Elder Love's Samoan Adventures

Hello friends and family... so first off as you all may have heard there is a breakout of measles here in the islands and it has affected samoa. up to the last thing i have heard there have been 63 deaths and most of them being little children. there have been efforts to get everyone vaccinated but the death toll still goes up every day. so for the next two days everything is going to be shut down and all of us missionaries will not be proselyting until night for a couple hours. so for the next couple days we will all be staying home with the hopes of stopping the spread of the disease. this week of proselyting has been very good work as well as a very good test of patience. we are trying to do all that we can to find those who are prepared in this area and there are many people that are not but there are also a few promising friends that we are working really hard to help. one of them is named Nooata. he is a very strong methodist and we found him by visiting a less active who also li

hello friends and family, Savaii north is the best zone in the world first of all. I am having a great time out here with my comp elder palepoi. here are a few things that happened this week: - we had a split with elder irvine and elder essig in their area called moesavili. i went with elder irvine and we had a great time, we set two of his friends on baptismal date who are just so prepared i cant wait to see them get baptized. the members were so helpful in that area! elder irvine is still the goat - we went on another split in samalaulu and i went with elder walters and my companion went with elder patane. it was awesome we taught this old lady who we hope will accept baptism tomorrow and we got permission from two matais (chiefs or fathers) to teach and baptize members of their families. LETS GOOO!! - we had an awesome zone counsel with our zone and we talked about how we have all been doing in working with less actives (which is the push rn in the mission) and then we made some fun

hey fam this week has been awesome. me and my new companion elder palepoi are working hard in our area in lefagaoalii to visit less actives and find new people to teach. one quick story cuz time is short: me and elder palepoi went and contacted a friend who had been taught by other missionaries a while back and almost came to church but his village prohibited him from joining.. so we went back to see how he was doing and we get to his house and it was like a little store that he ran.. anyway we started talking to the person who came to the window(who was the guy we were looking for but didn't find that out till like halfway through the message we shared) and we started talking. we started talking about church and how he is methodist and the crazy way they do their tithing and then we talked about the right way that the lord has commanded us(10%) and he seemed really interested about it.. we share with him a scripture in alma 30 where alma explains to korihor that missionaries don

the work out here in savaii north is awesome! i have the amazing privilege and opportunity to serve on the northern part of savaii. me and my companion watch seven areas: moesavili, saipipi, puapua, samalaeulu, fagamalo, safotu, and me and my comp proselyte in lefagaoalii. i absolutely love it out here and we have absolutely incredible elders and sisters in our zone. Right now in our area in lefagaoalii, we have a ward and a branch. the branch president just got released last week and so now we don't have a leader there right now. the stake presidency is watching that branch and me and my companion are praying hard that they can find a replacement as soon as possible so that we can get the work rolling over there. we have a lot of ideas to put on some missionary-run activities, we just really want support of the branch so that we can coordinate effectively. it is a very slow branch but there are a ton of less actives up there that we are going to really spend our time with. we are

Hey so this past week has been absolutely slam packed i can barely keep up with everything that is going on. It's crazy how flippin exhausted i am. so my dear comp elder tiatia took the boat to apia where he will be staying until friday where he will catch a plane back to his home in new zealand. Not to go into details but seeing him go was hard and tears were definitely shed. i love that guy and I am so grateful to have been able to do the lord's work with him over the course of my mission. my new companion is just as amazing. his name is elder palepoi from spanish fork utah (but of Samoan descent). we went to the mtc together and i am super excited to be back with him and get to work. This past week me and tiatia visited almost every bishop in our zone so i could be able to take over leading once he left. we also talked to every bishop about a project that the mission president has released which has to do with strengthening less actives. it was a great experience to talk

This week was another great week! I definitely got a boost by getting back to my normal study routine.. I bought a gospel doctrines book a while back and i started studying it intensively for a while and then as soon as i got transferred i haven't had as much time to study(or rather my times to study aren't as sure). But i had a great study this week about the priesthood and where it all makes sense in like the bible and things like that.. i really like a quote by joseph fielding smith (i think) where he said something like he never got as much happiness and satisfaction than when he was reading the scriptures. I definitely feel that now, which is so crazy hahaha. i always laugh reading in the book of mormon and coming across all the scriptures dad used to quote to me, "oh be wise, what can i say more", and "this was no excuse for thee my son" and a bunch of other ones.. its really a blessing to be enjoying the scriptures as much as i am and i just keep pray

