Area 1, Week 8 - Nasinu, Fiji 4/28/13

Bula,

How is everything going? This week has been really good. I think this week has been the fastest one yet.  It’s been very hot and rainy. We have had a lot of rain the past two days. Of course when we woke up it was raining and then when we studied it stopped. Then when we were coming here to the Internet Cafe, it was just pouring rain. Fiji weather is so unpredictable!

This week we had another baptism. It was for Marika, one of our investigators.  He was baptized by his dad.  We taught him from the beginning.  Also, yesterday, I got to baptize a little girl name Kalera.  She is from a family that is less active and she comes to church every week. She just turned eight and one of the members said that she wanted the elders to baptize her. We were at a member’s house for dinner, the Vesikula’s, and they asked if it would be all right if we could baptize her with the baptism that we were going to have.  So, I baptized Kalera.  It was a really great experience for all of us.  I did much better on this one!

Elder Ishibashi: Another pretty awesome thing that happened was a baptism that we had yesterday! It was Marika's and a little girl, Kelera, who just turned 8. I'm not sure if I've written about Marika yet, but Marika comes from a family with a few members of the church in it. Elder Grotepas and I had the amazing opportunity to teach Marika everything that he needed to know about the gospel, talk at his baptism, and watch as Brother Nayagodamu, his father, baptize his son. Tears fell and smiles ran across the room. They were followed by Elder Grotepas baptizing little Kelera. As the baptism finished, Marika came up to me, hugged me, and told me "Thank you. I am very happy." It was such an awesome feeling! Elder Grotepas and I will definitely continue to keep these guys strong in the faith!

This week we got a referral from one of the other companionship's (I’m thinking it was the Zone Leaders), and so we went to see them. The first time we went over and saw them we just had a get-to-know lesson, to see if they are ready for the gospel.  Of course, they are ready!  They next time we went to see them, we taught about the first lesson. They really liked it and wanted to learn more. We asked them if they would prepare themselves to be baptized, they both accepted!  We told them that we will be holding a baptism on the 19 of May and asked if they would be baptized then. It may seem odd to ask a person to be baptized at the first lesson, but the leaders have challenged us to do this.  I cannot believe that it really worked!   They have told us that they like it when we come over. We have been over there three times already and they want us to come over every day. They really like us, but what they like is the spirit they are feeling.  Elder Ishibashi's words:

Another pretty awesome thing was meeting with a small family in a little Fijian koro down in Visako. I'm not entirely sure what their surname is yet, but we've just started teaching the parents. Melani, the mother, is a Fijian and has family who are members up in Suva. Junior is an Indian who knows Fijian, and his family are staunch Hindus. They're a wonderful family who are diligently and sincerely searching for the truth. As Elder Grotepas and I thought about what to teach them, we had the impression to invite them to be baptized. We've never invited anyone to be baptized on the first lesson before, but we thought it'd be a good idea to put that counsel found in Preach My Gospel a try. Sure enough, as we extended the invitation, they accepted! We even invited them to come to church the following day at 10 in the morning (which is apparently pretty hard to do here) and they came! We followed up with them later that evening at their home and they said that they loved it. We taught them an awesome lesson about the Restoration, and as we were closing, Junior expressed how he really loved the feeling that we brought into his home, and he asked if we could come back often so that they enjoy that feeling of peace often. Elder Grotepas and I gratefully adhered to his desire, and we will be seeing them again very soon. Their baptism date is set for the 19th of May. 

Yesterday we had the May dinner list put up. Within 30 minutes it was completely full!  We are going to be feed Sister Diloi twelve times this month. They fight over who and how many times they are going to feed us.  They think that it is a privilege to feed us. They always let us eat first by ourselves and then when we leave they eat whatever is left.  Everyone here is so humble and kind. More people need to be like the Fijian people.  And yes, Mom, I will make sure to thank them for you too!  This is from Elder Ishibashi's words last month:  

Another pretty awesome thing that happened just Yesterday (Our Sunday) was having the dinner list filled! I'm not too sure how our ward does with Missionary Feeding lists, but Elder Grotepas and I are so blessed! As soon as the calendar paper went up on the bulletin board, people were fighting to get in a day! It was actually way funny seeing Sister Diloi carrying the blank calendar over to the board with a bunch of people waiting next to it. She slowly pushed through the crowd and then as soon as she pinned it up, she pulled out a pen and signed like 4 days in a row, and the members were all like "Soooo!" which is kind of like "Awwwh, don't do that!". So the calendar for the whole month of April was full in a matter of minutes, and members have already been asking us if they could feed us in May. We're so blessed!

