Sunday, July 30, 2017

July 18th & 25th - In & Out please!!!


July 18th

 A baptism



 Fafaga - Family dinner Samoan style


This meal was so good!  I haven't had pig like that since Savaii.


This week was good!  Our baptism went well and we have another one this Saturday. We also found a couple new investigators who we will be starting lessons with this week.  One of them is an older lady and she's so funny...a classic old Samoan woman and she's great!  Right now we are in a "trio"  because our other companion is waiting for his Visa and will be leaving for Africa on Monday.



JULY 25th




This is a cool guy in our ward.  Both my companions are gone now.  Elder Faaofo got his Visa and is in Africa and Elder Gomez got transferred to a different area.  Now I'm companions with Elder Alaga.




Chilling with the kids...they are AWESOME!!!






Matagi's baptism


  
We have a baptism set for the 5th which is my last Saturday so that will be pretty cool. 
Note from mom:  Justin has requested for his first meal back home to have In & Out..."of course" he said!

He flies in on August 11th and will be giving his "Homecoming talk" at church on Sunday, August 13th at 11:00 am.  All friends and family and anyone else who would like to come is welcome to attend. 
The address is:
28291 Alicia Parkway
Laguna Niguel

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

July 11th - One month from today Elder Sterner will be home!!! :)




One month to go so we didn't really get an email today but just a couple photos.  We are all getting very excited for Justin to be home!

He did buy a conch shell and is pretty excited about that.  He's trying to figure out some things he can bring home, but things he wants are pretty expensive.


Elder Brooks and Elder Wolz go home this  Friday




Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Happy July 4th!!!! All wet again...



All wet again...



Back to Upolo means...no more car & no more being dry.  We do have bikes though so that should help a bit with getting my legs in a little better shape...




This week was pretty good. I really miss Savaii...a LOT!  But it is really nice being a regular missionary again and being able to focus on our area. We have a baptism set for next week. Spent a lot of time getting familiar with the area and visiting members to get referrals. We got a lot of referrals and have contacted some. We're hoping to have 4 baptisms this month. Things are going good!! 

 alofa atu

-elder sterner

Note from mom:  I mentioned to Justin that he might want to push back his "homecoming talk" date at church since he'll have such a long couple days traveling to get home.  He's been planning on August 13th and I said that he might be too tired.  His response was, "e manumalo le fiafia i le fiamoe".  When he finally translated what that means, "happiness will beat tiredness", I figured that pretty much says it all.  So it looks like his talk will be Sunday, August 13th at 11:00 am.  We can't wait!!! :)


Saturday, July 1, 2017

June 13th, 20th, 27th bits & pieces & RETURN DATE AUGUST 11th!!! :) :) :) :) :)

Late on Tuesday 6/27, we finally got Justin's travel plans for his return date!!!  YAY!!!  He leaves Apia, Samoa on Friday, August 11th (yes, 8/11) and flies into Honolulu after a five and a half hour flight August 10th.  After a 7 hour layover there, he flies into San Francisco, and then onto John Wayne on August 11th... We are so excited and can't wait to see him!!!
About coming home, this is what he emailed, "Pretty crazy.  I don't think it will register in my brain until I'm on the plane.  So many times I've thought, oh, after this then it will feel close but it doesn't.  Getting the flight plans makes it feel close.  I don't know, it's just hard to believe it's all coming to an end.  Really weird."




June 13th
Leaving for Apia today for a zone leader meeting and we also get to go through the temple which I'm hyped for.  I'm still a zl.  I haven't gotten my travel plans yet but I should have them by now...we have a baptism this Saturday and three scheduled for next Saturday.  It's still hot and rainy but the nights are really cold because it's the winter now over here.

As far as what we've been eating lately...Monday we had chicken and taro with coconut cream, yesterday we had a pig lu'au and taro, and then Sunday we had pisupo which is this beef stuff in a can which I really don't like.  I can't really remember the rest but I'll try to write it down this week so I can tell you next week.  We don't have time today though so I have to go! (the menu rundown is from a request from dad.  He wanted to know what the meals are like.)











June 20th
Hi, can't send photos today because I'm using the senior couple's mac and it's not working but we had a baptism this week that went well.

June 27th

So, I'm getting transferred which is kind of a bummer...I'm going to Solosolo, Upolu.  I'm sure going to miss Savaii!!!  This week was good.  We found a lot of new investigators that have potential to be getting baptized but it just stinks that I won't get to see them through their lessons.  I'm going back to regular missionary life.  Being a zone leader was really fun and I learned a lot in so many respects.  But now I'm excited to have more time to work with investigators and help them progress towards baptism.  It's been a very busy and rewarding time and I've grown so much in so many ways.





Crossing the river to get to the other side of the village in Sili.