Onosai

This week was definitely a patience tester but MALO LE ONOSA'I. My companion got sick last Thursday and a had a fever of 102, we were told to stay inside all day on Friday so that's what we did. The rest of the days we had to take it pretty easy as well, but the work still gets done. We have 16 people on baptismal date right now, and it's hard staying inside all day and not being able to visit them and just pray they are doing all right. We are seeing lots of progress here in Lotopa though. We have 2 baptisms this week with Filifili and Talalelei. Filifili is an absolute miracle, I met her in the beginning of March and the first thing she told me was that she will never join this church.  We tried talking to her a couple more times but she just wasn't doing anything. We baptized her two little siblings last month, Siu and Nanse. She still wasn't interested in the church until a dedicated Young Womens leader brought her to a Young Womens camp and the whole camp was focused on the Book of Mormon. She came back a CHANGED person. We did a lesson with her after sacrament on Sunday, and invited her to baptism for this Saturday because she has been coming to church many times, and is so ready. So ya shout out to the Young Womens Leader and more importantly the Spirit/Book of Mormon. Talalelei is supposed to be getting married today so as long as that happens her baptism will also be on Saturday with Filifili.

Next week has the potential to be a big week, we could have 6 baptisms. The 3 kids from that family we have been teaching are next week, and the 1 kid that hasn't been wanting to talk to us finally opened up at an FHE we had, and we are probably going to try and get him a baptismal date tomorrow with the rest of his siblings. Then we also have Fa'avese next week! Fa'avese is the man. We did a really powerful FHE at Bishops house and just talked about the Word of Wisdom the whole time and read Mosiah 2. He committed to live the word of wisdom and hasn't smoked for the past week. We were able to see him yesterday and he honestly just seemed like a completely different man. We got to his house and he was reading the Book of Mormon and he was soooo excited to tell us he hasn't smoked since the FHE. He is going to be getting married this Saturday as well, and he will be baptized together with his 9 year old son. Honey will probably be baptized next week as well. We have been waiting for her parents to come back, but supposedly they come back this Saturday, which if they do we will just need to talk to her mom and get her set for next week as well.

We are also in the process of a miracle here in Lotopa. A couple weeks ago we were walking down the street and we were prompted to talk to this lady. A couple days later we brought her to the visitors center with her daughter and got them both baptismal dates, it has been kind of tough since then to see her and do some lessons. We talked to her husband last Saturday and he told us his family has been looking for a new church and they really want to listen to our message and what not. Then he told us he has SIX KIDS over the age of 8 also. We are taking them all to the Visitors Center on Saturday and hopefully getting them all set.

Lastly, our Bishop has been really helpful, we were at his house just giving him a report and he got really excited about the work and told us he is going to hold a massive FHE on Saturday night and him and his wife will run the program. He told us to invite ALL of our investigators, so I am superrrrr excited about that. 

Overall, the work continues to progress here, and God is good ALL THE TIME. I have a testimony that God loves each and every one of his children, and I know Jesus is the Christ. This Is his church and he is the head of it. Sa toefuatai Iesu Keriso lana talalelei e ala o le perofeta o Iosefa Samita. O te molimau atu ia te outou o le ekalesia a Iesu Keriso o le au paia o aso e gata ai o le tasi ekalesia moni i le lalolagi taimi nei. I hope everyone has an awesome week! Alofa Atu!

Elder Roberts

Kunz Family Reunion in Samoa

Cute Kids 

Vasa and China at Pesepesega 

 Elder Fepula'i, now serving in Zimbabwe

 All of Naiomi's kids

Another Week

This week was a pretty normal week, not a whole lot exciting going on. Shyane got baptized so that is good, really excited about her and the ward is doing a good job of helping to reactivate the family. She got baptized with 3 other kids that are all cousins/siblings of her, but they were all primary baptisms. We have been finding a lot of good investigators this week, we got like 4 new baptismal dates I think. We have been getting a ton of help from ward members this past week which has been really nice. This Saturday we are going to the Visitors Center with a new family of like 10 people not baptized so that could be really big, a ward member set it all up for us too so I hope it all works out. We had 8 people come to church, the family with the kids didn't show up to church again, they right when we were singing the song before the sacrament the 9 year old girl walked it and I was seriously sooooo happy. Then the rest of them followed in behind her. 

