Dear family,
Well, just a normal week for us. I think that one of the big highlights from this past week for me when I was able to Skype you all and also to celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. We were able to have a really good Christmas. I don't know if I told you this or not, but we did not have a white Christmas. Nothing close to it. We had a hot, rainy Christmas. I think that the only thing that made it feel like home was our Christmas tree. I will tell you the story here in a minute. We had a big feast at the home of a family named the Vitinavulagi family. We had the typical curry, crab, roro, pork, chicken, dalo, and juice. It was really a cool Christmas. I will never forget it.
Well back to the Christmas tree. On Tuesday when we were driving to one of our areas, Burewai, we drove through a forest-like area full of pine trees. So me and Elder 'Ita had an idea to cut down a few of the saplings and take them home for our Christmas tree. So that is what we did. We scouted out a good full tree that we could use and then we cut it down. I did not know if we could so we just did it quick and put it in the back of the truck and drove off. We cut down one for the Korovou Elders and one for us. It was funny, by time we got home and set it up, it was way to tall for the house. We sharpened the end and stuck it in a knot in the floor and bent the top over about 2 feet to hold it up. Then we decorated the tree with some flowers. It really felt like a real Christmas with an actual tree. It did look kind of funny. I will send you a picture of it. Just a typical missionary Christmas for us here in Fiji.
As for the work, our work is moving along really well. We have had to push a couple baptisms back because we were not able to see them as much as we planned this month so we are going to plan on having them by the middle or end of this month. We have found a few more investigators that seem to be really good investigators. We sat down with a group of men ages 19 to 26 while waiting for the rain to stop and we were able to set up a few return appointments. They seem really excited to receive a Book of Mormon and to learn more about what we have to share. We have rescheduled with them for this Tuesday and we will see what happens. It seems like the Lord is setting this area up for Elder 'Ita and his new trainee here in a few weeks. I am pretty sure that he is going to train when I leave because it has been hinted to him that he will. So right now, it seems like we are finding lots of new people and they will be really good progressing investigators.
It was a bit of a harder week for work-wise because of Christmas and everyone busy with their family and off for vacation but it was a really good week and we can feel the that Lord is helping us out. I feel that if me and my companion feel that we had a good week and that the Lord approves of what we did, then we had a good week no matter what we got. If it was low or high, the Lord approves it.
We did have one investigator come to church this week. The young man in Saioko came and he is progressing really well towards his baptismal date. We are still having his baptism on the 11th of January. So we are still looking forward to that date. He's "the man" and I am glad for him.
Well that is pretty much most of what happened to us. I know that the Lord has really blessed us and that He knows what we are doing. This past week has been a week of reflection on what Christ has done for us. I was able to read from the whole book of 3 Nephi and learn more about Christ. It really strengthened my testimony of Him. I really hope that you all feel the same way and continue to trust and have faith in him.
I want to let you all know that I love you and I was so thankful that I was able to skype you all and finally see you face to face. It has been a short and long 7 months. I invite you all to continue to work hard and be obedient to our Savior Jesus Christ. That is the best thing we can do to show our love to Him.
Thanks for everything and have a good week.
Love,
Elder Grotepas
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