Monday September 12th - adjusting to American Samoa

With the village sign in Fagaloa (none of those here in Tutuila)

Taaaalofa!

Fast food count for you all...McDonalds twice and Carl's Jr. twice.  (mom says gross!)

This week  was good!  We met a lot of people that we hope can turn into good investigators. On Wednesday we just knocked an apartment complex. First time I ever did something like that and it was sooo weird. Out of probably 15 houses, one person said we could come back. We did a lesson with her on Friday and it went really well. She is really interested in the church and said she's going to read the Book of Mormon and come with questions for next time.  She can't come to church because she had a baby that was 2 months premature. It was so little.

On Thursday we had a lesson with our investigator who has been coming to church. He's progressing really well. He is a little hesitant to accept a baptismal date but it's okay. We just need to be patient. I've just been thinking about our family and how everyone didn't join or come back all at the same time or right away so it's helped me to have a better perspective of his progression. I'm totally okay with the fact that he might not get baptized while I'm here. I know that as long as he's coming to church every Sunday, reading the BoM, and praying, he's going to get his answer eventually.  We had a good lesson with them on Sunday at church as well. We just talked about the Holy Ghost and his role. He also shared a cool personal experience with us.

Our investigator referred us to his friend who is less active and whose wife isn't baptized. We met with them on Saturday and it went well. The wife is really interested in the church and I know if we get the dad coming back to church, they can strengthen each other. He also talked about his weaknesses with the Word of Wisdom and we shared with him Ether 12:27- "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." It was a good lesson!

Sorry I haven't taken many pictures. There isn't really much to take pictures of... (mom certainly disagrees!  Everything would be interesting to us!)

This was from the boat ride over

Happy Labor Day, Sept. 5th - adjusting to American Samoa & the more American life again

This week was tough.  I'm still trying to adjust to how different it is. Other than the language aspect, it feels like I'm starting over. Missionary work is so different here.

I had Mcdonalds 3 times this week.....

After emailing on Monday last week, we went to this store in our area called "Cost U Less". It is a legit Costco. It's crazy.

This whole week we have just been trying to find members and get to know them and ask them for referrals. But we have no idea where the members live. One thing that's different is that in Upolu whatever church was closest, that's the church people would attend. So living on chapel grounds there, everyone around us were members so it was super easy to find the members and get to know them. It was also fun playing with the kids and stuff.   Now here everyone has cars and there are all these roads that go all over the place so everyone goes to the church they really want to go to.

Another thing is that everyone here works and is busy doing other stuff rather than being at home and spending a lot of family time watching the kids all day.  So it's been really tough to find people to teach during the day.

Also, Elder Fifita, the elder I trained is our zone leader here so that's been fun. Our district is huge and I think we have 7 companionships.

We have one investigator and he's progressing really well. He married a member and he's been coming to church the past couple weeks. We did a lesson with him on Wednesday night and he likes doing the lessons in English so it's been really weird.  I feel like I suck at teaching in English and there is no flow to the lesson.  The positive thing is that it has been pretty easy to build a relationship with them. The lesson went pretty well and we invited him to read 2 Nephi 31 and that we'd do another lesson at church on Sunday. The Sunday lesson went well also.  He read some of the chapter so we just read it again all together.  He really likes the concept of the priesthood and how it can bless his family.  They are expecting their first baby soon and he said he knows the gospel will be a great help to them. We were talking about the Holy Ghost and we all kinda shared experiences we've had with the Holy Ghost.  Then he opened up and told us about his past and how he was in trouble but he believes that the Lord saved his life and has led him to this point. The Spirit was super strong and I know he felt it. We've invited him to be baptized but he wants to read the Book of Mormon and learn more before he makes a decision. I can't blame him at all.  I do know that if he goes into this process with faith and does his part, that he will accept the invitation.  We have a lesson planned for this Thursday and hopeully he accepts to be baptized!!

We are also planning on going on a split with the bishop to get more familiar with the ward.

Everything is good here. We have a microwave and a toaster in our house which has been sweet.

Still adjusting to the more American lifestyle. The American food has been messing with my stomach as well...

You can send packages the way you send letters to the Tutuila address.  Just to clarify, send everything to this address:

Elder Justin Sterner

Samoa Apia Mission

P.O. Box 608

Pago Pago, American Samoa  96799

It'll get here super fast and it's way cheaper. I don't really know what I need cause I can get it here. It's just harder because  with Samoan money, it's like 1 American dollar is 2.5 tala but here they use American money.

