Durochers Ditally Dot: Morgans 18th Letter in 2013

Dear Family,

So biggest news of this week is that I got transferred again.

Wednesday morning at 6AM I caught my flight on the airplane to fly back to Honolulu on Oahu. I couldn't believe how much stuff I had. Its hard to pack all my stuff into my suit cases, and have my bags under the 50 lb weight limit to go on the airplane. So I sent 1 box full of books and papers and heavy stuff to myself, and the rest I got into my luggage. So Tuesday all day long I said all my goodbyes to members, and also packed my stuff. Then Tuesday night we drove to the Zone leaders House to stay the night, because they life like 15 minutes away from the airport. Wednesday morning at 5:35 AM we were driving to the airport when an Elder I was with, Elder Rokete realized he forgot his Wallet at the Zone Leaders house. We race back to the house and grab his wallet and race back to the airport. We got the Airport at like 5:55, with only five minutes until the airplane left. The workers checked the weight of my luggage, one of my bags was like 5 pounds overweight, but she was really nice and said I could just go through anyways. We were the last people on the plane, and 1 minute after we boarded, she closed the doors the the airplane and we were off. I'm so glad we made it, it was really suspenseful!

I flew into Oahu, some elders picked us up at the airport, and took us the the Tabernacle for transfers. My new companion is Elder Soifua, he is another Samoan, and he is from West Valley, Utah. He is totally "white" on the inside, like his personality and everything. He doesn't speak any Samoan either. I was excited when I learned that I was going to be with him, because I have served around him before. My new area is Laie, (prounounced La-Ee-Ay), it is where the Temple is at, and where BYU-Hawaii is at, and also the PCC, the Polynesian Cultural Center. I'm in a walking area again, covering 2 wards. My area is pretty big, it would probably take 1 1/2 to 2 hours to walk from one end to the other. Laie has the highest percentage of Mormons in Hawaii. There is like 5 stakes here i think. There are a lot of cool members in this area. One of the members who owns the Dominoes right down the street from us, lets missionaries eat there for free. There's a few other places that do the same. While walking down the street it seems like every other car honks at us, and waves and says hi to us missionaries.

So when i first walked into our Pad (house), The first thing that hit me was the nasty smell, and then my eyes saw the disgusting house that lay before me. (4 previous Missionary's) That night and most of the next morning was spent by me and my companion doing a deep clean of the whole house. There was garbage, and trash everywhere, the sink was completely full of dishes, with a nasty smell of rotting food coming from the sink. There was like mold and algae all over the dishes and the sink and everything. I found half a box of pizza in the Oven that must have been like 2 months old, by how much Mold was on it. I found Ramen Noodles in the Microwave, that stunk to high heavens, that must have been left in there a few weeks, even that had mold growing all over it. I just threw away the bowl and fork in the Ramen, not even wanting to try to save the Dish. I found a protein drink mix that was growing mold and had bugs all over in it. The only thing i took a picture of was the pizza and ill send that picture over the email. This by far was the most nasty house i have ever seen. Finally after cleaning it, the smell slowly went away after a few days, and a few bottles of Chlorine.

I came into this area having 7 people with a baptismal date. 5 of them are from the Mauck family. Larry is the Dad, Jill is the mom, and then the Children are Brittany, Vanessa, Megan, Rachel, and Wyatt. 2 of them are too young for baptism, but the rest will be baptized on May 11. We had a lesson on Thursday afternoon with them at the Visitor Center. We taught the Law of Tithing, and also the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went amazing, and the spirit was so strong. There was 3 members at the lesson, which were a huge help, being able to help teach and share examples of their own family living the law of tithing, and the gospel. We also had 2 other missionaries there too.

It was an amazing lesson, one where i know that the spirit was there guiding all my words, and my thoughts and ideas. One where the spirit was able to use my as a mouthpiece, and I'm so grateful I was able to have that opportunity. It was amazing. On Saturday a member from the Ward, Brother Auna, invited us to come to a Luau, and wanted us to invite the Mauck family. We got the the Luau, and it turns out it was actually a wedding dinner party thing for his son who got married that day. I thought might be awkward for us, and even more awkward for the Mauck family, but it turned out being a great night, and lots of fun, and lots of delicious Hawaiian food.

So in our ward one of our recent converts is Bro Reed, we ate dinner at their house on Saturday. I haven't met him yet, because he is currently in Hungary filming a movie. He is the cousin of "The Rock", Dwayne Johnson, the celebrity guy. He looks almost exactly like The Rock, and he actually is The Rock's Stunt Devil. He is the one who does all the dangerous scenes in his movies. I only met his wife, and Kids who are really nice. I think there's a YouTube video about them, I'm not sure how you would find it though.

Well I love you all, that's all I can think of. Have a great week everyone.

Love Elder Durocher

Transfer back to Oahu, serving in the Laia area by the Polynesian Cultural Center and the Hawaii Temple and BYU Hawaii. North shore of the island as you see below.

I don't know if you have seen a picture of my last companion Elder Richards. He is on the Right on me, and Elder Small is the shorter one on the left.

Bobby and Kaika Mclure. A Less Active family we were trying to bring back to church, and also the Most awesome people ever!!!

Alvin Kobeney, a Marshalese Member, and also the 2nd counselor in Bishopric

this is a giant fish that someone carved into their bushes

This is the McMillan Family from Big Island

This is the Kenney Family from the Wonderful Big Island

Me and the The Bryson Family.

The Beban family, he was our ward mission leader

Jeffson John and his wife. They are recent converts. They are marshalese from the Micnonesian Islands. It looks like his wife is missing a tooth, but its really a gold tooth. Micronesians and Polynesians its really popular to have random gold teeth