funny things...

Hey all!

My mission President is back!!  He is finally healed from surgeries and President Lewis is back to work with us!!  ALSO!  We had ANOTHER mission conference this past week!  Guess who was there?!   L. TOM PERRY!!!  Wow.  I am so blessed to be up close and personal with these apostles!!  Dont worry, I sat on the front row.  yup.  In the middle of his talk to us, he pointed at me and said "Sister!  Do you know the 6th article of faith?"  uhhhh...nope.  I dont.  For some reason I never memorized those in primary like everyone else did.  I think they started that after I was done in primary or something so there I was and I had to tell one of the 12 apostles that his missionary didnt know the 6th article of faith!  Gosh!  I should really memorize those....  oops.  Lucky for me, Sister Williams who was sitting next to me, was able to recite it for everyone.  Good thing she memorizes EVERYTHING like a champ.  His talk was really great.  He told us that we are in the spotlight right now more than Mormons ever have been before.  We were all happy and encouraged. 

Fried chicken and rice for dinner.  Every.  Day.  Fried chicken and rice.  Its a good thing I LIKE fried chicken!  But I probably won't after this transfer!  Also, I forgot to mention that our branch is in combination with the Fijians.  I'm constantly reminded of Saneh Echols because of their accents when they speak English.  Sadly, I much prefer the Fijians.  They're very bold, loud, funny, and crazy like me.  They dont get offended easily, and they eat fried donuts for dinner instead of rice rice rice.  We have one or two Fijians that we are teaching right now which I LOVE because I get to teach in ENGLISH but none of our investigators will come to church!! Its frustrating. 

Living in the Ghetto is interesting.  We meet all kinds of humble people.  Some Marshallese families are living 3 to one house.  Or 8 people to one small apartment.  Its very sad to see.  I kinda gave up on the "dont let children sit on your lap" rule for a bit...These little Marshallese kids with big brown eyes and curly hair are so adorable and they just stare at me all the time.  They all plop themselves down on my lap and I kinda just shrug.  dont tell president. 

Daylight Savings did a number on me.  I had a really hard time getting up at "5:30" and then that night when I was exhausted, I couldnt fall asleep because it was only "9:30!"  BUT!  I am very VERY happy that when we go knocking doors at 6 pm, the sun is still up so people can't yell at us!  YAY!  Its time for a funny story.  So last Saturday, elder Jones and elder Zepty had 2 baptisms and they asked me to sing a musical number.  NOBODY in that branch can sing, so even if I did a crappy job, I figured it would still be great to them.  They also put me down to be the chorister because nobody knows how to lead music.  We often sing Acappella, but I was able to find a "pianist" who plunked through my song a few minutes before the baptism.  I stood up and conducted the first song and the Fijians and I sang loud.  Then the baptism happened and I noticed that my name wasnt on the program... Elder Zepty runs up to our branch president and explained that I was singing a musical number after the baptism so when the two recent converts came back, president turned the time over to me to sing.  I started the song and about 3 words into it I noticed that everybody was singing with me.  I didnt really know what to do and I didnt want to embarrass anyone because they came in when it was supposed to be a solo, so I just started waving my hand like it was a rest hymn!  hahah.  I could barely make it through the 4 verses because I was laughing so hard.  All the elders knew it was supposed to be a musical number so I couldn't look at any of them and I just thought "Oh who cares.  I didnt feel like singing anyway" and kept directing everyone else through the song.  We all laughed about it for a long time. 

Other funny story:  Sister Konou heard it was her Aunt's birthday and birthdays are a BIG DEAL to their culture.  We went to buy a quick cake from the grocery store to bring it to her.  Dont worry.  It wasnt her birthday.  Her birthday is in June.  Once again, lots of laughing commenced.  :)  

I love you all!  Im liking the Marshallese branch better than I thought I would, but I'm ready to go back to Deaf work where I can actually TEACH people the gospel!   Jesus Lives!  I love you all!

Sister Wilson