Iis hapta BAHUT julum raha! Haamlog bahut achaa kam kara aur dher jan mila. Lekin saabse zaruri chiij hai, haamlogke paas 14 anveshaklog baptismal dates ke sange! Haam bahut kushi rahe apaan kam ke bara me iis pichle hapta me, aur haam dher aur kam karega iis agle hapta me! Jon kam wahaapar bahut achaa hai abhi, aur haamlog iis jaga aur julum banaega. Bahut dhanyavaad applogke dher pratna ke liye, haam sakta jon ashivaad dekhe uus pratnase hamaar mission me. Haam aaplogke bahut pyaar karta, dhanyavaad saabchiij ke liye!
MAN what a week it's been!
This last week was transfer week, which doesn't really apply to me because I've stayed here with Elder Mo'unga. We're actually the only companionship in the entire zone to have not changed, which will be interesting as we see the new zone at qito today. Anyways, transfer weeks are always a bit slower because the leadership missionaries are busy making sure the transferring missionaries are in the right place at the right time, going to the right place and getting there at the right time, etc.
We came up a bit shorter on the finding-spectrum of the work last week, however, we were still able to get some awesome work done.
Danya and Jayden are progressing really well, but for some reason they didn't come to church yesterday. We're seeing them tomorrow to check up on why.
We're also working closely with an old couple. Kumarii comes to church every Sunday and is strong in his faith, we've set him up to be baptized on the 22nd of July. His wife, Kala, is also very strong in her faith and desires to be baptized, but she can't walk properly without assistance. Her only issue is getting to church because of her handicap. We've been trying for weeks to get her a wheelchair from church services so she can come to church, but we were just informed yesterday that the user must have absolutely no ability to walk in order to receive a one. She slowly scoots around the house by using a chair as a walker, but I don't know that she has the physical capability to leave the house, leave the koro (village), walk out to the main road, taxi (if she can afford it) to the chapel, then have to scoot around the chapel with the constant assistance of an able-bodied member. Kumarii will not be baptized without Kala, so we're putting a lot of prayer and fasting into those two right now.
Though the week was awesome, yesterday (Sunday) was especially interesting. Upon entering the chapel, I saw two new palagis I'd never seen before. It's not uncommon to see palagis in the chapel as there's always a senior couple or two, but these were two older men. I saw that one was bald and wore glasses, and looking at him from the back, I thought for a split second: Holy smokes, if that's President Eyring...
I walked around the back of the chapel shaking hands with the few people there, when I saw one of the senior couples walk in and approach the palagis. I saw Elder Miller shake hands with the one with the glasses, who I heard introduce himself as John Shute.
I looked at him directly and studied him with my terrible eyes from afar for a good minute. My mind was able to piece what I heard and what I saw together: Yeap. That's Brother Shute. I could see his mind doing the same thing as I approached him and shook his hand. It was SOOO weird but nice to stand there with Brother Shute in a chapel in Fiji. We got to talking, we were able to take some pictures, and he shared with me and the other missionaries present the story of how the Suva 1st Ward chapel came to be. I'll share that story later on because we're kind of short on time. Anyways it was SO great seeing Brother Shute again, give their family my aloha kerekere!
