Collin's TWO YEAR ADVENTURE!!

The Final Email

2010-05-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

We just finished emailing Collin - probably for the last time until we see him at the airport on the 11th!! But this won't be the end of Elder Winget's blog yet - I'm sure Collin will have something to say when he gets here. Also, I will post pictures/video of us meeting him at the airport, I'm sure. Thanks everyone for reading this blog, and also thanks for supporting him with your letters and prayers. 2 years really do go by quickly! I never thought that would be true for me, but what a blessing to find that it's really true! And now, here's the latest, and possibly last, email from Elder Winget : ( drumroll please...)

Yeah, this most likely is the last time I'll email y'all on my mission-- I actually might get to say a quick hi in Fiji but I figure since I'll be seeing you in a couple days anyway it's not really completely necessary. But either way I'm happy to receive your emails today as every day. I was packing my stuff this morning and I'm freaking out about it.. It still seems unreal that I'll be home in just a few days. I haven't been counting down the days though-- it's too weird to me.

I don't know what I want for dinner... I've had enough spaghetti to last me a lifetime (the easiest thing to make on a mission budget..) but I wouldn't mind some lasagna or something. I don't know, surprise me. All of that sounds waaaay too good... I can't choose. But you know what I like and know that I'll appreciate any and all of it.

Thanks for the itinerary- It's cool to know when I'll be home... albeit weird. I'm going to see how many books I can read in 11 hours.. :P I'm going to dabble in The Articles of Faith and the Book of Mormon and see how far I can get.

I'm thinking that I'm going to give away most of my ties to members.. And I'm thinking about giving my camera to Elder Harry- an Elder from Vanuatu- he doesn't have a camera and I know he'll regret not having one. I feel a lot more charity for everyone these days-- I don't really feel a need to have own and aquire stuff as much as I used to. As long as I'm living and I can eat a good dinner all the rest doesn't matter as much. :)

Don't stress.. Just kick back under a coconut tree and eat a mango. Oh wait.. Too bad mango season is over. I love mangos.

There was a 8 year old kid who got baptized on Saturday and I gave the talk on the Don du Saint-Esprit. I think that was the best baptism talk I've ever given.. Most of the other ones I gave were last minute and not very good at all. The baptism went well though.

I did an exchange in Ducos and ate chez Atiu. It was good to see him again-- he's doing great.. He's planning on going to the temple at the end of this year. He's doing great in his calling and he's as strong as ever. He also told me he really wanted me to baptize him but he forgot to ask me until it was too late. Frere Turi sort of forced him into letting him baptize him. (that makes no sense) But I'm happy that he's baptized, whether or not I was the one that baptized him. It's nice to know someone wanted me to baptize them though. :P

The next baptism is happening on the 22nd- Amelie and Simone. I hope that works out.

We had a new Amie this week- her name is Marie (surprise surprise.. everyone's named Marie) she's really cool- we invited her to come to church after the first lesson and SHE CAME! Wow! I was really happy to see her. She liked the service and is planning on seeing us this Mardi and coming to church again Dimanche.

We taught Sevurine this sunday and taught her about the Plan of Salvation. She's really intelligent and pensive- she doesn't reject what we say immediately just because it's not what she believes (contrary to what most people do.. ) but she has thought a lot about it and I think she thinks it's true. She said she knows that it wasn't by chance that we came by her house on the only day that she was home.. She was really intreagued by prophets- she says it really makes sense that there would be a living prophet. We talked about the Plan of Salvation yesterday- and she was fascinated by it. It's really weird, but the vast majority of people I have talked to in New Caledonia have honestly never wondered where they come from why they're here and where they're going. I guess it's just the island lifestyle and way of thinking.. Casse pas la tête. (don't break your head.. don't worry about it) Most people are not intrested in thinking about anything later than this weekend. But anyway, she was really interested in the Plan of Salvation- and she said it completely makes sense and must be true. She's really cool- I'm sad that she's going to London in a couple weeks though.. Maybe the Lord can do a miracle for us and send a French missionary to wherever she is moving.

Anyway, I'm excited and sad to come home.. I see so so so much potential and so so so much room to grow in this branch-- I've been really frustrated and tired out over the past few weeks in Mont Dore. The first 2 weeks I didn't have any idea what was going on (the first time in like a year..) where anyone lived, what they needed, or how to make things progress.. The last missionaries didn't do jack in the area book so everything was a mystery to me. Know I know more or less what is going on-- and now I'm frustrated because I have my vision of how to get things moving-- and I know that I can't possibly make much of a difference in the time I have left. Of course I know that's not true- but it's hard to know that the only difference I might make I will never know about or see the fruits of. I'm doing my best, but it's frustrating and tiring. I know what I would do with the Amis and the branch if I was staying for a few months-- but I know that whoever comes after me can't possibly keep it up in the same way I would. But I guess it all turns out alright in the end. I will just trust that.

I also found out that Elder Wilcox is going to be my replacement- he's coming here to take over Robinson when I leave. Every single companionship is training- because the entire mission (no exaggeration) besides a very small few is leaving in 2010 and there are 5 new missionaries that just got here and more on the way. This mission is going to be hard for the next few months... too bad I won't be here to help. Oh well.

I guess that's all I have to say about my last week in Caledonie.. Monday is mother's day, right? I guess if you want or need to call me you can on saturday or sunday, but i figure it's not really worth it since I'll be home the next day... Sorry I'm late for mother's day but it'll be worth it with the present I got for you. :D

I don't have huge awesomeness to bring home to everyone, but I have a couple small things. Don't expect TOO much because I don't have a lot. But I hope you'll all appreciate what I bring.

I love you all.. I will see you soon.

Love,

Elder Winget

- Show quoted text -

Only a Few Weeks Left

2010-04-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

Well you're not gonna believe it.. But I'm actually going to be serving with Elder Amundsen until the end of my mission!! Whahaa?? Weird eh? It's fun though- we're just chillin in Robinson- that's in Mont Dore. I miss the Tontouta branch- and it is kind of lame that I don't have enough time left to get to know the people in the Mont Dore branch.. So nobody will care when I leave. They'll be like oh that kid that has been in our branch for 3 weeks is leaving. Tant pis. But whatever, it's okay. It's kind of fun to be serving en ville again- it's weird to see all the missionaries and lots of people all the time. I am used to seeing.. nobody... all the time.

It's really really weird-- I will be IN FIJI 3 weeks from this very moment. It feels like my mission has just begun.. And it's pretty much over. Sigh.. It's sad, but happy, but sad at the same time. I have strange mixed feelings- it doesn't seem like I will ever actually leave.. I'm just a missionary, I have never been nor ever will be anything else. I vaguely remember being a normal person-- but not really. I am really excited to apply all the things I've learned on my mission in the real world though-- I feel like I get a new chance on life that I didn't get before.. A new life but this time my priorities are a little bit more in order- and I've grown up just a little bit. I think I'm different from the beginning of my mission- I hope that I won't make the same mistakes now that I would have made before. I have grown to know my Savior more fully- and I have such a great desire to serve Him. I think that's the most important thing I've learned on my mission- I've learned that my priorities should be on the Lord first- and that everything else will fall into place- and all bad things (that I don't really want or need anyway) will just fall out of my life.

I was sort of worried that in becoming what I am now I wouldn't like the stuff I liked before-- but I realized that it doesn't matter. I am better now than 2 years ago and I'm happy about it. I've made mistakes on my mission but I am pleased for the most part at what has come from it. 4 people have changed and made covenants and are working to serve the Lord and His kingdom that weren't doing it before- and many other people have made changes.. Whether small or large- and I am confident that there will be more people that will change and get baptized through my efforts. I'm happy I was able to serve a mission. I love New Caledonia and I'm sure I'll get a chance to come back some day.

As far as Robinson goes, we've got a baptism coming up the 8th of May normally, and another one the 22nd- sadly I won't be there for the second one (the reason I was saying I wanted to extend) but now that Elder Amundsen is here, he'll take care of it. And as long as the people here change-- I'm not too worried about being there for the "glory" of having a baptism... I just want people to change for the better.

We have a great amie whose name is Simone- she is a sick lady, but has an amazingly strong faith. She has cancer, and is really weak- she's losing lots of weight because she lives alone and doesn't eat much. She says she's 47 kilos- which I think is barely over 100 pounds. She is doing great though, she is the one who is preparing to be baptized the 22nd of may. We made dinner for her last night and went over to her house and ate it with her. She really has the faith of a small child- and she uses it. When she hurts, she prays. When she's sad- she prays. And the cool thing is, because her faith is strong, she has the power to overcome her .. how do you say.. epreuves. Bah, I forget. She's wonderful though- I know she's going to be a great member of the church and has already applied the gospel in her life. (I looked up epreuves - it means tests... it's cute that he is forgetting english! )

We had another ami who was preparing to be baptized- he's a Wallisian and he has a strong testimony. But he's starting to slip.. we're losing our rendezvous with him, and he's starting to push us off a little bit-- I'm really worried about it. But we're doing our best with him. I think he'll come back-- if not sooner, he'll definitely be back later. I definitely won't see him baptized, but I know that someone else will.

Our other amie who is preparing to be baptized is a girl named Amelie. I think she's 15- and she's the niece of the branch president here. I'm impressed with her desire to be baptized-- I know how 15 year olds minds work, especially out of the church, and most don't really give a care about anything. But she's goign to church every week, she's friends with all the YW and she's preparing to be baptized. I hope I get to see her baptized before I leave. Her date is for the 8th- so normally I will.

Well other than that, elder Maker is coming back to the sector soon- he will be my replacement. We will be in a 3some for my last 3 weeks, then he and Elder Amundsen will be together for 3 weeks- then.. who knows. But I hope we can get him ready to take care of the branch.. He's a new missionary, but we're hoping we can help him out.

well, that's all the news for this week
Love,
Elddr wingt

A wonderful baptism - and transfers

2010-04-04T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well.. There is much news. Victor Boa got baptized!! It went really well... And I was ever so happy that it happened. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong- but thankfully we were smarter than everyone else. The person who was supposed to fill up the font at 2:30 (the baptism starts at 4) didn't show up until 3:45.. Anyway, he was like Yeah i was worried no one was going to fill up the font. (???!?!?!?!?) BUt thankfully we are smart missionaries and we came at 2:00 and filled up the font, cleaned out all the leaves and dirt, got out the tables for refreshments and got everything set up, and prepared for talks. Sure enough, the people who were supposed to give prayers and talks didn't show up. Thankfully the Bearune's stepped up- they are amazing- and did prayers and music. Then our dear DMB made a mistake and said ELDER WINGET WILL GIVE THE TAALK and I'm like.. WHAT!? SO I gave a talk- 0 preparation- on both the baptism and the don du Saint-Esprit. WACK! But it went really well- the most important part was that he did get baptized! Pres. Bondeanneau showed up with his white clothes, Victor had his white clothes, and he got dunked! Everything went smoothly in that sense. Everything worked out though-- Victor didn't even realize that we went through so much hardship to make it work. But that's what is important- it's for him, not us. I was overwhelmed with joy. He was SO happy too! That's the best part-- he bore a sweet testimony and I was happy about it. Marceline also bore her testimony. There is no drain in the baptismal font- (whose idea was that..?) So we had to bucket out the water- and we're smart and brought shorts and tshirts, because I saw into the future that that would happen. I was happy to do it though. And don't worry, we have plenty of pictures.

The other news... Elder Green is going to a different island!! WHAT?! Well, long story (that I don't even know the details) short, because of a problem with a person who wants to hurt elder green, he can't stay in NC and he left for a different island this morning. SO- I got a call late on April Fools day and they told us this news.. I didn't believe it of course. And said that I would be transferred. Well, it turns out it's true, so I'm going to a new area, and I'm supposed to go there with a mini-missionary-- and we're not sure who it's going to be yet. So that's going to be fun- I have no companion. So I told the whole branch, and they were all sad, we all shed some tears and now I'm out of Tontouta/Boulouparis forever!!! 6 weeks ago I would have killed to be able to get transferred. AND NOW I don't want to go!!!!!! WHAT weird eh? Well I'm sure it will work out. Everything is exploding in that branch- and I'm so so happy to have been part of it all. I will miss that branch and everyone in it so much. I spent about 9 months of my mission in that branch!

So I'm on ville with Elder Turner and Elder Stilson (new guy) waiting to know if I'm going to have a companion.

Also I was able to confirm Victor a member of the church! I was so excited-- my first time! It went well, and he's now a baptized, confirmed.. priest! He also recieved the priesthood. Everything is great.

Well thanks for the package, the pictures, and the words of encouragement. I love you all so much.. I am so excited to see you soon. And so so so so so sad to leave NC! Bittersweet-- I'm scard for this day.. But It will be good. Thanks for everything.! I love you. I have about a billion pictures on this card that you haven't seen- I'll send it as sOON as I get the new one in the mail. Now that I'm on ville- I should get my mail every week.

I'm excited for conference!

Love,

Elder Winget

Going out with a Bang!

2010-03-28T18:20:00.000-07:00

Good morning! Hi this is Elder Winget. You might remember me from such emails as .. All those other ones and such films as.. eating an orange or something. Well sorry I didn't email last week, we didn't end up having time, because we ended up teaching 3 lessons on Monday. So I think that was pretty effective. We taught Kalinka, who is doing great, and Victor, the last lessons he needed before his baptismal interview, and then at night we went to the Mahit's house. So internet didn't fit in, but I think that ended up being better. Sorry. We sort of planned on internet during the week but because of exchanges and busy-ness we didn't end up having time until Saturday.. And then I was like well it would be pointless to go on Saturday and then monday.. So here I am on monday.

So yesterday it rained and rained ... But no hurricane, unfortunately. I haven't heard a thing about Fiji, but I heard that Wallis and Futuna got hit and it was pretty terrible. Apparently there were two cyclones (a hurricane in the southern hemisphere- it spins the opposite direction, like the toilet. Or.. So I'm told) in the South Pacific and they were pretty destructive. But not much happened here. It rained and stormed but not enough to do much besides wash our car- and for that I was pleased.

Well the biggest news is that.. drumroll.. Victor got his baptismal interview and is getting baptized on Saturday! Yay! I'm happy. During the interview that Elder Styles did, he said some rad things-- like that he doesn't want his dad to go to another kingdom than him- that he wants an eternal family and that he wants to serve a mission. He's 16, he'll be 17 in August. I'm so proud of him. He's doing great.

Church was full, as usual, to bursting. We had about 10 people or so sitting on chairs outside the chapel listening throught the windows. Also Soeur O came to church with her son, for the first time since 2005! It's not a baptism, but for some reason I feel better than if she was baptized. She stopped going to church because of some disputes with church members and leaders and hadn't been in a long time. We started teaching her, and doing service for her, and she finally came yesterday! I was so happy. She even went to seminary in the morning! She's great. Elder Mautz came to our church yesterday as well and he was very happy to the progress in the branch. Things are happening.. And it's so exciting.

We're hoping to get this Bislama sunday school class rolling ASAP.. Apparently they had one before, but a couple years ago they stopped the class, didn't let them sing in Bislama in Sacrament meeting, and they all went inactive because of that and other things. But there used to be 25+ in sacrament every week and it went down to 4. Anyway, there are prolly about 10 or so Bislama speaking members coming to church now and we're going to keep them coming. Hopefully.

As for K, we have been teaching her and she's doing great. She reads in the scriptures, comes to church, and she told us that since she started taking lessons she just hasn't had the will to drink! Before she said she would drink all the time, every weekend and more, and then since she started taking lessons, she just can't do it anymore! So she hasn't drank for like a month now I think. And then, a week after she tells us this, we teach her the Parole de Sagesse (word of wisdom) thinking she might have a little issue with it, and she said well I actually stopped smoking 2 days ago- It just felt like the right thing to do. So she starts doing things before we tell her. That's the amazing power of the Sprit of God. When we teach someone something, it has a small amount of power. But when the Sprit teaches someone, it has the power to completely change the person.. Inside and out. It's absolutely amazing how that works. I'm so happy for her and proud of her. She's a golden investigator, for sure. We have talked about baptism, and she's not ready but she wants to be baptized some day.

Elder Mautz told me that I'm going out with a bang for the end of my mission, and I guess it's true. Things are looking up in Tontouta- in a way that they haven't been in years. I'm excited to be a missionary and be a part of this amazing work. Of course I'm excited to come home and see y'all but I am going to be sad to leave this place. It's weird how it's almost over. I can hardly believe it. :(

Well that's all I think. I hope you have a great week and I'll see you soon. I love you much and I pray and think about you all the time. Peace out!

Love,

Elder winget

2010-03-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

Here's an excerpt from LAST last week's email ... then I'll post an excerpt from last week's email. :D

Good afternoon family.. What's up?

Well it's Pday and we were planning on going to the beautiful beaches of THIO but then I was standing and my knee blew out and I couldn't walk.. Stupid knee- it's going downhill.. I didn't even DO anything this time. But then we went up to Boulouparis to do laundry and I started getting really sick.. So right now I'm sick.. So I'm going to make this short so we can go home and I can sleep. . I hope I'll be better soon.

Things are going great-- things have all started happening at once! I swear not one month ago we had absolutely nothinnnnnnnnnnng going on.. Nobody progressing and no new amis. But then right now we are working with some less actives- Sr. Ozoux promised us she would go to church before I leave.. Maybe next week. She has COMPLETELY changed in just like a month and a half.. She was miserable as miserable before.. always angry, yelling, and just downright.. miserable. But then we invited her to start reading her scriptures and praying.. And it's like night and day. She's happy, and she's doing great. We did an object lesson of the sirop and the javel.. Which is the food coloring and bleach. We talked about how repentence requires baptism.. But we can't be baptized a second time. But we can go to church every week, and take the sacrament.. And we'll be just as clean as the day of our baptism. It was really cool and spiritual and she loved it-- I actually think she'll go to church. Which is amazing.. Most less actives here are really less active.

Yesterday we stopped by the family Naïus- a family from Vanuatu. The parents were baptized back in 97 and have been inactive for a long time. We started talking and it turns out him and his wife basically don't understand the Restoration at all-- which is why they are inactive. Their daugher, who I think is about 15, is not baptized and was really interested. We explained the whole thing- and engaged them to read 3 nephi 11 as a family and pray together. I have a strong testimony about family scripture study and prayer.. It seems to work every single time people actually do it. It's amazing how the Gospel just works!! Anyway, I had a great feeling about them and they seemed really interested. It was hard because he doesn't speak very good French, but I understand a decent amount of Bislama and his wife was able to explain and it all worked out. I have a good feeling about them-- for the parents and the daughter.

We came to the realization that about half of the people we teach- mostly inactives- are from Vanuatu-- they don't come to church partially because of the language.. French is a struggle for them. They want a Bislama speaking branch.. But for the moment there are not enough active members to make that branch. But President Ostler suggested we start a Bislama sunday school class-- and I think it will work. We're going to give it a try. Hopefully we can get something moving.. and then enough people will become active one day that they could organize a branch. Then I think the mission work would move along really well with the Vanuatu folks.

Other than that, Kalinka is doing well. She wasn't at church.. again.. and we're not sure why but she had some great questions when we talked to her and I think she's really sincere. She's really rad and I think she could definitely get baptized someday.. Hopefully someday soon.

Victor Boa (marcelline's son) has a baptism date fixed for the 3rd of April. We're excited for it

I love you and I am excited to see you soon. What time do I get home, anyway? I haven't heard much about this travel plans.. Weird. Well have a great sunday and I'll see you later.

Love,

Elder Winget

Now here's the most recent email. Just so you know, I sent a card to Marcelline, the nice lady who threw Collin a birthday party last year. She sent me a letter in reply, which I just got a couple of days ago. It's all in french, of course, so I had my good friend Nathalie translate it for me.

YAY I'm glad you got her letter.. She said she had sent it like a month ago and we were worried it wouldn't get there. But I'm glad it did. She's so funny.. When I first met her I thought she was mean but she really is really sweet-- she likes to joke a lot. She was telling me that she was going to write you and say that I'm "insuportable" which I think means the same thing in English that it does in French. Anyway, she said she was going to tell you how horrible I am and that she's not going to be able to deal with me for 2 more months.. :P But of course she's kidding.. of all the people in our branch we're the best of friends-- not a whole lot of people like me cuz I'm cool just cuz I'm a missionary and then they'll forget me when I go home. But Marcelline and her family actually like me and say that they'll miss me when I go home.. I'm glad someone likes me. We have lots of fun over there. She is hoping to go to the temple at the end of this year-- her biggest hope is to be able to be sealed to her family. We're working on getting the rest of them baptized.

That's good that you're getting snow still.. random. It's getting cold here. In the mornings it gets down in the 70s sometimes and I think I'm going to freeze to death. It's low 80s at night and it's nice.. Sometimes I put on a hoodie, it's so cold. I could swear that it snows at like 65 degrees-- thats about how cold I remember it being. :)

That's really weird that my departure date is so soon.. Gwah. I wonder what I'll do for a couple hours in LA.

Well anyway, not a whole lot happened this week. I'm happy that things are picking up in the sector though.. President asked me in my last interview with him to make a plan of what to do with this sector when I leave.. Close it, combine it with Paita, keep it open, etc. And I was ready to tell him to combine it with Paita and have them come up one day a week to do everything that we do in a whole week. But we've been praying really hard and working hard and praying united..ly as a district and things have picked up dramatically.. We set a goal as a district to find 20 new investigators this month between the 3 companionships. We have been praying and fasting for it and we've already seen results.. We have 3 people that next week should be new investigators- and more on the way. We're trying to work more in the one tribe that we are allowed access to- the one that Marcelline lives in. And since Marcelline is there, and really motivated, things are working out well so far. We're hoping to get more fruits from it and that sometime we could get into the other tribes as well.

As for the Bislama class, we don't know enough to teach it.. I can understand it but I can't speak it that well. I can kind of communicate with someone who only speaks bislama but it's a struggle. Me misnary blong Jos blong Jisas Kreas blong ol Lata-Dai Sent. Me wantem sharem gospil blong Jisas Kreas long yufalla. Ha ha. Something like that. There are some active members that could teach it though-- we'll work on it.

Kalinka came to church and she thought it was a little long I think. But we talked about repentance and baptism with the food coloring and bleach thing again, and she said she's had the desire to repent and has been making things good with her family ever since our first lesson! That's awesome, we didn't even tell her to. She's good. We asked her if she wants to get baptized and although she was a little hesitant she said that is a desire of hers. So hopefully we can get her baptized.

A few weeks ago we only had about 5 set lessons planned each week, and ended up with about 7-10 at the end of the week. This week we have 15 planned, and we could prolly squeeze in a few more. I think we could possibly hit 15-17 this week.. That will be a record for me, and the most lessons this sector has had in probably about 2 years. Of course a few will fall through, but I think many will work out. Things are going great here. There are actually too many people at church-- the building is designed for 70, and we have consistantly 115 or 120 the past few weeks. Awesome!!!!

I told you a little about the Naius family last week- we stopped by again this week and they weren't there, but we were able to talk to the daughter. I think she's about 15, and she is actually really interested. She said that they did read as a family.. And that she really liked it. We gave her a Bok Blong Momon and told her to read it with her family. She's cool.. I hope the parents are there next week.

Well other than that, not a whole lot has happened.. Next week will be great though. We're going to go eat lunch with Soane (from Paita) and that will be fun.. Blast from the past. He's a great guy. ( Remember that picture of Collin holding that huge slimy octopus in the Halloween video last year? That's what they had for dinner at Soane's house! ha ha ha)

Well, I love you a lot and I hope that everything is going well with y'all. I pray for you a lot and I will see you in about 2 months and.. what, 4 days? Something like that. Time flies... way too fast.

Love,

elder winget

A Parent's Payday

2010-02-28T19:20:00.000-08:00

Here's the most recent email from Collin. It's what Rusty and I call a parent's payday. We are so proud of Elder Winget and the sacrifices he is making to serve the people of New Caledonia and teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

This week was good. Elder Troutman taught me a new way of doing porte-à-porte--- WHICH WORKS. I haven't had ANY new investigators since I got to Tontouta. Pretty pathetic. Kalinka is the only new one. But in one day we found two people who talked to us--- Amazing! The method is.. drumroll.. a survey! He has a series of about 13 questions about family, beliefs, etc. and we just come to the door and say "We're missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we're conducting a survey to know how to better help the people of New Caledonia. Do you have a few minutes? IT WORKS. It's amazing, and we were able to teach 6 lessons in a day which we normally would have 1 or 2. I'm going to keep doing it and I think it could work a lot.

We also taught the Chief of the Ouinané Tribe- where Marcelline lives. Apparently the old missionaries had taught him a few times, and we decided to go say hi. So we went in there and he was really nice. He asked us what we do when we go to peoples' houses and teach them-- And we're like well.. We'll show you! So we taught him a short lesson before we headed up to Marcelline's house. It was cool-- he likes us and wants us to go hunting with him sometime. Hmm.. Well we can't touch the guns but we can go with them. It was a cool experience.

Zone conference and district conference was amazing.. Elder Hamula is an amazing teacher and he got us all motivated. He talked to the Youth and Young Adults about mission work and serving a mission, and part of his talk was that he said if you ask any missionary, or any returned missionary what was the most rewarding, most worth it, most spiritual and best 2 years of his/her life, they will say that it was their mission. I thought about it and I felt the Spirit really strongly. I felt that what he said was so completely true-- I feel that the last 21 months have been the most rewarding of my life. This mission is definitely the most important thing I've ever done. I'm so happy to be here. I have come to the realization slowly that I wouldn't trade anything for these two years. I've done cool things before but nothing as rewarding as a mission. Sure it's hard, but there is nothing, nothing, nothing else I would want to be doing. I wish that everyone could have the experience of going on a mission. I have met the most amazing people, and seeing the Saints of God give everything they have to serve Him has strengthened my testimony more than anything I've ever done. I know that this is the Lord's church, it's His. I've realized how much wickedness is NOT happiness. I am happier now than at any other time in my whole life. All I want to do when I go home is be good and do all that I can to serve Him. I have worried for a while about what I'll do when I get home but I realize that whatever I do, I will be cared for if I keep the commandments. It's simple.. I'm so happy to come to that knowledge. I see the people who don't know the truth and my heart aches for them. I see the people who don't want to know anything about it and my heart aches even more. Whenever I drive to church and I see all the people who are just doing... whatever.. boating, working, going to the store.. And I really feel sad for them! I want to grab them and shake them and say DONT YOU KNOW its SUNDAY!?? I love the Sabbath day and I love the Lord and I'm so happy to be on my mission. I'm very sad and also very excited for it to end-- Not cuz I want to leave New Caledonia-- at all. But because I am excited to apply the things I have learned on my mission to the new life I'll have-- I really feel like I'm getting a second chance on life. I'm also exstatic to see my family more than just about anything.

Elder Hamula also told us how we're in a "land of milk and honey"-- in Numbers 13, the people of Israel arrived at the promised land and they sent scouts in to find out the conditions.. And they came back and said yeah it's great, milk and honey and blah blah happy joy but there are also GIANTS and we feel like Grasshoppers in their eyes. He said that WE are like them. We see the challenges as GIANTS- unsurpassable. He showed us how we are SO close to having a Stake in NC and that we need to increase our Vision and Believe that it can happen. I feel like I can overcome anything at the moment. I don't think anything can stop me. I'm so happy. I was really hoping I'd get transferred from Tontouta/Boulouparis.. I've had it to about HERE with it. BUT after that Zone Conference I feel like I can do it- that things WILL look up and that everything will be awesome. He said that in Ch 14 not one person who didn't believe they could get the promised land got there. We need to believe and we will get there.

I'm currently in Noumea but I'm going back up in about an hour or so. But i'm fine with it.. I think things will be alright.

Sorry I don't have much more time but I love you all and I hope you have a great week.

Love
Elder winget

Bougna!

