Area 1, Week 3 Nasinu, Fiji 3/24/13

Me and Junior

Bula Vinaka, vacava tiko?

How is it going? I am doing really good. This week has been a great week! I am getting the language little by little. I still do not know what people are saying. It gets really frustrating. I wish that i knew it already so I can actually participate in the lessons. I recognize the words that people are saying, but my mind cannot comprehend them fast enough. I know that eventually I will get faster at it.  My companion is great. He teaches me alot. He teaches so simply and clear. I hope that I will get to be as good as he is. Some of the lessons we teach are in English so he lets me talk more in them. I was going to lead a lesson yesterday but our investigator was sick so we did not get to teach her.

Well me and my companion are doing really good!  He is really cool and really funny. We had a baptism scheduled for yesterday but it fell through. I think I mentioned that in my last letter. When me and my zone leader went over there to interview her she was not there. It was really frustrating because me and by companion thought that she was ready. I think that her parents are holding her back .I don't think that they want her to be baptized.  Her dad is a preacher for a different religion. She has been taking the lessons for a year and a half and it seems like she does have a testimony of the church.  It is really frustrating to see this, but we will keep working with her.  We have another investigator that is planning on the 7th of April. If our month goes good we will have a baptism every week. Well back to the investigator with the baptismal date, she is awesome! She was telling us about how she was before she met us. She was sharing some pretty personal stuff with us. Once she meet the missionaries, Elder Ishibashi and Elder Smith, her whole view on life changed. It is really cool to hear that the gospel can help anyone with any problem that they have and God does really love and listen to them.

I think that I am getting used to the weather here. Every time I go somewhere where there is AC, like right now here in the internet shop, it feels very different. It is going to be really weird going back to Utah where there is not any humidity. Most of the days here are really hot and humid. It has been raining on and off for the past day now. 

The food here I have to admit is not that good. The food that I like the most is called chopped Suey. It is like a stir fry over rice or noddles. It is really good. Last night we went on splits to our dinner appointment. I went with my district leader because we had two dinner appointment scheduled for that night. When we got there they had us sit down. They said "eat a lot." They had tons of food. I ate as much as I could and could not eat anymore, then when we were done they said "now dessert." They came out with all these scones and lemon leaf tea. The tea was boiling hot and at the same time the house was very hot. I don't get how they can do this here, drink hot drinks in the hot climate.

Our new friend, Junior, being funny

This week we went over to visit a boy that just got baptized. His name is Inoke. When we were waiting for him, there was a kid that was there hanging out with us. His name is Junior.  He wanted us to take pictures of him. Eventually,he was taking pictures of us. It was really funny because he took tons of pictures. Every time he went to take the picture, both me and Elder Ishibashi would make a funny face and he would get mad and take another one, and we would do the same thing. I will attach a picture of him, he was really funny. When we were sitting in sacrament meeting, he came up to us and sat between us for half of the time. He is really cool. 

Well it is really cool to hear about home and how much everything is changing. I cannot believe that Steiner and Braiden have their mission calls already. It is weird to think that they are only 18 and are already going on their missions! It seems like I am a lot older than they are and they are already going to be leaving here shortly.  They are going to have a great time in California and Arizona. Also I cannot believe that Jordon and Krystal are leaving already. It seems like they just got their mission calls the other day and they are already leaving. So much back home has changed. It is going to be weird coming back to Utah after 2 years.

Well I hope everything is going good back home. Everything is fine here. I miss you a lot and cannot wait to talk to you again.

Love,
Elder Grotepas