Double Baptism!

Last Saturday Belizo and Joanna got baptized, that was awesome. A lot of their family came to it and to church the next day. They are a weak/part member family we are trying to work hard with. As a result of their baptisms we set a baptismal date with their mom for later this month! We are pretty stoked about that. We have 2 baptisms this week with Suega and a girl named Noa. Noa is a referral we got from a member last week. She is 18 years old and is living with a member family for school this year. We taught her lesson one and she accepted baptism and wanted it for this week. Elder Pu'efua and I felt like she was ready so this week it is. Suega is this week as well, we have been working with her for about a month and a half and we are excited the day has finally come!

Alex, who was supposed to be baptized this week is getting pushed back, the main reason is because he wasn't able to make it to church. The other big reason is we are now teaching his dad. We talked with his dad and he really opened up to us. He told us he wants to change. He talked of how he is the leader of the family but showing a horrible example for them. All of his children are baptized and his wife but he is not. He is a heavy smoker and drinker. We are going to continue to work with him and if he accepts baptism we will do Alex and him together. We picked up a couple other people for baptism this week. Next week we will either have 1,2, or 3 baptisms. It is all kind of all up in the air. The one baptism that is for sure next week is Tu'i. So she was supposed to be this week but she was in the hospital for a week and half because her 4 year old son tripped on a knife and stabbed himself. That was really sad news to hear about. He is doing good though. When she returned home and told her brother (who is a leader of a different church) that she was getting baptized, she got kicked out of the house. So now she is living with a member family. She is going through a lot right now but I know she will be extremely blessed as she enters the waters of baptism.

That is the update on all of our investigators. Our church ended after sacrament in our last ward we go to on Sunday. The power went out so they just ended church. Everyone was pretty excited and it meant we got to go eat sooner so that was kind of nice haha. Well my companion has more boils, poor guy. He has like 3 boils under each armpit so that stinks. Good news is we can still do the work it doesn't affect his walking, it just hurts a lot. Hopefully he gets better soon. The member we live with has a washing machine we have been using, which we have been extremely lucky. We are one of few companionships that have a washing machine. Until last night when it broke. So I washed my clothes by hand for the first time in my life today so that was kind of fun. Wish I had the washing machine though haha. Life is good here in Samoa. The Lords work continues. Hope everyone has an awesome week!

Elder Roberts

 Faiai

Joanna and Belizos's Baptism, they are standing right in front of me 

Teaching Joanna

We took Noa to the Visitors Center, she is on the left of me 

Family Home Evening 

 Classic Samoa Pt. 1

Classic Samoa Pt. 2

Storms

This week was awesome. We found tons of new investigators just from talking to people on the street, and set up a couple more baptismal dates. On Saturday we went to a funeral from some guy in one of our wards. The Samoan Funerals are soo crazy. They bring the body in and just put tons of mats and fabric on top of the coffin. Then the Chief of the village just starts going off in his Chief language. The Chiefs have a different language it's pretty cool. They had ton's of food so that was cool. Half of my district got transferred this week so district meeting was kind of weird. Elder Pu'efua and I are both still here though.

We have 2 baptisms this Saturday. Joanna is 9 years old and Belizo is 10 years old. They are siblings and are both part of a weak family. Joanna walkes to church every week with her little siblings though, and it's not a short walk. I guess she just never got baptized though. So they are both this week, honestly the biggest problem with them is they are both afraid of the water so hopefully everything goes well. As of right now, we have 4 baptisms set up for next week, but dates keep getting moved around so I don't know what is actually going to happen. Tupu left to a different village permanantly. So that was sad. We have been working with her for 2 months and finally got her off smoking and ready for baptism then she left a week before she was supposed to get baptized. She said she will get baptized in the new village but now is living with her boyfriend so they need to get married first. We met a new invesitagor, her name is Tu'i. We set her baptismal date for next week. She is a single mother of 3 kids and the first time meeting her she told us she just wants her kids to have a bright future. Me and my companion just look at each other and are like man this is way to easy haha. The Lord truly does prepare people for us. So ya, our area is really starting to do good, and we are finding lots of new people. The Lord's work is progressing.

Other fun things: we have had some CRAZY storms this past week. Probably the most intense I have ever been in. So in our area we see the rain come over the mountain and that gives us like 3 minutes maybe to get somewhere. We saw the rain come and the wind picked up and we weren't close to anything so we just kept going. Ya we got drenched and then our next appointment wasn't even home so yay. Also classic Vikings.

Elder Roberts

Crazy Storm

Splits with our Ward Mission Leader, Lui 

Sunset 

Joanna is bottom, far left 

Ward Mission Leader's kids are the cutest 

My companion being a cow at FHE last night

Less Actives are Clutch

Last week we had the opportunity to watch President Monsons Funeral live here in Samoa. The Stake Center was airing it and since we live like 2 minutes from the stake center we went to go watch it. It was really inspiring and motivating. President Monson was a good Prophet. That is exciting news about the new First Presidency as well. The church has a bright future always.

