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

meh

Sun, September 19, 2010 5:46:31
From: Reed Salakielu


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Ok well it is the start of a new transfer today. Transfer calls were on saturday night as usual and Elder Beck is getting transferred and i'm staying right here in good ol dianella

So we ran our 2/3 triathalon this morning. Biked the 20km's and ran the 5km's in about 90 min. it was pretty good. oh and 1 kilometer is 0.6 miles the way i remember though is pretty much 5km's is 3 miles. So the training leading up to this triathalon with all the morning exercise and all you would think i would have lost some weight...which i kind of did but not very much. So we did not have sisters playing frisbee with us. We have sisters in the zone but when we play on mondays its just the district usually, and then for the tournament it was cause of the leadership meetings so none of the sisters came to that so yeah...it was good fun though, just like old times. Oh yeah and then our post season barbecue was way good. we barbacued chicken, steaks, sausages, and lamb. I probably already said this but Aussies sure do love their lamb which i still think i don't like...but they love it.

Yesterday was stake conference and Elder/President Arden(?) not sure what his exact title is (at least elder though i guess) but yeah he was presiding and it was a pretty good stake conference. There was a talk about taking an offensive against satan instead of defensive which is usually what you think about when resisting and avoind temptation is defense but offense is the best defense was the jist of that talk. Then the stake president, who looks exactly like kramer from seinfield, talked about being spontaneous. Bearing spontaneous testimony, lessons from life, expressions of love, acts of kindness and service, personal and family prayer, gratitude and thanks, and acts of happiness. something he really said about bearing testimony i really liked, in particular to nonmembers is that if all they hear from us is scripted, prepared, thought out testimony how are they ever going to know that it is part of our very being. which is what a testimony should be. Elder Arden talked about navigation and gps's and how to return home:
1. the book of mormon 2. be more sincerely prayful 3. attendance at meetings 4. sacrament 5. seek counsel. Man that was a pretty good meeting. I know because of how fast it went by. Elder Arden was the last to speak and he had like 30-35 min to go and i was like "I might die!!!" but then i didn't. nah but really i know it was a good meeting because of the spirit. Oh also i remember the last bullet point that i forgot last week from those crazy meetings, it was we teach people not lessons...i'm sure you were all dying to know.

So that is pretty cool that dad's new mechanic is taking the lessons. there is almost nothing that can compare to seeing someone convert to the gospel. like its pretty amazing and just to see people change their lives and beliefs is pretty crazy. Thats maybe one good thing (maybe bad) about australia, is that most members are converts and it is always good to hear their conversion stories.

Well the time is near spent. and i've been standing up for half the time cause the library was full and only the standing up computers were left so i took one of those for a little bit. anywho sorry i didn't really respond to anyones emails like any of the girls, i guess i did answer some questions. also this is a new record, had an email from every single person, except for randy that it...good on you guys. thank you. also yes meliss, i guess you're coming out of impregnito you think you would've been quicker to send that news out instead of waiting a week...whatevs. Well take care and love you all.

Elder Salakielu

ok

Sun, September 12, 2010 5:25:39 PM ok From: Reed Salakielu reed.salakielu@myldsmail.net

Ok well todays email is going to be a bit rushed. We have to hurry and email and then go shopping cause we are having a barbacue with like 10 other missionaries. It is our Frizzlies post season barbacue, or thats what we're calling it. That was our team name, the FRIZZLIES. That is a whole nother story in itself but i guess i have no choice but to tell it. I guess i'll start with the part where we lost the tournament. It was best 2 out of 3. The other team were the turtles. so the turtles won the first game we won the second and then the 3rd game was a real show. it was first to 11 win by 2 and the score ended 14-12....lame but it was way fun. So there was this argument going on throughout the whole mission of what animals would win a fight. people were picking wolves, gorillas, lions, grizzly bears, and so one of the assistants on our team was a grizzly bear and so we named our team the frizzlies. Also that same missionary is going home this friday. so its also a farewell barbacue to him, elder hussey. He went to bingham. and he was kinda our team captain. and then the captain of the other team was a zone leader and he's way into the ninja turtles so there team was the turtles. Man all last week was just full of epicness...there is just too much to explain. and no jenn it wasn't nerdy...maybe a little. but it was pretty sweet... ...Except for the six hour training meetings that happened after frisbee everyday last week...man that was some insane-o business. ok i lied it was pretty sweet. but only cause it was so intense and inspired and directed by the spirit. Like you can just tell it came straight from the first presidency and the brethren. we learned about pretty much teaching simplified curriculum.
we focused on about 8 main points:
1. teaching doctrine
2. teaching by the spirit and asking inspired questions.(elder hamula said that teaching wasn't talking, butasking inspired questions and responded with doctrine) Receiving revelation through:
3. prayer
4. the book of mormon
5. sacrament meeting attendance
6.We invite, they commit, we follow up
7. and how to begin teaching
there is supposed to be one more somewhere in there between 5 and 6 i think....guess that shows how much i payed attention....but no really i have the paper and notes on my desk and it was really good training...super long and super draining but it was good. that was pretty much most of last week. I'd tell you more about johan but don't have enough time. i wish i could respond more to your emails....i guess jenn no more of these breaks that you would probably say only last like 5 min but we all know what happens when facebook is involved....well whatever everything sounds good at home...so yeah...haven't heard anything from meliss...she must be inpregnito (lol see what i did there). ok well thats it from me. love you all. Elder Salakielu.

To everyone I guess

Sun, September 5, 2010 5:39:15 PM
to everyone i guess
From:
Reed Salakielu

Well hello everyone i guess. Pday again. we played ultimate frisbee for morning exercise this morning. We usually do that every pday for morning exercise. We have our district which there are 3 companionships and then the zone leaders and assistants to the president come so we usually have a good game of 5 on 5. This week is going to be even better though cause there are these crazy leadership meetings that go for 6 hours everyday tues-fri ( I don't know who thought that was a good idea but i guess its to give training on the new teaching/approach i mentioned last week) anywho so all the leaders in the mission are coming from wherever to stay for the week and we are going to have a frisbee tournament and play for morning exercise. It should be pretty fun.

