erklegrew

Sun, November 7, 2010 erklegrew
From: Reed Salakielu
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ok huzzah! so my new companion is Elder Takuira. He is from over east, new south wales to be exact...newcastle area to be even exacter. He is full maori but has grown up in australia. he has been out about 5 months now and we just got doubled into our new area which is Booragoon, pretty funny name i know but thats what its called. so there were elders in the area and then sisters in another area had a fight and basically switched areas so there were sisters just before we came in, but one of them finished last transfer and the other got sent home cause she pulled a runner and so there was no one here for like a week and now its back to elders. the area is pretty massive. we cover like 10 suburbs, but we do have fremantle in our area which is pretty cool its like some massive port/docking area, and its home to perths AFL team the fremantle dockers. anywho the ward is pretty small. there was maybe like 60-70 people there yesterday...and of course they are all old...like seriously old. An old woman even had like a minor stroke during sacrament yesterday. she's all good now but it was pretty crazy. they may be old but they aren't like dianella. they are much better. but there are a whole bunch of less actives as well. So we have our work cut out for us.

Well it is sad to hear about Fa. I don't even remember the last time i saw her. was she at soana's wedding...probably. Well the Lord knows best right. I'm actually sad that i won't be able to be there and see all the family. I guess tell everyone i send my love..

That sounds like a crazy story about the truck...i didn't know you guys still even used it. i thought it was just chilling this whole time. and thats junk about the lawn mower. did you find/fix the problem?

ok wow well my mind is like totally and completely blank and i'm just like drained and well this doesn't seem like much of an email since recent ones seemed like they were massive. oh man and i still have to email president...ughh. well good luck with moving dad and all the funeral plans. Jenn i'm glad you're not going to jail for vehicular manslaughter and meliss maybe you should go get cryogenically frozen for 7 months and then things will be perfect, oh and about cod...really? are there any other games at all? cause if so it would be with those and if its not it probably did get knicked. Well take care and love you all.

elder salakielu

praise allah!!!

Sun, October 31, 2010 praise allah!!!
From: Reed Salakielu

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ok maybe thats a little sacrilegious...but i didn't capitalize it on purpose. I guess i should be shouting Hosanna. But all this rejoicing comes from getting transferred. Don't know where i'm going yet. I'll find that out on wed. but this ward...i just don't know. maybe i shouldn't be so happy to leave...but then again you can't argue with the Lord's will...lol. But with that said it was the Lord's will that put me here in the first place and i've definitely learned a thing or two. But the ward is just kind of i guess just dulled to helping people cause they don't think people can change. there are like 200-300 names/families on the ward list but only like maybe 100-125 people consistently come and its been like that for years and years and years and so they kind of just accepted that all those less actives won't come so...i dunno. its not really that the ward is poor, most of them are quite well off, and its the ones that aren't that seem to help the most, like this guy who doesn't have a job always gives investigators a ride when we ask him. But man you guys all have good advice, now i can lay the smackdown on them. anywho we'll see what is in store for me this next transfer. oh yeah and also in australia just in general people don't really know their neighbors nor do they care to get to know them...its insane.

ok so this is like information overload, i'm gonna have to start emailing dad style with just like bullet points. ok well he only does that sometimes at the end of his emails.

So yes meh is from the simpson...good ol simpsons, homer would always say it when something like pretty serious is happening. Like Marge would yell "HOMER THE CAR IS ON FIRE!!!" and he would just be all like "meh"....so funny as is the conundrum with the color and font changing computer lol. oh yes and the smores oh man...its was pretty much a halloween miracle. i would say christmas but halloween was closer. I got the package on thursday and that was like a world record or something...6 days it got here. and the day it got here we had a dinner appointment with the couple that we tried making the fake smores with last time and so we totally redeemed America. oh man they were so good. and then we finished them off in district meeting the next day cause it was one of the elders birthdays. and i was meaning to take pictures but forgot. and then on saturday we had the ward trunk or treat and that was pretty good. a good mix of members and them bringing their nonmember friends. We decorated the assistants van, the toyota tarago, with christmas trees and christmas lights...for some reason there wasn't a limit to just halloween themes. so that was sweet. also i did dress up for halloween, there is a picture attached.

