Area 5, Week 1 - Burewai, Fiji - 10/26/14

Well, I am sorry that this letter is so short, I just deleted my whole letter on accident. I accedently pushed the trash butten. I only have like 10 minutes left. 

The area is good. It is way bush!  I showered out of the tap for half of the week and we ate lots of traditional Fijian food. We sleep in 4 different places; Korovou, Naivoco, Saioko, and Nasautoka. 

I did get to see the Waila Ward this week at Stake Conference! One of the less actives that we were working with has now been through the temple and sustained as a new Melchizedek Priesthood holder. Also, one of my recent converts in Waila, Joibe, was sustained as well to receive the Melchizedek priesthood. He is also now the ward clerk. 

I know that the work that me and my companion put into the area has paid off. I know that no matter what we do, our work is never wasted. One day it will be harvested. 

Sorry about such the short email.  I will let you know more next week because I am almost out of time. 

I love you all very much and wish you all a good week.

Love, 

Elder Grotepas

Last District Meeting in Labasa

Paula (preparing for his mission) and Elder Bogaert

The village of Naivoco

Area 4, Week 22 - Naduna, Vanua Levu, Fiji - 10/19/14 New Companion Elder Bogaert

Dear Family,

Well we have had yet another really good week!  The weather here is just the same. Actually this week, it was a bit hotter and more humid than the past week. We were also able to go to a different island just off of Vanua Levu for a District Conference. It was so cool to go to another island of of Fiji. I have only visited a lot of the main islands in Fiji. My clothes are all holding up really well. My health is good.

I think as you all ready know that transfers did come this week. :(  It did not really turn out the best for us in Naduna. Both me and my companion have been moved out of Naduna. They are going to close the area for the Elders due to some issues that I do not really want to go into. It is nothing to do with the work, or nothing to do with us.

So, my companion Elder Walls has moved to Matei, Taveuni and I have been moved to another area back in my second zone. I will be going to a place called Burewai. The area will cover pretty much most of the whole eastern side of Fiji. I think that it has a Branch and 2 units underneath it. So we are going to be doing quite a bit of driving in the area. And yes, I am going to go back into a driving area. I think that my new companion is going to be one of the old elders that was here in Labasa when I got here. His name is Elder Bogaret and he is from Australia. I have a feeling that we are going to get along good and have a good time. I have a feeling that I am going to be dying in Burewai. I think that this is my last area and I am glad because it is all bush. I will have lots of fun.

I would like to share with you all a couple of things that really stuck out to me this week. So, here in Vanua Levu (Land Big in English) we have a senior couple named President Walker and Sister Walker. They are from Idaho and they are the coolest people you will ever meet. They are so nice and have such a fun and jolly spirit about them. I just love being in their presence because they are so fun. They called us on Sunday and told us that they were coming down from Savusavu to drop their truck off to get serviced and they said that they would like to go with us to see our Branch President to teach him and his family about the importance of Family Home Evening and how to effectively do it. So when the Walkers came down, they dropped off the truck at Asco and headed out with us to our area. To our surprise, President Setoki was not there so we were not able to sit down with them. But on our drive down there, I had a thought that we were supposed to go to another less active family. So another blessing came because we were able to act on this impression.

So, we drove to the Nakete's house to see them instead. When we got there, they were kind of surprised and said that we could come in and teach them. Oh my gosh, was the spirit in that lesson! President Walker started talking to her and she and her mother started to cry within the first three minutes of the lesson. He simply stated, "Heavenly Father loves you so much" and the spirit was already there. He was so powerful in his speech and words in that lesson that the Holy Ghost was the one teaching, not him.

He continued on talking about families and how they were called of God. They are central to our life and they help us fulfill our eternal purpose. He promised her blessings would come upon their family if they would just do FHE. It is a MUST, nothing should get in the way of FHE. So I thought back to my childhood and how often we did it. I feel that I could say that out family did this. I know that sometimes we would miss but we were pretty good. It is so important. I now have a stronger testimony of it and I cannot wait to have a family of my own to do this with. I cannot wait.

I have a testimony that a famliy that prays, sits, and teaches each other, stays with each other. The walls of our homes is what keeps that feeling of God in there. We need to keep that feeling in our homes and the only way is through praying together, reading together, and teaching one another. So I would like to invite you to do FHE every week, no matter what. Also to pray and read the scriptures every week as a family. I know that it will really bless you all in your lives and help build our family. Also to all those reading, do this with your families and I promise that you will have a stronger family. It is very simple. 

There was also something that President Layton said to us at our District Conference that I feel inspired to share. He told us missionaries in the Taveuni Zone "I will be VERY disappointed if you go home from this mission and it did not change you and you go less active." It really stuck out to me. I know that there are lots of missionaries that come home and go less active. I know that this mission should change us for life and for eternity. I invite all you that have gone astray to come back, there is a way. This is where you are supposed to be and I know that anyone can change. Come back, and feel the love of God more in your life.