2010-02-28T18:22:00.001-08:00

So I finally decided to update Collin's blog. We had been all excited because we thought his return date was April 21, but it turns out it's actually May 11. I'm happy because he will start his journey home on Mother's Day! Just knowing he's on his way home will make it a great Mother's Day :)

Here's a funny but gross story he emailed us a couple of weeks ago. If you have a weak stomach, just skip the first paragraph.

Last week this bump started to appear on my arm and I thought it was like a zit or something-- I tried to pop it and all it did was hurt. Long story short it turned into a Boil and that was fun. I had never had a boil before. It was super painful-- painful enough that I couldn't sleep. But then the other day I finally got it to pop and a big old column of off color brownish yellowish redish .. stuff .. came out. It wasn't watery either- it was a nice jello-y consistency.. And it kept on coming out. About enough to power a city. It was gross but awesome. So it kept bleeding for a long long time- the hole that all the stuff came out of was a pretty good size.. A nice portal to my blood system. So I put a big piece of toilet paper and a band-aid over it and the blood soaked through so I changed the badnndnangide and toilet paper so I had this bandaid thing on my arm. So I was talking to this less-active member at the store, (we had stopped by to pick up some dinner) and we were talking and then out of no where she reaches over and RIPS off my bandaid! AH weird! And she's like woah, what was that? were you painting? And I'm like, um.. And I lift up my arm to show a giant nasty WOUND and she was like AH! I'm sorry! And then runs away. Me and my companion laughed until we died. Then we never saw her again.

I also deep fried my hand.. Rather, we tried to make deep fried fries and oil splashed all over my hand and burned me. I had some pretty good huge long blisters on my hand.. They hurt at first but they don't hurt for the moment. One of them has popped. That's cool.

Now the gross stuff is over. You can read on from here :)

The only other thing that happened this week was that we went to an activity with the members, in which they cooked an entire pig-- head and all. They cooked it in what we call a Bougna... actually I have no idea how to spell that. Boon-ya. It's cooked by putting super hot rocks at the bottom, putting banana tree trunk on top of it, putting the pig meat along with a bunch of vegetables and fruits around it, covering it in lots of banana leaves and blankets to keep in the heat-- and it cooks the meat by the steam and smoke inside. I love pig--- not pork, pig. Pork is different. It's so good, I've only had it a few times but I love it.

Here is a video telling all about bougna. It's a little long, but if you REALLY want to know about New Caledonian culture, this is a good one to watch.

Hmmm... I don't know why the font size is so huge! I have tried everything I know to change it. Oh well...

BONNE ANNEE!!!!

2010-01-03T17:09:00.000-08:00

Good Afternoon! It's Elder Winget.. As usual. Sorry I didn't write last week, I didn't have time or kilometers to get down to Paita to do internet. Also our car was dead-- It stalled and then died (I can't remember if I told you guys that) And we had to push start it to get it going. It worked fine if we push started it but it wouldn't start on its own. But we went back down to Noumea and got it fixed-- it turned out it was just the battery. We got the battery replaced and it works like a charm.

Well the biggest news is that Elder Ulivaka went home today, so there are transfers. I will be staying in PK7 in Noumea for the next week with Elder Seiko and Elder Flanagan. Then I'll be going back up into exile to bore myself with another mini-missionary from Riviere Sallee. His name is Elder Blucker- the brother of the Elder that Sister Page saw in the MTC. He's 18 and he's really nice. I'm sad that he has to serve his mini-mission in Tontouta and Boulouparis because it makes mission work seem like a drag--- nothing ever happens and it seems like we're not working very hard even if we are. So it's kinda just like that. But I hope that he likes it anyway. Elder Ulivaka had a great time and he thanked me for being his companion. He said he was really worried he was going to be stuck with an over serious boring stick in the mud of a companion and he said that he was really happy that I am normal and that we were able to laugh. We did laugh a lot/all the time. We should have been more serious, which I feel bad about.. But at least he got a decent taste of mission work and he wants to go on a mission. I think I taught him a couple things and he feels the desire to strengthen his branch and his family and progress the travaille missionnaire. So I'm happy. His mom is also happy. So that's good. She was thankful that I treated him well. :)

On what you said about kids--- I agree. Sometimes it seems like adults are so "childish" while kids are "childlike".. huge difference. I see SO much of that here as well.. I wish the adults would just calm down and grow.. up? down? Me and Elder Ulivaka talked to some kids on the road in Boulouparis. They were really nice and I was happy. Most adults we talk to reject us before I can get one word out of my mouth, but these kids were genuinely interested and curious about what we did. They asked us who we were and we're like well we're missionaries and they asked us what that meant, and we more or less gave them a crash course on Christianity. It was really interesting, they didn't have preconceived ideas of who we are so they listened intently and genuinely. They asked us who God is, who Jesus is, and what prayer and repentence and all that is. We responded simply and they listened. One kid was less interested and didn't listen as much but one kid (his name was Antoine and he's 11 I think) was genuinely concerned for his soul... Reminds me of what Joseph Smith says about himself when he was 14. He asked us, well what do I do to be forgiven and clean? And I'm like well, repent. Pray. And he's like does God really listen when I pray? And I said yes. He said he'd pray and ask for forgiveness. He was more genuine than I've ever seen in any adult.. And I was really happy to talk to him. We gave him our phone number and asked him to ask his mom if we could talk to him more. He said he'd call... I hope he does.

Other than that we did service for Mamie Mo'o and Yvan (I think I told you about that on the phone). For new years we made steak (which was aaaawesome!) and mashed potatoes and gravy and green beans and french fries and it was oh so good. We watched church movies until midnight and then we went out and looked at the fireworks. It was cool- everyone had those ones that are illegal in the states (and probably here too) that shoot up in the air like the professional ones-- and they were everyone. Everyone drives through the streets with music really really really loud and screams BONNE ANNEE!!! It's cool and fun. We yelled bonne annee at a few people too. It was fun. Bourail elders weren't able to come down for New Years but we had fun anyway. The last part of Christmas was alright-- we went to a baptism and ate with the family Blucker. Good stuff.

You asked me about Soane and Vaea- they are blocked by some sort of paper. Soane was born in Vanuatu and the name on his birth certificate doesn't match the name on his passport.. or something weird. So they're waiting on papers. I don't know much else. But they might as well be active church members, although unbaptized they act like members of the Lord's true church more than lots of members do. They're great.

Other than that, not a huge amount of things have happened. I'm happy and life is good. I'm hoping to get transferred someday to somewhere where I can do real mission work but until then I guess I'll sit tight up in the north. I'm still sort of vexed because of the lack of information that gets passed up there-- I didn't know I was coming down to PK7 until Saturday when it was too late to go up to Boulouparis to get my stuff-- so I'm unprepared. Oh well that's life.

Well that's all I guess- I'm excited to see y'all in a few months. Thanks for all the emails- sorry if I missed a question or forgot to comment on something because there were many emails.. Tell me if I miss anything, okay? Thanks for all the emails and I love you all even if I don't have enough time to reply to everything. I hope your holidays were all great and if you need anything tell me. Thanks for everything- I love you all. Have a great sunday.

Love,
Elder winget

Twas the week before Christmas...

2009-12-27T16:15:00.000-08:00

Bonjour! Je viens de prendre cette photo avec l'appareil photo webcam machin ici.. J'espère que vous allez l'aimer. Salut!

Bises!
Elder Winget

Collin was at an internet cafe that had a computer with a webcam last week, so we were lucky enough to get a picture! If you know french, then you can read the message he sent along with it. :) Here's an excerpt from last week's letter:
My companion's name is Elder Ulivaka- he's from Ducos. He's 18 and he's been a member since 2000. His dad is branch president in Ducos. I can definitely tell a difference in maturity level compared to ordained set apart missionaries who have been through the MTC and have been on a mission for a few months, and a convert member who has been teaching with the missionaries a few times and will be hanging out with me for 3 months. But for an 18 year old-- I couldn't have asked for better. He's a good kid and we have lots of fun and try to work hard. My sector is getting progressively more difficult- I've already knocked almost every single door personally--- but I've talked to as many people in my whole 7ish weeks here than like 1 week in VDC or Ducos. It's hard but it's good. Elder Ulivaka is the first Wallisian to go on a mission- even if it's just a mini mission. Wallisians are very catholic- and as such are hard to convert. They're basically like Mexicans that speak French. They even look alike. They are also similar in that once they're converted- they're very strong. So the few Wallisians that are in the church are very good church members. There currently are not any members in Wallis but I guess they're working on it.

Well as well as what happened this week, we sang in a choir in Paita- the Parau family invited us to sing with them. We sang Abide with Me in English, Tahitian and French. It was really cool. We sang in front of everyone in Paita- about 200ish people. It was mostly just me who sang in English, then I sort of hummed in Tahitian and we finished off with a bang in French. Abide with me fast falls the eventide the darkness deepens; Lord with me abide. I like that song.

Also this week a group of 17 youth and young adults came from Vanuatu to play Futsal- and they were all members. The branch did an activity thing for them at the chapel- we ate and there was much dancing and singing and partying. It was cool-- then they all came to the chapel on sunday and they pretty much did the Sacrament meeting. They blessed the sacrament and did all the talks- in Bislama, English, and French. It was cool. What was even cooler was that I understood a lot in Bislama-- it's just like English in a blender. It was cool beans.

Then after church we went and sang Christmas carols for some of the Parau's friends in Tontouta, Tamoa and Paita. It was cool to go to Paita-- blast from the past. It went really well, and we heard from quite a few people in Paita that we had sang really well. I think it was partially because French people can't sing so some of the other choirs weren't so good- and at least one was aaaawful. But we didn't stay long enough to hear the others-- just in practice. Anyway, it was a decent week.

It's humbling to serve with Elder Ulivaka- I realize that I'm not the missionary I need to be. I realize with my other companions, they already know how to be a missionary so we sort of push each other when the other doesn't feel like going on any more-- but with him, he doesn't really know what we're supposed to do, he doesn't really know the rules, and I want to show a good example for him.. I don't want to ruin his image of what a missionary is. I know that members sometimes think that missionaries are these amazing perfect spiritual giants-- and it's only true a very small amount of the time.. We're all just the same as everyone else. I don't want him to go home thinking that missionaries are just fakers during when they visit with members and then completely different when they're alone. So I've got 2 more weeks to convince him otherwise. Theeeen the plan is that I train another new missionary-- if he ever shows up. He's from Vanuatu and may or may not speak French or english......... So that will be a kick in the face. But it'll work. And either way plans change every time so I have no idea.

Friday (Christmas) I'll be going down to Noumea to hang out with the other missionaries and stuff so maybe you could call me Thursday at about noon (my time) and I'll tell you exactly the best time to call me. I think that 2:30 christmas day will work but I'm not 100% positive.. So yeah.

Anyway, don't worry about me, everything is going well. Elder Ulivaka is a good missionary and isn't even difficult-- the only difficulty is being a little bit more serious than I want to be.

I'll talk to you Christmas. I love you. Have a great week. Merry Christmas.

Love,
Elder Winget

Christmas Program and a surprise Baby Blessing

2009-12-06T17:57:00.001-08:00

Here is a picture from last Christmas. I don't have a current one yet - Elder Winget is very busy these days, which is good :) He hasn't had time to send pictures for a while, but that's okay.
this week was interesting- the "missionary committee" at church, which ended up being "Elder Winget" organized a Christmas fireside which took place at our church this Saturday evening. We wanted it to be sort of like music and the spoken word, so we kind of got a general idea put on paper and then Elder Winget put it all together. The point I tried to get across was that there are too many things that distract us from the real reason why we celebrate Christmas and so we wanted to do a night of songs about our Savior instead of about santa and stuff. Anyway, we had choirs from each auxiliary (elders quorum, relief society, ym, yw, primary, and returned missionaries) sing a Christmas song, and at the end we had a choir from each foreign language represented in our branch. We had a choir from Vanuatu sing in their island language and then Bislama, Tahitian, Drehu (the language of Lifou) and English (me, Elder Wilcox and Sister Cummins). It was supposed to start at 6:00 pm. We invited people and had it announced at church… So we showed up at 5:30 and there were 3 people there- of course Marcelline was there- she’s awesome. Then Sister Temake and her daughter were there. Then the sister missionaries showed up- Sr. Seiko and Sr. Cummins. And then… We waited around until 6:35 when the branch president showed up and opened up the chapel. (we were sitting out on the grass at this point) Then we hung out until 6:45 waiting for a few people to show up… and we decided to start. There were only 11 people there at the start including 4 missionaries. Eventually more people showed up and it went pretty well. We sang some cantiques and I read scriptures from Isaiah 7 and 9, Luke 2, Matthew 2, and Helaman 15. The Young Women ended up being a solo- and everyone else’s parts were slim- but by the end it worked out. It actually went really well, in spite of all the problems. The Vanuatu group really pulled through for me- they dressed up, they brought candles and a baby Jesus and did a whole little.. Show. I’m really sad it was in the chapel- not allowed to take pictures!! But they did really well and I was really surprised and really happy that they put so much thought into it.

Bislama is a really funny language- maybe you can look it up to find more or something, but it basically started because Vanuatu is a group of islands that had more than 1200 languages or something.. English and French traders came through and sort of established a language.. And it eventually evolved into Bislama. I gud and I stret are from Bislama- meaning are things good? Are things straight? Ha ha. It’s funny. Anyway, they sang Silent Night in their island’s language and they sang a song in Bislama called “Jesus was born in a Manger” and something about how it makes us happy. It was really awesome and I was so happy to them that they actually worked on their part for the program. It went really well and everyone thanked me and said that I sing really well-- which is dangerous- that’s when people start asking me to sing crap. Dang it. What the gladsome tidings?! We actually sang Angels we have heard on High for our English part. Cool beans.

Afterwards I found out that the reason nobody came was because there wasn’t food. -_- island people……….

Other than that, the news is that President Callister came and did a zone conference on Tuesday and it was awesome.

Also, I blessed a baby on Sunday. Not really sure why or how or who still… The 1st councilor in the Branch Presidency is Tahitian and seems to hate Americans for some reason. He comes up to me and says GET your companion. And he starts just talking really fast and as if we were in huge trouble. He was like I’m going to smack you two- I don’t know how I’m going to do it but I’m going to do it. Then he just starts writing on our program for Sacrament meeting- “Baby blessing” and then the name of a child. Then he circles the place on the program where we’d do it and then said Okay baby blessing and then he left. And I’m like um… No “S’il te plait”? no “Hey there is a family who needs their baby blessed- do you think you could do it?” Nothing of the sort, just I’m going to hit you and then baby. Bam.. Anyway, I blessed the baby and I still don’t know why or whose baby it was. That’s life in the Tontouta branch. I almost lost my cool actually because of all the ridiculousness that happened that day- but I decided it wasn’t worth it and I just vented to my companion later. Weird.

I have to do 2 exchanges this week too, so I’ll be on the run all week. I have been living out of my suitcase all this week anyway- since we have 1 bigger apartment and 1 apartment about the size of a small hot prison cell, we leave the majority of our stuff up in Boulouparis and pack a few days’ worth of stuff and go down to Tontouta- but then I have to go up to Borail on exchange- and then down to Kutio the very next day. Oh dear.. I might run out of clothes.

There are 3 French Christmas songs that I know of that don’t exist in English- “Il est né le divin enfant” and “Noël nouvelet” which is actually rad I think. And “Un flambeau jeanette Isabella” Which I guess exists in English- bring a torch Jeanette Isabella. The first two are in the French hymnbook.

Thanks for all the birthday stuff—I’m still working on the scripture challenge. I haven’t found myself with oodles of time to do it but I’m about 1/3 of the way through and I think they’re all right. :D

Well that’s all- merry Christmas and happy new year.

Love,
Elder Winget

Happy Birthday Elder Winget!

2009-12-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

Here's an excerpt from Collin's latest email. I'm glad he had cake and birthday presents for his birthday, since his birthday package didn't arrive until 2 days later!

Good Morning! That's how you say Hello or hi in silly english. And hellohowareyouwatsurname is SillyEnglish for "this is the only thing I know how to say in English after taking english classes daily for 7 years isn't French school great?" I am doing well. Sorry I'm emailing you late- you're prolly all in bed and stuff. We're in Noumea because of Zone Conference tomorrow and we were doing random things all morning and we just got here to internet.. I guess we'll just do nothing for the rest of the day.. Darn. Well tomorrow will be fun because Elder Callister- our area president will address us at Zone conference tomorrow and he has scheduled a personal interview with each and every missionary in NewCal.. how scary! I don't think I'm bad so I'm hoping I'll pass. He's a great guy and he gave a great talk. I did actually get your package this morning and I've been slowly looking at it throughout the day. I actually was needing to buy deodorant and pens- and I was happy I looked in the package before I did shopping. Now all I'll have to buy is razor blades. Oh how I hate shaving.

Weeeeeell I'll tell you about my birthday.. It started out with Elder Wilcox made me pancakes in bed and it was good. We went out and tried to talk to some people about the Gospel but people don't live in our sector. I think we may have the least populated missionary sector in the world. It has about 3000 people.. And none of them are ever around. I miss being rejected when I knock on doors back in Ducos-- or being rejected in street contacting in VDC. In Boulouparis and Tontouta every house has a gate and a fence around the yard so we just have to yell at the house. I stopped saying "porte-à-porte" and started saying "yelling at houses". So we end up seeeeeeeing about 3-5 people in a day and 4 of them flat out say no and some times 1 of them will at least accept a brocure to be nice. I figure maybe I just have something to learn in this sector.. We'll see if I learn it. At least my companion is awesome because if he weren't my life would be hard and ridiculous. Anyway, so we did that all day and then that night we were invited by Marcelline to eat and have cake. She is awesome. She's very hard to read and at first she scared me- she looks angry all the time but she's really really nice and actually happy most of the time. She's a funny lady and actually one of my favorite people on this rock. So she invited us over and we shared a short "lesson" which was sort of just a mess-- we did "the turtle lesson"- had them draw turtles and then we shared 3 Ne 27:21 and 27 I think it was about examples and patterning our lives after the Savior. I think I got the reference wrong-- sorry. The kids didn't pay much attention but whatever. Anyway, this is a sort of poor family who lives in a Tribe- so they're not so fancy but they're uber nice. So we're sitting outside under this.. shelter? thing? They have a normal house but we always do lessons outside under this... well picture those table things that they have at Westmore park- covered by those.. deal thingers. And that's basically what we were under- except it's constructed out of like wood and trees and stuff. Cool. Anyway, so they start blowing up balloons and hanging them up around the awning thing and it was cute.. then we ate dinner and then they brought out the cake. Which was actually really good. They made a 21 out of candles and I blew them out and they sang happy birthday. So we ate cake and then Marcelline bought a present for me!! I was so excited. I had no idea what it was going to be and so I was preparing myself to be "pity excited" and thank her kindly- but it is actually really cool. She bought me a Kanaky t-shirt which is rad- I wanted to buy one exactly like it and almost did. And she bought me a towel that has a map of New Caledonia on it. Another thing which I wanted to buy myself before I leave! I was so excited and I was super happy that she cared about me and thought about me. She's great and her family is rad. Her 11 year old son is also baptized and they're trying really hard to become an eternal family. I admire them a lot.

Thanksgiving- me and Elder Wilcox went to Super U- the local grocery store in Tontouta- and we bought stuff.. I made Cheesecake from scratch and Elder Wilcox made this cool apple steak stew thing. He cut up apples and tomatoes and peppers and steak type meat and a bunch of apple juice and put it in a big pot and then we cooked it for 45 min ish and then we ate it and it was good. I was happy. Definitely no thanksgiving in america but I was satisfied.. kind of. I actually sort of caught myself staring off into the hot night sky being eaten alive by mosquitoes in our doorway wishing I was with you guys. Oh well, in a couple months. We get to have 4 july together as our next holiday. w00t.

District leading is going well.. I did a training on the Christlike Attributes- as explained in PMG chapter 6- and asked everyone to be more Christlike this week and remember that we're called to Serve and not called to preach. I talked to Sister Cummins a few nights ago and she said it was a great training and that she and her companion Sister Seiko have been trying their hardest to be as Christlike as possible this week and have lots of experiences to share next week. I'm excited. I have to keep my own commitment and I'm going to try my best do to the same this week. I've thought a lot about what it says in the missionary handbook that leaders are called not just to direct but to edify and uplift and inspire the missionaries in their district and I'm going to try to do my very best. I'm hoping to do even better this time around than last time I was DL. :)

Anyway, thanks a billion for the package.. I'm still going through it and I'm happy as a clam to have recieved it. I haven't checked out the scripture deal yet but I'll look at it later and i'll tell you how well I did. that's really clever and I appreicate all the work you guys put into it... Thanks for thinking about me- sometimes it seems like nobody cares... but I'm glad that someone remembers me back home and I love you a lot. I think about you guys probably more than you think about me and you're all in my prayers. I'm glad thanksgiving went decently well in the end and I hope you have a great week. Merry Christmas and Happy thanksgiving. Bears. I love you.
say hi to luke and jake and aaron and everyone else in the world.
Love
Elder Winget

- Show quoted text -

What Thanksgiving means to Collin

2009-11-29T16:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to church and found out that one of our families dropped us- I sort of said a little about them, the parents who want their daughters to sin and the daughters who would rather just be good and get baptized. Apparently the mom "took the truth to be hard" and said that she doesn't mind if we came over and ate with them, but they don't ever want us to teach them again. Then we found out that our lunch appointment for after church was canceled.... And I realized we had absolutely NOTHING to eat chez nous. I was really worried about that. Then the branch president brought out a buttload of cantaloupes and watermelons and we all ate until we were stuffed. I must have eaten 10 cantaloupe pieces and 3 huge watermelon pieces. Which was good since our lunch was canceled. We tried to go around and see some people and no one was around so we just went home to do studies.. I was all sad because of the Nothing to eat thing- we just ate this tuna stuff.. Then later for dinner.. We found out we didn't even have butter, so we couldn't make Macaroni and Cheese--- we were basically just out of luck. So the day wasn't going so good.. But then we found some Rice-a-roni! And life was saved. It called for BUTTER ... which we didn't have. But we tried it with vegetable oil and it worked fine! We mixed it with some canned peas we found lying around and it turned out to be the best meal I'd ever eaten. The day was saved and life was good again. I'd still love some In-n-out though--- I heard rumors that the owners said they would never open one in Utah-- but I guess the rumors were FALSE because there it goes. Apparently Lucky Buns was supposed to be an in-and-out copy but they went out of business. Hopefully in-and-out will do better.

Other than that our ami Yvan came to church, so that was good. He didn't feel like wearing a tie- but whatev, still good. :) Not a lotta happened this week besides that. I found out that President Callister is coming in 2 weeks- and that he wants to do an interview with every missionary. Kind of intimidating. He gave an awesome talk in General Conference- if you didn't get the chance to hear it, I recommend it.

That's about all that happened this week.. We're trying to plan something for Thanksgiving- no one knows it exists in this country, so it's just a normal Thursday. However I was thinking about how thankful I am for everything.. I've learned so much on my mission- I wouldn't trade the experiences I have daily for anything. I'm so thankful for all that I've learned and all the ways in which I've grown. I actually have a reason for all the crappy things that happen, because I have so many opportunities to grow. I remember the times I just responded negatively when bad things happened and I found myself even more miserable. But when I am just optimistic and happy things work out. I think about something I heard in a Zone Conference- I can't remember if it was from a conference talk or what, but there was a guy who lived in a German concentration camp for years and obviously suffered much. He figured, however, that the German soldiers could take away almost everything from them.. They could take away all of their freedoms, their clothes, their belongings, they could withhold food and water and try their best to make their lives miserable- but the only thing that they couldn't take away is one's attitude. They can't control it, and no one can. I am happy when I choose to be happy. Stuff sucks sometimes, that's life, but we always are able to choose the way in which we'll react.
I'm thankful for my family and for your letters and encouragement every week- I always look forward to it. Sorry my letter was super lame last week.. I felt like I was going to die. ( he was SO sick last week!)But I'm okay now. I hope you guys get something out of my letters each week.. Sorry they're not horribly interesting every time.. Sometimes nothing happens really in the whole week. But I'll try my best, eh? I'm so thankful for everything that you guys do for me and all your prayers.. Thanks for all the letters and packages and everything.
I'm thankful for the Gospel in my life- what would I do without it? I'm so happy for what I've learned on my mission.. I've learned how important the Church is and how less important some of the "really important" things are in life. I read in Alma 32 and 33 this morning and me and Elder Wilcox were discussing how Mormon left this section in, not because there are necessarily apostate churches all over the place in our day, but because we, as members of the church, sometimes risk becoming like the apostate Zoramites. How? Well, the Zoramites had the gospel, and decided to say the same prayers over and over, go to church once a week, and forget about God for the rest of the week. I'm happy for all that I've learned and all the good examples of the members here.. May we not forget how important God is in our lives-- all 7 days of the week.
I'm mostly thankful for everything, but those are just a couple things. Don't forget that Thanksgiving isn't just to eat, but to be thankful too. Remember how merciful God has been in our lives.. I'm trying to remember how unimportant I am- how little I am. In Mosiah 2 it talks about how even if we were to serve all our lives we would still be unprofitable servants.. God gives us EVERYTHING- right down to our breath. And all he asks us to do is keep his commandments.

20 I say unto you, my brethren, that if you should render all the ^athanks and ^bpraise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and ^cpreserved you, and has caused that ye should ^drejoice, and has granted that ye should live in peace one with another—

21 I say unto you that if ye should ^aserve him who has created you from the beginning, and is ^bpreserving you from day to day, by lending you ^cbreath, that ye may live and move and do according to your own ^dwill, and even supporting you from one moment to another—I say, if ye should serve him with all your ^ewhole souls yet ye would be ^funprofitable servants.

22 And behold, all that he ^arequires of you is to ^bkeep his commandments; and he has ^cpromised you that if ye would keep his commandments ye should prosper in the land; and he never doth ^dvaryfrom that which he hath said; therefore, if ye do ^ekeep his ^fcommandments he doth bless you and prosper you.

I love thanksgiving-- mostly cuz of the food. But I'm going to try to be as thankful as I can, and not forgetting from what source everything comes from. We don't prosper because we're just awesome and amazing and strong people, but we owe everything to God. Any blessings we have in our lives, we owe to Him and we should thank Him as much as possible.. especially during this thanksgiving time. Cool.

Thanks for everything, I don't have a whole lot else to say, but I hope you all have a wonderful week and a wonderful thanksgiving. Be good and be happy.

Love,
Elder Winget

Lots of news from Elder Winget!

2009-11-22T06:36:00.000-08:00

I have been SO busy for the past month, but I finally had time to update Elder Winget's blog. He has some interesting stories to tell about people he has been teaching, and people he taught last year when he was a new missionary. He and Elder Wilcox are splitting their time between 2 apartments - one in Tontouta, and one in Boulouparis. But the branch they attend is the same one he and Elder Tekurio attended last year when they were in Paita. So he has the wonderful opportunity of seeing people he helped teach last year and find out how they have progressed in the gospel. I'll post several excerpts from emails from the past month - I hope I can put them together in some kind of order that will make sense to you ...

I have always heard the quote that a testimony is gained on your Feet not on your Knees and I never really understood-- I came to the realization that that is really true this week. I thought about everything that has gone into finding and teaching these people.. I'm just a 20 year old American punk who doesn't speak that good of french, and isn't that good of a speaker in English either way. I don't know a huge amount about anything. I'm immature and silly and I don't take things seriously enough. I know that if I was inviting people to join something of my own will and power, not one person would listen on this island. I KNOW that the experiences and countless others that I've shared and not shared with you are guided by the Spirit-- If it wasn't so, I know the results would be very different. My testimony has grown so much, not just on my knees, but in living and teaching the Gospel- or in other words, on my feet. I've grown so much- all these experiences have changed who I really am. I'm so thankful to be on a mission and to have the opportunity to help the Lord change these peoples' lives. I know that not much is happening of my own doing--- I'm just an instrument in the Lord's hands. I'm so excited about it too. I love my mission!

