This is my country! They won gold! Two of the players (back row, third from left and second from right) are from Dratabu!

I don't know how I'm going to explain the awesomeness of this past week - it was so good. It was hard at times, but it was so good.

First hard thing: We got stuck in the mud again. On Tuesday. This time, we got out the same night, with the help of some members, the Ravudra's. It was kind of embarrassing, especially since we were trying to be extra careful to not go anywhere we would get stuck. It was kind of funny, though, and now we're being EXTRA extra careful.

Wednesday we had to wake up early to take the Nadi Sister Training Leaders to the airport, because they were going to the northern islands, Taveuni and Vanua Levu, to go do exchanges with the other sister missionaries there and train them. When they got back on Saturday, they told us about some of the missionaries there that said hello to us - it was cool to be remembered and loved, even from so far away!

Thursday we had to have our car, Pattie, serviced, and they told us it would take about 2 hours, so we left and got something to eat and came back at the appointed time. When we got there, they said, "Oh, actually it's going to take another 5 hours." That kind of annoyed us, so we explored Nadi town while we waited for the car to be done. When we got it back, though, they hadn't fixed our stuck side doors - 7 hours and it wasn't even completely fixed. Somehow, though, we had an effective rest of the evening proselyting. We committed Jolame to be baptized, and he was so enthusiastic that we set the date for the 21st of August - next week! He's a boss kid.

On Friday, Fiji won their first ever medal in the Olympics - Gold, in Sevens Rugby. It was a madhouse here - the people went crazy, and they deserved to win.

Definitely the coolest days were Saturday and Sunday. We had fall-throughs for days on Saturday and we had an airport run in the middle of the day, but it was still so good. Our investigators, Jope and Adi, fed us dinner (some sorely needed Fijian food - rourou), and before dinner we had a lesson. In addition to Jope, Adi, and Jope's mom, about four of our other investigators in the village were at their house (Fijian houses are very open and people can come in and out of them easily). We read 3 Nephi 11 together, which talks about the Savior visiting the people of ancient America (https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/book-of-mormon), and in the chapter it talks about Jesus Christ giving people authority to baptize. We talked about it with those sitting there and invited them all to be baptized. By the time we left, we had committed all 7 of them to being baptized next month.

And then, Sunday. We got to church, waited for the van that always picks up people to come, and prayed that those whom we had invited had come to church. And when it came, they poured out of the van - 9 investigators came to church. Nine. Ciwa. One of them we had just met in passing and gave him a Book of Mormon, and he came to church because of it. Needless to say, Elder Whiting and I were over the moon. And they were all from Dratabu village. We are so excited with all the work and miracles we're seeing here!

Can't wait for this week! Go Fiji Go!

Elda Barnaby