Happy Father's Day

bula mama!!

well this week was a really good week. we found a new investigator that we got from a referral and we got even more referrals from the members that we didn't even contact yet. i love getting referrals from the members because when you get referrals from them then that means they're starting to trust you. so im happy :) we've been trying really hard to get to know the members and gain their trust and we're starting to see the blessings of doing that.

the referral that we were able to contact is a security at the temple. she just got moved there from another station and she asked one of the members, who was a taxi driver, what people do in the temple and why they go there. so that member gave the referral and we went and met her on friday and she told us that we could come back on saturday but as soon as we left, her boss told her that that was her last day working at the temple. she was so sad because she was looking forward to us coming. well...that night they called her and told her that they were putting her back at the temple on saturday. she was so happy and when we went for our first lesson with her she was so happy and told us the story. she told us that she's been through a lot of things in her life and she's been searching for the truth and trying to figure out how she can know God better. she's been to many different churches but felt like something was still missing.

today we went and saw her again. we talked about prophets, the great apostasy, and Joseph Smith. when we explained about prophets and how important they are and why we need them, she said that it made sense and she believed it all. we told her aobut Thomas S. Monson and the blessings of having a living prophet. she immediately told us, that the prophet is what was missing in the other churches she's been to. to know that there was a prophet leading us today made her so happy and she said that she has no trouble believing it because it just makes sense!! the spirit was so strong in our lesson and the Lord truly has prepared her to receive the Gospel at this time in her life. she said "the Lord knows my heart and that's why He had me work here at the temple."

the family that we're teaching our preparing for baptism. they are amazing!! the father, although he doesn't speak much english, is so intune with the spirit! he knows how to recognize the spirit and he knows what he needs to do. we should be finishing our lessons with them this week and having their interview, so that next week they can be baptized. they are such a humble family that the Lord is mindful of and knows that they are ready to raise and strengthen their family in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

on friday we had a baptism! she was one of our kiribati investigators that came to go to LDS college for school and she's living with a member family. from teaching her i have truly seen the importance of members in the work. taking members to lessons brings an extra testimony and a strong spirit in the lesson. when we take members to lessons it lets them see what we do as missionaries and gets them excited and want to share the Gospel to their friends and other family members. we took one of our YSA girls who's preparing to leave for the Philippines on her mission. every lesson we took her to, you could see the change and her testimony growing and getting stronger. but the baptism was really nice and as soon as she came out of that water she had the biggest smile on her face. knowing that she was clean and pure. that's one of the greatest sights as a missionary, seeing your investigator coming out of the water with a huge smile on their face because they know that they made the right choice. they know what they gotta do.

so this week was full of blessings and im so grateful for it. there's a lot of work to do here in fiji and im grateful i get to be a part of it. hope all is well back at home. sounds like everyone is sun-kissed. lucky!! being in suva where it rains AND in a car doesn't give you a really good tan. haha! but whatevs!! the kids are getting so big it's crazy!! au lomani kemudou!! loloma yani!!

loloma levu,
sista chong