October 20, 2009

Hey Everyone,
Well, today we went to the Temple in Portland. It was awesome! So this week we had some awesome lessons. We have like 3 investigators who may commit to Baptism soon. Also, I learned a bit about Samoans this week. Apparently when something bad happens (like a tsunami) in their culture they just don't talk about it because it brings back bad feelings. That is NOT how Americans are. We tend to talk about the worst and leave out the best. So, when all the ward keeps asking my comp how his family is he tries to shrug it off and ignore it to the best of his ability. So, as you can imagine, he has been out of sorts ever since the tsunami. I explained to him that in America that is how we show that we care and I think he understands that now. His English is still suffering. When he speaks he leaves out the basic words that make up a sentence like, is, the, and, it, as, stuff like that. It can sound pretty funny.

So this week we ran into a guy who had trained all of the squirrels around his house to crawl up his leg and take a peanut out of his hand. It was totally amazing. So, he gave me a peanut and I waited and sure enough in like 5 min. I had a squirrel take the peanut out of my hand! Then he just sat and ate it right at my feet. So I'm takin' peanuts with me the next time we head to that area and I'm gunna get a picture! I felt like the crocodile hunter---it was nuts!

Well, that's about it for this week.... OH YEAH, so guess who's coming to talk to our whole mission November 14th? The one and only Jeffrey R. totally awesome Holland---my hero! So yeah, I'm way excited---its gunna be sick!

Anyway, I gotta jet!
Love y'all,
Elder Schroeder
Reported by Mom