As for your question dad, about elder Hamula i thought he was polynesian as well but i don't think he is. i think he is of german descent or something. He's from arizona though and lives in New Zealand. Also it was Father's day yesterday so if i didn't say happy fathers day last time its cause it wasn't really fathers day yet...for me anyways...so....HAPPY FATHERS DAY.

Mele sounds like school is lame as usual. I guess whatever works though. You and Jenn can be study buddies and fail together...not jk...lol...But the Adelaide mission is pretty far away but is still the next closest mission to perth. I have a friend there, i think, Eston Stowers....yeah...i also dunno what i'm gonna do when i get back home...probably go back to school.

Well this past week was pretty good. We did the quit smoking program with this less active guy who just got out of jail and wants to get his life in order. He finished yesterday and didn't smoke all week. Tonight we have a dinner with him and a member family who fellowshipped him...going to Hungry Jacks aka Burger King. and then we have another dinner appointment with a filipino guy who is less active but has fed the missionaries every monday for 3 years....bro. Pipit he's pretty cool. So yesterday we had this guy who we haven't talked to forever cause he doesn't answer our calls and doesn't call us cause he works a lot come to church so that was good. Like he pretty much believes everything he's been taught but is just sooo busy. Also we suspect we are teaching a murderer....its a pretty long story so maybe i'll save it for another time, but all the evidence adds up and it points to him having stabbed and murdered someone...yeah...his name is johan...he's pretty cool minus the fact he may have killed a man, but still thats only a slight suspicion Elder Beck and I have.

So what song or music did that card play that the girls sent? and yes the same ol candy but same ole good candy and no i didn't eat it all by myself...nor did elder beck. We are training for a triathalon minus the swimming part. Mostly cause we want to and cause he doesn't want to go home fat. he has about 4 months left so when we aren't playing frisbee for morning exercise we run like 5 km's....so thats been fun.

Well time is almost up so adios i guess.....love you all.

Elder Salakielu

NO SUBJECT

No Subject
From:
Reed Salakielu
Well not much happened this week...kinda. It was zone conference and we had a visit from the area presidency, Elder Hamula. It was pretty good. He was really smart and in tune with the spirit and knew what he was talking about. He was kind of introducing a new program and approach to missionary teaching that the church wants to implement, i guess the Brethren have been working really hard on this for a while now and they are going to start it in the mtc sometime next year so they have to get everyone that is already out up to date...i dunno....we're assured it is 100% in line with preach my gospel...which i guess was a real fear for some missionaries. But i guess fair enough cause they say to be preach my gospel...I dunno i'm looking forward to it. Elder Hamula also came to lay down some rebukes for disobedience. No worries there cause our zone is the most obedient. We didn't even know that that was a reason he was here until the end and he interviewed a few of us (me included) and told us that. Well that was the highlight of the week i guess. DC looked cool i guess. Well take care love you all. and thanks for writing, jenn.

Elder Salakielu

thank you

Sun, August 22, 2010 5:15:29 PM
thank you
Ok, well thank you for all the birthday wishes and the cards. The pirate card was broken and didn't play whatever it was supposed to play...but thank you anyways. i got most of that stuff on friday and the package got to the office today. which we already picked up. The senior sister in the office called us right when it got in. Sister Matuauto, she is samoan but has lived in salt lake for like the last 20 years. anyways it was a good week last week. Elder beck set up a dinner appointment with a surprise birthday cake at the end. that was on thursday. and then on friday we had district meeting with another party and cake at the end of the meeting. Got a card and a tie and a journal from the elders in the district. it was nice...but too much. Still haven't opened the package yet. we came straight from the office to the library but thank you again. We have zone conference tomorrow. Those have actually changed from instead of being once every six weeks to once every 3 months. so this is the first one in a while. well i could probably write some more but small steps....

also you can tell mele and jenn woopdeedoo. big deal. i don't want to talk to them either, like they answer my questions anyways....and looks like i'll be missing out on a wopping 2 emails/letters (maybe 3) for the rest of my mission...MELE!

Well i'm fine really, take care and love you all.

Elder Salakielu

AHHH NOT MY XBOX!!!

Mon, June 14, 2010 1:01:03 AM
AHHH NOT MY XBOX!!!
Well that all sounds like some craziness. Not near as much happened here. Tuesday we drove up to perth for zone conference. We got a flat tire on the way up. We had a spare tire but the jack that was in the car didn't really work so we had to flag down some guy and ask if he had one and he did and we got that all settled. Then we got to perth, had zone conference, it really wasn't that great...that may have been my least good zone conference yet. Our zone did sing sweet hour of prayer for Pres. and Sis. Maurer. This is there last transfer so that was there last zone conference. I think Pres maurer leaves Wed. June 23 in the afternoon and then Pres. Cahoon gets in that night. Pres. Maurer is also coming down to Albany this friday for a fireside and to say goodbye to the branch.

Today we went on an 8 hour hike.It was part of this track called the bibbulmun track that runs along the west coast for like 1000+ kilometers. It starts somewhere north of perth and ends in albany and some people just walk the whole thing and it takes like 60ish days..of course we don't have that kind of time so we just did some of it.

So those boys were getting up to no good. Well i hope everythings all good. Did i ever mention those fireworks in my drawer like a few months back...i thought i did. and if i didn't then ya....the bottom right drawer is like stuffed to the brim with fireworks, ok maybe not to the brim but ya there is definitely some ish in there. Dad can use them...or anyone really and if not, then sweet. Also i forgot to check up on if the girls (Mele and Meliss) ever used those Best Buy gift cards which were worth a pretty penny...at least one of them. So did you guys use them? It might be past the date where if there is still money on there than it takes like $2 away every month...i dunno something like that.

haha Sis. Olman...she is funny. well it was only one picture i think so oh well.

