Elder Grotepas : Area 5, Week 4 - Burewai, Fiji

Dear Family,

Well, it has yet been another really fast week. Everything here in Fiji is pretty much still all the same. Nothing much has changed at all. The weather is still good and the people are still great. We were able to meet one of the members from the Pacific Area Presidency, Elder Haleck this week. All of the Suva, Suva North and the Nausori Zones were able to get together to have a meeting with him. He gave us some pretty good advice that can help each one of us in our daily missionary lives, what we can to do become better, and how we can teach more simply. It was a really good Mission Tour and I was really glad that I was able to go to it. One thing that really stuck out to me is that in these past couple of months that I have, I really need to step it up and do everything that I can do to finish strong. These next few months are going to show what kind of missionary I am and what I am going to be like when I go home. Then even after I finish, "It does not end there!" There is going to be so much more that I have to do when I go home.

Well as for the rest of our week, it was really good. I was able to go on splits with pretty much half of my district. I was able to go with Elder Spackman for a few hours, Elder Mueller for a few hours, and I was able to go with Elder Tukia for a little over a day for an exchange.

Pretty much the thing that stood out to me is what I learned at Mission Tour. It has been ringing in my head for the past couple of days "It does not end there!" I dont want to go home and fall away from all of the things that I have learned on my mission. One of them specifically is the aspect of studying. I know that this habit is going to be one of the biggest things that will help me when I go home. I know that this time that I have here is very short. I have set a goal with myself that I am going to not waste any time starting at 6:30 am to 10:30 pm. I know most of the time, I would go to bed early when I did not have anything to do. Now, I am going to spend as much time as I can studying or reading from the Book of Mormon to help me know more and keep my study habits up. This advice is really going to help me out. I hope that this will prepare me now and I know it will if I work hard at it.

Well, as for the work, it is going really good. We are going to have to push one of the baptisms that we were going to have next week for next month. Our unit leader wants to wait until we get a few other kids ready for baptism so we can do it all on one day and make it more memorable. So we are going to push it back to that day. Me and Elder Bogaert were talking together and thinking that there is a possibiliy that we can have about 6 bapitisms next month if everything goes good and according to plan. So we are hoping and praying hard.

We were also able to start lessons with a kid named Mikely that lives in Saioko. He comes to church every week and he has never been visited by the missionaries. He is about 13 years old and he is pretty shy. So we are hoping to open him up a bit and get him ready. He said that he would like to be baptized so we will see what happens. Any ideas from you on what we can to do open him up to us?

We had 6 investigators attend church but we only counted 4. The other 2 are working on something with their marrige stuff. Once they start progressing again, we will start counting them again. Our golden investigator in Soa, Vilisi, is doing great. He is progressing very well. I was not able to meet him this week becasue I was on exchanges with Elder Tukia but Elder Bogaert and Thomas were able to see him and continue on with the lessons. We did not feel to give him a baptismal date yet but we are hoping pretty soon. We are going to be walking with him [to church] on November 30th and he said that he would. It is about an hour and a half walk but he said that he is willing to do it. He is so strong and I think he will be a great member.

Well, everything is going good. The work is good and i am loving it here in Burewai. Most of it is the bush and I am loving it. I cannot even imagine a better place to die in. I LOVE IT HERE. It is so fun. I cannot wait to show you all around Fiji and see it for yourself. I have to admit that a camera can not capture it good enough. You need to see it in person. It is so cool. I am excited that we are going to come back and we are going to get to see it all together.

I invite you all to contiue to study your scriptures and continue to pray every day. I love you all very much and I know that the Lord is blessing you all.

Have a great week and stray fresh.

Love,

Elder Grotepas

Here I am in Saioko village

This woman's name is Mere. We were walking in the village and she was picking some peppers from her pepper bush. It looked like she was struggling because she could barely stand up. So we went over and helped her while she sat down. Come to find out that she is 90 years old and she is the only one that lives in her house. She was a way nice lady.