11/4/09

hey mom i have to sit here and wait while the Ap's collect all the weekly reports because they dont know how to use a computer so i thought i would write you a little bit better letter than the one i gave you yesterday. we had a great trip to vavau i got to see the family that i used to live with in niua and i got to see the family that let me use their phone on mothers day it was really cool to see all those people again and we also got a lot of work done up there. we finished all the stuff we set out to do. we had a bunch of meetings with bishops and the missionaries and a few stake presidents about keeping accurate records of things that happen in the church. it all sprang from our baptism records that have a bad tendency of not being filled out very well. and when they are not filled out all the way the program that we use to submit them to salt lake wont except them so we had a bunch aof baptisms that happened several months ago but were not yet acknowledged by the church because we could not yet enter them into the church's system. we had a few really good teachings this week as well. one of the kids that we taught is going to the local college for technology. he was very good at listening and paying attention. the member that invited him to listen to the lessons is a very pretty teenage girl that he has been chasing for a while but the mom only lets her date mormons. so i think he has some good motivation to keep his appointment for next week. especially since the girl is helping us teach. my new comp is doing really well i dont remember if i told you or not but its elder preston yates. we were in the MTC together and are getting along really well. he is a good guy and had a desire to help and do whats right. i have to tell you about our AP's. neither of them has ever used a computer before and it is down right hilarious watching them. one of them was my companion in niua and he makes dads hunt and peck method look like a professional typist. all he does is type the numbers in boxes that i make up every week but it takes him a a good thirty minutes to type in the 50-60 boxes. it would only take me about 4 minutes but president has specifically asked me not to do it for them but rather to teach them how to use the computer. it does get a bit trying every now and again like right now its 11 o'clock at night and im sitting here waiting for him to get done but its ok life is still good and im learning so much patience here you'll probably not even recognize me. the mission had already changed me a lot (hopefully for the better) and im hoping that i will continue to change as the lord needs me. there has been and will be times when the changes are a bit painful. swallowing my pride gives me a bit of a stomach ache sometimes. but the lord knows best and helps us in spite of all we do to avoid it. i love you mom and hope life is going good love elder mayberry