Area 1, Week 25 - Nasinu, Fiji 8/25/13

Dear Family,

How is everything up there in Utah? I hope that everything is going great. As for me down here in Fiji, it is going great. This week has just flown by. I cannot believe that it is already Monday again. I think that these weeks are getting shorter and shorter now. I am now 7 months old in the mission and it feels like only a month or two. I guess that when you are having fun, time flies. 

This has been a really good week. Sorry if this letter is not too long because the internet connection here is not that good. This week, we were able to see a couple of our investigators that we hadn't seen for a while. I think last week I talked about them. This week, they got back together and they shorted out there problems. Or I hope that they did. But they are doing great. As we were visiting them, there seemed to be a change and their countenances have changed. The first time we went to see them, he was high and maybe drunk. It seems like now that he has cleared this up he is doing good. He looks a hundred times happier than what he was. He also has not had a job for a while because he lost his taxi because of something small. So he was out of work for three weeks or so. But something good happened to him. Yesterday, his boss called and said that he had a taxi for him. So he went up there and got the taxi. Immediately after he called us and told us what had happened. He told us he was going to come and pick us up and take us to our destination. That was the first thing he did after he got it. He thanked us and told us that it was because of us, by bringing the spirit back, that this happened to him. He is very happy and I hope that they will broth stay strong and get married.

Well another thing that was not that good this week is that we lost one of our baptismal dates. We went to visit her this week and she told us that she had moved. She said that we were lucky to meet her at the house because she just came up for the day. But we had to give our baptismal date to a different set of elders for them to reap the rewards. But it is all good. It should not matter on who preforms the baptism, it all matters is that we helped them to receive the gospel. She is now going to be baptized in two weeks.  

Kamineili and Samu

We also got to take two of our most favorite people in Fiji to lunch. We took Kamineili and Samu to lunch at a place called Pizza King. We got a king size butter chicken pizza. It was the best pizza that I have had in the past 7 months. I reminds me of home and how much I miss it back there. But it was good and we had a good time. Samu is going to be leaving for another island for three months so we are not going to be able to see him for a while. I will more than likely be gone before he gets back. 

Everything has been good this week.   I love you all very much and miss you all. Send my love to the whole family. 

Thanks for everything.

Love, 

Elder Grotepas

Area 1, Week 24 - Nasinu, Fiji 8/18/13

Family Letter:

How is everything going this week?  Everything here is going great. The really big news this week is that I do not have that big boil on the side of my face anymore. It took a couple of days to get rid of it but now it feels great. Now I get to say that I am a true missionary in Fiji because I have gotten a boil. They say that every missionary in Fiji gets at least one boil their stay here, if not more than one. I do know that they really suck and I do not want another one. But everything else is going great here. Me and my companion are getting along great and there is nothing to complain about.

I had a couple things cool things that happened to me this week. I got my Fiji Drivers License!  I am now an official Fiji driver. The only thing that I have got to get down now is the "driving crazy" part. I swear there are no rules here and everyone can do whatever they want. The driving is a lot different than Utah Driving. It is a little bit like Utah drivers with a bit more patience.  But I think that I will get used to it here!

We were eating dinner with one of the members in our ward. I think that this dinner has got to be one of the most awkward dinner that we have eaten with the members. I will tell you the story. First of all I need to tell you a little bit about the Fijian culture. There is a drink here, if you don't already know, called Yaqona. This drink is a dried root that has been pounded into a powder and then mixed with water. It is a drink that makes your whole body numb and feel good. This drink was used back in the day for celebrations and ceremonies. Now people drink it just to drink it and for the feeling they get. There is no rules saying that this drink is against the Word of Wisdom but if it is really affecting the family life and relationships, it is advised to stay away from it. So we walked into this house and the father was washing out a "Tanoa" (the bowl that they mix the yaqona in).  Both me and my companion were hoping a praying that he was not going to start to mix some in front of us. Of course, he put the bowl down and started to mix the yoqona.  His wife told us that dinner was ready and told us to eat and then she went over to the tanoa and started to help him also. So as we were eating dinner by ourselves, they were over there drinking this drink. It was a bit weird for me because I have never seen a member do this.  After we were done, we shared a spiritual thought with them. We wanted to share something along the lines of how it is bad for us to drink this drink, but instead we shared a message about enduring to the end.  It was hard because the spirit was not really there.  It is hard to feel the spirit when they are all drinking yaqona.  But the dinner was good. We had rice and pumpkin, and Eggplant Curry.