Man it's been a fat couple weeks! the zone leader life is definitely different that is for sure. we have our own proselytizing area and we actually are covering two different ones right now waiting for more missionaries. we are in the car mostly all day and instead of just thinking about my own area I now have to think about every area in the zone, logistics, leading, and a bunch of other responsibilities. i don't like the word overwhelming but I am definitely unsettled right now kinda like at the beginning of the mission. it is awesome though. i am learning a ton and i know that either the zone needs me, i need this calling, or both. It will definitely stretch me but that is definitely a good thing. My new companion elder tiatia is awesome. his brother is actually serving in salt lake city and the funny thing is, he is companions with a guy from american samoa named mau gisa, who me and elder masuisui used to go with on splits all the time back last year in malaeimi. we lov

Hello friends and family, I have now left my son elder puletua with an even better missionary, elder skabelund, to finish his training. I am now companions with a missionary from new zealand and he is the best. he was my zone leader in the very beginning of my mission and now I have the amazing opportunity to be companions with him until the end of his mission here on the north side of savaii. We are zone leaders for the whole north side of savaii so we are in the car a lot which is definitely a big change from grinding on the streets for the first year of my mission. I am definitely super excited to learn as much as i can from one of my biggest idols on the mission: elder tiatia! I have a testimony that this is God's work and I am so grateful to give 2 years of my life for it. I hope you are all doing well! Elder Love

so this week has been good, we are really searching for new friends, we started doing a small little "preach my gospel" class with two youth who are preparing to serve missions. we have had amazing lessons with to'oto'o where he just won't accept the truth but we are gonna go back one more time to see what we can do. samuelu dipped, and we are trying to teach this guy who has been coming to church but he is completely dumb--he can't speak , read, or write that well so that's a dead end. i think the atonement will cover that guy! i am studying deeply about the house of israel, the scattering and gathering, the apostasy and the restoration. its crazy i love studying the gospel so much it's kinda weird. it's just awesome to see how much joy i get from studying the gospel! --------------------------------------------- Some pictures near the 1-year mark...

malo soifua, This week was transfer week and I am still here with the Fagamalo fam. My dear son is done with his first 6 weeks of training and i have the pleasure to continue being his loving father. right now we have one progressing friend, To'oto'o, who i wrote about in my last email. he is so close man we are just praying for him that the spirit can touch him and give him courage to change and come closer to christ. We are on the search like for real man we are on the search for new friends and me and my comp are working hard. we know that we will find those who are ready. I love this work. I love the Lord. I love all of you. I love samoa. I feel your guys prayers! I am out here doing my best! i hope you guys all have a good week! <3 Elder Love

Another day another beautiful week here in Fagamalo Savaii! So last week I hit my year mark in the mission and that's weird to think about. words can't describe what this past year of my life has meant to me and all that I can say is that I am extremely grateful and excited for this next half of mission. as I was reading the email from the mission president's wife she shared a quote from her son that just returned home and he said, "One of the hardest parts about being a missionary is how the world tries to mold God into what they want. God's not made of clay...WE ARE!" that rang so true to me and my mission as I recall an experience that happened just yesterday with our 55 year old man friend named to'oto'o. We had just gotten done teaching lesson one which is the restoration of the gospel and me and my companion bear strong testimony to him about what we had just shared and I was honestly pretty shocked at how unreactive he was to what we had just s

Malo! It has been a while since i have given a nice update for you all! My new companion is Elder Puletua and I am training him. He is my first son and I am trying to train him up to be the next AP I have no doubts.. He is from Upulo and he speaks little to no english so It's been a really fun time practicing my samoan! It has been three weeks since I have started training him and he is awesome man It really has been a blessing to be with him I am learning so much. I am still in Fagamalo in Savaii which is the big island of samoa. I love it to death! I never want to leave this island and this area is going to be hard to leave too because there are just so many people here that I have gotten so close to. We are having great success with my new companion and we are extremely blessed to be part of the baptisms of our three friends in the coming two weeks. Mataio and Repeke are 10 and 12 and I have been visiting them for a loooong time but they finally got permission from their par

I am now a trainer which is why I didn't write last week, I was gone all day to Upulo to pick up my trainee. His name is elder Puletua and he is a beast. He is from Upolu and its awesome he doesn't really speak English. We have two baptisms next month, hopefully more as we find those who are ready!

