YOOO!!

Good morning! Sorry for not emailing last week.. It's been pretty
crazy around here!
Last Monday was our all mission summer activity! It lasted pretty much
all day so I didn't have to time to email. It was super fun though! We
just played sports with the whole mission and then went to the
Morristown chapel and ate and every zone performed a skit! Some of
them were super funny! In one of the skits they were impersonating
President Taggart, and a Elder straight from Samoa (Elder Lailua) had
a part in the skit and all he was supposed to say was "this is the
best mission president ever" and he gets up there and says "guys dis
da good mission president eva!" In the worst Samoan (FOB) accent!
Hahahahahaha😂 all the rest of us Polynesians in the mission were
sitting together and we're just crying!!!

The rest of the week was pretty packed with all the other stuff that
we do. We had stake correlation meeting yesterday that went pretty
well. Our stake leaders are very inspired!

A cool miracle that we had was last week at church my comp Elder Pluim
gave a talk in church and as he was speaking this guy with dreadlocks
and wearing sweats and ant-shirt walks in and sits in the row behind
me. Then after Elder Pluim was done speaking and went to sit down this
guy who walked in behind me starts waving at Elder Pluim to come sit
by him! So Elder Pluim walks off the stand and sits with this guy who
we find out was a referral who we tried to contact like two weeks ago
but we met his brother at the door who said he wasn't home. His name
is Kevin and he told us he met with the missionaries like 5 years ago
and that he wanted us to meet with him and his friend! So we were like
sweet! So we met with them that next Monday and his friends name was
Kevin as well haha so we are teaching Kevin Jones (the old referral
that came to church) and Kevin Braswell his friend who he told us was
kinda of falling away from believing in God until we start meeting
with them! He was blown away when we taught him the plan of salvation!
The spirit gets very strong in these lessons! Sadly he is kinda
avoiding us lately.. Kevin Jones said one of there other friends has
been telling him false stuff about us.. But we still have his number
and I know that we can get him back because that spirit was so strong
in our lesson with him, I know he felt it and will recognize it again
when we get the chance to see him again! Just pray for him please!
Kevin Jones though prayed about the Book of Mormon and received an
answer! Witch is great!! Pray for him to keep the Faith! They are
great men who we are going to baptize!

We got to go to the Temple with Naudia (our recent convert) on
Saturday!! It was awesome! She really wanted us to baptize her for her
grandma but they don't let missionaries do proxy baptisms. But we got
to confirm her for her grandma witch was a great experience! Elder
Pluim and I got to do a lot of the confirmations because it was also
our wards youth temple trip witch was awesome! Also while We were in
the confirmation room the door opened and a bunch of the youth from
East Orange walked in along with President Hinds!! It was so great to
see them again, especially in the Temple!!! It was a blessing to go!
We got to travel to the Temple in New York by car with one of the
members, so it was sweet to actually see a lot of the city instead of
taking the train when we go with other missionaries so you don't get
to seen much. I'll send some pics.

Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It went pretty well. I
spoke on Faith, at first it was kinda hard to prepare. I thought to
myself "Faith is such a broad subject how am I supposed to give a good
talk?" But as I studied and prayed about it I found that it's not as
broad as I thought. We obtain our faith in Jesus Christ through his
Atonement and filling our lives with spiritually uplifting things, we
show our Faith by keeping Gods Commandments and sharing she gospel
with others. It might be a little more complex than that but that's
what I got out of preparing and share my thoughts in this talk. Haha I
actually tried to crack a joke at the beginning of the talk but like 5
people laughed... Hahahha I think it's because there's a lot of
foreign people in our word so they didn't really get it..😋 BUT my
talk was good enough to make up for my bad joke! (I'll send a copy of
my talk as well)

Thanks for all of your examples and prayers! I truly do benefit from
the blessings that your prayers bring, as well as the New Jersey
Morristown Mission!

Love You All!

-Elder Fotu

💥🇺🇸MERICAAA!!🇺🇸💥

Had a great 4th of July!
Over all it was a good week! We had Zone meeting witch was awesome! We
talked a lot about developing Christlike attributes, especially we
talked about diligence and obedience.. We went on exchange with the
elders from Scotch Plains. I stayed in Irvington with Mcarther he's
from Kerns Utah and is a Boss of a Missionary! I always love it when
younger missionaries that are serving in nice more wealthy areas get
to come on exchange and experience the Hood Life:)

The 4th we met with our recent convert Naudia at her house. Her family
that disowned her let her come back and live with them! And her sister
Amanda (who was against her Naudia being Mormon) decided to sit in on
our lesson and she really liked! It's crazy how people's
misconceptions of the church go away after they meet with the
missionaries! But she was excited and she's meeting with us tonight!
We wanted to watch fireworks and we had permission from President
Taggart to stay out a little later but our area gets a little sketchy
at night especially on the 4th of July so we decide to just watch them
on top of our apartments parking garage. It was nice.
Yesterday was of course fast and testimonies meeting and I had some
pretty interesting meetings in East Orange but this ward has been the
even more interesting! Hahaha a sister started preaching like a
baptist and for like 20min and started singing some song and all the
converts in the church with other religious background started singing
with her! Hahaha funniest thing to see all the people that have moved
her from Utah looking around like "is this real life?" Hahaha! Then to
add to that we went to a Haitian church that our Friend Nancy invited
us and a Haitian Brother of our ward too. But it was Crazy! They just
sang and danced and banged on some drums for like 30min straight then
their pastor asked the brother with us to say a couple words and all I
could understand him saying was Joseph Smith, Authority, John the
Baptist, and priesthood. Hahah and everyone in the small room just
started glaring at us. Hahahah we didn't stay for that long.