It's interesting getting to know my new sector. It's more of what I expected when I got my mission call to Fiji.. Missionaries in Noumea don't know what real life is. Even Paita seems like the big city and there's only like 10,000 people who live there. Boulouparis is a city that was originally built around a police station. The population is less than 2,000 and it has 1 gas station and 2 chinois stores- or convenience type stores. Tontouta is where the international airport is, and our chapel is. The whole town is pretty much just airport workers and "gendarmeries" - that's what the police is called. Elder Wilcox bought bikes for the sector, because our kilometers are severely limited for the size of the sector- so every Wednesday we bike to save kilometers. Malheureusement, my bike broke already and we're going to have to figure out somehow to fix it. We're working on it.

I don't know if I told you, but we have 2 apartments in this sector- one in Boulouparis and one in Tontouta- that way we don't have to keep going up to Boulou every single night.. That would waste lots of time and kilometers. So a little more than half of the week we stay in Tontouta and the rest we stay in Boulouparis. Boulouparis doesn't have much in it.. Just a couple people. Every door has been knocked and everyone in the whole town knows us- so missionary work doesn't move too quickly. So that's why we stay in Tontouta more often- there's lots more people and actually stuff to do. The bad part is.. The tontouta apartment is about the size of my room back home.. The Mautz's call it the "country house".. It's right in the middle of the country.. far from civilization. It's basically a little cabin. Whatev. We cleaned it this morning and rearranged it and I organized everything much better so it's a much better place to live these days. I guess that's just my thing- I hate cleaning but when I start doing it I HAVE to get it right or I'll go nuts. The good thing about both our apartments is that it's very quiet- a huge change from VDC. AND I can see STARS!!! Millions of them! it's really weird, one can see much different stars in the southern hemisphere. Last night I went outside and stared at them for like 30 minutes.. Then our neighbor's dogs scared me so I went back inside. Our neighbors have these evil dogs and we're sort of scared of them.

The sector in general- the branch is really difficult and verging on ridiculous- They're small and far from Noumea. But we're working hard with them and things have improved even since a year ago when I was here last. So things are inching along.

from Nov. 1:
As for our Amis in this sector, we're working with a guy named Yvon- an old Caldoche (white guy born in Caledonia) guy. Apparently originally all he was looking forward to was death- he doesn't take care of himself anymore and kind of gave up on life. He was smoking a huge box of 144 mini cigars per 2 days and spending all his retirement on cigars and cigarettes. Since the missionaries (Elder Wilcox and Aiho) found him, he read the BOM in 6 days, and has a better outlook on life. He's slowly but surely improving. He's down to about 15-20 cigarettes a day and reads a lot in the BOM. He's got a raging beard/mane and only has one eye-- (an accident with a shotgun and alcohol..) He doesn't change his clothes and doesn't shower. We're trying to get him to clean up a little bit. We kind of tricked him into coming to church for the first time yesterday. We lent him Elder Wilcox's hair clippers and he said he was going to get all clean and stuff for church the next day- but we showed up and he was still just dirty old Yvon. He said he wasn't pure enough to come to church- but we said well, how about we just go do a tour of the chapel before the members show up. And he's like well, alright. So we went and got him to sit down in the chapel and then we're like well look, it's Fast and Testimony meeting and you won't want to miss it- what do you say we just stay? And he stayed the whole time. He liked it and we'll be seeing him tonight, and hopefully we can engage him to continue going to church every week.

from Nov. 8:

our friend Yvon came to church again! He cut his hair and trimmed his beard and I gave him a shirt and tie to put on and he looked great! He loves church and as soon as we can get him to quit smoking and drinking, I think we can baptize him. Apparently I'm taking it all for granted since I just got here, but this is something elder Wilcox and Aiho were trying to get him to do for MONTHS. They even lent him the clippers and he never got around to clipping his hair. But this time it worked out. I'm really excited about it.

Also from Nov. 1:

The amazing news though--- Me and elder Wilcox were building a house/thing for this dude and I got a phone call from Elder Green- he said that Soane and Vaea have started their marriage papers!!!! They're definitely some of the best Amis I've ever had, and I had no doubt they'd get baptized someday.. They always talked about when they are baptized and how they want to so bad, but didn't always DO something about it. But they've gotten their papers started and have asked me to be a witness at their wedding! The Zone Leaders said no (it's their job), but President Ostler said yes! I don't know the date yet, but their kids are going to Tahiti on Dec 14th and they want them to be their for the Wedding- so it's going to be before that. I'm inexplicably ecstatic. Of all the people I've taught I feel like I have the strongest bond with them and their family, and I am so happy for them. I knew they could do it!! They're amazing people- they're at every church function and are applying gospel principles better than most members- they still do family scriptures and prayer every night and talk about temple marriage.. They just get it and I know they're going to be an amazing addition to the Church.

and a continuation, from Nov. 8:

We saw Soane and Vaea and the kids- they stopped in Tontouta to see me and so I could sign their marriage papers, since I'm going to be a witness. I'm so excited--- I honestly consider them my friends- people I would keep hanging out with even if I wasn't on a mission. And So I'm really really extatic about their marriage and baptism. Elder Green told me they won't stop talking about me and asking about me and he's like hey, I'm still here! Let's talk about me! Soane said well you're here and Winget isn't so let's talk about him. :P I guess the kids ask about me and my news and such. The kids have memorized up to 8 in the articles of faith, and they have speaking parts in the primary program- even though they're not members yet. I'm so so so so So happy about their progress-- it makes all the hard work worth it!! The Sékémé family is the last actual FAMILY to get baptized on this island for a LONG time.. It's really hard to get entire families to except the gospel.. ironically. But Soane and Vaea's little family is going to be the next one in. I'm so excited. I've seen the slow but steady progress in them.. They're genuinely so much happier.. I remember when we first went to their house months ago.. There was no spirit in their home and I thought they didn't even like each other.. They NEVER went ANYWHERE as a family-- it was work, school, fight, sleep. But now they actually love each other.. The gospel really does strengthen families.. Something I don't think I could have learned without going on a mission. I really took our family unity for granted-- but I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the reason why we're so close.

And here's some more interesting news:

I saw Atiu Atiu (my buddy that got baptized back in the Vallee du Tir days) this week and he's doing amazing!!! He's the life blood of the Ducos branch these days. They were really struggling before he came along- and he's doing wonders for them. He's 1st councilor in the Elders Q Presidency and he is pulling the whole branch along with him. He's doing absolutely amazing.

Since I'm back in the Tontouta branch, I'm in contact again with Soane and Valerie who I taught and who got baptized back when I was in Paita. They're both still active and very very strong. Soane is sort of like Atiu- he's put so much strength into this branch that wasn't there before. He's completely changed since I first met him. You wouldn't even think he's the same guy.. He's so great. Valerie is in the Young Womens presidency and is doing wonderfully. She's also like Soane in that she brings so much to the branch and won't back down.

In New Caledonia, activity rate is 30 something percent and about 80 percent of Recent Converts go inactive in their first year. We're working ridiculously hard with our recent converts to try and change that- but the fact still remains.. It's getting lots better, and this year is better than the last. But The 3 people that got baptized under my watch are still active--- and not only active, but REALLY REALLY active. It's absolutely amazing!!! I know Soane and Vaea are going to be the same for the Magenta branch-- and their kids will be an amazing addition to the Primary there. Did I tell you how Tiro stood up and said the 1st 4 articles of faith in front of the primary and no one else could do it? Amazing, eh? Well, that's awesome.

We taught this kid and his mom this week, Marcelline and Claude- they're both recent converts. Marcelline is doing really really well-- she is amazing. Claude is only 11 years old, and doesn't 100% get it that he has to come to church every week.. Sad, albeit understandable. He hadn't been in 3 months when I first got here. Me and Elder Wilcox were doing planning and we planned to teach them about the Plan of Salvation, focusing on Eternal Families. I thought almost it was too cheezy-- we talk about eternal families all the time and I always think that Okay, we all got it, we can be together forever.. Blah blah blah. But we taught it anyway. It seemed like just any other lesson, we taught it, they listened, we left. But that sunday, Claude went to church again.. And was happy to be there. We came over during the week and his mom said that he's been talking ALL week about how he needs to be GOOD and keep the COMMANDMENTS so he can have an Eternal Family!!!!! I was blown away--- 75% of the time I wonder if anyone even listens to our lessons-- he took it to the next level. He has commited himself to be at church EVERY sunday and he has started praying and reading his scriptures- and praying so that his dad will get baptized and they can be an eternal family. I was so so touched- I didn't realize it but we really followed the spirit, and not our own silly thoughts. Elder Wilcox said the same thing, that he didn't know if that was too cheesy to teach, but we did it. And it worked!

One more thing...(this is from Nov. 8th)

Well more about my week in general- Monday we went to the beach after I emailed y'all and we took some silly jumping pictures-- the only problem is that I didn't take my knee into account and so I completely killed my knee when I landed. It made a huge cracking sound and I was dead. Well, close. It hurt and I couldn't bend it or straighten it or put ANY weight on it. This has happened already way too many times on my mission so I sort of figured if I just toughed it out for a few days, it would get better. And a family gave me these crutches to use for the week. So I was fine, but we called the mission nurse anyway and she was all scared and said I had to go down to Noumea to get it X-rayed tout de suite! So we dropped everything and went to the hospital in Noumea and they X-Rayed it and there's nothing broken.. They just gave me anti-inflammatory pills and pain pills and said to take it easy. Which is what I knew they would say-- So I just wasted time and lots of the mission's money to have them say that. but whatever, I did what the nurse said. By now my knee is fine-- the medicine actually helps quite a bit! I can walk almost normal, although I have a very noticeable limp. I am still taking it easy- which is easy since we have a car.

I think that should get everybody up to speed who have asked about Collin lately... Later today we should be hearing from him again, and I'll update the blog again hopefully tomorrow.

Thanks to everyone who sent a birthday email - it's not too late if you missed his birthday... We are sending a Christmas package right after Thanksgiving, and if you email me (or bring me a card or something), I'll make sure it gets in the Christmas package.

A Good Report from A New Caledonian Member

2009-10-25T08:19:00.000-07:00

We just got a very special email from Brother Harold Li-Khau who is in Collin's new branch. It looks like he has been transferred to Tontouta and he gets to be companions with Elder Wilcox again! We didn't hear from Collin about this yet, but I'm sure we will later today. I thought it was so sweet to hear from someone in Collin's mission and to read what they think of him. It was very nice of him to take the time to email us and send pictures too. He looks good and happy, and it looks like he gets delicious food to eat :)

The Li-Khau family I remember hearing about when Collin was in his first area, Paita. They used to go over there for dinner every week. It's wonderful to hear from Brother Li-Khau how much Collin has improved with his french since the last time he used to go visit them, which was a year ago. Wow, time really flies! He will be coming home in about 6 months. Amazing!

Hello,

My name is brother LI-KHAU Harold you can see my family picture, I just wanted to let you know that Elder WINGET is doing very well here with us in our branch, I remember for the time he came on his mission, his first area was our branch and his French was not really that but you know it is normal for a new missionary , every Thursday they always come home have dinner with our family, we really help him to learn our language, our father in heaven and with your prayer really bless him, I believe in the 7^th article of faith, myself too I was like him wen I was on my mission in Fiji, I did not how to speak in English and through that experience, I know that Elder WINGET can do it, like I did it, today he can speak really good French, 2 years far away from his family it is sounds that it is longer but for me no!!! compare to the eternal life , Elder WINGET is a good example to us , today he is back to our branch with a really good French, every week we always have dinner with the missionaries at home, my wife and I know what is mission life ,we are both return missionaries, I serve my mission in Fiji and my wife in Tahiti, we understand the missionaries that why every week they use to come and have dinner and sharing the gospel together, we like to thank you and your family the big sacrifice to let him come on his mission to serve the lord ,we know that it was one of his goal to come on the mission, we know also that you had, and you will receive more blessing from the lord, may god bless you more in everything that you need, do not worry for your son, he is in the good hand, the gospel of Jesus-Christ is true, my wife and I have 4 children’s, Rebecca 16 years old, Dan 15 years old, Nathanaelle 11 years old and Catherine 7 years old, you can see in our pictures you can see also some others picture of Elder Winget during our branch conference with his companion Elder Wilcox, dear family we hope this news will make you happy, the church is true, I am sorry for the mistake, may god bless you all. One of the members on the other side of the world.

From the LI-KHAU family……

TSUNAMI ! ... well, not really

2009-10-11T17:34:00.000-07:00

(Here's Elder Winget on a recent windy day)
Well, speaking of TSUNAMI-- that's about all the excitement from this week... Or rather, not exciting at all. We were chilling in our apartment on thursday morning when we got a call from the Zone leaders and they're like Hey there was a Tsunami in Vanuatu this morning and New Caledonia has a Tsunami warning so don't go close to the beach. And we were like so if we were planning on doing "service" at the beach, we shouldn't do it? They said yeah don't do that. Thursdays we're supposed to do service for people and no one ever wants us to do service for them so we have to make something up. Sometimes we pick up garbage and a few times we helped someone move or paint or whatever.. This time we just thought about going to pick up garbage on the beach. So we're like well, what now? Then about 10 minutes later the Zone Leaders called and said that president said to evacuate everyone to higher grounds as a precaution and that they were picking us up in 5 minutes. So we were like hmm, maybe there is something? So we went up on this big hill to this property the church owns- for when there is finally a stake here they'll build a stake center.. And at 11:15 there was supposed to be an earthquake again. Since Vanuatu is really close and there was actually an 8 magnitude smoething there i was thinking, well, maybe something will actually happen for once. Whenever pres and the ZLS freak out it always means nothing at all will happen. So we waited.. and waited... and nothing ahppened. it didn't even rain. I was like come on, just a Little wave even... There are no waves here since the entire island is a lagoon- so the water is always really calm. No waves, no earthquake, no nothing. so we went back home. And then it turns out Vanuatu didn't even get hit by a tsunami, they were just on tsunami warning... there was a 8 mag tremblement de terre ( earthquake) in the ocean though. Hmm, watev.

Conference was great! For once there were no problems with the transmission thing so we got to watch all the sessions. We had some amis there and they liked it. I was happy. The most intense talk would have to be Elder Holland's talk about the Book of Mormon. I really enjoyed it. We all said they should have just ended the conference right there- it's anticlimactic to do anything else.. :) Anyway, it was great. I also liked when President Uchdorf talked about mormons being known for streams that talk, and trees that produce popcorn. We had a huge laugh about that.

Other than that, not much happened. We did a small family home evening thing and invited Soane and Vaea who weren't able to come- but we did a small lesson and ate anyway at a family's house in our branch. The wife is from Vanuatu and speaks english and the husband is from here, and did his mission in Vanuatu. They have unidentical twin boy and girl that are absolutely adorable. In Vanuatu they have a ridiculous language called Bislama. Look it up- it's really interesting. It's basically like putting English in a blender.. We meet lots of people from Vanuatu here- it's close and they speak french over there.. kind of. Anyway, so the little kids think that missionaries are all named "shakehands" because their mom always says shake hands to them when they see the Elders. So they called me Hey! Shakehands! And I'm like what!? What's my name? Shakehands! Ha ha!!! It was adorable and hillarious. I'll have to get a video of them.. I'll try anyway.

Well other than that nothing much happened. That's the scoop. Hey I might ask you next week to make me some CDS from conference- so you could send me them in the next package. But I want them in a special way so I'll show you with the computer controller thing next week or something. I wanted something else in a package.. But I don't remember now. Blah. Don't worry too much about me getting a package by halloween-- I'm not super concerned about it.

Good luck with the primary program-- as long as the kids are singing I dont' think anyone can complain about it. And if they do you can tell them to take their kids to the other primary in the ward... ;)

Thanks a million! I love you!

Love,
elder winget

Music, and beautiful beaches

2009-09-27T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hi, it's me. Yes, it is September 28th.. Weird! I am bien surprised... Time flies, eh? Today me and Elder Green decided to watch the sunrise.. So we woke up at 4:30 AM and walked out to a nice little spot under a coconut tree and at about 5:45 it rose. It was marvellous. Then we decided, why not continue our tour? So we walked basically all around the bottom of the peninsula of Noumea and saw all the beaches. Well, we walked along Anse Vata and Baie des Citrons.. Which are amazingly beautiful beaches. We stopped by a little bakery and bought some french pastries (which are amazing, by the way..) and stopped by our dear Zone Leaders' appartment and shared them with them, along with some fish and more bread that they had. (they're tahitian.. I guess they eat fish and mashed potatoes for breakfast) Then we trekked out and did more beach tours and moseyed our way home by 11. It wasn't a super long walk, but we stopped to rest and take pictures every 20 min or so. We have some cool pictures of us under coconut trees and such. ( BTW, I looked these places up on Google Earth, and wow, they are beautiful beaches! )

Other than that, this week we saw Soane and Vaea a few times, and Elder Mautz asked Soane when he's getting baptized and he said "bientot"- soon. They know what they have to do, and they're hopefully going to get married and then baptized. I think they're completely ready to get baptized-- besides that they live together unmarried. But I have noticed a huge change in them. Soane was a huge drinker and has stopped completely. Vaea used to be really meloncoly and sad all the time and actually cried during one of our lessons-- and now she seems happy all the time. The kids seem so much happier. We printed out a copy of that little picture we took of them (I think I sent it to you) and us and they put it in a little frame next to their TV. :)( That picture is the one above) They love us a lot and we love them back. I'm happy to be the instrument by which the Lord could bring them His Gospel. They'll make a wonderful addition to the Magenta branch.... Sooner than later I hope. Marriages are tricky in anywhere french... Especially since neither of them are from NC- but they're both French citizens so I hope it will go smoothly.

We had a fireside in which we sang and spoke about Jesus Christ. The spirit was strong and Soane and Vaea were there- it doesn't seem like soemething they'd be amazingly impressed by... i kept looking at them and they didn't seem to be paying attention-- but afterwards they were both really really happy and said they loved it. Sister Swapp sang and she has an amazing voice. It really made the program.

We had a practice for a fireside that we'll be singing in in October and for the Christmas program with the district .. sometime in Christmas time. And everyone keeps telling me that I sing really well.. I hate drawing attention to myself cuz then people will ask me to sing solos and stuff- but they keep asking me to sing louder. Blah. Elder Mautz keeps telling me every time he hears me that I sing amazingly and that I need to take voice lessons and stuff when I get home. i'll think about it. I wouldn't mind singing in church every once in a while. Maybe I can sing something in French. :D

We went to this concert thing at the Catholic Cathedral in Centre Ville on Saturday. These kids of 7-14 in age sang gregorian and latin and stuff.. And it was AMAZING! I was so impressed and entertained. It was really calm and cool music. I hope they come back again some time. They're all New Caledonian kids too.

So on saturdays they are doing this rock concert thing in Centre Ville that local bands can come and play for everyone.. Kind of like a battle of the bands. Sometimes we're in the area to contact people.. And sometimes take a short peek at the music. :) While they were setting up we were taking a lunch break and sitting on this bench and this guy pulls up who was part of the set up crew..... His windows were down and he was playing loud music. There was this rad music playing with a cool bass sound and I was like woah, what's that? That's cool sounding.. Then the words came in and I realized it was MUSE!!! He was playing the new MUSE CD!!! . I heard about 10 seconds of a song I don't know.. But those 10 seconds were some of the best of my life. That little clip keeps playing over and over in my head. We went over and talked to the dude and asked him if that was the new muse cd. he said yes and he loves muse. He said they come to play in Australia sometimes and he always goes. He said that there are lots of people who like muse in NC. Go figure. I was happy though.

Well that's about all that happened this week. Cool beaches, and muse.

Family ties and the Gospel

2009-09-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

this is Collin's hat that I knitted for him... here's his latest email:
Not a lot has happened since the last time I talked to you-- 3 days ago. We did service for a less active member- she moved and so we moved all her stuff. Their family is sad- and it made me so very thankful for mine. We talked to the mom lady the other day- she owns a tahitian pearl shop, so she's decently loaded. She has nice cars, nice apartment, etc.. And the money really got to her head. We were talking to her the other day and she said she's currently going through a divorce and it's hard.. She said the reason she's getting divorced is cuz her husband wasn't a worthy priesthood holder and that the reason she doesn't go to church was because she didn't want the members to call her by her husband's last name. Well, turns out she's really more of the reason for the divorce- because she's having an affair.. She has 3 little daughters- 16 yrs old, 14ish and 3. And it's really really tearing apart the family. The 16 year old is amazingly strong, and has a ridiculously amazing testimony. Even though no one else in her family is really active and stuff, she really does her best. I really admire her- especially since she's only 16 years old. You can tell that the divorce and the affair is really affecting her though. All this garbage made me realize two things- number 1. i'm really blessed. She was talking to us the other day and said me and Elder Green are really blessed. And we're like yeah yeah.. And she's like no, are your parents sealed in the temple? How far away do you live from a temple? Do you get to go to conference in the conference center? How far do you live from the prophet? She said she's going through a lot of trials in her life.. And we could do nothing but say we're sorry and to keep doing the best she can. But it really made me think.... I am blessed!! My family is together and we love each other.. We are practicing members of the true church- and we are enormously blessed because of it. How great is that? I love you guys. But then the other thing I learned-- number 2: Her family situation sucks- her parents don't care, and actually complain about taking her to church and seminary. But she is there every week without fail. Her family doesn't pray or read scriptures together- and yet she does. We can be strong wherever we are- and we should never make excuses about our situation... We always have the choice ourselves to be good and to keep the commandments, or not. Let us not make excuses for our situations- but let us be strong and create zion in the midst of babylon.

Other than that, we had a lesson with Soane and Vaea and a member named Frere Tuahiva (kind of-- his name is actually like 20 syllables, so he goes by a nick-last name.) He's great, and he helped us a lot. One really cool thing about being a missionary-- is that I know I'm not like amazing necessarily-- I don't have any magical powers and I don't know anything about anyone's problems or their lives.. Sometimes I have to pretend to know stuff about how to solve problems- but really all I can do is rely on the Lord. I don't know anything about how to fix Soane or Vaea's problems- but we do the best we can to teach them how to fix their own problems.. And it works! The last lesson I told you about- Vaea was having a really crappy time and we tried to help her the best we could.. she was looking for us to help her fix her problems. But the best answers we had were prayer, scriptures, and repentence. She didn't seem to like that answer because it sounded to vague- or so I gathered. But then the next time we came over with Frere Tuahiva- they were both doing SO much better. That was the first time I've seen her smile in a long time. She was happy- and participated in the lesson. Soane was doing good too. They said that they talked out their problems with each other and with the Lord. And even though I couldn't solve their problems- He can. And will. And did. They're doing better and going great. The kids are still awesome.
Frere Tuahiva helped a lot- he shared his experiences about how the gospel ahs really helped his family and that he is happy. I saw a huge contrast- you could tell that the rich lady isn't super happy, and nor are her kids. But then Frere Tuahiva just has an average manual labor job, a smallish dumpy house, and a so so car. But he's so happy- all the time. His family is happy. They love each other. Money really doesn't buy happiness--- we really need to realize that happiness comes from the Lord and His gospel. Reminds me of that quote from CS Lewis from general conference- can't remember who said it- but CSL said that life is a neverending struggle of man trying to find something other than God to make him happy.
Also during the lesson, Tiro, the little kid, drew us a picture.. it was so cute. he drew me and elder Green and the church- and he wrote (in funny kid-bad spelling) You are the best missionaries in the world and you teach us! I'll have to make a copy of it and send it to you.. It's hanging up on our fridge at home.

So that's about all that's happened since we last met.

I'm glad this primary thing is getting off the ground.. I'm glad Sister Gaya was so gung ho to do it.. I haven't had to do anything.. ha ha. If there's anything I can do though, I'd be happy to do it.

I'm excited for the package. Thanks a million!

Well, thanks for everything, I love you a lot. I'll see you later!
Love,
elder winget

"Obama made this sandwich" - and other adventures

2009-09-11T04:51:00.000-07:00

A few nights ago we were hungry and tired and every single dish in our house was dirty- literally.. We just stopped washing dishes and dug all the random little ones out of the cracks to put our food in - instead of washing them. So we had a giant pile of dishes in the sink.. And didn't feel like washing them to make dinner. So we broke down and paid 40 bucks for a pizza. On our way home we met this crazy homeless drunk man that we call "Indian people" - he likes to speak in extremely broken french and a few months ago told us a story about indian people--- ?? pointing to the sky and stomping on the ground and saying how bush, kennedy and clinton were bad but obama is good--- and saying indian people over and over and over. I think. We didn't understand very much- but for that we call him indian people. Anyway, this night we were carrying home a pizza-- and we ran into HIM. Right outside our house. He starts saying things in extremely broken english/french and we eventually hear (over and over and over and over) that is name is Jake. Then he asks us to wash his clothes- and talks about obama and how bush is bad- and that his sister is a member and lives at our church. Then he tells us about random crap and then asks us for the PIZZA. I was like ah.... uh... Hold on. So we ran up to the house, and instead of giving him our 40 dollar pizza, we made him and his friend a sandwich, some crackers, and an apple. So we brought it down to him and he's like HEY did this sandwich come from AMERICA!? And we're like no, we made it.. And he's like OH this apple is AMERICAN! And we're like, no, we actually just bought it down the street at Geant. And he's like WOAH this comes from AMERICA!? And he wouldn't accept it because he was so confused... and I was like YES. OBAMA MADE THIS SANDWICH. And he was SO grateful to Obama. HE ate the sandwich and kept saying BUSH NO GOOD OBAMA GOOD. And I'm like well, good luck. So we went back in our house. Bad news- A bunch of hostile bums know where we live and want to use our washing machine- Jake is fine, but the other bums are scary. We're slightly scared. Oh well.

So, this internet place we're at was CLOSED on Monday, so we had to wait until we had a spare minute and so that's why we're writing you on THURSDAy. Sorry it's so late.. But it's worth it, right?

So lately the word has got out that I know a thing or two about computers- and everyone has been asking me for help. It's pretty sweet- I typed up a business paper and made some graphs for someone today while the other elders and sisters in my district painted her house. That's what we did for service today.. That was fun. I love messing around on the computer. It was interesting- I was typing all this junk in french and had no idea what it all meant. I tihnk they're designing a car.

We talked to some interesting people this week- We were knocking doors late at night (for New Caledonia- 6:30 pm) and we saw this lady getting into her car- she had a Vanuatu flag in her window- so we decided to talk to her (Vanuatu people are always nice.) Turns out she was jamming out in her car to some silly Pentocostal Christan Rock in English- and was really interested in talking to us. She actually suggested that we come talk to her.. So we were excited to take her number down and set a Rendezvous with her. So Elder Green says what's your number? And gets his planner and pen ready- and she says 80... And then.. closes her eyes.... and starts swaying back and forth. I thought maybe she couldn't remember her phone number.. Maybe it's a new phone? But then I looked closer.. She was ROCKING OUT to the music!!! Right in the middle of telling us her phone number!! We were dumbfounded.. And just kept staring at her. Remember that Seinfeld episode that Elaine's boyfriend has like "his song"- and won't talk while it's playing? It was exactly like that- so like 50-60 seconds later, my companion finally says, um.. good song! And she's like OH! It's so good! I'll make a rendezvous with you and I will make you a copy of the CDs! Oh it's amazing.. I love music in English! I hate music in French.. I don't speak english, but the miracle is when I'm listening to Worship music, I understand! And we're like um, okay. So, what's that phone number..?? So she gives it to us.. We've tried calling her since and haven't found her yet. We'll see.

