Elder Cameron Summers:

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Aiga Pele,

Malo le soifua tatou aiaga
President Monson gave a great talk concerning this in the last conference titled, “Finding Joy in the Journey”. He stated that we should relish life as we live, find joy in the journey and share our love with friends and family. This advice has also helped me while learning the language and trying to adapt to a new life, work, and surroundings in general. I have slowed down and tried to enjoy and live in the moment. A common phrase here in Samoa is, “Leai se mea e popole I ai.” This translates to, “There is absolutely nothing to worry about.” I really hope we heed the advice of our prophet and take some time out of our busy lives and “find joy in the journey.”

Enough of my preaching, I’ll step down from my soap box and give you a little taste of the culture here in Samoa. The culture is very strong here and determines the way people live. For example, the Government delegates its authority to each village or town, Inside of that town or village, there are various chiefs. The chiefs act as judges and have power to punish people for breaking the rules of the village. For example, an Elder was telling me a story of where two people were caught cheating on their spouses and committing adultery. They were taken before the chiefs and were both banished from the village and fined 100 pigs a piece. When you get fined pigs, it is a really big deal. It can someone several years to pay the fine of pigs. They have to raise the pigs themselves and you can imagine how long it takes to raise pigs, especially when it’s only five or so at a time because they can’t afford anything else. Sometimes these punishments can last the duration of one’s life.

Also within the culture is food. Food is a very important part of the culture. They don’t have much of anything so when someone offers you food, it is a high symbol of respect Remember how I said that I have actually lost some weight here in Samoa? Ya, not anymore, that first little while I wasn’t very familiar with the food, so I didn’t eat a whole lot. I also spent my fair share of time on the toilet. But now, I am used to it and eating a lot of it. So don’t worry, I am definitely not going hungry. Since food is such a big part of the culture when someone feeds you, you give a thank-you speech when finished. You leave blessings upon the father of the family first, then the mother, and if you choose, the children as well. When done with the speech, the father then gives me and my companion a speech and gives us blessings. We then stand up and shack hands and depart.

Everything is going good. My first companion got transferred and now I have a Samoan companion who doesn’t know any English. My Samoan has definitely improved in these last three weeks because all I do is talk Samoan. A lot of the other white and even some Samoan missionaries have said that my language is coming a lot faster than normal. I study hard but I know that it’s a blessing from above., my Patriarchal Blessing tells me and gives me the blessing that my tongue may be loosed and in a short time learn the language. That blessing is being realized. However, I still have a lot to learn.

Transfers are coming up soon and I’m not going to lie, I wouldn’t mind getting transferred. I really like this area but my companion just got transferred here and the best chance of getting a new companion is me getting transferred. My companion is good but I’ve been with him a little over three weeks and I haven’t seen him study, pray, or wake up before 8:00 am. His old area is really close to my area and he always wants to go out of area boundaries to visit his so called “old investigators”. His old zone leader told me they had to close that area because they had a cell phone and he had a girlfriend, so it’s kind of hard to keep him from visiting his “old investigators”. He got kind of upset at me but whatever. Hopefully, I’ll get a new companion who likes to work because he doesn’t like to work very much either. But like you sad Mom, I asked for this so I should probably stop murmuring, huh!

I had a really good day this last Thursday. No, it was actually a pretty good day except for a couple of instances, So it started off pretty regular, I woke up at 6:30, got ready for the day and started my studying ( all while my companion was sleeping). The Zone Leaders then picked us up at about 9:15 to do our zone meeting we do every Thursday. After we were finished with that, we had the zone leaders take us to an area really far away from our house. We had received some referrals from members and they told us where they lived. We scheduled to work in that area and blocked out the day to work with those families because we knew we could get a ride with the zone leaders. It takes about an hour to walk there so I’m sure you can understand our reasoning. When we got there, it was raining cats and dogs. The zone leaders had other plans and appointments so they had to kick us out of the van. They dropped us off about 300 yards from the house because we were at an intersection and they were going the opposite way. So we jumped out and ran immediately to shelter under a pavilion at a store. We waited there for seriously 45 minutes as we watched rain come down like you can’t even believe. After the rain storm, of course, the sun came out and it was just the most humid thing I have ever felt.

So we get to this house and it’s kind of far from the main road where we were walking. We got half way, and five barking and growling dogs came charging out. My companion was at the front and left of me while the dogs began to circle us. One dog came trotting around and barking sniffed the leg of my companion. By this time we were circled by a pack of raging, crazy, Samoan dogs. I’m not going to lie, I freaked out. So the one sniffs the leg of my companion and then comes around to the back of me. I really didn’t know what to do so I just followed the example of my companion and stayed calm. I just thought to myself to stay calm, they probably just need to get familiar like the one did with my companion. So that same dog came up behind me, barking madly and sniffs my leg. For a split second I thought all was well because it backed off, but was still barking. Yep, I was wrong! That same dog lunged at my left leg and latched his jaw on my calf, just below my knee. At the same time, another dog that was on my right attacked my right leg. My idea of staying calm and not making any sudden movements immediately left my head as I jumped forward trying to get the dogs off of me. I was swinging my scripture case like mad as I was crouched and ready to pounce on the next dog that thought he wanted a piece of the white boy. Not going to lie, Satan got the best of me there when my adrenaline kicked in and I let slip some phrases with four letter words. It’s a good thing my companion doesn’t understand a lick of English, otherwise, I’d probably be under church discipline for what I said. But it’s all right, at least those dogs got the opportunity to hear some of Idaho’s best, farm boy, redneck, vocabulary.

The family felt really bad and gave me some medicine to take. I really didn’t want to take it but the family and my companion were really persistent. I guess the family is really familiar with dog attacks and explained they got the medicine from the hospital in Apia. After the explanation and peer pressure, I finally succumbed. Probably not the best choice but three days later, I’m still alive and haven’t died from the medicine or rabies from the dog bite.

The Gannaways send out a monthly letter to all the missionaries they know and include updates of Rexburg and a little spiritual thought. It’s really nice and I like getting them so if you see them, tell them thanks and to keep them up. This last week I got one and included was a little talk by Gordon B. Hinckley titled, “Gifts to Bring Home from the Mission Field”. Included in his talk are 10 different things he thinks should be acquired by a missionary by the end of his mission. They vary from the extent of knowledge and love for God, to work ethic. But the thing that hit me hardest was the topic of, “An increased love for parents”. This is so true as my love and appreciation for you have been realized ten fold. I use the word realized instead of grow because I don’t think I ever really realized how much you two have really done for me. Word’s can’t express how much I appreciate all that you two have done, are doing, and sacrificed for my sake. So I just wanted to say thank you and I love you!

This letter is long enough and I wish you all my best and each one of you are in my prayers! Thanks again and I hope to hear from you all! Tofa soifua!

Alofaaga,
Elder Summers