The Baptism of Scott

Oh, Ryan kills me.  Somewhere Rob Wallis is laughing.

I think he needs a new suit!!  What do you think?

Ryan loves Elder V.  He is a missionary from American Samoa.

Elder Nonu is busy doing the work.

August 20, 2012

We love the ward mission leader in our ward.  he calls us his ward mission sons and hes the ward mission dad and his 6 kids are our brothers and sisters. its awesome. lol.  glad you guys are enjoying the branch though. im loving this ward too.  glad keana is enjoying utah also. i loved it there while we were there.

our week has been kind of challenging. the area is dead we have no one to teach but we have a couple potential people to work with. which is good. funny thing also. karlie met a girl on facebook and starting being friends with her, turns out its a girl i know here and one of our potential people is her cousin. haha. so now theyre all friends and trying to get her to take the lessons. haha. crazy right? but i love this ward and looking forward to next transfer.

other then that all is well. im going to send some awesome pictures i took this week. also, ecco shoes (my shoes i bought for my mission) come with a two year warranty and last transfer they basically got a huge rip in the side, so im trying to see if i can get a new pair if they have a warranty. could you look into that for me? thank you. also, thanks for the money in my account. i appreciate it. love you guys!

ELDER NONU.

August 6, 2012

no worries. we actually email a bit later now because to many elders are here in the morning. this week has been good. we have 3 new investigators. 2 are a couple 1 is from american samoa and her boyfriend is a black guy. ha. thyere pretty cool. we have a baptism this weekend for scott alcorn. hes an investigator we had when i got here. hes awesome and already talking about serving a mission after he gets baptised. were like. SIIIIIIIIIICK!!!! we had a lesson at the temple when he told us these things. it was so cool. Our ward mission leader is bro. stanley and he has 6 kids. his wife has been a member for 2 years and theyre sealed and theyre both just awesome. they help us out so much and he magnifies his calling like crazy. its awesome!

thats cool about the branch games. it sounds like fun. i wish i could go. white people dont do anything cool out here. haha.

i wish derek would write me.  i still care about him a lot. how he been doing? whats he doing now? is he still in the navy? jonathon tsang has written me twice now. haha. he was asking me what missionaries do and whats our day like, so i told him and told him he should go check out the institute building at sac state and sac city. i thought hed might like it. who knows what will happen. hes little youth group he was going to was hilarious, me and simi would go and just laugh afterwards because all they do is ramble on about stuff and then cry a lot. haha. anyways!

anyways, LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!

ELDER NONU

i know im almost half way done.... dont remind me. -___

July 30, 2012

yah honestly. im pretty bad about taking pictures. its honestly the last thing on my mind. so yah .ill try, but no promises. if anything ill have them when i get home.

thats pretty lame about work. the weather here has been 100 + for the past 4 months. idunno wht people complain about here. its not even that hot. its iritating, but not that bad. the humidity back home is way worse. at least i think. but oh well. we get people screaming at us all the time. im not sure why. on top of that, no one knows how to drive.

I was reading the talk "dare to stand alone" by president monson and the first few paragraphs he talks about how this world is comparible to the world when the flood came during noahs time and i wouldnt be surprised if its not actually worse then that. i mean, come to vegas and youll see that babylon is alive and well. so yah. im really glad that we moved to utah too. got to get away from it all as best as we could. but anyways.

yah its been cool i guess, but the questions we get are rediculous. i swear. yesterday we got this one "hey elders we were wondering if we dont have any investigators at church then can we leave after sacrament meeting and go find some?" in response i said "so your asking us if you can ditch church after the first hour because no one showed up for church? you realize that church isnt just a number to track, its for your edification too? elder i want you to ask yourself that question 3 times in your head and then ask yourself if that was worth asking us..." he said no and then went about his night. but we get stuff like that ALL THE TIME!!! so most of the time im like elder you know what to do, or elder you know your not supposed to be doing that, so dont ask or elder think that one over with your companion. but anyways. ill get over it. it just seems like people are trying to make us accountable for their actions.

anyways. this week has been pretty good. we have a couple promising potentials coming up soon. ive been trying to keep elder hardys spirits up. to find and everything. but anyways. this weeks been good. i found out that an investigator elder v and i taught has a baptismal date now. :DDDD YES!! she also is going to have a lesson at the temple and go to alesson with elder v and his companion. awesome!!!! anyways. ill hand write a letter this week for nan and follow the spirit and all that good stuff and itll be awesome. haha. LOVE YA!!!!

ELDER NONU

July 23, 2012

Hello Family,

 

this week has been super boring honestly. -__- weve just visited people and stuff. We have a baptism soon for this awesome guy named scott. hes 20 and a friend of a guy that had to come home early from his mission due to health problems. so its been fun teaching him.  i miss tropicana and elder v a lot. :(i didnt even get to finish training him though. its been ok though. we have a car with 1200 miles on it and our area is maybe a mile long. so im luck... what the freak. but its super hot, so i dont mind.

my companion is a really cool guy. his names elder hardy from maryland and he goes home in about 5 months. so his trunky thoughts come out every once in a while. its been hard adjusting to being with him. we get a long really well, but hes definately not as motivated as my little greeny i left at the strip. haha. but yah.

other then that the week has been good. dinahs baptism is tomorrow and im super excited because i get to do it. :D haha. im sure ill get used to the ward soon. it just doesnt seem like a family. i thought tropicana was a small ward and then this one has about 60 people every week. what the heck? but the awesome part about our area s that its super close to the temple. the temple is down the street from where we live and spend most of our time. which is pretty cool. i get to see the temple every day. :) but i dont get to go. :/ but anyways!!

all is well here. LOVE YA!!!