 Dad, we haven't heard anything about the new transfers yet.  They come out this Saturday night.  A new intake of 16 missionaries are coming to Fiji. None of the missionaries know what will happen.  They are going to open many new areas. I think that they are going to open some more islands now. Elder Ishibashi thinks that I am going to be one of those missionaries that are going to be traveling from island to island. I think that it will be cool if I were.  Luckily,  I think that me and Elder Ishibashi will be together for at least one more transfer.  And no Dad, we are not really pulling any pranks on each other.   I just taught Elder Ishibashi how to solve a Rubik’s Cube and he is really into that now. By the time we get back to the flat at night, we are extremely tired and fall right to sleep.

Another thing that was cool this week was we got to see Elder Rasband. We were able to take a group photo with him and then shake his hand. When he spoke to us, he said that we are only one handshake away form the prophet. He talked a lot about family and how important they are. The family is the most important aspect in the church and that we need to have strong families. Then after that we went over to a Culture Night. It was very cool to see all of the different cultures here. Of course I forgot my camera that day, so I did not get any pictures.  After that they had Elder Rasband speak. He talked about the same things he spoke to us about and also about culture. Culture is important to pass from generation to generation. He is such a good speaker and is very moving. The Fijian people gave him a whales tooth in thanks for him coming.

 I know that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing and the church is true.

Thanks for everything that you have done and are doing for me.  I love you all very much and wish you all a good week.

Love,

Elder Grotepas

 Some Fijian kids we met on the street. They were staring at us and I asked if I could get a picture of them. They were scared, probably because I am white.

Most of the kids here speak English to us. Then when we speak back to them in Fijian, they turn into this look of "WHAT?!?!" ....like these kids! 

Area 1, Week 7 - Nasinu, Fiji 4/21/13

Dear Dad,

Thanks for the letter that you have sent me. It is really good to hear from you and how well everything is going back home. I cannot believe that in a year and a half we could have 20 missionaries out in a the field just from our ward. It is so crazy. Me and my companion are getting along very good!  We always have fun when we are trying to catch a big spider or a mouse. We have caught at least 5 mice thus far. Everything is going really good between us.

About the property in Lava, have you already taken the trailer up yet or are you taking it up this week? It is really cool to hear that the young men are going to camp up there.  It will be a good experience for all of them I'm sure.

Well this week Elder Ishibashi and I ran into a less active member and he gave us some advice. He was saying that Home Teaching is the backbone of our church. He said that if he would have had some one come and meet with him, he would still be active. He did not feel that he was accepted. He told us to tell the bishop how important it is!   So, remember how important Home Teaching is and it needs to be done!  It helps people to grow closer to all the members and to help them feel like that they are accepted. Don't let anyone fall away, everyone needs a friend.

I know that this church is true and everything about it is true. Christ will help us through out all of our trials. He is always there. The Book of Mormon is the true word of God and we should study from it every day.

It is good to hear from you and thank you for everything that you have done for me. I love and miss you tons. Thank you for everything.

Picture:  I thought that this picture was funny because of all the wires going into it. I think that OSHA wouldn't be too happy about this.  It looks like it is just a big jumbled up mess.

Dear Mom and Family,

We have only had a total of 8 lessons this whole week. We tried, but because of conference it took up alot of our time traveling to Raiwaqa to watch all 10 hours of it. It was really good to hear all of the talks. It was a really good conference. It is weird to think that I was once in that conference center and you and the family were in there for the Sunday session. I was looking for you but I could not find you. I thought I would be easy to find you within all of those people there. haha. I guess I was wrong. 

This picture is a picture of a less active family in our ward. Elder Ishibashi and I were walking down the road and the gentleman in the brown shirt told us to come visit him and his family.  We went to him and he said he, his brother and his wife are all less active members.  They were baptized in the 90's.  However, they can no longer go to church because his wife lost her leg. They cannot afford to get to church, so they dont go.  It is 3 to 4 miles away and costs $5 to $6 to take a taxi.  We will talk to the bishop about his family.

