Week #81

Bula Vinaka everyone! This past week has been one of the best weeks of my life. So many life long lessons I think I will be able to remember and use for the rest of my life. This past week we had our zone conference and the spirit was so strong. We spent the three hours going over all the new changes that have taken place in the missions all over the world. Our entire schedule has changed so that we can have more proselyting time! We spent a lot of time having everyone share their spiritual impressions and it was pretty powerful. I'm pretty lucky to be able to serve in a zone where all the Elders and Sisters are awesome missionaries. Most of the Zone Conference we watched a worldwide missionary broadcast that was lead by Dallin H. Oaks, David A. Bednar, Neil L. Anderson, and some others! Something that Elder Bednar said hit me pretty hard, "All we have to do is be as good as we can be and God will form us into someone better than we could have ever become!" Over the course of my mission I've seen how true this really is.... As a missionary you get to see the atonement change people and you even get to see the atonement change you. It is so cool! I've realized that sometimes we fear more than we hope. I remember the scripture, "Look unto me in every thought; Doubt not, fear not." The past few weeks I've been trying to practice this scripture in my life and I've seen so many cool changes in myself. We don't have to fear the future events of our days or lives! All we have to do is get out there and do good and look unto Him in every thought! He will guide us and lead us and we will learn and grow. I love being on a mission. I've had some really hard times out here, but I always come out stronger than I was before and I am so grateful for that. He has a plan for all of us and we just have to trust Him and enjoy the change no matter how uncomfortable it sometimes can be. He's doing all He can to help us become more like Him!  After zone conference I started studying the New Testament and found a cool way to invite people to be baptized using the scriptures John 3:5 and Mark 1:9-11. I tried it out in one of our villages the other day and everyone in the family accepted baptism if they come to know that it is true so that was pretty dang cool. This week Elder Willoughby and I decided to do something pretty hard but we knew it would help our members. So here in Naitasiri, there is not a lot of ways for transportation for people to get to and from church. The past few months they'd been relying on us to help them get transportation and we just can't do it anymore because our mission president and stake president have told us not to. The walk from our flat to the church chapel is about a 4 hour walk through some pretty rough dirt roads. Elder Willoughby and I felt impressed that this past Sunday we needed to leave our truck at the flat and walk to church. So we woke up pretty early and started the long walk. The members were pretty shocked that we walked all that way for church. When they realized we didn't have our truck with us they began to panic. At first they were mad with us for not bringing the truck but we needed to do this so they could see that they were relying on us too much. They sat down as a group and counciled together. Some walked home and some waited for the bus. I'm not going to lie. The walk was hard and my feet are pretty torn up but it taught me the importance of the sacrament. He just wants us to remember Him and the walk was totally worth it. I also hope our members learned a lesson. I love them. On the walk back home we heard news that one of our members was kicked by his horse so we went to his home and we were able to give him the sacrament and a blessing. We got home when it was dark and I felt so drained but yet accomplished by the end of the day. These things have taught me life long lessons and I'm just so happy to be able to be learning so much out here. Our vanua levu family came to church again this week and we're pretty excited for them. Fiji is the place!

