New Companion!

Last Saturday we got a call from the Zone Leaders and they asked us to say a prayer and Pu'efua and I just look at each other like wow it's actually happening. My new companion Elder Vaitala, and Pu'efua just switched places. I miss Pu'efua a lot and I know I learned a lot from him. We spent 4 1/2 months together here in Lotopa. Our last night a member bought us McDonalds which is always clutch but then our Zone Leaders came by so we had to split it all up. I am excited about my new companion though! He is a native from Savai'i. He doesn't know a whole lot of English so I have been speaking straight Samoan for the past couple days and I can already see the difference it has made. Me and him have been getting along really well and we teach actually super well together. I am excited for the future of this area with us.

On Monday we had zone conference with President and it was soooo good. President Hannemann is the man. I am sad he will be leaving this summer. Basically we are changing how we do all of our Lessons. We are only doing Book of Mormon with our investigators. So we are supposed to visit every single investigator everyday and read the Book of Mormon with them. And when we do lessons we read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon and then teach the lesson using that chapter. It's actually really cool, I really like it. Our investigators seem to like it as well.

So good news and bad news about our investigators. Bad news is Moore is not getting baptized anytime soon. I was devastated. We talked with him and he just said he can't do it. He can't get over his smoking and it's just not him. He said it was better for him to stay in his own church. I was so sad. We tried everything with him but everyone has their free agency. His son will still be baptized in March though so thats good. We are projected 7 baptisms for march right now. President really wants to kill it this month since there are 5 Saturdays to do baptisms. The goal is 300 baptisms for the whole mission every month. The rest of our investigators are good. We have a family we are teaching that has 3 kids not baptized who are all set for the 17th. We also are teaching a girl is who just so Golden but wont be baptized in our area so that kind of stinks. We are doing all of her lessons and everything though. I am super excited about the work here in Lotopa.

Thanks for all the Birthday wishes from everybody. It felt like a pretty normal day except with Trix and Reeces Puffs at the end. Probably the most expensive birthday party I have had. Jaka (the member we stay with) woke me up at like 11:30 at night and sung happy birthday to me and bought me ice cream. We had cheesecake with the Zone Leaders also. I am blessed.

Other fun things: An Alkaloa (a centipede like 8 inches long and really fast) ran across the floor while me and Pu'efua were getting ready for bed. I was soooooo scared. We killed it with a crutch though and then burnt it. It was soooo big though and it just went across the floor so fast. It came from underneath my bed so that is not at all what I wanted. Last week right when I was done emailing we went to play some basketball and I jumped for a rebound and landed on someones foot and it got twisted up super bad. Within like 30 seconds there was a golf ball size lump on my ankle. Not what I want. It was hard to walk the rest of that day but the next day I could walk normal without pain even though it was SUPER swollen and purple/black. It was honestly a miracle I could walk fine. It is still kind of swollen and discolored but all is well.

This week was amazing and I am looking forward to another week!

Elder Roberts

Birthday

 Breakin Ankles while Ballin

 Alkoloa

 Jaka

 Last night with Elder Pu'fua. Elder Alofa'ae (Zone Leader)

 Saying bye

Elder Vaitala 

What is wrong with my skin?

This week was amazing! Tu'i and Misiluki's Baptisms both went well. The Relief Society President came in clutch with the food afterwards. This week we had an Elder from the Book of Mormon stand with us for 4 days because his Companion got transferred to another island and was waiting for a new companion. It was really good having him with us, I feel like I learned a lot from him. He was born in Tonga but lived in American Samoa most of his life. His name is Elder Kaufusi. Also, he made us french toast one morning so that was what I want. This last week we saw so much progress! We had our two baptisms and we set two kids on a baptismal date for next month from this part member family. Their family is huge there are like 30 plus people and some are baptized and some are not so we are really trying to work with them. We have an FHE with them on Friday. We also set this girl who is like 20 years old on date for next month as well. And then we set this Woman named Aiga on date for next month. We took Aiga and her kids to the Visitors Center to do a tour and she talked about how she wants an eternal family so we talked about temples and such but told her the only way for that to happen is through baptism first. So both her and her 8 year old daughter accepted baptism. We have no baptisms this week sadly. Koko was supposed to get baptized but she is making no progress in getting married which needs to happen first. Next week Moore and Alex will get baptized. Then on the 17th of March we have 5 people on date. 

Yesterday we talked to this kid on the street as he was walking home from school and we walked home with him. Little did we know he lived on top of the mountain. We got to the mountain and then starting going up on this small trail and just kept walking up and up and up. I didn't even know the houses back their existed so now we know of a new part of our area. We talked to their family though and I guess missionaries talked to them way long ago but they seemed really interested in what we have to say and we are taking the family to the Visitors Center this Saturday. They have I think 11 people that are baptismal eligible so we have high hopes for them. Being up on top of the massive hill was cool seeing the ocean. So many trees were down and most of the power lines were down still from the cyclone. They got it way worse up there.

