Baptism and Transferred!!!

Sorry for not writing the past couple weeks! But a lot has gone on!
Things have been happening for us here in East Orange! I was able to
Ordain one of the brothers in the Branch, Brother Luise Mendoza, to be
an Elder! My first timed king that!  He and his family then went and
got Sealed in the Temple last weekend! It was awesome to see them
after at church the day after! They were Glowing! Everyone in the
Branch is so happy for them!

This past Saturday we Baptized Habaho!!! The Lord has and will
continue to do miracles in his life! His son Jeffery who is on his
mission emailed His family and told them he's sad he couldn't be here
for his dad's  baptism but he's so happy for him! And we are so happy
for their Family! I know for a fact that there have been so many
prayers in his behalf and I thank y'all for that! He's excited to got
to the temple as well! When we taught him about Baptisms for the dead
his face just lit up and he told us he wanted to do it for his
parents!

Sadly I'm getting transferred... Hahah I've been here so long I know..
But it's become home for me! I feel like I'm going to live here the
rest of my life just doing Missionary Work! But I'm going to
Princeton!! I'll be coving half of Trenton, so I'm going from hood to
more hood once again! Hahaha! But I'm excited! I'll be with my mission
brother Elder Victor! He was trained by my trainer Elder Augustin, so
I'm pretty excited! And he's from Haiti! Hahah my second Haitian
companion!
Pretty Stoked!

Well thank you for all your prayer and Love! You might feel like it
makes a difference in the lords work but miracles are happening
everyday here in Jersey because of it!


-Elder Fotu
Eat some Brazilian today!

📷

Whazzz Gooooodd!?

To say that conference was amazing would be an understatement... My
Favorite session was the First one. President Eyrings talk really set
the tone for the rest of the conference. Then Elder Hallstrom's talk
😱 My Favorite besides Elder Hollands talk. But the first session's
icing on the cake was the Song at the End! Come thou fount of every
blessing is the greatest hymn that Motab does! It felt like the
conference center roof was about to pop off from the spirit!
So many great talks through out conference! I felt like Elder Holland
was speaking on behalf of the Prophet and he did such an amazing job
of showing the power and love that the Lord has! I gained a ton from
it! Most of the Talks seemed to point to the Temple. I'm stoked to go
to the temple again this summer:)

Well as far as our area goes things are poppin!
We continue to teach Habbaho! Such a faith seeking guy and really
wants to be converted! Looking to be baptized at the end of this
month.
We met a a guy named Dennis! He's from one of the only counties in
Africa that I hadn't met someone from yet, Uganda! Really cool guy! He
was a referral who ordered a bible. When we took him his bible we
introduced the Book of Mormon to him and he eat it up! So we are
excited to continue to meet with him and teach him the gospel! Really
humble guy from a humble background.
Sister Martinez, our 1st Councilor in the Branch Presidencies wife is
really coming along! A year ago when I was here before she was not
interested at all, but she is reading and praying with her husband so
we are Super Pumped for her! Brother Martinez has been a member for
almost 20 years now and she is slowly but surely following him. She is
so sweet.

I every conference always strengthens my testimony of a prophet and
Apostles but this last one was definitely supposed to be my last one
in the mission! The love that our Heavenly Father has for us and our
Devine heritage was another common topic in Conference and I
definitely felt Gods love for all of us.

I hope you have a good week! If you could sneak a prayer in for the
peeps I mentioned I'm teaching I know the lord will bless us both but
most of all them:)

Thank you. Love you.

-Elder Fotu

🌻Happy Spring/Easter

Where do I start...
Well the weather has gone everywhere from 81 degrees two weeks ago To
snow last Monday then making its way back up to 60 and raining
today... Don't know what to think of this Jersey Weather! But it
hasn't been to bad!

Last week Elder Pearson my Former companion and District Leader this
past transfer went home🙁 I had the opportunity to go to his area for
the last exchange of his mission! It was to so great! He is such an
amazing missionary, and I look up to him so much! On the exchange in
his area we taught a Tongan Family!!🇹🇴 The Vaivaka Family! They
moved here about 2 years ago and their daughters know my lil sis
Kerstin! They said they went to mountain ridge, and they also went to
the Tongan Ward in AF so they Know Bishop Fotu!

Last Monday all the Elders in the north half of our Mission had a
March Madness Basketball tournament! Our east Orange team did good! We
barely lost in the Final Four to the Elders that Won the Tournament..
But we won Best Uniforms!

A lot has been good on with our Branch! We are really working with the
Members in helping us in the work. A Peruvian Sister and her nephew
moved into our Area this past month and she really wants to get
involved in missionary work! Which is awesome because our branch kinda
struggles with that kinda stuff but we are definitely improving every
week! The Vause's (Senior missionary couple in our branch) have really
held a lot of things together for our branch and they are going home
next month.. Aaanndd we've been informed that we won't be getting
another senior couple to help us out! It's gonna be kinda hard.. But
our once little East Orange branch is growing into a Ward so we are
excited! And the branch needs to be more independent anyways, so it
should be good for us to not have the extra help!