Second interesting person- we were walking down the street, once again pretty late at night (about 7) and this woman passes by- we said bonsoir and almost kept walking- but then we felt like we needed to talk to her.. So we did. She said she has had a really hard life- her husband mistreats her, and she's looking for a church who really worships the Savior. She said she has gone to other churches, and they don't seem to be serious- they woship the Lord with their words- but don't do anything. She believes in God and prays every day that her life will get better- and she says she cries a lot. She lives in a squatt and doesn't have a very good job- her husband drinks a lot and it's getting hard. We started talking to her about the restoration- it sounded like Exactly what Jesus Christ said when he appeared to Joseph Smith (translating in my mind from french- won't be exact) They approach me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me--- We talked to her about the Gospel and how Jesus Christ has extended the invitation that he will lighten our burdens if we come unto Him.. She was really really touched and shed a few tears. We gave her a Restoration pamphlet and invited her to church.. She said she probably couldn't come to church because of her husband.. But was nevertheless very very happy to talk to us. We left her with a prayer and went on our way. We got her phone number-- and today tried to call her. Elder Green talked to.. her husband. Who was a complete jerk and wouldn't let us talk to her. He just insulted us over and over and yelled and wouldn't tell us anything..He left us with an ultimatum- if we ever want to talk to his wife again, why don't we just pray about it and that Holy Ghost of ours will lead us to her. We're going to take him up on the offer.

We taught Frere Katrawa again- his wife is studying to be a teacher- and was in Ouvea at the time on a student teaching thing. He had lots of questions- we didn't get to teach him what we had planned.. It was completely improv. But we came to the conclusion together that he needs to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. He said his wife had prayed about it- and kept feeling this weird happy warm feeling.. But she wasn't sure if it was an answer. We're like AHH!! That's the answer! So we talked to her about it.. she said she's scared of change. I don't blame her. She's a member of a very strongly protestant family. I hope they realize the importance of all this.. I think they know it's true- but are scared to admit it.

We had Zone Conference this Tuesday. Me and elder green were asked to do a roleplay on street contacting- since we do it the most. We represented the people to be contacted- and some poor unsuspecting missionaries from Dumbea were our victim missionaries. We bascially just did what people do here- ask us about stupid things in america (DO YOU KNOW SNOOP DOG!? What does we will we will wattuu(rockyou) mean? How do you say smoke pot in english? Do you live in New york? Are you cowboys? Does your tie cost 300 dollars?) whistle and wave at every one of their friends at the most inconvienient part (everyone knows evvveryone - it's an island.. and when you see someone you know, you are partially obligated to whistle relaly loud and wave at them obnoxiously. even if it's in the middle of a missionary's testimony) and just basically were obnoxious. It was really fun and just about every single missionary came up to us after and were like HA HA HA that was so funny when you said.. whatever. But really we just acted out real life. Silly.

Also we had interviews with pres- once again he brought up that thing that I need to be a district leader or zone leader or something and I said aw that sounds hard. We'll see if I get called in the months that follow.

Soane and Vaea are doing.. good? bad? They want to get married and baptized at some point- we casually talked about it without sounding too pushing. They said they want to. Vaea is going through some hard times.. She says she's praying and praying and doesn't feel like God is forgiving her of her sins- we did an activity that we put all the books on Soane's outstretched arms and remove them with each step of the repentance process. She says she feels like the books are all on her right now.. and it's hard. We'll do the best we can to help them. They come to church most every week, they read the scriptures, and (this is a new update) drumroll... Started having family prayer and scripture study EVERY NIGHT!!!! I'm So happy that they finally took us up on that offer.. :) The kids are doing so well! They're about 8 and 7 and they LOVE primary SO much.. As soon as the prayer is over in sacrament meeting I turn my head and they disappear- ran off to primary! No one has to show them where to go. They love it so much. Tiro (the 8 year old little boy) has been praying and reading scriptures. They love it. Sometimes it feels like their family is progressing really well.. And sometimes digressing. The best part is though, they're seeing blessings and it's really cool to think that it's me and my companion who extended the invitation to accept the gospel into their lives-- I know it's not me that is blessing them, but it's cool to think that the Lord is working through me. I love it.

That's about all that happened with us this week.. We'll try to write on monday again-- we'll have to rework our pday norm- they've changed their operating hours. But whatever.

Thanks for the package, whenever you can send it. Don't stress, I'm fine.. but I'd love a package. That's funny you saw that faux de fafa movie-- I love love love those guys.. they're so stupidly funny. Ha ha! That's so cool you met Frere Luke-- he wasn't my teacher but he was elder green's teacher- and he subbed for us a bunch of times. I'm glad he remembered me- it's been more than a year since I seen him.

Ironically I just started getting a bunch of letters- I guess they were already in the mail. Hopefully I'll get more though.. I think I'm doing pretty good though, for being over the hump and still getting some. So I'm happy.

That's so RAD that you met sister Gaya! I'm glad this primary thing is working out for you-- Hopefully this can continue even after I get home-- then i can do some of the translating and stuff. That would be cool if this just keeps going and going for years and becomes a church legend. Ha ha.

Don't forget to send me a shirt or two if you send me a package.. :)

Thanks for everything! Thanks for the email. I love you a lot and I miss you tons. I'll see you soon.. Time goes by quick eh? I'll be home before we know it. Keep being good and keeping the commandments- I know you'll see miracles.

Love,

elder winget

the Meeting of the Primary Presidents

2009-09-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today was a very exciting day for me! This is Linda Gaya, who is the Primary president in the Noumea 2nd branch, in the ward where Collin is currently serving. And this is how we came to meet:

Back last fall when I was called to be Primary president, I had this ambitious idea to have our Primary be pen pals with the Primary children in the areas where our ward had missionaries serving. I quickly learned that this would be an almost impossible undertaking, since missionaries are very busy and generally don't have time to visit Primary and set up things like that. I nearly gave up on that idea, until a few weeks ago Collin was talking to Sister Gaya and he mentioned my pen pal idea and how cool it would be if something could work out. Well, she surprised us all by telling him she used to live in Orem and would be going there for a visit soon! We exchanged emails and and today she came to Primary and spoke to the children. She had the children in her branch write their testimonies on the backs of postcards. The writing is in french, but my secretary is french and can translate for us! Sister Gaya speaks perfect English and french, so it was no problem getting to know her and having her answer the kids questions about living in New Caledonia. Then in a few weeks she will be going back, and we will have our Primary kids write postcards for them. And you can be sure that I will have something special for her to hand deliver to my favorite missionary :D It is amazing how this all worked out!

This has really been a fun day!

By the way, thanks for reading this blog. When you get the time, please send a letter to Collin :) He would love it!

I'm trying to figure out how to put up his address in the sidebar of the blog. Be patient with me, I hope to get it solved soon!

More run-ins with drunk guys, and a special message

2009-09-06T19:47:00.001-07:00

this is a picture of Collin surfing on a trash can overlooking Noumea on a very windy day

Here's excerpts from last week's email - Collin has Zone Conference this week, so I will be surprised if he emails us today. Sometimes the elders can email their families on a different day of the week if they have Zone Conference or something, so if he sends us anything later I will post it.

Collin has a message for his friends and family at the end of his email, so be sure to read it!

Yeah so I do have Adobe Photoshop- because of the USB flash drive you sent me. I actually use it a lot- just for resizing pictures and stuff. It works great. I have missed messing around in photoshop for a while-- So I decided to do it this time. Anyway, I'm fine now - I did use the medecine you sent with me- I had one theraflu left from last time I was sick and I used it and I felt decently well.

this week was fine- I forgot to tell you about one thing we did last week for service. We do service every Thursday- and this week we couldn't find anything to do so we just found this empty lot where lots of homeless people sleep and picked up all the garbage. We got everything that was visible- there was still much much more hiding in the bushes. I wouldn't be surprised if we picked up 2000+ beer cans.. And lots of other junk. The pile we made after having cleaned up the whole thing was about 6 feet tall and 15 feet long and 5 feet wide. It was HUGE - and a very small lot. As we were dumping off the last load and about to go home this dude comes up to us and starts complaining about white people- What are you guys doing!? What, so America has to come over here and give KANAKYs a lesson about cleaning up!? More like WE'll teach YOU a lesson! We don't need your lessons.. And i'm like dude, this was dirty, we have to see it 3 times a week and it smells and looks horrible so we just wanted to serve you. Stop complaining and let us go home. And he starts going off on us- The color of the skin doesn't matter! Stop being racist! I'm black and you're white but we bleed the same blood! And i'm like well.. I never said otherwise! And he just keeps complaining. Then this other dude- stoned and drunk off his mind comes up to us and says HEY are you going to pull some weeds while you're at it?? And i'm like... no. We don't have time. We just wokred for about 4 hours just on the garbage. BUt you can do it!!! And he said well.. I dont' have any gloves like you have. And I'm like look, if I give you these gloves, will you clean up and pull weeds and keep this place clean? And his eyes get all big and he nods his head excitedly. So I hand him my nice leather gloves.. Thinking he wouldn't do a thing with them. But he ACTUALLY STARTS PULLING WEEDS!!!! LOL! So he makes a huge pile of weeds and actually starts cleaning and we went home. We came back about a week later and it's already as bad as before. Oh well, we tried.

Then this saturday we were involved in "Projet Mont Dore Propre" - project clean mont dore- a city next to Noumea. We woke up and went straight to the chapel.. They gave us a cool T-shirt and we picked up garbage all around Mont Dore. It was great publicity for the church- we had about 50ish members show up and almost no one else showed up. We did a great job too. They took our picture and it will be in the newspaper. Tragically, I missed the picture-- but they took another one and they're going to try to get it in the local news section of the Liahona. I picked up 6 or 7 bags of trash- and we separated it to be recycled. Cool! Lots of garbage pick up.

Later this week my companion and I were talking to people in the Place des Cocotiers- the little park in the middle of town- and this dude waves us over. Just a little black guy. We start talking to him and he's really nice... He said he has been to prison lots of times because of "aggressing people" -- and I said woah, are you going to aggress us?? Ha ha, no of course not! So we kept talking about the gospel and stuff and then we asked him what he does for a living. And he's like well, I just ask people for their spare change! And we're like well... Do you want to change that? And he's like no, it's fine.. It's a good job. Adn we're like well, maybe you should work? Wouldn't that be better? And we get into an argument about how US - the white people- stole his land and ruined everything and that blah blah blah.. and I'm like well.. you can still go back to the tribu and work your land if you want! (he kept complaining about how me- the white people - paved everything so he can't work the ground and plant plants) and he gets all mad and starts saying that we don't know anything and us the white people ruined the whole world and blah blah blah and that i don't even know how to work the earth! And i'm like well-- I have a garden chez moi- and he's like yeah well you stole that land from the indians! and you stole the land in Australia from the Aboriginal people! And you stole the land from the Tahitians! And he goes on and on about how we kill people and I'm like dude, I've never killed anyone in my life.. I didn't do any of that stuff.. I'm probably not even related to any of these people. We're just here to serve and teach the gospel and stuff. And he just gets way mad and punches elder green- And I'm like woah.. Let's just go. cuz elder green wanted to hit him back really bad- and I'm like its not worth it.. Peace dude. So this dude just starts YELLING in the middle of town over and over and over- silly guy.

Mostly these days what we need is more investigators- this week we're going to work hard to find some new ones. I hope it works!

Well that's about everything that happened in this past week.. I wrote a couple letters- I've officially replied to EVERY letter I've ever gotten- so could you put up a notice on my blog? Something like -
ATTENTION EVERYONE- I want some mail- send me some. This is a call to repentance. If you have been thinking about sending me a letter recently- do it! I have officially replied to every letter I have recieved as of September 1st. If you haven't gotten a letter from me in a while- that's cuz either
1. You haven't sent me one - I dont' have time to write people who don't write back!!!
2. It's in the mail and is coming to you soon.
3. I never got your letter in the mail- and so you'll have to send me a new one.
Do it!

Okay that's all. .i love you a lot and I hope you have a great week.

Love,
elder winget

Elder Winget gets la Grippe

2009-08-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning to a special surprise - Collin had emailed us during the night, and he even sent us this picture! He made it out of pictures I had emailed him recently, but he didn't mention how he got access to Photoshop... but I laughed so hard my stomach hurt! I feel just like that baby sun in Teletubbies :D So, here is most of the email he sent me:

So sorry I didn't send a weekly email on time- the internet place was closed in the morning and we were too lazy to go back in the Afternoon- so we came today. This week was not super eventful-- I can't remember a lot that happened. But I do remember a couple things.. I got pretty sick the other day and got all feverish and dizzy and wanted to die. I was hot and then cold and then hot and then cold.. It started out during church.. It was a nice sunny warm day and I was freezing cold chattering my teeth and shivering all through church. Miserable. Then I started dying so eventually we went home. I slept for about 15 hours.. kind of. horrible night. but then in the morning I was.. decent. Throughout the day it got better.. And now i'm okay. It was a pretty short flu. Everyone's freaking out over the swine flu (or Grippe A as we call it in french I guess) so I was thinking it would be something serious but I tihnk i'm fine now. I've still got about a gallon of mucus inside of me, but other than that all is well. Today was Elder Green's birthday- we made lunch at the house and the zone leaders brought over a cake and it was fun. I drank about a gallon of vegetable oil-- or rather I ate a bunch of deep fried food- and so now I am all tired and fat. But we actually have to go teach a lesson soon so I don't have a lot of time. I did make a picture for you though..

( for this next part, I had asked him what people over there think of Americans)

People here.... have so many ideas of americans.. This one guy on the street told me to go home and told me in strong language that I should go back to america with my rich clothing and stop telling them how to live their lives. I said dude, do you know how much money is in my wallet? About 5 dollars. Do you know what I ate for breakfast? nothing. Dinner last night? nothing. Do you know what apartment I live in? No, not the most expensive hotel in noumea, a small crappy apartment in vallee des colons. My tie did not cost 300 euros (which he said) but about 9 dollars. My shirt was about 3 dollars. Calm down. Other people think that america is constant gang fights and that you're always running for your life. I do hear much talk about cowboys. Elder Livingston started telling these girls that the USA they see on tv doesn't really exist- it's all a hoax- people live in tin shacks and there's fires everywhere and you have to scrape for your food and that Socks in english is chaussets. He got sick of people telling/asking him what america is like.. So he made up a new america. So needless to say.. America is a hot topic. Some people are still grateful for America saving them in World War 2 (look it up- new cal was a huge military base aparently) and many people are flaberghasted and honored to meet americans.. so- it's interesting.

Anyway, I hope you have a wonderful week and I'll see you later!

Love,

elder winget

Lost in the Jungle has a picture now!

2009-08-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

Hey, I just wanted to let you know I added a picture to the post a while back called "Lost in the Jungle". Collin emailed us some pictures - one of them was what he and Elder Wilcox looked like as they came out of the jungle all wet and dirty :D So if you're interested, go back and check it out!

Also, the last 3 posts are new and contain lots of stories and pictures, so if you have some time to read, have fun!

Lots of New Stuff! part 2

2009-08-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

Ha ha... Me and Elder Green convinced this kid that he doesn't want to go to America- he was saying how America is so great blah blah blah and we're like well, there are lots of problems too. Like, bears. And he's like huh? Yeah, bears in the streets. Thousands of them. In all major cities. Hundreds of people get mauled per month. And he's like well, why don't you shoot them? And I'm like um, environmentalists. It's illegal to shoot them.. Even in self defence. You get put in prison if you do. And he's like wow that's lame... Why don't you just go into the forest? And we're like um.. Forest fires. Everywhere. Millions of acres. And he's like wow.. america sounds dangerous.... Then he went and asked Elder Payne if it's really like that and he's like .. what? no.. And so our cover was blown. Dang. That was a few weeks ago though.

This week we went to the beach on monday- Kuendo Beach in Nouville. It's really pretty. It was really fun. We actually caught a small sting ray too! it was really cool. I saw A sting ray, a squid, lots and lots of little fish, and 3 sea snakes! All this week. They just came up to the shore randomly. We actually caught the sting ray and touched it and stuff. On Wednesday a girl threw up on Elder Green in the bus.. She's 15 and was kind of drunk. It was funny. It was only a little bit of barf. Embarrasing for her though.

And then we saw these drunk OLD WHITE men (weird..) tangled up on the ground.. Apparently the one guy had hit the other guy or something and they both fell to the ground. One guy was gushing blood out of his eye and the other guy was SO drunk.. Drunkest I had ever seen anyone in my life. He couldn't stand up. And he kept saying Je rend chez moi - I'm going home - and we're like um.. How? You're going to get hit by a car. So a passersby took the one bleeding guy to a hospital and we walked the other drunk man home. He was so drunk.. Me and elder green had to stand on either side of him and hold him up and walk really slow. That was silly. But lots of people saw us and were like awww, les freres you do such good things...it's annoying when people just swear at us and we want to say hey, we're actually here for your salvation, give me some credit. But then when people actually see us doing service, maybe the next time they won't cuss at us. We'll see. There aren't too many people in this city so it's pretty easy to be seen. :P Other than that not a lot happened. We're going back to the beach today and then on Tuesday the entire mission is being transferred- besides me and elder green and dumbea elders. Literally. Its really shaken up. Elder green is going to be district leader.

Anyway... The yellowstone thing sounds fun.. It will be weird to come see mountains and bears instead of ocean ocean ocean. I really like the ocean a lot.. And there is a lot of it here. Since Noumea is a small peninsula (in french is presqu'ile- almost island) on a small island, there is water in every direction. And it's pretty. There's not a lot of ocean in Utah.. But that's okay. I'm excited to see what's changed. I was amazed when I got here that there's actually lots of mountains. I'd be interested to know the highest elevation.. On one of the mountains I heard it gets down as low as 40 degress! Holy cold... 80 degrees is fine with me. Why is it snowing in August at yellowstone? Weird.( we just got back from Yellowstone last week )

Well, that's the news from Elder Winget from the last month. Right now I am just waiting here at the computer for today's email... so when I get the latest from Collin I will post it right away this time :D

Thanks for reading!

Lots of new Stuff!

2009-08-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, I'm sorry I haven't posted anything new for a month. It's not that Elder Winget hasn't been doing anything interesting, it's just that I had some trouble with our photo storage on the computer and Rusty and I finally took the time to sort it all out. NOW I can post new pictures that Collin has been sending us, along with the stories that go with them. And there's a lot of them! So, let's get started...

Here's part of a letter he sent to Rusty early in August:

The weeks are indeed flying by.. it weirds me out that I've got only 30ish weeks left-- I remember when I was dealing with 104 of them and it sounded like an eternity... But really it was pretty short. The MTC was still pretty dang long though. Eugh.

Fast and testimony meetings here in New Caledonia are always a missionary's nightmare. People get up there and say n'importe quoi! (that means... whatever. random stuff. crap. etc.) They get up there and sing, tell stupid meaningless stories, and link strange scriptures together and somehow get to their point. But somehow, our investigators seem to love fast and testimony meeting. I think the thing is that I'm just horrified at what unorthodox things people are saying but the spirit is there regardless because it's sincere and from the heart. It will almost be boring to go home to Orem Utah where people follow the book... you know, don't pop balloons or answer their cell phone during sacrament talks and don't sing or yell during testimony meeting. Oh well. :)

People in New Caledonia always dump their TVs outside on the street. I see probably 10 a day- either TVs, computer monitors, etc. People also dump fans out on the street, and missionaries pick them up and fix them. It's silly and fun. Also this entire country is still on strike- apparently I found out that the strikers are actually blocking roads and getting violent with people trying to go to work and so the store shelves are getting kind of bare- the trucks bringing stuff into town can't get through. And also, the GARBAGe people are on strike.. So Noumea is very stinky these days. Oh well, what can you do.

Well I hope all is well with you. Papa Winge as Elder Ammundsen says. :D I love you. have a great week.

Love,

Elder Winget

Also a big American Navy ship came into Dock in Noumea.. It was awesome. When we came around the corner and saw that American flag, it was amazing. Not a lot of American ships come in.. Once every few years maybe. A Mormon guy got off the ship and said hey elders! He explained their mission and stuff- he's a navy doctor stationed in Guam, and they are touring the really poor islands to give free medical care.. Noumea is just a "fun stop" he said. But I was really amazed at what cool stuff the US Navy does for people.. We hear about the crappy stuff on the news every day "spun" to make the US sound horrible.. But really they're doing good things for people every day.. And we don't ever hear about it. I love america.

...

So I had a bunch of CLB rings.. I found some in my apartment and I rounded up all the ones you sent me, and I ended up with 21 rings. So I wear one on my pinky all the time and whenever any kids comment on it I give it to them. So I've been giving them out from time to time. So I think I told you about the drunk guy on the street, whose name was "Manos"... (hands..??) who said Hey, give me that ring! And I'm like okay... here you go. He said he'd give it to his daughter. Anyway, that was a few weeks ago. So this monday we were walking back from internet to our house, and this drunk guy sitting on a wall was like hey! stop! Who are you guys? etc etc. We told him a little bit and he told us our religion was a cult and that we're satan's friends and stuff and we're like yeah yeah okay. And he's like hey! I hear you give out rings! And i'm like... What?? You mean like.. this one? And I held up mine and he's like yeah! And i'm like woah, woah, how'd you know I have a ring? And he's like... My friend told me! And i'm like whoah, is this.. Manos!? And he's like yeah!! SO i said well, if I give this to you, you have to choose the right! And he said yeah I'll do it.. blah blah so I gave it to him. I thought that would be the end of it.... But then last night we were walking down our street on our way home, it was about 9:00 and this lady comes running after us and was like hey!! Do you give out rings?! ANd I'm like..... Yeah.. I guess so... And she's like hey, I want one! And I'm like.. Well, do you know what it means? This says CLB- Choisir le Bien. When we look at it, it reminds us to keep God's Commandments. If you want to do something bad, look down and it will remind you to keep the commandments. If I give you this ring, will you choose the right? And she promised me she would... So i gave it to her. So weirdly enough, there are 3 grown people running around Noumea wearing children's CLB rings. I hope it helps them to choose the right.

....

Now, here's some news from Aug. 9 :

Let me tell you about my week.. We didn't get very many lessons, but we did get a baptism. It went well and everything worked out. No I didn't get to use my white pants- although I actually did use them for when Soane got baptised last August. Ausia is a very large guy- my companion says he'd be a good NFL linebacker. But he's a very gentle giant. And then the guy who baptised him is also very very large. So they got out the big jumpsuit tihngs. It went very well - All the missionaries came, besides those out in Exile (Paita, Boulouparis, Borail) and they all brought amis. There were about 15 or so at the baptism.. That's always really good because the spirit is relaly strong at baptisms- and feeling the spirit is the most important thing for an ami to feel. Our amis didn't come, but one got baptised so that's good enough, eh? :)
So everything went according to plan. Almost boring when that happens- but I'm not complaining. :) Other than that, not a whole lot happened. My shoes are on their last stretch- My 1st pair of sandals died months ago and I bought some new ones and THOSE died- and now these ones have huge holes in the bottoms and hurt my feet. BUT I made insoles for them out of tape and cardboard, and it actually works really well. I am in the middle of sewing them together too- there is a part that completely blew out so I have to sew it. I already sewed it once but it didn't stay so this time I'm sewing heavy duty. It's amazing that my silly little needle can cut all the way through leather and rubber.. It's a little bent, but it works. :D I'm happy they're not completely dead though- and I'm not spending more money on stupid shoes. Blah. Other than that, at the baptism on saturday- --- we were talking to a member and she asked us which members fed us this week and we said well... Only the Sekeme family. And she was like whaT?! The members aren't feeding you? I have to buy you dinner! And we're like oh no, we're fine.. She's not in our area but she's in our branch- so we can't relaly go eat at her house. But she said woah no I have to feed you-- can I buy you groceries? Make a list and I'll buy it. And we're like no, we don't need anything.. don't worry about us.. And then that night at about 9:00 she pulls up with about 50 dollars worth of food and says I didn't know what you liked so I hope this works!! She bought us frozen pizzas, ice cream, ham and cheese and bread and butter and.. hmm.. oh yeah chocolate. And we're like oh no we can't take this-- but she insisted and so we're going to eat well this week. :) We started marinating our stake on Friday night and still haven't had the chance to make it- so we're going to eat really really well marinated stake on Tuesday night.. :D

So, are you still with me? You haven't fallen asleep yet? Well if you're still reading, you must really be an Elder Winget fan! That makes me happy :) Okay, on to more stories and pictures, which I will put in another post.

It's Winter in New Caledonia

2009-07-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

Hello! This is Elder Winget again.. It might be getting boring but here we are again. So this week was you know, same old same old. We're doing this choir missionary fireside thing on the 26th for like pioneer day.. And guess what- We're singing! Too much. We're actually singing this whole program thing for Joseph Smith (almost like pioneers..) And somehow the cat got let out of the bag that I can sing-- I was actually singing in the back of the Mautz' car (the senior couple) and he was like Wow! You should be singing! And I'm like noo...... So I'm singing like.. A duet kind of thing. Which is actually a solo part that we're singing in two- so I'll be singing with Elder Troutman. It will be interesting. And what would a pioneer celebration be without.. Dun dun dun.. Faith in every footstep!! Of course. It's cool in French though. I kinda like singing in French. I've started subconsciously unintentionally memorizing the hymns in French-- and forgetting them in English. It's weird.. I was trying to be dumb during church and sing in English and started singing Hail to the man who communed with Jehovah... Then when it got to the chorus I couldn't remember and started singing Ô grande prophète la belle victoire...... Silly me. It also takes me like an hour to figure out the words to Love One Another in English.. I sing Aimez vos frères so much. Anyway, so that's that. So the other day we were looking for Gerome- he's NEVER at home- and we came across his dad. Who is very nice, and pentocostal and hasn't been super interested in the Gospel. But always offers to give us rides places and stuff cuz we come over to see Gerome so often. Normally we go over there and he's not there so we talk to his family- and even though they're not interested in the Gospel, they like us a lot and always talk to us and we teach them silly little phrases in English - like See Y'all Later. Ha ha. So this time we talked to Gerome's dad - Marcel- and we're like hey when can we come over and teach you? And he's like oh, you know, huh? And we're like yeah, can we come over and tell you about all this missionary stuff we do? And he's like um, sure. Come over Saturday at 2. And we're like oh, that won't work for us, there's absolutely a baptis---- (then we SMACKED ourself in the forehead) Do you want to COME to a baptism?? You know, see how that works chez nous? And he's like sure! Come over and we'll go together. So we went, and he came! There was alcohol on his breath, but he still drove safely. We went in and this Wallisian guy got baptized- it was cool, and he liked it. So tonight we're actually going to do a lesson with him. Goes to show how important it is to just TALK to people! Even people who you'd think wouldn't be interested in the Gospel- Missionaries' objective is to Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel by faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, Repentence, Baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the end. (that was hard to figure out in english.. :)) so really, we just need to invite everyone-- even if we think they won't accept. So that's cool, eh?

So we had a lesson with Soane and his... girlfriend.. and it went really well. Vaea (his gf) had a question in church about the fall- why is it a good thing? There wasn't enough time to explain it enough in church, so we came by and taught about the plan of salvation later. So Soane, who never understands the scriptures very well at all - (he's "not a guy who reads much" says he) we gave them a brochure and told them to read 2 Nephi 2. We came back to teach it to him, and SOANE explained the whole thing!!!! I was so amazed- he never understands when we read scriptures with him, but he understood completely. So we talked to him, and he was saying to us- He doesn't quite know why he let us in- he always violently opposed the Teigmoins from coming over- when we saw him at first, he actually INVITED us to come over- I was just talking and I gave him a brochure- and felt prompted not to rush into saying well, can we come over, etc. But he's like well, do you guys just wanna come over and teach me? And we're like, YES! So he said later, he doesn't know why he reads the BOM or the brochures or anything- he's not a guy who reads much. He has never read the bible, or any other books, and doesn't even read the contracts he has to sign for work- he always skims or has someone else read it and summarize. But he's read lots in the BOM since we gave it to him and two entire brochures. He doesn't know why he comes to church - he assumed it would be a just teaching at home thing, and never anything more. He planned on saying "no" if we invited him to go to church - but he came! Then we were talking about blessings he's felt- and he said well a big one is that I've stopped drinking. Just says it all non-chalantly. And we're like .... Huh? The very first lesson with him he asked us if drinking was a sin (He drank a LOOOOT!) and we hesitated... (not really knowing how to explain it on such short notice) but said yes it is. And he's like... Oh. So this last time, he's like yeah, I haven't touched alcohol since the first lesson with you guys! (which is like, 4 weeks ago) And we're like.... Wow!! So really, him and his wife have made huge progress. He says I'm not quite ready to be baptized (which means he's thought about it and is considering it) -- we told them to read 2 Nephi 31, which talks about baptism.. But he'll get there, I'm sure of it. I think we're witnessing miracles with this dude-- He's changed so much already.

