Fiji Suva Mission

Fiji Suva Mission

Sunday, July 24, 2016

Not Sure Who's More Tired, Pattie or Us (Dratabu Area, Week 2)

This is our baby - Pattie!
She's on her last legs, but she looks good after a fresh car wash.
Pattie is the name of our lovely van - and we're all equally tired.

Oh boy, where do I even start? This week has been filled to overflowing with crazy work, runs to pick up and drop off people at the airport, district meetings and exchanges - I'm literally falling asleep here at the computer!

My driving skills are still rusty - coming along, I don't stall as much now, but they're still rusty and people really enjoy passing me. Most of our area requires dirt off-road travel to get to certain investigators and members, it's pretty fun.
A little kid was carrying a can of ketchup and spilled it all over me.
 I just picked up a piece of cassava and dipped it in.


Probably the area of most excitement and activity at the moment is Dratabu village. A humanitarian LDS youth group from America (HEFY) just finished building some new outdoor bathrooms in Dratabu village and they had lots of missionary experiences along the way, they referred a bunch of people to us and we've started teaching a few of them. One of our investigators in Dratabu, Iokimi, is getting baptized next week. He's a great investigator - he's gotten some of his friends interested, and he's brought probably 3 or 4 new investigators for us. Talk about the Lord working in mysterious ways, using a 12-year-old boy like Iokimi to get others interested in learning more about the Restored Gospel.

Teitei bele mada! (planting bele leaves for service!)
Thursday we had a fun service with this less-active family. The mom, Lewa, had us plant bele plants.
It was way fun! Where they live looks a lot like the mountainous areas of Utah - dry, evergreens, tall grass - the only difference is there's also the occasional banana tree. It's a fun drive out there, which takes about 15 minutes. On Saturday we tried to see them, drove all the way out there, and...they weren't home. Which is a first. So we got some roadside barbecue made by a Canadian guy to make up for it.

Friday and Saturday we had exchanges with the Nawaka Elders, I went with Elder Babcock and it was way fun! We talked to a lady outside her house who happens to be from Matei, Taveuni, and I happen to know her family - we used to teach her niece, Phoebe. Way funny how small Fiji really is. Also, we started a giant argument in a house over my nickname, "Painapiu" ("pineapple"), and its equivalent in the Nadi dialect, "Vadrasola". These two people had a full-blown argument over the fact that they weren't the same thing. It was pretty funny, actually.
These two kids wanted to wear our bags - they're our new replacements

Sunday was the best day of all. When we got to church about 30 minutes early, only 3 people where there. We waited, and waited, and waited, and were about to start the meeting at 9:45 am when the transport showed up. And out came enough people to not only fill the little unit meeting house, but also 5 investigators. Remember Jope from last week? His wife came today, along with her niece who lives with them, and Iokimi and his friend, and Sister Kurucake's brother, Nathan. It was just nuts. We loved every minute of it. Definitely a Sunday to remember.

Elder Whiting played soccer for BYU-Hawaii, just so everyone knows.
Well, gotta sign off, but it's been a great week, we're looking forward to an even better week this
week!


Elda Barnaby



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