Our area is really starting to progress. At first we had some setbacks, both our baptisms this week aren't happening. One is a woman and we are waiting 2 more weeks to do it mainly because she has a 10 year old son coming back home and they will get baptized together on the 3rd. Tupu had to take a last minute trip to different village and has been gone most of this week and we didn't want to not meet with her the week she was getting baptized so that got pushed to next week. Looks like she might marry her boyfriend which is exciting but then she might get baptized in his ward which is not as exciting. Either way she is getting baptized so that is awesome. We have been working really hard to find kids that are 9 or over and not baptized. We have been finding ways to help with the less actives, and brought some to church. That was huge. The bishops love us for working with less actives, and most of the families have kids over the age of 9 that are not baptized. We have just been finding ways to serve these families, one day we went over and helped them make cocoa. I had no idea how cocoa was made and I was so surprised. We have already set a date with one of the kids for next week, and another we are starting lessons with tomorrow, and if things go as planned will hopefully get on date this week. If everything works out and it is the Lord's timing we should have 5 baptisms in the next 3 weeks, but none this week. We also have found like 7 new investigators the past 2 days which is huge, we have been blessed immensely here. The work is progressing always.

SKOL VIKINGS. I opened up my email and basically all I heard about was the vikings game. Stefon Diggs is a beast. I will be sleeping well on my Vikings Pillowcase here in Samoa tonight. I always thought growing up that the Vikings were going to win the Superbowl my first year on the mission, and I won't be able to watch any of it. Might happen.

I got sunburned for my first time here. The sun has just been so intense this last week and we are out all day and I finally got burnt so that is not what I want. The youth in the ward took a trip to the beach and they even got burnt which I honestly didn't know that natives could get burnt.

Yesterday we just knocked on this guys door and I was the one kind of leading it, which I have done many times before. But for some reason I got up there and just choked so hard. It was so embarrassing. He was sitting in his house expecting like a speech because that is what you do here and I have no speech memorized. So I just asked him how his day was and he started going off in Samoan and I didn't understand anything of it. Let's just say it was a very humbling experience. Kind of fun but horrible and the same time. Not what I wanted.

I went to the bathroom when we were visiting Tupu and Penny, and I come back and they were all like oh my gosh you are getting transferred!?!? I was like what the heck and my Companion was giving me the look to just go along with it, so we took all these pictures and everything and they were so sad and I felt horrible for lying to them. I went along with it for the pictures, because here they tell you like 30 minutes before you get transferred. So whenever I do get transferred I now have a picture of them, which is down below.

Elder Roberts

Pounding the cocoa beans

 Elder Pangai (MTC Companion who is the best)

 Elder Christiansen and me

My buddy Pago

Tupu, Me, Penny

Happy New Year

These past two weeks have been pretty fun. I got my ringworm checked out by the mission nurse and she wanted to show President. President just looked at me and told me to do whatever I need to get rid of that asap. He said to stay inside unless we had an appointment already set up but not to be just walking around. He also told me I didn't have to shave, not that I grow much anyways haha. Overall, the ringworm is gone from my face and neck. It's still on my back and armpits a little bit but It's a lot better. So we were basically inside for a week, then I was ready to go out and my companion got a massive boil on his foot. His foot got super swollen and he was on crutches because he couldn't walk. So basically we were inside these past two weeks, except the occasional visit. The mission nurse did this cool pressure thing on his boil to try and get it out. She lit a match in a bottle and put it on his boil to suction it out, it didn't work. They just put him on antibiotics and he can almost walk normal now. Luckily, we have been able to be out the past couple days. It was so nice to be out of the house. I was pretty sick of studying PMG, the scriptures, and playing card games/farkle all day.

We are now out of the house and in full force which is awesome. We have 2 baptismal dates set up for next week which we are really excited about. One of them is Penny's niece (We baptized Penny in November). Bishop also set up 3 baptismal dates for us, they are all kids over 9 from the Bishop Action List and they are all for later this month. The work is progressing here in Samoa. We had a goal of 2,000 baptisms as a mission last year and I don't know the exact number we hit, but we got our 2,000 in November so we hit the goal. Speaking of New Year, I set my alarm to wake up at 11:57 to be awake for midnight. So that was cool. 

I was sad to hear of the passing of President Monson. I know the people of Samoa have a special love for him, as he visited here and talked of Samoa often. Fast and Testimony meeting turned into a love for President Monson meeting. I am thankful that our church is set up in a way where we can have another President and Prophet. I am so thankful for Prophets that lead and guide this church. I know they are truly Prophets of the Lord.

I am absolutely loving it here in Samoa, its nice living in a tropical island and it is below 0 at home. The mission is awesome. I am thankful for everyone's prayers and support, and hope everyone has an awesome week. 

Elder Roberts

Hi Fam

Happy New Year!

My District 

Trying to Suction out the Boil 

Elder Pu'efua is a trooper