Letter to Home - March 14, 2011

Hey Family!

Well we had a great week!  Everything is fine from the tsunami.  We got a call from President Wade at 6 in the morning, telling us to tell our zone to stay away from the coast, and to be on call, just in case anything happened.  And nothing did.  They did evacuate some of the cities along the coast though, but all is well.

Nio's baptism was so good!  It was my first Tongan baptism, and even though I only understood half of what they were saying (some people spoke English, and some spoke Tongan), it was one of the most spiritual baptisms that I have been to.  It was eat because Elder Neiufi baptized him, and it was his first time to ever baptize anyone.  Nio has really changed his life around.  There was so much support from the ward.  The room was packed!  After the baptism we had a Tongan feast!  There was soooo much food.  I am really trying hard not to get chubby, but I'm beginning to think that it is impossible.  Last night we ate at our bishops house, and I ate so much.  My poor stomach was about to pop!  I was planning on being done, but then Sis Mapa (bishops wife) looked at me an said "Whats da madda Elda, we just getting started!"  She made me eat more, and then gave me a huge bowl of ice cream with a brownie!  I wanted to die.

After Nio's baptism - Later that night, we went to Concord for Dan Parupia's baptism!  I taught Dan when I was in Concord, and I got to go back to see his baptism.  It was a good night.

Guess what happened today!  So I have been teaching Elder Neiufi how to drive, and he has been doing really good.  Tomorrow is his driving test, so he has been driving all day today to help him prepare.  Today when we were pulling out of the grocery store parking lot, a car backed into us! It was a pretty bad collision, and our poor car doesn't look very good.  It was a first experience for us both!  We haven't been having very good car luck lately.

Well, things continue to go great!  Sione is all ready to be baptized this weekend!  Then next weekend (Mar 26) we have another baptism!  That one member is finally letting us teach his friend - the one that he already set a baptism date with!  It took awhile, but after President Wade got involved we didn't have anymore problems. I love you so much family!

-Elder Cook

-I got a letter from Kesley Elsholz this week and she is going on a mission!  She got her call to go to Minnesota!

And tacos sound great.