Friday, April 28, 2017

April 25...3 weeks since last email...but great photos!

Well...we haven't heard from Justin in 3 weeks so we figured the internet connection has been bad or he has been really, really busy.  Today he emailed that he has no time once again and he is headed to Apia for a zone leader conference.  We sure loved getting these really awesome photos though!



 Baby Justin




 vacation
The classic Samoa Apia Mission pic

  Papatisoga i le sami!!!!!! (whatever that means?)







Tuesday, April 11, 2017

April 4th - Last weeks photos and new email from Tuesday, April 4th


(Mom is pretty proud of herself for figuring out the computer/photo issue.  I was about ready to call in the big guns for help...but with a little prayer and pleading...problem solved!!! :)  So these are the photos from the last few weeks...)


"An elder in my zone carved a Samoan design in my name tag.  Pretty cool!"

"One of the kids in our Sunday school on the sand"

 "Teaching"

"Samoan sunset"


Email from Tuesday, April 4th...
This week was good. Pretty busy.


Sunday at church went really great. Almost 50 people were there. The Stake Presidency was also there and the stake president challenged the Sunday School to have 6 worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holders and then they can become their own branch and stand by themselves. After church they made food and first came out with the ice cream followed by a massive fish head. Another elder has a picture of it so I need to get it. So big.

It's annoying when missionaries who don't want to work take away time from those who do. One thing I've learned being a zone leader is that the more responsibilities, the more time you'll be spending helping others. Also, as a regular missionary you spend almost all your time working with investigators and helping them, but as a zone leader you spend a lot of time working with missionaries which has been fun.


So we got a referral Thursday for a girl named P***we went to try and find P**** but we accidently got her name mixed up and were asking for the wrong person... Sunday after church we went to go visit a companionship in our zone to pick up baptismal papers and then I remembered there was a fireside happening in our area and for some reason I felt like we should really go but I didn't know why. We showed up and one of our recent converts was bearing her testimony and then P*****, the lady we've been looking for, bore her testimony and said that we'll probably be seeing her face more often cause she wants to come to our church. It was pretty sweet. After, we talked and set an appointment for this Friday. We're hoping to set her for the 15th to get baptized.

Oh and we get to watch general conference this week so I'm excited for that!


 The district before my companion got transferred

Faiaai













Tuesday, April 4, 2017

March 14, March 21, & March 28 - bits & pieces and technical difficulites with the photos...



Last week from Justin was brief except for wishing Morgan and Luke a happy birthday. 

Here is what we got on 3/14... I have no time to email today and had to get back to the wharf to catch the 4pm boat to go to Apia for a zone leader meeting.  The week was good, we had a baptism & marriages, but since we've been super busy, we haven't had any time to teach people.  One baptism is scheduled for this week and one next...but things are really good.  Oh and we started a Sunday school at the village of the photo I sent last week of the sand and the ocean.  That is where we have our Sunday school right on the beach!  It's less people than a branch but 31 people came.  The only thing we need is worthy priesthood and we're close.  I presided and my companion conducted...pretty cool!  But I have to go....

(We are having some technical issues with getting the photos posted on the blog for some reason, so hopefully we can get that fixed.)


3/21/17
So this week was good. 


We didn't have our baptism because someone he's related to passed away Saturday morning so we rescheduled it for this Saturday. When someone dies in Samoa it consumes everyone's time for a whole week.  In Samoan a funeral is called a Fa'alavelave which translates to a disturbance or interruption.


We have another investigator getting baptized this Saturday and our whole zone will have a total of 7 which is pretty good for our part of the mission.


The Sunday School we're doing is going well. There aren't a whole lot of people who come but it's a really awesome experience.  My companion and I spoke. I gave about a 15 minute talk on repentance in Samoan and I prepared it the night before and it went pretty well.  The people down there are super nice.  My companion conducted again and I presided. This Sunday I think it's my turn to conduct.  I think we can get it to a branch before my mission is done if I finish here which I would really like to do.


Sunday and Monday we did a split with the new AP's  - Elder Tai Lesa and Elder Reid.  We spent time visiting the missionaries in our zone and doing visits.  We found some new people that we hope to baptize in the next month.


Next week is General Conference but we probably won't get it until the week after...


Things are going great here backside Savaii.  Alofa atu ia te outou uma!!

3/28/17 - no email, only a couple photos but we can't figure out how to get them on the blog...still working on it!!!


(We are really hoping we get a little more information from his emails in April!)