from August 4:

This week was great! I wasnt too sad leaving sister Roos. I knew she was ready to move on and share her knowledge and train. She really is a great missionary and i cant wait to see her grow even more! I was so happy to be companions with sister maloata. We actually met in the MTC and we joked about us being companions and here we are! We've been together for a few days now and i've already learned so much from her! I want to be samoan when I grow up:)

We are really working on applying the trainings our mission President gave us about the 10 minute lessons to members and church tours! We have a few people to visit this week and will be sharing the blessings that come from sharing the gospel with family and friends from Alma 31:34-35. We're excited to work closer with our members. We want to train and gain the trust of the members so they can work on retaining while we focus on investigators. We've already have been seeing so many blessings and miracles! 

The Solinap family have been investigators since the previous missionaries were here. Brother Joe Marie would lie to the sisters about his cigarette smoking and we just taught him and were bold and loving and he started to trust us and is being super honest! He hasnt smoked in 2 days now. He says he's getting stomach aches but he says he just prays and he feels better! Yesss! Sister Cecilia has been ready for a long time now. Through them we met Phoebe and Marisel and they will be getting baptized all together on August 24. THEN, we met their daughter-in-law who is a part member and now has a baptismal date for August 31. We met two previous investigators on sunday afternoon and they have dates for September 14. Can you believe it!? Its only been less than a week and we've already seen so much progression! We're already giving dates in september!!

I'm so excited to do more work here in Silay. We also are doing the church tours on fridays at 6pm. We have so many young men who have committed to come and play and last week we met someone who acutally came in and was soooo prepared! She said she has been looking for the truth and we were able to teach her the message of the restoration. She prayed and she said she felt so good about what we taught her. It was my first time teaching a lesson in all english! it was so difficult describing things i've been used to describing in Ilonggo. Also, the First Vision, I should learn it in English:) We will be doing church tours every week now!

Sister Maloata and I will be doing exchanges with sisters in two zones! Its going to be a little stressful but it'll be fun:) Shes soo amazing. I'm just glad i'm doing this calling with her. Shes just so calm and super confident. Its great;) The house i'm in is great. We have sooo many cockroaches but i prefer them over mosquitoes. We have to shower outside in the back of our house cause our bathroom inside is upstairs and the water pressure isnt strong enough hehee. Its a little colder here too! i've actually been wearing my cardigans that i brought! Its nice;) We get a nice breeze at night. 

We're teaching a young man and he speaks tagalog! its sooo hard to speak tagalog! I just taught in a mix of english and ilonggo. Sooo hard! I need to brush up on my Tagalog skills, which are non existent because i havent spoken that language in over a year now! I'm praying in spanish now, and it takes me FOREVER. HOpefully i can get the hang of it soon:) 

I met this young man this week. His name is Michael and hes amazing. He used to be the leader of a gang here in the Philippines. He was being taught and was baptized in May of this year. Now he comes and works with us every week. He is getting ready to serve a misson! SO cool! He has such a strong testimony. I cant wait to see all the miracles he'll be doing on his mission. Seriously such a humble guy. 

Anyway, my week has been amazing. I miss Talisay but i'm excited to be here in Silay:) Lots of work to do here!

~Tofa soifua~

(take care in Samoan:)

Loveyou allssss:)