DECEMBER 10, 2012

Tell uncle thanks for getting me that lotion from Samoa.  I can't go pick it up since he lives out of my area.  Maybe he can drop it off to me?

this week has been good. monday we didnt do a whole lot. we had 2 appointments at night that canceled. although one came up at night with a 9 year old girl that is getting baptized this week. so that was good. tuesday we went to a district meeting in the morning to see how all of the elders are doing. wednesday we had zone leader council which went really well. me and elder moreno trained on helping the district leaders in the mission step up and focus more on their purpose. we had exchanges with the zone leaders in green valley. i was with elder williams. hes from mesa arizona and super cool. we had a lot of fun. and worked really hard. we had dinner with this part member family. they are from modesto and really cool. they had way good food too. nom nom nom. thursday we had exchanges with the zone leaders in black mountain. i was with elder shearer and hes cool too. hes from boston. it was cool. we go on a lot of exchanges and its cool to talk to them and see what experiences theyve had on their missions and their stories and stuff. ive learned a lot. especially when we get to help them with things going on in their zones or stuff going on with us that we get to help out with. friday.... i dont remember..... saturday! i got to go on exchanges with elder taetakua!!!! we had a lot of fun. haha. we taught 6 lessons that day. this area has been so busy its rediculous. but its fun. we got this custard stuff at night and drove back to central to switch back. oh yah!!!!! we had a baptism saturday morning! haha. for russ osborne. it was awesome. it was probably the strongest spirit ive felt at a baptism while on my mission. everyone in there was balling. we had one of our other investigators there as well and hes been praying to know if the church is true but hasnt gotten an answer. we talked to him about it before and he said he hasnt been reading. so we told him that if he reads, prays, and comes to church, then hell recieve an answer. well hes been doing those things because he got an answer!!!! awesome right? so were going to move back his baptismal date, but hell be getting baptized soon. its been a good week. :)

love yall!!!!

ELDER NONU

DECEMBER 3, 2012

honestly ive been friggin stressed out this whole week. this is the most stress ive had my whole mission... ive felt like im just running around like a chicken with my head cut off, and looking like i have no clue what im doing, because i dont. i can find, teach, and baptize, but as far as office work and organizing area boundaries and other stuff i feel lost. but im getting through it. i know that none of that is really true, but it still lingers in my thoughts, but i just go to work and forget about myself. so yah. luckily i have an awesome companion that i love! hes so awesome! but yah. weve been on 4 exchanges this week with 4 zone leader companionships. theyve been fun, but when im in my own area staying busy and working hard is no problem, but i get stressed out because ive been here for almost 3 weeks now and have n idea how to navigate around here. so yah. but i found my gps. :D and a map. but the map only shows our family ward and the singles ward is the whole stake. so yah. fun times.

 

yah... the bowl games make me so mad. alabama is in the national championship again. im so mad. I HATE THE SEC (south eastern conference) TOO!!!!!!!! the sec is the football conference that the BCS (board of college sports) kisses up too. they think theyre the best teams, the best conference, and they beat everyone. yah theyre good, yah theyre competitive but they get favored for everything. their season schedule has maybe 3 games against top schools and then the rest are against jokes, that are basically like high schools. like after alabama lost to texas a&m they played western carolina or something stupid like that. so they go undefeated, but against crap teams in division 2. so everyone gets mad. especially when you have the pac-12 that oregons in and they play USC, arizona, ASU, stanford, and all these teams that get nationally ranked every year. so yah. lame... but oh well. oregon will destroy kansas state and ill find a shirt about it. i still where my rose bowl sweatshirt i got last year almost every morning for sports and i bought an oregon t-shirt at ross. yay! :D

just a heads up, my skin on my hands and feet has gotten so bad and dry out here that it cracks and bleeds daily. i got a perscription from the doctor out here for an ointment that will help, but idunno what else can help. nothing seems to work. maybe dad has some voodoo samoan healing lotion balm from back home that he can send. just kidding.

anyways. thats my week, love you all.

ELDER NONU

cant wait to skype on christmas. :)

