Elder Grotepas : Area 2, Week 11 - Waila, Fiji 11/24/13

Dear Family,

Ni sa bula vinaka na nogu matavuvale. Sa vakacava tiko kemudou? I know that here in Fiji, I am doing awesome. There is not really any big news or anything really big that happened this week. But last week, I forgot to mention this, there are now six Elders here in the Waila Ward. The really cool thing is that they opened an area last week in Waila and it is not an English or a Fijian area. They have now opened some Hindi speaking areas! They are going to run a testing on this area to see how effective it will be. The two missionaries that are in that new area are both Fijian and both know the Hindu language fluently. I can really tell that they are really going to start moving the work here in Waila. About half the population here in Fiji are the Hindu people. I cannot wait until they start to call Elders to Fiji speaking the Hindi language. And I can say that I was in the area that started it all!

But for my week, it was great. For a couple days of this week, we were showing the new Waila Hindi Elders around the area so that they can start to know the area and get right to work. So that took up quite a bit of time showing them around. We had 4 investigators come to church and we had about 12 lessons this week. It was also a bummer this week because when we met one of our investigators this week on Tuesday, they said that we cannot come back until the 10th of December becasue they are going to be busy. It was a big bummer because they were one of the families that were doing really good and we wanted to give them a baptismal date. We invited them to be baptized and they said that they would pray about it. He told us that the way that he was baptized was not the way that he should have been. He said that in his studying about baptism, Jesus was baptized by immersion and the way that he was baptized was not that way. Also God has commanded us that we need to be baptized like Him and follow his commandments. So he really wants to be baptized the correct way and we invited him to. He told us that he has to pray about it. We even gave him a day to pray about and whether that day was right for him to be baptized. So I hope and pray that on December 10th that he will know that it is important for him to be baptized.

I want ot tell you all a story about a lesson that we had this week. We were teaching a guy and his wife about the Plan of Salvation. These people are part of the Central Christian Curch. Throughout the whole lesson it seemed like he was enjoying it but he still was not really accepting the whole thing. But what was really cool is what happened when we got to the last part of the lesson, talking about the three kingdoms of heaven. As we were talking about it, we shared a scripture from 1 Corr. about the three degrees of glory. I gave him my Bible to read out of and he when he was reading, he realized that our Bible was different from his. He now knew that there were three parts to heaven and not just one. He told his son to run and grab his Bible. His Bible was English so he flipped to the same scripture and read it out loud. At first you could kind of tell that he wanted to prove us wrong and this was the point that he could do it. But as he was reading, you could kind of tell that his ego was going away, he started reading slower and then when he was finished, looked up at us and said "It is the same thing." We then testified that we know that there is three degrees in heaven. At this point in the lesson, the spirit really testified to him that this plan is a true plan and it is all up to him to pray about it and whether it is true or not. This lesson was really cool and I could really see him change and what he thought about this plan.

Another really cool thing that happened this week was on Sunday. We had the oppertunity to watch the Primary program for the Waila Ward. It was really funny because every time I watch a primary program, I always think of our ward and the Peacock boys. That is all that I can think of when I see one. It seems like every ward has their Peacock boys. There is for sure one or two of them in our ward. There was one part in the program that this little kid walked up to the stand and another kid that was on the stand slaped each others hands. These kids were about 4 years old and everyone in the whole congregation started to laugh. The high five was so loud and it was just so funny. I love to watch all these programs to see how all the kids act while they are speaking. They always have to yell in the microphone. I love those little kids of the LDS church. No matter where you are in the world, they are still the same.

Everything is going good here in Fiji with me and I hope that everything is going good with all of you. I love you all very much and will talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Grotepas