Week #91

Dear family! Bula Vinaka, It's been an intense week. Tuesday afternoon I got my transfer call and found out I was being "de-extended"....That was a shock to me! I also found out that I would be leaving Naitasiri and heading to Tacirua! It's a little town in Suva. I'm literally right across from the temple and mission office. So far so good hahah! It's going to be a way fun transfer. My new companion is Elder Forbush and he's from Utah. He's a way sick dude and it's going to be a blast working with him.

It was hard to say goodbye to "Naita". I came to love a lot of people there and it was a huge blessing to be able to serve there. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to my "Vanua Levu" family also. They are some of my favorite converts. They all walked out with their Book of Mormons in their hands and I told them I was leaving and it was so sad. I'll see them again someday!

So now that I'm in Suva I get to drive this huge van! It is basically a bus....It it is way harder to drive than the truck but it has been a lot of fun at the same time. Never thought I would drive a huge white van hahaha. The area here is pretty different from all my other areas. I honestly feel like I'm serving in San Francisco.... Suva is a huge city..... for Fiji. Luckily we still only speak Fijian and I'm excited to be serving in a ward again. This past Sunday I got to go to church and it was interesting. All the Fijians here have a hard time pronouncing my name haha. When I tell them it is Romanian they flip out and think I'm this foreign European dude. It makes me feel cooler than I am hahaha.

As for the work here it is a lot different than Naitasiri. No villages... The other day Elder Forbush and I went out teaching and we knocked on this guy's door and it took a pretty long time before he decided to open it. Finally he opened the door and we told him who we were and how we share a message about Jesus Christ. He told us he already knew about Jesus Christ and that he didn't need to learn any more. I told him alright you have a nice day and he decided to show us a finger of his that I did not want to see. That was literally the first time in my whole mission where I have had anything like that happen to me! I'm so blessed to serve in Fiji.

Lately I've been studying "Jesus The Christ" and it is AWESOME. I've just felt a recent urge to learn more about Him. Yesterday I was reading and some things I read really taught me a lot. Lately I've been doubting my abilities and feeling weighed down trying to figure out who I am. I read about the account when Jesus went into the wilderness and was tempted by Satan. As I read I began to realize that Satan was trying to get Jesus to doubt who He was and His abilities! Even our Savior had to deal with confusion and he slowly learned who he was by the Holy Ghost. I learned that Jesus Christ was able to remember who He was and find Himself and stay strong because of how strong his companionship with the Holy Ghost was. Focusing on the Holy Ghost can help us clear the darkness and defeat Satan.

I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ and I'm going to spend these next two transfers doing my best to learn even more about Him!

Much love, Elder Jonutz