Wasilla

Hello Everyone!!!

 

This week has been pretty stressful but a lot of fun! Tuesday we had transfer meeting and I found out that I'm going to be training Elder Fatani who's straight from Tonga. He's a really cool and funny guy and we should get along just great! He grew up in a small village of about 100 people and I guess that his neighbor is serving in Vanuatu also? Maybe Kate knows her. When the Tongans go to school they have to learn English so his English is pretty good! We get an extra hour of studies everyday so that I can help him learn it a little bit better haha. So funny story.... All growing up he would watch "American Movie" and so everyone in Tonga would quote things that the actors would say. Well as the week went on I thought that I kept hearing him throw in a bunch of swear words as he was talking in our lessons. He has a pretty thick Tongan accent so it kinda of went over my head as well as those who we were teaching. Well finally I made him repeat something he had said a few times so I could figure it out what he was saying and it turned out I was right! Haha he had no idea what swear words were and would just say them because he had heard it from movies! Needless to say our next language study we went over all of the words in English that we can't say.

 

The Wasilla Ward is so amazing! All of them love to do Missionary work so it's completely different and so much easier than any other area I've ever been in. The very first day we got there our Bishop gave us two referrals that he wanted us to go and see. We went over there and were able to set up a lesson at Bishops house for the following day. Elder Fatani really got thrown in the deep end but he did great. One of the new investigators name is Lynn jones... His story is really pretty cool. About a week ago he was living down in the states and nothing was really going well for him and he knew he needed a change. He decided that he needed to pray. After he did he felt a strong impression that he needed to head north. He kept following the road north until he ended up in Wasilla Alaska. He pulled into a hotel that our Bishop owns and it just so happened that our Bishop was out in the parking lot. Lynn told him his story and he brought him over to the church for employment services and invited him to meet with us. It's crazy the lengths that our Heavenly Father will go to to help lead us to the Gospel. Lynn as well as another investigator Sam came and watched the last session of General Conference at the Bishops house with us. They both loved it and are doing great! I guess that's probably one of the easiest ways for someone to be converted is to listen to the Prophet and his Apostles.

 

Sorry about the phone call the other day... I hope it wasn't too awkward! We were teaching Brother Huntington who is set to be baptized this July and he asked me if my mom would agree with everything I was saying. I told him that you would and that he could even call you and ask you! I didn't think he'd take it that literally...

 

I did get all of the packages that you sent! Just remember that it only takes 5 days for them to get here so you don't need to send them 2 months early haha. But I love them! The sweaters are great! 

 

Hope all is well!

 

-Elder Brown