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