Last week we were walking down the street and talked to this teenage guy. He ended up being Tu'i's brother! We are taking him to a ward concert thing tonight and then we are going to the visitors center with him as well tonight. The Lord truly does just put people in our way. I know he prepares people to hear the message of the Restored Gospel, we just need to have our ears opened to hear the spirit to guide us.

Haha Last Friday I woke up with what I thought was ringworm on my face. I was SOOO mad. I was not about to get ringworm again. I called the mission nurse right away and she came over and took a picture of my face and sent it to a doctor in New Zealand. 3 hours later I got a call, it was not ringworm, BUT it was some skin infection. I forgot the name it was really long. Basically the next three days of my life were horrible. I could barely sleep the first night because my face hurt so much and itched a lot. They put me on some hardcore pills though and it is mostly gone now. I was pretty impressed with how good of treatment I got for being here in Samoa. 

All is well here in Samoa. I am really looking forward to these next couple weeks. I am extremely grateful to be here on the Lord's errand. I know this is his work I am extremely grateful for this church and the knowledge and peace it gives me. I have seen this gospel change lives and it is just remarkable. I know this church is 100% true!

Elder Roberts

Cool Sunset

Tu'i and Misiluki Baptism 

River in our Area 

FHE

Hiking back down the Hill

Here Comes the Rain

Well these last two weeks have been extremely eventful. Last Friday night we were visiting Penny (Someone we baptized in November), and she asked if we heard about the Cyclone that was coming that night. Of course, being missionaries we didn't hear about anything and we didn't really think much of it until the winds really picked up. Then we were walking home and walked by the shop and it was PACKED. Like the whole village was at that store. We figured we would join the hype so we went and bought a lot of food. Probably a good thing because we ended up having to be inside for the next two days so at least we had food. 

Ya Friday night was crazy. Soooo windy and lots of rain it was hard to sleep. So in Samoa they don't have windows like America. I don't want to explain it but basically I would wake up every 5 minutes to a huge gust of wind spraying water on me. So ya fun night. We woke up Saturday morning and the power was out and the water wasn't running. Yay. Tons of trees had blown over and everything was just a mess. We got a call from Zone Leaders saying it was coming back and we weren't allowed to go out today. So Saturday was pretty boring. I was waiting and waiting for the storm to come back and it never did. We went to church on Sunday which ended up being like no one there and it was only an hour. Then stayed home the rest of that day also. Overall, it was pretty hype. I thought it was super fun. I feel really bad for some people who had all their trees fall down and roofs come off, etc. Especially when their fruit trees are their source of food, extremely sad to see. We have been extremely busy doing lessons with our investigators but have been trying to find opportunities to serve and help the clean up. In the culture it looks bad if a missionary is helping you with your chores so basically a lot of people wont let us help and its soooooo frustrating. So ya the storm was fun. Sounds like Tonga got hit pretty hard so praying for them as well.

As with the investigators, Noa and Suega both got baptized two weeks ago! We were supposed to have one baptism last week but all baptisms were cancelled in the mission because of the storm. We have two this week with Tu'i and Misiluki. I am really excited for both of them. Tu'i needed to come to church this last Sunday to get baptized. She missed church, so we took her to the English ward later in the day. This island has one English ward and it's at our chapel. It was so weird hearing "Good morning Brothers and Sisters" and everybody was talking to me in English and there were other white people. It was just kind of weird. It was cool though. Some white guy came up to me and we talked and apparently he is in a band called "Culture Crew". They are doing some Humanitarian Work here for the week though I guess. He is from Orange Country, Cali. 

OH MY GOSH we had the best Family Home Evening with a guy named Moore. He is the dad of Alex who was supposed to get baptized. Our first time meeting him he was smoking and drinking and giving us all this trash talk and stuff. We brought him to the office to do a FHE together with President. President suggested it so shout out to him he is a beast. Then President had to take a last second trip to a different island. So we just had one of the office elders with us. We got Bishop and his wife to come and talk about Family and how they can be together forever and it was so powerful. Everyone started crying and he accepted baptism for March 3rd, when he will get baptized together with his son. So excited for all of them. The rest of our investigators are all good. Joanna's mom is having a struggle getting married so I don't think her baptism is going to happen soon. Sad.

Other fun things that happened these last two weeks: I got bit by a dog while getting kicked off this Methodist land, we went to town last P-day and I spent 50 bucks at McDonalds, went with Bishop dropping off rice, water and sugar for people.

Elder Roberts

Zoey and her Sister, we have a dope handshake

Moore's yard after the Cyclone

Moore and a couple of his kids

After Suenga's Baptism 

 FHE with Noa and member Family, we had Elder Hollingsworth and Elder Tauili'ili with us for the night

Noa's Baptism

After Noa's Baptism