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...