ELDER NONU

Elder Nonu makes Zone Leader!!! July 16, 2012

Hey Mom,

 

This email might be short because ive got A LOT of stuff to do for transfers. oh yah! im leaving the area and am going to be a zone leader in central stake. im really excited but sad at the same time.

 elder v and i sang in church sunday and spoke, everyone loved it and president and sister neider were there and sister neider was balling the whole time. there was a very strong spirit there. we spoke on forgiveness. it was super awesome.

 thats cool about that missionary moment with that family. ill bet they get baptized because of that. aha. im proud of them. its cool to hear stories like that. ill spend more time writing a letter to keana here.

KEANA!

 these past 10 months have been awesome. I started in the MTC knowing i needed to do what i was there to do, but i didnt go into the MTC with a sure testimony. I didnt know where 2 nephi was and i couldnt tell you who the Anti-Nephi-Lehis were. Over the past few months the mission has changed my life forever. Ive learned that not only have the prophets told us its a good idea, but ive learned of what a privilege it is to serve the lord and more importantly to serve the people of the land you are divinely called to. Its more then just 18-24 months of finding people to baptise. The true purpose of missionary work is to sanctify the missionary and then second to baptize people into this church. I owe my life to my mission and will always be grateful for the decision ive made. The lord truly calls who he needs to serve. And if you feel like that would be a good idea, then id take that as a voice of love from the spirit divinely calling you to the work. I testify that this work is the work of God. It is the HARDEST thing ive done. When people yell at you, point a gun in your face, or throw bottles while your biking, its all worth it when you find that 1 person that says "yes". I remember having one of the hardest weeks and my companion was just waiting to go home. then we were invited to a sealing of a family in our ward. we got into the sealing room and the spirit was very strong. afterward they stood by the door to see us out, and with the spirit in my voice i told him "this is what makes all of the hardship of missionary work worth it, thank you for making it all worth it." thats what missionary work is all about. I testify that the atonement was the pure love of christ to sacrifice himself so that we can be whole. That faith in the savior I have is a testimony for me to know there is balm in gilead. I love this work and my tiem in vegas no matter where the lord takes me, i know im a tool in the hands of the lord. I know he needs you there too. start preparing now. love you. keep it up. im proud and so is heavenly father. :)

LOVE YALL!!

ELDER NONU

July 9, 2012

what the freak! hulk got shot?? wow.... ok? stab that guy

 ugh. well. thats crazy about the fire. i kept hearing about it over here. everythings dry here!!! i havent seen grass in who knows how long. and i mean GRASS! not sod! but oh well.

 thats really cool about the ward though. glad to hear that everyones helping each other out. i wish we had wards out here like that. I love my mission though. but everyone here is crazy and rude and doesnt give a crap about anything but porn and alcohol. -__- this place is definately babylon. but anyways. so this week we had an interesting experience. we stopped by a less active guys home whos wife is getting baptized in a couple of weeks and he goes "so baptism on tuesday and YOU (me) are baptising her" i was like, what the feez did he just say? elder V stares at me and was like :D and im like uh.... no. haha. shes only been taught 2 times and just found out who john the baptist and you think shes ready to make covenants with god? we want her to know what commandments she needs to foloow, what doctrine she should know, before she makes that committment. and on top of that shed fail her interview. so we couldnt have that happen. all seemed well until they came to church on sunday and were telling everyone that shes getting baptized tuesday, so we went over and we were like IKE! we told you that cant happen. and we said we prayed about it and discussed it and july 24th is when the lord would like her to be baptised and when we feel she will be ready. so all is settled now and we have a baptism the week after transfers. lol. it works though. anyways. not much else has happened.

 but anyways thats the excitement of my work. lol. transfers are next tuesday and i think im ready to leave. 6 months in an area is too long. i love training so much and being a district leader. i love serving other missionaries, even if i dont do the best job ever.

 thanks for the pictures you guys are wierd. lol. 14 months and the house will be full again. lol.

 thats cool about the branch conference. if i stay this next transfer ill be here for both stake conferences this year for this stake. haha. crazy right. lol.

 anyways. thanks for the card!!! i got it, but i didnt get the package yet, i have no idea why. but hopefully itll get here next week. oh yah. and karlie said shes trying to hang out with keana. hah. have fun guys! :D

LOVE YA!!

ELDER NONU

July 2, 2012

Hello Family,

 

We had a lesson with a lady named dinah. her husband is serbian and a less active member we randomly found. shes now taking lessons and is reading the book of mormon. only problem is that her only days off are tuesday and wednesday and every other day she works 14 hour shifts with her 2 jobs. she super awesome though! she feeds us every time we go over and its SOOOO good! haha. we also are teaching this lady and her 2 kids named vilma. shes from el salvador, speaks perfectly good english and her kids only speak english. Shes really sincere about learning but is very timid and seems scared to do things. weve been teaching her for about a month and she hasnt come to friggin church!!! its really iritating, but what can you do. we also got to help an investigator couple move on saturday and their names are chris and naomi. they both go to UNLV and she has hot pink hair. :D pretty awesome. haha. theyre cool and they feed us every time we come over also. random part of the week. we visited this mexican lady this week and her daughter was getting baptized saturday. after crying and confessing her soul for about an hour she asked me to baptize her daughter. haha. so i got to baptize her, it was pretty cool. but random at the same time. haha. thats my week!

hopefully wel be getting ipads out here soon. theyre replacing our area books where we keep all our investigators info. pretty awesome! haha. but thats cool. have fun with it. -__- btw, im 10 months old now. gross right? haha. LOVE YA!

ELDER NONU