Welcome Home, Sista Chong!!

Ua Pau!

bula mama!!!

ill see you in 4 days!!! that's all. hahaha jokes!! i dont have much to say besides I LOVE MY MISSION!!! it's amazing how much you can learn in only 18 months. the Lord just works you and works you and if you let Him do it, then you will change your life to become more like His. that's what a mission is all about. becoming like our Savior. 

the biggest lesson ive learned is to rely on the Atonement. im sure ive already told you this but it really is the best lesson ive learned on my mission. i guess i had to go through some pretty hard things before i realized i couldnt do it alone. and now i can't imagine doing anything without His help. i know that He suffered not only for our sins but to give us the enabling power that we need to overcome the hardships and the sadness that we face daily. He is the only one that can help us fully because He is the only that knows what we're going through. 

yesterday in church our bishop made us say prayers, share our testimonies, and they sang the fijian farewell song, "Isa, isa" ofcourse i cried like a little baby hahaha!! it has been such a blessing to finish my mission here in lami. the members are so loving and have helped us so much!! it is the place to be. i have learned so much from them and it breaks my heart to know that i have to leave them. sometimes i think it's harder to leave fiji, then home. did that make sense? man my english is pretty bad. sorry. but i will miss the people that ive come to love!!! im gonna miss fiji!! im gonna miss everything about it, but will bring back with me as much as i can.

today we went to a members house and prepared a lovo (imu) for lunch. it was so fun!! we're emailing now while it's cooking and we're gonna go back at eat. it was so nice!! they made it for us, for our last week here in lami. 

my new year's resolution is to continue to strengthen my faith and testimony in the Gospel everyday. never miss a day of scripture study because i dont want to loose this drive that i have now. im grateful for my mission and the opportunity the Lord gave me to serve His children. it has taught me so much and i can see that i have no regrets!! au lomani kemudou!! sota tale!! se vo va na siga :)

loloma levu,
sista chong

My Rotuman Family

Finish Strong!

bula mama!

VAKATAWASE!! hau'oli makahiki hou!! i hope everyone had a wananavu new years. here in fiji all we do is eat :) hahhaha woohoo! we cooked indian food because we didn't have a dinner appointment, which was a lot of fun. 

this week i finished the book of mormon. what a blessing it has been to read through it again. i could feel the love of the my Heavenly Father as i read through it everyday. throughout my reading this time, i tried to focus on the Atonement of Jesus Christ in missionary work. missionary work is all about the Atonement! it's the center of our purpose! if it weren't for the Atonement, the people we teach wouldn't be able to change their lives to draw closer to Him. yesterday in our fast and testimony meeting a sister who just returned from her mission shared about how the Gospel is all about change. we are constantly changing who we are, our bad habits, our actions, our words, to become more like our Savior, more Christlike. the book of mormon has helped me to see of the love our Savior for each of us and the purpose of His Atonement. my testimony of the Atonement has grown tremendously. not only have i read about it in the book of mormon but because i have been studying it, i now know how to truly apply it into my own life. i had a desire to change and only the Lord and His Atonement could give me the power and strength to do so. 

this saturday we have 2 baptisms. we're so excited! they are both young women. one of them lives with members, which has been a blessing because she has that support she needs all the time. the other girl lives really close to members and actually asked if she could go to church with them. she has been so excited from the beginning to be baptized and we went and asked her dad last week if it was okay and he was like, "sisters, it is very very okay that my daughter is baptized." we told her that she was setting a good example for her family and eventually they will follow. her sister is already starting to come to church with her and so we're pretty excited.

well sorry not that much to write. everything is just kind of starting to wind down. im giving it everything i got this week and im gonna finish strong! au lomani kemudou! sota tale!!

loloma levu, 

sista chong

Children in Lami

Dinner with Members

Lolo buns

New Years Dinner 

2nd Christmas in Fiji

bula mama!

well christmas as i predicted was filled with food! we started our day at a zone activity where we played a bunch of games and had white elephant. it was fun! right after that we made our way to our first counselor in the bishopric's house. they had lovo there with chicken, pig, palusami, dalo, tavioka, and all kinds of things! right after that we walked for about 30-45 mins and then caught a bus to the next house, where they had same thing! lovo #2!! and this house had even more then the first one! i struggled so much just to finish my plate. i almost passed out. but after enduring that we walked about half an hour to our bishop's house. when we got there straight away we just lied down on the ground because we were so full. after letting us rest a little while, we then read the Christmas story together. it was nice. we shared with each other and sang a hymn and had family prayer. then it was time to eat again. but thank goodness our bishop's wife had sympathy on us and just said we had to eat ice cream. thank goodness!! we would've blew up!! lol but Christmas was awesome!

