Week #62

Bula Vinaka everyone! I've just had an incredibly enriching week! I'll just start from Monday......So Monday night our zone leaders came out teaching with us and I got to be with Elder Vitiarai! So that was way fun to get to go and teach with him. Elder Payne is still the man and is doing awesome. He's a really humble guy and I learn a ton from him. The mission is so cool because you can just mold yourself into who God wants you to become, and you do that by being teachable and taking everything you can from all of your companions! P-day last week was a blast because we had a little tropical storm here and it was non-stop flash raining. So the whole zone went to the stake center and we played rugby in the rain. Needless to say, by the end of the day we were covered in the mud and had to get back to the flat quickly to change and then we went out proselyting. That's the Fiji, Suva mission life for ya'll hahaha! Sadly to say we haven't been able to see Enoke's mom this whole past week because we have been so busy in other areas! I'm taking it as Heavenly Father wants us to give her more time before we decide to go back and ask again! We had some sad news with our friend Jovesa.....I'm even hesitant to tell this story because it's just so sad. Wednesday night we went over to his house to go and prepare him for his baptism. The day before he had asked us if our church had a “daily bread scripture sheet” for the Book of Mormon and we said no but that we would make one for him. Elder Payne and I made this whole sheet filled with scriptures from the Book of Mormon that gave Jovesa some scriptures to read every day all the way up until his baptism. As we walked into his house he was hesitant to let us in.... We sat down and he said, "I don't know how to tell you guys this................but last night I was visited by my Methodist church. They came over and the Elders from my church used some strong words and told me that if I did not stop visiting with you guys my family would face some problems." Situations like this are really hard.... Of course we didn't want to jeopardize his or his families safety so we are no longer able to visit Jovesa.... It was a hard lesson. He told us he knows the answer he received from God about the Book of Mormon is true he just doesn't want to cause problems for his family. We're still praying for him. Faith can work miracles and I know our Heavenly Father is mindful of Jovesa and his situation! On a brighter note, Josaia Vuniwai, Isikeli Vuniwai, and Domoniko Katisawani were all baptized this past Saturday!!!! They are all so amazing and were so ready to be baptized. Anxious to know how they felt, I pulled Josaia to the side and asked him how he felt. He said, "Before my baptism I felt like I had this huge heavy armor all over my body....but when I came up out of the water that heavy armor fell off and now I'm free." I can just testify that this church has the authority to wash away sins because this is truly the gospel of Jesus Christ and His original church. It has His original foundation. Ephesians 2:20. It has the offices that Paul spoke of to the Ephesians that would not be done away with until the whole world comes into a unity of the faith. Ephesians 4:11-13. This church is true. People can try to disprove all they want. Our religion is persecuted and torn apart I think more than any other but when it comes down to it.....if you really want to know if it's true. Use your faith and pray and ask God the Eternal Father if it is true or not. God cannot nor will he lie. The promise is...pray and ask and you will find. I promise that anyone who does this will receive an answer that it is true. This gospel just has so much joy in it because it is true! I had a funny experience with Elder Payne the other night. Long story short it involved a member dinner appointment and a "rokete" (an extremely hot pepper). It got pretty hot for him that night hahaha! Our week was awesome because the gospel's true and because of that every week can be awesome. Eso na vosa ni vuku mai Elda Jonati:)

Love Elder Jonutz