(From mom: no photos this week :(  :(  :(   )

Monday, August 29th - Happy 20th Birthday Elder Sterner from Tutuila, AMERICAN Samoa

Note from mom:  We didn't hear from Justin on Sunday which is his usual emailing day.  I was so disappointed because normally that would have been Monday in Samoa which would have been his birthday on the 29th.  Then when we heard from him the next day, on his actual birthday in the USA, it all made sense because he had been transferred to American Samoa and crossed the international date line.  I was very happy to be able to wish him a happy birthday on his actual birthday and to hear about his very busy transfer week.

Dad, son, grandson, great-grandson

Literally the longest week of my life.

So Monday night we got the transfer call. Elder Tiatia is now in American Samoa training a new missionary. I am also in Tutuila training a new missionary in an area called Tafuna. Training for the 3rd time!

Tuesday we had district meeting in an area called Sauniatu. It's a village about 45 minutes north of the main road and it's so pretty. It is surrounded by mountains. We got home and then packed for the transfer. We went and said goodbye to some families in Fagaloa. It was hard to say goodbye but definitely not as hard as when I got transferred from Faleasi'u since I hadn't been there for nearly as long. Around 8, one kid in the youth we got close with and our ward mission leader came by and we just took some chairs and chilled out in front of our house on the balcony thing. We talked for a while. Our ward mission leader was a really cool guy and we got really close with him and his family.

Wednesday we had to leave our house around 6:30am because we had to be at the office around 8:00. We got to the office and then we had to go to a chapel nearby and we did training stuff with our new trainees all day.  The new group that came from the MTC was really big; 27 from Provo and over 30 all together. My companion is Elder Fano from Hawaii. He already has pretty good Samoan so that's good. The way we usually travel to Tutuila is by a 30 minute plane ride but since there are a lot of missionaries getting transferred to Tutuila, president decided we would take a boat. The boat left Thursday at midnight.

Thursday morning we did some more training stuff and then at 2pm we got to go to the TEMPLE!!!! It was so awesome and I was begging president and the APs to see if we could go and we got to. The temple is the best. After the temple, we had some dinner and everyone was getting their stuff packed for the boat ride. We left for the harbor around 10:30pm, got situated, and then headed off. It was about a 9 hour boat ride and we got there Thursday morning because the world date line is in between Upolu and Tutuila.  So we got an extra day, like a do-over of Thursday.  We got to our area around 12:00. We live with a family but we have our own little house in the back which is nice.

my three sons

Tutuila is sooo different. It feels like Hawaii. Everyone has American cars, there's American food - 2 McDonalds, a Carl's Jr., Pizza Hut, KFC, a store that's basically like a Costco, things like that.  

They have high schools and they play sports. It's SO different. Coming from Fagaloa to here has seriously been a culture shock. Oh and everyone has perfect English so everyone just wants to speak English with us, but I just respond in Samoan. We had Carl's Jr. and McDonalds on Thursday.

 Friday we just tried to get an understanding of our area. The areas in Upolu and Savaii are easy to manage because they just go by villages. Here there are all kinds of roads and stuff. It's super confusing. They had a ward activity Friday night that we went to to try and meet some of the members. Friday we had KFC for dinner...

Saturday we went on a split with a kid in our ward. He's cool and has perfect English. We met some of the ward members. Everyone is really nice. Then Saturday night we got a call from the ZLs asking what area we had been working in and they said it was the wrong one. There are three wards in Tafuna. We thought we were supposed to cover 1 and 2 and the sisters cover the 3rd but it was the other way around... So tomorrow we're gonna have to start all over.

Sunday was good. The chapels here are so nice and have A/C.  Everyone has trucks and they trick them out.  It's pretty funny.  

This week has just been hectic so if you have any questions ask because I probably forgot to mention something.

the boat ride

America.

August 21 - warm showers in a bucket

Last goodbye to Faainu

This week nothing special happened. We did two lessons with L. We have to push his baptismal date back to the 3rd of September because the 27th they have a village meeting and he's a Matai (chief).  He is progressing really well. He either has bad eyes or can't really read so we've been reading togethter. He was at church yesterday and loves it. He comes every Sunday. 

I had some revelation the other day. Instead of taking cool showers, why not use the water heater thing and then pour it into a bucket?!  I've started doing that and it is so much better.

