Me + Christ = More (Lautoka 2nd Area, Week 9)

Picking up Pattie again with some of the elders - happy happy, joy joy!

My oh my, it's already been 9 weeks in this one area - that's so fast! I love it here in Lautoka, and even though this past week was long and hard, I think I finally know how much worth each minute is here on the mission.

At District Meeting, the Sisters got each of us jellybeans 

with Disney characters that "represented" us - I got Yoda, cause I'm small haha

What made this week long? Just lots to do, most of it spent traveling back and forth from Nadi in the car. But we finally got Pattie from the garage and gave the Nadi Hindi elders their car back, so everyone's happy now! It was kind of unsettling how they fixed the doors on Pattie, though - we watched as probably four or five mechanics pried from the outside with screwdrivers and kicked and pushed from the inside until the door got unstuck. Only in Fiji, folks. But hey, I should be grateful, however ghetto it was, it worked, and now the doors are unstuck.

My universal charger broke, so I went all MacGyver on it

Like I said, it was a very busy week, but one of those busy weeks that drag on because a lot of the business is spent sitting waiting or driving places. We did have the Assistants over on Thursday after

our self-reliance class because of the Leadership Training meeting on Friday, where President and Sister Layton came and taught us leadership skills. It was a good, intense meeting with some lovely pizza in between (as lovely as pizza can get in Fiji).

We had a good lesson with Sereima, Sireli, Elesi and Fina on Saturday - we had challenged them to watch the "Restoration" dvd that we'd given them and some of them watched it, but I felt like we needed to be more serious with them about all of this. They seem to like the Book of Mormon and understand that what we share is good and might be true, and they're like right on the threshold of revelation but haven't quite made that final step to know for themselves. So we challenged them to try their faith and come to church. We even offered to walk with them. They said yes. On Sunday morning we walked to their house (a good 30+ minute walk) and only Elesi and Fina could come, but we brought them anyway. They seemed to really like it, even though the chapel was far and transportation was hard to find. We tried hard to get as many people as possible, especially the YSA group, to introduce themselves and make them feel at home. We were really proud of them making that step, and we're hoping that Sereima and Sireli will soon follow afterwards.

Powerful zoom on my camera reveals the stowaway - hope he doesn't fall off!

I've learned a lot this week about love - the divine love that our Heavenly Father has for us, His children. I also learned that being positive goes a long way in making a better day - a lot of the time this week I was pretty down because of missing appointments and the amount of travel in order to fulfill our duty as Zone Leaders, but when I was happy and positive, everything changed. Finally, I learned that I can't do all this on my own. Me + More does not equal Christlike. No, the correct equation is Me + Christ = More. (see https://www.lds.org/blog/the-perfect-lie?cid=HP_FR_21-10-2016_dOCS_fBLOG_xLIDyL2-1_)

Use Christ's enabling Atonement this week, and I promise I will too. Remember, the Atonement is for much more than just blotting out sins; it's about making sinners celestial.

Love yous!

Elda Barnaby