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

oh my gosh. this week has been psychotic. monday was good. we played sports with the zone and everything, but we were so busy in and out of the office that we didnt have time to email until about 1030 at night. we prepared everything for transfers and dint get everything done until about 12 at night. tuesday we picked up all of the new missionaries from the airport which was really cool. :) haha. just watching them coming down the escalator looking confused and excited was pretty amusing. and of course what was even better was the huge smile on their faces when we walked up and gave them a huge hug. haha. they opened up a lot after that. we took them to the mission home and talked to them about our mission and whats expected of them and they we gave a training and everything. it was really fun. :) after, we got everything ready in the chapel for transfers and it was awkward sitting on the stand next to president instead of with my boys. me and elder taetakua just laughed and made faces at each other. haha. i miss that guy SOOOOOOOOO much. elder zelenski (my comp from my second area) was the AP i replaced and he just went home last week. it was really sad to see him go, because i was close with him and loved hanging around him for his last couple of days. haha. after the testimony meeting we assigned the new missionaries with their trainers and sent them on their way. i had the same thinking about APs before the mission too, but we actually get a lot of work done. this area is actually the most work ive had my whole mission. just this past week we set 5 people for baptism and had a baptism saturday. which is always good. we also found 5 new people to teach. our number 1 priority is find teaching and baptizing and on top of that we do a office work and stuff for president to make his life a lot easier. its so fun to be around president so much and his wife. theyre so awesome. :) wednesday we had a training meeting for all the new missionaries and their trainers. it was really good. james' wifes brother is training a new missionary already. hes a boss. elder lilii. thursday we had 2 dinners. 1 with our bishop and his family and then with the 1st counselor and secretary in our mission presidency. they are both in our ward. every night, but 2, this week weve gotten home at about midnight. it sucks, because im exhausted all day. but its ok. i like these areas a lot. so its all good. elder moreno and i are getting a long really well. hes an awesome missionary. im looking forward to this transfer a lot.

all is well in vegas. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

ELDER NONU

ELDER NONU IS THE NEW ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT

NOVEMBER 19, 2012

thats awesome. i wish i could have been there to hear Pres Holland. but no.

well id give a full account of whats gone on this week but, im actually not because not a whole lot is important because of what happened the last couple of days. so friday night we had gotten a call from president but i didnt pick it up because our phone was on silent. well, saturday morning we went to go exercise and as we were driving back president called again and asked if we could come to the office in an hour. so we said ok, not really knowing what was going on. and we drove to the office and the assistants brought taetakua and i into presidents office and told us to sit down. after asking us some questions he told me he wants me to be the new assistant. so i was like.... holy crap.... aha. so yah. so all day saturday i had to wash and pack all of clothes and stuff. it was very hectic and busy. i only got to say goodbye to about 3 familys. lame. but oh well. saturday night we finished going over transfers, where missionaries are going, new comps, etc. it was crazy to go through everything. i was super lost. but ill get over it. we then made phone calls to missionaries and junk then printed out all of the letters for every missionary to tell them where theyre getting transfered to. after printing, labeling, and stuffing letters, we didnt get home until 3am. sunday. we woke up at 630 and got ready for church. we cover a family ward and a singles ward. its wierd covering a singles ward, everyone is close to my age and its very quiet. so ill have to get used to that. it was a good day though. the past couple of days have been crazy trying to get used to everything and adjust. we are a lot busier. but the area is going really well with work and baptisms so im excited to meet and teach everyone in our wards. so there you go. i got transferred 3 days early and im the new assistant. good times.... my new companion is elder moreno hes been out 1 transfer more then me and has been an assistant for 1 transfer more also. hes awesome. weve been on exchanges together before so weve gotten the chance to know each other, i already love him a lot. but i miss taetakua a lot also, and central.. looking forward to this transfer.

love you mom!!!!!!

ELDER NONU

NOVEMBER 13, 2012

this week has been great. monday we didnt do anything really which was pretty lame, but whatever. wednesday we had our zone meeting where we talk about everything that happened and was discussed at zone leader council to our zone. it went well, we realized how much work we all have to do. half of our zone is new missionaries being trained by new missionaries so its a bit crazy trying to help them acclimate and feel comfortable and to make sure their trainer actually knows what hes doing. so yah. unfortunately though the only missionaries that have been out over a year are the ones that are giving us the most problems. one companionship hates each other and dont really work and the other is our district leader in english who doesnt keep the commitments we live or do the things that were being told will help us be successful missionaries and then the other one just plain doesnt really seem to care. he sleeps in, doesnt get dressed on time, sleeps through studies, and his trainee just talks about how he wants to be an AP so he can know about all the stuff going on in the mission. so yah. stupid. me and taetakua have some work cut out for us. thursday nothing special again. honestly the only time something really happened was saturday through today, so well skip ahead. saturday we went to a funeral for a family in our ward, his brother passed. that night we went to a baptism in elder taetakuas last area for someone he set for baptism the week before transfers. it was one of the best ive been to. very spiritual and it was for a family. they visited the SLC temple on their way back home from an LDS funeral, and then wanted to join ever since. :) sunday was interesting. first we had church and our investigator greg came. hes the fiance of a part member family. sacrament was pefect because the night before he expressed that he didnt have a strong relationship with god and we explained that through prayer he can change that. luckily all 3 sacrament meeting talks were on growing a relationship with god. so perfect! well, it went down hill from there. in gospel principles our ward mission leader/ gospel principles teacher brought up politics for about half of the lesson and talked about how obama is a terrorist and that hes pissed off about the results. i was very very very upset to say the least. then in elders quorom our ex-ward mission leader cussed about 3 times and got into an argument with one of the other elders. this isnt the first time this has happened. so we left church super iritated. were going to visit the bishop tomorrow and let him know though. right after church though we got something to eat, and got picked up by the zone leaders in the zone next to us and we drove to the smith's center. we were invited to an orchestra/choir performance called saints and pioneers. its an all youth orchestra and choir and it was themed after the trek west and the saints in nauvoo. it was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! all of the zone leaders in the valley were asked to usher people to their seats and we got to watch the show also. it was sick! very spiritual and strong. they fed us and everything. that took up our whole night. monday! was great. we had a zone conferwence with elder stanley g ellis of the seventy. he talked about how we need to work along side the spirit and with gods help and not just on our own. it was aweome. we had a leadership training after and we went over john 10 and how the sheep are the missionaries in our zone and that we are the shephard that they need to trust and be led by. it was great. all in all its been a good week. also. p-day got switched to today because of the conference, so now you know why im late. haha. :D