Devin should be getting back soon shouldn't he? oh and dallin yeah we heard about that carbon monoxide poisoning thats crazy he went to that area. but yeah like a week after that happened the mission office sent out carbon monoxide detectors to all the apartments and one of the companionships in our district had to go live with some other elders cause their place had a gas leak.

Dad sometimes lets me know whats up and writes about the government but yeah...i dunno. also i guess the prophecy is that it will get bad and the american government will be crazy close to falling apart and that the constitution will hang by a thread but, that it will recover. so thats my excuse for not caring. i guess that should be my excuse to care. that although the problem will be solved it won't just magically fix itself...theres going to have to be people behind it to do the fixing. We'll see how it goes.

Also mele, you should be glad that you don't know my last companion. he got in this huge argument (not a contentious one) about how we should get married and have kids as soon as we can. see the other missionary was all like no i don't want kids i still have to go to school and i want to travel with my wife and a bunch of stuff and elder beck was just pretty much going crazy about how we are commanded to get married and have kids and was just all like the sooner the better...but then again he got mad at me for doing laundry on sunday...so maybe he could be crazy....but no he is not cause even the prophets say it, the marriage part not the laundry part. and one of the senior sisters that works in the office is in our district and so they come to our district meetings and she was sharing her experiences one time that before she came here she didn't understand marriage and that she never wanted to get married and that she would be perfectly content with just being an administering angel instead of getting into the celestial kingdom (yes i know, weird) but now she understands the concept of marriage and she said that she wished her companion was a man so she could marry her (yes, weird again)...So to sum it all up...get married. No but really, just go with the flow...the flow of the Spirit! (oh snap). also i know what you mean about feeling like there are all these things you want to do but not enough time, ever since you brought up the peace corp back in like whenever that was when i started byu i thought about that but 2 years...thats a pretty long time. i guess that'll have to be put on the back burners.

And gracias meliss for the pictures. Lil meki/telissa seems to be coming along quite nicely...keep up the good work. don't get too fat, jk. my vote goes towards a boy. see if he is a boy he is going to probably be crazy good at everything, probably especially rugby. and if shes a girl probably all she'll be is pretty...cause i mean come on, where's she going to learn to cook...lol jk thats so sexist. i'm sure that no matter what your child that you've been blessed with by the good grace of God will be amazing. (good come back eh). oh and please oh please don't name him or her anything near to frederick. what. the. heck? lol. crazy jared.

Well i'm pretty all emailed out for now. my library clock counter is just about depleted. but i love you all. Tell Fa that i love her as well and that i'll keep her in my prayers. thats pretty sad to hear about, but its all in the Lord's hands. Love you all again and take care.

Elder Salakielu

Trunk or Treat

bleh

Sun, October 17, 2010 bleh
From: Reed Salakielu


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ok wow this ward is so gay. i'm going to go crazy if i have to stay here another transfer. yesterday in ward council i got in this argument with this relief society presidency member (i dunno what she is) but she is just so freaking negative and just like tears everything down and had has no faith or hope in anybody changing or anything. she is just so negative. So i asked the ward council if there would be anyone good that could like consistently pick up this less active old lady every sunday and then take her home after sacrament and this relief society lady was like "oh no we can't do that. we're not a taxi service. I don't think thats fair that someone would have to do that" and just went off about how they shouldn't give this person a ride. i was just like wow there are some many things wrong with that and i just wanted to say a lot of bad things to her at that moment....i don't like this place.

also this last week started off great which is probably why it just ended terribly. We did catch up with the new investigators and two of them, this like 75 yr old couple who have been married for 51 years (merl and brian morris), we did service for and they are just like the coolest. We had to go over like 3 days in a row for 2 hrs each to finish weeding their backyard but they pretty much love us. They started calling us their boys and took good care of us. It was pretty cool to cause when we first tracted into them i knocked on the door and was like ok well what am i gonna say and was gonna say something about how the gospel can help us with our troubles in this life and how it can bless us and bring us happiness but when merl opened the door and i opened my mouth i was just like can we help your garden or yardwork and i don't even know why i said that but now i think i do....they're the best.

