Elder Love's Samoan Adventures

Elder Aaron Love - Homecoming Talk Samoa Apia Mission - August 8, 2018 to April 6, 2020

we are doing good over here in the SAM! nothing seems to have been affected too much, and up to this point, the corona still hasnt hit here in samoa. i am really really really really tired. like im not sure how i am still functioning haha like one week is a blur and its over. its like the present doesnt even exist and its just the past and the future.. its really weird. like all things considered i am doing amazing, but the work and my calling truly is taking the energy right out of me, and whereas a nap before the mission would restore strength when i was exhausted, it seems like sleep has no real effect on kicking the true feeling of mental and emotional exhaustion.. i like what you said dad about being diligent and enthusiastic, thats definitely something i need right now is to keep finding that enthusiasm and love for the work. as i sent the email before, i really am trying to think less about myself and serve others, and that is the path i will continually follow.. as i have been ...

Another day (week) another dollar as they say! this week was awesome! our friend failautusi was baptized and confirmed!! story: one of our friends named siupolu needs to be divorced from her first husband in order to get married to the husband that she is with now, so we got the information about her ex husband on the other side of island and went and visited him. they have 4 children together and all of them are living with their dad. we asked the dad if he could go with siupolu (his ex) to the government and get a divorce, and he said he could. then he threw siupolu under the bus and said the reason why they got divorced was because she cheated, and he asked us if the church could pay for the divorce cuz she was the one who "sinned". we were kinda disappointed in siupolu, cuz she never disclosed that to us. we go back to siupolu and ask her her side, and she told us that the husband lied!! the husband actually cheated and he has been lying to the kids for about 10 years, sa...

Update on all our friends who we are teaching: Selina : was married last week and baptized, we are now helping her get excited for temple marriage Siaosi : was baptized about 3 weeks ago, still strong with his wife and kids to church. i love this guy Vaeluaga : a 9 year old who was forgotten and not baptized. she is the best, she will be baptized next week Tasi : a nice young woman who is getting married on friday and baptized on saturday. i think i will be able to baptize her in the ocean!! hopefully Mose : getting married next week, we are finishing up his lessons. he is awesome and sooo respectful Siupolu : we are working on her divorce, so her marriage process will take a little longer. we are going to help her and hopefully next month she will be baptized Tupe : he is the man. he is giving up smoking. his girlfriend who is a member now wants to marry him. they are getting married next month and baptized on march 7. The work here is amazing. i love it Elder Love

it's been a while since i emailed but lets hit yall with the updates: - the work is going great over here in Vavau with my awesome companion elder semeatu, we are working hard in our area and are loving working with the whole zone! yesterday i had a chance to go on an all day split with elder te'o! elder te'o and i went to the mtc together and this is the first time we have been in the same zone together in the field. it was such an awesome day catching up with him and really noticing how much we have both changed but how close we still are. - this next month is looking amazing!! if everything goes according to plan, we should be marrying 5 part member couples and baptizing one member of each couple. it has been super busy trying to work everything out with these couples, in fact today we just got back from town where we had to check whether or not the previous divorce of one of the couples went through, so that they can get married to their new partner. and thankfully it w...

so i am dead tired right now. long story short i just got transferred from my home in savaii to upolu. i didn't have any time to say goodbye to families even though i have been there for the past 8 months. let's just say my heart is a little achy right now thinking about all the friends i have made over there and how i didn't have a chance to say a proper goodbye. i hope i will have a chance to go back over before my mission is over and see them all again or its gonna break my heart cuz that's my family over there man. anyway i know the pain will pass after a while cuz i just got transferred to upolu south, which is back side upolu, and it is widely known as the most beautiful zone in our entire mission. and after driving through it today i agree 100%. my new companion is amazing as well, his name is Elder Semeatu and he is from Australia. he finishes in april but we are determined to work our butts off and blow it up down here! honestly i don't know what to say, i ...

Today was awesome. we went up this morning to saleaula to play some basketball with elder skabelund and elder misailegalu and i am humble to say that i defended my streak in 21 for three straight times. skabelund thinks he is gonna beat me next time but i am already planning my 4peat. it was cool too when we were sitting down taking a break we had this really nice drunk guy come on to the basketball court to wish us a happy new year and he kissed us all on the head. so we all got our new years kiss!! it has been a nice chill day, getting some really good rest. This week has been awesome! it has been so fun to proselyte in our area because everyone has just become good friends! i love the samoan people man its just so fun to be with them and joke around with them and when we are so lucky to have a great gospel lesson with them. this week we are helping one of our friends named jaimie prepare for her baptism next week! she has done lessons before but her grandma stopped her from being ...

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!