We are teaching a guy named Habbaho, his son Jeffrey from East Orange,
is on a mission in Florida and really wants him to take the
discussions! So he's been coming to church and he's doing Great!  Pray
for him please!

So yesterday some how us four Elders in East Orange got tricked into
doing something I thought I'd never ever do in my entire life... We
sang in sacrament meeting! Hahahahah don't know how or why but somehow
the program for sacrament said "closing Hymn: Special Musical Number-
Missionaries" luckily we only sang the first three verses of I Know
That My Redeemer Lives and the rest of the congregation joined in on
the forth verse...

It was crazy to hear about the Bombing in Brussels and that one of the
missionaries Mason Wells played football with me! It sounds like he's
doing alright though! Still in my prayers.

We have been blessed by your prayers and love! Thank you!

-Elder Fotu

 4MAN

East O Ballas

2 of 2 Weeks Worth.

Gonna be quick his week! We taught Faustina, the Referral that Elder
Hannemann sent us! She was great! She really loved the message that we
shared so we can't wait to see her again this week and introduce her
to some on the members!

 We had great specialized training on Friday. All the new missionaries
that been out for less than 6 months and the trainers met. Our mission
has really been working on the basics of missionary work, focusing on
our teaching skills. It's always good to go over the basics because we
tend to move away from the basics as missionaries.

Our branch is growing! It was exciting to see about 80 people at
church yesterday! A family did a musical number at the end of fast and
testimony meeting and to be honest it wasn't the best music that I've
herd.. Their 8 year old son made an attempt to play the violin that
he's maybe be practiced a month on... But it was so beautiful because
a year ago in a much smaller branch no family would dare to do
something like that! So our branch has come a long way in so many
ways! It seriously brings tears to my eyes..

Thank y all for you prayers! Mucho Mucho Love!

-Elder Fotu

Aloha

Had such a wonderful week! Just to start out Elder Seth Hannemann who
is Serving in Ghana emailed me this morning and he said this: " one of
our members came up to me and asks if I know a place called New Jersey
and i said Yes! my best friend is even serving there. and she gave a
me a powerful referral to give to your mission. its her mother thats
living in Jersey! . Her name is Faustina , She lives  her phone number
is. she has already talked to her mom about the church and she is
interested and is waiting for the missionaries. CONTACT THIS WOMAN!
hope you have missionaries serving there. love you man! sweet is the
work. let me know how it goes so i can tell our member."
Referral lives in our Area! How crazy is that!? Well I'm pumped to
contact his lady today and see how it goes! Still trippin out about it
though! Super Awesome!!!!!😊
So we are working with a couple Part-member Families right now. One of
them (my favorite) is the Ancog-Lisondra's they are a older Filipino
couple with 3 kids who aren't members! The one who is really
interested is Mark their son! He's a super cool little funny Filipino
who is always asking great questions!

Another Family we are working on is a young couple. Hermann and Aida,
they are from Togo Africa! Aida isn't a member but is very interested
in Eternal Families! They French is their first language so sometimes
it kinda hard to teach them but they are so great and Hermann has such
a strong testimony!

Also our 1st councilor in the Branch presidency's wife Sister Martinez
(non member) has been meeting with us. She loves the missionaries but
always says she is just to involved in her church to join ours. We are
just trying to help her see the bigger picture of the gospel.

I hope EVERYONE continues to looks for opportunities to share the
gospel because I know it will Bless your life and the life of others!

Love you all!

-Elder Fotu

🇹🇴

This week was Bumpin! But soooooooo cold... I think the Lord is trying
to teach me something because I've been in a walking area every time
it gets cold! It was -15 with wind chill on Saturday! Just makes the
work 10 times Better!
Anyways. On Saturday we had a all mission conference and Clayton
Christensen the author of "Power of Everyday Missionary" super great
book I guess but I haven't read it yet... But he's a super great Man!
He and his wife gave Amazing talks about Member missionary work and
all the Ward and branch council members came to the conference so we
are going to bust it with member missionary work cuz that's the best
way to do it!
The biggest thing that He told us in that conference that stuck out to
me was that Never Ended his Mission. That was one of the many things
contributed to his great missionary work as a member! But if you
haven't read the book read it cuz it will change your life! (I'll read
it as soon as I get home)
Yesterday church was Amazing! One of our members started to act right
away for what he learned at the conference and brought a friend of his
to church, he brought a guy named Dr. Slalom and he loved church! Also
the Other East Orange Elders invited this guy that they met on the
street named Gerald and he caught a bus and walked super far to get to
church in the freezing cold! This guys first time coming to church and
he's not even a member! He ended up living in our area so we are
teaching him great guy!
Elder Manumā is such a stud! It's kinda funny because he reminds me of
Lennon! Hahaha I'm like man I get to train my little brother!

Well things are Gold as always around here! Just Pray that I don't Freeze!

Ofa Lahi Atu!

-Elder Fotu