with all the little ninos.  I watched loonytoons with some little kids who couldn't understand me the other day while my companion got a haircut.  I can understand about 20% of the Spanish conversations/lessons.  I'm picking it up pretty quickly because my roommates are Spanish speaking too.  Actually, my whole district speaks Spanish except for me.  Even my apartment is covered in espanol.  There are sticky notes all over the house labeling things in Spanish.  I tell people that I like their curtains because I accidentally learned "la cortina" because I study by the window every morning.  

Redwood City is no place like home.  We live in a pretty non-residential area, across from an Old Navy and a lot of Spanish restaurants.  90% of the people we teach live in dark, cold, tiny apartments.  I always knew I was spoiled in my circumstances growing up but it's different to see it with my eyes.  Most of the Spanish people we see escaped from even more poverty in Mexico, Peru or Guatemala to live in their humble homes here.  My new favorite couple rents out a bedroom in a nice house.  They are not a young couple but they have everything they own in the bedroom where they live.  They wanted to feed us so the husband went out and got some In N Out for us to eat in their room.  They kept offering us more food that we refused and then they sent us home with a Little Caesar's pizza.

A few nights ago, we went out to eat with a very large Tongan woman.  She forced me to get sooooo much food.  As we tried to end our conversation with a spiritual thought for her, we were interrupted by a man who worked at the restaurant.  He came to make sure we enjoyed everything but my Mormon-dar is so good that I knew he was a member of the Church and that he wanted to talk to us.  He told us that his brother is a member of the Church but after a little bit of conversation we found out that he's been a less-active member for 15 years.  He talked to us about how evil the world is and how hard it is to be good but as long as you know God lives, that's enough.  False.  I was pretty bold with him but he could take it.  We committed him to read Alma Chapter 36 in the Book of Mormon.  He said he would.  So hopefully reading about the blessings that come from repentance will help to heal his wounded soul.  

I spend everyday trying not to ask myself why the heck I'm here, serving in a ghetto area with people who can't understand me and want to make me fat.  I'm pretty solid at always remembering my purpose as a missionary and I know that everything in the Church, especially missionary work is inspired.  So even though my brain thinks I belong elsewhere, I know I'm where I need to be.  

Who's excited to skype with me in 15 days???  I love Christmas and Christmas on the mission is going to be a party.

I Love everything and everyone.  

-Hermana Kyle

New addy for the next 5 weeks.  

1033 Jefferson Ave #5

Redwood City, CA 94061

US of A

Surfin USA

Well, emailing in library is lots of fun.  I can't help but make friends everywhere I go. 

 

I've lasted two weeks in the San Jose area and I've adjusted pretty well.  I think I had a bit of a missionary culture shock when I got here but I'm more used to how things work out here so life is great.  I still think this work is 1000 times easier than missionary work on Temple Square but who's complaining. 

 

I'm being transferred away from this young single adult ward but I don't know where I'm going yet.  I just know that they need me to be a driver somewhere else which is good because I fall asleep everytime I get in the car.  So, maybe not good.  Pray for me. I'm joking, Dad. 

 

We have a really big area since we are over basically all the ysa here.  We went to the gralic captial of... the United States?  Gilroy.  Then we went and taught a couple lessons in Hollister.  Yeah, THE Hollister.  Like the Surf company.  We mostly made fun of it because it is not the surfer way of life like you'd imagine.  It's more farmish and golf course-y from what I saw.  I could very well be transferred there tomorrow. 

 

I can't get over how many members we teach.  Some members are less active and some are active and even return missionaries but they all need help.  I'm almost exhausted at how many people don't read their scritprures and pray.  They know it's the best way to live life, yet they don't do it.  Some of them even spent two years of their lives teaching people how essential prayer is and they don't pray themselves.  I never want to be like that.  One of my favorite videos that I've seen here is called God's chisel.  It's a good one, so go to town --> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhfUzodLRvk.

 

We have two investigators who we taught this week.  One is super presh and covers his face with his hand anytime he thinks hard or feels the Spirit.  He's almost 19 and he's taking his sweet time learning the gospel but we love teaching him.  Our other investigator is so comfortable with his life that he doesn't see the need for the gospel.  He says he doesn't have any questions, not just for us but he has no questions in his soul about who God is or what his purpose in life is.  I know he's lying.  He's really caught up in his school work and he's convinced that his 20s are for him to work his butt off so that he can start working in his 30s and that's when he'll be interested to join a Church and focus more on religion.  Stupid.  I asked him if he ever thought that faith could help him in his school work.  He didn't seem to care.  Lame. 

 

I keep telling myself that Temple Square is hoarding all my letters.  Someone please tell me I'm right. 

 

Use this address for now:

California San Jose Mission

3975 McLaughlin Ave, Suite A

San Jose, CA.  95121-2631USA

 

BYE!!!  I Love you all.  Especially the little ones.