We had lots of good times this week. We left to go to a beautiful island called Taveuni for 2 days. We had to take a three hour drive and also a two hour boat ride to get there. We just barely got back so we are all tired. But is was the coolest thing ever. We got to meet Elder Coward from the Area Seventy. He is a way cool guy and talked straight to everyone. We need to follow the commandments and continue sharing the gospel to make this district into a Stake.

We had a good time this week. I am a bit bummed about leaving this area, but excited to go back to Nausori to see all the members from Waila. I am so stoked. But I do have a testimony of this Gospel. I know that it is true. This is the Lords church, He is the head of it. I love you all very much and miss you all so much. After this week, only 12 more weeks. Time is flying by.

Send my love to the rest of the family.

Love, 

Elder Grotepas

Quote from Elder Coward:

 "The main thing, is to make the main thing, the main thing"

Samu ready to go work in the teitei (farm)

Me and Elder Walls helped move all 7000 kgs of fertilizer with Brother Colata and Tasi

Elder Johnson, Elder Walls, and me on the boat to go to Taveuni #seasick

Look at how blue the water is!

The Labasa and Savusavu distircts in Taveuni

Here are the trucks in the Taveuni District

Taveuni Zone (new name for the Northern Zone) with Elder Coward 

Zone photo

Area 4, Week 21 - Naduna, Vanua Levu, Fiji - 10/12/14

Well, everything here is pretty much the same. It is still Fiji and we are still doing missionary work. For about a day and a half this week, I was in Savusavu on exchanges with our Zone Leaders, and then after that, we just worked in our area. Just a normal week for us. Oh yeah, one big thing is that the Fiji Suva Temple closed this week due to needed repairs :( It will open in about 2 years.

The weather here is changing quite a bit. About 5 of the 7 days this week it has just poured. This is the most rain that I have seen in 5 months. You think that it would be the opposite way. I thought that Fiji was going to be just jungle and raining all the time.  But it is way different in this part of Fiji.  It is actually very dry and doesn't get a lot of rain, but it still is paradise :). It was actually kind of fun this week with all the rain because it got all the roads really muddy and we were able to get the truck pretty muddy! I will send you a picture of it.

I would like to share one thing with you all that really helped me this week. So as we were planning this week, I had a thought to meet one of our investigators that we have put on the back burner for a little while. We had planned to see him in 2 weeks from now but I had a thought to see him now. Also during this week, we were invited by our mission president to give out more Book of Mormons. They have ordered double the amount and they want us to give them out more. So I had a thought to teach this man about the Book of Mormon and get him reading it sense it is the only way he can know that what we are sharing is true. So we set up a time of the day to go over and see him and see if we could sit down with him.

So we went over to his house and we able to sit down with him. As we started to talk with him, he began to say that he did not have to much time to sit down with us. So, we started to talk about the Book of Mormon with him. So I pulled out a Book of Mormon to talk about the story behind it and also the purpose of the book. By his actions and how well he was paying attention, you could kind of tell that he was out of it a bit. So, Elder Walls pulled out a Book of Mormon written in Hindi and gave it to him. Holy crap, did his attitude change once he saw that book! He said that he has been looking for scriptures in Hindi that he can read from. He asked us how much it was and we told him that it was free and he just jumped for joy. He then started to ask more questions about it and even committed to reading it.

This really strengthened my testimony on how people are more willing to accept something if it is in their own language. I feel bad that I cannot really connect with half of the population here in Fiji by speaking their language but I have been called to speak Fijian not Hindu. We still visit them and teach them everything in English. I am glad that this mission is starting the Hindi program to bless more lives throughout Fiji. I know that God is helping everyone everywhere to hear the gospel in their own language. But I do have a strong testimony that everyone needs to hear the gospel in their own language and it will hit them more powerfully.

We were also able this week to have those same nonmembers come to church again. They even brought 2 more people with them. So there is about a total of 5 potential investigators that we are going to try to talk to this week. They range in an age from about 14 to 21. It is a good blessing for Naduna because we need something to boost up our faith. This is going to be one of our biggest goals for this week. We need to start teaching them and helping them to know more about the Gospel. We are really going to get the youth involved in teaching them and even have some of them teach some of the lessons.

We still are working on finding more people to teach. We are finding and teaching at the moment but we need to find more interested and prepared souls. We are working hard and involving the Lord in our area also. 

Well that is pretty much for the week. Everything is going great. We are excited because we are going to go down to Taveuni this week and get to meet a general authority named Elder Coward. It is going to be way fun.

The days are going by fast and the weeks even faster. I cannot believe how fast it is going by.