Salo le Moifua, There is little to update on besides the baptismal service for Lasi was exceptionally amazing. I had the great opportunity to give a spiritual thought as well as confirm him. What a guy he is. We also had a great stake conference where these two 70's came and gave some mean talks. President and sister ho ching came as well. Me and my companion have been working hard together to find new future bishops and relief society presidents and we found a few people but we will see if they are truly prepared. there is still a problem with getting pictures but I will try to get it figured out. I did my laundry in a bucket earlier that was cool. till next week. ----------------------------------- Note--these two pictures were posted on facebook by the mission president's wife, Sister Ho Ching:

Malo le Soifua ma le palagi e le mama, The missionary life is amazing! I am still loving it out here in Samoa. I loved American Samoa as well but coming here to Savaii has been like the real culture and it's been so fun. I can't remember if I wrote last week but my soa (companion) Elder Sauni got transferred and my new companion is Elder Sauvao from Australia. He used to live here in Samoa so his Samoan is like straight mastaaa so I am learning a lot of respectful language and stuff from him and it's just super exciting. This week was awesome! on Saturday we had a great baptismal service for one of our friends named Kalone who is like 60 years old. He has been a friend for a while but finally got the strength to give up his smoking, so it was an amazing experience to be able to baptize him. We have another baptism this weekend for our other friend named Lasi. We met last at a member's house for dinner and he has been married to a member for a long time but has literally

Malo Soifua, Things are going amazing here in Fagamalo. We have three people being prepared to be baptized in the next three weeks and I have a new companion! His name is Elder Sauvao and he is from Australia. Things are awesome just doing my best out here especially with this one hour email limit please be easy on me haha but don't worry i know I have been bad I am gonna make a goal to write better emails. Elder Love ----------------------------------------

Malo le soifua ma se palagi e mama, This week was pretty amazing. me and my companion have been working really hard here in fagamalo and we are definitely being blessed to find those who are ready. The water is being filled up right now for a baptism we are having later at 6 o'clock for our dear friend Sene. Not to be partial or anything but this guy has a special place in my heart for sure. He was just divinely prepared by god to receive the gospel at this time. He is getting baptized on a wednesday because he is getting surgery on his leg on friday and he can't get it wet after that so he really wanted to do it before surgery. He is a 57 year old guy who is like off the wall crazy and has the funniest sense of humor but having done lessons me and my comp have really gotten close to him over these past three weeks. We have two other baptisms this month I will explain later! Jesus is the Christ. Elder Love ------------------------------------------ From Aaron's da

Sole! sorry i missed last week friends my companion and i put in some extra p-day work and we didn't have time to write emails.. but a lot has been happening in this crazy old island of samoa.. Since the last time i wrote we have found and taught some new people and we have 3 people who are really looking good for baptism in the next month. we are going on a ton of splits with members in the ward to try and find new friends and it really is the grind right now.. i'll tell you guys about my absolutely favorite friend whose name is sene.. this guy is 57 and single and is literally hilarious man he is like the weirdest dude of all time but he is soo awesome.. ever since we started teaching him he has come to his ward on sunday and he goes to the other wards sacrament meeting too. He had the chance to come see the devotional with the prophet and he loved that too. we went and visited him yesterday to teach him about the word of wisdom and he is like, "ou te fia papatiso i

