February 21-Cyclones Circling

I tried to get a good picture of the temple when we went to Apia today

Hola Amigos!

This week was great. We didn't have a baptism because on Friday bishop called us and said they found her record.  But we found a part member/less active family and there are six people that aren't baptized. Four kids and two elders. We taught them the first lesson and it went well. They really liked it.  It's so fun to teach kids but its gonna be a little harder this time because three of them can't read. We just invited them to all read together. We also invited them to church and when we went to pick them up, as we walked up I noticed all the mosquito nets still up so I knew no one was awake. That was kind of a bummer...

We have two other investigators progressing quickly towards baptism. The teaching part has gotten a lot easier since I've been training and have had to take the lead for all the lessons but I still really struggle with the non-gospel conversations. The getting to know the people is really tough and that's one thing that I really feel is important. We're not just robots coming to shove our beliefs down people's throats, we truly care about them and want to help them any way we can.  I'll keep working at it.

There has been a cyclone circling the pacific this whole week. I think it made three loops. It hit Tonga the first time, then Tonga again and Fiji a little and then the last time it hit Fiji really bad. I saw a video of it and houses were destroyed. It was pretty crazy... It missed us every time which was really lucky.

I've been in Faleasi'u for four months and I'll be here for another two months unless something crazy happens and I get transferred in the middle of me training my "son". I love this ward so much and I don't want to leave. The people are so loving and so nice. It was hard watching Elder Powelson say goodbye to people and he was only here for three months. I already know it's gonna be really hard to say goodbye to everyone especially our recent converts and current investigators. There is so much work here as well. I was talking with one of our zone leaders and told him that I've already taken part in nine baptisms. He's been out for 13 months and hasn't had nine so it's been great to have people so receptive here. 

Our fafaga on Sunday was interesting. I think he is a less active because the house smelled like cigarettes and he was drinking Ava Samoa. After each meal, it is customary for the person who received the meal to say a speech which pretty much is just saying thank you for everything and then blessing them. We do one at just about every fafaga but this time was a little different. I started saying the speech and he was just like, "Elders, Elders, Elders......" I was thinking oh no what did I do...? what did I do wrong...? He started to tear up (I think he was a little over emotional because of the ava) and said that we don't need to thank him we need to thank Jesus. I was relieved. I thought he was gonna start correcting me and telling me I was doing something wrong. It was an interesting fafaga to say the least.

No baptisms this week but hopefully one next week!

Alofa atu

-Elder Tana

This is a coconut that has started to grow into a coconut tree. the stuff that looks like ice cream is foamy and it tastes like coconut. Its really sweet and good.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Malo le soifua!!!!

This week went really well. I was kinda stressed going into the week because we had a lot of stuff to get done but it all went smoothly and according to plan which I was extremely happy about.

Our baptisms went really well. The spirit was super strong and I know it was something they'll never forget. The three people we baptized this week just kinda fell into our hands. Kovia lives in Sale'imoa which is about an hour walk from our house. We had been teaching him since November I think. He is such a humble guy and really has a strong desire to come unto Christ. It was really fun to watch him grow in the gospel and open up to us and desire to know more.

Matthew and Sharon are brother and sister. Matthew is 10 and Sharon is 12. We had taught Matthew a while back but his dad said he didn't want him to be baptized yet. He changed his mind and allowed us to visit with Matthew and Sharon as well. They were so fun to teach. They just loved learning about the church and every lesson we were laughing and just having fun.

Our baptism this week is the wife of Tinei. That one guy we baptized with rasta hair. It's funny because everyone knows him as "Rasta". Most people don't even know his name. When we first met them, she said she was baptized but we called the bishop to search for them and he confirmed she was baptized. Then like a week later, he said she wasn't. Then like a week before Tinei's baptism he said she was so we didn't baptize her. And then just last week bishop walks in to our class at church on Sunday and says she isn't so she is getting baptized this week!  It was a lot of back and forth, but we're all excited we finally got to the bottom of it all.

This week I have been reading from D&C and I came across a scripture I really liked. Its D&C Section 133 verse 53.

Faapea mai le mau,

"In all their afflictions‍ he was afflicted. And the angel of his presence saved them; and in his love, and in his pity, he redeemed‍ them, and bore them, and carried them all the days of old."

