A Missionary in Fiji.... Now that's the Life!!

bula mama!!

i can't believe that you guys are in disneyland again!! that's like what...the tenth time!! my goodness. but it doesn't matter because im in the best place in the world. haha...but really. a missionary in fiji.... now that's the life!!

but this week just flew right by!! i can't believe it's monday already. we had exchanges this week and so when you have something out of the ordinary in your schedule it just makes the days fly right by. it's ridiculous!! but im enjoying every minute of lami. the other day we went and visited our investigator, whose husband is a member, and we taught her about the Restoration. when we walked out of that lesson we didn't feel very good about it and we felt like we could've taught it a whole lot better then we did. so we studied and role played the next couple days until we were going back on saturday for our next lesson. as we taught the lesson you could feel the Spirit there. you could tell that it was something very different and new to her and it's going to take her a while to receive her answer. in that same lesson we committed her to be baptized when she came to know these things were true and she accepted. she said it'll take her some time but when she receives her answer, she will be baptized. 

we also went and taught another one of our investigators who the elders before us made a notes saying that she asks plenty questions!! so ofcourse me and my companions are like "oh yeah!" haha so we went and asked her if she had any questions about the plan of salvation, which was her last lesson. she had a couple really good questions. she asked us to explain more about the 3 kingdoms and the differences, she asked us, if there's a guy who does everything that was right and just but just didnt have a religion compared to another guy who had a religion and was baptized and everything but sinned and then repented all the time, which one would Jesus Christ take? as soon as she asked that question the talk, "his grace is sufficient" came into my mind. we explained to her that Christ doesn't only want some of us, but all of us! he's going to ask us to use His Atonement in our lives. also that first guy would have the chance to be baptized in the spirit world. as we answered her question it helped her realize and see that Heavenly Father's plan is perfect!! there are no loop holes!! isn't that amazing!? Heavenly Father loves us so much that he doesn't leave us wondering, but gives us a way that if we follow it, we will return to Him. 

on thursday we went and did service for this one fijian family. the have a teitei (farmland) kind of by their house and they took us out there to go cute the grass and weeds growing around their dalo and cassava and stuff. so we went to do that, oh yeah and did i mention that we did all this with a cane knife!! so you see 4 sister missionaries, obviously not from fiji, walking to the teitei, each with a cane knife in their hand. what a sight aye!! lol but we worked out there for like 2 hours and i got so dark! and the worse tan lines! ugh but it was a lot of fun. the old fijian lady that we helped is bu bibi. she's like this cute, old fijian lady, that's hunched over because she worked in the teitei her whole life. but we kept telling us, "dou sa oca, sa rauta!" which means, "if you guys are tired, then enough." haha she was such a funny lady. she sang to us and just kept talking and at the end she had her grandson climb the coconut tree and get us some coconuts to have after we worked. it was nice :)

we're still trying to find all of our investigators from the elders before, but they dont answer their phones and stuff so we're hoping a member will show us their house this week. im making every day count :) crazy how fast time is going. it's already november, say what!? and in sacrament our ward is already singing christmas hymns....making me nervous hahaha!! well au lomani kemudou!!

loloma levu,

sista chong

The Work in Fiji Continues

Dinner at Bishop's

bula mama!!

well nothing really new this week. we're still wandering around with the Spirit hahaha! it's really fun :) and we've been able to meet so many different people from it. 

this week we were able to visit a husband that's less active, but his wife and kids are not members. he came to church last week for the first time in over 20 years and he told our bishop that he is committed and is ready to come back. so we went and visited his family on saturday. before we walked out of the flat we said a prayer (as usual) and then something told me to grab 2 book of mormons. so i went and grabbed them before we left. when we got to their house we talked story and got to know them and then we started our lesson. as soon as we finished the opening prayer the husband asked us where they could get a book of mormon. when he asked that inside i was like "oh my gosh!! this is crazy!! i got 2 book of mormons in my bag!!" so i opened my bag and gave them to him. i told him that something told me to grab them before we walked out the door and now i knew why. he was so touched and we started to teach him and his wife more about the book of mormon. we shared with them moroni 10:3-5 and they both committed to start reading it as a family. we then invited them to church and he was like, "dont worry sisters, im never missing another sunday."