Malo Soifua! this was a crazy week! last tuesday me and my companion sat down about ready to plan for the day in our beautiful area of amanave and all of a sudden we get a call from the zone leaders and they told us to say a prayer and then before you know it, "Elder Love... you are getting transferred to Savaii" sooolllleee i was freakin out like it was the middle of the transfer and right when me and my companion were really starting to see the fruits of our labors BOOM i was gone on the plane to upolu the next day and later that night took the boat over to savaii. ( sorry mom that's the reason I didnt email or call) so if you guys don't know i was in American Samoa for my whole mission and this is actually my first time in legit samoa and its dope! dang this week has just been a whirl trying to get to know the members and get a feel for the area.. My companions name is elder Sauni and he is from new zealand and he is the most humble dude I love him. He has been h

Malo le Soifua ma le lagi e mama! hello my dear friends! this week was smashing. let me get into it. we had stake conference and there was this activity on saturday where we the missionaries were given assignments to teach 1 of 4 mini lessons about the restoration, prophets, members and missionary work, and the book of mormon. me and my companion got the assignment to teach about prophets. we told every single member we could to invite their friends so they could come and hear and we were so excited to get some new contacts but we got there and legit no one brought a friend... so ya we had a good lesson with the members. i hope they are more strengthened now to want to bring a friend next time... We have two friends who will be baptized next month. Vai'au is the dopest 12 year old kid ever. we found him by visiting a less active house and he wasn't baptized so now we are just having the best time teaching this kid. he eats everything up Phyllis is the girl who we met two

Another transfer and I am going to be staying in amanave with Elder Robertson! This past transfer was a grind and I am really hoping and praying we will see some of the fruits of our labors in these next 6 weeks! This past week we ran into a little miracle this week! after being here over a month we had never heard of this less active family who lives in a village called Seetaga. we went over the next day to see what was going on and we start talking to the old man. he told us that he was a member of the bishopric over in upolu but when he came here he started going to his parents church because if he didn't he couldn't stay here(that is Samoa for you). well eventually his dad died and by the time we visited them he said he was ready to go back the the church of Jesus Christ. We asked him if there wasn't anyone baptized and he said he 12 year old grandson is not. We taught vai'au a little bit and then he gladly accepted the invitation to be baptized next month. the next

This week I will hit you with the updates! we got 1 really solid bap date and 3 more dates that we are working towards TEMPLE IN TUTUILA! I've been out 8 months already? Things are going absolutely swell! we are working with the members and the work is picking up and we have a lot of people to teach. Conference was a spiritual high and I could write for days but I know well enough that every other missionary email is just packed full of conference stuff so i will spare you all. HOWEVER I do want to say that conference will only be useful if we make plans to apply the stuff we learned into our lives.. so that is my invitation to you all is to find that one thing and actually apply it! use it in your life. I promise as you do you will become closer to Jesus Christ. Manuia le vaiaso! Elder Love

This week was a big week of trynna find new people to teach! Sunday night I actually wen through the area book and organized all the people who had been taught previously into which village they lived in and now we are trying to contact them to see why they stopped meeting with missionaries. so far we haven't had too much luck but we gotta keep having faith that we will find the ones who are ready.. I love being with Elder Robertson he is really keeping me humble he is such a good guy. today was glorious i finally got my ingrown toenail looked at and the nicest Filipino lady named Myra helped me out. tender mercies man. I am gonna get regular pedicures when i get home man there is no going back once you know. also the Filipino's give the best haircuts here too! 8 bucks for a full on hair cut with the wash and massage! like its insane man. something that was special this week was when we were trying to contact these people who met with missionaries before we ran into this lady

vaiaso lona 4 ia Amanave (week 4 here in Amanave)! Things are picking up! we had someone accept the baptismal invitation last week and we have been meeting with a couple other families who really seem promising. by small and simple things are great things come to pass. Me and my other palagi (white) companion are doing all that we can in this area to pick it up and get the work moving. like i said before there hasn't been a baptism in the Amanave ward for over a year so we are gunning for it. another cool thing that i heard,, a guy I contacted and started teaching in my last area is getting baptized this week! that was awesome to hear from my boy elder Masuisui who is still holding it down in Malaeimi. The Lord promises us there are people prepared... the question isn't if but when and how we are going to find them. We just gotta keep doing the small and simple things and I know we will see even more miracles that the Lord has prepared for us. stay tuned for more and check t

