It's really happening - Samabula is BULA. For all you non-Fijians out there, Bula means Life, and this area is living and breathing again. It's nothing that I've done, except for listening to my good-for-everything companion Elder Kanongata'a and let the Lord finally do His own work. This week was crazy. Absolutely crazy.
Monday, which is our preparation/sports day, I got to play FRISBEE. I was way pumped! It was so fun! Boy, it just started the week off right. Then, on Tuesday, we had Zone Conference, which was all based on conversion. During the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast in January, one of the main topics emphasized was "Baptize Converts", or in other words, we help these people to achieve something of a true, full conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not just a superficial, surface conversion that won't help them to endure to the end. It was a really cool, powerful training that was emphasized again on Tuesday at our Zone Conference with the Mission President, only this time it was tailored specifically to the work of salvation here in Fiji.
Wednesday was the first big day of the week for proselyting - it was way legit! We went on splits with Brother Lord and his son, Fred, and we were able to see so many people! Probably the coolest part of the day though was helping out one of the recent converts, Gloria, to start her family history. We went to the Family History Center on the Temple compound and the consultants there helped us to get her started and get her grandparents' information into the system. The miracle was that the Relief Society in Samabula 2nd was doing baptisms for the dead in the Temple on Thursday, so https://www.lds.org/topics/baptisms-for-the-dead?lang=eng)Gloria was able to be baptized in behalf of her grandmother, whom she was named after. (For more information on baptisms for the dead, visit
Service on Thursday was way fun, we were at Sister Kasa's house again and they had us cut down a tree with a cane knife! Boy, it was way fun. I did like no damage to the tree, but Elder Ta'a's swings were "super effective". That evening, after a lot of fall-throughs, we were invited to the Ward's Relief Society Birthday party. It was pretty girly, I have to admit, but I enjoyed getting fed, and the cake definitely made it worth it!
Friday and Saturday especially were way good days - our prayers were answered, and the Matanatabu family finally got back from Tacirua so that we could finish the lessons in time for Sister Matanatabu's baptism this coming Saturday! She's so amazing - she's loving the lessons, and so many of her long-awaited questions are being answered! Elder Kanongata'a and I taught a lot of lessons this week on the Plan of Salvation, and it's just been amazing seeing people react so excited to the wonderful doctrines of Heavenly Father's plan (see https://www.mormon.org/beliefs/plan-of-salvation).
Things have changed a lot this week - we had a pretty solid attendance at church, which in this ward is hard to come by, and the Stake President, President Qaqa, spoke to the Samabula 2nd ward and challenged us to fill the chapel. It was exciting for us, as we had three investigators at church - Sisa, Sister Matanatabu, and one of our newer investigators, Viliame. We have another new investigator, Sam, who works for the church's LDS Primary School, who was interested in coming to church as well. The Lord is just making miracles happen here in Samabula - that's why it's SamaBULA!
2 Nephi 2:6-9
Loloma luva mai vei au,
Elda Barnaby
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