the next day was sunday and we walked into the chapel and guess who was sitting there already.....the whole family!!!! he brought his wife and kids with him to church!!! oh my gosh my companion and i wanted to just like jump up and down and scream haha. best feeling ever!!

we are also teaching another less active. he's an older man and has been a member for a while. we taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ this week and the Spirit was so powerful!! it made me realize how important it is for us to endure to the end. enduring to the end is what we pretty much do our whole lives!! if we dont endure to the end then we can't go back to our Heavenly Father. it is such an important step that we need to take. it hit me real hard in that lesson and i told myself that i will do everything i can for the rest of my life to endure to the end.

well i love you all!! sorry it's a little short this week. ill do my best to write more next week, but no promises :) hahaha au lomani kemudou!!

This Toko, aka TOKS!

This is Kanani!  We 'olelo in Hawaiian.  hahahaha.

Fijian kid's favorite game "Vaqiqi Taia"

Training in Lami!

bula mama!!

well im gonna be honest, this was a long week!!! i swear we did so much this week. partially because i had to help sis. matheson with transfers all day wednesday and so we woke up at about 430am two days in a row!! and you know how i am waking up early in the morning hahaha! but we made about 3 or 4 runs to the airport to pick up and drop off different sisters and then we were just driving back and forth transferring all the sisters to their new area. then finally we are here in our new area :) I LOVE IT!!! 

my new companion is sis. crichton and she is from australia. she came pre-trained!! no joke. she has just jumped into the work and is getting the hang of things already. sometimes i forgot that im training her because it's like she's been out for a while. until she says, "ummm what are we suppose to be doing now?" then i remember that she's still in training and is still learning missionary life haha. but she's awesome! our first lesson together she was already teaching right along side me which im so grateful. we get along a little too well haha. people probably think we're crazy when they see us walking down the road because we're always laughing and jumping around. so fun! also everyone thinks we're sisters or cousins or something. it's way funny.

our new area, lami 2nd is amazing! the members that we were able to meet so far were so nice and they showed us around a little. it's an english ward but everyone speaks fijian!! our first day in the area i was kind of overwhelmed because i didn't speak fijian in my last area, but now that's all we speak. and i love it!! it's fun helping sis. crichton learn fijian. she has a desire to learn and im learning as well! i already feel my fijian getting better and better everyday that we go out and meet members or just anyone. 

on thursday it was our first full proselyting day together in lami. so we looked at our map and picked an area called "qauia" and decided we were just gonna follow the map there and wander around. so that's what we did. one of the members we met the night before was so nice and dropped us at qauia and then we just walked in and wandered around BY THE SPIRIT :) we called one of our investigators that lived there and were able to go visit her and found out she was getting baptized on saturday! so good thing we went and saw her. then she told us she wanted to be baptized by one of the members that lived pretty close. so we went to their house looking for him and found like 3 houses full of members!! what a blessing and a miracle! we met a huge family that were all members and they helped us to find some other members and even one of our less actives. it was definitely a day of miracles.

so if you haven't noticed yet, yes i am walking again. haha! me and sis. crichton are on the same level, both out of shape. it's her first time walking long distances (like all the missionaries when they first get here) and ive been driving in a car for 6 months. soooooo we're working on it together. the first day we walked we were both dripping with sweat and it looked like we just ran a marathon and really we only walked for like 20 minutes lol. but it gets easier and easier. but its been raining everyday!! saturday we were walking to qauia village and it was pouring! by the time we got to our appointment (who wasn't home) it looked like we didn't even use an umbrella at all! haha it was fun though...sis. crichton had a lot of fun. 

io....so to start of our new area we had 2 baptisms on sunday. they were suppose to be on saturday but there was no water in the chapel so we had to move it. so sunday we had the baptism and it was really special. good thing we could find those 2 investigators before the baptism haha. but the ward was very supportive, so im grateful. 

well that's about it for me today. i love my new area!! i love my companion!! and i love my mission!! maybe not walking in the pouring rain so much but we can't have everything we want :) au lomani kemudou sara valevu!! sota tale na macawa mai qo!!