Well i guess thats it for now. Mele thanks for writing. I'm sure you're going to do fine in school. Meliss congrats again. Jenn stop being a lazy bum and write me and take care everyone. Love you all.

Elder Salakielu

P.S. I heard that you can buy tim tams at walmart. Is that true? thats pretty gay if thats true.

Wow

Sun, June 6, 2010 4:18:23 PM
wow

You guys sound super uber busy. What a crazy sunday it sounded like. I wish our sundays were that busy. There was a classic car race here in albany yesterday and it seems like 90% of the town was there. It wasn't really so much a race as it was classic and old fashioned fast cars just driving around a track in a straight line. The track actually was the main street of the city that they closed off and so we had to drive some crazy way around it just to get to church and all throughout the day we could here engines revving and what not.

Well meliss, this will be the last time i ever talk to you as my sister...from here on out you're dead to me! haha (nelson style) lol, tricked ya. I guess as mom said this is the last time i'll talk to you as a salakielu. I guess technically mothers day was the last time i talked to you as a salakielu but never you mind. anywho i'd give you some wise words of wisdom but i don't really have any but i'm sure you've been counseled to the max by the grand master counselor (dad) and i'll just second anything and everything he has said...amen. well congratulations and know that i love you and am happy for you and wish the best to you and teki and take care.

About my camera cable dealy i want to say i misplaced it but i think its lost now, so i guess both. it wouldn't be a big deal if these computers had sd slots but they don't so i just went and got a sd reader. Also we haven't gone to zone conference yet. We are going up to perth tomorrow (tues) and coming back friday, it should be good.

Still very slim pickins for baptismal candidates. there are a few people to visit and teach but not very many baptizable. we still maybe only have one potential baptism and he is pretty much a 50/50 right now. His name is adam plugg and he is a pretty cool guy and says he wants to get baptized but he is smoking at the moment and yeah....i guess its not very good to be pessimistic though so i'll just say he will get baptized.

Anywho you guys shouldn't be reading this you should be cleaning the bathroom, or vacuuming the family and living rooms, and mopping the floor, or cleaning something...since there is going to be like 50 bazillion people at the house. ok so maybe its only like 10 but oh well. Well send my love and greetings to all the family, and tell jessica congratulations for me and keep the bunnys under control and alive. I hope you all can survive this week and take care, love you all.

Elder Salakielu

Slowness

Well sorry this email is late. We are emailing in the evening because we went hiking earlier today. We went out to a place called Bald Head its this peninsula that sticks out of the south and at the end there is nothing there between you and antarctica. Also at the end of it there is a pile of rocks and in the pile of rocks there is this plastic box and in that there is a little notebook that you write your name in and stuff and so we wrote our names in it. We went with a member of the branch and altogether it took about 5-5.5 hours. So thats why we didn't email earlier and then we had an appointment with this guy whose wife is inactive but that fell through and so we are going back next monday. Then we went shopping and now emailing. I would upload the pictures but i don't have a way of connecting my camera to the computer. I can't find the usb cord for it and the computer doesn't have an sd card slot...so another time.

Also the branch had a branch activity on saturday that was put on by the primary, even though there are only like 5 primary kids in the branch. But it was a western night hoe down. There was singing, dancing, and bbq and fried chicken and fries and it was pretty fun. There was actually a really good turnout of people. There were a lot of inactive families and even quite a few nonmembers there. It was really good, the hard part is now to get them to church, which none of them really came yesterday. We also went to a funeral yesterday. The funeral was of a member who lived out in Denmark which is like half an hour away and she was like 80 and she couldn't really get to church so i've never seen her before but Elder Orth (the Senior Couple) was her hometeacher so we went with them.

well only 11 more days meliss....crazy sauce eh? Jenn thanks for writing me a completely and utterly useless email...no jk it was quite nice, thank you. Mele still lame as usual i see...not jk...

Well not much else to write about. hopefully some things will be happening this week. There is zone conference next week, and our area actually switched zones so now we are in a city zone so we actually will be going to perth and city zone conferences are with two zones combined at a time and i'm pretty sure Elder Rockwood is in the other zone so i'll probably see him there. You probably didn't understand any of that zone business but if you really care just ask and i'll explain it better next time. well thats all for now i guess. Take care everyone, and i love yous all.

Elder Salakielu

Hello everybody (Dr. Nick style...from the simpsons if you're too lame to know what that's from). Well i thought i mentioned what happened with transfers last week but i guess i didn't but i'm a thousand percent positive, in fact we can all go back and look at the email...but i guess you just don't read my emails, so thanks a lot...jk last weeks wasn't even worth reading it was like 3 lines long. but it did mention that me and Elder Wilkey are still in Albany, and pretty much nothing else.

So you cleaned randy's room that is craziness, i never thought i'd see the day. That is quite the feat. So...I see my ipod isn't in the ihome...nah jk. the real challenge is the other room which is all kinds of crazy. That is awesome to hear nia passed her exam and is making her way on up. and oh well about the cardboard cut out...but you guys still have to take a lot of pictures and maybe some videoness. Well good luck with cleaning and continual wedding preparations.

Things here are alright, but i think i jinxed myself when i said that things were picking up. or they really were and so satan was all like i can't have any of this so he just did what he does best and made things harder. Appointments dropped left and right along with investigators. We invited this woman, Alina, to be baptized and she got pretty offended and is all anti for the time being, so we won't go visit her for a while. then there was roy who is like 80 yrs old and we taught him 2 lessons and he was falling asleep during them and then he told us we were wasting out time. Then there was a young couple who decided to go on vacation for a few months...and then we're having trouble with someone quitting smoking and paying tithing. For the time being we only have 1-2 possible real teachable people. One of them is like late 20's and he is filipino but we just can't ever catch him home...or awake. So maybe he isn't actually all that teachable. But we do have some referrals to go and see so hopefully we'll have luck with that. But that just means we have to work and try harder and pray and fast. but there is a branch activity this saturday which actually is supposed to be having a lot of non members come. So we'll see how that goes.