Elder Ishibashi, Eta and myself on Eta's baptism day 4/21/13

This week, we had a baptism!   I was the one that was able to baptize Eta. We were supposed to have another boy get baptized but his grandmother had just passed away and he was all tied up with that. We are planning on having his baptism on the 28th of this month. Well back to the baptism, it went really well. Me and Elder Ishibashi both talked about Baptism and the Holy Ghost. After we spoke, I was the one who got to baptize her. I was so nervous. They said that I said the words of the prayer fast and really softly (in Fijian of course). We baptized her in a font. Everyone here is sick of the ocean and would rather be baptized in a font (that's a bumber).  Man, I was so nervous. It really did go good though. I know now what to do and what to expect. After the baptism Eta bore her testimony, she was really nervous but she did an amazing job!  She was so happy for us to be able to baptize her. I will never forget her and my first baptism.

Elder Ishibashi's words about Eta:  I might've talked about these things last week, but we have this one investigator named Eta. She's currently engaged to a member, and she's been coming to church a whole lot. As we've been sitting with her, she's expressed many times how thankful she was that we took time out of our busy schedules to come and teach her about the restored gospel. She has been reading diligently from the Book of Mormon and has been writing notes down about the the great nations that fell and exactly the priesthood authority was, all before we even started teaching her! It's really been an amazing experience sitting with her, her heart is so pure and she's so loving. I actually had a real learning experience with her about never doubting a prompting. The week before last week, we sat down with Eta and had a great, spirit-filled lesson with her. At the end, I felt the urge to ask her to be baptized when she knew that this church was true. The impression to ask kept coming as I bore my testimony, but I ultimately just brushed it to the side. We left that day super happy, but I felt like something was really missing. This last week, the same thing happened We had an amazing lesson, and she expressed through tears how she knew this must've been the true church because we and the members are so full of love. That time, the impression to ask her to be baptized came at me. Hard. I kinda felt like something was just slapping me across my face, saying "Hey, hey, invite her." I couldn't push it away any longer. As part of the training program, I was to give Elder Grotepas the opportunity to ask our investigators to be baptized, so I asked him "if there were any 'questions' that he'd want to ask Eta". Because we practiced this the morning before, he knew what I meant, and invited Eta to be baptized in Fijian. She immediately said "Yes" and expressed how she so grateful that we asked. She told us that she was actually worried that we weren't going to ask her because we didn't last week. At that point, I felt horrible. I had made this woman worry, and I was soooooo so sorry for it. I kicked myself for the rest of the day for it, but I am extremely glad that we asked that day. Eta will be baptized sometime around April 6th. 

Well on the other end we had something that was really sad happen. Yesterday when we were walking on the street to go to the priesthood session, we walked passed one of our investigators' homes. The mother came to us and said the Tivita passed away. We had seen him about 5 weeks before and just gave him a Book of Mormon. He was in a different city for a while so we could not see him. We were so surprised and very saddened to hear that he had passed away. He was a young guy in his 30's. They invited us to come to his funeral but it is out of our area. The ZL's said that we might be able to get permission to go to the funeral. We are hoping that we are going to be able to go. It was so sad to hear about this and it totally destroyed our day.

I hope that your week has gone really good. How has the family been doing?  I want to let you know that I love you all and miss you all a lot.  Thanks for everything that you do.

Hello Heidi,

How is everything going? Everything is going really good here. We had a good week. With the flooding that happened, it did not affect us. It was over in Nadi on the other side of the island.

Well I think that I am getting used to the weather here now. Every time that we go into a room that has AC, I get really cold. We had conference this week at our Stake enter. It is AC'ed in there. It feels way good at first but we were in there for 4 hours. By the end of that 4 hours, I wanted to go outside and warm up. My feet were like ice cubes! Well thank you for all the pictures that you had sent me. It is really cool to see you and how much you have changed. You just need to stay the same and not grow up. I miss being around you and your laugh.  Who is using my ipad the most? Have the boys been driving my RC car or not?

Thank you for your letter and I cannot wait to get to talk to you on Mothers Day next month.

Love,

Elder Grotepas (Your Missionary)

A little Fijian girl and her baby brother at a musical fireside we attended

Me with one of our investigators baby puppies.  They call him either Dallin or Grotepas!  Named after me!