So me and my companion witnessed something truly incredible this week.. this is how it started.. we walked for about an hour and a half on Saturday afternoon to our dinner appointment with the ward mission leader and we were really looking forward to it because his wife isn't baptized. so after walking like an hour and a half the ward mission leader comes out of his house and was like, "sorry its been a busy day so I don't have dinner ready" so that was disappointing but we really wanted to talk to the wife still so we went in and started talking. it turns out that the ward mission leaders son (who is married and has a family) just moved in there and he wasn't baptized so we kinda start talking with all of them at the same time. after a while the son tells us, "hey thank you elders for what you are doing for my mom, I really appreciate it but i think she needs time so I would also appreciate it if you backed off a little and gave her some time". We respo

Amanave week 1... wow this was definitely the fastest week of my entire mission holy Moses it feels like I was writing my last weekly 20 minutes ago.. so me and my beloved companion pretty much white washed this area cuz he had only been in this area for a short time and he didn't know a ton of the members. So what we did this week is just set up splits and we got showed every member house in the area.. We visited as many as we could and followed up on referrals that we got so it was just a busy busy week trying to familiarize ourselves with the area, get to know the members, and find people to teach. we definitely have a solid base now and we found some people that we think are pretty promising as well. like man seriously the week was a blink man. But Elder Robertson is a beast man he is helping me so much when it comes to the social part of the work man he is awesome. He just is so good with talking to people and like all the kids love him. Its so fun now where before I woul

Transfers have come and gone and I am gone! I left my first area after serving there for 6 months. It was a kind of a bittersweet moment when we got the transfer call because I didn't realize how close I got to these people until I realized I would be leaving. Luckily I had enough time to say goodbye to some of the members that I got close with. Elder Masuisui is still in Malaeimi with Elder Williams who went to the MTC with us as well. So my new area is called Amanave. it is still on Tutuila but SWEET MOSES it is the most insanely beautiful area I am already in love. It is on the far west side of the island and it is like one road that drive right along the coast. it is truly amazing. its different from malaeimi because there isn't as much traffic and its a lot quieter and more peaceful. Our area is pretty huge tho so we often get ride from people who are driving trucks and we just hop in the back and take a nice drive down the coast lookin at the beautiful scenery. Perks of b

Malo soifua! Matua a'asa le la sole!! (extremely scorching the sun bro!) haha that phrase has been said all week by me and my comp! it was a very hot week but an even better week for finding! earlier in the week we talked to a member and she referred us to a new family who had just moved in. There is the mom and her 5 kids. apparently they had been coming to church for the past three weeks and when we went and talked to them they just seemed ready man. We are gonna visit them again later after we go buy them some scriptures and hymn books from the distribution center. God is always preparing people. So awesome that our job as missionaries is just to have faith and be obedient and God will bless us with those he has prepared. We plan on inviting them to baptism letsssss goooo! so exciting man. another one of our friends is named Iosefa. we found this guy just by knocking on his door down this back road I had never gone. He is a 7th day aventist and he is awesome man. at the end of o

Ou uso pele e ma tuafafine, Talofa! Your Elder is just getting skinnier while your other Elder Masuisui is just getting fatter. Its going incredibly well out here especially since I bought an outrageously good quality speaker from the local Chinese store for 13 bucks so I can blast my "Samoa Apia mission approved music playlist" music. the morning routine has been jazzed up in dramatic fashion. Nothing like the motab to push me through my gainz session every morning let me tell you. Throwing my orange peels off the third story balcony and trying to land them in the trash can below never gets old. And yes I am actually starting to get used to the cold shower its incredible. this is most likely my last couple weeks in Malaeimi so I am really trynna to give it all I got and really blow this area up for the next elders. A lot of finding has been happening these past couple of weeks and we've been visiting a ton of members trying to get some referrals. I'll tell a short st