Well thanks for the emails, good luck once again, and take care. Love you guys.

Elder Salakielu

P.S. added some pictures of a few things. One of them is in front of some church back in merriwa with a pretty hypocritical sign...at least hypocritical for them. and then the rest of the pics are here in albany....a frog we caught and then got loose in the apartment, the windmill farm (produces up to like 75% of albany's power) and then pics of the Brig Amity, a replica of the first ship to land in WA in Albany in like 1826...sweet...well see ya later, love ya.

No Subject

well hello familia. it is the start of another transfer and i'm still in albany with elder wilkey. Our zone though is having 6 transfers so thats like half of our zone being transferred. we'll find that out later today, but won't even see them until zone conference in like a month.

well thanks meliss and jenn and mom and dad for writing. and thanks for the pics. even though the one you didn't include was the only one i asked for lol. they were still nice thank you. lol about the high voltage pic...LAME...jk. and i have not been late with checking emails. We just don't have day light savings here so it just seems like i've been late but really its just normal.

This past week was not so good. we had like 50 million appointments fall through..ok maybe not that many, but quite a few. Well things sound all crazy and busy back home so i won't bother you with anymore emailness. Love you guys, take care.

Elder Salakielu

Lateness

ok so it was very good to talk to yalls today (jk i'm not from texas). and you are very welcome for the mothers day card mom...its all true and its the least i could do for all the many wonderful things you have done for me.

I remembered one of the things i forgot to say. its nothing that great so don't get excited. its just about how we were walking past this church yesterday (the free reformed church) and there were so many cars there. like just as many cars as the ward at sandy if not more. I was pretty surprised...and mighty saddened. but i guess good for them, that is the most aussies i've seen at any church yet.

Jenn thanks for the email as usual. you've just gained popularity status over dad this week...jk he's been busy with crane tests and providing for our family and what not, and plus he's written alot more times than you...but still thank you. your email did make me laugh quite a bit though.

Also already forgot the elder coming in that worked with laurie....what was his name?

work really is picking up here we got a call from a less active who is actually a pretty good member but just doesn't come to church, but she called us to tell us that she has a nonmember friend who wants to come to church. But in an email or two back you said that you always keep our work in your prayers and that just really stands out in my mind and that it really does help an the Lord hears our prayers and it makes a difference so thank you. Love you all and take care.

Elder Salakielu

another week another pday. Last week was zone conference and i'd have to say that that was one of the best zone conferences yet, even though it was only my 4th one...but it was really good, and there was a greater outpouring of the spirit. it was a good recharge to those spiritual batteries.

Anywho we are back in Albany now and work is picking up we may possibly have 3-4 new people (thank you for your prayers) to teach and have made some progress with one of the people we have already been working with, its not very much but its progress none the less. her name is Marlain and she is like 60-70ish and is retired and lives off of pension and is afraid to pay tithing, and she said that that is the only thing keeping her back. We've prayed and fasted for her and hopefully we can help her to let the Lord help her.

That is great to hear about Jonathan Slack and that he has been called to labor in new mexico. My district leader in the mtc was from alberquque (?) new mexico...good ol elder sloan. he is in riverside california. Anyways tell Jonathan good luck, even though you probably won't be in sandy for 2 weeks. I'd give him advice but it wouldn't be anything new. Do you know when he leaves?

Time is going pretty fast, only one more month until the big day for meliss. sounds like things have been pretty busy and hectic with the planning and picturing and what not...but girls love that kind of stuff...i think...so oh well. But i am looking forward to getting the announcement.

Jenn...(head shake of shame)...i'm deeply disappointed in you.

So my camera is slightly broken again which is a shame cause we went on this tree top walk thing and it was pretty cool but didn't get any pictures cause my camera is brokeny. but there is a guy in the branch who i think can fix it...Danny powell...he is awesome. also i would put up some new pics from before it went brokeny but i couldn't find the cable, so next time.

So i found out what anzac day is, it is to celebrate when 30,000 troops left from albany to go to Gallipoli in 1914 for WWI...you guys probably don't care though.

Also me and Elder Wilkey found out that we are 19th cousins through Baron Roger De Grey. We could be cousins earlier but we don't know, also we heard that everyone is at the most 26th cousins don't know if thats true or not but whatevs.

Ok now to get serious. So we were tracting and we tracted into this lady who used to be on pretty good terms with missionaries but haven't really talked to any for a while. But one missionary she was pretty close, after finishing sent her his wedding announcement and this was like way back in 1999. anywho his name was like brandon or brendon savage, and who he was marrying her last name was seely. the reason i bring this up is cause they were from montana. Now either my mind is playing tricks on me or those names are ringing some very small bells...i dunno, i think i actually might just be crazy. Are they familiar to you at all?

And what time should i call? i was thinking that i was going to call monday morning which would be like sunday afternoon/evening. if your in hawaii church starts at 1 doesn't it? Well i probably should've asked all this last week so that i could actually check before it gets to be mother's day. but its the same dealy where its 2 days before and after and then the day of i can call so whatevs.

Well it was good to hear from you all and thank you for writing. Thank you for the prayers and i pray for you all as well. i hope all is well and that you take care. Love you all and talk to you next week....like literally talk, and not just email. love ya.

