1st Week in New Area, Letogo - on the island of Upolu

Hey Fam! :)

It's so great to hear from all of you! I'm so happy that you're all doing good! :) That's so cool that the Carroll's got to visit and Jill and Doreen and Judene too! Oh and Aunt Wendy emailed and said that they are going to be up to Utah and visit the family and that Grandma Smith is going to be up to stay with you guys as well! :) I was happy to hear that Grandma Smith has been doing well since her surgery and everything is going good :) Mom and Dad, and I am so so happy that you both get to work in the temple :) what a great blessing :)

This has been a good past week :) We've been teaching 3 kids that are siblings, R___, E___, and P___. We have their baptism scheduled for this Saturday :) Also, we visit a lot of members and less actives, and stay pretty busy :) Since my companion and his last companion have been here, a lot of people have been coming back to church, but there are still a lot of less actives :) We were really happy with one of our visits yesterday, with a less active who has started attending the church "lotu ta'iti" but is still a member of the church. We visit her pretty often and when we visited her on Saturday, she told us that the chief of the village told her he was going to kick her out of the village if she came back to the LDS church. So she told she wasn't going to be part of the Mormon church anymore. But my companion had a really good idea to fast for her and for the area yesterday, and then we went back to visit her yesterday to see how everything was going, and she told us that she talked to the chief of the village and he said he wasn't going to kick her out of the village anymore. So that was good to hear! And then we stayed yesterday and did a "lotu" with them. People do that a lot here in Samoa, where the family gathers around, sometimes with the missionaries there, and we sing a church song and then me and my companion give a spiritual thought and then we sing another song and say a closing prayer. It's pretty short. But yesterday we were there with the family and my companion informed me afterwards that it was the first time they had prayed together in a long time :) And it was cool, cuz I didn't know that, but our spiritual thought we shared just happened to be about prayer :) So that was cool! :)

The people here are really great,  I think it's interesting, because sometimes certain people in the ward remind me of certain people back home :) I love their hospitality and their love and their sense of humor :) Haha it's funny, cuz sometimes they just laugh at the smallest things, but after a while of being here I just start to think everything they laugh at is funny too! The feed us a lot and they love "palagi"(white people), haha :) For the first few days I was in the area, a lot of the little kids would follow us around, just because they wanted to talk to me cuz I'm palagi, haha :)

Random story, but last Monday, or water went out for a little over a day, and then it went out again yesterday, and it just came back on, so I guess that happens sometimes in our house :/ So last Monday, I had the interesting experience of bathing in water from a bucket that we filled up from the water in the church building. Interesting experience!

Last Saturday, we did a "mission drive" where we went over to another area in our district and worked with members from the stake and other missionaries in our district to invite visit less actives and invite them to ward conference :) Us missionaries actually didn't say much during the visits, it was mostly the members we were with who were speaking and the visits were very brief, but it was a cool experience because I got to see another area of Upolu and what it's like over there :)

I'm really happy to hear that Dad's back home! I love hearing that he's working with Polynesian people :) I've heard Tahitian sounds similar to Samoan. I really liked the Tahitians I met in the MTC, really good people :) I wish I could meet more of the people who dad has worked with from Samoa, because I bet a lot of them live within 5 to 10 miles from our house :)

I'm trying to take a lot more pictures in this area! :) It's super pretty here :) I want to send you guys pictures but I can only send you guys one this week because the computer is being weird :/ As you can see, my face has gotten very fat from my last area in Tutuila :/ But I'm hoping to lose some fat in this area, because most missionaries gain weight in Tutuila, and then lose some of it when they come back over to Upolu or Savai'i. Anyways, I better get goin' cuz my time is just about up on the computer. I love you guys so much! Thanks for being the best family ever, you guys have an awesome week, and I'll talk to ya'll next week! I know it's Sunday over there in Utah, so have a great Sunday! Stay mighty! Hurrah for Israel!! :) 

Suuuuuuure love ya!!

