Week 10!!!

Had a CRAZY week her in Jersey! Heres a few of our highlights for the week! So to start off on tuesday we had an Exchange with our District Leader (Elder Allen) and his Companion (Elder Cruz)! Elder Cruz Came to our area with me and Elder Augustin went with Elder Allen to their Area. I guess theres a saying that Miracles happen on exchange and they did! Elder Cruz and I were able to meet with a woman named Shanae and her younger sister! We taught then the Restoration and they were super exited and told us that it was exactly what they had been looking for! We have been struggling to find new people to teach So were super exited about that!:) 

On thursday we met with an older woman that we had been meeting with for awhile her name is Shirley Shes from Guyana! The time before when we met with her she said that the print in her Bible was to small and that she wanted one of those big print Bibles. So on thursday when we got the big Bible that we ordered we decided we would take it over to Shirley. When we got there she was on the phone and she told us that it wasn't a good time.. until she saw the big Bible in my hands! She then told the person on the phone: "Ill Have to call you Back!" hahahah! She was soooo happy that we brought her this Bible! She was Hugging (old laddies are ok to hug i guess) us and kept saying OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! (but she wasn't saying gosh) I thought she was about to cry! hahaha She said that we can call her Grandma from now on! hahah it was great! But it made me think that we sometimes take the scriptures for granted and we should be more grateful for them...  

Friday we were able to visit a less active member in the hospital he has a really contagious virus that made them have to cut off his leg! So we had to wear like gloves and gowns and masks and stuff but he was so happy to see us and we were able to give him a blessing. I was kinda scared to be near him at first but the spirit made it known to me that we would be ok! But were probably not going to go back anymore... He wants his home teachers to come and i want to keep all of my limbs! hahah!

I just love the people here in East Orange and Newark! On Saturday we put on another movie night for the Branch and we watched Ephraims Rescue! They Loved it! Our branch is full of amazing people! 

Well i dont have much time but ill end by saying this: I know that we must keep our Faith ESPECIALLY in these last days Before the Savior comes! Because He's Coming Soon and The World Is Only Getting More Wicked! So It Calls For Us As Saints To Be Stronger Than We Ever Have Been! 

 Oh and If you havent getting replies back from me I cant Chat on here anymore..Sorry new mission Rule... I cant even chat with Mom:( so we have to wait until the next week to here back from me:( 

BUT I LOVE YOU ALL!! Keep up the great work and the emails! I love them!! 

-Elder Fotu 

In front of the mission home:

Another Great Week!

Had yet another great week! Real quick something funny/cool that happened to my companion and I last night! So we were out trying people and had zero success plus we were super hungry because we ate all our food for the week and our dinner appointment canceled on us plus it was sunday so we couldn't eat out! So we were just walking around trying all our backups. We decided to go to the house of a less-active that we had never met but was super far from our apartment and when we got there we knocked and a Man answered the door and said Elders! Come in! Are you Hungry? Thinking that this was the less-active member we were kinda weirded out but he asked us if we were hungry so we went in! hahaha He told us that the guy we were looking for was his wife's Brother who moved like 10 years ago! and that they were from the Portages Branch and were super active in the church! The man introduced us to his wife (who was super nice) and they had just got done eating dinner and had leftovers saved for some elders from the Portages branch that never showed up so ate and talk with them for a while! hahahha Oh and I told them that my old bishop (Bishop Pimentel) was from Brazil and his wife said that she grew up with him! So tell Bishop Pimentel that Sandrea Ataides Fed me some Great Brazilian Food! Our prayers were answered!

I had my first interview with President Taggart on Tuesday! It Went Great! He gave us a sheet of paper that laid out the steps that we should take when inviting inactive priesthood holders back to church and im super exited to start taking those steps with some of the lost members in our branch! Ill send some pictures of me in front of the mission home in Morristown!

We also did some service for our Branch Presidents Second Counciler and his Family the Bludorns! Their like the only white family in our branch! hahahah Younger Family. But we helped Paint one of the rooms in their home! it was super Fun! Ill send some pictures of that as well!     

But things here in East Orange/Newark are going great! Even thought there are a lot of wicked people here we seem to still find people that are interested in hearing what we have to say and we are trying so hard to find people to teach! We find people that we think really want to come to church and be baptized and they act super interested but when we call them or show up to there house to teach them they are nowhere to be found... Gets kinda frustrating but im still pushing to find those people who are ready to receive the Gospel! 

Well i better Get going! I hope everything and everyone at home are doing great! I pray for you every day! I love You All! Stay Strong! Stay Active! 

-Elder Fotu     

HOORAH FOR ISREAL!

The cold weather is here!! I found out this week that the cold here is not like the cold in Utah! It cuts through to the Bone!!  But despite the cold, the Garden state is Beautiful in the Fall! We went to a park in our area and tried to contact some people. The park had this huge pond and on the other side this big hill with lots of trees and at the top of it was the Catholic Basilica. Its was really cool to see even though its a catholic church... But the Holidays are just around the corner! i dant wait to Put on some more weight! We actually eat a lot... We receive donations from a near by Panera Bread Bakery to distribute bread to people in the nabber hood and in our branch and the left over we get to keep.... there are a lot of left overs so we get a lot of pastries and stuff.. hahahah but Elder Augutsin and i run and work out every morning so im trying to get my 230 back down to 220... hahahah plus we walk everywhere! 