Elder Salakielu

p.s. haha jenn you thought that that was all i was going to write about you. but seriously...haha. but double seriously you should be ashamed of yourself. only going to 2 hours of church and then not wanting to introduce yourself. shame....jk, but seriously. also could you send that pic of randy somehow, maybe just like scan it and email it or somethin...that'd be swell. thanks love ya.

yay

Ok yeah so we didn't email yesterday because it was a public holiday...again. It was anzac day on sunday which i think celebrates when the first ships left to go fight in world war I, i think, or something like that. It was also the first dawn church service in either WA or Australia. So that was on sunday and then monday is just a public holiday to give people a day off since the actual holiday was on sunday.

but the "yay" in the subject line is there cause we got to see conference on saturday and sunday. we started the saturday sessions at 12 with only an hour break in between (which the branch president took us out for lunch and then a snack during those breaks) and so it felt like 8 hrs of conference straight but it sure was good. and then on sunday we started at 10 and finished at about 2:30 and haha oh man the branch president was just lying asleep on the floor by the end of it, it was funny. He is one of the funniest guys ever. he's pretty cool. but like on saturday there weren't very many people in the chapel just like the branch presidency and their wives and then us, and a senior missionary couple (we found out last week that the mission president was going to send down a senior couple and we didn't know what that meant for us cause like a year and a half ago there only used to be a senior couple down here and we didn't know if that meant we were going to get transferred and it was pretty funny cause we were freaking out but it looks like we'll be staying for the time being) but back to conference, so later one like 4-5 people showed up for the saturday sessions and then there was only like 8-9 of us for priesthood and then sunday there was about 15-20 people, which is quite a bit less than a normal sunday. Anywho this new senior couple (they're from queensland by the way, Elder and Sister Orth) is mostly going to work with the branch and the less active and part member couples in the branch and a bit of proselyting while we can now completely focus on finding new people to teach because that is what we are really struggling with right now is finding people. We only really have like 3 consistent but not necessarily progressing investigators. but the zone leaders are coming tonight on a 6 hour bus ride for exchanges so we could really use their help. Then we have zone conference on friday in bunbury which is the zone leaders area so we'll drive them back and stay with them on thursday. then stay in bridgetown friday night and come back saturday...pretty busy week.

before i forget, tell grandma and grandpa that i've got their letters and sorry that i haven't written back to them yet but i'm getting to it.

Jenn thanks for the update...all i have to say to you is keep it real.

AHHH i almost forgot to mention that i got the package and letter from austin and thank you thank you thank you again as always it is mucho appreciated. I did send a letter to utah but seems like you might miss it. And why doesn't cody email? i much prefer to email than write letters. Good to hear it is warm and sunny there. It is pretty dang cold here in albany and its only going to get colder cause its only fall, ahhh!

Well just about out of time and sorry i haven't written you back yet dad but thanks for writing and for the info and encouragement and updates (especially with the jazz). but I love you all and hope you all take care.

Elder Salakielu

hello

Good morning family, or should i say good evening...yeah, i'll say good evening. well last week for pday we went to the gap, and no not the clothing store. its this place on the coast where there is just like cliffs and there is a big gap from one side to the other and its like super high. also there is like a giant rock bridge thing and so i have some pictures of that. also pictures of a frog we caught and elder wilkey doing a wheelie on his bike.

The branch is good, we had about 40 people there again at church yesterday. Oh and yes this is the only branch for all of albany and we are the only missionaries for albany. the closest missionaries are in esperance and bridgetown and they are each like 4 hours away. technically our areas are huge and with bridgetown our areas meet halfway so a two hour drive for them towards us and a two hour drive for us towards them and that would be our areas but that is being technical when really they are just giant grey areas that no one really goes to.

I don't know if there is a major religion here. I'd say there is a mixture cause there are definitely like 20 other chapels in town like baptist, weslyan, catholic, free reformed, JW, uniting church of australia, salvation army, and a bunch more but i don't really know how many people go to any of them, my guess would be very few...at least now a days, i'm sure back in the day people were more church going and there are a bunch of chapels here because albany was the first settlement in Western Australia. Oh but we did tract into a free reformed church family who looked mormon and acted mormon and even had 6 kids but they were pretty far off the mark and didn't believe in modern day prophets and personal revelation and only believed in the bible and nothing else and that nothing can be added or taken away from it and i was just like wow people actually believe that, they didn't just make that up in the mtc. But anyways we were just battling with them for like an hour and elder wilkey was just smashing them with his bible bashing skills and they didn't even want to believe it or change or even consider it for a moment, it was just so frustrating...ok so it wasn't that contentious but it sounds better and funnier that way, but really it was a pretty friendly discussion. and we offered them a book of mormon and they were just like horrified and disgusted that we would do such a thing and then we accpeted their bible and so they took a book of mormon. and actually it was their sons bible so now we have a reason to go back.

As for the geneology i don't know which line we traced it back through exactly. I was going back through every ones parents and then that was taking forever. did that for like an hour and it was still going and like it was zoomed out way back and the print was like super small and i couldn't really tell from which line, but bro. james was expecting it to slow down and stop somewhere. but then we started going back through just one line and then we had to go and so bro. james took over and went from there, and i don't remember the name we went through.

Jenn that was quite the interesting email...but it was sooooooo funny. crazy people are the best. there is this guy here in albany who walks around wearing a white suit and hat and has a cane and he has a pretty awesome beard but he thinks he's jesus. he doesn't quite match up to the weirdo in hawaii. pretty funny though. and about the perfume ..hahaha oh man thats classic...classic dad. Good times.

Well (dad) it still sounds like work is good so no problem there. Like you always say the Big Guy Upstairs is really looking out for us and we are very blessed and i'm grateful for you (dad) and everyone else...jk everyone else being mom, randy, meliss, jenn, and mele and many more and i love you all.

Anywho things are alright. i'm fine, eating good, the branch takes care of us, even less actives and non members. elder wilkey can cook and usually does but yeah we're good. well time to go shopping for some food after we pick up the car from getting serviced, and then we don't know what else we are going to do today. Well take care everyone, love ya.