He knows us perfectly. He knows what we're feeling and knows exactly how to help us and I'm so beyond grateful for that knowledge. He lives. He loves each one of us entirely and perfectly.

alofa lava atu ia te outou

-Elder Tana

Matthew and Sharon's baptism

Kovia's baptism

This week we received the e-mail below from his ward mission leader:

Hello sister Sterner
Well I am Temple, your son Elder Sterner is in my ward he's serving here and he's a great missionary. I got your email from him earlier after our baptism. I know it's so hard to received photos of him in his mission so this is why I get your email so I can send you pictures of him will send pictures of our baptism earlier we have 3 earlier :) have a great day and God bless.
Love,
Temple Leaupepetele

It was so cool of Temple to reach out to us.  Here are a couple of the pictures he sent to us.  It looks like they're having fun while working hard.....

Super Bowl Sunday - Feb. 7th

Talofa

This week was really good and we had a lot of really good, fun lessons. We have three baptisms this week which is awesome and we think we can hopefully have 6 or 7 this month.

Two of the people getting baptized this week are two kids. Their names are Matthew and Sharon and we taught them just about everyday this week. Matthew is nine and Sharon is twelve. When we taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ we thought of a really good way to help them understand. I got some warheads, the super sour candies, and used them when we talked about repentance. How when you sin and haven't repented it's sour and painful but after repentance it's sweet. I have a video of it and it's so funny. They are so fun to teach and they love the gospel and taking the lessons.

There is this one lady that has been chasing us around really wanting to talk with us but we just haven't had time to visit with her.  This week we were finally able to. Her name is Iloga. We visited with Iloga, Iloga's mother, and Iloga's children. As the lesson went on, she told us that she is already baptized and her mom is as well. They hadn't been to church in forever. The grandma started talking and she just said how she visited a bunch of different churches but she has always known the church is true. Iloga's children aren't baptized and we are going to start lessons with them. We invited them all to church and they came and the grandma went and bore her testimony which was really awesome. Iloga's daughter's name is Rosa and she loved church. She had the biggest smile on her face all day which was so cool.

On Thursday, we were walking to a visit and this guy stopped us and he wanted to talk to us. He said he wanted to talk in English. It was so weird. I felt weird speaking English and it was really hard for me to think of things to say.

I can't wait for this week and our baptisms on Saturday! Always super busy which is good!

Alofa atu

Elder Sterner

Drinking a fresh niu that our ward mission leader got from the tree and my companion opened it.

One of the strange fruits in season right now. It's really good. You peel it and its kind of like a grape with a big seed on the inside. It's really sweet and tasty. We saw one of the trees in front of someone's house and we asked if we could buy some and we got about 20 for 5 bucks.

Elder Christofferson & service project on Manono Tai

Hello everyone!!

This week was one of the best on my mission so far.

On Tuesday we had a mission conference with Elder Christofferson. All of Upolu and Savai'i came but poor Tutuila missed out. It was really good seeing some of the Elders who have been serving in Savai'i from my MTC group.  Elder Christofferson was amazing. We got to shake his hand which was sweet. He talked for almost two hours with no notes. Just straight revelation. He gave the opportunity to us to ask questions and one elder asked a pretty funny question. Everyone has heard those stories about when an Apostle visits a mission he maybe gets a feeling or something about a certain missionary so this missionary asked if Elder Christofferson felt anything specific about him. Everyone was laughing and he said he didn't feel anything specific but he said to study the doctrine of the priesthood. Everyone was still laughing and stuff but then it hit me that what he said was direct revelation. He could've said anything but he said to study the Doctrine of the priesthood so I thought that was cool.

When he bore his testimony at the end it was so simple but so powerful. It always gives me the chills when they say they "witness that Jesus is the Christ." One day I hope to bear the same witness that Jesus is the Christ.  For now, I will continue to testify in faith.

It was something that I'll never forget. I learned so much and I'm trying to apply what I learned to each day.

We had a lot of good visits this week with our investigators. It was funny after one visit, we were leaving and my companion turned to me and he was saying how I understood everything and was able to answer their questions and teach them according to their needs. When he said that it kind of hit me that I was able to speak and understand. I give ALL the credit to the Lord and His help in learning the language.  It really is a miracle and a blessing.

Training my companion these past few weeks I've noticed my language skills are growing a lot. When I was getting trained and I didn't understand something I would tune out because I knew my companion could answer. But now I'm the only person to turn to. So it has forced me to really listen and mostly rely on the Spirit to help me understand them.