Well it a new fresh transfer so I'm excited to see new and great
things happen, in our area and zone! Please pray for us!

I'm happy to have the privilege to share my experiences with you all!
Thank you for all your prayers and emails!

God Bless America!

Love You All!

-Elder Fotu

WHAT UP ERRBODY!

Well once again we had a super crazy week!
Wednesday we went to the Temple!! Best place in the world!! Elder
Pluim and I had to make the traveling arrangements and get our whole
zone to and from the temple. We were kinda stressin out We all made it
through Downtown Manhattan and had a great experience at the temple:)
On the way back while riding the train a couple of Elders in our zone
got off at the wrong stop so we had to wait  an extra hour to give
them a ride from the Newark station to the chapel. But all was well we
had a great time!

Friday was Mission Leader council! We met with President and Sister
Taggart and the rest of the zone leaders and sister training leaders
in the mission. It was exciting and refreshing to be re-motivated on
what we need to do to succeed in the mission. We are really
emphasizing on working with the members to help with the work.
President has come out with "4 things I will do from now on!" I'll
attach the 4 things to this email but the thing that we really
focusing on is following up. The was a zone that really pushed this in
their district and they had 12 baptized this past month! So it sure
does work!

Our friends that we're teaching are still doing pretty good! Eric
didn't come to church on Sunday because he got invited by one of his
friends to go to a baptist church. But he said he was mad he didn't
come because this baptist church said some stuff in their sermon that
offended him. So we hope that makes him want to come next week.

Our Friend Samad is coming a long slowly.. We talked to his mom about
baptism and she said no because she wants him to be baptist... But she
still wants us to teach him witch doesn't make sense... But I love the
kid! He wants so much to know more about God it blows my mind!

Sorry it's short... But I'm thankful for all of you and your prayers
and emails! No other place could I feel Gods love more than where I
am! I love this work!

Love you all!!


-Elder Fotu

6/22/15

This past week was great Elder Pluim and I are working hard. We
started off the week with an exchange it went very well I got to go to
Scotch Plains with Elder black he's a great missionary.
We now have the ability to have our area books and planners on our
iPads which has been taking up a lot of missionaries time because they
have to Record everything from the paper Area Books into their iPads.
Our area has a very large and not very organized area book so it's
taking us a minuet to convert all of it onto our iPads.  It was kind
of annoying because it cut into our proselyting time but we were able
to reach most of our goals this week.
We met some sweet Haitian Brothers their names are on Arden's, Ordell
and Wade. It was kind of funny how we met them, Ordell was a referral
and when we went to his house to contact him Wade answer the door.
Wade (14-16ish) said he was Jehovah Witness and wasn't interested but
said we could come back the next day to find Ordell. We went the next
day to meet with Ordell and Arden's answered the door so we started
teaching him and soon Wade came to translate for his brother Arden's
because he doesn't speak very good English. The lesson went great! We
asked Arden's if he wants to be baptized and he said "anything but
Jehovah witness!" Hahaha so we set up a appointment with him later in
the week. So when we came back with a member named Oriol who speaks
creole, Ordell answered the door! So we gave him the Bible he had
requested and started teaching him with the Creole material that we
brought to teach Arden's! Soon enough Arden's came walking up the
street and joined us in the lesson. Then a car pulled up and Wade
stepped out! Hahaha so now that we had all of them there we set up a
time this next week to teach them ALL at the same time! I already love
them though! A bunch of goofy kids!
Nadia was confirmed on Sunday it was a sweet experience for all of us!
So much of a great experience that she went into a seizure after
church! Haha she's fine now but she says that her seizures are set off
by emotion and that it's hard when she is really feeling the spirit!
Who knew that feeling the spirit would be a bad thing!? Haha but no
she will be able to control it and everything will work out for her!!
We are praying for her.
Also our friend Eric that I talked about my first week here, came to
church! And he knows Naudia and two other recent Converts! We were
kinda worried that we wouldn't be able to help him progress but I
think we found the key! He's super excited and wants to come to church
every week now!
Last cool experience... Yesterday day Elder Pluim and I were walking
down this super sketchy street! Couldn't find out why we were prompted
to go there but as we were walking this big old black lady yelled at
us to go talk to her, so we started talking to her and she told us
that she used to talk to missionaries before, so we were like sweet do
you want to start meeting with us? And said no I want you to teach my
son he's the one riding his bike over there. So we called her son over
and started talking to him, his name is Samad he's almost 12. His mom
said she wants him in church and out of the streets. (Like most
mothers out here in the hood but there kids start doing drugs at a
young age and it's hard to teach them) We started teaching Samad and
he was just smiling the hole time and he was reading, and just loving
it! By the end of the lesson he told us he wants us to come teach him
everyday! And this morning he called us and told us he started reading
the Book of Mormon!! Super excited to see him again!! PRAY FOR THIS
KID! Pray for him to understand the gospel!!