I love you all very much and wish you all a good week.

Kauta tani na bula gogo. Try to figure out what that means this week and that is my advice to you all.

Love,

Elder Grotepas

Me and VJ waiting to plant some Kasava

Just doing some missionary work!

Same with the other district!

Area 4, Week 20 - Naduna, Vanua Levu, Fiji - 10/5/14

Dear Family,

Ni sa bula tale. How is everyone doing this week?  I hope that everyone is doing good and having a good time.  The weeks are going by just so fast, but everything is good. The weather here is changing a bit. Pretty much this whole week it has been raining on and off. It will rain for a good 30 minutes then pause for another 2 hours or so and start up again. It is really good to see rain here because we have not seen rain for like 5 months and everyone is in a drought. Some of the villages here in Fiji have to shut off the water supply for a certain amount of time every day. You would never think that of Fiji because it is a tropical island but it is also like a dessert a bit here.

We are still having a bit of a hard time here in Naduna trying to find people to teach that are really interested. We are still working on finding more people to teach. We are trying to share the gospel with everyone we can. I guess that we just have to continue trusting in the Lord. I know that if we do that and try our hardest, (faith and works) we will be able to find those that are being prepared at this time.

I want to thank dad for telling me about the time in his mission where he used to youth to help the branch grow and to find more people for their missionary work.  I can testify to the exact same thing because it happened to us this week also. I don't know why, but last week as I was sitting in Sunday School, I kind of got sidetracked and looked over at the youth class. When I looked at them, they were all just sitting there with no teacher (the teacher was sick) so they were just all sitting there with one of the youth teaching them. A thought came to my mind as I was looking at them. I think that I told you last week, "What would happen if we started a mutual night for these youth? How affective would it be?" So after that sacrament meeting, I asked the Branch President if we could and he said that we could absolutely do it. The youth have never had an activity the whole time it has been a branch.

So we planned out an activity for the youth to all get together and play a game of volleyball. We told all the youth to invite their friends to come and we would all play volleyball and have juice. All of the youth were way excited to have this. They even invited some of their friends. We had about 2 non- members come to the activity and about 8 youth made it to the activity as well. So we had a really good turn out. Then to our surprise, we had both of those 2 non members come to church this Sunday. They even brought their 21 year old brother to church. So we had a total of 3 non-members come to church. I was so happy because it actually worked. It really strengthened my testimony on the power of the youth. Now I can see why the church puts such a emphasis on the youth. They are the ones that are really searching for the truth because they do not have a solid testimony on their beliefs. Just like Joseph Smith, why would God show himself to just a 14 year old and not a 30 year- old wiser man. He loves the youth and knows them more than we can imagine. If we can get them to know the truth when they are in their youth, they will be stronger when they are older. I now have a testimony on the strength of the youth even though I am still a youth. I hope that this is where I can  do when I get home. I would love to be put in with the youth so I can help them out.

We are now going to plan out activities we can do every week from now on. I can see the benefit of the deacons and priest quorum presidencies where I served to prepare me for this. Most of the things that we are thinking of doing here are the things that we did as youth back in America. I give thanks to the members and the time that I was able to help in this because it prepared me for this time on my mission. I never would have imagined the benefit of serving there.

We were going to plan on watch "17 Miracles" this week with all the youth but we found out yesterday that we are no longer able to get a projector. Man I miss those days at home where we would watch movies in the backyard and with the youth. I guess Fiji is a bit different. We have to think more outside of the box. We have a limited source of things because the church is still in it's infancy here. Any suggestions on what we can do with the youth here?

We were also able to have one of our members come out with us five times this week. He really loves us missionaries and says that there is never enough time to come out with us. Whenever we need him, he will be there. He will drop everything and come. He has it down. He knows what he has promised with his Heavenly Father and he is willing to do what ever it takes. I give thanks to him and also for everyone that goes with the missionaries. You all are such a big help to us and we thank you so much. I would really encourage all those preparing for their missions to go out with the missionaries for a couple hours. You will feel the spirit and help all those that they are teaching.

We had 26 to church, we only have one progressing investigator and we did not have any investigators to church. We are focusing on the branch itself to strengthen it. We are doing really good and I am loving it here in Naduna. I love Fiji and am going to be saddened when I have to leave it. It is like my second home.

I know that everything we teach is true. God loves each one of us and he has spoken to each one of this week (through Conference). If we follow the prophets voice, we are following God. I know that Joseph Smith restored the true chruch of Jesus Christ and we are part of it. I love you all very much and wish you all a happy week.

Love, 
Elder Grotepas

We are the Deacons Quorum Teachers (something that I would love to do when I get back).

                                          The Tukula Kids (Left to right: Buna, Doli, and Peceli)

Elder Walls and Brother John Colata

Me trying to fix our tire