Maleka! (Samabula 2nd Area, Week 10)

Maleka is a great word in the Fijian language. It's used in Rewa Province to mean "good", but in the common dialect, it also means "delicious". That's what our week was. Good food, good work, good life. Where do I even start?

We had dinner and a show at t

he Rogosau's house on Saturday!

Tuesday we had a fantastic day for lessons, and it really set it up for a great overall week for sharing the gospel with the people here in Samabula. Wednesday was tougher, especially when we learned that some of the people who we usually see weren't home. One of the recent converts, Gloria, who was just baptized in November of last year, has actually moved to the Nasinu 1st Ward in Suva, which isn't even in our stake anymore. That night, though, we went to the Matanatabu's house for dinner and we had

Dinner (a.k.a. dessert) 

at the Rakatia's house

delicious kokoda that Sister Matanatabu made. It feels like forever since we've seen Sister Matanatabu, a.k.a. Sofaia, who was just baptized last month. It was a great reunion, way fun time too.

Thursday we had some

This is "kokoda", it's like a raw fish salad 

and it is the tastiest thing on the planet.

good service, but again, lots of fall-throughs. We were fasting on Thursday as a Mission to help the work here, as we're looking to fall terribly short of our goals this month. We were able to see Sister Vesikula, who just moved into the ward recently and has been starting to come back to church. After we saw her (and she made us find a free date for a dinner appointment), we went to the grocery store to buy something nice to break our fast with. We found some mexican food, so we did the natural thing and got it - but then, a member from the Samabula 1st Ward jumped into line behind us and paid for our food. We were shocked, and so grateful too.

LOOK AT THIS. IT'S REAL TORTILLA CHIPS. 

Elder Ta'a and I just about died.

The Vuidreketi's told us they had to cancel their dinner 

appointments for the rest of the month, 

and they felt bad so they bought us...a lot...of food. 

That's 12 cartons of milk to the left.

Friday we had a really successful Priesthood activity, where we met and split up into groups to go visit several families around the area. We had a great time, and met back at the church for dinner. Sunday, though, was the culmination of everything. With an addition of the Stake President and his family to our ward, and all the hard work that everyone put in this week, we had a great attendance at church on Sunday - so great that when we sang "Master, the Tempest is Raging" in Fijian ("Jisu sa Laba na Cagi"), people from the Samabula 1st Ward stopped their sunday school classes and came to listen to it. It was like angels - I'm not kidding, it was so powerful I can hardly describe it. Transfers are this week, and I hope I can stay in Samabula 2nd just a little while longer!

Helping out LDS Charities at the Fiji Church Service Center

Loloma Levu,

Elda Barnaby