Monday February 29th...Leap year!

Hello everyone,

This week was really productive. We had a lot of really good visits and we have a lot of investigators progressing towards baptism quickly.

We started teaching these four kids. Their parents are less active so we are hoping to get them back to church. They know their kids need to get baptized which is good but that doesn't mean once you're baptized you stop coming to church. We've been working with the parents as well as the kids and we hope we can get the entire family back to church. I love teaching kids. Not only are they easy to teach, but they are funny and are eager to learn. We taught the first lesson and it was just the four kids. There were a lot of other kids around the house and they heard how much fun we were having learning about the gospel and I could tell they wanted to join us. So we came back the next day and there were about 7 or 8 kids there. The four that started are the only ones old enough to get baptized but it's still nice having other kids wanting to learn about the Savior. We invited the four kids to be baptized on the 12th and they accepted. We also have another baptism set for the 12th. It's a girl who lives with members but she turns 9 at the beginning of March so they just want us to teach her and do her baptism.

We have another investigator we are teaching and he is really good. He is sincere and has a real desire to learn about the gospel. We invited him to be baptized and he said he wants to but he wants to pray and be sure about it. That's the best answer because we want him to be sure too. One, he wants to be baptized and second, he understands the importance of baptism and what it means. We invited him to be baptized this Saturday but if he wants to move it back, we definitely will. He is so prepared I just don't think he has realized it yet.

On Wednesday we got the news that two new missionaries will be living with us. It's been interesting mainly because our house is barely big enough for just two of us. I think we're the first and probably the last missionaries in the Samoa Apia mission to have two companionships living in the same house. One is a palagi from Utah and the other is from Tonga. It's funny when my companion and him talk, I can kinda understand what they are talking about because Samoan and Tongan are so similar.

On Sunday the Young Women's President invited us to a devotional that the youth were putting on. The focus was service and missionary work. One of our very recent converts had a part in the program. She bore her testimony and was so nervous but she did such a good job and it was so awesome! She even gave us a little shout out haha. Then during the devotional, a parent saw that their kid was on his phone and he happened to be sitting in the front row. So his dad got up walked to the front row, in front of the person speaking and smacked the kid in the head with a hymn book. I was dying. I couldn't stop laughing. I just didn't expect it at all but that's Samoans for ya - I loved it.

Hope you all had a great week!!

Alofa tele ia te outou uma!!

-elder tana

 This is just my attempt at trying to take an interesting picture. 

Nothing like spending two years in paradise.

These are all of the kids I wrote about.  They are so fun to teach and be with (as you can tell).

Justin's ward mission leader sent us another e-mail (below).  It is so fun to hear from him and what they're up to.  He also is able to send us more pictures (if that's ok with those reading this).  We love pictures!  We're so thankful that Temple has taken the time to do this for us.

So glad you received my email, well he's a strong missionary and he's one of the longest missionary in my ward. Everyone loves them cos they are great and hard working missionaries. Well yesterday we spend their pday at the chapel creating some cover for their Preach my Gospel and planners i will send some pictures :)

We had so much fun last week in missionary work and every time working with elder sterner and elder fifita always made my day and make me want to go back to mission.
PS: the last picture of me holding a cucumber its huge :)
Have a great week and God bless :)

Temple Leaupepetele.

Justin said the ice cream is ok, but it's cold so he gets it a lot.

Who knew Justin was so "craftsy"?

This is having a snack at someone's house.  He said the water from

these young coconuts (nius) is delicious and refreshing.

Temple wasn't lying in his email when he said the cucumber was huge.  Holy cow! 

How would that fit in a salad?