So, yeah. Also we talked to a drunk guy who, first of all, said he's literally drunk all the time. He wakes up in the morning, and drinks. Drinks all day. And at night, he drinks. That's what a lot of people do, but he's the first to admit it. Anyway, he told us how he doesn't believe us or our "John Smith" story- and we're like well, do you see Joseph Smith anywhere on my badge? It says the Church of Jesus Christ- and he's like well, He's a myth too! And I'm like.. What? Didn't you say you're protestant? And he's like yes. And I'm like how can you be protestant and not belive in Jesus Christ? And he's like Protestant means I protest YOU guys! And everyone! And i'm like, uh, come again? So being protestant to him means that he just protests all religions. So we made fun of him for a while, asking him if he protests big cars or white people or america, which he gave us rambling answers. He also said that God gives him almighty powers when he drinks, and he can predict the future. He was a silly guy!

So that's about all that's happened this week. It was actually really cold this week- the first really cold day I happened to get a freaking rad HAT in the mail.. :D I love it!(I knitted him a hat, BTW) So its interesting how when it's 100 degrees in Utah, it's cold here. So we went home and it started POURING rain- so I put on my hoody and hat, and made hot chocolate (which I do a lot actually, even in the summer. It's a french thing to dip baguettes in hot chocolate, isn't it? We call it Milo here though.) and sat outside with my mug and watched the rain. It's sad to see how much of a wuss I've gotten- I get chilly if it's under 75 degrees, and downright cold if it gets down to 60.
Anyway, I guess we call this winter- people just call this the cold season. They think it's weird that it's summer in America- and so do I.. I always picture it snowing over there and then when I get your emails I'm always confused for a split second.
So, that's about all. I love you alot.

Love,
ELder Winget

- Show quoted text -

Lost in the Jungle!

2009-07-13T06:50:00.000-07:00

* Hey, I edited this post to include a picture Collin sent us recently - this is Elder Wilcox and Elder Winget right after their jungle adventure.

(and this is the original picture I posted of ElderWinget and Wilcox when they were companions)

Hello world! I'm writing you now from NEW CALEDONIA! If that's not a surprise, that's probably because I've already been here for more than a year! This week, the 11th I believe, marked 1 year in NC. Much adventure has come to pass. So this week I will tell you about some of it.

So this Monday, we went on a hike to Mount Kogi. A very mild mountain hike in Dumbea. There was a cool waterfall up top and we took lots of cool pictures. It was great to see all the other missionaries (almost every missionary on the island was there) and hike through the wilderness. So me and Elder Wilcox were hanging out together- and he's loosened way up. He's actually really rad and I miss him. So we were talking and walking and we stopped to take some pictures of the lovely landscape.. By then we had already finished the hike and were making our descent. We were holding up the back and just chillin. It's only like a 20 minute hike so we weren't in a huge hurry.

So after we had stopped to take pictures, we noticed a fork in the path. I wasn't quite sure which one to take, because on the way up I didn't pay one lick of attention where we were going - I was talking to others the whole time and just following.. So we took the one appearing to go down the mountain... And followed it.

It seemed that this fork had taken us even deeper into the forest than from whence we came, but we were like well.. It's the path. We might as well follow it. So.. We did. And what a mistake that was. It turned out that this wasn't the path, but a sinister disception. This path didn't lead... Anywhere but to destruction. We quickly found out, as we were fighting through shoulder high grass, that we weren't really in a path. But we had passed a point that it would have been impossible for us to go back.. So we trekked onwards. We were laughing the whole way and making fun of our plight, but it was becoming slightly concerning how lost we were really getting. At one point while we were literally scaling a cliff 20 feet down, going it tarzan style hanging onto VINes we decided.... We're lost!

So we kept our cool.. Said a prayer-- and started to follow the river. We climbed up and down and all around following the river, climbing down huge waterfalls and sliding down huge hills and pretty much almost dying a few times. But it was fun. It got kind of old after a while though, and we were pretty tired and dirty. We had to ford a huge pool up to my shoulders, and so we were also getting pretty cold. But we kept going.

After about 2 hours of being lost in the woods, we found a Rod of Iron! .. which was actually a huge metal pipe. It did however, form a straight and narrow path, which we followed. We just walked upon it and kept going. It eventually was like 10ish feet off the ground and we were hanging onto the dense trees on either side for support. So we followed it for a while. And kept following it.. And kept following it.. Until suddenly Elder Wilcox just ditched the rod and started climbing. So I'm like.. Okay? Cool.. And followed. Then we popped out in the backyard of a house!! We're like... w00t! Civilization!! And so we walked up to the house, and there was some dude sitting inside. We signal to him and he came out quickly. He immediately said What are you guys doing here! You're bothering me. I'll open the gate for you! Get out! And I'm like.. We've been lost in the forest for like 5 hours.. Can we-- And he cut me off and said go! And I'm like.. Wow, french people sure do... suck. So we left his house and started walking down the street. Eventually we came upon a dude in a Landrover who was like hey... What's up? My son called me and said he wasn't very hospitable to you- can we help? So we used his phone to signal the others and then he drove us back down to camp. They were all very happy to see us. We were wet and covered in dirt from head to toe and everyone's all like.. WHOA! And i'm like like, cool. We're back. I like to be non-chalant. So, yeah. It was fun. We were pretty dirty but it was quite the adventure and we ended up fine. Thankfully we found each other when we did- it was like 45 minutes before dark.. And I wasn't so thrilled about staying out the night. So it was fun and we got some cool pictures and videos. I learned the importance of staying on the path, following the iron rod, and sticking with an awesome buddy when you're lost in the forest.

Other than that, nothing super exciting happened. Well, I lied. Soane and his copine came to church! We were super excited. The kids all came too and it was quite the party. They liked it a lot, and had good questions and comments. We were excited to have them there. His girlfriend actually ends up understanding lots more than he is - and we found out that she has a crappy example of a brother too. Her brother was married in the temple, and she didn't understand why, so she asked his wife and she said it's sacred and stuff. Which she said made her think her brother would stop all his smoking pot and stuff- and she was surprised to find out he was exactly the same. I was sad about that. Apparently her brother doesn't talk to her anymore because of something his wife said and is not willing to forgive her for. Remember always how much our example can have on non-members. But thankfully, she really likes and believes our teachings, likes the BOM and is reading regularly and came to church.

Also yesterday I was talking to this lady en ville who said she saw the missionaries before, blah blah blah and we started talking. She asked me if the Melanesians (kanaks- the native people. They drink from morning to night all week.) cause us any problems. And I'm like nah, they're harmless. And she's like well, do they ever agress you? And I'm like nah, they're all talk. I've never been hit. They threaten and say lots of stuff, but never do anything. And she's like all, well you know, turn the other cheek and stuff. And i'm like yep yep. So then AS we're talking about this, some SUPER SUPER drunk kanak guy comes up, who just smells like death and looks like he had been drinking since the moment he woke up in the morning (which was probably true) and without saying anything, gives me a not-so-toothy smile, winds up, and punches me! LOL! It didn't hurt or anything; it was a very light punch to the shoulder.. then he turns to punch my companion, who, with a look of disgust, just slaps his fist away. So everyone in the area just scatters. I shook his hand, said have a nice day, and walked off. Silly punk.

Well that's about all that happened this week.. :D I love you beaucoup.

Love,
Elder Winget

- Show quoted text -

"Quand on vit en Amerique, on marche avec le parapluie"

2009-06-28T19:42:00.000-07:00

Well hello- this is elder winget. I'm having problems writing today because I'm halfway used to french and halfway used to english. But it's okay. I'll tell you what happened this week. So monday, you got my email, right? Yeah, we went to the beach and picked up lots of shells and starfish and stuff. Awesome. This week we got the most lessons that I've gotten so far in Vallee des Colons- 8 lessons. :) Not bad.. Nothing like the 18 I was getting in Paita, but good for now. We have some new amis- Gerome is doing really well- He asks really great questions and is progressing really well. He was at church the other day, and he says he's going to fast next week. :) it warms my heart. He asked us what a testimony is and wants one. We gave him a BOM, and he's already read 3 Nephi 11. I have no idea what his comprehension level is, but he seems excited about it, so I think he liked it. We went over and taught him how to tie a tie, and he remembered! He got ready all by himself and we walked to church. We talked to his mom and sister and niece and they all said they like us coming over because Gerome has changed already! I think it's amazing.. So we walked to church on Sunday and didn't it didn't it rain!! It POURED rain.. So we got out our flip flops, umbrellas and rain jackets... Then we walked. Apparently nobody in NC uses umbrellas.. He said we were sissies for using them. So I just used my rain jacket. I gave him one and he just swung it around and made up a little song.. Quand on vit en Amerique on marche avec le parapluie-- When we live in America, we walk with Umbrellas! It was silly.. He said it all with an americany accent- overaccenting the Rs. It was really silly. So we walked to church.. My shirt was completely dry thanks to rain jacket, but my pants were soaked through and through. My books and camera and stuff are all wrapped in plastic so those are fine, but then I look behind me and my pants were also COVERED in dirt and sand.. apparently my flip flops flipped it all up! Ha ha. So I was really wet and cold for church. But Gerome liked church, so it's worth it. He's doing really good. He left before the 3rd hour, but I can't blame him.. I don't want to stay for priesthood meeting either. But he's doing way good.
We also taught a little family named the Katrawas- They're just a small family, mom, dad, kid. The dad is - get this - a mix brazillian-lifouan! Random, eh? Sadly, he doesn't speak porkageez. (Collin's dad went to Brazil on his mission and speaks portugese) Apparently his dad was stationed in the military in French Guyana- Just north of Brazil- and they met and he took her back to Lifou. Anyway, so they were seeing the missionaries before, but for lots of random stuff, vacation, sickness, etc, it's been like 5 months since any missionaries have been over. But we finally got a rendezvous with them and they were there. They're way rad! It was a really cool lesson and I really strongly felt the spirit. I think they did too. At the beginning they said they really missed the missionaries and really want to get active in a church- they're protestant but not at all active. They said they're afraid to pray out loud- so we talked about prayer. It went really well. They are still really timid about praying and coming to church but I have a good feeling with them. They're going to do great. And what's better, they invited us for dinner this saturday. :D
We also saw a guy named Soane- He's got a drinking problem.. But he's really cool. He read our entire brochure and actually went through the questions on the back with his wife to check comprehension. I don't think he understands everything amazingly well, but he understands enough and he really likes it. On Wednesday he said that one day he wants to be baptized.. And that's just the 3rd lesson we've had with him. He's really great. I'm excited to teach him. We gave him a BOM.. Whenever I hand out a Livre de Mormon I am always happy and confident.. That book is a better missionary than I'll ever be.. If they just read it I'm always confident they'll have spiritual experiences. It's really a powerful book. :)
So this internet place is funny.. It's like a gaming.. place.. And we hear every single french swear word I know over and over.. Thankfully that means absolutely nothing to me, it just makes me laugh.
So other than that, not a whole lot has happened. I started writing letters to people.. I was about 16 letters behind on replies-- I hadn't written any letters for months. But I'm getting through the pile. Probably in 2 weeks I'll have replied to every letter I've recieved, so when I say the word could you post an annoucement? I want everyone to know I'm not ignoring them, just really lazy with writing. ( Consider this the announcement :) )

I'm glad you guys got to go to stake conference.. I really took for granted stuff like that. If there's one thing I've learned on my mission, it's not to take church stuff for granted. There are so many great things going on at church all the time, so many opporunities to feel the spirit and to grow.. I also took my family for granted. I need to spend more time with you guys. Let's hang out sometime, k? he he. Anyway, I encourage everyone to READ your scriptures and PRAY.. pay attention at church- we wouldn't believe how much work and thought go into the talks and programs.. They really are to help us. Don't take General Conference for granted- and the Ensign and New Era and Friend are amazing too. We always have stuff to do, but if we "Seek first the kingdom of God", He will help us make it work. We do have time to do all that Gospel stuff, and all the.. other stuff.

Some drunk guy stole a CLB ring from me.. He says he's giving it to his daughter. I hope he does. :P He just pulled it right off my finger and said give that to me! And I was like well.. Alright, sure. He said does that mean Warner Brothers? And I'm like no, it means Choisir le Bien! And he's like oh! I'll give that to my daughter. Ha ha.
I'm going to start teaching little kids more- They talk to us ALL the time.. there was this little girl that said she didn't know how to pray-- and we were in a super hurry so I said I'd teach her the next time we passed by. And then ironically our apointment fell through and we didn't see the little girl again. I should have taught her to pray. I'll do better next time. We gave some kids a Liahona the other day- they were bugging us at our house and we're like.. Here, take a church magazine. Maybe they'll read it. Who knows. :) I love little kids a ton-- I'm going to start doing more for them. I actually found a ton of CLB rings and Articles de Foi hanging out in our appartment-- I'll give them out.
Thanks for the pictures-- looks like you guys enjoyed your hike. :D I love you so much.. Have a great sunday!
Love,
Elder Winget

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T19:03:00.000-07:00

Here's some of the email Collin sent to his dad:

Happy father's day!! I hope you have a wonderful day. I'm really happy that the little package got there on time.. I can't be there for your spesh day but I can send you a bunch of crap. I hope you like it.

I hope you have a wonderful father's day and eat lots of pie. I want pie.

I am realizing how this could be the best two years of my life.. Never again will I have the chance to serve the Lord 24/7. I am in a pretty normal country too ... So that's pretty cool. I have realized that really my mission isn't THAT hard.. I live in a 1st world tropical island that would cost prolly 2000 dollars a month to live in and I'll never get to live there again.. And on top of that, I'm on a mission. It's rad. I love it. I hope you find the cockroach. (he sent a dead cockroach in his package -and yes, we did find it! yuck!)

I love you lots and I hope you have many awesome fathers days to come.

Love,
Elder winget

And here's some of the email he sent to me:

Well hey guys!! I'm glad you got the silly little package.. I hope it's not too silly. Well this week was kind of interesting.. We got one of our amis to come to church- his name is Gerome. I think I may have mentioned him- he was a kid we met on the street carrying a planter full of marijuana. Anyway, we had a short lesson with him and asked him to come to church- and he said sure. So we show up at his house with a shirt and tie and find him asleep on his porch-- and it was freezing the night before-- and he slept there allll night! He was like waaay hung over.. and I didn't expect him to come with us.. too hung over. But then we woke him up and said hey, come! and he was like... alright! so we were late for church but he came. I was way proud. He also said a petit little prayer in our lesson.. first time ever! He looked great in his shirt and tie. It was awesome to see him there. He asked great questions during church, and said he liked it and wants to come back. I think he's wonderful. He's the same ami that gave my bag back with my camera and everything inside. Me and my companion have been realizing.. These aren't bad kids, just cuz they smoke and drink their lives away and graffiti anything that doesn't move - they just don't have anything better to do. After 7:30ish at night, the streets are deserted- not one store is open. So they have absolutely nothing fun to do. So they drink. This is a great kid- he doesn't steal, he does nice things for the community- and sure he drinks a bit, but it's a small problem compared to the real bad people that exist in other countries that kill people and stuff. There's like only 1 murder in this country like every 5 years. So that's rad.
We also taught a dude named Soane. Different Soane than the one we baptized in Païta. But he asked lots and lots of great questions- and we ended up staying at his house for 2 hours just answering questions and such. He really understood the idea of apostasy- the real problem around here. And he's like well, do you think a restoration is coming or not? And I'm like well, actually that's why we're here! At the beginning of the lesson he was like well, I really don't know why I let you guys in, I never let the JWs in.. Aren't you guys just like the Pentecostals? and we're like well, let us show you why we're different. And so he really understood the Apostasy and the reason for why we need a restoration. And we're like well actually the reason why we're different, is because we're not just another breakoff of the catholics, we actually have a prophet! He just ate it right up. He believed us and asked us if we couild come back. He's like well, I loved the lesson, but I'm not ready to just get into your church or anything.. Can you guys just like.. Come back and teach me more?! And I'm like well... yeah! That's what we do! And he's like well.. you can come over next saturday.. And I'm like well, sure but can we come over even sooner? And he's like well, how about twice this week? Is that too much? I mean, I don't want to bug you guys if you have other stuff to do.. And I'm like dude, you ARE what we do! We'll be there! I think he was really prepared to hear the Lord's restored gospel. I'm excited to teach him again.

So there's this family in our branch that was baptised last year- they are the most amazing family. they just sit around and read scriptures all day. They don't have a huge amount of support from the branch, but they just love the gospel so much that they can't be stopped! We eat with them every monday and they're absolutely awesome! I love them. I hope you get to meet them someday. I think it's really people like them that are the hope for New Caledonia. This place really needs some strong member families who won't jet at the first sign of trouble. So many people go inactive before even one year in the church.. It's really hard. But we're working hard, and we'll get this place into shape.
We did service at a blind center this last week- I'm not sure if I told you about it. They're really cool people. There is this one guy that had a brain tumor when he was younger so when they operated on it he lost a lot of his sight, and is now kind of handicapped. But he speaks surprisingly well in English, and we talk to him a lot. His name is Gilles. I'll send you some pictures of that dude some time.
So that's pretty much what happened this week. :)

I'm really glad that you're all being blessed.. I know I am too. I'm so happy to be the Lord's servant. I'm on the downhill, and I figure I could let myself get lazy.. But I don't want to regret it so I'm going to try to work as hard as I can for these last 10 months! That way you guys can all stay blessed and stuff.

Well I hope y'all have a wonderful week. I love you!

Love,
Elder winget

the Whistling Elders!

2009-06-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! We just got a package from Collin 2 days ago, including his memory card. I'll be putting up a new Picassa album hopefully on Monday. But here is a cool little video from his card that was taken last Christmas day. Elder Livingston is the one playing the ukelele - he made that himself with an old wooden bowl, some pieces of wood, thumbtacks, and some other stuff. We absolutely loved this video! There is more where that came from, but all in due time people...

Also, we got the latest email from Collin just a few minutes ago, so I'll get you that too in a separate post soon.

A Sad Story... But with a Happy Ending :D

2009-06-14T18:47:00.000-07:00

Here is an excerpt from Collin's email from last week. This is part one of the story. Then read his email from today - we're so glad things worked out so well! (the picture is unrelated)

This saturday we were walking by Geant- the grocery store we always shop at, and it was closed. Then we see all this weird stuff going on... We're like, woah, what's going on? Turns out they're striking.. it's very weird. We walked by the first time and didn't want to get involved-- just a bunch of drunk people standing by the doors listening to loud music... so then later we walk by and we're like... what are you guys doing? And they're like We're striking! And we're like.. do you even work here? And they're like... no, we're just supporting the workers from here. The boss isn't fair. or something. So we keep talking and they're like hey, you want some food? So they're doing this BBQ and.. They fed us!! I ate so much BBQ chicken and rice, I was so full. They were way nice, and weird. Usually strikers are like... violent, eh? Well, they weren't that day! So They told us over and over not to show any pictures to the police- and that if the media tells us that they're mean, not to believe them!! They're way nice. So I took lots of cool pictures...

Then later that day, we had a soccer activity and took some of our investigators- it was an activity for the Elders quorum and stuff- so we played a little bit and I brought a little bag just with my camera and planner and they key to the house, since I didn't have pockets. We played around for a while, and then when I came back.. My bag was gone!!! So, no more camera. That's pretty rad. I'm now cameraless. Fortunately I had copied most of my pictures on my other memory card, and I just sent it in the mail. But What kinda sucks is that.... I have no camera. Dang.

Okay, now here's today's email :D

I went to the store to check out how much a new camera was... There were some awesome cameras... But guess how much it would cost me.. No guess....... Okay, the cheapest decent looking camera would come out to be around 200 dollars, okay not horrible-- but a camera that I would actually like-- SIX HUNDRED! Which would end up being about 650 dollars... So I'm like... Yeah, not happening! So I was all bummed, not sure what to do... No money, and even if I did have any, it would just kill me to buy a camera that would cost 150 in america for 600 dollars.

So later that night.. We went to this investigator's house, and started talking, and he's like oh hey, I got something for you-- and I'm like oh cool, does he have my hymn book? (sooomeone has it..) and I'm like hmm, maybe not.. What does he have.... I'm thinking.. then I'm like OH he must have my SACK! And sure enough, he did!!!! Not to be racist or anything, but the stereotypical Kanak guy isn't very honest.. When we first met this dude he was carrying a planter full of marijuana... But he hadn't stolen anything! He was so great, this is the most different kanak guy I've ever met in this country. I'm actually really proud of this guy. I am really happy! I have my camera back!!!

I had to give a talk at church on sunday, and it was decent. I talked about la perseverance jusqu'à la fin.. endure to the end. It was a good idea (they said to talk about whatever) and what I prepared was actually pretty good, but I didn't deliver it very well. I'll be happy to give a talk in english one day.

Zone conference is tomorrow and I love it. They kind of wanted me to translate, but it's hard because I don't get to like... Get anything out of zone conference. I never realized how little of the talk I actually end up understanding when I'm just taking it in in French and spitting it out in English. I remember a few talks that I have no clue the subject... But I heard and said the entire thing. So I wanted someone else to do the translating for this conference. Maybe next time.

So we talked to some interesting people this week-- this one guy told us he believes in Jesus but he thinks he was a persian general who died at 120 of old age. (????) He's a sort of crazy guy. Almost too smart for his own good.. But then not THAT smart. Just weird.

Things are going fine with my companion and my area.. We do need to pick it up a little bit in some areas sometimes, but we'll get it. I'm starting to realize the beauty of this country... It really is amazing. The weather is perfect, the people are really nice, the food is good, and I'm happy to be a missionary. I love sharing the gospel. I hope I get to do more of it when I go home too. I want to keep the spirit with me and not just go home like some other missionaries and go back to "normal life". I want to be normal, but better. I want to go back to normal life, sure, but I want to be better. I think this mission stuff has changed me and I like it.

Well, we are pretty happy and proud of Elder Winget at our house :)

p.s. I'm having problems with spacing and the size of the characters in this blog post, so if it turns out weird when I publish it... remember that I really don't know what I'm doing most of the time! Collin's the computer expert, not me!

We cry every night because nobody leaves comments.

2009-05-31T18:57:00.000-07:00

:'(

For the Strength of the Youth!

2009-05-25T05:48:00.000-07:00

Here's the letter Collin sent me this week -last week he was at a different place for internet and he had to use a french keyboard that was really difficult to type on, so we didn't get much news. But it was SO FUNNY to read his emails and see him struggle with spelling and typing, so if I have time I might post an excerpt from last week just for laughs...

Hi Mom! Sorry the email from last week was so lame.. We took the bus down to magenta to do internet.. This place lets me use the USB ports, so I can change the keyboard and upload pictures. I will put a couple in here, and I'm working on getting my memory card to send home. Be excited. But not too excited-- I have no idea when I will have time to get it there.
So anyway, I'll tell you about this last 2 weeks.. Yes, we DID go to a catholique church, just for kicks and giggles. It was fun. And really weird. But cool. Our rendezvous fell through and we heard the church bells ringing-- and we said to each other, well it's time to go to mass!! So we did. We got lots of dirty looks from the devout catholics but it was fun anyway.
So on Saturday we were talking to this kid and he had this planter pot and we're like hey, what are you growing? and he's like oh, you know, pretty flowers! He had these little tiny plants. And we kept talking.. And it turns out it was just POT. ha ha! So he told us all about his pot growing activities and stuff.. He was only 17! But then we talked to him for like 25 minutes about how drugs and drinking ruins your life and we convinced him.. And we're like so, do you want to stop? And he's like yeah, well.. yeah.. and we're like alright, so the first step is to come to church tomorrow. Will you come? And he's like oh yeah sure.. (we get that all the time..) and we're like really? Like, actually? And he was like yes of course! And we're like.. Promise?? And he said YES.
Later we were teaching these kids from Vanuatu- turns out they're all here for school staying in this lady's house-- she takes them all in, not asking for pay, and gives them all a nice place to stay and eat and hang out while they're going to school here. Vanuatu is an absolutely dirt poor country that's also in my mission. So lots of people come either here or australia or whatev for school. So she's way great. So we start teaching all these kids (they're all about 18-21 years old) and there's like.. 10 of them! So we start teaching them all lessons, and some are more interested than others, but yeah. At the end we invited them all to come to church and they said YES we will be there!

So. I wasn't sure whether to believe these people.

Also, we have this guy named Dominique, an ami that was found by elder Amundsen and Aiho while they were here in VDC. He is way good and is at church every week. We also have this ami named Ausia. He's amazing and a half. He's read the entire BOM, D&C, PMG, and most of the JS manual.. And he quit his girlfriend so he could get baptized. He's at church every week. He'll be baptized soon.

We didn't get Dominique a ride to church, so he didn't show up. But Ausia showed up. So we were waiting out at the gate waiting for all these kids to show up.. And we waited... and waited.. and waited... nothing. We were very disappointed. So we went inside for Sacrament meeting and listened to all the annoucements and such then during the sacrament song someone taps me on the shoulder and said hey, did you guys invite a bunch of Vanuatais to church? And we're like... YES! So they were all hanging out outside.. And we're like WOAH you guys actually showed up! And they're like.. Sorry we're late. So as we're talking to them, the POT kid showed up too!!!!! I was utterly amazed. SO many people promise me they'll come to church....... and don't. But SEVEN investigators of ours showed up at church this sunday! It was amazing! Also- I talked to Ducos elders and they said 2 of the people I worked really hard to teach want to get baptized! I'm happy. My work in Ducos is going to pay off in like 5 baptisms... Maybe. 1 for sure, and then quite a few others, maybe. Here in VDC some great stuff is happening.. I'm hoping that will end up with a few baptisms.. or something. At very least, that's the most people I've had during Sacrament at once in my whole mission.

So here's some pictures.. A tiny car, me talking to you guys on the phone, and Elder Green, hanging out with some kids we found on the street.

So.. that's about all that's happened this week.

Oh and I DID get the package you guys sent me... THanks!!! It was great... I loved it! I am working on devouring it.

So now for the reply.

That's way rad you guys got to go to the Temple thing.. I would be happy to go to the temple these days. I could use some Motab Cds..

Families are so important--- I teach that all the time. Even here people realize how much satan is attacking their familes. It's really important to hang out with the family and like.. Do stuff. Spiritual stuff.

Wow, sorry I don't have very much time, but I love you a lot and I enjoyed the pictures.. Thanks a billion! Have a very super sunday.

Love,
Elder winget

A Wonderful Mother's Day

2009-05-10T20:03:00.001-07:00

We just talked to Collin - well, it's been a few hours I guess, but I'm still excited about it! This was the only Mother's Day I will ever get to talk to Collin on his mission, because last Mother's Day he had just arrived in the MTC and they didn't let the missionaries call their moms then. And next Mother's Day he will hopefully be home! So this was a great day :)

So Collin just got transferred a few days ago - actually I have kind of a funny story connected with that: Last Sunday when he emailed us he informed us he was getting transferred, but he didn't know what his phone number would be. He gave us a number that he thought might be his new number but he wasn't sure, so he said to call on Tuesday at 3:00 and see if that was correct and we could set up a time to talk on Sunday. (We get to call him, instead of him calling us) Well, it wasn't the right number, so I called his old number from when we talked at Christmas because I knew missionaries there would at least know how to get ahold of him. The conversation went something like this:

"Allo, bonjour - (long thing in french.. ending with: Je suis Elder Styles"

"Hi Elder Styles, I'm sorry to bother you - this is Sister Winget. I need to get ahold of Elder Winget"

(long pause) "Oh... OH! ( I could just imagine him thinking "something tragic must have happened" or "hey, you're not supposed to call here!") I explained about needing his number for the Mother's Day phone call, etc. Then I heard papers rustling, apparently he was looking for his number... "Um I'm sorry, but we don't have his number. Do you want to call the Zone leaders - they will have it for sure"

So I called the zone leaders and the conversation went something like this:

"allo, bonjour... blah blah...Je suis Elder Ammundsen"

"Oh Elder Amundsen! (he was Collin's companion in the MTC) this is Sister Winget! I'n sorry to bother you, but I need to contact Elder Winget."

