Elder Grotepas : Area 1, Week 22

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