2-12-17 NO TRANSFER, same me and area and companion but NEW INVESTIGATORS!!

NAMASTE hamaar bahut julum pariwaar!!

This week has been a good one! As you can probably tell by the title, neither Elder Datoon or I were transferred from Nasinu. It was a bit tough for Elder Datoon, given that he had been serving in Nasinu for four and a half months and the Suva zone for a total of about 9 months. He really wanted to see a new area, but I see his dedication and readiness to fight through another transfer as always. Though it might seem like a bit of a 'welp, just the same thing again' kind of situation, I'm really looking forward to finding new people and teaching the people we've recently found!

One person we found recently (really he was a referral from Bishop Kumar but same thing) was Tabokai Metang. A few weeks ago, I saw two unfamiliar faces at church and I was never able to get around to greeting them before they disappeared. Two young boys, maybe 14-16, not Fijian or Indian. That week at dinner with bishop, he told us that he wanted us to visit a kiribati boy that lived near the chapel and attended church that previous Sunday. The boy came with his cousin, who's a member, and he has a desire to be baptized. He gave us the address and we visited and met Tabokai a few days later at his home. He's a wayy chill kid, always smiling and welcoming when we show up unannounced (which is kind of awkward when we show up and his living room is full of people, he sees us and shoo's the whole family into another room to let us in. They're all devout catholic). When we visited with Tabokai on Friday night, his cousin George just happened to be there (he lives in a different area)! What a blessing that was! We tried for a while to figure out how we could get George to sit in on a lesson with us so he could help us to translate, since Tabokai's English is pretty limited. We discovered, however, that George's English is significantly more limited despite having lighter skin BUT (I'm just kidding) we look forward to progressing with Tabokai! He committed to being baptized on March 11.

Yesterday, we held a missionary fireside at the chapel! It was honestly way good, a good handful of people turned up, way more than I expected! After some opening exercises, the members split up into two groups to attend the two workshops we had going on. One was run by the sisters in the culture hall, about the importance of members in fellowshipping new faces. The other, run by Elder Datoon and I, was about the importance of members sharing the gospel anywhere at any time and referring people to the missionaries. It was way nice just sharing with the members and getting them involved in the roleplay scenarios we prepared for them.

SHOOT I lost track of time writing people back, but that's okay because that was pretty much the whole week for me. LOTS of finding over the last week and the next week, excited to get to work! Please tell pinoy Elder Ishibashi that I love him!!

I'm glad everything is going well back home! I'm overwhelmed with joy as I curl up in my prayer ball in bed every night thinking about the great blessings the Lord is showering on my family in my temporary absence, as well as the countless blessings I receive every day as a result of your continued prayers and efforts back home. Thank you all so much for your prayers, and know that yous are in my prayers every morning and every night. I love you all so much, thank yous for everything!!

Ham aaplogke baHUT pyaar karta hai!

Aapke larkaan,

Elder Ishibashi