"oh... OH! Ummmm" ( I'm sure he was thinking the same thing as Elder Styles, so I explained the whole thing about the Mother's Day phone call) "Oh! okay... hey Sister Winget! I've heard all about you!"

"I've heard all about you too, and we have lots of pictures of you and a few videos"

"I bet you do!" then he gave me his phone number.

It was so fun to talk to Collin for a quick minute. He sounds like a different person when he speaks french (he answered the phone in french of course). Then we were looking forward to talking to him all week, and we had a nice long conversation with him. He was making fresh lemonade while he was talking to us with lemons that just fell off a tree outside of his apartment. He also has a banana tree in his yard that is loaded with bananas. His new area is right in the city, called Valee de Colone. It's a part of Noumea, the capital city. He likes it because there are lots of people to talk to. He said that crowds of children follow them around. There's lots of unsupervised children just roaming the streets, and that bothers him but there's not much they can do about it. He wants me to send him some french CTR rings and articles of faith cards so he could give them out to the kids, so that will be a fun project for me :)

His new companion is Elder Green from Oregon. Collin seems to get along well with him already. In fact, Elder Green asked us to call his family and tell them what the phone number was since he didn't get to take care of that due to transfers. So we called the Greens and they were grateful :)

The above picture is of Collin and a member lady that Collin really likes a lot. That's her husband with the big hair. He's not a member, but they teach him occasionally. I love looking at those beautiful tropical flowers and the bay with the boats behind him. What a beautiful place to live! Collin mentioned that he has seen some wild parrots and parakeets, and yellow finches that fly around in huge flocks. Sounds so nice! Also he gets tons of free fruit like papayas, mangoes, passionfruit, oranges, grapefruit, lemons,etc. Yummm!

I think I will smile for a week after that wonderful phone call :D

"good golly goats, that is a lot of drugs" read on for more info...

2009-04-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Well, here is some of Collin's email from this last week... it looks like he had an eventful week. He sure seems to run into a lot of drunk /stoned people lately... I guess it keeps life interesting!

Conference was amazing-- I loved it. I was really sad when it was over. Our amie Marie-Jean was there and she really enjoyed it. I also did my very first baptismal interview as a district leader- a candidate from Mont Dore. His name is Rodolph. - I didn't spell it right. it's like rudolph the red nosed rain deer, except for ro as in road. Anyway, he was great and I was really excited to tell him that he cleared!
Also, this last week Marie Jean was talking and she was like so I was telling my mom how I wanted to be baptized, and that I was going to be baptized soon - as if it was a matter of fact that we all knew already... Rad! We talked to her a little bit about baptism and we're going to hopefully give her a baptism date on Thursday for maybe this May. Cool, eh!?
I'll take some pictures in front of both of my apartments.. I don't take a lot of pictures anymore-- I've made a personal goal to take pictures every single week. Hopefully I can keep up with it. I'm getting bored with all the stuff that isn't mission work lately.. I don't write letters or take pictures or have fun or anything. It's getting rather stressful. But it's cool.
so this week we were walking through Montravel - the ghetto-est part of Vallee Du Tir and there were crazy people all over the place and this dude came up to me and he was like do you have any books or something to give me? And I was like um, sure. And I gave him a Le Plan du Salut (plan of salvation) brochure and he's like yeah.. Can I have like 3 more? And I'm like uh, why? And he's like yeah actually this is good.. but do you have any that are like more scary? like MORMONS - THE LAST DAYS or something? You know, something that would scare my friends into being good. I'm like uh... and he's like yeah, I am like selling drugs and stuff and so I'm trying to stop so I wanted some stuff to get me to stop. (while he's talking he has this HUGE bag in his hands) and he's like oh so this is all marijuana.. and cocaine! And I'm like oh my good golly goats that is a lot of drugs. So we pretty much just said um, peace out and ran to the car and got out of there.. It was a scary place. And so then we went to Pierre Lenquette - these tall apartment buildings in Montravel - where our branch mission leader lives; he had invited us for dinner - and this dude was passed out drunk right in front of his door!! I litterally had to step over him to knock on the door. LOL, drunk people. His wife answered the door and was like what the!?
Um, other than that one of our amis dropped us.. We went to his house for our rendez-vous and he said oh, so here. And hands us our Livre de Mormon and says i didn't read it. Thanks. Bye. And I'm like frantically uh, crap, uh.. can we do service for you or... Something???? and he's like no it's okay. And we're like uh, does that mean you don't want us to come back anymore? and he's like thanks bye. Dang. he's a nice guy. Oh well, maybe some day.

Anyway, I hope you guys noticed some of the topics ( at General Conference) that came up over and over-- go to the temple. even just touching the temple. Pay tithing. Have faith- even when it's hard. Think of your Net Faith - (I loved this one) and do all that you can to improve your faith. Study the scriptures!! Don't think about WHAT CAN CHURCH DO FOR ME? but what can I do for them!? (That's a huge one with people around here..) lots of other ones. I'm downloading a few talks to listen over agian.. i'm excited for it. I loved conference so much!!!! Now the important thing--- apply! Don't just enjoy, but apply. I'm going to work on that one as much as possible.

Well I'm going to teach a lesson tonight about the Atonement .. It will be great. I love the doctrine of the Atonement. I loved Elder Holland's talk too. Choc.

Love,
ELder wianget
- Show quoted text -

2009-04-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

Here's some of Collin's email from last week - sorry I've been a little slow with the blog, but I've been working on Collin's DVD and having lots of fun :) After reading this email, I looked up the island of Ouvea on Google Earth and it looks so beautiful! Wow... it would be a wonderful experience if Collin could go there to do missionary work. We'll see how that all works out. The missionaries in New Caledonia will be watching conference a week after we do here, so we emailed Collin a list of questions from the Saturday and Sunday sessions, so he can answer them as he watches. If he gets our questions right, we will send him a prize! ( probably a box of pop tarts or ranch dressing packets) Oh, BTW - the above picture is the elders doing some service - "gratuit de lavage voitures" means "free car wash"

So, here's Collin:

Well I'll give you a rundown of this week- I can't really remember too much actually. 2 cool things though- the only member from the island of Ouvea called me the other day and said that they're trying to do missionary work and they have lots of friends that are really interested, but they need books of mormons! Also he wants missionaries- there haven't been any for like 20 years. I talked to the zone leaders and they'll talk to president i think- maybe they'll be missionaries. that would be my dream to open it up. Also there is a similar situation in Futuna - another tiny island.. they have about a dozen members over there and they're working really hard on mission work but they aren't authorized to take the sacrament or anything and there's no missionaries.. they want some really bad. i really wanna go open up over there. that would be rad. The only problem would be that I wouldn't get to see any other missionaries besides every 6 weeks for conference - that would be hard. anyway, that would be cool if i'd get to go. that probably wouldn't be for a long long time though.
Also I taught some little kids that are going to be baptized, i think. they're 7 though, so it's their parents decision really. but it would be cool anyways. also we had 2 investigators and a bunch of inactives at church yesterday. that was rad. our branch is really falling apart though.. people are going inactive right and left- i am feeling more and more like the apostles trying to keep the apostate churches together. difficult.
Oh so our Amie - Marie Jean - she prayed last week to quit smoking so she could get baptized... we haven't even really talked about baptism much with her- but I think she really wants to be baptized! We'll be talking about that this week!
Also I didn't get to do my first baptismal interview on Saturday - Robinson's guy wasn't ready. but he should be in a few weeks. also mont dore has someone who's getting baptized soon - so i'll get my first baptismal interview soon enough. :)
Oh so also we did service for this sort of less active member who lives in a squatt - she wanted us to build a little cabin thing for her vines to grow on. it was cool. i should have taken a picture of our work, but my camera was up in the car. sorry. oh well. next time i'm over there i'll take a picture of our work. anyway, we got to cut this like 20 foot square vine to pieces with machetes and cut trees down and stuff.. machetes are awesome. i want some when I get home. everyone has like 5 around here. even though we're in the middle of the city. it's rad.

Also on the LDS website there's a meetinghouse locater and all it has is Borail branch on it-- way up north. but if you look at noumea (it's just google earth) there's this big factory looking thing- that's Vallee du Tir right next to that. Then just north of that is ducos. cool, eh? I couldn't find my house though. oh well.

Oh so this crazy less active member gave me O Livro de Mormon (portuguese) and insisted it was english. So i took it and read some yesterday in honor of dad's birthday. :D

Well I gotta jet.. I'll catch you later. Love much and always.

love,
edler wianget

2009-03-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

Here's some excerpts from the latest email we received from Collin:

So this week was fairly uneventful I guess. Everything fell through as usual, but we did have a super awesome District conference- district as in the New Caledonia district, not the elder winget district-- it's same name but different. confusing. anyway, Elder Callister (not spelled right ) came- a seventy - and it was super great. I took some good notes too. I wanted to share some stuff to you guys, but I don't have my notes with me. Next time. He also came to our Zone conference yesterday- which is why I'm writing emails on Tuesday instead of Monday. Anyway. It was super amazing and he talked about a lot of stuff that seemed like EXACTLY what I needed and I think a lot of people felt the same way. Things are going pretty well but still hard. the district is going alright. I have noticed that stuff are not going perfectly, and the work is slowing down even from where it was before-- and so everyone in the mission is slightly discouraged. I've been trying really hard to motivate everyone and stuff, and I think things are getting better. We'll be having a few baptisms in the district soon. Also we did an exchange with Borail elders while they were there - Elder Morril and Flanagan. Meh, I can't remember what happened this week. I'm sorry this week's emails are lame - I'm supposted to see president for my interview soon so I have to go back. Anyway, the week was good, the investigators are still pretty lame but Marie Jean is progressing.

I'm super scared for the economy these days... Nothing has hit here I guess. It's oblivious to live on an island. I think prices have been going up though so people have been going on strike more often.

I'm not as dedicated as I wish I was.. I'm trying a lot and we're trying really hard to improve. It's hard sometimes, but it's worth it.. I think. Actually I am seeing less success now that I'm more obedient and consecrated than when I wasn't. Ironic. Oh well.
Sorry this is lame.. I'm out of time. I love you though and keep going-- persevere to the end! (we say that in french, not endure)
Love,
Elder Winget

Grim Grinning Ghosts

2009-03-17T15:24:00.001-07:00

Elder Winget's on Youtube!

2009-03-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a DVD for Collin to see when he gets home, using all the pictures and video clips he sends us. I have been having WAY too much fun with this! I decided to post one of the videos I made to Youtube, and I posted it on the blog as well before I remembered I didn't write any kind of explanation to go with it! So... this clip is made from the pictures we got from Collin around last Halloween. I paired it with our family's favorite Halloween song "Grim Grinning Ghosts" by Barenaked Ladies. He also had some footage of some huge and nasty bugs, so I thought that fit in with the "creepy creeps with eerie eyes" parts of the song. Also, I noticed Collin had way too many pictures of him with his big mouth gaping open, so those are thrown in there as well :D So, yeah. If you like it, leave me a nice comment or something. I'm really new at this stuff, so some feedback would be appreciated.

2009-03-10T09:57:00.000-07:00

So, I'm sorry many of you have been having trouble viewing this blog... I can't figure out what the problem is! Blogger doesn't seem to have a place where you can ask them direct questions and get help, but I will keep trying :) Here are some excerpts from his email this past week. I hope you all can read this!

So I have something interesting to tell you - So you know how my companion is from Colorado? Well his middle name is Kimball--- Wanna know why???? Well that's because his Grandpa, PRESIDENT KIMBALL was the first president of the DENVER TEMPLE! He married you guys didn't he!?? Awesome eh!? (Yes! Rusty and I were married by President Kimball! Not the prophet though)

This week we worked really well with the members, but not a ton of progress. On the bright side, Atiu got the Aaronic Priesthood! It's awesome to see him progress in the church.. He's like my son- who's 10 years older than me. :)

This week, not a whole lot of exciting happened.. But this Saturday we'll be having a film night- we'll be watching The Testaments. I think it will be fun. I hope all our amis come. :)

People keep asking me over and over to direct the music in everything... Word got out that I know how to sing. Dang it! They better not ask me to sing any solos at any time.

And here's a funny story from the week before:Anyway, so this week it RAINED AND RAINED AND RAINED. Like pppooourrrring rain. Buckets and buckets of rain. I saw these people's yard and it was flooded like 5 feet deep. It hurt our porte a porte, but it turned out okay. Also here's a dumb story.. So we went to this weird area and there was this weird guy who said he knew this missionary before that married his sister- and I know that missionary and I'm pretty sure that's not true. Anyway, he was telling us all these weird stories about being in a gang in Leon france or something, and then the next yard over, there was this kid who starts singing that one Raspberries song - In your heaaaad in your heaaaad zombie zombie zombie ie ie ie in your head.... etc and I'm like ha ha. and then he starts singing louder and louder and LOUDER until he is litterally SCREAAAAAAAMING this song at the TOP of his lungs! the same thing OVER AND OVER IN YOUR HHHEAEEAADD IN YOUR HEADADDD ZOMBIE ZOMBIE ZOMBIE IE IE IE IN YOUR HEAAAAD.... I was like trying soooo hard not to laugh... then this guy was like yeah, that kid is a little weird. sometimes I throw a bottle rocket over there to scare him. So that was weird.

I am having a few problems posting more of Collin's stories today... I don't know what's up with Blogger! Maybe I will try putting it in a new post.

a Baptism!

2009-02-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Collin took a picture of himself sending his email this week - I think he looks good! Here's the latest news from his email:

Well there were transfers again, and so me and my compy will be doing Ducos AND VDT again! Crazy. My district was the biggest in NC, but now it's just normal size. It got up to 10 people but now it's just 7. Cool. Anyway, I started out in Paita, went to Ducos/VDT, then Just VDT, then Ducos/VDT, then just Ducos, then Ducos VDT again! Crazy!!

So I'm going to buy a Fijian Sulu - the dress-skirt things that people wear there. They don't wear them here, but I'm going to wear it when I get home for sure.

So someone this week made fun of my French-- she asked us where we're going and i was like Kaméré. then I said something about the voiture (car). She was like Oh you're going to KamERRRRRe? where's your VoituRRRRRRR?? Ha ha! Jerk! I just said have a nice day and left.

Atiu is going to be baptized this Saturday.. No, I don't get to baptize him.. It's going to be his friend Brother Turi. So it's really better that way.. I'd rather him be attached to members than to me. Lots of people here get converted to missionaries and then when they leave they go inactive. But that won't happen with him.. He's just amazing. So i'm sad i don't get to baptize him, but it's better that way anyway.

Anyway, thanks for everything.. I love you!

love,
elder winget

I hope all of you can see this blog! Some people have reported that they can't access it for some reason. I wish I was a computer expert like Collin so I could get to the bottom of this :(

Crazy Lady Attacks Collin!

2009-02-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest from Elder Winget:

We had Zone Conference yesterday... It was awesome. I had to translate into English for Sister Ostler and i did a really good job. I also had to translate in French for the French elders and sisters (cuz President Ostler does his speach in English) for some of the time, and they all said I did a really good job. I was really really happy and I know it was a direct answer to prayers. I prayed really hard that it would work out; I was scared of letting a bunch of people down. But it's going good.

So, cool story. So I was walking down the street and I said Bonjour to this lady, and she kind of looked down and pretended she hadn't heard me, so I'm like, meh whatev. Then I kept walking and right as she passes me she GRABS MY TIE and screams BONJOUR!!!!! And scared the crap out of me! I actually had this.. tie to shirt holder thing.. Hard to explain, but long story short she actually ripped it and a little bit my tie. And I was like WHAT THE!? So I look at her and she just keeps walking. Then she's like Elders! Venez! - means come, come over here, follow me, etc. And we're like um, Madame, uh.. And she just walked off. And I'm like okay, I am not following that absolutely crazy woman. And that's the end of my story.

Hey also I wanted to say I asked president if I was allowed to email my friends at all, and he said no, it would be better if i didn't, and just asked parents to email for me. So, could you tell everyone on the blog that I can GET emails, and I will read them, but i will not be able to respond. I might tell you to send an email to someone every once in a while. For instance, could you tell Brittanny and Ayisha THANK YOU I just barely got their pacakge. The reason why it took 2 months to get to me was because they wrote FIJI on the end of it. Could you just remind people of my address, and that they don't have to write fiji at all? cool. Thank you very much! I love you a lot and tell the family that I love them too. I'll send some pictures next week, k? Cool. I love you!

I will try to figure out how to keep Collin's address permanently on the sidebar of the blog, but until then here it is again:

for letters:
Elder Collin Winget
Bureau de la Mission
BP 15154
Cedex
98804 Noumea Cedex
NEW CALEDONIA
(it costs 94 cents to send a letter)

for packages:
Bureau de la Mission
BP 15154
98804 Noumea
NEW CALEDONIA
attn: Elder Collin Winget

* It's important to put the address on exactly that way, since the post office overseas is very, very picky!! We have been lucky so far, only 2 letters lost, but other missionaries haven't been as lucky :( If you have any questions at all, please call me or Channing!

The Latest from Collin

2009-02-03T04:47:00.000-08:00

Well, Elder Winget has been doing well lately. He was recently called to be the district leader, and we got a nice letter from his mission president saying that he conducted a really good district meeting :) He told us last week that the water had been shut off in his apartment, and the only water they had was bottles of water that a former missionary there had filled up and left in the apartment- kind of like food storage, I guess! They have access to the other apartment, so they have been traveling over there to shower. He and his companion have been teaching a wonderful man named Atiu Atiu ( reminds me of a sneeze!) for a few months now, and it sounds like things are going very well with him :D
I have been very busy with Primary lately, so I haven't put up a new Picassa album yet, but I hope to sometime this week. Hmm... I'll put up a few pictures in this post. Remember a few months ago when Collin said he had octopus for dinner? Here's a picture of it! Yuck. And here's a picture of the view from his new apartment.

Here's an excerpt from his latest letter:

As for news this week... Hmm.. Last week was my first week in Ducos/VDT and we didn't get very many lessons and it was a little bit discouraging.. But this week we got almost double, found some new people that should be good, and talked to lots and lots of people. So I guess it just takes a couple days to get used to the sector. Also I think I will be keeping the car in Ducos, even when there are transfers. That would be really helpful with Exchanges and stuff. We'll see though. I did an exchange with the Senior Zone Leader - Elder Folkman and it went well. I think I learned a lot too, so that's what's important. Hmm.. Not a lot else has happened. Life is good. :) OH something did happen, Atiu told me at church "hey, could you give me a white shirt?" and I'm like yeah sure I'll bring some over tomorrow and he's like "cool, cuz I think i wanna be baptized!!"" And I'm like AH! Okay, we'll talk about that tomorrow, eh? So we have a lesson at 6 today with him... I think we'll have our first baptism date in Ducos! :D Also, about the water I talked about last time.. I called Caledonien des Eaux and they said that it is because the water bill has never been paid!! And so Elder Folkman figured it out and it was supoosed to be our apartment owner people and they just weren't paying it because of like a mixup somewhere.. Anyway, it's sorted out now and we SHOULD have water soon. Still not yet, but hopefully before Wednesday, cuz that's transfers. We'll see!

Well, that's all. I love you!
Lv,
Ldr Wngt

2009-01-19T12:33:00.000-08:00

Here's the latest from Elder Winget:

Let me tell you about what's going on... I did get transferred, but BACK to Ducos/VDT, so right now I am in the same thing I was before when I was with Elder Manarani. I have 2 sectors, and I'm in the same branch. I'm with Elder Wilcox, who has been here for about 3 weeks, so I'm more or less follow up training. He's a very great Elder, and he knows French a little bit already... Enough to understand and be understood. Not perfectly, but he's great either way. Also I'm now.... Dun dun dun... District leader!! Ah!! I don't know what the crap I'm doing as a leader, so it's interesting. So far it's okay. I have to do an hour district meeting every week and I have no idea what to do, but we'll see how it works out.. :) Also we have a car for as long as the two sectors are together, which looks like it will be only for about 2-3 weeks, after which Elder Troutman will go back there and train a new Elder. Also I think I told you about Atiu a few times, he is doing really well and we're debating whether to engage him to baptism this week, or wait a little longer. Crazy! We'll see! So basically, I have all the amis de l'eglise i had in VDT, just with a few more from Ducos. Ducos is a really great sector, and I get to stay in the same branch, so I'm happy to be there. I'm also the driver, so that's interesting. I suck at driving manual transmission.. but it's alright so far. Nobody is dead, and I only stalled a couple times on the way here. :) Um, other than that, I might have to lead the music at church on sunday. :) and.... hmm.. nothing else too crazy.

So here's a funny little video of Collin interviewing Elder Manarani. He asks him ( in french ) to say things to our family, and Elder Manarani says "they won't understand" and Collin tells him that his mother knows french (ha ha - I only took french in high school and I don't remember much) Then Collin tells him to speak in English, and to say the things he has taught him. You will hear exactly what Collin has taught Elder Manarani- it's funny. Then Collin does a crazy little dance at the end. I hope you like it.

0

2009-01-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

Hey everybody,
I'm sorry we haven't updated the blog for a while. We got Collin's memory card shortly after Christmas, but since there were a lot of pictures from other missionaries' cameras, our computer had a hard time reading them (because they were all in different formats). I finally sought professional advice, and after a lot of work, we got MOST of the pictures! some of the files were corrupted and wouldn't work :( So, I will be putting up new Picassa albums and other stuff on Monday. As you might suspect, there are a lot of funny pictures and videos. It's hard to know which ones to post first... but here is a funny story from one of his recent letters:

New Years here is HORRIBLE. All people do is get really really really drunk, pass out and pee their pants, litter EVERYWHERE, and scream WOOOOOO all night. and lots and lots of annoying loud fireworks. We got harrassed by lots of drunk people, and one guy said DONT LIE TO ME, I would LOVE to just punch you guys right now! And I said, you know what? You go ahead. and he was too chicken, and too drunk. Also some reallllly drunk guy came knocking on our door (we have a picture of Christ on our door) and he was like all mad and he said HEY. Who is that?! And we're like um, it's Jesus Christ. and he was like waht?! he goes on and on about how we don't worship images and that we don't really know what Jesus looks like and that we mormons imagine up all this crap and I'm like alright dude none of that is true. and he said you guys will take that off and tear it up RIGHT now! And we're like okay fine. so we took it off and said okay bye and he said i have to go by every morning and see your stupid picture and i'll be really mad if i see it again. and i'm like okay whatever bye. so we put up a Different photo of Christ, one where he's holding a sheep, and later he gets all mad and talks to us again and he's like... Who is that!! And Elder Troutman said um, He's a shepherd. Thanks. Alright we're late for something so bye. Ha ha.

Also, we did service for our area by picking up trash.. We spent about 1 1/2 hours on New Years Day, and filled up 5 garbage bags full... ABout the area of 2 blocks. It was ridiculous how much garbage came from New Years. we got a Really good response from it though, and we were really happy about it. We're going to have to do it again some time.

That's about everything that happend this week. OH i did get your other package, with all the food stuff. Thanks! We'll be eating it soon. :) oh so yesterday I fasted and I sweat sooooo much here cuz it's about 90 degrees here, including inside our house, and so.. yeah. we got home from church, finished our fast, and I drank 3 full liters of juice. Crazy, eh?

That's pretty much all that's happened as of late.

Thanks for the pictures... That's nuts how much snow there is!!!! I miss snow... I wish it would snow for just one day.. I would love it. I am going to FREEZE when I get home.. I'm used to 95 degrees 1000% humidity all day everyday and just a little crappy fan to keep me cool (doesn't really work) and i'm starting to get used to it. when I get home and it gets under 70 degrees my body is going to flip out. :D

Well I love you, thanks for everything. I'll see ya later. :)

Love,
Elder Winget

Now, here is a special video message to all of you from Elder Winget. He wants to thank you for the letters and things that you have sent...

hey, just some things about collin :)

2008-12-28T16:27:00.000-08:00

hey y'alls

sorry we've been lazy about posting, we've just been.... well lazy.
collin's been doing really well, and we got to talk to him on christmas and all that fun stuff. he's also singing in a choir. here's a quote that we should have posted when it happened

"Hey! What's up? Well I too am in a christmas choir.. We'll be competing against other churches in the area or something. It's actually really good... usually french speaking people sing very badly. like, seriously. But this choir is going well. I'm really excited for it. I'm actually among the best in the tenors, which i think is funny. i kind of lead the section at times. it's really fun singing in french. i love it."
so yeah, that's the skinny on the choir. today we got a picture of him singing in it (up there ^ ^)
there's more stuff that my mom probably wants on here, but i'll let her handle it, because i want to get back to my dinner :)
thanks for not getting after us for our lazyness about posting :D

here's THIS week's email :)

2008-12-14T16:30:00.000-08:00

Oh yes so i didn't give ya'll a rundown of my week. I put my shirt in the washer and it got a little bit messed up. I turned it inside out, didn't use a ton of soap, only washed it with like 2 other things, put it on cold water only, and did a slow cycle. also dryers don't exist in New Caledonia, so i put it out to dry... and the BEHIND part of the shirt is alll messed up. i'm sad. all the pictures are alright for now though. i've stopped wearing it for the time being.

We had a lesson with a lady named Natalie.. I think I may have mentioned her before. We taught her once before, and since then 2 rendezvous with her fell through.. but this one worked out. she actually cancelled things to keep her rendezvous. It was really awesome. We walked in and before we even started the lesson, she said um, can I have a book of mormon? I really want to read it!! And we're like WAWAAATTT?!?!?!? That is the keyword!!!! We had actually that very morning, put our testimonies in a Livre de Mormon just for her, and brought it with us. I got the warm fuzzies handing it to her and we were really really happy. She had read our pamphlet all the way through twice since our last meeting, started reading her bible again, and noticed the Lord has already been blessing her. She only faught twice with her husband this week, which is down from every day. She was smart enough to attribute this to BLESSINGS instead of coincidence. I'm really really happy about it. The only problem is, she says she can't see us until January. Which worries us. she's going to be out of town and stuff. but we're still goign to stop by to make sure seh's allright.

also we met this guy.. he was a reference given to my companion months ago and he was never ever there.. for some reason (the Spirit) he pulled out his old planner from Ducos and decided to call him on Saturday. It turns out his wife was being stalked or somethign wierd so they never answer the phone to numbers they don't recognize. but today he answered. He's golden. He doesn't smoke or drink, and he's already married. Those are the 3 problems we have with every single investigator ever in the history of New Caledonia. He's friends with lots and lots and LOTS of active members. he sees their good examples and wants to see what's up with them. so then we show up.. he told us he asked one of his friends (who is the 1st councillor in the branch in Tontouta- my old branch) to give his little son a blessing, who was really sick. he excercized his faith and his son is healed. he already has a testimony of the Priesthood. Dang. Golden. I'm thinkin we'll baptize him.

