A Fruitful Week

bula mama!

may day sounding like it was really fun! i missed not going to any may day programs and not seeing everyone wearing leis around on may 1st. but dont worry, i was still thinking about it in my heart :) and by the way....i wear a flower in my ear like everyday. im pretty sure the hibiscus bushes by the temple are going bare because i pick one almost everyday lol. and everywhere i go people call me ms. hibiscus :) i'll take that! haha

anyway...yeah elder wakolo is going next month to be a mission president is arkansas. and i think our mission president comes in at the end of next month of in july. not sure. but we have zone conference tomorrow and it will be Pres. and Sis. Klingler's last one. it's going to be so sad! at the end of every zone conference we have departing testimonies for all the missionaries that are having their last zone conference. and this time it will be the Klinglers sharing their departing testimonies as our mission president. the thing that is horrible is that i live right across and ill be seeing them leave! it's a blessing but at the same time i dont want to see them leave. it'll be hard for all of us and getting use to a new mission president. but im sure he'll be awesome because he is a man called of God and i definitely trust God :) 

well....this week was crazy! we had exchanges last week. (when i was in an area for 5 days) and then we switched back on tuesday when it was transfer day. so we went and picked up and dropped off sisters all over. then, we had to take the new sisters shopping and pick up a sister who flew in from Tonga for a interview at the U.S. embassy for her visa. man! so many people! we had 2 extra sisters staying with us this week and now we're down to one but the craziness just never stops. i guess that's the life of a sister training leader. we also were suppose to have a baptism on saturday but the person didn't come. we talked to him yesterday and he felt really bad and was sorry and just asked us to give him one more chance because he really wants to be a part of this Gospel. we told him that we are only disappointed because we love him and want to see him make those convenants with Heavenly Father so that he can return back to Him. he understood and so we're starting from the beginning. like from the first lesson. he knows what he needs to do and so now it's up to him to actually do it. we'll see how it goes. BUT we should be having a baptism on thursday for our awesome investigator! he had his interview today and he passed! we're so excited :) he has made so many big steps and changes in his life so that he can get baptized. we're so happy and proud of him. 

this week was an awesome proselyting week for us! we picked up 4 new investigators. one was a family which we started teaching. the parents and the eldest daughter who's 8. they already came to church 3 times and we actually met them at church. at a dinner appointment we asked one of our members to pray for a missionary opportunity and find someone that could hear the Gospel. obviously she actually did it and instead of finding us just one, she found us a family! we're so excited to teach them and love their willingness and want to learn more about our Savior Jesus Christ. the fourth new investigator is also a referral from the members. it's a girl who moved here from Kiribati. she's 14 years old and came to go to school and is living with some of our members. she already had lessons there and so we're just asking her questions, seeing how much she remembers, and getting preparing her for baptism. perfect! she's really good though and she has such a kind, sweet spirit. she loves seeing us and wants us to come over like everyday :) we have already given her a baptism date for 7 june. and i know the Lord will help her prepare.

so besides all the crazy things going on we had a very fruitful week. we got new investigators, investigators preparing for baptism, we're back in contact with some of our recent converts who have been MIA for a little while. so i think i can say that it was a wananavu week :) hope all is going well at home. any news? i feel so out of everything over here haha. when does school end? what classes are the kids going to take at summer school? how's the rest of the family doing? well, i think that's all i have for today. love ya! pray for me because i have meetings 3 days in a row!! isa lei!! loloma yani! kalougata tiko!

loloma levu,
sista chong

My Heart if Full of Gratitude

bula mama!!

my heart is full of gratitude for the love and support of each and everyone of my family members and friends back at home who are supporting me on my mission. i know that these last couple of weeks i've been slacking on my letters but know that i am still constantly thinking about you all and working as hard as i can serving my Father in Heaven. i have just realized that now in my mission i am past my half way mark and am now starting to countDOWN. how scary is that!? i've seen so many thing change in myself and i've seen the love of my Father in Heaven every step of the way.

this week i've been reading through the conference issue of the Liahona. i've been reading through from the beginning trying to find talks that could help my investigators and myself in this work. it's amazing how much you miss during the actual General Conference. i was either half a sleep or they just talk way too fast! haha. but as i've been reading through the Liahona i can just feel the love of my Savior encircling me. He has given us a prophet and these apostles because He loves us and wants us to find our way to the strait and narrow. the more i listen and read the words of these prophets, seers, and revelators the stronger and firmer my testimony grows that they are men truly called of God. i encourage you to read the conference issue of the church magazines so that you can highlight and mark all the parts that influence you the most.

