January 17- Survived 1st week as a trainer/district leader

Malo le Soifua!

This week, a lot changed.

My "son" (trainee) is Elder Fifita. Ia te sau mai Tonga. Thankfully he speaks pretty good English. Samoan and Tongan are so similar so his Samoan will most likely be way better than mine after these twelve weeks. He is such a humble missionary. He works really hard and he is so nice. Almost too nice. The other day he asked to carry my proselyting bag for me. I said no of course (I ain't a wimp) but I was caught off guard that he would ask something like that. He is such a caring Elder.

Since being called to be a trainer and district leader, my responsibilities have skyrocketed. Elder Powelson made it seem so easy. The hardest part is probably having to talk on the phone with Samoans. They talk so fast and I can hardly understand them in person let alone on the phone.

We had some really good visits this week but there are two that stick out. One was with one of our recent converts Iutita. When we were trying to decide which way we would take to get to her house, we felt we should go on the main road. On the way there, we ran in to her and she was about to go do something so we told her we wanted to visit with her. We started talking and I asked how she's felt since being baptized. She went on to tell us that the day before her baptism, a person from another church started telling her that everything about our church is wrong. We decided to share the first lesson again with her (The Restoration) and talked about all the ways Heavenly Father shows his love for us. When we finished the lesson, we asked her how she was feeling. She said one sentence and then starting crying. I was in shock. I didn't know what to do. We just sat in silence a little bit. Then she continued talking about her testimony and how she knows the church is true. The spirit was so strong. It was so cool.

As we were walking away from the house I was still in shock. She is this 19-year-old girl who has never really shown any emotion. The rest of the day I was trying to just comprehend those 45 minutes and the feelings we experienced.

Another good lesson we had was with Kovia. His baptism is set for the 30th of this month. In our last visit with him he asked us why it's important to get baptized and he didn't really have much motivation to get baptized. We left him with a chapter to read in the Book of Mormon because we had to go.  So when we went back, we read that chapter together with him in 2 Nephi chapter 31. It's an awesome chapter and after we read it, we didn't even have to ask him.  He just said he wanted to be baptized. That was just a testimony builder for me of the Book of Mormon. It's such a powerful witness of Christ and His church.

Our Stake here in Samoa is one of the three lucky stakes that D. Todd Christofferson is visiting so I'll get to see him twice. Lucky me!!

Alofa atu outou

-Elder Sterner

 This is a spot on the other side of the island where we hold devotionals.  It really is paradise.

This is the little pool thing we were able to rinse off in while we were staying on the "other side" of the island for our Christmas program.  The island across the way is beautiful but uninhabited.