We had Stake Conference Saturday and Sunday! Elder Lancing from the 70 presided! Him and his wife gave such great talks! Everything Was on the Topic of Family and how important it is to stay close to our Families in these last days! There were so many people that attended and a lot of the people there were people investigating the church! which was GREAT! 

Our Branch is growing so much! They Are going to have to expand our building and make it a Ward soon!:) The Work Really is Hastening! 

I Hope everyone is doing great in Utah! Some of the things going on in the community have been kinda hard to hear but i know that as we stay close to The Lord and continue to Strengthen our Families we can get past the hard times.

I Love and Pray for you All! Till Next Week!

-Elder Fotu          

Newark chapel:

Building a Kingdom

Cant believe im saying this but i got a little home sick this last week! Reason being was we had a movie night with the members of the branch at the church building and we watched The Other Side Of Heaven! hahah One of my favorite movies! The Members of the ward loved it! They were all cracking up at some of the scenes! It was so funny to see some of them be so surprised at some of the stuff from the Tongan Culture! But the Craziest thing about it was watching the movie whale being a missionary! Soooo many more things stuck out to me in the movie that i could never understand as a kid. The biggest and best thing that made me feel the spirit so strong was the part where Elder Growberg and his comp are walking on the beach just talking and he asks his companion (Feki) why he has so much faith in him. And he says to Elder Growberg "you have traveled such a long way, what you say must be true". and Elder Growberg says: "Well what if i lied to you"? Then what Feki said was what hit me so hard! He said: "Well then you came a long way just to tell a lie". I thought about that and applied it to my self... Even though i havent traveled as far as Elder Growber did to share the gospel, i still feel the same love for the people of New Jersey as he did the people in Tonga, maybe not as much love.. not yet at least but I know that I am teaching is the same word and that if i dont believe that this Gospel is true then what im teaching to these people is a lie.. I Know that this Gospel is true and that our Savior lives. I Know that what im teaching is true and that these truths that i and my companion with the help of God teach can Bless lives! I got a little home sick but at the same time the movie motivated me to have more faith in what im teaching. It also made me be grateful that i dont have have to serve 3 years like Elder Growberg did! haha After the movie some of the members came up to me and elder Makai and said: "did you really live in huts like that in Tonga?" hahah some of them dont know that im from utah but i told them: "Yeah you should see me climb a Cocoanut Tree!" hahahah Elder Makai leaves back home to Utah tomorrow though! Hes the one Tongan Elder (the only one other than me) that i've talked about the one from Spanish Fork hes the Tongan Stake President Makai's Nephew. But hes my homie so go to his Home Coming next week in Spanish Fork! Its Crazy that its my first transfer here and his last! 

I know that as we strengthen our faith in christ by just doing the simple basic things everyday/week (reading scriptures, pray, attend church) and repent of our sins that we will have a sure knowledge that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that He is our Savior!  

Keep Praying for the People we Teach Please!:) Love You All! Hope You Have A Great Week! Endure To the End! 

-Elder Fotu 

Let Go and Let God

Cheeehooo! Its been such an amazing week! I think i might cry...hahah jk i dont cry. Anyways! This week started out a little slow but ended really great! Jacob told me that i should share more about my investigators cuz i havent really said much about them. But we are teaching mostly young people! Our most progressing investigators name is Shelove shes a  17-year-old Haitian girl! Super funny! But she likes with her aunt and uncle who are members but the aunt is less-active. Im going to get to the Aunt in a sec.. But one of our other investigators is Hope Green. Shes 9 and We had her on baptismal date for this next Sunday but her mom who is less-active is re-considering it... Super sad because we can tell that Hope really wants to get baptised! So were working on it. Our other Investigator is David! hahaha one of my favorite! Hes 27 and Hes a Rapper! hahahah Hes kinda Got something wrong with him but for the most part hes Accountable. Such a Goofball though! He lives with his dad whos a Less-active member. Those are all our investigators though.. we mostly teach less-active Members..But I Talked about Shelove's Aunt that she lives with thats a less-active member. Her mane is Sister Jean-Marie. We are great friends with her and visit her a lot. But She hasn't Been to church in a long time. we think she might have been offended by someone but we've been trying to get her back to church for a while now. But on Sundayas i was sitting in Sacrament meeting just listening to the talks i felt my companion tap my shoulder and say elder look! and we saw Sister Jean-Marie walk in with her sister (who is an Active member)! We were soooo Happy! Such a Great sunday! So then the class after sacrament meeting is Gospel Doctrine class which is for investigators/resent-converts that my companion and i teach. But we sometimes assign some of them to teach the lessons. So we Had one of the Recent-converts: Sister Barner (big 70-year-old black lady in a wheelchair) Teach the lesson on families! Shes sooo funny and she always says " You  just Gotta Let Go and Let God". But she has a ton of kids and grandkids so she knows a lot about families! But she taught a great lesson and at the end she said: "in closing if theres anything you got from this lesson it should be to just Let Go and Let God" hahaha but there is soooo much Truth in that Little saying! A great example is our experience with sister Jean-Marie. We visited her every week but there was only so much we could do. we did our part of teaching her but our teachings would have been worthless with out Gods help and with out the spirit! This applies to all that we teach as well. This last sunday was such a great Testimony Builder! Im so Grateful for the Lord's hand in our work.            