Elder Starr

6-21-15 Transferred to Letogo (in Upolu - near Apia)

Hey familam! Thanks for the emails, great to hear from you all! All of your spiritual thoughts always help me! You guys are the best fam! So I wanna tell ya'll what's been goin' on this past week! I wanna tell ya about transfers! My new area is super cool! I really like it! So it's just outside of the town in Apia :) Apia is more city-like, it's really nice :) When we flew in on the little plane, from Tutuila to Upolu, I was surprised, because I forgot how more city-like Apia is. We flew in and all the missionaries gathered at the church building just across from the temple and the mission home :) We waited there until it was time to go to our areas :) I saw Elder Fogamomi, my "dad" in the misson, as missionaries call it, because he was my trainer :) It was awesome to see him, he like attacked me, haha, cuz he didn't know I was getting transferred to Upolu :) But then we got driven to our areas :) I came to my area during a lesson, so I had to jump in during a lesson. We had 4 baptisms this past Saturday, because 4 kids were on their last lesson this past week :) Me and Elder Young sang "I Feel My Savior's Love." Oh yah so my new companion is Elder Young :) He's from California and he's full Samoan. He understood fluent Samoan before his mission, so his Samoan is really good! I really love this area! So I think I can say it's very different from my last area :) So Letogo is just on the outskirts of Apia, so it doesn't really feel like we're in the city because we only have one small store at the end of our area, closer to the town. But anyways, it's nice cuz I'm close to the mission president, but it's on outskirts of town, so it's more Samoan lifestyle at the same time. In Upolu, the town area is where the nicer houses are, and as you move farther away from the town, that's where it's starts to get more like Samoan lifestyle. So in my area, there are some houses that are pretty nice, not like America houses, but their still pretty nice, but there are also alot of traditional Samoan houses called a "faleo'o." They don't have regular walls, they have poles that hold the roof up. It's kinda hard to explain what they look like, but I'll send you a picture sometime soon! I promise I'll take way more pictures in this area :) but anyways, the houses with walls that are more similar to the houses in the states are called "fale palagi."(in Samoan, the 'g' makes the "ng" sound) Anyways, it's a really pretty area :) It's a more relaxed lifestyle here, because they aren't any big busy roads like in Tutuila. it's very quiet here, I like it :) Even the road that leads to the town isn't super busy, it's pretty peaceful :) The people here are really great too :) They are very sincere and really great to talk to :) They remind me more of the people from the Vaiola ward in North Salt Lake :) So in Apia, people speak a lot more English, and usually the farther you get away from the town, the more they just speak Samoan. So the people here mostly speak Samoan, more than people in Tutuila, but a few of them have good English because they've gone to school in Apia, and the teachers teach in English there. The rest of them that don't have very good English know a little bit of English from school and stuff. The people who speak English here speak in a New Zealand accent when they speak, haha it's really cool :) They sound like the people from "The Other Side of Heaven", haha :) My companion is super funny and easy to get along with :) I'm excited for the opportunity to learn more from him, because his Samoan is pretty much perfect and so I wanna start practicing Samoan a lot more with him than I did in my last area :) So I don't know if I've met all the investigators yet, I've met a couple of less actives, and we're gonna start doing lessons with her tomorrow because she hasn't been to church in a while and would like a review of everything :) Apparently there are a lot of less actives here. The members I have met that are active here are sincere, good members of the church :) I'm really excited, cuz I'm came into this area in a time when the work is really going good :)

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you guys, wanted to share a cool story with you guys :) So there are now two white sisters in this mission that just got here, the first white sisters in this mission in a very very long time, if ever. And one of the Elder's was telling me the story of one of the sisters before her mission. The sister explained to him that, before her mission, she wasn't enjoying her English ward back home in the states, so she started attending a Samoan ward. She enjoyed the Samoan ward a lot more and she prayed to Heavenly Father and asked for the opportunity to serve her mission among the people of Samoa. And then she got called here, and she's one of the first white sisters here! I thought that was a super cool story, cuz Heavenly Father answered her prayer like that :) Anyways, I gotta go, so sorry, but I'll talk to you guys next week! I love you all so very much! :) Talk to you next week, stay mighty and remember that God has got everything already planned out for you and knows exactly how to help you succeed :) 

Suuuuuuuuure Love ya!! :)

 Elder Starr

P.S.