Area 1, Week 6 - Nasinu, Fiji 4/14/13

Our water filter after one month - to purify our "Fiji water"

Dear Mom and Dad,

The language is still coming along. I think that Fijian is a lot easier to understand than it is to speak. For the most part now, I can understand a lot of what people are saying. It is really hard to speak it though. I need to work more on the language, so I think this week I am really going to speak it more. Most of the time we speak English to each other.

We had a lot of good food this week. We have had pizza, chicken, spaghetti, and of course fish and curry. I think that my favorite food here has got to be curry. Some of it is really good if they make it the right way. Most of it is all right. The only bad thing about it is the chicken in it.  Most of it is, I don’t even know. Who knows from what part of the chicken it came from. For all I know is that it could be the brain!

We have had another baptismal interview with a 17 year-old young man named Marika. He is from a part member family and he wants to be baptized. Elder Ishibash, Smith and Sa'u were the first ones to teach him the first lesson. After that, Ishibashi and me took him in. He is really excited to be baptized!  Both he and Eta are going to be baptized after General Conference on Sunday the 21 of April. It is going to be so cool. I am going to get to baptize Eta. She knows the church is true and that there is a purpose to this life. They are both ready and are very excited!

Well this week I had a lot of fun. We have some good stories! First, a dog bit Elder Ishibashi. We were walking up the stairs to the home of one of our investigators. Their dog was sitting right there on the side of the house. Then out of nowhere the dog got up and started walking towards us. I didn't think anything of it because it was not growling or running. Then all of a sudden it bit him right on the leg. It was not a big bite, but Elder Ishibashi still gave it a good kick right in the head. Come to find out that the dog had just had puppies a couple days before and they were up at the top of the stairs. I think that the dog thought that we were going to do something to them. Nothing happened to Elder Ishibashi, just a couple scratches.

Also this week we have met a new investigator!  The sisters from Samabula have been teaching her the lessons. They now have referred her over to us. We went over there to give her a blessing because she was not feeling the best the past couple of days. When we went over there she shared with us many things. She said that she knows that the church is true and she wants to be baptized. I think the thing that attracted her to the church is the family history program. She says that she is always up there at the mission office working in the Family History Center. She asked Elder Ishibashi if he would hook her up with the genealogy center at BYU Hawaii when he gets home.  She says that they have a lot of Fijian genealogy there in Hawaii. We have learned a lot from her.  She has a passion for the work and says how important it is to do it!

We are teaching this girl named Alisi. She is really good and she says that she wants to be the first in her family to be baptized. We only get to teach her once a week. Right now we are on the second lesson. She has so many questions. She speaks English so I understand everything!  But most of the questions are of deep doctrinal nature. I was amazed that I was able to answer her questions. I didn’t really know that I knew the answer to the question. The spirit was speaking through me.  I know that the spirit will put into your mouth the things that you need to say. I walked out of the lesson thinking, “what did I just say and was what I said clear?”  I know the spirit also testified to her the truthfulness of what we had said.

We went to the mission home this week to practice a song we will be singing at a fireside on the 23rd of this month. President Rasband, and Hamilton are coming to speak to us. It is going to be really cool to have the president of the Seventy come and speak to us. 

I know that I am doing what I am supposed to be doing. I know that the scriptures are the word of God and are such a big help to everyone. I have learned so much the past couple of months.  I know this church is true.

Thank you for everything. I love you all very much and miss all of you. Hope you all have a good week.

Love,

Elder Grotepas

Area 1, Week 5- Nasinu, Fiji 4/7/13

Me drinking a coconut.  Alma likes to go on splits with us.
He is a native and is going on his mission here in a
couple of weeks to Washington. 

A member's home.  A lot different than back home.

Bula,

Everything is going really good here in Fiji. The past couple of days and nights have been really crazy. The other day we had heavy rain. That night it was thundering and lightening all night long. I swear one of the thunder bolts were right next to our flat. It was so loud it shook the house and shut the power out for a couple minutes.  Then the next day it rained consistently all day. Then that night, it was the same, thunder and lightening all night. We were in a lesson and every 3 minutes or so, there was this very bright light, then instantly there was this huge noise of thunder. I think that it hit just right down the street. One of the bolts actually cut the power for like ten minutes. It was so crazy.

