Week 3 in Samoa...I left home exactly 2 months ago...

This week was super sekia!

 I have my first baptism Saturday and I'm doing the baptism!!!!! Super stoked! We also have two other investigators committed to be baptized on the 28th.

 
I can't believe I've already been gone for two months.  It's gone extremely fast. I still can't believe I'm actually here getting to share the gospel (the very little I can in Samoan) in such a beautiful place.
I'll just kinda keep doing what I've been doing, running through each day. Hopefully everyone is okay with that.

Tuesday was long. We didn't get back to our house until 9:45 because we finished a lesson late and then had a 30 minute walk in the dark back to our house. During our lesson, I saw my first centipede. It was really freaky and a sibling of the people we were teaching (probably 4 years old) just smashes it with his heel. It was about the size of my whole hand and they are really poisonous but I'm sure he's an experienced killer. Then that night during planning there was a spider the size of my palm and we smashed it with a flipflop and its guts splattered everywhere. It was pretty gross.

Wednesday we had a conference for the entire Island. We talked about how we can better teach the important part of the lessons and how missionaries need to follow the rules better. Our mission president, President Hannamann, announced that he wants to open every island in our mission boundaries including Tokelau which everyone should look up. It's crazy beautiful. That night we gave a blessing to an elderly woman in our ward. I did the first part in English and my companion did the blessing in Samoan. Even though I could understand very little of what he said, the spirit was so strong.  The next night we were walking back to our house and were asked to give a blessing to a sick little baby.

 
Sunday was really good. For Sacrament meeting it was the primary program. Little Samoan kids sing really loud. They all memorized their parts too, which was impressive. That night during planning, one of the Assisstants to the President called us and said we now cover two more wards which tripled our area. He said that there are a lot of families that want to meet with missionaries so I'm really excited for that.

We pretty much walk everywhere but last night we got a call form the AP saying we're now covering Sale'imoa village (which kinda translates to the chicken hasn't yet come) which has two wards so our area kinda tripled in size.  We're gonna ride bikes now.

Other stuff that I think is really funny is that Samoans can't say Sterner. They look at my nametag and don't even try and just start laughing. I just tell them Stana and they still struggle to say that.

The language is still my biggest struggle and concern. I just need to have faith that I'm here at this exact time, learning this language because the Lord knows I'll do my best work as a missionary here. I'm so blessed to be here and to feel the Spirit constantly. I'm so grateful for its guidance.

 

I miss you all so much and think about you guys daily.
 
Love,

Elder Sterner

 

This is my lunch. The pineapple is sooooo good here

This is the rest of our sweet pad!