Serving the Lord in Samoa: 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