Also last week was a little different cause we were in a 3 way for a little bit. We had elder wallis with us and he is from our intke as well so we had 3 of us from the same intake it was pretty crazy. but the week ended bad cause we had a few disappointments with fake baptism referrals from members and investigators dropping us and yeah pretty much the same usual stuff.

anywho wow that scam phonecall to grandma sounds pretty crazy. like thats insane-o.

Jenn congratulations on the credits earned. that is sweet. movin on up in life. awesome goal of staying away from facebook...even if that means you can't blast people to smithereens with your bejewelled score. oh well maybe when meliss gets super prego and has nothing else to do but sit on her what will be fat butt by then all day long and camp facebook.

Mels i was so confused about football and footy and aussie rules and rugby and all that crazy stuff when i first got here and still didn't get it for like the first six months. So basically they call american football gridiron. they have there own sport here they call football or AFL which they also call footy for short or aussie rules. Its kind of weird and takes getting used to and i can't be bothered explaining it all, but basically it is like soccer with your hands and you play with pretty much (not exactly though) a rugby ball and you score by kicking it through posts. and since they have their own football they call soccer, soccer as well. And for rugby there is rugby league or rugby union which obviously have their differences but yeah. So Western Australia is pretty much in love with footy and has like footy posts in every park but hardly any rugby posts. so thats that. anywho good to know that i'm not the only one missing out on things back home haha jk. things are gonna be crazy different when i get home...everyone is going to well accomplished successful responsible adults compared to the floating nothingness of when i left...semi jk....(shifty eyes to jenn)...full jk. but i dunno what i'm gonna do when i get home..meaning i do know what i'm going to do...but i'll never tell. i've given it some thought and think i know what i'm gonna do still haven't figured out the definite timeline though.

Well another long email today, just about out of time. Thanks for writing everybody and i couldn't think of anything else for christmas yet but i'll keep brainstorming, can't be anything to important if i can't think of it, except oh wait i just thought of it. Maybe you could send the three core ingredients of smores...like graham crackers, nestle chocolate, and marshmellows. i guess one of each pack would do it. cause we tried to make smores with this one couple in the ward with aussie ingredients and they just didn't even compare. they don't really have graham crackers and their marshmellows are flavoured and the chocolate is different. so there is that. and maybe even a packet of smores poptarts as well. i dunno once again i'd say that the poptarts are the highest priority, but a good mix as well. Well i guess thats all for now. Take care and love and miss you all.

Elder Salakielu

HALLOA!!!

Sun, October 10, 2010 HALLOA!!!
From: Reed Salakielu


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REALLY!?! after watching conference now i'm surprised that nobody took a jab at me with video games...cause i mean lets be honest...i played a lot ( and i mean a lot) of halo and definitely looking back it was far too much. And that was just halo. well i'll talk more about conference in like 2 paragraphs.

ok well what to write about what to write about. Last week we pretty much dominated in football...it was kind of sad. and no i did not find out where in hawaii they are from. But today the zone leaders setup another challenge with members for us and we will be playing basketball, which i'm not the biggest fan of playing. oh yeah and that burger...it's sent 2 people to the hospital that is how ridiculous it is...like that guy is gonna get sued sometime.

so conference was really good. between saturday morning and afternoon session we just ate at our flat and then between afternoon and priesthood session since there were like 7 sets of missionaries in our area we all went tracting en mass (like jehovah's witness....but not really we weren't all on the same street like stupid jehovah's witnesses) for the hour and got like 4 new investigators. and then on sunday between sessions there was a potluck lunch...so they kind of did feed us. anywho what i got out of general conference mostly was it was heavily focused on agency and how we use it and to not just stay away from the bad stuff but to use our time wisely and not to just make a good choice but the best choice.