Elder Salakielu

Albs (albany)

So Albany is awesome. I really like it here. The area is huge and covers like 1.5-2 hours drive in any given direction, but we mostly stay within the major part of the city. So transfers were last tuesday and I got sent here and Elder Leota got sent to Bridgetown, which is also a country area and it is on the way to Albany. So we drove to Bridgetown which was like 2 to 2-1/2 hours drive from Perth and we stayed the night at Bridgetown where our companions were waiting for us. My new companion is Elder Wilkey, he is from Orem and he is the companion I have the most in common with so far, he's pretty cool. Then Wed. morning we made the 4 hour drive to Albany and got here in the afternoon. The landscape is amazing and there are lots of hills. The weather is a lot cooler and it is acually cold most of the time because it is winter still. It's been cloudy a lot and has rained at least once a day sometimes just small light showers though. The population of Albany is about 30,000 but most of the people are old. This is where all the retired people come and it reminds me a lot of Choteau. It has the feel of a small town even though is not that small...our apartment is pretty small though. There are only two rooms this time...the last house had 4. Only one shower and the fridge and pantry/cupboards are smaller and we have to share a desk for studying when last time I had 2 desks to myself...pretty lame. Oh well what can you do.

So I mentioned that there are a lot of old people here, well the branch is like 90% old people...old, but awesome. And we really hope to find a family to start teaching. We have about 3 individuals we are teaching. But there are about 40 members in the branch that come consistently and they are some of the coolests old people. They pretty much all love family history and doing geneology and the second day I was here we went to the chapel cause they do family history every thurs. morning and sometimes investigators come, and so they wanted to see how far back my family tree went and so I sat there clicking going back through the generations forever and only got to like 935 A.D. before we had to go and Bro. James (the family history guy) was just amazed and wanted to see how far back it went. Anyways, so we left and then yesterday in church he was giving a talk about family history and he said that he was still clicking through mine and got all the way back to Adam. I didn't know that much work had been done. I didn't even think that was possible to trace that but he said that there are a bunch of kings and stuff, like King Louis IV and so once you hit royalty its smooth sailing cause like people back then actually kept track of stuff and so anyways everyone is like super amazed with that cause they all love family history work and Bro. James, whenever he walks by me always like pretend bows and worships and I'm just like well, we all have lineage of the hightest royalty...Heavenly Father. Did you know that that much work had been done?

So I said that we would get conference last week (yesterday and the day before) well it turns out that the far away branches don't get conference till two weeks after the live broadcast, but it looks like we won't be getting it this coming saturday or sunday either, but next , its a shame.

Elder Wilkey told me this and I don't know if its true or not, but it probably is, but he said that the Albany Branch Chapel is the farthest chapel away from Salt lake City...pretty cool huh?

Well I really hope I get the package you sent. The mission office usually just forwards the mail out to us since we don't see the mission president or zone leaders or any other missionaries for like 6 weeks at a time, or until zone conference which is in like two and a half weeks. Also, the socks...don't worry about them, but if you do look for them, not just any socks, but the ones I described earlier, like they should be in my drawer and they're going to look really small.

Anywho, Jenn i know you were only emailing me cause you were being a slacker and didn't want to do any work, but that's ok...an emails and email....lol conner's gay...jk not really though.

Sorry, there is more I wanted to say but we have to leave right now to go to a funeral. Take care and love you all.
Elder Salakielu

ALBANY

Wednesday, April 7, 2010 8:27 PM

wooo! yeah! got transferred to albany

bleh
Monday, April 5, 2010 7:59 PM

Well hello fams, sorry this is on tuesday and not yesterday and that i didn't tell you last week, but monday was a public holiday so pday is today. It is also transfer day. Don't know where i'm going yet, i'll find that out later today, but we get the call to know if we are staying or going on the saturday before. Also i forgot to mention last week that we are getting a new mission pres. in like 2 transfers i think in july it is. He's from canada and is like a dentist or something, or so i hear.

Well it was good to get a plethura of emails to read this time and i thoroughly enjoyed all of them they made me laugh. Jenn thanks swallowing your pride and helpin a brotha out...jk i don't actually talk like that. If you want to know how to be wise with money and can tell you what not to do, go on a mission. Lots of missionaries out here aren't to smart with their money and are like out of money by the middle of the month....so basically what i'm trying to say is don't be stupid...jk. And Mels, finally good to hear from you and i can totally see dad doing that during conference, also he's still late for leaving for the airport i see. Anywho conference is over now and we didn't get to watch any of it...because that's what this saturday and sunday are for and they show it at stake centers also they make the times all weird and there is only a 1 hour break in between sessions, but whatever, so i'm looking forward to that this week.

So on friday (good friday) we were having our district meeting in the chapel and we were the only ones there and then this african lady came walking in asking if we have church today, looking for a good friday service. We said no but invited her to come on sunday and she said yeah and we asked if we could come teach her and she said yeah and so we got her address and then the next day we went over and taught her and her husband a lesson and then on sunday she came to church. They're both pretty keen and its too bad i'm leaving, but i guess thats the life of a missionary.

I added some photos not many though and they are just from saying goodbye to adam and ana last night. they are still awesome and i'm gonna miss them. they really want to come to the U.S. sometime and go on vacation there. Ana is just like amazed with american stuff and mostly because she watches all these tv shows there like the one about the family with little people for parents (don't want to be offending anyone)john and kate plus 8 and the hills and i'm like my sister/s watch all of those. Also they are big fans of Lost. But they are thinking about going to hawaii in May next year and going through the temple and doing touristy stuff there and maybe yous could catch up with them so just keep that in mind.

well sorry this letter seemed to be all over the place but I still have to pack a little bit and can't really think so still have to do that after this and then its off to transfer meeting. i'll be sure to let you guys know where i went next week and i love you all and take care.

