"Make the commitment to give two years of your life to the Lord. It will change everything. You will be happy... You will come to love the culture and the people you are called to serve. The work will be difficult, but there will also be great satisfaction and joy as you serve." -David F. Evans
Cool bird. I think it is a Kingfisher. But I am sure it is a blue and white bird.
Well, I have been in this area only a short time but I just got the call
yesterday that I will be getting transferred to...... SAVAI'I! :D I have
wanted to go to Savai'i my whole mission and now I finally get to go.
My
new companion will be Elder Ekuasi from here in Samoa. He actually came
into the mission the same time I did so we are both new guys. I am super
excited to go to Savai'i.
I will be going to Fagamalo Savai. I'll still be a Zone Leader. I will go
over sometime this week, still trying to find a flight. Haha I should
have a real house... I hope. ;)
This last week has been busy and I haven't spent
a ton of time proselyting in my area because I have been doing
exchanges with other Elders in their area. I have done a 4 day exchange
with Elder Lealaiauloto in his area. Its been nice to speak Samoan again because my area is an English speaking ward. Elder
Lealaiauloto's area is called Mapusaga and it is one of the strongest
wards in Samoa. They get heaps of help from the ward in missionary work
and last transfer they had about 15 baptisms. It was awesome to see how
when the members are involved the work goes so much faster.
From Tasha: We just learned about a blog from a senior couple serving in American Samoa. Their blog is great, and there were several pictures and notes about where Elder Lamoreaux is serving. (All the following letters and notes are from the Schaefermeyers blog: http://samoaldsmission.blogspot.com/)
In our front yard we had a banana tree that had a large bunch of bananas
that was ready to harvest. We cut them down a couple of weeks ago and
then let them hang to ripen. Bad idea in all sorts of ways, all the
bananas ripened at the same time so here we are with 30 or more ripe
bananas. When a full bunch of hanging bananas ripen, you make banana
bread. I invited the zone leaders, Elder Faletoi on the left and Elder
Lamoreaux on the right, over to help and we made six batches. We could
not find small aluminum baking pans so we made our own from aluminum
foil. When resources are lacking, you have to figure out a way to make
it work. We baked 35 or so loaves, I lost count.
December 23 was set aside on our island for all the missionaries to
gather together and celebrate. The zone leaders organized a service
project of cleaning a large yard and arranging for the missionaries to
play rugby, table tennis, and water balloon volleyball on the cleaned
yard.
We then had some "silly" stuff like
moving an oreo cookie from your forehead to your mouth without hands.
The 10 second rule for cookies that hit the ground was applied by most
of them. Elder Faletoi and Lamoreaux, the zone leaders for the West Zone, designed the green shirts.
In the interim, Theron and I set up the cultural hall to serve the
missionaries lasagna (I made 4 largeeeee ones), garlic bread, green
salad with grapes in it, and cocoa Samoa brownies with cocoa Samoa hot
fudge sauce. We set up a gift table in the center of the tables and
after eats we gave them each their gift bag. Then, after they had
eaten, they started giving back - best Christmas presents ever (well
except for our son Marc).
The West Zone Elders performed a haka dance for us which i believe is
the Maori way of saying We are the most fearsome and aggressive warriors
on the island, however, for us it meant 'we love you' and 'thank you'.
(click to watch the video)
Saturday, December 5, was our ward Christmas party, now this isn't your
typical ward Christmas party because it's held at the beach and the
temperature outside is a balmy 85 degrees with sunshine. The Relief
Society sisters were asked to bring salads and desserts...
On the table was a LARGE white cooler full of barbecued chicken and as
we settled in eating our salads and chicken, the pick-up with the umu
cooked pig arrived. Three men with woven baskets carried it to the
table and began pulling it apart - there was a rush for the skin! You don't use knives but hands to pull a pig apart.
The mothers are sitting on the rocks talking and the men are sitting
making the big decisions and serving others. I really enjoy watching
these large men take care of the food, pick up the garbage and do all
the cooking. This is so great! The more they can do the better the
party.
After the talk and food and swimming, someone notices the kayak
approaching the shore - it's Santa. Yep, in Samoa Santa arrives in a
kayak. Somehow it's really no more strange than when he arrives on a
fire truck. Please note the boots he is wearing. They're quite
appropriate for a Samoan, kayaking, Santa. Because the kids are all wet
from swimming, no one sits on Santa's lap - Santa's worst fear - a wet
lap from a three year old. All the kids get a sack of some treats and a
small toy. How great to see the children so happy; the more the kids
enjoy themselves the better the party.
I hope all of you had a great year last year and a good new years celebration. I don't have very much to write this week, it has been a pretty normal week.
This last week we didn't get a p-day because we had a meeting on the other island so our p-day was spent flying over there and getting ready for the meeting. The meeting was a good one. I got to see friends that I hadn't seen for a while and I also learned that my favorite investigator in my first area just got baptized. Yay!
When we were leaving to come back to our island we got to the airport at 3:30 because our flight was supposed to leave at 4:30. The airport is SOOOO ghetto. They don't have x-ray things for your bags so no one gets checked and anyone can walk behind security. But anyways... we sat in the airport till 7 when our plane finally left. The plane seats about 20ish people and they make all the fat people sit at the back so the plane will be balanced. When we were leaving the pilot turned around in his seat and said to us "well the flight was a bit rough coming over, there is a life jacket under your seat just in case but please don't touch it unless we tell you to. will you all pray that Heavenly Father will get us there safely?" It was really comforting.
Other then that its just been normal stuff every day. Sorry not a very long email. Alofa atu ia outou! Love all of you, -Elder Lamoreaux