So much love to all of you!! Thank you for all of your prayers!

-Elder Fotu

Stuck my comp in the dryer.... He was getting on my nerves

The Gate

37 And again, by way of commandment to the church concerning the
manner of baptism--All those who humble themselves before God, and
desire to be baptized, and come forth with broken hearts and contrite
spirits, and witness before the church that they have truly repented
of all their sins, and are willing to take upon them the name of Jesus
Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end, and truly
manifest by their works that they have received of the Spirit of
Christ unto the remission of their sins, shall be received by baptism
into his church.

What's good?

God Is Good!
I'm gonna Quaote Elder Hannemann for a sec.. "This has been the best
week of my mission so far!" Elder Pluim and I are just killin it!
Getting super Excited Naudia to get Baptzed this next week! Her family
who are baptist ministers disowned her on Saturday... But at church on
Sunday she told us with a smiling face: "I will do anything now that I
know the Truth". YOOO! She has way to much Faith!! It must be from all
your prayers!:)
We met a woman named Michelle she met with he missionaries in the past
and had been reading the Book of Mormon! Thought her, got her back
into reading and praying. She's pretty solid! Really likes us! Needs
to stop smoking though...

Well that's about it but we continue to push forward! Our mission set
a goal for 185 Baptisms this month! We are excited to work for it! Our
whole mission had a video conference and we fasted from Tuesday to
Thursday for our goal! It was a great experience!

Thank you for all your love and Prayers!!

-Elder Fotu

IRVINGTON

MOST UNBELIEVABLE WEEK OF MY LIFE!!!

So first of all I got sent back to the HOOD!!!😀😊😄 Elder Pluim (my
new companion) and I got doubled in! So we both were super excited to
come to Irvington! Witch is the most hood area in the mission! It's
right out side of Newark and is known the be almost as bad as Camden
witch is one of the worst cities in the US as far as crime! So pumped
to convert some gang bangers! Hahah! So Elder Pluim and I gets along
so great and this last week we blew this place out of the water! The
missionaries before didn't really do great with this area so we came
in on Tuesday hungry to do work! And we've already had some amazing
experiences!
So the first night we were here we had an appointment with a less
active and so we went and he wasn't there but we went two leave and
this guy walked up the the house and we asked him if he know the
person we were looking for and he said he lived on the floor above
him,mouth he wasn't home. So we asked him if we could share a quick
message with him and he was like sure let me go inside and put my
stuff in. And when he came back he said he lost his credit card and
that he had to back track where he had walked to find it and we were
like oh well let us help you find it! So we walked around the black
and we couldn't find it and then he was like it's all good I'll just
cancel it and get a new one someone probably picked it up and is
trying to use it (we in da hood). So we went back and showed him the
"Because He lives video". So we started with a prayer and Elder Pluim
prayed that he would find his card. So we watched the video and we
really liked it. Then we talked to him and bout the restoration and he
really got interested! So we set up an appointment to come back,
exchanged info and said a prayer and in the prayer I asked Heavenly
Father to help him did his card again. Well this guy's name is Eric
and as were driving to our next appointment we get a call from a
random number and it was him! And he says Elders I found the credit
card! Haha! Super cool! Right!? We're super pumped to meet with him
tonight!

So that's not even good compared to what happened the other day! So on
Friday we we were just going from appointment to appointment working
as hard as we can to just expand our teaching pool! We went to a
recent converts house and ended up teaching his sister Sherri who's
not a member and picking her up as a new investigator! And by the time
8:30 rolls around we are just exhausted! But... Like every great
missionary story, we decide to knock on one more door...
So we roll up to this apartment building and we see this girl sitting
on the step and she is just starring at us.. And so we said do you
know so and so..? And she was like who..? Your not looking for Ronald?
And we were like who..? Hahaha and so said guys like you Always come
looking for my boyfriend but he's at work. So we asked well would you
be interested in talking with us? And she was like sure. So we talked
to her and she was just amazing! Sooooo prepared! Her name is Naudia!
As we went through the lesson she just kept saying: "wow! That totally
makes sense!" Turns out she had a lot of questions about her religion
and her pastor wasn't answering them.. We met with her the next day
and her boyfriend was there who is kinda less active because he works
on Sunday's but he bore a powerful testimony about the Book of Mormon!
She is Set to get baptized ether the 14th or 21st this month! Please
pray for her and the 2 other I spoke of! So much other things are
going great here in Jersey! I wish I had time to tell it all!

Thank you for all your love and prayers!
So Much Ofas!! ☺️

-Elder Fotu