loloma levu,
sista chong

Getting Transfered!

bula mama!!

well i finally watched conference!!! it was amazing as usual!! also im getting transferred!! also i got a call from the office on friday asking what airport i was flying home to. and lastly, i got into a mini car accident on saturday!! so you can see i had a fun filled week.

so let's start with transfers. i have been released as a sister training leader and i will now be training and white washing an area. can you believe this will be my last area!? anyway let's not think about that. but im not moving too far from samabula, im actually still in the same zone/stake. i dont know who i will be training yet. there are 3 new sisters coming in today and the funny thing is i have to take them shopping in town and so im gonna get to know them real good so that no matter which one i train, we'll be friends already haha. so im actually white washing an elder's area. so we'll see how that goes. im a little nervous, okay very nervous, but i know the Lord will help me!

so the car accident.....dont worry nothing major, im fine!! we were driving to pick up our member present and we were about to turn right off of the main highway when all of a sudden we heard like tires skidding. and i looked in my rear view mirror and saw this taxi just coming right at us. and then *BOOM* he hit us from the back. we didnt know what to do so we pulled over and he did too and we talked and had to call the police for a police report for the church records and stuff. so we called the police and waited there for 1 hour!!! no one came!!!! PLUS while we were waiting this fijian guy walked out of the house we were parked in front of and he was real nice until he started preaching to us. seriously!! i was not in the mood to be bible bashed!! so we just let him go off and finally decided that we were just gonna drive down to the police station. so we went there and the police got mad at us because i guess the law in fiji is if you get in an accident you just park your car right there, dont move! even if you cause traffic or anything you just stay there. but we got all that taken care of and only had time to do one lesson after that. goodness!

now conference!! sis. matheson and i felt like it was christmas!! we were so excited!! i enjoyed how a lot of the talks were about parenting, coming unto Christ, sustaining the prophet, and the sacrament. i could write a whole book about what i learned but what i want to share with you is the talks about the sacrament. one of the questions i had going into conference was "what can i do more to finish my mission strong?" the talks about sacrament were given i knew that as a missionary i needed to focus more on the sacrament. really thinking about the bread and water and what they represent. i want to make the sacrament a truly spiritual experience, a holy communion, and a renewal of my soul. i like how sister cheryl a. espin said that when we ponder during sacrament, we dont just think about all the mistakes we made and the temptations we gave into, but we need to think of all the opportunities that the Savior gave us throughout the week. when she said this it made me think about an experience i had about a month ago. we were on exchanges and had all fall throughs. no one was home and no one wanted to see us so i was like okay we'll go to this less actives house that ive never met. the one chinese family on our list. so we went. as we pulled up the son was right by the gate. so we were able to set a time to visit him and his family. that was an opportunity the Savior gave me because that family is never outside!! so we went back that Sunday and met that boy's uncle who is not a member and you know what!! now he is going to be baptized on sunday!!!!! right there....an opportunity from the Lord. lastly, i loved when sis. espin talked about when the aaronic priesthood passes the sacrament. when they stretch out their arms to pass the sacrament, they are representing the Savior, as if He were stretching out His arms to us and telling us to come unto Him and be made clean. what a thought!! i loved that!! 

well i hope that you have watched all the sessions of conference! there's good stuff in every single one. remember to sustain our beloved prophet by standing behind him and praying for him. au lomani kemudou sara valevu!! sota tale na macawa mai qo!! moce jo!

loloma levu,

sista chong

This is how we do it!

bula mama!

well this week was crazy as always. on monday we got to go to pacific harbor, which was way fun. we played volleyball, rugby, and football on the beach. also sis. matheson and i built a sand turtle, named him "Mong." haha. but we were playing volleyball a little bit and then the elders started to play football so i jumped in. the only sister. and you know it has it's

advantages because as missionaries we gotta keep our distance, elders and sisters, you know? so

all i had to do was get about an arm distance away from the elders and they were down. (we were playing touch that's why) and then when i had the ball they would get too nervous to come too close hahaha!! so you know what.....i scored 2 touchdowns!! they thought girls can't catch,  well they learned they're lesson after i scored twice lol. it was a lot of fun!! it reminded me a lot of home, plenty temptation to jump in the water, but good thing i love being a missionary so much!! haha