anyways. thats my week. hope all is well with you guys! and also, my waist size is 42, i can fit a 40 fine though. 42 is just a lot more leg room though. haha. anything more though is way too big. so yah. thanks for the update on football too! :D one of the elders in the zone is an alabama fan so ive been making fun of him. xDDD

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! HAPPY ALMOST THANKSGIVING!!!!

ELDER NONU

transfers next week..... oh snap!!!! will i leave? who knows!!!

president and the APs thats who....

Nov 5, 2012

This week has been good. monday we played football at the park, kind of lame though. we dont have a very athletic group of missionaries here. so yah... but that night we had dinner and a lesson with the 3 kids that were teaching. we taught about the restoration and it went really well. tuesday we had district meeting in the morning and then our appointment with the drug investigator in the afternoon. haha. it was a good lesson, but shes not progressing. she doesnt read in between appointments and says shell be at church, but weve yet to see her there. so yah. not sure what to do with her. we were supposed to have another lesson with those 3 kids, but they had some ghetto people drama with their mom and long story short, no lesson. lame. but were still positive about it. haha. wednesday was super fun!!! we had zone leader council in the morning, which is always a really good meeting. they talked a lot about diligence and it really helped me gain a love and concern for the welfare of the people we street contact and talk to. so that was good. elder taetakua and i have been chasing people. haha. fun times. :D that night was our halloween mission party and we watched this movie called courageous. it was good and really funny, after we had tons of donuts and candy and fruit to eat and hung out with all the missionaries. i saw elder v and his trainee and james wifes brother also. he and i have gotten to know each other pretty well. hes a cool dude. at the end right after president told us we needed to go home, elder lilii (james wifes brother) screamed and we all did the haka for everyone in the gym and then walked out. haha. it was cool. president thought it was awesome. haha. we didnt get home until almost 1030. :D thursday was good. we went on exchanges with the assistants. i went to their area and we worked. it was really fun. we talked about a couple missionaries were having problems with. but it was a fun exchange. we had cafe rio too. :D nom nom nom. friday was good too. we had a lesson with a less active lady weve brought back into activity. elder taetakua felt prompted to teach her about tithing. about the first 5 minutes as we taught we were both thinking, well she knows about that already, or she probably already pays it. the member we brought (sis. martinez) is the relief society president and she bore her testimony about tithing and just brought the sweetest spirit into the room, it was awesome. then julia (the less active lady) told us that she had been praying about an amount of money that she was going to give to her daughter, but its the last of what she had and her tithing, and she started to cry and said "now i know what to do with that money". that elder taetakua bore his testimony and shared a story and i did the same. it was soo cool to see the spirit working through us into her heart. ive come to learn that that is what makes a successful missionary, its if you follow the spirit and then see it work in the hearts of those you teach and it testifies to them that what you say is true. that night we went to dinner with the tavita family and they told us that their family in that lives next across the street, were contacted by some elders and now they want to come to their ward with them. its a family of 8. 5 of which are baptismal age. so we challenged her to bring them to church and invite them to have a lesson. its awesome. sunday we went to church and it was a great testimony meeting. all of the members highlighted some great gospel topics. a couple of the members said how much they love us. it was really nice. aha. we had a lesson with the husband of a part member family. we taught the restoration, but it went pretty bad. he didnt seem to have much interest or desire and we could feel it. were not sure if hes only doing it for his wife, but we hope to find out soon. he left the room a couple of times as we were teaching and it was just awkward. along with feeling the spirit working with people, you can feel when its not hitting them, in this case because they have a lack of desire. so yah.... it was rough. THATS MY WEEK!!!!!

That's awesome that you get to hear Pres Holland speak at your conference, i wanna hear elder holland talk. He's awesome!!

thank you for that trunky thought.... LOVE YOU!!!!!!

ELDER NONU

Allen wrench in the tire

                         
                                     Ryan gets an Allen wrench stuck in his tire!!  Nice job!!