this week i have been on exchanges with the other sisters. we went on a special exchange for our mission president starting friday all the way til today. exchanges have taught me to listen. as a sister training leader a lot of the sisters are scared to go on exchanges and just don't want to do it because they think we're just going on exchanges to find everything that's wrong with their area, what their weaknesses are, and how they're being disobedient. BUT we're trying to change that. everytime i go on exchanges i just tell them im just a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on if they need it. almost every sister or even every missionary goes through a really rough time at one point in their mission and we all know for girls it just gets way crazy and dramaz! so as i've been called to this position i've been doing my very best to just be the sister's best friend. make them laugh and enjoy this missionary work as much as i do. gotta love ga!!

we had a baptism this last week. but because i was on that special exchange i wasn't able to make it. but it was for our investigator, Junior. he's a little 8 year old kid from Kiribas and he's so funny. on the day of his baptism Sis. Pyne told me that it took him like 15 minutes for him to get in the font because he was so scared! in order for him to get in they had to send his cousin in to stand there next to the Elder and then Sis. Pyne and his aunty had to hold his hands walking down the stairs. so funny! but he was finally baptized and confirmed on Sunday. Yaaayyyy!!! the Lord's kingdom is growing here in Fiji!!!! Bro. Saba should hopefully be baptized this Saturday so we'll see :)

okay lastly funny story.....so in town there's a place called tapoo city which is like a big american mall. and i went there on exchanges for lunch after a meeting and we had to go up an escalator and it took me about 10 seconds to get one because i haven't ridden one for like almost 10 months now!! i was freaking out!! but dont worry i finally got on and made it safely to this humungous food court!! actually it's the same size as the one at home but to me it was ginormous!! lol okay that's my story moce jo!!

au lomani kemudou!! kalougata tiko!! loloma yani!!

loloma levu,

sista chong 

Mother's Day

Bula!  

No blog post for this week.  We were able to skype with Sista Chong and she is happy, healthy, humble, and Fijian!!  Her Fijian accent is so strong that her younger brother and sister couldn't understand anything she said.....and she was speaking English!! lol.

Mahalo for your prayers and for your support of Sista Chong.  

See you next week :)

Half Way!!!

bula mama!

okay well this week was pretty good. we had exchanges again with some sisters. it was crazy though because we had to switch our schedule like 5 times in one day!! the life as a sister training leader lol. we always have to change our schedule in the last minute because the APs will call us and ask us to do something or tell us that we have someone staying with us that night. it's great! hahaha. it definitely takes some getting use to. 

but this week....first of all ill tell you my embarrassing story of the week. i pretty much proposed to one of our investigators :) isn't that great!!! we were in our lesson and he's suppose to get married to his girlfriend soon before he can get baptized. anyway...we were asking him if we found someone in the church that had the authority to marry, if he would be interested in getting married in the church. he asked how much it would cost and we told him it doesn't cost anything, we just need to find someone with the authority. what i wanted to tell him after that was..."if i had the authority to i would perform the marriage for you and your girlfriend myself." but instead i said, "if i could marry you, i would!!" as soon as it came out of my mouth i was like oh my gosh wait no!! him and sis. pyne was buss laughing at me and i felt so embarrassed. it was a really good thing that we prayed already so i literally just stood up and started walking away. he was like cracking up and calling me. ughhzz i was so embarrassed hahahha! we went back the next day to teach him and as soon as he saw me he just smiled and started laughing. im ruined!! hahahaha!! but whatever such is life i guess lol.

today we got to go to the temple. my first time in like 8 months!! it was so nice to be in the temple again. i needed that peace and quiet and just time to really think and ponder by myself in a place that was so close to my Father in Heaven. i was so grateful to have been able to go inside today and i can't wait for when i go again.

this week we've been really focusing on getting members at our lessons. we've been trying to pick it up since i got here and we're finding more and more people we can take. the other night we were waiting for one of our investigators at the institute and one of the YSA from the other next to us told us that she misses missionary work and the missionaries dont call her to go and so ofcourse we took her! it was so good to have her with us yesterday. and we just got a return missionary in our ward. she just came back from NZ so we'll defs be using her. AND we just got a new ward mission leader. he just got back from the Philippines and is awesome! so im sure our work will move faster now. im excited!!

but that's all i got for this week. everything is going and actually hopefully we'll have 2 baptisms this week. we'll see because they're kind of "iffy" lol. but au lomani kemudou!!

loloma mai,

sista chong

Lost in the Work!

bula mama!

well this week was a busy one! i had my first exchanges with another companionship. i went over to their area while sister pyne brought the other companion to our area. they are in a fijian speaking area. they are the ONLY sisters in the mission that serve in a fijian speaking ward, so im way jealous, but the good thing is that on our exchanges i spoke fijian like all day! it was awesome! i loved it. so i pray i get to serve there one day haha. 