we didnt have very many lessons this week because of Christmas but we the ones we did have were very powerful. we got a text from one of our investigators asking if she could meet with us that day. we haven't been able to see her for a while because she had a wedding to help with and stuff and so we were stoked that she texted. we met her at the chapel and opened our lesson with a prayer. right after that she said, "i know that you didnt have a lesson prepared because it's last minute but can you tell me about temples and baptism?" we were shocked but started to talk about the blessings of the temple. in the middle of our lesson she told us that she had a powerful experience and had stayed up til 6am that morning thinking about everything. when she texted us is when she made up her mind that she was going to take that leap of faith, despite what anyone says, and was going to be baptized. WOW!!! what a lesson!! we all cried because we felt the Spirit so powerfully, it was an amazing experience.

we had a baptism on saturday!! it was sis. crichton's first baptism so it was very special for her. she was so excited! a good amount of members came to the baptism, which is always a blessing, and the speakers did an awesome job! she bore her testimony at the end and it was the first time we ever heard her share her testimony because she always told us, "next time sisters." so finally we got to hear it and it was beautiful! she shared how she felt so clean and happy and that she knew this was the Church of Jesus Christ. that's probably my favorite part about baptisms is hearing their testimonies at the end. 

i hope you all have a happy new year!! sis. crichton and i plan on wearing a poncho everyday because here in fiji, on new years they throw water on each other throughout the whole month!! cant wait!! :/ pray for us.....lol au lomani kemudou sara valevu!! sota tale!

loloma levu,
sista chong

Christmas at Bishopʻs House

Christmas Kanikapila

Christmas Dinner

Mele Kalikimaka!

bula mama!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! MELE KALIKIMAKA!! 

i can't believe that it's christmas already! how fast the time has gone by. it doesn't even feel like Christmas but ofcourse it's not gonna feel like a normal Christmas when you're a missionary lol. but im grateful that i have two Christmases on my mission because it gives me time to really focus on the Savior and the true meaning of Christmas. in church the relief society presidency spoke in sacrament. one of the counselors asked us the question, "why were the shepherds and the wise men chosen to go and see the Savior?" she explained that the shepherds were chosen because they were humble people. it made me think....would the Savior ask me to come and see Him at His birth? would i be humble enough to accept and understand His invitation? 

this being my second Christmas on my mission i really am starting to understand the true meaning of it. as we've been reading through preach my gospel and looking up all the scriptures in it, ive really seen how much our Heavenly Father loves us. it really showed me that the Book of Mormon talks about our Savior, Jesus Christ. every scripture that i looked up in the Book of Mormon talked about Christ's life and how we should follow Him and about His Atonement. ive realized that sometimes i forget that i dont have to do things on my own. a lot of the time we think that we have to do everything on our own, forgetting that we have the help of the Savior and His Atonement. that's what it's there for. those times when we feel like we just cannot go any further or that we cannot do it alone, those are the time that we give it to the Savior. He asks us to give it to Him. He invites us to let Him help us in our lives. so that's something im trying to apply in my life, let the Savior help me and let his Atonement carry me.

this coming Saturday we have a baptism. it's for the girl that the elder met like a month ago and invited to church and she hasn't missed one since. she is awesome! she is so excited and looking forward to be baptized. she is just so scared that they won't pull her back out of the water haha. she's so funny but she's ready. her mom was saying that this is the first time that she's even interested in religion. so her mom is very excited!

we've been trying to get her mom to agree to be baptized as well. she is the one that said she had such an amazing feeling our last lesson and couldn't wait for us to come over....well she changed her mind. she told us that she doesn't know what came over her and when she thought about it after she felt like she just wanted to stay catholic for now. she said that maybe the more she learns then the more she'll want to be baptized. so we'll see what happens.

yesterday we had a lesson and we were extending to her a baptismal date for january 17th. it was so weird giving someone a baptism date for when i won't even be here. what in the world!? that's when it really hit me that i dont have much longer. we have baptisms set up for every weekend until the week i come home which is awesome but will make the time go by too fast. it's scary!!

but i hope you all have a merry merry christmas!! im pretty sure we got the mouse out of our flat so it'll be a wonderful christmas for us :) and there's like a million people that want to feed us...wish us luck!! au lomani kemudou!!

loloma levu,

sista chong

Counting Down

bula mama!

well this week was exciting!! we had no water for three days. we had our missionary christmas party. i gave my departing testimony. we had our ward primary program. we had flat cleaning inspections. and there's a mouse in our house!! aaaahhh!! 

so we'll start with the water. our water got cut off on sunday all the way until wednesday. they said that there was like 211,000 people without water this week. from what i heard, it's because of the heavy rains that have been happening that it's messing with the clean water and all that stuff. im not really sure. all i know is that i have never appreciated water so much in my life!! 

on tuesday we had our zone conference/christmas party. it was way fun!! well the second half. i had to give my departing testimony in the zone conference section and it was really hard. plus i had to go first!! i just shared things ive learned in my mission and some experiences that ive had. let's just say im glad it's over. lol. the whole conference was about Jesus Christ. Pres. Layton gave a training about the atonement and spoke to us about the last supper. he walked us through it and you could really feel the Spirit that was in the room. i pictured myself and what it would be like if Christ was serving me the sacrament. our mission president then told us that we would be partaking of the sacrament. a couple of the zone leaders and the assistants got up and administered the sacrament. i was just crying and crying because the Spirit was so overpowering!! it was an amazing experience.