Another awesome thing happened yesterday, but it starts from two weeks ago. I talked a bit about Bennet a bit in my last letter (the man who moved from Vanuatu). We had set an appointment with him for Saturday last week. When we arrived at his home we met his wife, Fifin, who'd always been at school when we visited. Bennet wasn't home, but we asked if we could share a message with her and her family. After an awesome lesson, she also accepted to be baptized if she came to know that she could truly be sealed to her family forever. I felt prompted to invite her to church the next day, and she agreed to come if she found the time. As I've shared before, getting people to church is the most head-ache thing. It's a struggle to find people who are committed enough to actually come to church, so you could imagine my unparalleled joy when Fifin and two of her kids walked into sacrament meeting yesterday (even if it was during the closing hymn)! Having someone come to church THE DAY after meeting them as been unseen in my experience, making this even more incredible. During the lesson on Saturday, she asked if it were mandatory to stay the entire three hours. We said it wasn't, and that the sacrament was the most important part of the service, but we strongly suggested that she do stay. When we got to talking to her after sacrament, she said she would stay for the remaining two hour blocks. She was immediately introduced to two returned-missionaries from the Vanuatu, Port Vila mission who spoke Bislama as well. We didn't even have to introduce one of them (a relief-society presidency member), she saw that Fifin was holding a Vanuatuan bag and knew immediately that she's the investigator we spoke of during ward counsel. She just walked up, grabbed Fifin's kid, kissed Fifin and introduced herself in Bislama. She took over our investigator and escorted Fifin and her kids to their respective classes. WHAT A BLESSING it is to have such loving members who are ready and willing to reach out to every new face they see. We meet with her again, and hopefully her entire family, tomorrow evening.
We currently have 14 investigators with a date to be baptized over the next six weeks, which is easily the most I've ever had in my mission. Elder Mo'unga and I are finding a lot of people, and we look forward to visiting with them every week.
Dad, thank you so much for your letter! It reminds me of the lesson we had in Sunday school yesterday. Our group was assigned to talk about the Millennium and what would happen therein. We read in the Doctrine & Covenants that there would be absolutely no contention or worry or pain amongst the people because Satan would be bound. Satan will have no power whatsoever over the people of God in those times. One sister proposed an interesting question: Does Satan know that? Does Satan know that he can't/won't win, and that there will be a time where he will be absolutely powerless? We decided as a group: Yes. The world we know and live in is getting increasingly darker by the day, BECAUSE Satan knows that his time is running out. Our purpose as missionaries is to shepherd as many people as possible back into the Lord's flock before the coming of His great and dreadful day. The Lord has been fortifying his forces and hastening his work in these latter days. Satan KNOWS this, so he is doing the same. He's working harder than ever to bring as many people as possible down with him before the coming of the Lord. This idea gives me a much greater sense of urgency for the work. Truly there is no standing on the fence. If you're not stepping up towards the Lord, you're stepping down. Now is the time to be that motivation and that helping hand for those our brothers and sisters who are in the process of stepping down.
I'm so happy to be a part of this great work. Thank you so much for your prayers, know that yous are constantly in mine as well.
I'm glad everything is going well back home, and that Kala'i has decided to jump on the band wagon (fishing boat?) with Lehia. I have no clue how the economy is doing right now or what Trump is up to, but be ready to provide dinner for the family when store foods are unavailable or too expensive. I don't know how politics work at all but be ready for that day anyway.
I LOVE YOU ALL. DAD, HAU'OLI LA NO MAKUAKANE (that works, right?), ALOHA NO WAU IA 'OE!
Firse bahut bahut dhanyavaad saabchiij ke liye! Haam aaplogke bahut pyaar karta, Julum rako!
Khyaal rakna!
Elder Ishibashi-Fiji
SO HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED WITH MY HAIR (you can see that it's noticeably shorter on the side in the third picture) we got hair cuts on Saturday. The barber I got was doing my fade, he got to the line and asked "Same pattern?" Pattern? So I'm thinking, same line? Yes, I want the line in the same place. That's where my hair naturally parts, why would you even move the line? So I said "Yeah", and then I learned to ASK THE BARBER WHAT THEY MEAN if they say something you don't understand. When I said yes, he went along the line with a 1 blade. I was mortified, 1. because that cut would not be missionary appropriate (hard parts), and 2. because I was to give a talk in sacrament the next day. Nobody said anything about my hair except Sister Pea, who's more like the Mama Bea of the missionaries. My hair looks fine now, but if you ever go to a barber, MAKE SURE they know what you want and they know what they're doing.
Last week's qito (Elder Mokie and elder Whitworth's dying qito)
District! (We have a new one now, I'll send pics next week)
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