Half Naked Members and Drug Deals and Mean Samoans...

So the story behind the title is when me and Elder Redd went to one of our investigators houses and he lives with members. As we walk up we notice one of the kids running inside...nothing new but as we get closer we see that the Tina of the house or the Mother of the house is also showering (keep in mind the shower is outside) and lucky for us she had an Ia on and so she wasnt fully naked but she also wasn't too concerned about us being there...nice to know the Samoan ways.

Drug deals never thought I would see one, but I did. Elder Redd and I decided to go onto the golf course late at night before heading into the house just to see the stars. As we walk out a man starts to talk to us (I'm thinking one of those cool right place right time stories) but turns out he is a member. So we get to talking, then I notice a young man walking into where we just came out. As soon as the young man walks in the man we were talking to asks if we were going to leave now...we said yeah we should be going. So we see him look at us and watch us walk away then speed walks into the golf course. We didn't stick around long enough to see what was going down so that was good.

Now Samoa is known for its amazing people and how loving they are right? This one family didn't get the memo. Elder Redd and I were looking for a family so we decided to take a road and ask the people if they knew them. Wrong choice of a road. We started walking down the road and the family started yelling at us! We couldn't understand what they were saying because their dogs were barking and trying to eat us. Finally I understood a man and he said, "Get out of here before I let the dogs eat ya!" I didn't think twice so yeah they weren't quite ready for our message.

This week we were able to find some young boys by the names of Aaron, Laurance, and Nate. 10, 13, 8. All are Fijian, Samoan, and Indian mixed. Yes they can speak all three as well as English. So we have started to teach them, and they are super receptive to what we have to say! It was awesome they have kept up on every commitment! The only problem is that we only have permission to teach them and we have no idea if we have permission to ask them to be baptized. Its hard but they are all soooo awesome and love the gospel!

Questions that have been requested that I answer by the one who decides my fate in life.

1- what is your favorite food so far? Tell us about it.
2- Have you been attacked by any dogs yet?
3- What is the most spiritual experience from this last week?
4- What is the funniest experience from this last week?
5- How many lessons are you teaching a week?
6- How is the ward? Do you have a favorite family?
7- What is the strangest food you have eaten?
8- Is the mat you sleep on comfortable?
9- Do you have a grocery store near by?
10- How is the language coming?

1- Tarro with pe'epe'e and fa'i. Tarro is a normal plant that is very common among the Samoans. Pe'epe'e is a coconut sauce that they pour over the top of either Tarro or Fa'i (boiled green bananas).
2- No mostly Elder Redd manly kicks them while I'm behind him screaming.
3- My reading in Mormon, about the Nephites and how they were left to rely on their own strength because the Gospel had been taken off of the earth because of their wickedness. After I had read about it I literally told myself that I would never allow anyone in Samoa have to rely on themselves because I wasn't able to share the Gospel with them. It's kinda funny to see a Palagi try to talk to a Samoan when he has no idea what he is saying 99% of the time.
4-Refer to top stories
5-Ummmmmmmmm like 900000000000000000000 no just kidding like 11
6-Very strong and missionary minded. No all families are created Equal.
7-Lu'au and monkey balls
8-Its just a foam pad and a Fala so yeah kinda i guess
9-Quite a few.
10-It's going well but I mean I can't expect myself to be fluent quite yet.

Love you all and Thank you so much for the support!

Alofa Atu

Elder Elder Mason Derek Bethea

And a clarification from moms email chat:

M: Were the actual balls from a monkey????? come on!!!!!

EB: They are like pickled plums. But bright red and fuzzy so they call them monkey balls.

Just Another Week in Paradise

Elder Barton, my MTC Soa, and Elder Belnap, from MTC district.

This week was amazing. Nothing better then getting pushed to your limits, and then growing from it. I have loved the experiences I have been able to obtain while out here teaching everyone. Some have been hard for me to realize, some have made me realize that not everything is fairy dust and unicorns. But in every occasion the spirit was able to testify to me that everything will work out. Love it.

Anyway this week we had the opportunity to teach two of our investigators who are on date (YAY) but we taught them about the Word of Wisdom. We taught them both, the lesson was going super well, until Ilalio our investigator told us that he has a problem with smoking and with coffee. That hit me like a ton of bricks. It made me realize that not everything was going to just workout and that I wasn't going to be able to walk a paved road with the investigator to baptism. He is working on it but we visited him to check up and see how he was doing, then he told us that he has arthritis and it is extremely painful for him to walk. I was wondering why all this was happening to such an awesome man. He is working so hard to not smoke and now this. I realized that some obstacles are put in our path because we need to learn something from it. So we will see how this week goes.

Okay now a funny story, we were walking to one of our appointments and we ran into a man walking along the road. He started the conversation with, "Did you know that heaven is a big spaceship in the sky?" Then went on about how heaven is a physical place and how we have to be physically living to get to heaven! So most of it was him sharing how he is looking for the tree of life and how he plans to live until we all go to heaven! So we just sat there told him what we know and then left. The man was a hoot I couldn't stop laughing after we had left it was so funny to see what he was eating to "live forever".

Other than that my week has been full of just teaching and learning the language every day. It has been awesome I have reached the part of the BoM where Jesus is visiting the Nephites and is teaching to all of them about what they should be doing. I have never wanted to keep reading and studying so much except when I started reading 3 Nephi 11. So awesome! I love this work and the opportunities that I have every single day to teach about my Savior and all He has done for me.