oh yeah....well we were driving to the beach which was like a 45 minute drive and guess what happened. i got my first speeding ticket!!!!!!!!! of my life!!!!!!!! it was so scary, i thought i was gonna get arrested but then i remembered that's not how things work for speeding lol. but you know what i was only going 64kph in a 50kph area. that's only 8mph over the speed limit!!!! but no matter, i still had to pay for my speeding ticket haha. good thing im friends with the senior elder in charge of the cars and stuff :)

for family home evening we went to our recent convert's house and had family home evening with her and her sister who came to church for the first time last week. it was a good lesson. we talked about temples and how important they are because their family can be together forever. after they fed us and my goodness i almost fell over and died, they made us eat so much!!! haha.

on friday it was fiji day!! so pretty much no one wanted to see us unless we were just there to eat hahah nah but i think that's what they were really thinking but they're just too nice. but we worked hard this week and were able to get 2 new investigators!! which is a huge success for us. we've been really trying to find new investigators for a long time and i feel that since we've been doing our part, the Lord is now blessing us and helping us. 

a huge lesson that i learned this week from many things that happened is, there's always

someone else in this world that has it worse than you. recently, ive been really low because we haven't been able to find people to teach and just so many things ive been worrying about and stressing about. but this week i learned first hand that i don't have it the worst! not at all! it

was kind of a slap in my face and a good lesson learned that i need to stop worrying about myself and just serve others and forget about myself.

on thursday we didn't have any electricity, which is very common here in fiji. but we ended cooking dinner in the candle light. it was fun!! we made curry, tomato chutney, and it was delicious!! good times. 

but that's all for this week. one more week before the next transfer. let you know if im staying or going next week. loloma yani!!

loloma levu,
sista chong

Our Beautiful Hawaiian Girl

Strengthening the Members

bula mama!!

well, we're a little early today because we're going to pacific harbor as a zone. i think it's like a beach or something but lucky us....we can't go swimming!! ugh!! dont know if i like this idea or not but then i remembered that not everyone has a beach to go to when they get home hahaha!! but ill take plenty pictures for you when we go. not very good beach weather but whatevs, charge large!!

this week was a pretty crazy and stressful week. we went on 3 exchanges because we're trying to hit all 9 companionships we cover before the next transfer which is in about 2 weeks. we have another 3 this week and then we get a little break and only have to do 2 next week. also sis. matheson and i are really having a hard time because we cannot find people to teach! we have been parking our cars at home and walking down the roads just trying to talk to as many people as we can. actually on thursday we did this on exchanges. i had sis. levave with me, who is in her like 10th week of training. we saw a man raking the grass in his compound and so we were walking over there to see if he needed any help. well....we saw his son about 7 years old maybe and waved at him as we walked to the fence. he just looked at us and put up his fist like he wanted to fight us. i was like oh my gosh this crazy child!! so we started to walk away and i turned to look at the kid and he was picking up rocks and started throwing them at us! some people's kids!!! i was like what in the world...AND...his dad didn't do anything about it. and then as we continued walking we decided to cross the street and as soon as we did a dog came running out of the first house and so i turned right back around and crossed back over. this one fijian lady walking by saw and was laughing so hard, so we joked around with her and started to talk to her more. so im not a real big fan of street contacting right now.

we met with our bishop yesterday in church and he asked us to go and start visiting the members. he said that we need to start to try to strengthen the members in our ward so that when we either bring people back or bring new investigators to church they can feel the spirit there in the chapel. so that's something we're going to start doing a lot more. hopefully as we do this the members will start to want to share the Gospel to their friends and family. i encourage you all to do the same!! think about how much the Gospel has blessed your lives and how you want it to bless your best friend's life just as much.

we also had one of our recent converts bring her sister to church yesterday. it was amazing!! we didn't even tell her to do that. her and her sister had been reading the book of mormon together and already in 2 nephi. and then yesterday they both came to church and stayed all 3 hours. her sister's oldest daughter, about 4 yrs old, loved primary!! which i was so happy about!! we took the sister to sunday school where she actually shared and felt really comfortable. then we took her to relief society and the lesson was about the 10 virgins. it was about the little things we need to do, to add more oil to our lamps. i think she really enjoyed her time in church and hopefully she'll be ready to learn more soon.

