Elder Love's Samoan Adventures

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...