Elder Max Barnaby: The Week God's Work Worked Us (Samabula 2nd Area, Week 19)

We found a cool little trail - it led to a pig sty (I mean a literal pen of pigs)

Sister Taufa tried to draw the

"Avatar: The Last Airbender" symbol on my head with a whiteboard marker.

And I mean it! There hasn't been a single day this week that we haven't gone home just completely dead-tired. Allow me to explain a little bit the wonderful, joyful, hard work that Elder Kahia and I experienced this week.

We had the great "Suva North Zone Cup" last P-Day -

District versus District.

Samabula District's team color: blue (SamaBlua!)

Monday was super fun. We had a big Zone-wide tournament and each District had a color and there were different events like Basketball, Volleyball, relays, and "Pani" (a Fijian game involving stacking cans and throwing balls). It was awesome - even though we lost by one point to the Tamavua District. That evening, we had a Ward Family Home Evening, to which came several of our investigators.

Behold - Tukana "Tuks", king of dance

Tuesday we had our first-ever District Potluck Lunch after District Meeting. Definitely worth it - Elder Carlson cooked some mean curry and fried chicken. This next week Elder Kahia and I are the chefs, so beware! But Tuesday, that's where it started. We started getting into so many houses and so many appointments that by the end of the day, we were just so exhausted. We started teaching Talei, Sister Ciri's daughter who is 9 years old and hasn't been baptized yet. She's really shy and quiet, but she really wants to be baptized so we're excited for her.

Fijians know how to make the most of life

The rest of the week was just work - work, work, work, work,

work. I've never sweat so much and had so many people just stop us and say hello and ask us to come back sometime. No one has come up to us yet and said, "Hey Elders, baptize us" but that's not our entire purpose anyway. Our real purpose, as we explained to Shane and Asinaca Suka in a very Spirit-led lesson on Saturday, is to invite all to come unto Christ by helping them receive the Restored Gospel and its blessings, through faith and repentance and keeping covenants with our Heavenly Father. The other purpose is, of course, to bring families closer together. One observation we made this week is that our well-known name tags carries to names in bold: the name of our family and the name of the Savior, which is part of the name of the Church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). That is our purpose - baptism is just a step in that process we make to draw closer to the Savior.

It was fantastic! Rosi's husband, Jerry, performed her baptism!

LDS Primary School children just know

the most important parts of the gospel

The main focus this week was Rosi Matanatabu and her baptism. And was she ready? You better believe it. She opened up so much this week, passed her baptismal interview with flying colors, and was able to be baptized by her husband Jerry. It was such a special day. To hear Rosi bear her testimony was powerful - she was quiet, and very nervous, but the Spirit was strong. This girl is converted. We're so proud of her, and Jerry, who have made such changes and sacrifices in their lives to become more like the Savior of the World, our Master, Jesus Christ.