Hello all!

So i'm not as organized with my thoughts this week.. so sorry in advanced.  Seriously P-days here stress me out... i love attending the temple, but it is in the middle of the day and takes 3 hours.  scheduling is stressful i guess... plus having to start packing and getting things ready to go for MONDAY is also adding to my stress.  I might be short in my message today....

I'm so happy to hear you all got moved in successfully! I'm glad you like it there!  You all sound happy!  Glad you all like the schools and area! Makes me glad!

I'll start by answering your questions from the last DE (dear elder) from you....

-I'm SO EXCITED to go to New Zealand.  Its all starting to get real... this mission thing. :)  Mentally I'm ready to go... physically i started packing today and i will have a little package to send back to you can you send me a dear elder asap with the house address just to make sure i have the right one. packing stresses me out, you all know that. 

-Hearing all your voices will be great too!  I hope to hear as many as possible but i know the boys have school too.... :(  i'll do my best to speak samoan and MAYBE Sing to you.. .haha i might get nervous.  I can speak to you all, but it will be slow, forming sentences is something i can do, but it takes a little while for me.  i'll do my best though!

-travel details... yes i can weigh my bags.. they have a scale that hangs form the ceiling with a hook on our floor of the residence.  I weighed my 'messy, packed' bags and i should be okay... i was at 45 for one and right at 50 for the other so obviously i'll be making sacrifices this weekend to free up some space and weight..... meh wish mom was here to help me do this.. again. :)

Thank you for the backpack! It will be very helpful!  

DAD, WHEN did austin come creep on me?!? haha! That made me laugh!  I wonder which lesson it was.... glad i didn't see him though... i probably would have messed up and flustered... ha ha. 

Oh, random.. i meant to tell you last week but forgot... here is funny story for you all....

A few weeks ago we got two districts learning tongan to come to the MTC.  The following sunday we all were on our sunday walk to the temple and i was near a fountain with my soas when one of the elders (he is Samoan going to tonga) came up to me and said the following...  "Hey my companions bet me 20$ i wouldn't come talk to you, so i'm talking to you." i said, okay thats fine. we introduced each other, then he said he had to say something specific to me and i said, alright.. go for it! this is was he told me... "Has any one told you you look like the Book of Mormon.... cause You're the BOM!"  HA!  I laughed pretty hard.... definitely didn't see that one coming!  So there you go - Logan, mitch, isaac, you now have a new pick up line to use.  Also it definitely wasn't appropriate, but still funny.  The funnier part was watching him return to his companions.... Sis Pe'a said that the fact I was a palagi/white girl, learning their language, that i should expect that kind of stuff a lot.... great.... hahah..... at least you all will get good laughs at it!  

LOGAN!  EMAIL ME! DEAR ELDER ME NO LATER THAN SATURDAY!  Anything after saturday i won't get.... maybe in NZ But i dont know about that yet....  I wanna know how you're doing, how living with the karlsons is going, and your life overall!

We had to say good bye to sis lasike yesterday morning at 6 am!  :(  it was really hard to say goodbye!  I love that girl so much, and am gonna miss her!  She will be an amazing missionary in Hawaii!  And she is warmer than us... :) lucky her!

Yesterday in class with brother duke we played a game to review grammar and vocab... the sisters won. :D  2 sisters vs 5 elders.... booo ya!  Bro duke said he'd bring us a prize, so we will see what it is.. he said it'd be something you can't get at the MTC... so probably a Dr Pepper or something haha... i'm just happy i have bragging rights for a few days. ;]

Sunday it finally snowed for the first time, and i'm pretty sure sis pe`a jumped about 15 feet across the classroom to the window. ha!  it was her first experience with snow so that was fun to watch her!  i was just cold, but it was fun to have snow too haha. all the polys (polynesians) were fun to watch in the snow actually haha.

I'll send another email with more pics!  don't worry!  But i think thats it for my week! I love you all so stinkin' much! Miss you lots too!  I'll call you monday! be ready!!!!  Will i get to talk with dad too!??!? Logan? Mitch? Isaac?

Love ALWAYS and ForEVA!

Sister Syd.