We also had the confirmation of Samu this week. It went great and his friends' uncle confirmed him a member of the church and gave him the Holy Ghost. The sad thing for me is that he is going to be leaving Nasinu to go to a different island for 3 months. My hope and prayer for him is that he is going to stay strong and follow the commandments and commitments with Heavenly Father that he just made. I know he can! The sad thing also is that this week could be one of the last times that I might see him. I could leave this area and not be able to see him anymore. He is doing great and I know that he will be able ot stay strong and do what is right.

Now I want to tell you a story about some of our investigators that we have not seen in a while. We have not seen them in maybe about a month. We were on the other side of the area and we knew that we had to go and see them. When we got there, only one of them was there and he was not doing good. He was really stressed out because him and his wife kind of broke up and they were not living together for the last two weeks or so. He told us to come in. He had to clean up a little bit because him and his friend were sitting in the front room smoking. The first thing he did when we walked into the house was shake my hand and said sorry for everything that he had done and gave me a big hug. He did the same with Elder Moulton. We sat down and he told us that he did not want to hide anything and told us what was going on with him and his girlfriend and family. It was really sad to hear this because it just broke our hearts. He did not know what to do and we gave him some advice. It is hard for us to give him our advice because we are just young adults and they are older adults. You would think being older he would know more of what to do in this situation. I sure do hope the advice we gave him helps him. Also during this lesson, I started to cry. I know that this is hard to say but I started to cry when I talked about how important his family is to him and how it is important to me.  It was embarrassing but I know that our advice will help him out. We are going to see him this week and see how everything is going to work out. I think that this lesson was one of the best spritual experiences that I have had on my mission. It was a really interesting lesson and we all felt the spirit. He told us that when we were not coming around, he felt the spirit leave the home. Everything was good until we stopped coming.  Once we stopped the spirit stopped coming and Satan stepped in and tore them apart. He was so thankful that we came back and brought the spirit back. This was the coolest things that had happened to Elder Moulton and I this week.

But this week, I wanted to thank you and dad. I have been wanting to say this for the past couple of weeks but have not had enough time to say it. Thank you for everything that you have taught me to do. I've got to admit, I am so grateful I can cook food, iron clothes and care for my belongings.  It has been so helpful for me know how to do these things. 

Well that was pretty much my week. Everything is going great and the work is moving really good. Hey I love you all very much and look forward to talking to you all next Monday, Sunday for you.  Have a splendid and 

marvelous week this week. Love and miss yous all tons.

 Thanks for everything.

Love,

Elder Dallin Grotepas

I have now seen a tree that produces the vines in the jungle. There where lots of vines hanging down. Coolest tree ever!

Me on a bridge in Nasinu above some pretty nasty water.

One of the puppies that live out side of our flat. We named her "Gwen" and then the next day, the people that live up stairs ran her over in their van.

Area 1, Week 23 - Nasinu, Fiji 8/11/13

Ni sa bula vinaka matavuvale,

How is everything going this week?  Down here in Fiji, everything is going great!  Well the only thing that is not that great is that I have gotten a pretty big boil and it is in probably on of the worst spots that you can probably get one!  It is on the outside of my ear. I have no clue how this happened but one morning when I woke up, there was a big bump on the side of my ear. I thought that it was just a little bit of swelling or something. But to my surprise a couple days later, it turned out to be one of my worst fears, a boil! This was the thing that I was dreading the most about here!  Every missionary that has served here says that everyone gets at least one. But I've got to admit that these really suck. They are not fun to have.

