6-10-16 2nd letter home from the MTC!

Bula vinaka family!! I'm so sorry but I'm going to have to keep this a little on the short side, as my time is limited, but WHAT A WEEK.

My lessons with our first investigator, Kalivati (Brother Ladoux, friend of Herb's) went pretty well if I do say so myself. I only cried after my first lesson, only went uphill from there. I also did run into someone that also knew Herbert! We were on a temple walk (where we just walk around the temple grounds and hang out there for a little bit on Sundays) and this guy walks but in a sulu and sandles yelling "Heyy! Any Fiji missionaries??" My district stopped and represented, I asked if he knew Elder Ishibashi and he's like "Yeah! (reads my badge) Hey!! I commented on your call opening video!! Wananavu!" Small world ay? I love my district, such strong spirits, Elder Hunkin is honestly such an inspiration to me. He's really obedient and faithful, such a good teacher, boy am I blessed. I can't send pictures right now for some reason, I will sometime today though!! I'm so blessed guys, I'm doing just incredible. To close, and you can have Herb interpret it, au via wasea na noqu ivakadinadina (also, sorry Herb if the translation is a little rough. Nah I'm not)
Au kila ni bula na Kalou, ka lomana keda na Kalou. Au kila ni dina na lotu, ka na dina na kosipeli. Au vakadinadinataka ni kila keda gagadre na Kalou. Au vakadinadinataka ni dina na ivola i Momani, ka Porofita dina o Josefa Simici. Au vakavinakataka na noqu matavuvale, noqu matavuvale wananavu!

I'm out of time, I'll add a little more and post pictures later, I'm doing great! Thank you guys for everything.

Au lomani kemudou valevu, noqu matavuvale ka itokani wananavu.

Yadra, and moce,

Elda Ishibashi

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[The following is a 2nd email tha we received from Elder Ishibashi on his preparation day]

I have some time! Devotionals are Sundays and Tuesday nights. Sunday night, we had Sheri Dew! Excellent talk, excellent speaker.

Tuesday night, we had Elder David A. Bednar!! Let me tell you, noqu matavuvale! What. An. Experience. BECAUSE, he didn't just talk. I'm not entirely certain I'm allowed to talk about it, I don't know why I wouldn't be able to but yeah, (it was so sacred) he actually wrote a song. He noticed the few times in the Book of Mormon it says "one by one", and every one of those scriptures are super strong, so he wrote lyrics about it and had a pianist compose music for it. I was in the choir that performed that song publicly for the first time ever. I got shivers TYPING that, guys. It was incredible to say the least. The song will be published in the New Era next month I believe, entitled "One by one". The Spirit of the song and the message of the song brought me to tears. Incredible. Just incredible.

The language, as you might be able to see from my testimony, has improved a lot since last week. Though still crazy broken, my Fijian is waking up. Elder Tiafala is being really patient with me, as we've come to the lab on splits and he finished his writing like ten minutes ago. I honestly love these guys, men I've known for not much longer than a week, but now we are brothers.

I thank God every single morning, multiple times a day, and every single night for this opportunity to serve. I pray for all of your safety and well being in every single prayer. I love you all so much, as I've said before, more than I can express in words. For everything you've done for me, everything you've helped me to become, two years away is the absolute least I can do to show my appreciation to both you folks and the Lord. Know I'm happy, know I love my district like brothers and my zone like family. My studies are going really well.

Au vakavinavinakataka no noqu matavuvale wananavu valevu.

If I have one request, it's to write through DearElder.com throughout the week. I wanna hear from you guys!

I love you guys so much, I'm gonna let Elder Tiafala eat lunch now I guess. You guys are the best, moce!!!