Allergies and Cancellations - September 22, 2014

Family and Friends! Hey! So before I deliver the bad news I want to let you all know that I am still alive and doing well.

Okay, now for the bad news. This week I found out that I have allergies. It's not your normal allergies, it's a special allergy. And to tell the truth, I'm not really sure if it is an allergy. But anyway, I'll explain what happened.

It all started Monday morning when I was noticing this itchy bumps on my elbows. I just thought that they were mosquito bites so I didn't pay attention. Well that night we had our family night with a member. I had been really hungry all day long and so I ate so much that night. The food was crab, chicken, rice, and some other things. It was one of the first times that I have eaten crab and it was definitely the first time that I had eaten that much.

Missionary moment. It was past nine when we left the members house and so we biked home as quickly as possible. Such a classic missionary thing. Anyway, we got home and I noticed that my arms had this huge bumps that were really itchy. My companion told me that they were hives. I called the mission nurse and we just thought it was because of the crab. She told me to sleep on it and that she would stop by in the morning to look at it. I put some cream on it and went to bed. That was a rough night. I remember waking up with this giant bump on my wrist and having really itchy elbows.

When I woke up in my morning my hands felt a little funny and when I looked at them they had swollen to twice their normal size. What!?! It was crazy. The mission nurse gave me some allergy pills and I took a nap to recover from the long night. So that day we went out and worked and my hands went back to normal so we thought that all was good.

The week went on and nothing too big happened but randomly I would have spots on my arms swell up and get hives. On Saturday it was the most obvious when I touched something to my lip and it started to swell up. I then put my ring on my arm and after a few minutes the outline of the ring swelled up and got really itchy. I called the mission nurse again. She told me that it might be because of this new medication that I have been taking. She advised me to stop taking it and that we would go to the doctor today to see what's up.

So long story short I have stopped taking my medication and we will visit the doctor eventually to see what's up.

Yeah. That was the excitement of my week. Along with 14 cancellations and 9 lessons with investigators, and the continued apartment searching. It was a pretty rough week. But I am still happy to be out here. We'll just have to see what the next week brings! I can't wait!

Family, and friends, I love you all. I hope you all are happy and doing well

Love,

Elder Squires

My hand vs. my companion's hand.

We went hiking....

A short cut in our area. It is so steep you have to use a rope

Soaking Wet, Apartment Hunting, and Skyping - September 15, 2014

This week was not a normal week in most senses. Lesson wise it was pretty normal. We had a fairly high number of cancellations and a decent amount that were there. It is really hard to have progressing investigators when things are like that. But this week we started the lessons with a little girl named Kealani who is turning 8 next month. She is really sweet and we enjoy teaching her. She should be getting baptized next month, yay!

As for soaking wet...you remember how last week was rainy? Well this week was worse. And this time we were outside in the pouring rain. We had a lesson at 10 with Teraia, and that went really well. Then at 11 with Hana, a new investigator. And during the lesson with Hana the rain started to get strong. And as we walked to our next lesson it stayed strong. We got to the house and the lesson got cancelled. We next went to our lesson that was to follow and he wasn't there either. No! By this time we were soaked so we walked into the neighborhood Tubuai (pronounced Two-puu-eye) and headed to a member's house for refuge. We ended up in our ward mission leader's house and he kindly let us in and let us dry off. He also helped us look for an apartment because where we live now is 30 minutes on foot from our area. So he looked for some apartments while we dried our books and clothes off with a hair dryer. Ha. It was pretty great.

As for apartment hunting we have been doing that whenever we have some down time. We walk around looking for apartments and making calls. It makes for quite the plan b activity. Ha.

And as for skype. We have to do our meetings with my district by skype and  since the only computer that has a camera is the ward's laptop we have to use that for zone and district meetings. Knowing that last week we did a zone meeting to say goodbye to the ones who were leaving because of the transfer, using the skype was a success, even if I had to hold the laptop and the poor sisters had to stare at me for most of the meeting. But this week for our zone meeting the internet would just not work at all. We tried for almost an hour and it did nothing. So the sisters had to sit in their clerk's office and do their own meeting while we did our zone meeting. It was really unfortunate because they are on an island. They are the only two missionaries on that island. And contact from the outside world is rare, so it's nice for them to have skype with us and it's nice to have them as a part of our meetings.