we went and saw one of our golden investigators this week and gave him a baptism date for 29th of may! we actually gave him the 24th originally but he said his birthday was on the 29th so he asked to be baptized on his birthday. how awesome is that! he also told us that he gave his wife his english book of mormon and she's reading it and really likes it! and today he said she wants to start taking lessons, woohoo!! the sad thing about that we teach him in work and so technically he doesn't live in our boundaries. so since his wife will be taking lessons at home we think it's better for him to take lessons with her sooooooo we'll have to give him to the sisters in that area. we're so sad because he was our best investigator but happy because he will be taking lessons with his wife. he still asks amazing questions. like last night we taught about prophets and all the way up to the restoration. he asked us what the difference between a prophet and an apostle. i've never had an investigator care enough to ask a question like that. but he's amazing and it'll be sad to let him go but exciting to see him and his wife get baptized together.

this week we also had stake conference. it was way fun and cool to see how much the church is growing here in fiji. the topic was "hastening the work." on saturday night at the adult session they let all the youth come because they were talking about missionary work. when the stake president got up to speak at one point in his talk he said, "brothers and sisters we need to hurry up and get on Noah's ark, or else your going to be on the Titanic." i was cracking up! like dying! he's an awesome stake president and we're so lucky to have him in our ward. he helps us a lot with the work and really does well in leading the suva north stake. on sunday we had a broadcast from salt lake that was only to fiji, tonga, and one other place i can't remember. but we had david a. bednar and robert d. hales speak to us and it was way good. i think all of the members enjoyed it.

well i can't believe im coming up on my half way mark! i feel like im still new in the mission and i haven't even started anything yet. its crazy how fast time flies. im definitely getting lost in the work here. i find my mind more focused on what im doing here in the work than other things that i use to worry about before. im definitely seeing a big change in myself. it's awesome! but au lomani iko sara valevu!! loloma yani!!

loloma levu,

sista chong

Happy Easter!

bula mama!!

well first of all sorry im a day late but here in fiji their easter lasts from thursday all the way til monday so we were told that the internet shops were closed yesterday and that's why we're emailing today :) anyway...we had an amazing week!! like no joke. first of all on tuesday we went to one of our lessons with a guard. when we got there we found out that it was the wrong guard on duty and it wasn't the one we were looking for, so instead of wasting time we talked to that guard and started sharing a little lesson with him. the Spirit was so strong in the lesson! we just talked about a little bit of everything and about Jesus Christ's life. we asked him if he had any questions and he asked us if miracles still happen today. what an amazing first question!! so we should him the scripture from moroni 7:29-30 and told him that miracles still happen and it was at that moment that we caught his interest. we've met with him 3 more times after that and they have been such powerful lessons. we even committed him to baptism and plan on giving him a date this week. the Lord has truly prepared him to receive the Gospel because he is so open and asks awesome questions. in our second lesson with him he told us that he was going to quit his job. we were so sad and told him that we would send missionaries to his home to continue the lessons. well.....on sunday we called him on the phone to see how he was doing with his Book of Mormon reading. he was really quiet and didn't sound like he usually does. we asked him questions to figure out what was wrong and he told us that he was going to keep working as a security guard until we finish the lessons. sis. pyne and i almost screamed when he told us that. it showed us how the Lord truly does lead us to those who are ready and they are the ones who will do anything to learn this Gospel.

on sunday night we met with our other security guard who was kind of stuck and we weren't sure which step we would take next. so we went to the lesson planning on reading from a Liahona that talks all about the Book of Mormon. as we read from it you could feel that the Spirit was missing. he seemed very distracted and just not focused on the lesson. as we were about the close Elder Wakolo (member of the seventy) came and sat in our lesson. he bore his testimony of how he was converted into the church and how he came to know that it was the only true church, the church of Jesus Christ. our investigator started to cry because he could feel the power of Elder Wakolo's testimony and the love he has for the Gospel. as soon as that lesson ended the investigator told us that he's ready to be baptized. plus Elder Wakolo offered to baptism him on that special day. what a blessing and special opportunity it will be for him to get baptized by Elder Wakolo. 

besides our lessons, i gave my first training last week. we had a meeting as a zone with the zone leaders, the district leaders, the trainers, and the assistants to the President. they asked sis. pyne and i to give a training in the meeting, and i was freaking out!! i dont like to speak in front of people and i just realized that this calling involves speaking in front of people many times. as soon as we found out we would be giving a training i prayed so hard for the Lord to comfort me and give me the confidence i need to share what i need to and to be able to follow the Spirit. as soon as we stood up to give the training my fears disappeared and i wasn't nervous anymore. i knew that the Lord was with me and is mindful of me. he is even mindful of my little baby fears, like speaking in front of people. even though it's a small thing compared to the rest of this world, to me it was a big thing and the Lord was there for me through it all. he took the time to wipe away my fears and give me the strength i needed to give the training. i truly know that no matter how small or no matter how insignificant our needs are compared to the rest of this world, the Lord will help us through it because we mean the world to Him.