Hey Ma! Hey so this is a side note for Tiffany, because I think I lost her email :) I was talking to an Elder at transfers that's from here in Samoa, and he asked if I had a sister, haha! A lot of Polynesian Elders ask that because they like white girls haha :) I told him I did and he wants to email Tiffany and he gave me his email, haha! I thought it was really funny, but I told him I would give Tiffany his email so here it is:... He just finished his mission, and he wants to get married soon, haha. Tiffany really doesn't have to email him, haha, I'm just sending this so I can tell him that I sent her his email just to make him happy, cuz I told him I would :) So no worries, haha! Anyways, I love you so much ma! :) Thank you so much for raising me right and teaching me this wonderful gospel :) Love you so much! Talk to ya next week!! :)

    

6-15-15 Zone Mtg + Transfers

6-15-15

Hey Ma!! :)

Hey thanks for asking about my birthday! Man, I don't feel like it should be that close, but I guess it is kinda close, huh?? So I would just wanna maybe buy some running shoes here, but as I'll talk about in the family email, I'm getting transferred! So I'm getting transferred to the village 'Letogo' in Upolu, and running shoes will probably be really expensive over there because stuff is more expensive in Western Samoa. Hmmm.....actually now that I think about it, I'll get back to you about my birthday next week! Cuz, if I have time today, I can go buy some running shoes, and probablly some socks, but I'm just not sure if I'll be too busy packing for the little plane ride tomorrow. So I'll let you know! :) But thanks so much for askin'! I love you mum!! :)

Hey guys!

Great to hear from you guys, thanks for the update on everything! I'm excited to hear about Tiffany and her tour to Germany! That's cool!! Aw, too bad Dad couldn't see my island! man, he was probably just a few miles away from me when he flew over! That's crazy to think about! :) That was cool what Dad wrote too! He talked about how he's working with the Tahitian people right now, and how there are a hundred and sixteen islands! Most of the Polynesian countries have lots and lots of islands, Samoa probably has the least :) But dad mentioned how the Tahitian islands used to be owned by the British, but the French took over about the same time that the church came to the islands, and the French had certain laws about religious freedom that made it possible for the church to thrive! :) That was cool, cuz that's kinda how it was here in Samoa too! Sometime in the 1800's, white people introduced the Bible to the Samoan islands, and then like a few decades later, I think, missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints came! The Lord prepared them by introducing the Bible to them first, and then gave them the fulness of the restored gospel later :) He taught them line upon line, precept upon precept :) Pretty cool, ehh??

So this past week was a good week :) The island conference was awesome! I love seeing President and Sister Tolman :) They taught about the sacrament and we read a talk before the conference about the sacrament, given by Hamula of the Seventy(I forgot his first name). But it was really good, and it's a very good tool to use for less actives, to remind them of the covenants they made when they were baptized, and also of the cleansing power of the Atonement through the Sacrament. We were also asked to write talks about what we had learned from our Book of Mormon studies, and a couple of missionaries were selected to share their talks with everyone, and we all turned in our talks afterwards. I wasn't asked to speak, but I wrote my talk, basically, about the nature of trials and how they can strengthen our testimonies :)

So yesterday at church, I was really happy to see Ezra, the ward mission leader's son, and he was back to his old self, happy and healthy! It's just a relief, cuz I felt so bad when we visited him in the hospital and he sick, but I'm happy he's okay now!

So as I mentioned to Mom in my short email to her, I'm getting transferred tomorrow! I'm going to Upolu, to a village called Letogo, and my area probably covers that village and other villages close by :) So that's exciting! This has been a good area, but transfers are a good opportunity for growth and recommitment :) President Tolman emailed and says he knows I will like my new companion :) So that's good! Elder Wallwork has been a good companion :) His personality is very different from mine, but we get along good and I learned from him on how to do the work more effectively :) But anyways, just to let you know, you guys will be getting letters from me on Sundays now, because Upolu is a day ahead and my Monday will be Sunday for you guys :) So when I fly on the short plane ride tomorrow, from Tutuila to Upolu, I'll leave on Tuesday morning, and half an hour later, I'll get to Upolu and Wednesday morning! :)

