4-2-17 Kaise pariwaar??

Namaste, pariwaar!! Ham hope karta hai aaplogke paas raha ek julum hapta! 

Piche le hapta, kuch nahin hoige. Hamlog khali gharepe baita raha aur kana banais raha. Hamlog tora pariwaarlog mila, lekin dher nahin. Hamaar nawa saati ghare jae mange tabhesdo hamlog bahut kam nahin kare.

This last week was good, the new focus on baptizing converts alone (instead of focusing on less-active members) has opened a LOT of time for finding. Elder Mokie and I found some good potential over the last week and we've been working as closely as possible with our current promising investigators. I just discovered on Tuesday that it will be impossible to baptize Naresh on the date we set for him (April 29th) because of the upcoming stake and general conferences over the next two weeks. We haven't been able to see him to extend the date yet, but we'll try to see him and Shryna two times a week now. Now SHRYNA has an interesting conversion story (in all honesty, if you can call it that).

There was a story told in Nasinu of a little girl baptized in March of 2016. The water in the font was low, and the missionary asked to baptize her was VERY eager for her salvation. When he baptized her, the back of her head hit the bottom of the font and her hand didn't fully go under water. She came up crying, and when asked to be baptized again, she refused. She and her family never came back to church, and the girl never received the Holy Ghost.

We found Shryna when we were out with Raymond Koyamaibole one day, and he pointed out a house he said he used to visit with the missionaries. We visited the home and sat with Shryna and her mother. We had a good lesson with them and they gladly invited us back! Shryna and her mother seemed very comfortable with our presence and spoke of the great lessons they had with missionaries previously. Shryna seems to have remembered everything the missionaries used to teach and even had her own (HUGE) study journal filled with Book of Mormon verses and sections from the Friend magazine. When we left the home, Raymond told us that THAT'S the little girl that was improperly baptized and never received the Holy Ghost. I was filled with excitement to give Shryna this second chance at baptism. Elder Mokie and I visited her on Friday and we found out a bit more about her situation; what happened preceding/following her baptism. She told us that she had decided for herself that she would wait until she was 12 to be baptized. She personally feels that she'll be ready by then. When I asked her "Shryna, why did you decide to be baptized into the LDS church?", her response was shocking and infuriating. 
"I didn't decide. Elder _____ forced me."
Now the way she explained it, it was not an aggressive type of force at all. He simply and literally begged her to be baptized. Pleeeaase be baptized! Please please pleeeease be baptized! Using everything from sad-puppy faces to lolis to get this 9 year old girl into the waters of baptism. 
That absolutely broke my heart. 

She learned a lot about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, I don't doubt that she did have a testimony of the church. She still reads from her bible regularly and has personal prayers every night, often with her mother. However, it was less her choice to be baptized than it needed to be. It needs to be %100 THE CONVERT'S DECISION TO BE BAPTIZED. Decisions like that need to be between the convert and God, NO ONE ELSE. Man should never EVER get in the middle of someone's decision to be baptized or serve a mission or get endowed or get married. These are all saving ordinances (except missionary service of course), and God is the only one who should impress someone truly when in their lives they should perform these ordinances. Truly God does send people into our lives to help us to make the decision and bring us closer to our heavenly father; people to help us to the point where we should inquire of our heavenly father assistance we cannot receive from man. In the end, final decisions are between man and God and only between man and God. 

We invited Shryna to pray about whether or not she should be baptized now, and she accepted.

I testified to her and I testify now that if we ask our father in heaven with a broken heart and a contrite spirit whether or not we should perform the ordinances required for the eternal salvation of our souls, be us worthy and ready to receive an answer, we WILL receive an answer AND that the answer will be YES and NOW. The second coming is near, and NOW is the time to bring in the Lord's flock before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

Shryna has requested more Friend magazines and another Book of Mormon, as all of her LDS study materials were taken from her room by a family member/religion student. She wants to learn more about the church and has even expressed a desire to return! I look forward to visiting her regularly over the next weeks. I see some great potential in her. 

Anyways, that was the highlight of the last week. Forgive me my rant, but I needed that out haha. We have some good work lined up for the next week! 

I'm so glad everything is going well back home! Thank yous so much for the pictures! Sorry for my lack of pictures, my camera is still being dumb. I'll get it fixed, no worries! That's actually something I forgot to kerekere from yous, a new SD card BUT there are some cheap ones here so not to worry. SO excited for stake and general conference! 

Alright we're heading out soon, I love you all so much! Thank you for your love, prayers, and support. 
Ham aaplogke bahut pyaar karta hai hamaar bahut julum pariwaar! Khali achaa kam karo aur apaan dostlogke pyaar dhekaue! 
Khyaal rakna,

Elder ishibashi-Fiji