Practical Birthday Gifts Can be Opened Early

Picture of a Pohnpeian Road
Dear Mom and Dad,
Well, this week is not a holiday here on island so I will get the chance to write a normal length email. Thank you for the birthday comments. I honestly don't feel like my birthday is anywhere close. It doesn't seem like I even have a birthday anymore sometimes. Your packages and comments helped me remember a bit though. Thank you for all the stuff you sent out. I hope I don't make you mad by this but since you told me in the letter that the presents you sent out were all practical stuff I decided to open them early. haha I know I'm terrible. Sorry. You mentioned there were three in total but I only got one box with two in it. Maybe another is on the way but if not that is fine. I am grateful for the pens and new shoes. My old crocs were getting old. I almost wore a hole right through the sole on them. The new ones are great.
So this last week on Pohnpei was a rough one for me. Work got shot so badly for us in our area. We had an exchange with the elders who are staying in Sokehs early on. I worked with Elder Iglesia (a district leader here) in Palikir. I shouldn't say I worked with him actually because that is wrong. He came to Palikir on Tuesday night with me and the next morning he woke up with a fever of 103 degrees. I took him to the hospital that morning and then stayed with him in the house all day. It was a long day and we had a lot of appointments that had to be forgotten. He is doing much better now though which is good. Elder Brandenburg and I had to pick up the Assistants on Thursday at the airport and didn't get to start work until later that afternoon. I went with Elder T and saw all our Chuukese investigators. It was a blast working with him and he blows me away with how well he knows Chuukese. My Chuukese is defintely rusty but I understand pretty much everything that is said. It is just harder for me to say it than it used to be. I get by ok though. On Thursday the Assistants went out and worked with different areas after our district meeting. They split up between the two districts so they could meet with as many companionships as possible. That was a normal day for Elder Brandenburg and me after that. On Saturday though we got shot badly. Elder T had been under the weather a bit when he was with us on Thursday and had actually thrown up Friday morning a few times but got better in time to go out with the different areas. Saturday he got hit again and had a really bad headache and stomachache. If you knew Elder T you would know that the only thing that will stop him from working is the worst of the worst conditions. We went to pick him up that day and brought him to our area. We were going to do weekly planning which takes like 3 hours so we figured he could nap while we did that at our house. We ended up staying in all day with him to help him feel better. He was vomiting a lot and not doing well at all. We think we know what caused it but I won't go into details. He ended up staying with us for the rest of his time on Pohnpei. Sunday we all went to church in Palikir and then went back and rested at the house. Elder T and Elder Colemere left for Chuuk last night around 1:30AM so we took them to the airport. It was a long week in the house. It made me really miss talking to our investigators and doing work. All is normal now though so it is good.
Our area is still doing well and we have some great people we are helping. They will be baptized but not in the next couple weeks. There are a of couple families and others. They are all awesome people and are doing really well.
This week I will be going to Guam for zone leader council. We leave on Saturday then come back on Monday like usual. When we come back we will have leadership training and zone conference that week. It is going to be a good experience but will be really hectic like those weeks usually are. I think we are getting into a good routine with these kinds of meetings though so it should be much smoother than organizing all the ones in the past.
Not too much else has changed here this week. I am glad that you both still doing well. Uncle Shaun wrote told me about stuff going on back home with the Hughes and others.
I ate dog for a second time this week. It was last night actually. It was only a small amount but it was good like the last one. It is almost a half way between dark turkey meat and beef. I really enjoy it. I hope I get more in the future.
Thank you again for everything you do for me. I love you both so much.
Love Always,
Elder Kevin South
P.S. I will send off a camera chip next week to you. I showed Elder T the stuff he wanted to see and I was going to mail it off today but I left it at our house on accident. Next week for sure though!