There were less actives and new members I wanted to see before I left, because I knew this past week that I was probably going to get transferred, but we didn't get to visit most of them because they weren't home when we went, and some of them we didn't have time to get to :/ We were going to have a lesson with Layla, but me and my companion accidently scheduled it on the day of the island conference :/ So we felt really bad, cuz she was waiting, and we had no way to get a hold of her because her phone is broken, and she didn't have another opportunity this past week for us to visit. Atala hasn't been home the past few times we've gone, and Nadia has been really busy too. So we just tried to visit more less actives and new members this week :)

So here's some interesting news! There's a Samoan island called Manu'a that is east of Tutuila, and it has been closed to missionary work for a long time, but the President and his assistant, President Lesa, announced at the conference, that Manu'a will most likely be opening soon to missionary work :) That was cool to hear!

Mom, I'm so happy you got to visit the Samoan ward again! Yah, the people are really great and love the gospel, especially in that ward :) It's called the Vaiola ward right? Vaiola means "living waters." Cool, ehh??

Alrighty, my time is running short. I love you all so much and I pray for you guys every day. I'm so thankful for your strength in the gospel and you are all such great examples to me :) Stay mighty you guys, and I love you all! Hurrah for Israel!! :)

Love ya,
Elder Starr

Zone Meeting in American Samoa (1 week before transfer to Upolu)

Side note from Elder Starr's mom...
Exactly a year ago (May 2014 - before he'd received his mission call to Samoa) Daniel sang a solo at his Seminary graduation. He did a beautiful job and we were very proud of him. Today, upon reading his email, about his transfer, the spirit prompted me to remember the song Daniel sang. I looked up the lyrics and was amazed at how perfectly fitting those lyrics are and how they directly apply to Elder Daniel Starr today (only 1 short year later).

Everywhere I Go (by Sally De Ford)

This is my journey, like Israel of old
I travel through the wilderness so far away from home
Though dangers surround me, though the night is long
The Lord is my light, my beacon and guide
My strength and my song

Chorus:
And I will be strong
I will walk unafraid
With the Lord as my companion every step along the way
Then come what may, I’ll live with courage in my heart
Because I know
He is with me everywhere I go

This is my journey, like Israel of old
I need not wander lost, nor seek to find my way alone
His presence before me is all that I require
The Lord is my light, my beacon and guide
My pillar of fire

Chorus
And I will be strong
I will walk unafraid
With the Lord as my companion every step along the way
Then come what may, I’ll live with courage in my heart
Because I know
He is with me everywhere I go

This is my journey, and nothing will I fear
The Lord my God will safely pilot me and keep my pathway sure
My help and my guardian to the journey’s end
The Lord is my light, my beacon and guide
My Savior and Friend

And I will be strong
I will walk unafraid
With the Lord as my companion every step along the way
Then come what may, I’ll live with courage in my heart
Because I know
He is the Lord of heaven and earth
He is the perfect light of truth
And He is with me everywhere I go

Flashback video from his seminary graduation (the battery ran out at the performance so we had to splice in a segment from his rehearsal video at the end).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHLTw2x16AM&feature=youtu.be
It's a good thing that I didn't know how far from home he would be going - only a few months later or I would've cried even more than I did. Mostly tears of joy because of his pure faith. He truly does know that the Lord is his companion "every step along the way" and HE truly is with him, everywhere he goes!

6-8-15

Hey familam! :)

Hey it was awesome to get all those letters from you guys! I love getting updates on what's goin' on back home! Sounds like it was a really good week for you guys last week! :) So this past week was good, the work is still going slower right now, but hey, we got an investigator back! L___ came back to church! And we found out why she was kinda stayin' away from the church for a while. She's been having a hard time with the relationship between her and her boyfriend, who is in the ward, so she hasn't wanted to come back to church. But she finally came back, because we saw her on the street the other day and she pinky-promised us she would go to church, haha! So that's some good news :) Another thing that happened this week, we went to the hospital because the son of our ward mission leader was sick. He actually has dengay fever right now, which is a recent disease that comes from mosquitos. Anyways, it was sad, cuz this boy is 9 or 10 years old right now, and when we went into the hospital, we could just tell he was having a really hard time, and he wasn't his usually happy self. But we gave him a blessing and left, and my companion explained to me when we left the hospital more what the sickness was. Apparently, people can go blind from Dengay fever and a few people have died from it. So I was kinda worried about it, because that kid is one of my favorites in both of our wards, he loves to talk to the missionaries. But we heard yesterday from some members that they went to visit him, and he's actually doing so much better! They said he was sitting up and eating and looked happy :) So that made me really happy to hear, I thought that was really cool :) Anyways, this past week we got a lot of spiritual thoughts in during the week, because we didn't have very many opportunities to teach investigators, we don't have a lot :/ But that's okay, we're doing good :)