We went to Apia this morning to fill up the car and we got some McDonalds. Pretty good!  Transfers will happen in the middle of the week and we are waiting to get the phone calls to see if I get transferred to another area.  I feel like I might, so it's just wait and see.

We splurged and bought some bacon and it was a bomb Sunday breakfast before church. I'm getting fat...

August 15th - why I'm in Fagaloa

 The photo is with Fa'ainu, the kid we do splits with.  He leaves for the MTC next week

Oh, and I made the can of refried beans you sent. So good!!!   I think Heavenly Father was watching out for me when he called me here to Samoa and not somewhere in Mexico because I would be so fat! :0

Taaaalofa

We got a baptismal date! His name is Luama'a (two rocks) and he's from Uafato. He's probably over 50 years old but so ready to be baptized. We taught him lesson one about the restoration. It was a weird lesson. Before we started the lesson I asked him if he had any questions. He didn't have any but as we started he stopped us a lot to ask questions about stuff. So it didn't flow very well but it was good that he asked us his questions. He wants to get baptized quickly so this week we're going to focus on the importance of baptism. It's not just a one time thing but a life-long covenant. 

The whole time I've been in Fagaloa I've kinda wondered why I'm here. It's an area with not a whole lot of people to teach, the church is really strong, and the few people who aren't baptized REALLY don't want to listen to what we have to say. I've been thinking we're gonna find this big family and baptize them or something major like that. But I've come to the realization that that's not what's going to happen. This week we had a cool little experience with a less-active member of the church. 

My comp and I have been wanting to visit a specific house for a while now and we finally had an opportunity to do so. We sat down and started talking with the woman. Then my comp said in Samoan, "Sorry my Samoan is so bad" and then she responded in perfect English, "don't worry about it".   She went on to tell us (all in English) that she is half Tongan and was born in Tutuila (American Samoa). She was baptized in Tutuila with her husband then they moved here 5 years ago. She speaks English, Tongan, Samoan, and Spanish fluently. She was a really interesting lady. She talked a lot about her family. She said she plans on going back to Tutuila at the end of the month.  At the end, I attempted to testify to her in English about eternal families and it felt flippin' weird trying to communicate in English!

I asked her in the beginning if missionaries had visited her since she's been here and she said no. Not a single time in 5 years. And Fagaloa is very small with hardly any people. After we left my comp and I were still kinda in shock about how the visit went. I thought about it later that day as a reason that I was transfered here. I have faith that the little visit we had resparked her faith and maybe when she goes back to Tutuila she'll go back to church. 

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August 7th & a beautiful sunrise

Sunday afternoon read

sunrise

This week was good! My companion's leg is a lot better. We didn't get any lessons with investigators but a lot with less actives and members. We went on a split with a kid in Uafato who is going to serve in New Zealand. He went through the temple this last week and I could just tell he was spiritually pumped up. He's a super cool kid and we're definitely gonna go on more splits with him this week. We did get a referral about a guy in Uafato who is probably around 50. I've never really taught someone this old, but from what people have said about him, he sounds pretty promising. We were gonna go contact him but we didn't have enough gas so we're gonna go this week. We also got other referrals about some kids who go to church. Hopefully we get an investigator from that.

On Friday we had our district meeting and we did a scripture search game and I destroyed everyone. If I had done that before my mission, I would've failed. It was just kinda cool to see how much I've learned since being on my mission.

This week should be fun! Hopefully we get to set a baptismal date!

Ou te alofa ia te outou uma lava. Fa'amanuia le Atua ia te outou. Maua le fiafia ma oli'oli taimi uma. Manuia tele lava lenei vaiaso!

July 30th...Don't be cheeky

This week we just stayed at home cause of my comp's leg. It's a lot better now so were gonna get to work this week. We baptized our one investigator Faleiva. He lives in Uafato the village with the chapel that's just a roof on polls. There isn't a font so we did the baptism in the river right behind the chapel. My comp was gonna get a picture of me before we did the baptism, but he had to be a witness so he only got the after shot.  That's the first picture above.

We went to Apia this morning to fill up the car and we stopped by one of the elders houses to get a haircut. Elder Powelson is his companion so we got to talk a with him a little bit. Elder Powelson was my trainer and he goes home in two weeks. 

My comp and I thought this was pretty funny...

Don't be cheeky... translated: "aua te tautalalaitiiti"