Fiji Suva Mission

Fiji Suva Mission

Sunday, February 22, 2015

You wish you were here (Tavua Area, Week 6)

My new companion - only kidding!

 Here's a pictures of Gabe, cheekiest kid alive!

Bula!

Another short one today, Elder Beilman and I have to catch a bus in a little under 30 minutes. Zone P-Day again, way excited! We have another Zone Training Meeting tomorrow, too!

Not too shabby of a week. It could've been a lot better, but it wasn't bad. We had three days where almost all of our appointments fell through. It was really sad and kind of discouraging. Just when I was in the lowest spot and it was 8pm and starting to rain, I decided to let go of myself. That was actually really easy to do. I just decided to rely on the Lord and go where He wanted me to go. We ended up being led to a wonderful family who, though aren't interested in the Church, we got to strengthen and draw closer together. It was really special! And I learned how to really, truly have faith in the Lord, which was probably the best part of the day.

But the best part of the week: WE GOT A BAPTISMAL DATE THIS WEEK. I'm so pumped! We weren't even planning on inviting her to be baptized, but she accepted so excited I could feel the Spirit so strongly! It was amazing! I love being a missionary and representative of Jesus Christ. This is His work, and this is His Church. I KNOW it. I LIVE it. I LOVE it.

Also, this lady came up to us this week and asked if she could lick us.

You wish you were here.

Elder Barnaby


"There are lives to brighten. There are hearts to touch. There are souls to save." - Thomas S. Monson



These are the missionaries in our District! 

A few highlights from our week...

We forded this river - it was way fun, but way slippery!

Rugby! Well, we were actually playing touch. It was way fun!


This is a picture of my casual sulu - sick, right? 
The ones I wear when I'm out of the flat are plain black, though.







Sunday, February 15, 2015

Showered from above (Tavua Area, Week 5)

Bula!

Wow, so much happened this week, I don't know where to start. I guess I'll stick with the highlights.

It rained. It rained almost all this week. Like, I've never seen so much rain. It always seemed to let up when we went out, but there was more than a few times that we got a little wet. Ah well, welcome to Fiji!

Lots of lessons this week, we've started working with some really cool less-active members of the Church. We're helping them to come back to church and overcome problems in their lives. One of them is Waisake, who's 20 years old, and he is the man. Our ultimate goal for him is to help him have a desire to serve a mission - that would be the best! We're going to play Touch-Rugby with him later today. Hopefully I can get some pictures of it, it's going to be way fun!

I'm learning so much here. Not just from the people, but I'm learning how to really live my life properly. As I study the scriptures and go about our daily activities, I'm really learning how to become a better and wiser person. I know I'll be learning throughout my life, but my mission president, President Layton, said to me, "Your mission is the transition from boyhood to manhood, from dependence to independence. You will learn more in these short two years than you would in ten years if you hadn't come on your mission. Watch, learn, and just go." He's the man, if you can't tell.

I'm ready for a great week. We just had transfers, where the missionaries get shifted around to different areas. My companion and I are still in Tavua, but almost all the areas around us have new missionaries. Some of them, I met in the Missionary Training Center in Utah before I got to Fiji! I can't wait to see them again!


This is Elder Barnaby, Signing off.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

The Week of the Sea Cucumber (Tavua Area, Week 4)



Look, mom no utensils, and I love it!
Bula vinaka! Oqo Elda Barnaby!

Well, what a week. It was kind of a slow week for us here in Tavua. We had a lot of teaching appointments set up, but almost all of them fell-through last minute. Because of this, we didn't get to see any of our investigators this week. For those of you who don't know, we call the people we teach who are interested in learning about and joining the LDS Church "investigators". We have about 7 or so of these people in this area, and we weren't able to see any of them this week.

For me, it was a little disappointing, our week. We tried to hold a youth activity at the Chapel, but it kind of flopped. We met none of our goals this week either. For me, this has been a very encouraging thing.

What did he say? That's right, encouraging.

This is Vileame, one of our youth who goes out teaching with us sometimes. 
There's a talk given to Mission Presidents by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. In it, he talks about how mission life isn't easy. It's physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually demanding. There isn't always success. Nothing we do as missionaries is easy - from walking all day to teaching others the gospel in another language to just getting up in the morning. Many people don't agree with what we do. Many people even take extreme measures to tell us this. Elder Holland said, "When they are rejected, when they are spit upon, and when they are made a 'hiss and a byword', [missionaries] should know that they are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best Life this world has ever known:That of the Savior, who experienced the same thing." He says that the Savior suffered more than we will ever comprehend - and that we, in order to be the missionaries we need to be, will have to pay some token of that same sacrifice. I've seen it happen to me. I've never been more exhausted, or frustrated, or saddened, or lonely. And yet, because of that same perfect Person, Jesus Christ, I've also never been more energetic, or optimistic, or confident, or joyful. I've never felt so loved and never felt so much love for other people.

This is my life for the next two years. The two hardest years of my life - and the two most rewarding. I hope you all understand how much this means to me. I've seen lives brighten in ways I didn't even know possible - and most of them have been tiny, little, seemingly insignificant events. But I know that they may have changed the course of those people's lives for GOOD.

I suppose you're wondering about the title. We ate Sea Cucumber this week. It was downright disgusting. And that's all I have to say.

Until next week,


Elda Barnaby

This is my companion, Elder Beilman, and I - drinking from coconuts after some service!

This one's for my mom - I'm holding a sele, or Fijian machete :) 








Sunday, February 1, 2015

Short one this week - Vosoti au! (Tavua Week 3)

Isa, I don't have a lot of time today. I'll just go over a few highlights.

It was a way hot week here in the Burning West, and even though it rained, it was only for a little while. Service on Thursday was way fun, we got to go out to a farm near town and help "werewere", which is like cutting grass with a machete. It was way cool but I got a massive sunburn from it. Isa lei. The people we were helping gave us fresh coconuts and we drank from them! it was actually kind of gross, but it was an experience! haha, wow, what a day. That was so fun.

I extended my first invitation to baptism this week! One of our investigators is really feeling the Spirit in our lessons and she knows baptism is right, but she's worried what her family will think of her if she gets baptized. So it wasn't a no, but it wasn't a yes either. Isa, we asked her to pray about it and we're going to see her later this week. This is Ana, I mentioned her last week. She's way cool, I want her to be baptized really bad.

We had some training on Friday, from the Zone Leaders, the Assistants, and our mission President. It was so good, but took up most of the day. President Layton talked to us about the principle of "letting go", that we need to just not worry about the work. Let the Lord have the reins and just go where He wants us to go. Don't worry about the past, plan for but don't worry about the future, just LIVE. It was so good.

That's all this week, au lomani kemuni!


Elda Barnaby