ok well i better get started with the Johan story if i'm going to tell it. ok so our first encounter with Johan is we go to drop off a finding faith in christ dvd because he ordered one from a pass along card he found on the ground. So we go to his house and talk to him and he is always kind of like jumpy and jittery and strung out, whether he is actually high on something or not, but i think that comes from the years of drug use cause thats what we learn from him that first visit, that he's been on drugs and drinks and smokes and is in like a gang and gets in like big gang fights and hes talking about micronesians against indonesians against asians and all this crazy stuff (he's indonesian by the way), but he tells us that he doesn't want to live like this anymore and that he loves Jesus and God and that Jesus saved him and that he wants to change. so we tell him we can help, give him the dvd and set up a return appointment. We come back and teach him the first lesson give him a BOM and invite him to be baptized. He says he definitely will read the BOM and be baptized but there is something he has to do first....That he has to get revenge cause some people beat up his brother...that he can't live with this dishonor in his family....but after he gets his revenge he'll definitely be sweet and change. So we're like uhhh...ok....will you come to church this sunday (this was on a friday) and he says yes. So we meet him sunday morning and walk to church with him and although normally jumpy and jittery he seemed especially more so this time and he's asking us if he can get baptized, asking if there is like a priest he can talk to at church cause he did something really bad and we were just like ya you'll be sweet. anyways so we go to church and stuff and he just listens to his mp3 player...and we're just like great...anyways church ends and we all go home. Come monday we see in a newspaper that a guy was stabbed to death at the bottom of our area on saturday night...........as in the night before sunday...when we walked to church with a drug using gang member...who was seeking revenge on somebody...and asked to talk to a priest cause he did something really bad....i think we can all do the math.....

anywho that is the epic tale of Johan Mouritz possible murderer. That was a while ago and we still see him from time to time so he could be clean. Also Rose, the lady from egypt, dropped us this morning pretty much doesn't wanna hear any of it...feel used....but whatever.

Jennifer Potter and the half blood princess thats what your name should be, seeing as how you are the master of botany and all...you should brew up some special potions to cure cancer or something, or maybe the one that can fix broken bones (or is that a spell?). anywho i don't think you give enough credit to yourself, you make it sound like you have no idea what is going on at all but clearly you obviously have some idea or else you wouldn't be doing so amazingly well. (lol there is this guy sitting next to me and he is getting mad at the computer cause it just bugged out on him and he reminds me of dad and he is all confused and doesn't know what to do and is getting frustrated). but maybe its just a tactic of yours what i used sometimes was tricking myself into thinking i didn't know anything and was going to do bad so when i did good it was a delightful surprise, and if i did bad then it was that disappointing...ahhh aiming low...the best, its pretty much a win win situation until that is you see how or where you could actually be if you aimed high, at that point it becomes an all around loss. well thats my 89th section of the doctrine and covenants for this week...it actually has nothing to do with the body but the mind.

Meliss....not giving me alot to work with but still good to hear from ya. Ultrasound stuff sounds pretty exciting. A couple in the ward who just had a baby a few weeks ago showed us some pretty funny ultrasound pics of their baby....well keep up the good work.

Mele that is good conference answered questions they usually do. Dallin H. Oaks talk about lines of communication answered some of mine it was pretty good. The last day of transfers is on halloween...which stupid aussies don't celebrate...but i really hope i get transferred then this will be my 3rd one here (18 weeks) but i dunno whats gonna happen. my new comp whose its his 1st transfer in the area has been talking it up to the assistants how he hates this area and wants to get out of here so i'm gonna be really mad if he goes and i stay...but whatever.

oh yeah forgot to mention that we are also going to sizzlers today after basketball cause there our like 5 of us from our intake in our district (including one of the zone leaders) and its our 11th month mark today....not that anybody is counting.