Love, Elder Jonutz

Week #80

Bula Vinaka everyone who is reading! I want all my family, friends and anyone else who is reading this to know that the Holy Ghost is real. This week I've learned the different ways it works. To keep the Holy Ghost with us we must respond to it's promptings! As a missionary in Fiji speaking the Fijian language it is impossible to touch the hearts of the people if the Holy Ghost is not guiding me in all I do. Earlier this week I realized a difficulty in recognizing His promptings. The work became a struggle and I had no idea what to do. I prayed and prayed and prayed but was still struggling. A lesson to be learned is in the Book of Mormon in the book of Jacob chapter 4 verse 7 it says, "Nevertheless, the Lord God showeth us our weakness that we may know that it is by His grace, and His great condescensions unto the children of men, that we have power to do these things." I just want to take this moment to testify that this scripture is absolutely true. It is only by God's will that we have the Holy Ghost to be with us. To members of this church we have been given the Gift of The Holy Ghost, this is true. But to keep this gift with us we have to recognize that it's only because He is allowing us to. I never want to jeopardize my companionship with the Holy Ghost. He guides me in all ways and comforts me in all trials! To those of you who maybe don't have this Gift yet...the way is simple. It starts with baptism. God wants us to have this gift. This life is hard enough without it. I just want to say how grateful I am to be able to be a missionary. I'm grateful for the things our heavenly father teaches us and the things he puts us through to grow. He knows ALL. This week Elder Willoughby and I had some cool experiences! Pushing forward through trials we invited others to be baptized. A family we've been working with for awhile finally made their first step to follow the Savior and be baptized. Sitting down in their home we read with them Mosiah 18:8-10. Immediately we felt prompted to invite them to be baptized and they said yes! Just yesterday they came to church despite the expensive travel fair. Petal, Maria,Va, and Fili are all working towards their baptism for March 25. I have faith this will happen. And I can't wait for them to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! Missionary work is so rewarding! We have zone conference this Thursday and I'm looking forward to it! I love you guys! Ni sa moce!

Love, Elder Jonutz

Fiji Suva Temple!

Week #79

Bula Vinaka y'all! Pretty awesome week to say the least! Good news is I'm still in the bush out in Naitasiri and get to enjoy another transfer with all the amazing people here. I'm way stoked about that! My "son", Elder Payne, is also now in Naitasiri but his situation is a little different. He'll be spending 3 weeks with us and then he's going to be on his way to TUVALU! I'm way pumped for the kid! It has been fun having him in the flat this past week. Elder Willoughby and I got to do transfers this whole last week and somehow still were able to manage going on an exchange and have a baptism! Which was a miracle. I actually had a way good time on my exchange with Elder McKee. He's from Washington and a very smart guy! While I was out with him in his area we had some guy walk up to us on the street. To start off the conversation he said, "Hey, I want to join your church." After some additional comments we figured out that he was really looking for some direction in his life and felt like he needed to join our church. We shared with him the story of the restoration and he was excited to hear more. I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes for the Elders teaching him. Being a missionary is so awesome. For some young adult man to come up to us and tell us he's looking for direction in his life is peculiar and normally I wouldn't know exactly what to say.......but that's okay because the gospel of Jesus Christ says it all! That is the greatest thing I have learned on my mission. There LITERALLY is nothing more important than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It answers every question and solves every problem..... I just want to teach it to everyone! If you're not currently happy refer to the gospel: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost and then endure to the end. I can testify that there is no other way to find true happiness. ONLY by following the gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes even as a missionary I have to refer back to these steps to make sure I'm happy and it works every time. Elder Mckee and I also had a cool experience in helping a less active family. We shared with them the importance of the Sacrament. If we think about the Sacrament as a feast to remember our Savior....we will never EVER want to miss a sacrament. He made it so we can ALWAYS remember Him. The next Sunday we saw the family come to church and we could tell how excited they were to come break bread with the Savior. Later that night I had a pretty funny experience! Remember the scene on The Grinch when he gets the fudge shoved in his mouth till he is sick?!...I had a similar experience.  After coming back from a dinner appointment where they made us tons of food we went to one last appointment to visit a man named Wame. We walked inside and he was playing some christian songs on the guitar and singing pretty loud. In between his songs he would add commentary...like, "Honey, make these boys some dinner!" We told him no thank you but then he'd ignore us and continue on with his song. His wife came out with a huge plate of eggs, rice, sausage, and ketchup. I was already so full but ate it anyway. Now I was really full and my stomach hurt. He then made us eat hot chocolate and pie and I literally almost popped. I was trying not to laugh as he was stuffing my face with all this food and singing these christian songs and then I realized just how happy this guy was. We shared with him the restoration and he said he would be baptized on March 5th! We'll see how it goes! This last Sunday Save Naca was baptized and so that was awesome. He was super pumped and when he came up from the water you could just see the change in him. He could not stop smiling. I just want you all to know that I cannot nor will I ever deny the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the MOST important thing in this life. I love you all and look forward to telling you more next week!