Elder Salakielu

p.s. i will see what i can do about pineapple lumps, they usually only sell them in a store called the kiwi shop since they are from new zealand and i've only seemed them once elsewhere, but i'll remember that. hows my usb memory drive/stick thing coming along, did you find it yet? cause no ones really gotten back to me yet and i don't really care if you can't find it just let me know so i can stop bugging you about it...sweet, love you, bye.

crazy

So remember my email from last week and i was all like "YEAH IT FINALLY RAINED!!! YEAH!" and it was just like a pretty average storm that had happened the night before. But then later that exact same day...that exact same day...like exactly one week ago from this exact day there was another storm and it was SUHHWEEEEET! They are actually classifying it as a natural disaster. I don't think where we got hit could be called exactly a natural disaster but other areas of Perth got hammered. The part of the storm that got us still hit pretty hard though. So that morning while we were emailing it was pretty sunny with some clouds in the sky but i was pretty sad cause the storm from the night before had passed. So later on in the day we were at a members house and they had some windows open and the wind just starts blowing like crazy out of nowhere and then starts raining like crazy and its all dark and cloudy and there was only like 5 feet of visibility and then it starts haling golf ball sized hale and it was awesome. That bit only lasted for about 10 minutes but then for the rest of the day in our area it was just on and off raining and lightning for the rest of the day and night. There was quite a bit of broken trees and branches and streets were flooded. One of the universities here in WA, the library got flooded and an apartment complex had a mudslide hit it and fill it with mud and a whole bunch of cars just look like golf balls now cause they have all these dents in them from the hale. Anywho it was pretty sweet, i was hoping for more...still kind of am, but we'll see. Oh and i uploaded some pictures of the storm...not really of the storm but the clouds after the storm, it doesn't really do the storm justice though.

I've been meaning to write something to Dallin but i guess its too late now, thats pretty cool he's in the mtc now.
umm jenn you lame-o think you can just write me once and then take a break!?!...cause you can, but before you do that ask conner what day he goes into the mtc and report back. That little punk wrote me and told me where he was going but didn't tell me when...moron..jk.

Meliss thanks for writing and for delivering that stuff to conners, thats pretty funny about his mom, that made me lol, she's cool though and she herself is very nice. Also you come up with pretty lame excuses not to write me because although you remember to write to me in the afternoon it is indeed not too late, you can send stuff up to 7ish o'clock p.m., but i'll for sure get it if it is before 7...so no lame excuses is the moral of the story. Also i'm glad teki enjoyed them biscuits...thats what they call cookies here. tell him that he is lame as usual...jk he's cool. what does sound lame are the wedding plans...or at least the stress that come with them. but i'm sure it will be amazing just like you're ring which i won't see for another 20ish months...cause i don't check facebook...(shifty eyes)....no really i don't....

Mele...who cares about you

and I will talk to yous all in a week, also transfers next week and i'll probably maybe be going somewhere new but we'll see and until then i hope you guys travel safely and take care and i love you all, yes you too mele i was jking above. love you bye.

Elder Salakielu

what...is...up...

IT FINALLY RAINED! too bad it was only for like an hour last night. But it was raining pretty hard and the thunder was deafening and the lightning blinding. Which i like all three of those so that was pretty cool. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Well yesterday was pretty good. the most exciting thing was that Kathy came to church yesterday. Its all coming together...hopefully...knock on wood. And we will have another lesson with her on Wed. We also dropped off a Lamb of God dvd that someone had ordered from the tv commercial and it was an 18 yr old kid/guy/man (its funny cause i saw in this newspaper once where someone got hit by a car and it said that an 18 yr old man was hit by a car.) and we'll be following up with him this week and see what he thought. I actually fasted for him and Russel the other referral. and we taught Russel the 1st lesson but he is catholic and was more interested in learning more about our church instead of know if it was the true church...and thats what happens a lot of the time, people are just interested in learning about what we believe instead of wanting to know if it is true. that is the hardest thing, finding people who are actually looking for answers, looking for that something. Cause if they aren't looking or wanting to know how are they going to find it, or why is the Lord going to give them that witness. Anywho, the work must go on.

I do have more photos although i don't take many and haven't taken any new ones in a while but its a matter of uploading them and stuff so i guess i'll keep uploading a bit at a time every time a come to the library. I forgot the name of the rabbit but there are two and the other ones name is shadow but they are a member's rabbits and we were helping them clean out the cages because its a couple and 2 young kids and the mom is like a super prego, she is actually due this wed. and the dad actually got the melchizedek priesthood yesterday...they were baptized some 9ish months ago. but yeah...cool lil rabbits. and then neptune head is actually poseidon (its ok its a very common misconception..jk) but yeah its just some giant statue in the middle of some abandoned field that used to be like a nice park with like gardens and stuff but now its just all abandoned and broken down and all the plants are just like are either dead or weeds.

The diet is going alright...lame, but alright. and like my pants did go looser and then a meal roster got passed around in relief society and we had dinner with members for like 2 and a half weeks in a row and i never at so much dessert in my life, but since then things have kind of leveled out.

So you guys went to the cemetery thats good. I'm glad someone could actually find grandpa Siaosi's grave. I remember me and jenn and meliss went and we couldn't find it, or maybe that was Laipeli's grave...either way i would like to go their after the mission and see them.

Well it was good to how things are at home...thanks MOM and thanks DAD and thanks JENN...jk. really though good to hear from you jenn. sorry i can't write more but i have 5 minutos left. but your email cracked me up and it was really funny. and i hadn't heard from conner that he got his call...that little punk, i've been expecting a letter from him. also you should enjoy the rainy weather, its the best.

anywho thanks for writing and i hope all is well and i love you all.

