Monday, February 2, 2015

"If More of Us Valued Food and Cheer and Song Above Hoarded Gold, it Would be a Merrier World."

It has been a good week! I am a tad rushed, but I have some entertaining stories for you. On Monday we went back to Mt. Manaia. It was cool except me and Elder Palmer tried to bushwhack and find the trail, but we ended up on pretty much a cliff face. With him pulling me up on a rope. That we found. And he is a climber (I am not), and he even said we need to turn back. So yeah that was dodgy. And I twisted my ankle pretty bad when we got back to the trail. But oh well. 

We have a recent convert named [Paul], and he was on all the Capa Haka teams, so he is teaching us a couple of Hakas!!! I am excited, I will send a vid when I can. :) 

Tuesday night we went over to a member’s house and he pulled out smoked fish heads. Big old snappers. The meat was actually very good, and I don't usually enjoy fish, but it was good. Then we had the eyes and I had a brain. They didn't taste bad, the eye was quite ok. But the brain. Wooh. Like I said, not to bad taste, but the texture... ugh. It felt exactly like I imagine brains to be. Slimy and tubey. Man. Aaaannndd, there's pics for you. (I had a video, but it is too big to send...) ;) 

On Wednesday, I went on a trade off with an Elder named Elder Dearden. He is awesome! We ate fruit, fed some to a cow and a goat, saw some piggies, looked extensively for an address we never found, and got a gun pointed at us. Ok, not really, but kind of. We walked up and there was a .22 rifle sitting on the couch pointed towards the door. So there was a gun pointed at us, just no one behind the trigger. XD 

On Thursday we went back to the boat for dinner. Man those kids love us. You know how kids are, all crazy and energetic when company comes around. :)

 On Friday we went back to the house of the person who gave us the fish heads. He had two nonmember nieces there, his 25ish year old daughter's nonmember boyfriend, and a less active member Elder Fanger knew when he started his mission. We had an awesome lesson with them. They asked heaps of questions and it was really spiritual. :) 

We had a member baptism on Saturday and then a dinner with some of the most normal people in our ward. Because everyone in our ward is weird. But in a hilarious way. And this family is still strange, but very laid back. They told me my name in Maori, and apparently my name in Maori is Hame (hah-may). So, AWESOME!! 

Then on Sunday we had church and dinner at [Chad Brown] 's house. His brother is our temple president and was actually spoken about in general conference. But he was less active for a while, and he has been coming back. He is the man! He is simultaneously one of the most prideful yet humble people I have ever met. But he feeds us every Sunday. Then we went to see another family we see on Sundays. The [Miller] family. They have 6 kids, all members, but he isn't a member. But he is hilarious and really likes us. I love that family they are so cool. Anyway, we talk about lots of things, including weird foods. One of the Maori delicacies (though most Maoris don't even eat it) is rotten corn. And he finally fed us some last night. It was actually pretty good. Everyone was hyping up the terrible smell, but when I finally smelled it, it wasn't too bad. You know the smell of a farm? (Or Greeley if you live in Colorado?) It kind of smelled like that but less strong. Anyway, it is sort of a porridge and we had it with cream and sugar. It was not the best thing I have ever had, but it is good. And now I can say I have done it! :))

 Otherwise, the Wellsford Elders stayed at our flat last night cause they live far away, and we stayed up lateish playing UNO. It was awesome. :)))
                                         
Anyways, I love y'alls! 


-Elder Clayton-








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