Oh by the way, the island conference is tomorrow, haha! Sorry, I think I confused you guys by what I said in the last email or something :) But yah, I'm super excited for that, I love the island conferences so much :) President Tolman and his wife just give us such motivation, it's really good :) You know how some people say that many times missionaries are called to a mission because of the mission president? Well I know that that's definitely true in my case :)

Hey by the way it was really cool to hear about Blake and that he has a baptism coming up! Man, I haven't emailed him forever, I need to! And it was cool to hear about Clare and about how Maddi and Merri Luczak are going to Japan! That is super cool!! Well anyways, I'm so sorry my emails have been shorter, I haven't had a lot of time lately to write, cuz a lot times we have to rush off to an activity or something. But I love you guys so so much! Great to hear from ya'll! Hurrah for Israel! Stay mighty, I'm so proud of you guys and how strong you all are in the gospel! 

Hurrah for Israel!

Love ya,

Elder Starr

P.S. I am so thankful for our awesome family and the great example you all are to me! Love ya all so much! :

June 1, 2105

Hey Family!! :)

Hey, great to hear from you guys! :) Man that's so cool that Tiffany gets to go to Europe! And that's so cool that dad get's to go to work with the Tahitian people in Australia! :)

Sorry, my letter was super short last week. We actually didn't have an activity last week, we just had to hurry home because the people that were feeding us that day were going to bring the food to our house soon and we had to hurry home to meet them. Anyways, it's been a good past week! To be honest, the work is kinda slow right now, but we're trying to get it going again. It's gotten a little harder, because the help from the ward members has really gone down. But we're trying to find new people and work with what we have :) The baptism the Saturday before last went good :) Saprina and Deidra will be really strong in the gospel :)

This past Saturday, we had an opportunity to do service with the youth in one of our wards :) It was good, because it's hard to find opportunities for service projects here in Samoa, because the people here get mad sometimes if the missionaries do service, haha. They don't want the missionaries to have to do everyday chores and stuff, cuz the people are really respectful and everything. But anyways, it was a good opportunity, and it was fun to just be able to hang out with people from the ward and everything. For the service, we helped remove this big huge mound of dirt from the back of someone's house in the ward, so they can be able to plant their tauro plants :) There were a lot of red ants that lived in the mound of dirt, and most of us were barefoot during the work, so they were biting our feet :/ But anyways, it was a fun experience, especially cuz I don't know how many other times I'll be able to have opportunities to do service like that.

Hey by the way, tell Brennan I said "hi!!" That's really cool that she's going on her mission soon, let me know where she's going! :)

I love hearing from you guys, thanks for the nice email with details of stuff going on back home! :) I'm so sorry, the letters have been short, partly just cuz we've just been trying to find new people to teach right now, and talk to people for refferals right now. The only 2 investigators we have right now are busy most of the time, so we've just been trying to find new people in the area. Oh, we have an island conference coming up this next week! :) President and Sister Tolman will be coming, yayy! They really are awesome, I know Heavenly Father put me with the perfect mission president for me :) Anyways, I gotta get goin' soon, cuz another missionary has to email cuz him and his companion have other plans today :) But stay mighty, my awesome family! :) I love you guys, thanks for all of the awesome support and awesome emails!! :) Have a great week! :) Suuuuuuuuuuuuure Love ya!! :)

May 25, 2015

May 25, 2014
Hey familam!!

Hey it's so great to talk to you guys, but my time is pretty short right now :( :(

It's great to hear so much about what's going on at home! Especially about Jason and Tyler yayyyyyyy!! Man I can't wait to hear how that all unfolds! That's so cool, Mom and Dad, that you guys got to go to the lu'au. Haha, I'm so happy you got to eat a lot of the food I eat here! Good huh?? Anyways, I'm happy that you guys got to take care of Madi Zenger from the primary. I will pray for Richard Zenger, I really hope everything goes okay.

