Week #64

Bula Vina' all you great people! Our past week here in Naulu, Fiji has been another amazing one! The Lord never ceases to amaze me and I am so happy to report that many amazing things happened this past week. If I'm completely honest I cannot even recall all that occurred but I am going to try. Before I explain the week I would just like to share a scripture that makes life better! - Ether 12:4 "Wherefore whoso believeth in God might with a surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." If it wasn't for my belief in God I would have no hope.....but I know He lives and I love Him. Those who believe in God are encouraged to live better lives and have more joy. I know that one day we will all return to our Heavenly Father.  If we prepare ourselves and accept His gospel...it is not easy but it is worth the eternal joy that we can have. This week we saw many individuals show their faith in God and His Son, Jesus Christ, by going down into the waters of Baptism. Sister Tuliana was baptized on Saturday along with 2 younger boys that our Naulu sisters had been teaching. It was a way sweet experience. The whole village tried to come to her baptism and many of them were able to...including her brother and sister who are members. They were so excited and happy that she was baptized!  After she was baptized we heard from 3 more of her children that they also want to start taking lessons so that they too can be baptized. The ripple effect is real!  Our Indian couple, Brother and Sister Pilei came to church!  Since we've been teaching them they told us about all the blessings they've been receiving. This past week they had no money to pay for their mortgage and they were worried. We had taught them about the word of wisdom and they said they would obey. Friday they told us that that morning instead of drinking tea they had hot cocoa. Later that evening they received a $600 check in the mail from their son who lives in Australia. When we follow the commandments of God He WILL prosper us! Brother Pilei is confined to a wheelchair and his wife speaks no english but that did not stop them from coming to church which just so happened to be stake conference hahaha! They got third row in the chapel! That’s what I'm talking about hahaha! They loved it and are preparing to be baptized soon! So this weekend has been Diwali! For those of you who don't know what Diwali is, it is a Hindu holiday. Every night for 3 days they shoot off thousands of fireworks, decorate their houses with lights, and kids go from house to house to collect Indian sweets. SO really it's like the 4th of July, Christmas, and Halloween all wrapped up into one holiday and it is insane hahahaha! I have hardly slept the past few nights because of ongoing fireworks. Yesterday was stake conference and it was amazing! The whole branch from Levuka came! I got see all of them and Brother Betchu hugged me and would not let go of me and that was a little weird but I felt the love of Levuka hahaha!  I found out that a less active family I was working with there, the Swann family, got sealed in the temple last week! I WAS SO HAPPY TO HEAR THAT! Over 1,500 people came to our stake conference and our stake has 4,500 people. So there's some lost sheep we need to go find! Every sheep is of equal worth to Him. Sunday night our Makoi sisters had a baptism at 6:00 P.M.  Our mission president has made a new rule, where if we want to go to a baptism we have to bring a new investigator to attend. 5:30 last night we found ourselves in the pouring rain with no one to take to the baptism. We then got a prompting to go and ask this 14 year old boy named Luke who helped us dig a whole for service last week. We went to his house and he said he would love to come. We ended up finding two other people who wanted to go with us. It was super insane. The walk to the chapel is about a 30 minute walk. We were walking in the pouring rain amidst exploding fireworks shooting off sporadically all over the sky with 3 new investigators we'd met for the first time just minutes earlier. The lord works in mysterious ways. While watching the baptism, Luke told me it was the first baptism he had ever seen. He said he wants to take lessons! I love Naulu and the work of the Lord continues. This week was amazing besides some food that made our throats itch and Elder Payne’s infected legs but we press on because we're not here for ourselves we're here for the people. I love you all! This is the true Church!

Love, Elder Jonutz

Sister Tuliana's Baptism

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