Week #15

Bula Vinaka Matavuvale! I honestly feel like I start off every email with, THIS WEEK HAS BEEN THE CRAZIEST WEEK YET! But literally it’s like each week gets crazier and crazier here! Last Monday we went to go QITO (play) volleyball at the church and after we were walking back to the flat Elder Barnaby twisted his ankle really bad... I don’t even know how it happened! He was just walking and then he was on the floor. We were planning on going back to Matei to do some work that night but Elder Barnaby said he couldn’t walk so we had to stay in Somosomo for another night! Poor guy. This is the second time he has twisted his ankle since being here in Fiij! Nevertheless, on Tuesday the work pressed on. We were only able to see 1 person but we definitely needed to see her. Her name is Dipika. We've been teaching her for awhile and last time I had invited her to baptism and she said no hahaha! LAME!  Anyways we decided to talk to her about her book of mormon reading. She said she knows it’s true and she can feel it when she reads it. I was like SWEET! THAT’S WAY GOOD. But she told us it's really hard english for her to understand and so we ordered a HINDI SCRIPT book of mormon for her and I’ll be giving that to her this week! That's about it for missionary work that we got done this week! Only because this week was Zone Conference and all the areas and islands around Fiji met here in Taveuni for a district conference. So we had 10 elders staying in our flat for 5 days this week! They just left this morning...It's been a jam-packed full week! Our flat is a mess and I’m so tired HAHAHA! On Tuesday night I woke up at 2:00 in the morning to loud panting and large bangs being made throughout the flat.....Elder Barnaby wasn’t in his bed when I looked over. All I could think was great....MY TRAINER IS POSSESSED AND I’M GOING TO HAVE TO DO THAT WHOLE SCARY THING HAHAHA. Then I just see him walk by the door and he's holding a sasa (Fijian broom/pest killer) and he's running around killing cockroaches! There was no joke 15 of them on the wall....They had broken into our flour and sugar! Wednesday Elder Barnaby and I were getting the flat ready for everyone to come and stay at our flat...the containers we kept our flour and sugar in are in these plastic ice cream buckets. And since they were all gross from the nasty roaches we had to buy some new ones...and the only way to buy new ones was by buying ice cream:)))))  Sooo. I had ice cream for breakfast on Wednesday hahaha! I felt so sick after bluhhhh! But good times! After that the Czieps took us to our flat in Qeleni to grab the 4 mattresses we have there so we could take them to Matei flat for all the elders. When we walked inside the Qeleni flat there was a pile of phones charging and an ipad on our desk.......and food that wasn’t ours in the fridge... Someone has been breaking into our flat hahaha so that’s fun!! YAY! Anyways on Thursday president flew in to Taveuni and our interviews began at 9:00. I was way pumped for interviews. My interview went really well. President told me he's been watching me really closely and that my leaders keep recommending me for things. He told me to be more bold in the language and we had a good laugh about some stuff. He also told me that the Czieps who are that American couple that live by us in Matei are being set apart as branch missionaries and they are begging to go out with us and do visits. President Layton told me to USE THEM 4-5 days a week hahaha! I was like duuude heck yesssss! They are going to be so much help to us I can't wait! On Friday we had our zone conference and I literally learned so much stuff! This week has been kind of a reflection week for me and I've really been able to figure out the things I need to work on to become a better missionary! I need to be more friendly and bold in my teaching. I want people to feel my excitement as I’m teaching them. It's my goal to just start saying more things in fijian and not being afraid of messing up. I want to be way more social with my members and I want people to feel the Savior’s love for them through me. For our zone lunch we had spaghetti and garlic bread and salad and chocolate cake and cookies.....IT WAS REAL FOOOODDD   BULLLAAAA! It was so good! Any ways on Saturday Elder Pearson from the seventy flew in for the district conference here for all the members! He gave amazing talks about how big grog (kava) is here for members in fiji and how priesthood leaders shouldn’t drink it. It's not against the word of wisdom but general authhorities strongly suggest to not drink it. I hate kava so much. It wrecks peoples lives here! He called the fijian men out though in our conference! He was like stop hitting your women! You have the priesthood! Stop drinking kava. He was like don’t be a villager! Be a man of the priesthood I was like yeahhh hahahaaaa! We also had this special meeting with him and I got to talk to him for a little bit. He is a way cool guy. But on Sunday that’s when I saw miracles..... These two older ladies Nau mauri and nau rosa haven't been able to come to church because nau rosi has this disease and she can’t move...But Saturday night Elder Pearson wentn to go see them and he paid for a transport for them to be able to make it to district conference. Me and elder Barnaby stood outside and waited for her to show up. We lifted her out of her car and put her in the wheel chair and pushed her into the meeting. She was crying of joy the whole time...I even lost it for a bit I was so happy. To see someone miss church so much makes me see how lucky I am! After the meeting we got a random baptismal date....We thought this kid Mesake was a member because he goes to church every Sunday...BUT WE FOUND OUT HE WASN’T! So we asked him if he would be baptized next month and he was like yess! I am so happy! Like everyone from matei and qeleni came to the conference. This week has been crazy. I miss and love all of you so much. The work will press on this week and I pray for all of you!

Love Elder Jonuti

District Conference

Sunset in Matei

This is Nau Rosi and our less active sister koroi at the conference on sunday!

Ice Cream for B-fast ...I almost puked

Service Project (taken from Vemeeren's blog - I love that they take so many pictures!!)

Fijian food...MY FAVORITE!!!

 Ya....Found this while cleaning the house!! Bigger than the last!! Had an eggsack attatched to it  Yum