So yeah. That's my week. I hope you all have a great week. I love you all. And I hope you all know that I love the Lord and I want nothing more than to serve Him.

Have a great week family and friends,

Elder Squires

A lot of bananas. It's so big that it has to lean on the house.

Our bikes in after our muddy trip in the area.

Transfers, Anniversary, and Food Poisoning - Sep 8, 2014 7:44 pm

Hello everyone!

I hope all is going well! This week was better, as for the weather. And for cancellations, we only had 13, ha. Okay, I thought it was better but it really wasn't. But! It still beats 19! So...drum roll...this week is transfers and here is the big news...I am staying! Yay! And so is my companion. We aren't changing. We have only been with each other for a month now so it wasn't too much of a surprise. They are some changes of people in the zone but me and my district are staying the same.

So, for the anniversary I have to explain how we do our first contacts with investigators. Once we have our first lesson with the potential investigators we go through our "first contact" routine. We start out by introducing ourselves and our families with photos. And this last week or so as I have been showing the photos I realized how long it had been since I had since my brother Michael. And I realized that yesterday was the three year anniversary since he went on his mission. That was a shock. I can't believe it's been three years. That seems so long. But that is a part of the sacrifices that we make as missionaries. Only 8 months to go! Then I will see you again Michael!

Ahh (letting breath out). Another day of getting sick. On Wednesday night we didn't eat because we had to cancel our meal appointment to be able to go to a meeting. The meeting wasn't all that great and when we got home we were hungry. We tried to go to the restaurant right next to our house but it was closing, so what do we do? We go to the nearest food truck. Those are big out here. We ordered my favorite, poisson cru and went home. We ate that night and went to bed. As I woke up Thursday morning I felt sick. And sure enough I had food poisoning. My companion did too but mine was worse. I called the mission nurse and she said that it all has to come out eventually so just patient it out. And so I did. I didn't eat much other than some ice cream, which wasn't that good of an idea. But Friday I felt better and was able to eat, and I was back to eating normal food and even dared eating poisson cru again. And I'm still doing well.

So that's the report for our week. It has been an interesting week. The work is going well. And we will keep working.

I love you family. I know these things are true.

Love,

Elder Squires

Going up to our Bishop's house in the back of his Land Rover

Great. A giant spider on my shirt.

A Rainy Week - Sep 1, 2014 6:41 pm

This week can be described in a very simple way. A rainy week. Last week we moved out of our apartment and moved in a little ways a way. We now live 30 minutes, on foot, from our area. We are now six elders in the house. Monday was companion was feeling sick. When we called the mission nurse she told us that we would need to stay home Tuesday to rest and recover. So we did. We had to cancel 7 lessons that were planned for Tuesday. It was rather unfortunate but it happens. We all get sick sometimes. But we didn't stay home all day. That night we went out on our bikes to get some juice for my companion to drink, it rained while we headed out there, ha.

The week continued the same. Most of the lessons we had fell through because of investigators being too busy, because of the rain, or family problems, or overall just not being at the house. That's what made it rough. We had 19 lessons cancelled overall.

But anyway. The good things. We did get to see Tamatea one night as we were headed home. He told us that his dad had just gone into a coma that day. It was sad to hear but we were able to promise him that the Lord will help him. That was a good experience. I know that the Lord will help us in our trials and our afflictions. There was a scripture that I read, I don't remember where it was, maybe in Alma?, it was about a people that had gone through many difficulties but those difficulties were swallowed up in the joy of Christ which lightened their afflictions and allowed them to be happy. I know that is so true. That the Lord allows us to have our burdens lightened so that we can be happy.

So even though it was a rough week I didn't really feel all that bad. And even right now I don't feel like it was that horrible of a week. It has been lifted off my shoulders. I know this Church is true. I know Christ lives. I love you family. Keep going and keep living.

Love you,

Elder Squires