Greetings From San Jose

Hello Everybody,

This week was amazing. On Monday yet again we got to teach the family with 5 unbaptized children that we have been working with and we taught them on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My companion bought a bunch of pizzas to keep them satiated as we held them through their dinner hour. The kids uncle who is in the bishopric of a single adult ward was able to come with his family and we had a great lesson. These kids are really bright and always remember the things that we taught them in the past lessons and keep right up when we teach the new stuff. I think they have kid of been learning from their mother their whole lives even though she wasn't active in church she was still an example and rubbed off a lot on them. The scariest thing for this family was the prospect of telling the grandmother that they were going to be baptized. The moms mother in-law is who they live with and she is an old lady set in her ways and very determined to hate our religion. It was only 5 days until their baptism when they decided they better tell her and even invite her. The next night we met with them yet again the teach them all the commandments as their last lesson with us. They let us know how the discussion with the grandmother went and I guess it wasn't as bad as it could have been cause they were still permitted to live in the house but she wouldn't be attending their baptism or giving much moral support. So it was good that the worst thing that happened was merely a little show of disappointment. In my first area, our neighboring missionaries had a man about to be baptized and the day of his baptism his in-laws were kicking he and his wife out of the house and so he was going to cancel the baptism but the missionaries helped them move real quick and still got him to his baptism. Wednesday was kind of a dull day. Understandably most of the people we have been working with kind of requested a few days off to celebrate the holidays. We mangaged to find a few people to visit and then we gave our car to the other Elders cause one was to be training so he had to go pick up his new missionary in San Jose.

Thanksgiving day we still didn't have our car and so our whole day was basically a big meal time at a members house. My worries about the Tongan people not having traditional meal items were quickly banished when all the food was placed. Turkey and ham, delicious chunky mashed potatos and yams and green beans and pie and cake and all the best stuff. I was wonderfully content. Thanksgiving was oddly enough just a warm up for the next two days however.

On Friday we attended a wedding for a young man in our ward. He is Tongan as well and this was my first time attending a Tongan wedding and it was pretty impressive. The church gym was packed and the buffet like food line was incredible. All types of more food I was continually stuffed since the day before. Tons of hula type dancing and the giving of mats or area rugs as gifts to the families and guests of honor. I didn't get any wedding cake however and it seemed like part of tradition is to give a whole layer of cake away to the families and guests of honor. I remember we once delivered a Tongan mat to our Bishops wife and she was almost upset cause since her husband has been the bishop they have gotten tons of these mats and they have no use for them. Hand made mats that a lot of effort are put into but they have no real need for them and they end up in bags in their attic. Anyway, our bishop got like ten more at this wedding. The wedding was supposed to end at 6 cause the other ward had reserved the building for their thanksgiving party but it was obvious that it would take a lot of effort to clear out all the partiers. We worked hard to clean up and the other ward was a little upset but we tried to clear out as fast as possible. Without the effort of a lot of other people the wedding party probably would have gone all night. Short of calling in crowd control we did all we could. I wonder if the cops have ever been called on a church party. Anyway, that night we printed up a copy of the program for the baptism the next day and then we went to bed.

On, Saturday we prepped the Stake Center baptistry and filled the font. There were no dust bunnies this time which was good, but there was a bit of plaster from the wall that had chunked into the font but I fished it out easily. The plan had been to have the oldest son get baptized and then recieve the Aaronic Priesthood and baptize his siblings but he didn't really feel comfortable so instead his uncle was still to baptize him and then my companion and I each baptized two of the other kids. That may have been decided according to relative back strength. I ended up baptizing the oldest girl and the youngest boy, aka the lightest ones. I'm not certain how it was determined but my companion baptized the two kids, a boy and a girl who both are pretty big kids and play football. The turn out for the baptism was incredible, we didn't have enough seats for everybody and the the spirit was amazing to feel. It was over too quick but was wonderful while it lasted. That is the first time I have ever baptized anyone and it was marvelous. I wish the oldest son had done it but I'm delighted that I had the opportunity as well. Afterward there were refreshments which was really a whole meal and it was great. Our mission President came and he told me that when he had just recently been considering transfers my name was moved four different times but ultimately he kept me in this area and he said that he was glad that he had left me where I was, and that makes two of us. This was probably the greatest experience of my mission thusfar. After the refreshements we then got taken out by the family to get more food which was too much but we were grateful.

So it was a food fun filled week and I will always remember it. On Sunday a sister from the ward got back from her mission in Canada and is now tri-lingual and that was really great to hear from her. It was weird sacrament meeting cause we had a baby blessing and then 5 confirmations and then a return missionary speak. Great great week and I am sort of wondering how the coming weeks can possibly compare but they don't have to. Christmas will be great too and hopefully there will be future events to trump even this one. I hope everyone had a grand Thanksgiving. I am thankful for many things but presently the main one is to be where I am at this moment and having the experiences that I am having.

Sincerely, Elder F. Miller