On Friday I went on an exchange with the zone leaders. I went to the zone leaders area and my companion stayed in Faleasi'u. I did a baptismal interview for the zone leaders and we got a couple visits in. In one of the visits this lady sucked down two cigarettes right in front of us and we weren't there for longer than 10 minutes. It was pretty funny.  It was really fun getting to be in a different area and meet new people.

Saturday we had to be up at 4:00am to head over to the wharf to take a little boat over to Manono Tai to do the service project. When we got there, there was only enough paint stuff for the ward members to paint so all the missionaries went around the island picking up trash. I was totally okay with that because I wanted to walk around and see the whole island. On the island it's against the village rules to have cars, bikes, or dogs. It only takes a little over an hour to walk around the whole island. It's so beautiful. I don't think the kids there had ever seen a white kid before so they were especially fun to talk to.

Hope everyone is doing well back on the mainland. In Samoa they call America the Malo tele which means giant kingdom.

Alofa atu outou!

-elder tana

On Manono Tai. There are four little islands between Upolu and Savai'i. Manono Tai is one of them and then you can see Savai'i in the background.

On the little boat on the way back with our zone

Jan. 24th - food poisoning

Malo lava le soifua!!!

This week we didn't get a lot of visits in but the ones we did were solid. One lesson we had with Makerita was awesome. For our visit we decided to read Alma 7 together. It was really good and she shared a lot. After I testified, we asked how she was feeling. She just said how grateful she is for this gospel and the book of Mormon. She's grateful for the gospel and how it will bless her kids. She started crying and the spirit was so strong. We're trying to get her to come to church this week. It's been hard because she has a newborn baby to look after but she wants to get baptized so badly.

I got food poisoning from something this week. I don't know if it was from the water or the food but that knocked me out for a couple days.

On Tuesday our district had interviews with President Hannemann. It was really good. He shared one thing with me that I really liked. He just said how missionary work is so much easier than baseball.  We have Heavenly Father's help, the priesthood, the Holy Ghost, so many things to assist us. So I liked that and how he also connected it to baseball...

On Friday I had to do four baptismal interviews. They were really good. I really enjoyed doing them and seeing how strong their testimonies are and hearing about their conversion stories.

This Tuesday we have our Conference with Elder Christoffersen so I'm stoked for that. On Saturday we are doing a service project on the little island off the coast in our zone called Manono Tai. We're painting a school so that'll be really cool. I'm excited to get to go to that little island.

The work is really great and I wouldn't trade it for anything else. It's going by too fast!

Alofa tele lava ia outou!

-Elder Tana

A photo of the buses that are all over the place.  It's really cool how they make them.  They just take the engine part and then build the whole body around it out of wood.

Makerita is on the left and the other lady is a nice member of the ward that comes to our lessons.  I'm actually not sure who the kids belong to!

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.

January 10, 2016

Talofa Lava!

A lot happened this week. I'll start with what happened in the last couple hours.

Transfers are this week and my companion and I both had a feeling at least one of us was going to get transferred. We were supposed to get a call from the zone leaders Sunday night but they never called. We called them again this morning and they still didn't know what was happening. Then President Hannemann called. I got kinda nervous and then he said he wanted to talk to me and I knew exactly what he was going to ask.

He has called me to be a trainer!! I'm going to be with a brand new missionary and I still consider myself an extremely new missionary. It was a really good phone call and he mentioned how young Joseph Smith was when he was called to restore the gospel and how David was able to slay Goliath when he was so young. I know its going to be really hard since I'm no David, but I'm going to grow so much in every way. I'm really excited to get started.

We had two baptisms this Saturday. I don't know if I mentioned this last week, but Tinei's wife was already a member of the church. So we had two baptisms instead of three. Tinei is awesome. He has been receiving the lessons since May. I don't know what was different, but something changed in him. He stopped having doubts and his testimony grew so fast. He's already a priest!

Our other baptism was with a 15-year-old girl. We had turned off the baptismal font at the right depth earlier in the day. Then we found out they were doing Primary baptisms too, so they let some water out and the font was really low. I performed the baptism and I'm glad she was able to get all the way under the water the first time -  ha ha.

This is going to be an extremely interesting week and I cant wait to get it started!  I'm sure I'll have lots of news next week.

Hope all is well! Manuia le vaiaso!

Alofa atu outou

Elder Tana

Tinei and his family