(This is his reply to his mother's questions about his health).  My health is good. Nothing is really wrong. I have lost 15 pounds, so that is good. But other than that everything is great. We eat everyday. We have enough food and they feed us really good. We still eat alot of curry and top ramen.

My district.  Myself, Elder Sa'u, Elder Ishibashi, Elder Olson

This week has gone pretty good. On Friday, we went on splits with the District Leader. I went will Elder Olsen and Elder Ishibashi went with Elder Sa'u. It went pretty good. On Friday, we went to a baptismal interview with Eta. She was really nervous and worried about the interview. She thought that it was going to be like a test so she was going over all the lessons and studying them really good. After the interview, she said that it was not that bad. Elder Olsen is a good Elder and is really funny. Being with Elder Olsen, I was actually the one in the lead.  We went over to a investigators house, his name is Leba. We taught about the Ten Commandments. I asked him how we were going to do the lesson, he said that I was in charge. So the whole lesson I was in the lead.  I did not even know how to teach that lesson and of course I don't even know Fijian that good. I am so frustrated that I am not getting the language down. It is really hard. 

After that we had 2 lessons fall through and we went back the the flat. The next day we were also on exchanges. On Saturday, we were going to have another interview but that one fell through again. We still cannot get in with Eva. She says that she wants to be baptized and she says she knows that the church is true, but we cannot get her to commit and be baptized. It is really frustrating. The rest of the day we had a couple lessons fall through. So we OYM'ed (open your mouth). Elder Olsen told me to go OYM a gentleman we saw. I was so nervous but I did it anyway. I did not know how to start. But once I got there it went really good. He told us to come back and talk to him and his family. He said that he understands what we believe and he thinks that what he hears is really good.  

That night we got back to our flat, we had cake and ice cream for the birthday of the church. Man it was so good!  There is nothing like cake here. It had so much flavor. Like I said, everything else here has no flavor. It is all plain. None of us could finish the cake because we we're not used to it. It was so hard to eat. Back home, we could eat the cake like it was nothing. Here you dont eat it that much and our stomachs are not used to it. I really miss all of the sweets we used to have. I really miss having my milk and cookies. The milk here is so gross. It does not even taste like it. So when I get back that is going to be the first thing I am going to do is get a cold glass of milk. Man I really miss it!

Moheni and Samson

This is Moheni and her son Samson. Elder Ishibashi and Elder Lauti, OYM'ed her about 2 months ago. About 2 weeks ago she saw us and asked us to come back. So we set up a date and went to see her. The first time we went she was not there. The second time we went they said that she had moved houses and showed us were it was. We taught her two times in that home. She was a Hindi and I think she is now Methodist. She says that she really appreciates everything that God has given her and she really notices her blessings.  The next time we went to see her she had moved again. We were getting fustrated that she keeps moving and we aren't be able to find her. But this little kid we saw said that he knew where she lived so he showed us and we found her. She said that she needed to find a house where her and her son could live. She still has tons of questions.  

We are planning on having two baptisms on the 21st of this month!  I think that I am going to get to be able to baptize one of them.  The teaching is going really good. We have some good investigators. the only hard thing is getting them to come to church and keep commitments. We had a goal of having 10 investigators come to church and we only had 2 come. It is really hard to get them to come. I guess we are going to have to teach them more about the importance of coming to church.  We dont really have that many new investigators but we have a lot that are on the 2nd lesson.

That is really cool you got to go to conference. I miss going to it. Back then we all hated to watch conference because it was so boring, but now I think it's so cool. I cannot wait to come back to go to Priesthood session with dad and the boys. I really miss that. 

It is really exciting to hear about all the calls that people have been getting. How is everyone doing? How is Elder Talbot? Is he out of the MTC yet? He is going to have a good time on his mission. He is not going to have to go through having to learn a new language but I'm sure he will have other challenges. It is way cool to hear about all of the people starting to put their papers in.  I heard that Jay has also got his call. That is really good and will be good for him. Tell him congratulations for me.  It is really cool to hear that my cousins are also making the choice to go on a mission. It will help their lives a lot. Also tell Josh and Jessie that they are making the right decision. Oh, and one more question, when are Cindy and Tom coming to Fiji?

Well it is really good to write you and hope you have a good week. I know that I will have a good week. I look forward to talking to you every week. I want to let you know that I love you and that I know that I am doing what the Lord wants me to do. I love you all.

Love, 
Elda Grotepas