We also taught a lady named Marie-Claude, which i think i already told you about.. maybe? i don't know. anyway, (which made me think about Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise... I actually taught a guy named Jean-Luc in Paita, and met a guy in paita whose last name is Picard. Not the same guy, but both names. awesome, EH??) .. we found her daughter during porte a porte, and kept trying to get a rendezvous but she wasn't really that interested. one day we gave a little kid in the house one of our pamphlet things on the restoration (which means restaurant in french... someone gave a talk about the Joseph Smith Restaurant a couple months ago. i want to eat there! in french it's retablissment.. re-establisment) and left our phone number. ironically, we came by one day and the girl we found originally was not at all interested, but her mom, read the pamphlet twice, loved it. she has already been to church before and saw the missionaries years and years ago and really wanted to get in contact with them again. and then poof we show up at just the right moment. ! We were excited. unfortunately she didn't keep our rendezvous for saturday, which was a shock, but we'll try for the next saturday.

Ummmmmm mhmmmmm... other than that, a giant flying cockroack flew on my head a couple weeks ago at a members house, and i ran out of the house. it was funny. this week we got harrassed by like 10 different drunk guys. once the police actually helped us (usually they do absolutely nothing but give speeding tickets)... but as usual, i'm totally safe. for some reason i'm never scared of these guys, even when they're yelling don't ever come back here again! First and last time in my neighborhood! etc. they're drunk anyway and don't remember ever talking to us. i think it's funny.

Um........ I ate a pizza with potatoes and shrimp on it.. i gave out a book of mormon in vietmamese, i learned some more phrases in tahitan, (including big crap), I got told i speak french really really well, and got told that i don't speak very well but i make do with what i have. :D ha ha. i ate more raw fish, poured coke out the window on a little kid (ha ha, long story) and .... hmm... i found out that the members think i'm cool.

well that's it! ya'll have a great week!

here's from the 7th :)

2008-12-14T16:26:00.000-08:00

Hi! I'm gonna give a rundown of what happened this week, in case you're interested. This week monday me and Elder Manarani had adventures in Noumea center. We ran around town looking in souvenir shops for random crap and found some cool junk to send to y'all for christmas. We made it back home by bus, having taken all the right busses all day. Awesome! We had never taken a bus to centre ville and were kind of scared, but we made it there and out alive!

We also bought these glue traps for cockroaches and there's like a million in all of them. i'm really happy to see them suffer. they move their little antennas around for days but can't move. and to taunt them a little bit i put a jelly bean in one of them and they all got really excited and tried to rip off their legs but didn't succeed.

I forgot to tell you last week, i did my first talk in sacrament meeting in FRENCH and it was really scary but went really really well. people still tell me that i did a really good job.. 2 weeks later, that's much beyond the required courtesy "good job" so that must mean i actually did well.

we had Zone Conference with President Ostler and President Baxter (mission president, area president and 70) and their wives and it was really really awesome.

Also French is going really well. However I realized I don't understand when French people talk!!! Like, france french people. It's really sad, but i only understand the island accent and vocabulary. and if i were to speak to a proper french person i would definitely sound like a hillbilly, cuz people use a very different (and very incorrect) grammar here. I'm scared to come back and say that i speak "french" and then people will find out i speak "Francais outre mer" outer sea french. meh, whatev. it's alright. it works alright for me, cuz i have never ever taught a french person. they're all really really really mean and hard headed. island people are amazing.

i've been learning a couple phrases in tahitian lately.. it's really awesome. i accidently mix in english when i speak really fast with my copmanion and don't realize it, and he does exactly the same with tahitian. it's funny, i'll say um, was that french??? and he'll say what?? oops!

we only taught 2 lessons this week, but one of them was really really good!!!! We have 2 new investigators.. Marie-Claude and her daughters, whose names i can't remember. they were really excited when we came to the door, had already read the pamplet we have on the restoration, and were ready with questions. they're pentacostal and don't understand the need for organized religion, but we'll fix that. :D we have another rendezvous on Saturday.

That lady that we found that said she had been praying and then we showed up, we saw her finally for the second time yesterday. her schedule is sporatic but she's really excited for us to teach her. we dont' have an appointment but we'll teach her sooner or later and i have a feeling that she will benefit greatly from our message.

We sang in the choir Sunday, and also sang for this Wallisan guy and his family. His daughter is in our Branch, but most of his family is not members. He has been really sick and they thought he was going to die, but he got a blessing and now is doing much better. They asked us to come sing for him. We found out that the doctor said he needed to start speaking, cuz there is this problem in his throat. he hadn't spoken since he got sick months ago and the very first time he spoke was while we were there!!!!! He really apprecitated it and we were happy to be there. we're going back next week too.

um... yeah, i think that's everything that's happened lately. :)

newest email from collin

2008-12-02T13:05:00.000-08:00

I had a really good birthday. Elder Manarani took me out for brunch at this "Snack asaitic" that is right by our house. There aren't very many restaurants outside of Noumea Center, but there are these "Snacks" that is just a little restaurant. We ate really really well... I ate a "Steack Frite Salade au Sauce Champinions", which I think I spelled wrong, but it was just steak, french fries, a little salad, and the steak had this really good mushroom sauce on it!! Mmm! Then we went and did service (which we do every Thursday) for this lady who lives in Robinson (a missionary sector not to far from us, where our district leader is) and we cut hedges. It was really fun and I fell in the hedge and thought I was going to die but I'm fine :) It's like a 15 foot tall hedge and I fell all the way to the bottom! Ha ha. I wasn't hurt or anything, but it was really funny. Then they surprised me with some cake, and sang happy birthday. This guy who served a mission in New Caledonia like 40 years ago told us stories.... :) They were way funny. So one of them was he was doing porte-a-porte with his companion. They knocked on this door and this big woman was facing away from the door watching tv. They tried to introduce themselves but she wouldn't listen. Eventually she called her daughter out to tell the missionaries to go away. She said well, I'm sorry, I'd like to talk to you but my mom is catholic and we don't accept missionaries. But the companion wouldn't give up! he kept saying no, it's important for your family! meh meh meh. She kept apologizing, and he kept insisting. Eventually the big lady got out of her chair. She pulled out this cross necklace and a locket thing and said look. We're catholic. This is Mary, this is Jospeh, and this is Jesus. Okay? In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost GET OUT! (Degage!!) SLAM door. Ha ha ha!

Later that day we tried some porte a porte, to no avail as usual. We eventually went home and found that Elder Amundsen and Elder Troutman had paid our apartment a visit.. They switched everything around!! Our desks were switched, they switched our beds, and everything in our closets! It was way funny. Elder Amundsen left me some pictures and wrote me a little card and they brought me a little cake with Matches as Candles. Ha ha! I was really really happy. Elder Amundsen is amazing and I'm really happy to have him as a friend.

Later that night we had this big thing of Letchi
(this little fruit that grows on trees here.. About the size of a plum, it's red, and it has a pointyish skin on it. You have to peel it off and there's this white fruit meat stuff inside, and a big seed. I don't really like them that much, but everyone else loves them and they literally grow on trees so they're in great great GREAT abundance.) and we gave it to our nice neighbors. Turns out it was the dad's birthday and they gave us 3 big slices of cake.. not knowing it was my birthday!

So that brings the cake count up to 3. Then I started making my cheesecake, but didn't have time so I had to put it off. I actually didn't end up eating it until 8-9 pm yesterday. :( Sorry. But I did eat that cake the neighbors gave us on my birthday, along with cake at service. Anyway, it ended up being a really good birthday. Everyone seemed to remember too, and that's all that really matters to me. As long as someone thinks about me or something.

Oh and we got video of unwrapping my awesome presents, and doing the candles with the CD of y'all singing happy birthday. :D:D:D It was almost like you were there!!!

Thanks for everything! I really really like the shirt, and I have fun explaining the people to my companion. I wear it every night. :) Don't worry about me ruining it in the dryer, that is something that simply doesn't exist in New Caledonia!

OH and also.... You were REALLY lucky that package didn't get searched at all!! I found out that they would have had to unwrap every present and look inside, and they probably would have just sent it back!!! But luckily they didn't search it at all! Oh and by the way... Don't ever send raw meat of any kind to me. Um, yeah. Didn't think you would, but just.. yeah. We had trouble with a package someone sent to a missionary here that had meat in it. Weird.

Also, I don't think I'm getting any of the letters people are sending to me these days. I think the post is being super super gay. Could you put a notice on my blog for me? (haha. done and done. :D)
I would like everyone to know, that I ALWAYS reply to every letter I get, and if you don't get a reply within 2 1/2 months, that means I Didn't get it and probably never will. I want people to like photocopy the letters they send, and if I never get them they can resend them, or forget about it. But if someone thinks I'm not sending letters to them anymore, it's not true and it's just because I never got the letter. also, make sure to always remember the CEDEX on the end of the address. (Mom, you forgot this one!! I'm lucky my package got to me.. :O)

Elder Winget
Bureau de la Mission
BP 15154
98804 Noumea Cedex
New Caledonia

The most important parts of the address are 15154 and 98804 so make sure you write these very clearly. Also it might help to have very plain white envelopes, with nothing written on it besides the addresses. I don't know if this is the problem or not, but just an idea.

alright.

Anyway, so I will tell you a short story. I went on an exchange with a missionary who had been here for only about 3-4ish weeks and is really terrible at french. It actually went really well. I was really scared, but it was fine! I got a taste of being a trainer. I felt weird speaking in english all day, and forgot how to say some words! I was not able to pray in English and did it all in French! He asked me lots of questions and I felt really really smart when I was able to answer them! It was really fun and made me feel really good and confident as a missionary and in my French skills.

Here's Collin's birthday present

2008-11-13T16:16:00.001-08:00

Tomorrow we're sending out Collin's birthday package. It's cutting it a little close for New Caledonia, but we'll just have to pray it will get there in time. His mail situation has improved a ton, so I'm not too worried.

So, here's the final product! Channing was kind enough to model it for the blog. On the front of the t-shirt is a copy of his nametag, and on the back are pictures of everyone, or at least all the pictures we could get with the time we had available! If we missed you, I am so sorry... there's always Christmas... The back of the t-shirt says "We're behind you 100%" ha ha ha...get it? It may be corny, but I know Collin will love it. Thanks so much to everyone who contributed pictures! We know some of you wanted to be on Collin's shirt but didn't get to respond to our email, so we kind of cheated and took some pictures off Facebook :P

So Channing and I were at Missionary Mall getting Collin some ties for his birthday today. They are having a huge tie sale, and a bunch of really nice ties are only $1.99! So we had a lot of fun picking out some ties he would like. If you've ever been there, you've probably seen that they have pictures up on the walls of missionaries all around the world. Well, we brought in that crazy picture of Collin reading Le Liahona and they put it up on the wall right above the drinking fountain. So if you ever go to Missionary Mall and you get thirsty, you will get your chance to see Collin's insane grin!

Mean people and cockroaches

2008-11-10T05:19:00.000-08:00

Here's some crazy, typical pictures of Collin -reading "Le Liahona"( hmmm, he must really like that magazine!)

And another of him as a half-dressed, proud American (note the tiny American flag in the background)

The third one, the one with a bunch of graffiti around him, prompted me to write "please tell me that's not your apartment!" Collin says, " About the graffiti... it's everywhere. That wasn't my apartment, but basically anything that doesn't move, anywhere in Noumea, has graffiti even thicker than that. But it's not scary like LA or NYC, people just see graffiti in movies and think that's what you do."

Here's some more news from yesterday's email:

"I did get transferred to Vallee du Tir, so it was more or less like starting over completely. We have no car, so we take the bus and walk. It's actually not so bad. And as it turns out, we get to keep all the members, so we still eat chez les membres (at members houses) most every night. And we get to get picked up by the magic Elder Ammundsen (his MTC companion) for church and activities. He's so rad! I see him most every day.

We started out with NO investigators, no leads, and... nothing. We started going through our Area Book and found some "ancien amis" ...old investigators? and called the promising looking ones. We have 5 rendezvous for next week! We're very excited! We're teaching a lady named Madame Tokyo, and she's basically like Isma from " Emperor's New Groove". She is like a million years old. Except for she is nice and she is black.

We also did a porte a porte and found a new ami. AND I had my first experience with getting yelled at by a French person. We went to go knock on this door and this lady looks over at us and yells, "Not this door, not even in your dreams!" i didn't understand exactly what this meant at first, but my comp explained it to me and I was kinda sad. But then right after that we found our new ami (investigator BTW) so all is well!

Our apartment was INFESTED

with cockroaches at first. It was nasty and dirty and I immediately got to work cleaning. Before I think I wouldn't have cared, but after living in super nice super clean Paita, I about went freakin crazy. So I've cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Elder Manarani was excited to have a clean freak companion. Also I fixed the ceiling fans, and the cold water in the shower. So our apartment is a million times better. But even though it was much cleaner, we still had a ridiculous number of cockroaches. So this morning I got down and dirty and super cleaned the kitchen. And I found their...NEST. had a bad feeling about moving the frige, but ever since the first day in there I knew they must be back there. So I moved the frige, and they all started pouring out from behind. Hundreds, I swear! So I got out the poison and started spraying profusely. Those buggers are IMPOSSIBLE to kill. Any other bug dies instantly with that poison, but with them you have to drench them in it and it only slows them down. Nasty! So I swept and mopped everywhere, and killed all the cockroaches, and everything is sparkly clean."

Mom's note: "Eeeeeeeewwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

(cringe and shudder...)

Elder Winget's Halloween

2008-11-04T12:54:00.001-08:00

Here's Collin with the 2 green pumpkins he and Elder Manarani ( the guy with the gummy tongue and fangs) carved on Halloween. Even in the South Pacific some people celebrate Halloween, but it's not as widespread as it is here. Collin said some of the other missionaries got trick-or-treaters, but he was disappointed that none came to their apartment. :(

Collin and Elder Manarani don't have to travel back and forth between 2 apartments anymore. They are in the Vallee du Tir (sp?) apartment now, and Elder Amundsen and his companion are in the Ducos apartment. Collin's excited to have Elder Amundsen close by, since he was his companion in the MTC.

Unfortunately, I don't have much news this week. Collin said he typed a big long email, and just when he was about to send it, the server shut down or something, and he lost the whole thing! He had to start all over and he didn't have much time left! He did manage to email us some great pictures. I've been having trouble trying to post them all at once for some reason, so I'll send the rest in another post.

Collin likes his new companion and area

2008-10-26T17:40:00.000-07:00

We just got a new email from Collin! He sent pictures, too! That's his new companion, and a praying mantis they found in their apartment. Here is an excerpt from his email:
"Alright, alright. I'm sure you have many many questions, and I've read all your emails, and sorry I didn't reply very well last week, so you may have to ask me some of those questions again.
I just sent some pictures of my companion and moi, elder tekurio with his presents, which got there about an hour before he left (he was super super excited.. he's going to make a cake in Fiji. I didn't get to see what was wrapped in the green things though, he had to jet. Also the other picture is a praying mantis (religious mantis in french) that we found in the bathroom.

Anyway, Ducos is NOT by any means tiny or island. It's actually one of the biggest sectors here.. It's part of Noumea. I'm right in the city. Well, kind of the Ghetto of the city. but still city nonetheless. Also I have 2 sectors, Ducos and Valeé du Tir. 2 sectors, 2 appartments. there are only 22 missionaries in NC right now, and that's down from 36 so there are lots of sectors that they can't close, but don't have enough missionaries to cover, so there are 3 sets of missionaries covering 2 areas.But because we have a limited number of kilometres (miles they can travel), we can't be going back and forth between 2 areas all day, so we have another apartment so we can sleep there and work in that sector for a few days, then go back to our other sector and work there... make sense any? hope so.
Elder Manarani is really really really nice and awesome. I spoke almost 0 french with Elder Tekurio, so I think this is a punishment as well as a blessing. :D ha ha. I literally think I've learned more french in the past 4 days then in the past 3 weeks in Paita. Channing mentioned in her email asked me if I have noticed a sudden french improval.... Freak, totally. I have the gift of tongues for sure. I KNOW I do. I have no problems communicating with him and I'm so happy to be with him.

The sisters in Paita are doing really really well as well. I showed them their sector and stuff and I think they'll do tons of great work there. I think the sector and the branch were getting a little dry with Elders there. Everyone was so excited when we told them I was leaving and that sisters were coming. :D I thought that meant that they didn't like me, cuz that's the impression that I got and I was really really sad about it.. but then the sisters tell me everyone talks about me all the time and that they really miss me and stuff. So .. . yeah. Good stuff.

The branch in Ducos is really good and lots better than Tontouta branch. I think we'll do really good work there.

Um.... Let me think. I saw a crazy cat lady, for serious, I had another tim tam slam, Elder Manarani told me he's never had a clean freak companion like me besides Elder Tekurio so that's kind of funny.( Collin a clean freak?!? I think I might faint! ) WE cleaned Vallee du tir appartment today and it was FILTHY and COCKROACHES EVERYWHERE so I was really glad to clean it. I don't think anyone ever cleaned it. We're generally just in the Ducos appartment though, which is generally fairly clean. We'll clean that more later today. Um.... Yeah. So I'm in Noumea these days and I miss all the stars you could see way out in Paita.. Freakin crazy out there, the amount of stars. so awesome. um... I haven't got your letter yet, that dad mentioned, but I haven't got the mail for 2 weeks cuz of a ridiculous stupid "because I said so" rule that the ZLs made that paita wasn't allowed to go to noumea for any reason, besides to kindof noumea/riverre sallee to do internet. that's why the package was so late. it was at the office sitting there for a whole week plus. anyway. i'm in the city now so no problems there... mail twice a week.

Um... quyestions? comments? I liked the pictures that mom and channing sent.. rad costume! we're going to carve some green pumpkins on saturday and i'll send you a picture! also i loved the talking cd and the package a lot lot lot!!! thanks!!!! also there is a very good chance you will meet Elder Tekurio!!! he's coming to utah for conference in april and i said he HAS to go see you guys and he says he will. he will at very least call the house, but he's going to try to come over! :)"

"I love you so much! See ya next week!"

Check out new video - Read on...

2008-10-26T05:51:00.000-07:00

There's a link to a great video about missionary service ( don't click on a picture- they're just visual aids :). I saw this on TV and I got all misty-eyed thinking about Collin and all his friends and cousins who are currently serving missions, and his friend who just got his mission call to Oregon (good luck, Rylan! We're so happy for you!). I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I do :D

I put up the link over in the "Collin's mission-related websites" section. It's the Mormon Tabernacle Choir one, on the top of the list. Check it out - it's great!

Above are pictures of Elder Winget at the MTC, in Georgia, at the mission home with Pres. and Sis. Ostler, and teaching at a home in Paita :)

Elder Winget's getting transferred!

2008-10-20T08:22:00.001-07:00

We got email from Collin yesterday, and he had a pretty eventful week. Here's some of his email:

"Well I'll give you a rundown of my week... Monday we had a zone p-day kind of thing and played ultimate frisbee on the beach in Noumea... it was so fun! It got CRAZY windy and rainy and impossible to throw the frisbee but it was still so fun. I saw a real life starfish in the wild, and I saw hundreds of tiny tiny crabs!! like...quarter sized! It's a shame I didn't have my camera with me :( Oh well. Tuesday I did an exchange with Elder Payne, who is a newer missionary than I am, and it was scary to be alone with someone who speaks less french than I do!! But we did alright! He thinks he speaks better french than I do, but he really really doesn't.

BTW random side note .. some weird things I've eaten since I've been here: octopus twice, lobster once, and raw fish many times! Tahitians love this raw fish salad thing and always make it whenever we go anywhere. so yeah. Also people are obsessed with chow mein here. weird. Random NC word: Puree means mashed potatoes but also people use it like a swear like saying holy crap! ha ha! It's because it's kind of close to this other P word that is like an actual swear word. Meh, there's your random fact for the day...

Saturday was Valerie's baptism, finally... the marriage and baptism went great and perfectly smooth. We had lots of fun at their party thing after the wedding and I got some pretty good pictures. Sunday was Elder Tekurio's last Sunday, so all the missionaries did talks (kinda) Me and Elder Payne just bore our testimonies, but lots of people came up to me and told me my french was perfect so that made me really happy. French is still ridiculously hard for me but it's getting lots better. On Saturday night we were at the Dinne family house and they speak little little english and usually try to tell me stuff in english, but this time we all talked in french and it worked out really well and they said I'm "beaucoup mieux" than before :D :D :D"

"OH I JUST GOT TRANSFERS. (like right when he was typing the email) I'm going to Ducos with Elder Manarani, a tahitian who doesn't speak any english at all. OH dear... Ha ha. They're whitewashing Paita and putting in Sisters!!!! Oh my its so scary. We'll I'll tell you how that goes next week!

Love much many moosen,

Elder Winget"

Here's some pics Collin sent us in email. The resolution wasn't very good, so they are small. He didn't have time to describe what's going on in the pictures. He did say he and Elder Tekurio went to McDonalds for his birthday (Elder Tekurio's), so there he is standing by a McD. sign, but the others I'm not sure of the details.

Well, have a good week everyone!

Collin really doesn't spend all his time eating...

2008-10-16T07:23:00.001-07:00

Okay, after reading that last post I realized you may be getting the impression that Elder Winget spends a great deal of his week either eating, or planning to eat. Not true. Channing emailed him asking what his weekly schedule is like and when he eats so maybe they could plan to eat a poptart or something at the same time on the same day :D

Just for fun, here's another video:

More about life in Paita, New Caledonia

2008-10-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

I decided it's about time I updated the blog.

Here's some excerpts from last week's emails Collin sent to our family:

"we're progressing investigators for the Teigmoin Jehovah missionaries... ( that's Jehovah's Witnesses)... Ha ha ha. they come over every Friday, share with us a message, engage us to go to church and read in the bible... it's really funny to us that we're on the receiving end of the missionaries. We haven't yet gotten to the point that we send little kids outside to say "um, they're not home" or hide in the house and hurry and turn off the music and close all the curtains when their car comes around, like our investigators do to us :D ha ha. "

"I don't say too many french words forgetting that they're not really english... yet. The only ones i do say have to do with mission stuff:

sector=area, dirigent/chef=uh.. boss or leader, teigmoin Jehovah= Jehovah's Witness. and. i say a couple others but i forget. I'm pretty good at still writing in english."

"That's so crazy that it's snowing in Utah. I forget that snow like.. exists. Its so warm here all the time. The only time I was cold was back in winter/July and last week when I had a fever. Then I was really cold. But for the most part it's hot all the time. And weird thing about european countries is that NOBODY believes in air conditioning. Nobody. Everyone just opens windows and doors and gets a fan. Even at church we just open all the windows and turn on the ceiling fan. Crazy, eh?"

"oh man conference was so amazing yesterday and Saturday. I did watch it all in english, so I actually got something out of it :D ha ha. And I did see Caleb :) crazy! He's leaving the MTC for Korea tomorrow, by the way!" (Caleb is one of Collin's friends who sang in the MTC choir in General Conference)

"my schedule is pretty much Monday p-day, then dinner at the Aru family house

Tuesday, district meeting and then proselyting, and this week dinner at Soane's house

Wednesday, just port a porte (door to door tracting), and dinner at the Ahuroa family's house

Thursday is service in the morning, then dinner at Li-Khau family's house

Friday is finding (?) in the morning, weekly planning in the afternoon, then dinner at the Toyons house.

Saturday is just... whatever ( nothing is scheduled yet)

Sunday is church at 9, and then ... do whatever. sometimes dinner on those days too. We get fed every night! Basically, we eat lunch between 11:30 and 1 every day, and dinner is at someone's house... pretty much.

Um. Fabulous. I love you heaps and bounds and elephant pounds

love,

Elder Winget"

Here is a little video clip of some more of the "wildlife" in New Caledonia :) Elder Tekurio was lighting the water heater, then - Surprise!

another Picassa album is ready

2008-09-29T10:03:00.001-07:00

I added some more pictures to Picassa this morning. A quick way to see them is to go to a link over on the left of any of the other Picassa albums, such as "MTC pictures part deux", click on My Photos, and it should bring you to a menu of all Collin's albums we have up so far. Then just click on the ones you want to see. Collin sent us quite a few little video clips, and I will put one up every now and again. Channing put a few up on Collin's facebook page, so you can see some there also. I'm planning on doing a post that has some quotes from his recent emails and letters, but I don't have time right now, but I hope you enjoy the pictures! Here is Collin doing the "tim tam slam"( more info in the Picassa album)

New Pictures on Picassa

2008-09-28T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry it's taken me so long to put up the Picassa pics, but now they're here! The first installment is ready to view. More will come ASAP. Collin mentioned in today's email that some of you have been asking for pictures :)

In today's email,Collin says he will get to watch General Conference, but not until the week after it's broadcast. He is pretty sure he can even watch it in English, because he says if it was all in French he wouldn't understand very much of it yet. They had a baptism scheduled for last week, but it had to be postponed until October. They have another baptism scheduled soon, but I'm not sure when. Collin is doing well, and loves living in New Caledonia. He misses ranch dressing, Reese's p.b. cups, and starburst, but there's plenty of food to like in New Caledonia as well. Check out the pictures in the new Picassa album - you'll see he gets to eat tim tams, Crax cereal, and hamburgers on french baguettes, among other things. Last week he ate lobster at a member's house, and Soane, a man they just baptized, made them octopus (yikes!) but Collin said it was quite good! There's a picture of Soane, with Elder Winget, Tekurio, and Huuti.

Well, it's late, and I need to go to bed. I will put up more pictures and maybe some video sometime this week. Collin wants me to pass on to you all how much he appreciates the letters you send him - letters from home mean a LOT to missionaries! So thanks everyone!!

the votes are in... lizard tail video wins!

2008-08-30T07:10:00.000-07:00

This video was taken in Collin and Elder Tekurio's apartment in Paita. I guess if you grab a lizard by the tail its tail comes off, and keeps on moving. Yikes! If you listen closely, you can hear Collin say "more of it came off" when he tried to grab the lizard again. These lizards live in everyone's houses and eat all the mosquitos. I have to admit, they are pretty cute :)

first pictures from New Caledonia!!

2008-08-30T06:49:00.000-07:00

We just got over 300 pictures and video in a package from Collin yesterday! This one is Collin "preaching" in Paita. The other pictures are a family he and Elder Tekurio are teaching, and the chief's hut at that tribe they visited. Fun stuff! I will be putting up some new albums on Picassa as I have time for it. Wow, I'm like a kid in a candy store with all this new stuff!!

Elder Winget is doing very well, and has been having many fun and interesting adventures. So we chose a good title for this blog after all :)

I'll put a couple more pictures in this post, and I'll have the family vote on which video they want me to put up first, and that will be in the next post. Then the Picassa albums will take a while, but I promise to do it ASAP.

a little Q and A with Elder Winget

2008-08-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

Here's some questions we've asked Collin in emails over the last couple of weeks, and his answers. I decided to just copy and paste this into a post, because it tells some interesting info. about what life is like in Nouvelle Caledonie. i hope this will tide you over until we get some fresh pictures. Here you go:

What is the cost of living like there? Pretty expensive.. From what I hear the Dollar is pretty close to 100 francs, and most stuff is really expensive.. We eat a lot of rice and chicken. My companion is a good cook. We actually have had steak quite a few times, because it's really cheap here compared to a lot of stuff. Fish, interstingly enough, is expensive. No one wants to fish here, it makes them feel poor.

how are you and your comp getting along? Great! We're good friends and we can talk for a long time and make each other laugh. Sometimes just talking about whatever gets in the way of the work, but we work hard too.

how is the language? Kind of hard.. The accent is weird. First few days I didn't understand ANYTHING. but I'm starting to get it. All the little quirks of New Caledonian french are interesting.

Are you teaching anyone? Yes, quite a few people actually! We have 2 really progressing investigators and a few others that aren't really progressing. On the 18th we engaged a guy named Soane to be baptized and he said yes! August 18th.( Yes, he did get baptized - I will post more about that in another blog)

what is the food like? Great. We get fed a lot by members. They're all really poor so we get like rice and whatever meat and vegetables usually, but it's very normal food. Tahitian food is really weird, but pretty good. I hav en't run into anything too gross to eat yet.

do you have or need a bike? nope. We are in a car. There is only one area in NC that have bikes. Mostly cars, a few walking.

do you ever wear your lava lava? Nope, people don't really wear them here. I'm using it to decorate my desk.