Hello! Tauuma got baptized! yessss he is the man let me tell you. unfortunately we forgot to snap a pick so that is unfortunate. he is the man tho just imagine the Samoan version of Ryan Gosling and boom that's Tauuma. I've gotta keep this one short cuz I really want to take a nap here on this fine preparation day. also this whole emailing business is really hard for me because as it says in the scriptures I cant even say "a hundredth part" of the things that come to pass here, and not only that like all my feelings and spiritual experiences. I am not sure how my Sister does it who is serving in Taiwan right now. But don't worry when I get home i am gonna publish my mission journals so you guys can read up and not miss a single day! But speaking about my sister she is on her last transfer in her mission. I have been reading her emails and dang.. you know that song "how can I be" that talks about all the heroes and prophets in the Book of Mormon and how t

Transfer number 4 has come and I get one more blessed transfer in Malaeimi with Elder Masuisui! Time is going by so fast. too fast man how am I already 6 months out?! Why is time like this man. As Elder Masuisui said, "Time is like a girl, it never does what you want it to unless you manage it wisely". haha that kinda sounds messed up but its so true man when you want time to go fast it seems like it takes forever and when you want it to go slow it goes by in a flash. Either way we gotta use the time wisely. Me and my companion are teaching a friend and we don't want to jinx it but we really think the spirit is working with this guy and if he accepts the gospel it will be a miracle. We contacted him actually by knocking on a door by another one of our friends house and he was eager to talk to us. The first time we talked he was quoting bible verses like none other and he was all about "the word of god" and so on. As we tried to share the Book of Mormon he re

Guess who's back.. back again This weeks letter will be short and sweet: The work is going awesome. Only a week and a half until we get to see our new homie tauuma get dressed in white :))) we have some more promising friends right now. The work is going good. next week is transfers so who knows whats gonna happen?! either way ill always be an #imiboyforlife peep the pics Lo'u Molimau (My Testimony - translation below) Ou te faafetai mo le taulaga faavavau a Iesu Keriso ma le avanoa e tala'i ai lana talalelei. E leai se galuega sili ona taua nai lo le galuega faafaifeautalai. E amu'ia a'u ona o le avanoa e avea a'u ma se sui o le alii faaola Iesu Keriso. E leai se mea e faatusaina. Ou te aioi atu ia te outou e faitau ma suesue i le tusi a mamona. O le tusi a mamona o se faamaoniga faatalitonuina o le toefuataiga o le talalelei e ala mai le perofeta o iosefa samita. Talitonu i le tusi a mamona. Afai tou te le talitonu i le tusi a mamona, ia Talitonu ia Iesu Keris

Still reppin malaeimi baby. This place is like my second home man. Me and my comp Elder Masuisui are working hard out here trynna find and teach. riding the ups and downs with faith that God's got us and that he's got all of our friends. was kinda sick this past week with a hecka stuffy nose and a cough... as my fam knows whenever I get a cold I get ear infections really quick... so earlier this week I started feeling my right ear acting up and I was like, " e leai sole, not gonna happen bro Iv'e got proselyting tomorrow". so I asked my companion if he could give me a blessing that I would be well enough to do the work of the Lord and he gave me a short fervent blessing. I woke up the next morning with the pain gone and we proselyted the whole day. How amazing is priesthood power? We got a ton of people we are teaching and I am really hopeful with all of them. Just gotta keep praying for them and doing all we can for them. We have a friend who is getting baptized

Manuia le tausaga fou! I hope everyone had a great new years celebration! this was the first year that I didn't stay up till twelve haha ya boi needs his sleep. I don't have a ton of words this week but its been amazing here in Samoa. Learning something new every single day. a little update in the work-- we contacted a nice 19 year old kid named 'Tauuma' and started to teach him over the past week. He is a very humble kid and he accepted the invitation to be baptized. It is such a joy being able to help him understand the restored gospel. Can't wait to see him progress and develop as we keep teaching him. random things: - we met a new Filipino family who are like beyond amazing. nicest people on earth. their son really like tennis so we might go play with him on a p-day. - Elder Masuisui bought a 42 dollar Underarmour shirt because he thinks he looks swole in it - We were given 100 dollars the other day at Carl's Jr buy food so that was nice Because it is the ne