also i do have some requests if you be sending a christmas package...first and foremost...poptarts. they don't have them here, not that i've seen anyways and i've been missing them lately, any flavors i guess but at least the purple ones and brown sugar. Maybe some more of that sustain sport drink mix. I actually am going to look while shopping today if they have something similar to it which i'm sure they do but don't know which one i'll like more. and also if they come out in stores in time some starburst candy canes...thats not a very high priority but yeah...also maybe a tie...also not a high priority and if so NOT a christmasy one. i dunno thats what i can think of right now, if i think of anything i'll let you know. But i have been craving taro pies from hawaii McDonalds. there is an elder here from the cook islands who worked in hawaii before coming out and one of the zone leaders has family in hawaii and went to UH and so we always talk about hawaii and he mentioned zippys one time and i got pretty trunky cause we would always go to zippys straight from the airport once getting there. well taro pies and zippys will have to wait another year. pretty long letter today but gots to go now. take care and love you all

Elder Salakielu

a;ldjie

Sun, October 3, 2010 a;ldjie
From: Reed Salakielu


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Well hello. Good to hear from everyone again...even if it is only coming from extreme boredom or constant nagging and not from the heart....oh well what can ya do? So the big question on everyones mind. No we did not get to watch conference this week. We got to watch it LAST week!!!!...?...jk no we get to watch it next week. and the only reason it took like ten extra weeks last time was cause i was in albany and it took the stake forever to send the dvds to the branch and ya. but now since the stake center is just like down the street we get to watch it whenever everyone else in australia does...its kind of weird not being able to watch it from home. everyone has to go to a stake center and there is only an hour break in between sessions. so yeah looking forward to conference next week.

uggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

ok thats cause i don't feel like writing a lot but there can be a lot i can write about and then there is constant rereading over everyones email to make sure i covered everything and all this while i watch the stupid little counter on the timing box tick down.

I guess i'll start with today. a good ol nother pday planned. We got a good game of gridiron (american football) planned against this family in the zone leaders ward that is from hawaii, the Honda's. I think they were from somewhere by aiea, don't know where exactly or how long they've lived here but thats just what the zone leaders told me. But yeah they have like 4 boys and they play on a team here and the dads the coach so the zone leaders challenged them to a game so its our district, the zone leaders and the assistants against them and some of their friends.

Elder Oswald just told me that byu lost...wow they a doing pretty terrible. i guess thats ok though since i wouldn't exactly want to miss a good season. So i guess technically we are co-seniors or i guess thats what they call it. We both came from being junior and ya.

also Dad don't worry about worrying about me worrying about sending stuff home. It was like Birthday alley and why not kill 4 birds (plus more) with one stone...and yes the coconut slabs are probably my favorite.

So i know i still have yet to tell the story of johan the psuedo murderer but thats gonna take like a whole emailing session...ok maybe not but it would take a while and i'm just not feeling up to it. We've been doing service for this lady who called the mission office for help and she is from egypt. she is pretty cool kind of lame but pretty cool. I'm still working out whether she just wants free help or...actually i guess thats what every always wants and then you have to ease them casually into wanting to learn more...but she is just not having any of it, which is pretty frustrating cause she is riddled with like arthiritis (or something) and lots of problems and trials in her life and everytime we try to talk to her about the discussions or the church or God she just changes the subject. I dunno, thats been something thats been pretty hard. You meet some pretty cool people but they just don't want to hear it (the gospel) or don't want to have anything to do with it....but they're like so cool and its like you just want to strangle them into accepting it and just be like "ok, this is only going to help your life...just do it..." unfortunately it doesn't work that way, agency's a crazy thing.