Love, Elder Jonacani (someone tried to call me that the other day hahaha) 

Exhanges in Waila

Found the scooby gang

Power went out while nightly planning so we went back to the 1800's

Week #78

Bula Vinaka Everyone!  Well it has been a pretty crazy week just as every week has been! We received some pretty devastating news last Thursday. One of my past zone leaders, Elder Amai, just finished his mission this last December and we found out he was killed in a car accident...He was an amazing missionary and I looked up to him. I know he's continuing on the work up in the spirit world right now. He served in the area I am currently serving in and the members were sad to hear the news but it was a faith building experience that helped build their testimonies on the plan of salvation. It's so much more satisfying having a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! I've come to realize that it is the most important thing in my life. I love studying it, living it, and sharing it! It's a humbling experience when being able to repent causes you to lean on the Savior's mercy and plead for his help. To be able to become clean again is in and of itself a miracle. It's awesome! This week we finally got Save Naca ready for his baptism. I'm really hoping I get to stay to see it because I've been working with him ever since I've been in this area. Transfers are tomorrow and I'm not planning on leaving...so just got to keep my fingers crossed. Yesterday we had a pretty crazy experience! We had a lot of appointments cancel and we didn't know what to do. We felt like we needed to go see Brother Navuso (Save Naca's dad). We showed up at his house and he was pretty sick. His breathing was uncontrollable and he had a pretty bad cough. Because the spirit prompted us to go there we were able to take him to the hospital and get him some oxygen. He was really grateful and we are glad the spirit was able to speak to us. Lesson learned this week is that if we want to constantly have the spirit with us we must constantly repent and pray. The feeling of the spirit is something I wouldn't trade for anything else. I'm sorry if this email is very short but Elder Willoughby and I are in charge of a combined zone beach p-day and we don't have a ton of time to email today. I just want you to know I know this gospel is true and I love it! This past week I finally got to listen to Grandpa Jonutz's funeral recording. I am so happy that I have a family firmly rooted in the gospel because there is nothing better.

va loloma! Elder Jonutz

Week #77

Ni sa bula vinaka everyone! Can't believe another week has already gone by! It's crazy how slow the days can be but these weeks just go by so fast. It's been an exciting week! We started off by going on some exchanges with our elders in Navatuyaba and had a blast. I was able to go on an exchange with Elder Miller! We are both from the same intake and my whole mission I haven't served around him so it was fun to catch up with him and see how he was doing. He is definitely the man and a master at fijian! We had a cool experience of going out proselyting and inviting some people to be baptized. For some of these people it was only the second time for elders to visit them. 3 of the 5 people we visited all accepted a baptismal date and that it is pretty amazing. You can just see how fast the work of the Lord is hastening out here and it's so fun to watch! After our exchanges we headed back out to our area to prepare Osea to be baptized. We showed up to the edge of the river in hopes of seeing a boat cross so that we could get to the village when this guy on this bamboo raft paddled over to us. He told us to hop on...so we did! Never thought I would paddle board on a bamboo raft on my mission. That was sick! hahaha! So this week I also took my drivers test.....Ummm...long story short I will be taking it again this Wednesday hahaha. I need to freshen up on Fijian road laws I guess. Our family that's from Vanua Levu has been doing awesome. We took Brother Juta with us to visit them the other day and they are so close to being converted. The mom told us that they aren't members of any church but that when we come over she feels the Spirit. We told her the way she can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and she was very excited. Right now we are just waiting on the fathers to come back. I forgot to mention that there is two families that live in that house and we are teaching both of them. Every single one of them has accepted the baptismal challenge. The only problem is every time we go over there we meet a new member of the family and all the other ones are gone hahaha! It's not a terrible problem to have at all - I just want to teach all of them at the same time haha! Our members are really excited about these families and are always asking about them. We're praying for them pretty hard!  On Sunday Osea was baptized!!! It's nice to see young kids believe in Christ and why it is important to be baptized. Before he was always a shy kid but after his baptism he went crazy and was just super happy. I love being a witness to baptisms! The work of the Lord is true and so are the words of Isaiah! Our mission is doing a Book of Mormon read and we have to pick our top five heroes. Right now I'm in Isaiah and man is it a puzzle. If you want to know why Nephi put his words in the Book of Mormon just read 2 Nephi 25:3. I must say that he will most likely be one of my top five! I love you all!

