Week #9

Bula Vinaka Fam! Just so you all know I am all good. I was sick last week and did throw up a few times, but I’m now recovered so everything is fine. They were first worried I had worms...but I don’t so THAT’S GOOD ha...... This week has been rough for starters. When we were at the training meeting President Layton made me role play with him in front of all the missionaries so that was scary! The training was way bomb though and I learned a ton! I Just wanted to get back to my area and finally start teaching. I feel like it has been just this past week that I've truly started missionary work. During my personal study at the beginning of the week was a mission changing experience for me. When we first got back to Matei I was just pumped and Elder Barnaby had to calm me down and explain to me that we can’t just talk to everyone and think they are going to be converted on the spot..... This has been a struggle for me! Every time I see someone I’m like YESS let’s go convert them. During my personal study I realized that this simply isn’t possible ;( I was reading in Alma 29: 1-10. It talks about Alma and how he basically just wishes he could be this amazing angel that brings everyone unto repentance and his words just convert the people! I was like no way...THAT’S WHAT I WANT TOOOO! He then goes on to say that his wish is simply impossible...because God can only help us convert those who have the desire in their hearts. We should rejoice in the few who do have the desire and we can't expect everyone we teach to have that desire. This scripture is like now my favorite. It was a really humbling experience for me to say the least. So after that study I felt ready to go teach. That morning all, not just some, but...ALL of our lessons fell through and my companion was way upset. I told him that this happened for a reason. This is God's work and He has another plan. So we took a new path one that we hadn’t taken before and we saw this house and both felt like we should go there. The door was wide open and this young married couple super enthusiastically invited us to come in. So we went in and taught them a lesson and they loved it. They are seventh day adventists and they loved it and said they wanted us to come over again! I was way happy. 2 new investigators. We then walked further up the hill and this whole family invited us to come in and we taught a similar lesson. 3 new investigators there. After that we went to this other KORO and found this catholic family who seemed hesitant at first when we taught them and then we shared our testimonies on Jesus Christ and that was 3 more new investigators!!! The Lord had a different plan for us and look what happened when our plan failed and we followed Him. 8 New investigators. This truly is the Lord’s work. The next day we went to camp out at our Qeleni flat for three days. When we got there we found out we didn’t have the key yayyy no! So we tried breaking in with sliding our cards in the door and trying all sorts of fun stuff and none of them worked haha. We had to take the hour long bus ride back to Matei to get the key. Then we drove all the way back and it was pitch black and there was no power anywhere! We found a flashlight in my bag and when we turned it on outside there were literally like 300 frogs in this grass field. And in fiji they are poisonous and a pest so you’re allowed to kick them and they just go flying it’s so funny...but I started to feel bad so I don’t kick them anymore hahaha! We found 3 new investigators just while being on the bus the whole day and found out they all lived in this little village by the ocean about a 1hr walk away from our flat in Qeleni. So the next morning all of our lessons fell through again - so we felt like we should walk to the village. It’s called VureVure and it’s my new favorite place. It's so pretty. The beaches there are insane. So we got there and started teaching this guy and at first he was friendly and I was thinking to myself...yes, we got a keeper hahaha and then his voice stops and he gets mean and he says, I don’t believe in the mormon church. You guys are a cult and I think the Book of Mormon is so not true. I was like ohhhhh heck noo. I was fired up, but I just said have you ever even read it or prayed about it? And I explained what it is and how it’s similar to the bible and it doesn’t replace it and I bore my testimony and then Elder Barnaby offered him the restoration pamphlet and he just sat there quietly and guess what? We got a return appt. with him scheduled for next friday and he’s now a new investigator. So we had 11 new Investigators and the majority of our lessons fell through every day. The lord works in mysterious ways there’s no doubt about that. This week I’ve been through a lot.. I really missed all y’all when I was sick. But I’m all fine now. I was fed chicken alfredo a few days ago and I felt literally like I was in heaven. And then yesterday nobody fed us at all and for dinner we got home and all we had was rice, tuna and onions so that was fun haha. I was so hungry yesterday I wanted to cry. We only were able to teach two lessons all day because fijians literally sleep all day on sundays it’s so lameee! But, we had one lesson where we sat down and taught literally 20 kids!!! It was way cool I counted. This work is tough. I’m learning a ton. Thank you for all your fasts and prayers. They help! Btw mom I used my card the other day it works and I was able to buy stuff. I just received my sweatshirt and it’s great...things are looking up hahaha. Love you all!!

Elder JONUTI