Well on the positive side of things, we had a pretty good week this week. It was a pretty slow week this week because we had to take a couple of days out of our schedule to help one of the senior missionaries.  As you know, we had the baptism for Samu. He is one of the friends of the guy that we baptized a couple of weeks ago, Kaminieli.   The baptism went great and we had a good time.  We were also able to have a ward baptism at the same service.  I had the opportunity to baptize a young girl that had just turned 8 and Elder Moulton got to baptize Samu. The baptisms went great. Samu was so happy after his baptsim. He has also told us that he is wanting to serve a mission just like his friend Kaminieli. I know that these two will stay really active in the church! We are going to have him confirmed next week.

Also this week, I had the chance to leave Nasinu for the day and move over to Suva 2nd. We had splits with the ZL's on Wednesday. It was really cool because I got to see what it is like to be a ZL. We did lots of driving. Also on that day, there was a lot of things that went wrong. Suva 4th lost the keys to their flat, so we had to run up to the mission office to grab a lock. Once we ran it over there, it was too small so we had to drive back up to the mission office and grab a bigger one.  That took about an hour and a half. We also had to go pick up a sister missionary that was about to go home. We had to run her up to the mission office. Then we had to drive back down to Nasinu and switch out the sisters' propane tank because they were out of propane. So that day we did alot of driving and I got to drive for most of it.  Also, I am more than likely going to take my driving test to get my Fiji drivers license here this Thursday.  

Well this week has been really good. But something that happened really cool was with our lesson with Losana this week. She has a baptismal date for the middle of September. So after we were done with the lesson, I was talking and was about to end the lesson. Then Elder Moulton asked me to ask her if she had anything to share. Her response was "I know that the church is true, and I know that the Plan of Salvation is true. I want someday for me and my family to live in the Celestial Kingdom with our Father in Heaven. I know some day that my husband will see the importance of this and eventually join the church."  It was really cool to hear this response. She knows that this church is true. I really showed to me that the spirit talks to everyone and can let them know that the church is true.  I learned that we as missionaries need to listen to the spirit also. Elder Moulton had to ask me to ask her that.  I know that the church is true and can help anyone with any problem. Christ is our Savior. He prepared a plan and wants us to live with Him after this life.

Well that is pretty much all of my stories for the week. I did not have really much to talk about this week. 

Thanks for everything that you have done. I love you all very much.  

Vinaka valevu na nogu matavuvale. Au na vosa vei kemudou ena macawa mai oqa. Moce mada kei sota tale.  

:-)

Love,

Elder Grotepas

Shasta in Fiji!

Just chillen' at the beach in Suva

Me at the beach at Suva, Fiji.  Doesn't it look so beautiful?

The baptism for Samu

   The two amigos. Samu (Left) and Kaminieli (Right)

The beach in Suva.  Not what I expected in Fiji.

Area 1, Week 22 - Nasinu Fiji 8/4/13

Ni sa bula vinaka matavuvale,

How is everything doing up there in Utah or whereever you are at right now?  I bet you are all still driving home from your trip to Nauvoo. Well how was that experience?  I hope that everyone that went up there had a good time and was able to feel the spirit. I bet that it was really easy to feel the spirit there because of all the things that have happened over there because it is a main spot for a lot of the churches' history. I wish that I had that chance to go over there again. I remember a lot from the last time that we went but did not really take a lot in. Well I was young and did not really see the significance of all of the things that had happened over there. I bet it was a really good trip.

Well as for me, everything is going great. I am really loving it here!  I feel like I am getting a bit more comfortable with how everything works around here with all the things that we have to do. Well most of all I think that I am starting to actually get the language a bit more. It is a lot easier when I can actually understand a lot of what people are saying. The hardest part is to speak the language. That is a different story. But we had another experience this week that I have had a couple times already on my mission that I want to tell you about. Well we had just picked up our dinner from one of the members, the Taukei Family. As we were walking down the road, a car stopped next to us and the man that was driving asked us were we were heading off to. We told him that we were going up to the top of Magbool, where we lived. He told us that he was going to Lacala Beach and he told us that he would drop us off there even though it was out of the way of their destination. Man this guy was so nice. He told us that he really appreciates us because we go around sharing the good word of God. Another thing is that he was speaking in Fijian. However, his wife that was sitting in the back and told us that she had no clue what was going on in the conversation, because she doesn't know Fijian and she IS Fijian!  Man I think that this language is dying.  Many people are not speaking it as much. I have seen this so much on my mission. But the thing that is cool is that the people here are so friendly. He did not even know us and he gave us a ride. The people here are so great and so humble.