Love, Elder Jonutz

Village kids are my favorite! ME and Brother Juta

Exchange with Elder Miller

Little Osea

Little Osea's village

Fijian kids playing this tire game!

I thought the clouds looked pretty evil in this picture

Picked up some (kai) from the members and made some awesome dinner!!!!

The man on the bamboo raft

Me on the bamboo raft

walking down to the river for Oseas Baptism

In the water

This week I made firewood and.........wait for it......

FIRE;)

Week #76

Bula Vinaka Family and everyone! The rain and lightening has not ceased. Every morning we walked out of the house last week the sun was out but every time we came back to the flat it was pouring rain and thundering like crazy again. I have to admit though.....I love it when the weather is like this! The other night there were no clouds above our house and it was just clear stars but out in the distance there was a pretty crazy lightening storm and I happened to get a pretty awesome picture that I will send to you all!  But that's just a physical storm and today I would like to share about some spiritual lightening and thunder (the good kind!) Some pretty amazing things have been happening in our area. Last week I shared about the Wesele family who decided to come to church despite their traveling difficulties. WELL....they came again this week and their whole family seems to have changed! They are so much more happy and we can tell a difference in just a couple of weeks. Brother Wesele got up in church and gave a beast talk that was super powerful. Yesterday was just awesome.....SO MANY PEOPLE CAME TO CHURCH! As a missionary seeing an investigator coming to church is as good as opening up Christmas presents! This week we gave it our all despite the difficulties Satan tried to throw at us. Brother Vounijese's niece, Unaisi, finally started to take lessons. She's just 14 but really related to the Joseph Smith story and wants to be baptized! We have also been working with Osea who came to church as well. He's all set and good and is ready to be baptized this Sunday so we are way pumped for him. Earlier this week, Elder Willoughby and I were walking through Nabukaluka village and saw the weirdest thing! When we walk through the villages all the poeple are usually sitting on their porch and they say Bula to us and we just say Bula to everyone but this time was WAY different. As we were walking through the village we looked into the houses and there were white folks everywhere.....We were both tripping out hahaha. It's not every day that we see white people out in the villages....We eventually found out they were from the Australian aid there to help out with the school in the village. Anyway, Brother Juta had 3 kai valagis (white people) staying in his house and we decided to share something with them. We shared about where the Book of Mormon came from and they got way interested. We gave them each their own Book of Mormon and we got to show off our Fijian skills hahaha. They said they had always heard of the lds church but never knew what it was about. They were surprised to hear that we believed in Jesus Christ. If only everyone knew our real name is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"! Those guys probably never would have thought that 2 lds missionaries would have met them in the middle of a fijian village hahaha! So that was fun. I've been having to drive a lot more lately because this Wednesday I am going to take my driving test finally.....wish me luck HA! The other day we had to take the car in to Asco Motors to get a tune-up and so we got to go to Suva and get New York pizza....I just have to say that I didn't know that's what pizza is supposed to taste like!  The other day we were offered to have some Yavu ni toa (chicken feet).....we kindly said thank you and that we had already eaten. The more I serve in Fiji the more I love it. I am convinced that there is no where else on this earth with such humble people as here. We've been teaching a family for awhile and they all have said they want to be baptized....only issue is everytime we go over there, there are more members of the family. Slowly one by one they will all hear about the gospel and will be baptized. Anyways, being a missionary is awesome. Lesson learned from this week is that if you want the spirit we must always, constantly be repenting. I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on our behalf. Because of Him we can become clean!

 Love, Elder Jonutz

ONE OF THE COOLEST NIGHTS OF MY LIFE. (sorry you weren't there dad!)

What our flat looks like when we get packages....

When it randomly rains in the village and there's nothing you can do

This is the guy coming to get us on the boat. We crossed in the rain and got soaked.

The cows here are a pest.