Are you healthy? Yeah, I feel really good actually. No specific complaints.

Are you getting sunburned? No, interestingly enough. i haven't even been wearing sunscreen.. :P

how is the weather? Kind of cold actually.. It gets really cold at night. During the day it's pretty hot though.. But I hear int he actual summer time it can get up to 100 degrees though.. :(

do you see any cool animals? Nah, lots of stray dogs. WELL, actually there are tonnnnz of lizards everywhere. They're really nice, they run around people's houses like mice, except for they dont' do anything bad. They eat all the bugs too. TYhey're really fast. I'll have to get some pictures of them.

is the culture real different? YEah, nothing too weird. They keep their doors open all the time. They are mostly really nice. The french is weird and hard to understand. Very Frenchlike in the city, but very 3rdworldish outside the city in some places. But weirdly enough, everyone has a TV. There are 2 channels over the air, but a lot of people have satellites.

If you wanted to do so, would you be allowed to fish? Not sure. A member gave us a bunch of fish and we fried it up yesterday though. Another member gave us a bunch of other food at the same time.. Great way to break our fast.. I was stuffed!

What are your church meetings like? Wierd. The members here are.. interesting. And it's all in french. :P

How big is the branch you are in? Pretty small. I'm not sure how many members. But the chapel meeting room is the size of our elder's quorum room back home. Well.. Maybe two of them.

Are there any wards on New Caledonia? Nope.

How many missionaries are in New Caledonia?. bout 30

What is the average number of Baptisms in New Caledonia per month or year? 30ish. last year 36. to date this year, 18.

Has there been any weird food you had to eat?. Nope, everything is normal so far!

Have you seen any weird bugs or animals? Just the centipede i just told you about!! (a picture will be coming soon)

Do you do much tracting? We tract for about an hour or so on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Wednesday is half day at the kids schools, so the parents have to be home. Other than that, nobody will listen, or it's just moms alone at home, or they're taking a nap, or watching mexican soap operas (serious) and won't do anything else. :) During wednesday and saturday it's fairly effective though.

Do the members help much? ... No. We're really trying to change that though.

How big is your area? Not huge, but big enough that we need a car. Just the city of Paita.

How much time does your comp have left on his mission? 3 months

Are the members as good singers as indicated in the book "other side of heaven?" Nope. French singers suck. Try watching a church movie in french. it's painful.

What kind of building do you meet in for church? it's... like a normal church, except for no halls.. it's not enclosed. all the rooms have outside doors. Kind of hard to explain.. I'll try and get a picture.

Are you still experiencing "america loving" from everyone? yeah, for the most part. :) it's not from everyone, just from a few people. most people just like us though.

BTW with mail, it's not as scary as it sounds.. Usually everything goes through fine, but just sometimes they get stupid and feel like sending stuff back that wasn't perfect. You most likely won't have a problem, but still try to do everyhting right if possible. :)

Spinning - BAD part 2

2008-08-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

We love this video! Collin has sent us quite a few funny little video clips, so I decided I'm going to make a DVD for him for when he gets back. If you want to see it, come to his welcome home party and we'll play it then :) Actually, I have been working on his DVD a lot lately, so that's another reason I've been behind on the blog. Well, I hope you like this sample!

Spinning - BAD part 1

2008-08-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Collin made a little video on his last day in Georgia that we thought was pretty funny. Here is part 1 of "Spinning- Bad" Part 2 is in the next post.

finally, a new post!

2008-08-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

Hello all you loyal and patient blog readers! I really underestimated how busy I would be doing all the back-to school stuff! Now I have a few minutes to sit down and let you know Elder Winget is indeed alive and well in New Caledonia. The above picture is from when he was in Georgia. We still haven't received any New Caledonia pictures yet, but Collin let us know that his memory card is on its way here, and hopefully we will get it sometime this week. Also, I will put in the very next blog all the interesting FAQ about Collin's life in the islands that our family asked in emails and his answers. He has had a baptism already, and another scheduled for September. He has seen giant bugs, tiny house-lizards, and is slowly adjusting to the unusual Polynesian version of French that is spoken there. I actually need to go now, but will post more later today :D Thanks everyone who reads this and for the gentle reminders that you want more Elder Winget info. That makes us and Elder Winget happy :)

Just a little info about emailing...

2008-07-27T19:18:00.001-07:00

we would like to tell you that Collin does love getting emails from you all, but that would be cool if you could please keep it short, because he only has one hour total on the computer each week, and when he gets as many emails as he does that isn't very much time, and he's said that he feels bad when he can't get to all of them. it would be a big help if there is some thing that you could say in a letter to send it there, but by all means, keep sending him emails! just maybe shorter ones :) we keep 94 cent stamps at our house, so if you need one, we'll be happy to share!!

peace out

Big screen TV in a grass hut? DO READ.

2008-07-15T19:24:00.000-07:00

We finally got an email from Collin from new caledonia! Here it is. It's pretty great :)

Hey so I'm in New Caledonia right now.. Cool, eh? It's 10:35 AM and I'm in a very small city named La Foa on exchanges with an Elder named Huuti. He's Tahitian. So my P-Day is on Monday, but there is nowhere that has internet on Mondays so we end P-day an hour earlier and do Email on Tuesdays. And due to weird circumstances I didn't get to do email on Tuesday, so Here I am on Wednesday Morning doing email.

General info: My companion is Elder Tekurio who is from Tahiti, but lived in Florida for 23 years.. So he's American. Pretty much. He's really cool and we get along great. The French is really hard, and I currently don't understand a word anyone says, but everyone understands me. Weird, but whatever. We have taught some great lessons and yesterday with Elder Huuti we went to a Tribe.. With a real Chef (Chief), Kaz (grass huts) and everything! But the bizarre part is one of the families we taught had a big screen tv and a really nice laptop inside their shack. I really don't know what that's all about. Everything here is... weird. Half the stuff is really really third worldish, and then people also have REALLY western everything! Everyone speaks french, and here and there we run across someone who speaks a little English, but everyone seems weirdly obsessed with americans. So they love me. Even though I don't say anything. Ha ha. One of the member families we taught a family home evening lesson with and the fed us were like talking to me in english and they gave me this skirt thing (i'm not sure what it's called here) like a lava lava and they were like obsessed with me. Elder Tekurio said that was the most excited he'd ever seen them. Elder Tekurio is completely fluent in English and French, cuz he lived in America for so long, but also lived in Tahiti for a while, and he only speaks french to people.. So if you ask them, he understands English but doesn't speak any. It's funny.

We don't have any pictures yet, but we hope that soon we'll get one of his little man skirt. :D

Elder Winget traveled through time!!!

2008-07-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

Collin has arrived safely in Fiji, and will be going to New Caledonia on Wednesday morning. Since his flight went out from L.A. at almost midnight, and Fiji/New Caledonia is a day ahead of us timewise, Collin skipped July 6th entirely and arrived in Fiji 10 hours later on July 7th! Whoa... that's weird to think about. Collin's cousin, Matt, and his wife Deneal, have been living in Fiji while Matt works at the U.S. Embassy there. They couldn't pass up a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet for a little while at the mission home before Collin leaves for New Caledonia. Lucky for us, they took pictures and video, and emailed them to us! Yay! I hope this link to the video works, but if not, be patient with us and we will figure something out. BTW, the password to view, if you need it, is "collin"

http://www.vimeo.com/1298591

Alas, it seems that you can't click on this link after all, BUT if you highlight that vimeo address and copy and paste it into the address bar, it works. I will try to put it in the links section maybe tomorrow, and that should be better. Man, modern technology makes it so much easier for a mom to have a missionary half-way around the world :)

How to write to Collin

2008-07-06T16:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the official word from the Fiji Suva mission office on how to write to Collin:

Dear friends and family of a New Caledonia missionary,

Our missionaries are thrilled to recieve letters and packages from home. Such signs of love mean a lot to every missionary. However, please be aware that when you send mail and packages to the mission office in Suva, Fiji, it costs the mission large sums of money and a much longer delivery time to forward your letter or package on to New Caledonia.

Therefore, please note the following address to which you should send your packages and letters to have them delivered more quickly, and at no extra cost to the mission:

FOR LETTERS:

Elder Collin Winget

Bureau de la Mission

B P 15154

Cedex

98804 Noumea Cedex

NEW CALEDONIA

FOR PACKAGES:

Bureau de la Mission

B P 15154

98804 Noumea

NEW CALEDONIA

ATTN: Elder Collin Winget

Please make sure for packages you have the missionary's name AFTER the address. The value limit is $2oo. All receipts must accompany the items. Remove CD's from packaging. Only send 2 or 3 similar items such as shirts, pants, socks, ties. They are suspicious of items for resale. Do not send jerky or medications, they will be destroyed.

Sincerely,

Sister Robbins

Mission secretary

Fiji Suva mission

So, Channing and I were wondering... what have they got against jerky anyway? We were imagining all the possible reasons we could think of for destroying jerky, and Channing illustrated our crazy thought processes.

(not sure if this is clickable, so if it's not, you can just copy and paste it.)

BTW, it will cost 94 cents to send a letter to New Caledonia, and it should take approx. 6 days.

http://fc03.deviantart.com/fs30/i/2008/170/d/a/jerky__Jerky__JERKY_by_cakeface.jpg

4th of July surprise!

2008-07-05T13:52:00.000-07:00

Our family had a great 4th! It's always great since it's Cameron's birthday that day, but it was extra special this year because we got a phone call from Collin telling us his visa came in and he is headed to Fiji TODAY!! Today is the 5th, BTW. I will put his new address in New Caledonia in the next post. He should be there within the next couple of days!! Yay! Collin said he left some stuff, including a memory card from his camera, with his companion in Georgia, and he will be sending it over to us soon. As soon as it comes in I will post pictures Collin took while in Georgia. July 4th is one of those kind of days where we miss Collin a lot, due to the fact that he and his cousins and Dad get together and blow stuff up and generally have as much fun as they legally can with the fireworks. I made 2 Elder Winget cardboard cut-outs that I stuck in family photos just for fun and to make it seem ALMOST like he was with us... (I'll put some more up on our Picassa album thingy so you can see what other weird stuff we were up to with our fake Elder Collin :) )

Collin will get to call us one last time from the L.A. airport tonight, and then he's off for a 10 hour flight to Fiji! The weird thing is, he will arrive there on July 7th. Fiji is 1 day ahead of us, so with the earth turning and Collin flying over several time zones that means... oh well, that makes my brain hurt! You figure it out if you want and explain it to me! It's funny that he gets to Fiji on the 7th, because that was his original departure date before he was told to leave the MTC 2 weeks early, and then go over to Georgia and all. So basically, he is where he's supposed to be, and everything just works out :).

It has come to our attention...

2008-07-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

we've noticed that a million billion people are reading this blog, but we only get a couple of comments on each post, and a few none at all. I'm SURE that you all want to post, but you just don't have a blog, so it's not letting you. so i changed the settings so everyone can post, so hopefully this makes people more willing to post or whatever. KTHNX THAT'S ALL

heart/Channing.

*EDIT* if you want to post but don't have a blog, click the "NameID" bubble, and you can just type in your name. then it will say stuff like [yourname] said: "WOW. this blog is amazing. i think i'll go give channing a large sum of money." like that. HAPPY POSTING.

Stories from the MTC- c'est choc!

2008-06-28T06:01:00.000-07:00

I have a little time today, so I'm going to tell you one of Collin's stories... once upon a time, WAY back in the MTC, Collin told us a funny story about this man here - He is in the bishopric in Collin's branch in the MTC. His name is Brother Matage (pronounced ma tong ee, but I don't know if I spelled it right) He is from Samoa. I'll let Collin tell the story in his own words from a letter he wrote us back at the end of May:

I got a letter from Aaron and he's doing well. He's super choc ( the awesomest French Islander way to say cool) So... oh yeah I actually have a story about that word. K so one of the teachers went to New Caledonia and my teacher was telling us about him and he always does the hang loose sign thing and says "c'est choc" all the time and my district decided that was the most awesome thing ever so we do that constantly. Our branch president's counselor is from Samoa and so he's like super cool and laid back and so we asked him to say "c'est choc" and do that sign and he was like ok... shaka? (choc is pronounced shoc with the o being like chocolate) And he told us the story of the hang loose hand signal...

In Hawaii there was this fisherman who was attacked by a shark (shaka) and it bit off his 3 middle fingers. So when he waved at the tourists, he waved with only his thumb and pinky, and they'd ask "what does that mean?" And because he didn't know English he'd just say Shaka, which means shark. :) So people started waving like that and stuff. Anyway, it was awesome. It's just a coincidence that choc rhymes w/ shaka, but it was funny anyway.

When I can, I'll tell some more MTC stories. bye.

What Collin did after calling us at the airport

2008-06-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Anyway, I'll tell you everything I can think of that has happened thus far. After I hung up with you guys on the phone, I ran up to the gate and was second to the last person to get on the plane, and the lady was really surprised I got there. I run up and they were getting ready to load the next plane, and she's like are you going to Atlanta?? So I said yes, am I too late? And she said No, but we're doing very last call right now so you better hurry. And I said Okay! Thanks! and I hurried down the ramp. Luckily there was still a few people in line to get on the plane still, so I wasn't missing much. The problem was, however, that there was almost no carry-on space! Lots of people apparently had put their personal item in the top racks and I had nowhere to put my little rolling bag. So I sat there in the back of the plane and waited for everyone to sit so I could get to the front of the plane where the only last little bit of space was, and then when I got there it was all full! So I just stood there and I'm like ah, crap. But it wasn't just me, there were about 3 other people with the same problem. The flight attendants announced for anyone who put their lap bags in the overhead space to please take them out so we could put our crap up there and actually leave the gate on time. (it was getting down to 2 minutes before departure) so everybody did that, and I found basically the last remaining space and I took it. Fortunately there ended up being just enough space for everyone, so nobody had to check their carry on bags, and we took off right on time. On the flight I ended up sitting between an RM and Elder Flanagan. He eventually fell asleep and I eventually got to sleep as well. I'm glad I did, I only had between 1 1/2 and 2 hours sleep the night before. Unfortunately though, I didn't get to preach to anyone on the plane, which was something I was looking forward to. When I woke up I messed around a little bit with the screen thing on the back of the headrests, where usually they have movies, tv, and games. I didn't have any headphones so I wasn't too tempted by anything. I watched probably 2 min of CNN without sound, and I read a little bit of the scrolling stuff on the bottom. They also had a section where you can see exactly where the plane was in the states (tracked by GPS), what the speed, temperature, miles travelled/to go, came from time and destination time, and estimated arrival. That was very interesting and I watched that for a few minutes, but after that I made my way to the games section. They had an inflight trivia that you compete against others on the plane, and I decided that was the only thing I could justify within the rules, so I gave it a shot. Some rounds I actually did pretty good, but most of the questions were geared for older people, with like older movies, tv, and sports so I had no idea for a lot of it. However, one game I ended up getting about 3rd place on the high scores list (just for that flight). But that was pure luck. I didn't know any of the answers and just ended up randomly clicking the right ones for a long streak.

I ended up travelling with Elders Flanagan and Haws, and Sister/Hermana Howard. Me and Flan, obviously, are waiting for our New Caledonia visas, Elder Haws is waiting for a Tahiti visa (also through France), and Sister Howard is waiting for a visa from.. Somewhere in South America. I can't remember exactly where. But anyway, we got off the plane smoothly and went towards baggage claim, which was about a half mile walk. They literally had a train that went from one end of the airport to the baggage claim area. But we just walked and took the moving sidewalk things. Our APs for the mission met us there, told us about our companions, and drove us to our destinations. It was about a 45 minute drive from the Airport to my apartment, and that's where I said goodbye to the other elders and the sister. Since it wasn't a normal transfer day, I didn't get to meet the mission president like most new missionaries do. I was the only elder going to that companionship/area/apartment. They were originally a threesome, and I broke it up into two pairs. My companion is Elder Lewis from southern California. Like, really really southern. He says it's 7 miles from the ocean, 7 miles from the border. He's been out 18 months. He's really chill and I get along with him great. The other two elders are Elders Tigges (tigger without the r he says :)) and Allred. Elder Tigges (pronounced tiggis) is from North Carolina and Elder Allred is from Salt Lake. Those two elders get the car, and me and my companion get the bikes. That afternoon I unpacked and took about a half hour nap, went to wal-mart and bought some food (they gave me 160 dollars.. apparently they usually give the visa waiters like 30. awesome!!) and then we went out to visit a family. They are a black family a few miles away from our apartment, comprising of Pearl who just got baptized about a week before I came in, and is divorced. She has a daughter from her ex-husband and two sons. The two sons are 16 and 18 and are named Kaliid and Jabrii. The spelling is a little different, but I can't remember. Her two grandsons who are from her daughter also live there and they're named Ray Ray and Didon. The two older kids are getting ready to be baptized on Friday, so we went and taught them the fourth lesson, or the commandments. They seemed to be a little bit queezy when we taught them about chastity and the word of wisdom, but they seemed to accept it. They are reading and going to church, and haven't had much chance to go to young mens activities, but I think they will start going soonish. The next day they had their baptismal interviews, and it turns out Kaliid (the 16 year old) doesn't feel ready to get baptized on friday, so it will just be Jabrii. They're all really cool and really nice and Pearl works for Great Clips. Ray Ray is super friendly and is always really excited to see us. He is sadly addicted to video games, and has been playing Grand Theft Auto, so he talks a lot about killing cops and running people over, and my companion tells me he can have quite a mouth, but I haven't heard it. We're not sure if he learned it from the video games or other people or both, but GTA is famous for its very very course language so I wouldn't be surprised either way. He is a pretty good kid and Pearl tells us he gets up some days and really wants to go to church, and she has to tell him to wait until Sunday!! He's really cute and I'm excited that he's so excited to go to church and read from the Book of Mormon stories book. I think he isn't allowed to play the violent video games anymore since pearl got baptized, but I don't know how well that is working out so far. He still has a ton of potential though and I'm sure he'll turn out to be a good kid with some help from his family. He likes to pray when we come over and it's so cute. Heavenly Father, thank you for family, help us be good, name of Jesus, amen. :D awesome kid. Didon is 8 and wants to be baptized (grr, i keep typing baptise because of french.. Il veut que se fait baptise. wait, is baptise a word? blah.) and we're waiting on his Mom to receive the lessons, and apparently she's very willing and interested, but the missionaries in her area are slacking. Grr. They're great people though, and I'm happy to teach them. I'm still a quiet shy sidekick missionary right now, but I'm warming up quick.

We also visited Eugene and James King, who are a family that live a little closer to our appartment. Every time we come over they're just chilling out on the porch smoking. I wanted to tell you about them, but interestingly enough, James (I think he's 20) showed up at the library and talked to us for a little while. He's a funny kid. I like him. I wish he would keep his commitments because I think he would be a good investigator, if he was willing to progress. Eugene is his dad, an older guy who has been a trucker for a while. He has a really thick southern accent and I can't understand half of what he says. But he's interesting. He has a long beard and smokes a lot, but he's still cool. I'm not sure what the deal with the mom is there, I think she lives there but I don't know if they're divorced or what, but I'll find out later with more time. I can't just like go up and ask these things, ya know.

Today we went to a restaurant about 15 miles away from our appartment with a member, who is very interesting. She's a chiropractor from the area and before that she lived in Minnesoda. She says that she knew some Wingets from there who actually pronounced it our way! It was cool to hear that! She said Hi Elder Winget (pronounced right) wait.. is it Wing-it? I was so surprised. It was cool to hear someone pronounce it right the first time!

Right now we are at the University of West Georgia at their library. And this brings us to now. :D I set up my email the way I like it and looked at my Picasa site and posted something on my blog, and now here we are. :D I sent a letter to Aaron and Janae today, and I think I'll send a little snail mail to home, but it will be short since I have sent this ridiculously long email! :) I put my addresses up on my blog, so if y'all wanna send stuff, send it there!

Well I guess this is the end, i hope you have enjoyed this!

Love,
Elder Winget

What a surprise!!

2008-06-26T09:29:00.000-07:00

Wow! We actually got a surprise visit from Collin himself! That was unexpected. He emailed us from a library in Georgia, and thanks to his computer skills, posted on this blog! Now I have to put up some decent things here since I know he might check it from time to time. His p-day is Wednesday, BTW. If you want to leave a comment on this here blog, Collin will probably read it next week. He says he doesn't know if he will be allowed to do this when he gets over to New Caledonia, so send in your comments, folks, because we don't know how soon his visa will come in and the rules may change. He sent us a really long email telling us what he's been up to since we talked to him from the airport, so that will be the next post...

(This is Channing) I would like to announce that i am NOT a crazy cat lady, and I usually look normal. This is just soon after I rolled out of bed to talk to Collin. ^^

Our stupid cats wouldn't get out of the way for us to type, so we took a picture to send to Collin since we were discussing this whilst chatting with him. We think Charlie's depressed because he misses Collin, but since he's a stupid cat, we don't know for sure. But he does look depressed, doesn't he? Okay, next post: news from Collin.

Bwa haha!

2008-06-25T06:52:00.001-07:00

Guess what? This is ELDER WINGET typing on my own blog.

I know, it's strange. But you like it.

Anyway, I'm here in Carrollton Georgia right now, just chillin at a public library. Things are great here. It is so green everywhere. We're teaching some awesome people and the work is going great.

I was super bummed when I heard i wasn't going to New Caledonia right away, but I like it here so far, so I couldn't have asked for a better place to stay while I await my visa.

My companion is Elder Lewis from California. We share an apartment with two other Elders named Elder Allred and Elder Tigges. (Sp?) They're cool too. Anyway, I am going to go email some families, but in parting I'd like to tell you my address for the time being. Remember I could be leaving anywhere from a week to 3 months, so if your mail gets returned, it just means I've gone on to Fiji.

Elder Collin Winget
104B Danny Dr.
Carrollton, GA 30017

Crazy changes for Elder Winget AGAIN!

2008-06-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Hey all you loyal Collinheads! The crazy changes just keep happening lately! I have just spent the last week running around, getting the last minute things Collin needed to leave the country for Fiji 2 weeks earlier than expected. Just when everything got all put together, with his flight plans finalized and everything, he got another surprise! His visa hasn't come in yet, so today he is off to the Georgia, Atlanta mission until his visa comes in. Apparently they are pretty picky who they give visas to these days, and France likes to check things out pretty thoroughly before they let people come over to New Caledonia. We have no idea how long it will be until he leaves for the Pacific Islands, but Collin is ready to go, where ever and whenever he is sent. I think he was going a little stir crazy at the MTC , sitting in classes for 12 hours a day! So he is looking forward to the adventure of teaching the gospel in Atlanta. We were lucky enough to talk to him twice on the phone in the past 3 days, so he could inform us of all the travel changes and where we could reach him. It was so good to hear his voice!! He sounds wonderful, same Collin as always, but now he has the added bonus feature of being able to speak and bear his testimony in French! He told us he bought an extra Book of Mormon in english and one in french, just in case he got to talk to anyone on the plane :)

We are not sure how to reach him in Atlanta yet, but we did a test letter from the DearElder website and sent it to the Georgia, Atlanta mission. I'll let you know how that worked out.

I have some interesting stories that Collin has told us during his adventures in the MTC, but since I'm not quite smart enough to figure out how to put multiple pictures on one blog post, I will do them seperately.

Some exciting changes for Collin!

2008-06-15T20:58:00.000-07:00

Collin just emailed us on Friday to tell us that he will be leaving for Fiji in a week, instead of July 7th like originally planned. He will leave on June 23 and fly to L.A. where he will have a 3 hour lay over. He will be allowed to call us from the airport, so we're really excited! Then he will fly straight to Fiji from there. I don't know if he will be staying in Fiji before he goes on to New Caledonia, but he said he would be in New Caledonia by the 28th. He's really excited to go. He's been getting tired of spending 12 hours in class every day, and is ready to go out and teach the gospel.

So, we all have just one week to send Collin anything at the MTC, and after that, it's going to cost quite a bit more! The DearElder website doesn't deliver to New Caledonia, so we have to use U.S. postal service,I guess. If you try to send a letter to Collin in New Caledonia via DearElder, it will cost the mission home in Fiji a lot of money to forward it on to New Caledonia, so they have asked us to tell everyone NOT to send mail for Collin to Fiji. Don't worry, I will post the address for the New Caledonia mission home, and the rules for mail there, and the approximate costs of sending stuff there in the next blog entry.

Collin wants to thank everyone who has written to him so far. It really means a lot to him to get your letters!

Collin sent new pictures today!

2008-06-02T18:34:00.000-07:00

Collin is posing with Jean-Luc Picard that Channing made for him. ( Will he ever make his bed? oh well) He is doing great! Take a look at the new pictures he sent us -Channing will post a link to the left called" MTC part deux" Check it out, there's some good ones.

Here's some quotes from Collin's latest letters:

"MTC is great, but I can't wait to leave!"

"I'm so excited to go to New Caledonia that it's ridiculous. On Sunday I decided that we are just going now, even though we're by no means ready."

"Thank you for all the prayers. I am getting along great here and I know it's because of your prayers and everyone else's :) Thank You!" And last but not least, "Oh, and nobody from the ward ever writes me... Why?"

So, come on everybody, let's all send Collin letters! Just click on the link to the left - DearElder.com, and you can send him a free letter. It only takes a few minutes, and the letters get printed up and delivered every weekday at noon. the Elders in the MTC get their DearElder letters delivered to them while they are eating dinner, so it's pretty fun for them.

Well, enjoy the pictures!

IT'S FIXED, GUYZ!

2008-05-20T18:41:00.000-07:00

hey so I, in all my fabulousness, fixed the link to the piktchurz of collin. so if you were to click on the link on your left, it would ACTUALLY take you to some pictures. incase you were wondering.

*this blog entry brought to you by channing*

Working on the problem with the photos

2008-05-20T10:09:00.000-07:00

For those of you who can't see Collin's pics from this blog, hang in there - We are working on it. The problem is, some of the info here was set up on Channing's google account, and some of it was set up on mine ( Kristie's). The 2 of us have been so busy that we are never both home at the same time except when we're asleep! We need to be together to figure this mess out. That will probably not happen until Saturday. Until then, here is another cute picture of Collin :)

Collin sent us pictures!

2008-05-14T19:07:00.001-07:00

Collin sent us a bunch of pictures on Monday! Here is one of many - if you want to take a look at the rest, go to the link section and click on the picasa website. It should take you to our album. We are really new at this picasa thing, so if you are having trouble seeing the pictures, leave a comment at the end of this post and I will see if there is something I can do about it... I hope! Collin reports that he is doing well at the MTC. He says learning french is hard work, but he is not struggling with the language. He says he is told that his french accent is quite good, actually. The hard part about the MTC is waking up so early, he says. But the food is really good, he says, because there's so much of it! The above picture is Collin and some elders in his district on their way to the temple. Next to Collin , in the red tie, is Elder Amundsen. On the other side of Collin is Elder Boome, who is from England. The guy on the end I don't know - Collin forgot to tell us who he is. He mentioned there is an elder from Austria who speaks German and English, and is now learning french along with all the elders in their district. So, that might be him.

It's so wonderful to get his letters and hear how much he enjoys being a missionary. He says, " The Spirit is quite strong here and it's helping me a ton. I'm glad I'm here."

I just figured out how to do links!

2008-05-09T21:25:00.000-07:00

( from Kristie) I am so proud of myself ! This is a big deal, because Collin, who is a computer genius, always did everything for me on the computer. Now our family is forced to muddle through things without him for a while. Collin really had us spoiled, I guess! Anyway, check out the links over to the left - "Collin's mission- related websites". DearElder is the easiest, most convenient way to send a letter to Collin, and he reports that he LOVES getting DearElder letters. The New Caledonia site is a great one to get an idea of where in the world he will be - just check out the interactive map, it's pretty fun. When I find other sites of interest I will put them in the links section, so I can try out my new skills.