yesterday we were having our morning walk when our mission nurse drove past us and told us that her and another senior sister were going to Colo i Suva, which is a little hike thing, where you walk through the forest and look at natural pools. it was so beautiful and it was so fun going with the 2 senior sisters. they're awesome! it's the first time i did something like that while on my mission and i hope we'll be able to do more things like that. im definitely going to have to go back there after my mission so i can swim :) ill send pics!!

but i love being here in Samabula. the ward is good, very supportive in the work. the people are nice. the food is good. the car is making me fat lol. and the work is definitely moving fast. it's hard to keep up sometimes. au lomani kemudou sara valevu! kalougata tiko!!

loloma levu,

sista chong

Bula Suva!!

bula mama!!

well let me just say that suva is way different than Labasa. it's way crazy fast, the people rarely speak Fijian, and well i have a car! hahaha everything is so different!! but i love it. not as much as Labasa because you always love your first area the most, but i still love it here because it's still Fiji, so i can't complain lol. the people in the ward are way nice. i got to meet a few because we watched general conference this week, but the ones i did meet were nice. but i love it here. we live like right down the road from the temple so we can see it all day everyday and it looks so beautiful at night. i've never lived so close to a temple so it's way weird but such a blessing. it reminds me every minute of the day how blessed i am to be on my mission and to remember to always keep my covenants that i made in there. i'm excited for the day we get to go and do a session this quarter. 

what's awesome about this area is the people we teach. well more specifically, the security guards. in our area we have the temple, LDS primary school, and Elder Wakolo (member of the seventies). anyway...so they all have security guards 24 hours watching the properties and they're not all members. so ofcourse being missionaries, we go and talk to the guards all the time and in fact we're teaching 3 of them. two of them the sisters started teaching before i got here but there's one that we just met yesterday and he's awesome! and even better...we teach him in Fijian!! it was weird because usually when i know i have to teach in Fijian i get really nervous and scare myself, but yesterday i was very relaxed and i was able to say everything i wanted to with ease. it was awesome!!!! 

general conference this week was amazing as usual. i loved the talks from the sunday morning session. my favorite was the sister that is a member of the primary general presidency. (sorry i dont have my notes so i forgot her name) but i loved her talk about the love of our Heavenly Father and how important the family is. i've been helping a lot in primary lately and i've seen how much emphasis the first presidency is putting on families. the theme is "families are forever." Heavenly Father knows how Satan is trying to destroy families and He is doing all He can to help us fight against the things and those who are trying to break up our families. the primary is learning a song, "the family is of God." it's a cute song. it talks about the role of the mother, father, and the children in a family and how important the family is to our Father in Heaven. so i think that's why that sisters talk stood out to me is because i've been really working with the primary and i know what they're learning and what Heavenly Father wants them to learn about our families.

my companion is sis. pyne!! and it's such a blessing because we both know exactly why we're here and what we need to do in order to help the sisters in this mission. our first step....OBEDIENCE!! we both know the importance of exact obedience and we know that we can't do it alone and so we are working on it together so that we can be good examples to the sisters we serve. lead by example. 

well that's all that's been happening so far. not much because i've only been here for 4 days so there's a lot more to see and do. the transition night sounded awesome and aunty stella sent me some pictures. looks fun! also i was cracking up about dad's story!! that was a good one. 

au lomani kemudou sara valevu!!

loloma levu,

sista chong

sorry this is the story about the new security guard we started teaching...

on saturday during General Conference one of our members told us that he had a referral for us. it was the guard on duty at the Primary School. after conference was finished we went with the member to meet him and scheduled an appointment  to meet with him the next day. so yesterday we went and met with this brother. we began the lesson and sis. pyne was introducing herself and asked if he had any questions. thinking he was going to ask a question about her he surprised us when he asked, "can you explain about your church?" that caught us way off guard and so we started giving an overview of the Restoration and Gospel of Jesus Christ. he then asked us "what do i have to do to become a member?" i thought to myself "whoa! this guy is ready!" so we just told him about the lessons and the importance of baptism. he understood and we continued explaining a little more. at the end of the lesson we read Moroni 10:3-5 with him and we asked him what he learned from the scripture. he told us that if anyone reads the word of God you have to do it with all your heart and want to do it and then to pray about it. he nailed it! he then shared with us that usually when he reads in Fijian he's really slow and choppy, but when he read the scripture in that lesson it was easy. we asked him what that meant to him and he told us, "this book must be true and the word of God." inside i was going crazy! i couldn't believe what was happening. it just showed me that the Lord truly does prepare people for us to teach. also how important the spirit is when you teach, especially when you teach in a different language because we don't know the language as well as they do but it's the spirit that helps them to understand what we're saying and the spirit is the one to help us remember what to say. it's amazing how the spirit works!