And so it has begun....

It's been a long 5 months. Almost 6 months now. I'm almost a quarter of the way done now, and- WAIT WHAT?!

I'm almost a QUARTER of the way done now. I.... Wow. I don't know if that went by fast or if it just took its sweet time. I feel like it went by fast. Like, super fast. But look at me, talking like we're already there, and we're not. The quarter mark will get here in its own time, no reason to be all bippity bippity boo about it yet. Anyway, this past week was a real messy one. The recovery from Christmas led to some problematic situations I suppose, but whatever. It's just been one of those weeks I guess. We all know the ones right? AHEHEHE-COUGH HACK WHEEZE

...oh yeah. Also Elder Lock gave his sickness to me. So that sucks. It was slowly making its way into me up until Christmas Day, but I was determined not to let it kill me. DETERMINED. I was gonna sound SO healthy when I got to talk to my family. And I did. Unfortunately, though I've been trying my hardest to stay healthy, it's gotten me. And as of right now I'm out for the count. I'm really mad about it too. This is not a fun sickness you guys. It combines all of my least favorite symptoms, because let's face it. There are sicknesses that interrupt your life in a way you can handle, and then there are these.

I... Hate.. These....

It's like, really personally invasive. And it does things in your sleep too. So that's friggin' great.

Ugh. Jeez.

Anyway, the rest of the week was pretty uneventful for those reasons. I went to the temple on Thursday though. So that was cool. Now you can see my group kind of. But anyway, that was the week in review. Just about the only notable thing in this entire week was when we met a member named Brother Wise. He went on his mission to Japan, so there was a lot of really cool conversation that happened there. I got to use my Japanese a lot. He had us over to make something called a Malasada. In case you don't know what that is, it's a Portuguese dessert with fried bread and enough sugar to give Michael Phelps diabetes. (I am so sorry if he actually already has that by the way, I can't Google it so I have no way of knowing.) Anyway, they are super popular in Hawaii, because, well... I have no clue why, they just are. Welcome to Hawaii folks. Kamaaina as it gets. So anyway, we made a massive amount of them, and delivered them around as a way of trying to find new people to teach.

We didn't find any new people to teach.

It was still a blast though, I'd count it as a plus at least. Please pray for me to get better this sickness will kill me. This is why I wanted a gas mask. Fingers crossed for my birthday. I never told anybody before, but I've always wanted one of those. This is just one of those oddly specific situations where it would have been useful. Key word "would have" it doesn't really matter now that I'm already infected. But that's about it for this week! Yay?

Anywho, last week we had a Q&A, and only my immediate family had any questions, so let's answer them! Get ready for some enlightenment youngsters!

Q&A:

Zac-"Do you have any in jokes in your mission?"

Yes, that we do. It kind of depends where you are or who you're with, but some of my favorites include the part in the district 2 where they try to teach the law of chastity and they fail hardcore, and basically that entire scene as well as the follow up scene are joked about constantly. "he uh... Broke it" We also have a lot of Scooby-Doo related ones. Elder Elsworth says "like, SCOOB" Almost daily. But that's more of a Maka kilo thing. Mama kilo in of itself is basically one big in joke in this mission. It's also known as the 'makakingdom' and is basically famous for being extremely disobedient at all times. It's looked at like the trash bin of the mission in a way. Yeah, I don't find that one as funny anymore. But yeah, that's kind of what they are, if you were curious.

Tanner-"on average, how many dinners do you have a week? What is your favorite and least favorite thing you've eaten?"

That, is a fantastic question. You should probably have dinners every night, but that depends on how many people in the ward like you. You shouldn't have dinner with the same family very often. About once every other week usually works. If they sign up too much, the other members tend to shy away, and that's bad because you need to get to know all of your members. The other risk you run if you do that is emotional dependency. This can go one of two ways, but either way it never ends well. Either you'll become dependant on the members or vice versa. It's OK if you like to be around a family a lot, but you'd be surprised how many horror stories I've heard about it, or how many emergency transfers happen because of it, or how much time gets wasted because of it. It's a mess that sucks to clean up. But, to directly answer the question, we have anywhere from 3-4 a week on average. Sickness being the main reason why. My favorite meal has been the ward Thanksgiving festival that happened. That was pretty cool. Emu turkey is the best, and these people know what they're doing when it comes to candied yams.... Also Kailua pig is a divine masterpiece, but we don't need to get into the details or I'll get hungry. My least favorite is easy as pie. A family in my last area made Lau Lau for us once and instead of pork they put Chinese sausage into it. It was so nasty. I shutter just thinking about it. That, and poi. Poi is completely TAROble (see what I did there) and I hate it. That's all.

Mom-who is the person (in either ward) that has made the biggest difference for the missionaries and what did they do?

Fellowshipers are the ones that make the most difference. These are the people that find people for the missionaries to teach in the ward boundaries, and then help them all the way through the conversion process. And then remain close friends with them for as long as you can. These are the people who aren't in it for themselves or even for the missionaries, these are the ones that are in it for their friends. Eternally speaking.
Other than that, Curtis Zeek has made the biggest difference to me. He's a good friend, and I loved being able to meet with him. He made the difference, because he was the person who needed me, and the beacon that showed me that I was called here for a reason. That, I dont suppose can be replipcated, because it's different for every missionary.

As for the other questions, and yes I am going to answer them, those will have to wait for next week. In the mean time though, I got a really cool picture of the fireworks last night with my new Sony a3000!

Oh, and sorry for mailing so late today. I've been doing service, all day. I'll explain next week, since I ran out of time today.

Cya!

Making Malasada 

Temple trip with my district

New Years' Eve Fireworks