So meliss let me tell you a little story about something that happened about 2 weeks ago. so there is this burger place we go to sometimes. So we went there on pday one time and i ordered this red face funny nose 2 burger...why do you think its called that? CAUSE ITS THE HOTTEST THING ON THE PLANET!!! I ate half of it and wanted to DIE!!! it felt like i was swallowing razor blades. I wouldn't be surprised if i got cancer from this thing...it was that bad. I had to drink like 1.4 liters of milk just to stay alive...ok so this thing is messing me over like no other. We go home and i have to have a lie down and it just feels like my intestines are burning away. We have an appointment at 6:30 so when 6:20 rolls around we hop in the car and are on our way. I say wait a second whoa we can't do this we need to stop at a gas station so we do and i buy some antacid/indigestion tablets and i get in line to buy them and i can't wait so i open them up and down like 4 of them. no kidding, 30 seconds later i have to go to the bathroom so i get out of line and go to the bathroom and just unload this unholy burger that was infesting my bowels and it looks and feels like my intestines come out with it. so 30 min later i come out, see elder beck and he just starts laughing its now like 7:00 and we continue on our merry way to our appointment....the end.

well i wasn't really planning on telling that story but since you are having some morning sickness i thought i'd just give that a quick share. Pardon my language....but it freakin sucked.

Well on that note (sorry) I have to get going now. sorry if i didn't cover everything or whatnot but hope all is well and love you all.

Elder Salakielu

p.s. still waiting on wedding pics.

oh dear me

Mon, September 27, 2010 oh dear me
From: Reed Salakielu
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I had no idea that some measley pineapple lumps could cause such an uproar among the masses...except for jenn...cause she didn't write this week. Well somebody must be very poorly mistaken because i'm about like 99,000% (yes thats ninety-nine thousand percent) sure i wrote mele's name somewhere on that paper because i listed every single thing in there and who it was supposed to go to....everyone: mom, dad, jenn, meliss, what should be mele, i even had corey and grandma and grandpa...that seems very unlikely that i forget to mention mele...but then again i don't have the paper so whatevs. So if you didn't eat them then yes they are mele's, hopefully you didn't cause she seems pretty upset. also remember when i ate your last paninni meliss...lol haha that was pretty funny...didn't feel to good did it. bam! moral of the story treat others as you want to be treated not as you have been treated unless you've been treated how you wanted to be. Thats my modified version of the golden rule that i made up just then...rolls right off the tongue doesn't.

Well you know what is bad about good sundays or good experiences? is that everything after them doesn't compare and is lame. thats what this last sunday was like and i officially hate this ward and most of the members and the ward council and yeah...i hate em. They are all lame. Thats all i'll say about that.

And as for your friend in melbourne mele i had to think about that one for a while, i couldn't remember at all haha but then it hit me like a brick wall and i can't believe i almost forgot. If its who i'm thinking of its either good ol ross (taurima) or elder petricevich who is a character. Those are the only people i know from melbourne that are home now but other than that i dunno, i liked both those guys though. We could play rugby if we really wanted to, not supposed to though, but the opportunity doesn't even really come up that much cause most people, members and nonmembers, play touch anyways. I didn't really like touch that much at first, that was probably mostly cause i didn't understand the rules, but then a while back we played with members every pday and it was starting to get pretty fun. haven't played in a while though, might play today.

Oh yeah, it was the queens birthday yesterday which was a public holiday which is weird cause they don't even celebrate the queens birthday in england. so pday got moved to today, forgot to mention that last week. Also my new companion is elder oswald from las vegas nevada. We were in the mtc together and he likes baseball. We went to the temple like 2 weeks ago, that was the assigned temple day though for the zone. We could go to the temple whenever we wanted to really, technically we're not supposed to but its like what are they going to do? they can't stop you from going to the temple.

And meliss i can't believe you've never heard of kyle johnson....shame. we was tight...like white on rice. Ok i don't really talk like that but yeah we were good friends. I probably wouldn't say in highschool but after high school yeah. and yes he did email me so thank you for doing that. and yeah the 50 cent peice was in the coin purse and there was a peice of paper in it as well...i guess just make sure thats still in there when it is given to him.

ok well wow that just blasted away the time and i still have to look for a short temple/family history video on lds.org to show at a stake activity about obviously temple/family history work. well thanks for writing again everyone, take care and love ya.

Elder Salakielu