Elder Salakielu

P.S. i was talking about my usb memory stick that should be somewhere on my dresser. i either mentioned on the phone at christmas or in an email but yeah that would be nice to have for pictures and also could you do me a big favor and try and request/order my priesthood line of authority. thanks bye, love you.

good'ay

hello family. I am writing this drenched in sweat and that is because we don't have the car becuase the other elders had to go to the mission office for a leadership meeting and so we biked to the library and wanted to get her as it opened so we would have our full hour cause the time to use computers are on half an hour increments so we were kind of late and i'm sure you could care less but thats the story. Also i did get the corn nuts.

It is good to hear that you are gluttoning yourself...at least someone is. Me and elder Leota are on a diet. Ya see when we went to the temple on wednesday my white pants felt slightly tighter and elder leota could barely fit his, so we are on a diet. also we have been going to adams to work out cause he has a little gym set in his garage. Speaking of adam i finally put up some pictures of them and don't they just look like an awesome family. I also put up some pics of Mary, and her daughter Kate, and her granddaughter Chloe. I also got the 4 wheeling pics and other wholesome recreational pday activities. I didn't know there was a difference between the new album i made and the reeds mission album and so i when i first starting putting pictures on i put about 10-15 in the reeds mission album. also good call on trying only to upload 1 or 2 at a time, that works much better, i was trying like 12 at a time.

The weather here has been hot which is lame cause summer has been over for a couple of weeks now. there was a week not to long ago where it was just crazy hot like it was bad and it was like that for 3-4 days in a row. Its starting to cool down though and it is a bit cloudy today.

So yesterday was stake conference with Elder Neilson of the seventy and he was here in january with Elder Cook. Before that on saturday we had a missionary meeting with him and he gave some really good training. We also had to study 1 Nephi 11-14 which a good bit about that was him teaching us about the revelatory process and the steps we need to take to receive revelation and the example was nephi and how he wanted to see what his father did and know what it meant so he sat pondering. so here it is the revelatory process:
1. What desirest thou? - inspired inquiry
2. alma 17:2-3 and D&C 138: 1
search and ponder the scriptures
pray
fast
3. what beholdest thou?
and that is the great secret of the prophets that elder neilson said we weren't supposed to tell anyone about.

We still haven't really found anyone new to teach, at least consistently, but in stake conference elder neilson talked about member missionary work and so maybe that will help.

I feel like there was something else i wanted to say but i can't remember it, i'm sure it wasn't anything to great or exciting.....except for the fact that the Christ came to the earth and atoned for all of our sins making it possible to receive eternal life...but all of you already know that. Well take care and i love you all.

Elder Salakielu

p.s. you don't have to send reese's cereal, but if you do could you include a pair or two of black socks of mine and they are like ankle socks, they should be in the right middle drawer, that is if the girls haven't scavenged them, but they might seem small but those are the ones. also were you able to find my usb i mentioned awhile back? If yes, then you can include that as well. take care, love you.

haha lolz

From:

"Reed Salakielu"

So yes it is wed. here and i got you're emails and dad sent me an email and he was thinking that i was going to be emailing on mon. and was hoping i'd get it on time. As for pictures, when i try uploading them i try 12 at a time and yeah it took the whole time last time and didn't finish...and i forgot my camera usb cable today so i will just try and get sis tata to do it or someone else. Also tell meliss that if she wants to read my emails she has to send me some first...jk...but seriously. also tell jenn and mele they're lame because they're lame and i wouldn't mind another email from teki.

OH MAN! I almost forgot to thank you for the package i got last thursday with the candy and stickers and jersey. thank you thank you thank you...and thank you. Elder Leota really likes reese's as well and its funny cause he says it like ree-sees instead of like reesis.. and i asked him if he's ever had resee's cereal and he's like "why am i only hearing about this now" so he is also grateful.

I got a letter from grandma and grandpa and from bro. and sis. egan as well, and those were nice. i'll probably be sending more letters home in about 2 weeks and there might be quite a few. Hopefully there will be some mail when we get to the temple.

Yesterday was a really good day. We had an appointment with this lady, Kathy, who has been meeting with the missionaries weekly since like august/september. she was catholic growing up and then went pentecostal and then was interested in jehovah witness (reminded me of a funny story which i will tell after) for a little bit and is now looking into the true church. she didn't used to read the book of mormon alot but now she reads it lot and loves it. for a while we weren't making much progress with her but the last few weeks have been especially good. she opens up a lot more to us now and tells us more. she hasn't been to church yet cause she wants to finish the book of mormon before she goes. i think she will be coming to church on easter sunday which would be really good. I have pretty high hopes for her and hope she accepts the gospel.

After that appointment we went to a former investigators house who is from kenya and her name in Nyibol. She seems kind of interested but she had a friend over and her friend was really interested and gave us her address and phone number and told us to visit her. Unfortunately she lives in the other elders area, but i guess that doesn't matter, whats important is that she learns and feels the spirit and comes unto christ no matter who helps.

So the jehovah witness story. So yesterday morning while we're studying we get this loud knock. I open the door and there is this elderly couple. I look at them and they look at me and then i see them look at my badge and then they look like they see a ghost or something and they like legitimately look scared like i could see the fear in their eyeballs and it seemed like they wanted to run away screaming or something. So there is this awkward silence for like 5 seconds and then they ask how the preaching is going and i say same old same old and then they were just like ok see ya later. so it was pretty funny, thats the second time Jehovah Witnesses knocked on our door, the other time was on christmas eve. They're pretty funny but they ruin a lot of things. They don't like mormons, especially missionaries, and don't even try to talk to us or take any of our stuff...probably cause they're wrong...i dunno.

Well i hope all is well at home and that everyone is ok and pray that heavenly father watches over all of us especially when we are all spread out (hawaii, california, utah, DC) and I will talk to you all in 4 days. Love you all.

Elder Salakielu