Brother Juta's sons getting ready for a mere (fijian tribal dance)

Just one more for fun. Because it's an awesome picture and i'm proud

Week #75

Bula Vina' Everyone! It has been quite the adventure this past week! The weather has been so unpredictable hahaha! From 8:00 - 2:00 in the afternoon it is crazy HOT and then from 3:00-10:00 at night it pours down rain and the thunder gets pretty dang loud here! It is pretty awesome I'm not going to lie. So much has happened this week! Remember that infection on my toe?....It came back! My toe got so big earlier this week that I had to wear a different size shoe on my foot! Slowly it has started to go down and hopefully it will be better again. It's all good...FUN TIMES! Proselyting this week has been random but awesome! While trying to visit one of our less actives we came across this man who walked right up to us. When he walked up to me and elder Willoughby he said, "Hey Elders! My name is Isei!" He then told us to follow him. Currently the village is closed to missionaries but we took this guys offer as a "VIP" pass into the village. We followed him to his house and we sat down. He sat in silence and then said, "Lorenzo Snow!"  Elder Willoughby and I were way confused. Then he said , "Lorenzo Snow is the president of your church right?" I almost died laughing. We told him that that was a long long...LONG time ago. He told us that his kids are members but he was never baptized. He said he wants to take lessons and learn more about the church. He's an interesting guy and we're excited to get to start teaching him and his wife. Lately we've been trying to visit the village Nauluvatu. There's a young boy there named, Osea, and he hasn't been baptized yet. His family is pretty poor and have no way of paying for transportation to get to church and so we were really praying to help him find a way.  After meeting with another one of our members,  he offered to pay for Osea's transport to church every Sunday!  He also does not have much money but I know the Lord is going to bless him for his efforts. I've been learning a lot about the gospel this week.... Specifically on what it means to others! For the longest time we have been working with this family to try to help them come back to church and they just have never showed up.  All Saturday morning I had planned this lesson and I was going to ask them why they weren't coming.  As we walked into the house before I could even speak the father began to speak. He said, "Elders, my family and I respect you. You come over to our house and we've been praying so much just to find a way to church. Never mind we have two small babies but we need to take the sacrament!" Then he said so confidently, "We are coming to church tomorrow! I don't know how we are going to get there but we are going! Just pray for us please." Just sitting there the spirit filled the entire room. I didn't know how he was going to get to church either but I knew he was going to be there. The next morning we waited at the bus stand for them. No bus ever came..... The members started telling us it had been years since they had come and that they probably weren't going to come. We stood and waited and then saw them walking up this dirt hill. They came and stayed all 3 hours and were the happiest family in the chapel. They are a family that understands 1 Nephi 3:7! After visiting them some of our appointments fell through and so we took a road we had never taken before. Long story short, we went down this muddy hill and when we tried to turn around the truck could not make it back up the hill. No matter how hard we tried. We said a prayer and it still didn't work. We had some other Elders come and pick us up. The next morning we went to go and try again. This time we gathered rocks for about an hour and laid them on the muddy road to give the truck traction. Finally it worked and we made it up the hill. The lesson we learned is that prayer is a 2 way equation. We must pray for help and then we must do all we can on our part for it to be answered. It's a cool story. I'll tell my kids someday hahaha! Other than that this week has been amazing. I'm loving the challenges and trying my best to grow my faith by embracing all the trials. I love you all and look forward to updating you next week!

Love, Elder Jonutz

It's a small world after all (the more exciting version)

Kids following us when we were leaving the village. Can you see the kid with video tape all around him? hahaha

This kid's name is Juju

Juju just chillin on our car. 

What it looks like when we drive in our area

Pretty sure the clouds in Heaven look similar to this haha

Taking the scenic route home

My worst enemy

This cow has the longest rack! HOLY COW haha....

One of our investigator's daughters. She is adorable 

We had to sleep on the floor cuz our bedframes had bed bugs...One of the elders a few nights ago was bitten by a centipede

This kid was just dragging a plate by this rope 

We got some dalo for Elder Willoughby's birthday

Rain falling from our roof

Getting stuck in the mud :(...

You can see the mud is pretty thick...

We finally made it!