after the spiritual part we had our christmas party. we had a good lunch and then we played games. the zone leaders came up with the games. we did a relay race. way fun!! we sang christmas carols and had to act them out. and then we built fijian gingerbread houses. ill show you pictures. but the games were way fun! and then we watched FROZEN!!! it was soooooo good!!! i like that movie a lot :) and im sure the kids like it, so we're gonna watch it when i come home. lol. but over all it was a fun day. our mission president and his wife gave us fiji suva mission sulus. it was so much fun!

we got to see our most progressing investigators this week. one of them is preparing to be baptized on december 27. her mom is the one that said she really wants to know that the plan of salvation is true. well we went and taught them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week and she shared with us that she wants to be baptized. she said that she knows that the things we share are true and that she feels something inside that she's never felt before. she was excited for us to come and visit and couldn't wait for us to arrive. the only hard thing is that she can't come to church because of some medical problems so we asked our leaders and they said that if brethren from our ward can take her the sacrament, so she feels the Spirit of the sacrament, then she can be baptized. so we're excited to tell her the news this week and we'll see what she says.

last thing. there's a mouse in our flat. oh my gosh it's the worse!! it's the second one since ive been in this flat and our flat is clean, so i dont know why they're still coming. but ofcourse i screamed and freaked out but we're gonna catch it tonight, dont worry. eeww mice!! 

well i love you all!! time is running short, so gotta word hard! serving with no regrets.

loloma levu

sista chong

Bula Maleka Mama!!

bula maleka mama!!

im gonna be honest, this week was a loooooooong week!! haha but we did so many things. on monday we had 2 of the new sisters stay with us. it was nice to hear of the MTC experiences and their excitement to go to their own areas and start their missions. they were able to spend a day proselyting with us and got a big wake up call with the amount of walking we did lol. by the time we got back to the flat they showered and just knocked out, those poor girls. 

we also had zone training meeting this week. they talked about the attributes that a leader should have. they mentioned that there were 23 new missionaries coming in in january and so there'll be about 38 missionaries training at once, so the mission is trying to get all the missionaries prepared and ready if they called to train or to a new position. they talked about being obedient, charitable, bold, and diligent. they also had a training on being grateful, after the talk by pres. uchtdorf. about being grateful in whatever circumstance we're in. 

i also got to meet sis. kelemeti, who is the lady in charge of like all the genealogy of Rotuma. her son is in our ward and one day when we were at their house i told him that i was part Rotuman and that i had my family history but didnt know anything about it. he said that he would tell his mom because she's the boss of all Rotuman family history. so this week i met her and she was able to go through it with me and told me some things about my family. she said that i have a lot of cousins in Suva and that i was lucky to be Rotuman haha. one of my ancestor's names is "Hualta" and she said that she is the only lady with that name ever. the name is like comparing that woman's beauty to the beauty of the moon. she said that my ancestor must have been a very beautiful woman. she also gave me some extra family history papers and charts and things which ill bring home.

starting on friday it was raining like crazy!! there was flooding on saturday and there's one place in our area that floods really bad. the river rises above the bridge and no one is able to go in or out. when we walked up there yesterday we saw the damages from the flooding and saw that there were police men in the river looking for something. we later found out that there was a 19 year old boy missing and they were looking for his body. i felt sick in my stomach. it was so sad! after church we went and visited the families thats homes got flooded and lost everything and we took them some food from the bishop's storehouse. they were so grateful and it was sad to see how much they lost. when we went back to the chapel to give our visiting report, some of the young men that went up to the area that flooded told us that they found the boy's body. they took a video and you could hear the mother crying at the loss of her son. my heart broke and i just prayed that the rain would stop and that there would be no more flooding. the rain has now stopped and we just hope that it'll stay like this. i know that the Lord will comfort those that have lost so much.

we went and taught one of our investigators about the plan of salvation. her mom was there in the lesson with us and listened as we taught. as we went through the plan of salvation she agreed with everything that we said. she is a catholic.  she enjoyed our lesson until we started talking about the 3 kingdoms. she didnt reject them but she paid a lot more attention. we explained it slowly and tried to help her understand why there were 3 kingdoms. at the end of the lesson she shared that she wants to believe the plan of salvation because it gives her more hope and comfort rather then just heaven and hell. she said she would pray about it and told us that usually people from other churches would come and share but she would just shut them down. she admitted that she was a very hard hearted person. but at the end of our lesson she told us that we had just softened her heart and weakened. she thanked us and told us that she really wants to believe the plan of salvation is true. 

au lomani kemudou!! sota tale!! vinaka ena nomudou masu.

loloma levu,
sista chong