We did a FHE at the Mission Home last night with a new family. The mom is not a member and has a baptismal date for next month, the dad is a member but extremely active. We were walking down the mountain and I just saw the dad outside so we went and talked to him. My companion just stayed on the street but I talked to him and then my companion came, the wife came out. Within like 3 minutes she had a baptismal date. It was honestly just a small miracle. But we had the FHE last night and we watched the Joseph Smith Restoration Video and after the Dad told us he felt so good inside. I was pretty hyped.

Not a whole lot else happened, a member came and brought us McDonalds for breakfast yesterday morning, I was dumblit. Nothing else really exciting happened.

Elder Roberts

True Beauty

"Climbing" the Mountain 

Baptism 

 Baby Pig

Training!!!!

So last Wednesday I was sitting in my room on P-day just chilling in the morning and I get a call from the AP's asking where I was, I told them I was at home and they asked why. I said I was just chilling. They asked if our Zone Leaders told us about the transfers and I was like what the heck no. Then the AP just told me "You are going to be training, we will pick you up in 5 minutes, tell your companion to pack his bags." Nice. So ya my new companion is Elder Levao from South Jordan Utah. He is full Samoan and grew up going to a Samoan ward. He understands Samoan really well, even better than me sometimes, especially a lot of the slang. But he can't talk at all so it's a good time. He is super chill guy though and I love him. I am super excited for this opportunity to be serving with him, and yes I am still in my first area, almost 6 months here! Also, didn't get to email last week because we had meetings with President all day.

Our 3 baptisms happened with Asafo, Toai, and Chelsey. That was a super special experience, we should be taking Asafo to the temple next week to do baptisms for the dead. We have 1 baptism this week that might get pushed back to next week, its all kind of a mess but it is a 10 year old girl named Shyane who is going to get baptized with 3 other kids that live there, but they are all 8, so only the 10 year old is a convert baptism. We also are baptizing Aiga's daughter next week. I am super excited about that, I am hoping the baptism of her will help soften her fathers heart and help him see the light of Christ. I have faith that her having the Holy Ghost with her will bless that family. Hopefully he will maybe even want to get married so Aiga can get baptized. The family with the kids that aren't baptized are doing really good, still not exactly sure when their baptism will happen, but probably the first week of may.

One of our wards have a dance night and it was the biggest party ever, and their was a ton of food. I ate oka, which is raw fish. NOT A GOOD IDEA. I should have learned my lesson from the past but yea the next day was a horrible, horrible day. I threw up in front of this members house. whoops. 

We ran into this guy on the street and he started speaking to us and it was not Samoan, he was speaking Indian. Ya middle of Samoa there was an Indian guy speaking Indian to me and showed me a contact on his phone which was our zone leaders number so I called them for him and I guess he was trying to find the zone leaders to do a lesson. I am not really sure but we took him to the zone leaders, and I guess he is going to get baptized.

We came home the other night and there was literally like 50 people at our house, a whole ward from Savaii is staying with us for the week. Pros: we are getting fed. Cons:there are like 50 people here. It's a fun time though. I hope everyone had an awesome Easter and got something out of General Conference. GENERAL CONFERENCE WAS AWESOME. The spirit was strong, and the church is moving in the right direction. My favorite talk was from Elder Brian K. Taylor. He talked about how we are all Children of God. I know God loves each and everyone one of us more than we can imagine, and he knows us better than we know ourselves. If we just always put our full trust in him, everything will work out. I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Roberts

Pika

 Our Ward Mission Leader, and Elders Quorum President dressed up as girls for the Ward Party

Ward Party 

 Asafo

Chelsey and Toa'i 

 Saying bye to Elder Faitala

Kids getting baptized this Saturday, Shyane is next to me