Hey I'm really happy that Tiffany gets to go to Europe, that's awesome!! So cool! Hey tell coach Chowen I said 'hi' and it's good to here from him haha :)

Anyways, yah, we had a couple baptisms last week, and everything was good :) We're just trying to find more opportunities to teach right now :/ Anyways, I gotta go, I'm SO sorry, I promise next weeks letter will be longer :) Love you all so much, HURRAH for Israel! :)

May 18, 2015

Hey Fam! :)

Thank you so so much for your support and letters this past week :) Mom and dad, thanks for the advice, I really am thankful for your help and advice, because it always helps :) I love hearing from you guys :) I loved talking to you guys last week, I wish I could have talked for a few more hours haha! ;) But I really hope next time for Christmas we'll get to do skype cuz that would be awesome to see your faces!

So we had a really good week last week, things were good :) We've gotten some new referrals that we're excited to work with this week. And we need new investigators in Pago 3rd, because the work in that ward right now is a little slower, we're just barely getting into teaching Atala more and now we are going to be teaching N______ again maybe, because the zone leaders didn't start teaching her when we gave her name to them to teach and she actually said she wants to come to our ward, so might start teaching her :) But D______ and S______, from Pago 2nd, are getting baptized this weekend, so that's good :) I really think they'll be good, they are really good at keeping their comittments :) I just really hope that I get to see some of my investigators go to the temple later in my mission, cuz we're allowed to attend when investigators we baptized go to the temple :)

Oh, random story, haha! There's a skinny Russian man that lives here right now that is trying to break a world record and sail around the world in his sailboat! Me and Elder Howard (one of the zone leaders who was with me on a split) went to his boat the other week to go teach him on his boat! But he wasn't at his boat when we went :( But apparently he sailed here from the states in his boat! Just thought you guys would think that was interesting, haha :)

Anyways, Thanks again for all the packages and stuff you guys send, it means a lot! I kind of wanna go buy myself some new running shoes, cuz apparently my other one's were too small! They seemed totally fine at first, but I think they are too skinny cuz a wore them sometimes to go running or play basketball, and all my toenails died and fell off :/ and I got this really deep blister from those shoes that was really big. I want to use the hundred dollar visa gift card that grandma gave me for Christmas, but I can't figure out how to use it :(

By the way, I am SO happy that Grandma's surgery went so well! It's so good that it's finally over and everything is good and well :) I love love love getting letters from Grandma Smith and Grandma and Grandpa Starr, it means so much how they reach out so much to their grandchildren :)

I'm happy that the family gets to be with each other every Sunday and everything, I loved Sundays so much with the family, just to relax and talk, watch church movies and listen to church music and stuff :) Hey speaking of music, if you guys want, you guys should look up the LDS group, Brown Hymnbook, they are really good! They are an Australian group and I've heard some of their songs that other missionaries have :) Haha, I know I told you guys to look up them before, but I just really like them :)

Oh, by the way, yesterday, we had a stake conference, which was actually a conference for all the members of the church in the pacific! :) It was broadcast from Salt Lake and shown in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands, Guam, Kiribas I think, probably Martial Islands, and a ton of other places haha :) We listened to it in the English room, and there was another room for the Samoan translation :) It was really good, the main topic seemed to be keeping the sabbath day holy, something that people in the Pacific have started to struggle with a little bit. But it was really good, one of the apostles talked about different stories of faith of the island people in the pacific :) I forgot the name of the apostle which is so sad, cuz I memorized them all in seminary! I think it was....Christofferson. No...maybe it was Cook?? I'm not sure :/ But anyways, I love you guys, I'm so thankful for your love and I'm so proud of you all are, I am super super blessed to have you as my family :) Tell the youth I'm really thankful for their letters and they sent and it's really great to feel the ward reaching out :) Maybe I should write them back, yah?? You think that would be good? Haha, anyways, I'm gonna get goin' but suuuuuuuuuuure love ya!! Hurrah for Israel! :)

Love ya,

Elder Starr