The rest of our week has pretty much been the same as all of the other weeks. This week was a little bit slow. We had a lot of fall-throughs this weeks. Also, we walked a ton this week. But other that that, it was a pretty usual week. Sleep, eat, study, and then proselyte. It was a good week.  

We had lots of fun times this week. Me and Elder Moulton got to go to an actual Fijian dinner/festival. It was way awesome. One of the girls in our ward just got home from her mission in Australia and that same night they held a big dinner.  It just so happened that it was the exact same night that they signed up for us to eat at their home. It was so much fun!  Also at that dinner when we got there, there was a set of senior missionaries. They and we two got to sit at the head of the table (ground).  It was really cool and felt a little weird because we were at the front and we ate first.  It was a really great experience.  I am going to send you some pictures of the food and what it looked like. I know that you all are probably wondering what the food is like here. I hope that at the end of my mission, if you come down, that we will be able to do one of these festivals for you guys. I bet that we will!

On Saturday, we were going over to the church to help fill up the font for one of the baptisms that was to take place there with the Sisters' investigator.  When we got there, the water to the whole church was not working.   The big tanks that were in the back of the church were empty. We did not know if they had something to do with the problem or not. We called bishop to see what the problem was and he called a guy to come check it out. We   also called the ZL's and asked them if they could start filling up the font at their church so we they could go there for the baptism just in case. The Sisters had to leave to go to an appointment they had so we waited for the worker to leave so we could lock the gate and leave. He wanted to try one more thing. He wanted to check the main water line to see if it was shut. We found it and of course it was turned off!   Man we should have thought of that at first.  But after we turned it on, all the water was working to the church.  However at this point, we only had 3 hours before the baptism started. So we had to get fire hoses and fill up the font as fast as week could with them. This meant that we would have to leave a couple of doors open to the church so we would have to stay there the whole rest of the day. So that is what we did, we stayed there most of our day. Man what we do to help out the Sisters in Nasinu 2nd.  But they were glad that we got the water working and that the baptism was still going to go on. This young man's baptism went really good. It has been the second one for them in Nasinu 2nd this year, so it was really good for the ward. They had lots of the youth from the ward show up to support him in his choice to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

A really cool spiritual experience that happened this week was when we were teaching one of our recent converts. She has lots of questions about the scriptures and what the scriptures are trying to say. So she wrote down her questions and gave them to us.  With all of our studying, we were able to find out most of the answers to her questons. When we actually met with her, the spirit was there and was helping us to answer the questions that she had asked. Some of the questions that we could not find the answer to were able to be answered with the help of the Holy Ghost.

Another really cool thing happened this week also. As you know, we are as a whole mission reading the Book of Mormon together. On two of the days, as I read, I learned lots of things from the passages that were assigned for the day. Then later on in the day, as we were teaching our lessons, scriptures that I had read that day popped into my mind and I shared them with the investigator and it made more sense for them to understand. It was really cool to see how if you are actually reading with a sincere heart and wanting to learn form the scriptures, the Holy Ghost will help you learn them. And when you need the scriptures, He will put them into your mind and help you in times you really need it.

Well that is pretty much all from my week. It was really good and we are looking forward to a baptism that we are going to have this Sunday for an amazing investigator/friend. He is excited as well as us. The work is going really good here in Fiji. This is the best mission there is. I know that the church is true and we are all doing the Lords work.

Au lomani kemudou valevu.

NI DINA NA LOTU OGO!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Grotepas

Flowers

Some food here in Fiji. This is a festival that one of our members had!

Some dessert that we had at the party. I have no clue what it is. It was made out of dalo and was pretty good.

Some more food....

Elder Moulton and I

Some more cool flowers

Fijian pie.  Not even close to American pie.