Week #59

Bula Vinaka Friends and Family! Another week full of miracles......Our district is just working so hard and every day more and more people come closer to Jesus Christ through this awesome restored gospel! It's always a struggle to choose what to share about our week because literally so MUCH HAPPENS! To summarize this entire week with you all, I think the best way would be just through sharing some stories. I'll start by sharing an experience that happened last night. So after church, we went out teaching and tried to see as many of our investigators as we could. All of them were home but all were busy at the moment and wouldn't be available until today. The sisters had told us earlier that afternoon that some members gave them extra dinner and they were willing to give us the leftovers for dinner last night. So we listened to the promptings of our stomachs and headed over to their area to pick up some dinner for last night. While walking over there Elder Payne and I got the prompting from the spirit this time (not our stomachs) to go and try to visit one of the less active members named Sister Tagimocia. As we approached her house this older man came out the door and said, "PLEASE COME IN!" So in we went and after some conversation we found out that it was Sister Tagimocia's father that we were visiting with. After some getting to know each other he paused for a moment and said, "I need to tell you something!" He said, "God works in mysterious ways. I know you know my daughter is affiliated with....your faith...and I have kept myself from sitting with you people for years. But this morning I went to church. It was my duty in our congregation to introduce a new preacher who was visiting from the other side of Fiji. Earlier this morning I had picked up what I thought was my bible and I was going to share some verses with the congregation. As I got up in front of my church and opened what I thought was my bible I saw that it was the Book of Mormon!" ...He went on to tell us that later he tried reading some of the words but that he didn’t understand it and that he was praying for someone to come and guide him through it and to help him understand it. We explained to him how that was our purpose and he was so grateful! I'd call this the definition of a person who is prepared to receive the gospel! He told us to come and visit him every day and so we will hahaha! Heavenly Father leads us to those who are ready and many are being prepared around us everyday-Alma 13:24. So another witness of the power of the Book of Mormon was with our investigator Jovesa. For weeks we have been trying to help him receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. He has read 20 chapters and we were just waiting.....So Tuesday morning we went over to visit him. We felt good about reading 3 Nephi 11 with him. I can just say it WORKED MIRACLES. After he read we knelt down with him and he offered a sincere prayer to know. We sat in silence after the prayer for about 5 minutes or so and then he asked us what the date was..... We replied that it was the 21st. He said, “the 21st of September is the day I found out that this is all true!” It was a way powerful moment and we were so excited that he had finally received an answer! We walked to our next appointment singing "Do you remember? The twenty first night of September...Ba de ya! Say do you remember! Ba de ya!”...HAHA I thought we were pretty clever! Earlier that day we received a referral from one of our members, brother Qionitoga, and he introduced us to his friend Domoniko. He told us he was interested in hearing the lessons so we went and shared with him all this week with Brother Qionitoga! Domoniko is like this 60 year old retired methodist preacher and he explained to us that he was interested in family history. He had 2 grandchildren pass away recently and the idea that he could be baptized in their behalf touched his heart. His softened heart and desire to know if this church was true allowed him to apply Moroni's Promise (Moroni 10:3-5). He received his answer and came to church with us this Sunday and wants to be baptized on the 15th of next month! We've been visiting with Josaia, Bano, Ana, and Josaia Sr. the majority of this week. Josaia and Bano know the book of mormon is true and have been coming to church with us and loved church yesterday! Their parents Ana and Josaia Sr. understand that they need to be baptized but we're trying to help them read the book of mormon and the mom asked us if we could come over and read the Book of Mormon with them everyday to help them know. Tonight we are going to take John (the sisters recent convert) to share his testimony of the Book of Mormon with them. We are way pumped for that and have been praying like crazy to be able to touch their hearts. Sister Heritage had to miss her baptismal interview and is re-scheduled for this week. The sisters in Makoi had 4 baptisms this Saturday. I got to interview all 4 of the 9 year old kids and it was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Children just know the Savior and are so sincere. It made my entire week. The work here is led by the Lord and I'm just happy I get to follow Him. Last Tuesday we had a District meeting based off of Taylor Swift hahaha so that was fun. We learned how to "shake it off" and we were "feelin 22" this week! (22 lessons!) So standards of excellence in our mission is 20 lessons a week. So our district decided to go above and beyond. All of us worked way hard this week and our district got more united and close. Everyone got above 22 and we felt the Lord working through all of us! I'm praying for all of our investigators and we're coming to love them so much. The gospel changes lives and I feel so privileged to be a witness to the Saviors living work! I love you all and can't wait to share about next week!

Love, Elder Jonutz