Our Branch is so AWESOME! We had the opportunities to have dinner with our Branch President, President Hinds and his wife and Family this Week President Hinds is sooo Smooth! Hes this huge black guy with Dreadlocks! hahah When he was called as a Branch President I guess its was Elder Bednar presiding over the meeting and he said that he had special permission to keep the hair for cultural reasons. Him and him wife are from Guyana!  But when we were visiting we watched some Bible videos with them and my companion Elder Augustin said: "I've always wanted to play as a slave in a movie". and there son Malakie whose like Jareds age Says:"I've always wanted to Play in a movie as Jesus" hahahah we all started laughing so hard and President Hinds Goes: " Son, Maybe in a Baptist Film Because they think that Jesus is Black". hahahah

I'm loving it out here though! I wish i could stay in the area my hole mission! Its crazy how I've gained so much love for people so fast that i've known for such a short amount of time! 

Aaaanyways.. I hope everything I going great at home! I love all your letters! keep me updated! Love you All! Until next week!

-Elder Fotu    

Another Great Week!

Ooohhh Man! I wish my whole mission was recorded on video so that you could see all the great things that are going on here! Things are going great here! Some things can be frustrating though. our branch consists of about 60 members that show up to church, and about 120 less-actives that we have never seen! There have been a lot of Bucket-a-Chicken Baptisms here! Bucket-a-Chicken Baptisms are where a missionary offers some one a bucket of chicken if they get baptized! hahahah not really but thats just what they call it when someone gets baptized and you never see them again. (and everyone is black around here there for they love fried chicken). But other then that things are great! We could use a lot of prayers for our investigators! 

Sorry fo the short Letter but ill have more time next week so stay tuned!

Love you all!

-Elder Fotu

SAK PASE!!! ("Whats Up" in Creole)

Its been a very interesting week. Tuesday morning as Elder Augustin and I woke up and started our attempt to work out, we kept hearing Helicopters outside. We didnt really think anything of it at first until the apartment started shaking! hahaha we ran to the window and looked up above our street there was a police helicopter only about 60 feet above the road just hovering there! So we ran outside with our cameras and saw that there were like 50 cop cars at the end of our street! hahahah i guess some guy shot at a police man and then stole a car and crashed it into a tree a couple apartments down! Great way to start off the week! hahaha I wouldn't have it any other way!

Some Exiting things are happening with the church! We got to watch the Meet the Mormons Movie on wednesday before it comes out on the 10th! Such a Great Film!! Really clears up most of the the Wrong things that people believe about the church! But my advice to all members is DONT GO SEE IT!! SHARE IT!! It talks about stuff that we already know as members and it wouldnt really be worth our time to go see it (might as well just go to church or seminary). Dont get me wrong, it a great heart touching film but the church didnt make it for us as members. It should be used to touch the hearts of Non members and people who need to know more about the church. Im pretty sure thats why the church created it. The film will also help our job as missionaries much easier! People that will see this film will have questions and will contact us for more information, then we will start teaching them!! Thats Why we need to share it! post it on Face Book, Pintrist or whatever but share it a ton! Its going to be a huge tool in hastening the work is these last days!

General Conference Was AMAZING!! One of our recent converts, Brother Warren planned on watching the last session with us. But then he called us and informed us that his mom had passed away the night before and he didn't think he was going to come. We felt sorrow for him but were kinda bummed that he wasn't going to come. But sure Enough we showed up at the church and there he was in his Turquoise blue shirt, Purple slacks and Turquoise Alligator print shoes! hahaha We was so happy to see him!! His faith to Attend Conference even thought his mom had just passed truly strengthened my testimony. It was his first time watching General Conference and im positive it helped him cope with the passing of him Mother. 

I especially loved Elder Scott and Elder Bednar's Talks in the last session! Elder Scott Pretty much gave us the answers to the test of Enduring to the End! I have found that, that is the hardest part for new converts after they are baptized. They Dont get in to the habit of Praying, Studying, Meeting with their family every week and Attending the Temple. Not getting into the habit of doing these things eventually leads to inactivity shortly after their baptism. They get used to having the missionaries always there to tell them to do it! We as members especially youth cant get into the habit of having our parents tell us to do these things, we have to get into the habit of doing them on our own. That is how we Endure to the End, by getting into these habits. Elder Bednar has always been my secret favorite ever since i watched his talks at the MTC! One of my questions going into General Conference was: Why am i REALLY on a Mission? hahah Dont worry im not thinking about coming home or anything! I just needed some real assurance of why im here and he answered all my questions just in that one talk! Im soooo exited to take what i learned from Conference and apply to the work! 

Well I should be going now... I love you all and Hope here from you soon! 

Ofa Atu! 

-Elder Fotu