Thank you everyone for your love and support! I love you all until next time!

Alofa Atu

Elder Elder Mason Derek Bethea

And now a tid bit from Mom's email:

Elder Bethea: Oh yeah my story this week is about breastfeeding and nudity! Fun I know but we were at a lesson with one of our investigators Aloni, he has a little boy who is about two and he loves us missionaries! But he has just gotten out of the shower so he is dripping wet and butt naked! So awesome to be teaching a lesson while the little boy is climbing all over his dad but naked, literally climbing on is dad. GROSSS!!!!! but then he moves over to his mom who is like a foot away and starts to complain a little I didnt know what about until she just wipped it out and started to breastfeed him for the rest of the lesson! It was discusting! I hated the whole thing! But the lesson went well.

Mom: are you being fed fast food very often?

EB: No but My face is fat like really fat

M: So do you sleep on a mat on the floor? Does your fagagla (?) have a stove or fridge?

EB: Yes just a mat on the floor. Yes our FALE (house) does have both of them

M: How often do you have to cook for yourself?

Are you speaking mostly Samoan? or English?

EB: English mostly but in lessons samoan. I like cook for breakfast and lunch but other than that no.

I'm getting fat

So this week has been awesome! I have had so many experiences with trying to learn the language as well as trying to enjoy the mission. The life of a missionary is the hardest ever! We have had the hardest time with people and telling us that they don't want to join our church because they were born in another church and we all worship the same God so same God same worship! Oh so hard to hear! But I have to just keep in mind that people haven't gotten ready to accept the gospel so I will wait until they are ready! 

Anyway this week has been SO awesome! We have two investigators on date! I'm so excited! They are so awesome! We just have to wait until they both get married and hope that they make it to church every week so that we can stay on track! I love that they are working hard to receive the blessings of baptism! 

The absolute best story of the week was when Elder Redd decided to walk down a road that seemed like nothing was down there. As we walked further down the road we found a little shack with a woman down there. I was praying the whole time that she spoke Samoan so we could talk to her. We get to her and she spoke Chinese. The best thing was trying to see Elder Redd attempt to talk to her! We gave her a pamphlet and are still searching to find a BoM in Chinese and some pamphlets in Chinese as well. So awesome as we have asked so many people how to ask questions in Chinese and other things. So crazy! Maybe I will learn Chinese!

The best experience this week was when we went to a less actives house and started to talk to her to see why she hasn't come to church. We found out that she was having troubles with smoking. We gave her some ways to help with the temptations, but I had the feeling to share with her the BoM and how it can help. The spirit was soooo strong as I shared how the BoM will help her so much with her temptations. And as she reads the BoM that the temptations will start to become less and less. We haven't talked to her yet to check up so I'm hoping that she has read and will keep it up! 

I love this work and how much it has helped me grow every single day! Thank you everyone for all of the prayers and the love you bring to my day everyday! 

Alofa Atu!

Elder Bethea

Part of email to Tina (mom):

Hey you know about that breast feeding in public. Oh its horrible. The worst part about being here is the kids and being naked. My worst story is I was at a fafaga and one of the kids had just gotten done showering and he just put a big shirt on, and he is like 2 and his sister is 6 so she kept lifting up his shirt and showing me his little weewee. I didnt know how to say dont do that so I kept saying "leai" which means no but she did it the whole night! even while i was eating! It was sooo discusting! But no seriously the kids everywhere are always naked no matter what house there is one kid that is naked no matter what its gross. But yeah that is my story for this week thats all i really have for time next time i will give you a better story! Alofa atu! 

SAMOA

This is the week of just plain awesomeness! I have had some of the funniest and most spiritual experiences of my life. I have been able to grow so much from this past week that I may need new spiritual pants! 

This week Elder Redd and I were able to go out and find some of the investigators in the area. We weren't able to find one persons house so we kept walking down that road. We ended up being at a house where they weren't members. (Score!) I couldn't understand hardly anything that was said the entire conversation. But we started to teach her, I thought it was going good but apparently she thought differently. She ended up giving us a huge spill about what she believed and that our samoan sucks. Great way to start off the week. 

Next we were able to go and visit another house. Let me remind you that I am in American Samoa so we all sit on chars when we teach. We walk into this house and guess what they don't have. Thats right chairs. So I had the opportunity to sit on the ground and give a spiritual thought. It was going super well until my foot started going numb. I thought nothing of it and that it wasn't that bad. They are some of our investigators who are not yet baptized because they haven't gotten married and have been slacking on going to church. So I was able to share a scripture about keeping the commandments and the blessings that come from it. (Mosiah 2:41) Oh the spirit was so strong and helped me through the whole thing. After we stand up (it has been about a good 25 minutes of sitting cross legged.) and my entire leg goes numb. Oh my goodness they were trying so badly not to laugh but it didn't work. You should've seen it I looked like a pirate trying to walk out of the house. 

This week was one to grow from. A lot of challenges with the language, as well as with accepting my Heavenly Fathers will. I was able to read a talk by Elder Bednar about accepting the Lords will not matter what it was. It is in the Liahona August 2016. I learned that faith is not believing that the lord will help me learn the language no but having faith that if he doesn't want me to learn the language until I have been out for 22 months then there is a reason for it. That talk changed me entire out look on how I want my mission to go. I love this work, more importantly I love that my Heavenly Father will answer my prayers in ways that I never thought he would.

Thank you everyone for your love and support. 

Alofa Atu

Elder Bethea