we did a training this week as well and talked about matt. 11:28-30. how we need to yoke ourselves with Christ. how we need to take all the worries that we can't do anything about today and cross it off our list. we need to focus on the things that we can change right now and only if we yoke ourselves with Christ and seek His help. we also talked about how as missionaries we are more stressed then ever before, even though this is the Lord's work. but it's because as missionaries we also learn to rely more fully on the Lord and really yoke ourselves with Him. we need to become like Him, follow Him, so that we are right in line with him. 

well, i hope you're all doing amazing!! life is going good here. au lomani kemudou!! 

loloma levu,
sista chong

good night....sleep tight. donʻt let the bed bugs bite!!

Lami! The area next door to us! :)

bula mama!!

did you know that bed bugs are real?!?!?! we had exchanges this week and sis. matheson went to their flat while one of the other sisters came and stayed with me in our area. when went to exchange back the next day, sis. matheson got in the car and she was almost crying as she told me the story of all the bed bugs. she said that while she was sitting on the bed talking, she saw a bug and just flicked it off (because there's always bugs in the house in fiji) and then she started to get itchy but thought it was mosquitoes. so then they were getting ready for bed and the lights are off and she starts scratching even more. the sister passed out already and she was there alone, in the dark, getting eaten alive by bed bugs!! she then took her pillow to the bathroom and started pulling off all the bed bugs that were on there. when she went back in the bed room she decided she was gonna just sleep on the ground. but still she was itchy like crazy!! she went back to the bathroom, took the bed bugs off her sheet, pillow, clothes, everything!! she went back to the room and thought that if she sleeps in the corner, furthest away from the bed, she would be okay. nope!! so she gave up and just read an ensign and finally fell asleep at about 430am, and had to wake up at 630am. she probably got about 200 bug bites that night!!! i felt so bad for her. but she's such a strong girl, but we're definitely not going back to that flat. so remember.....BED BUGS ARE REAL!!

this week we also had mission leadership council. we had elder and sister taylor, who is the mental health doctor for the whole pacific, come and talk to us. i learned so much!! he talked to us about companionships. it was like almost the same exact thing that we said in our training last week in train the trainers. amazing!! he talked about doing things because we want to...not because we have to. if we think like that, then we'll do more things with a better attitude. so that's something that im going to work on...doing things because i want to, not because i have to.

but from that meeting we have gotten a lot more phone calls from district and zone leaders for our help with the sisters. it's definitely making us busier than we already were. but it's a good busy. definitely helping me get lost in the work. i have no time to think about anything else. we are focusing on going on exchanges with all 9 companionships we cover every transfer cycle (every 6 weeks). so we're definitely staying busy :)

we were teaching one of our investigators the plan of salvation this week and it finally clicked how amazing this plan is!! there are no missing pieces, there's no way to get out of anything. it is complete and it all makes sense!! as i was baring my testimony at the end of the lesson, i was sharing how important modern revelation is because without it we wouldn't have this full plan. i started to take out all the pieces that we wouldn't have if it weren't for modern revelation to the prophet Joseph Smith. as i slowly took one piece at a time, it finally came down to just earth life and death. that's all!! i asked our investigator if this the kind of plan she wants for her life. she was looked at me like i was crazy and said, "ofcourse not!! that's like nothing!!" i then bore my testimony of the importance of the Restoration of this Gospel of the revelation given to the prophet Joseph Smith. how lucky we are to know the entire plan, it's not a secret!!

well that's about all that happened this week that i can remember. we had water this week! and some rain so hopefully our pipes won't go dry again lol. or bring out the buckets hahaha. au lomani kemudou!! 

loloma levu,

sista chong

Sister P-Day Stuff

 

 

"Luve ni ika" or "offspring of fish".  Fish eggs - Straight from the fish and still in the tubes. 

Face masks with the Ba Sisters! Sister Laru and Sister Mauga. 

went on exchanges with the newest sister in the mission....sis. malito!