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