Wednesday, November 29, 2017

11-26-17 Last week was good!

Kasie hei??

Dad, thank you so much for your letter, I really liked it! SO glad to know the family is back together for the first time in so long and that everybody's enjoying each others' company. It was small kine mosi hearing about the food but it's alright, we had our own thanksgiving feast this week haha.

I'm SOOO happy that the church opened its arms and doors for Uncle Juney and Uncle Dan at this critical time in Uncle Juney's life. I'm even happier that because of this act of charity and love, Uncle Juney would again embrace the gospel. Though Uncle Dan's death certainly wasn't a good thing, I think it's such a great blessing that Uncle Juney was at least able to find a good man with a background in the gospel and through his partner's faith was able to have a stronger grounding in the church at his passing. Please continue to give my aloha to the family and Uncle Juney, especially. Also give my aloha to the Aloisio's, if can! SO sick that you were able to see them! 

I always heard about the live sessions in Utah and everybody who's attended one says they're really interesting. I'm way keen on attending one myself, some day! It's pretty weird but actually really cool to see pictures of yous in front of the Salt Lake Temple! STILL pretty salty that they didn't let me go to Temple Square when I was in the MTC because both my companion and I were both Americans, but I'm glad you were able to visit your old proselyting area, dad! How cool is that? Also liking the goatee, I haven't seen that in years haha. 

Does any of your siblings speak Samoan, mom? How much Samoan do you understand? I'm really looking forward to learning Samoan when I get home. At this point (after three Tongan companions in a row), I know more Tongan than Samoan haha. Still learning, though. 

Anyways, this last week was good! 
It was Elder Tui'one's week 11, which means that he was the senior companion for the last week. He lead every discussion, set every appointment, OYM'd every person, and made almost every phone call. I'm actually really proud of him for the way he handled and lead the work beautifully, and I have no doubt that he'll make a great leader in the mission some day. I was able to see his full potential and efforts as a senior missionary. I never had my week 11 due to my stubbornness as a junior companion and unwillingness to take responsibility over the companionship/area. I remember having really sour feelings toward my companions because they never let me teach or disregarded every idea I had concerning the work. I tried really hard to make sure I always gave Elder Tui'one opportunities to grow and mature so that when I time came for him to take initiative, it'd be something he was used to. He's a MUCH more humble and ready missionary right now than I was at that stage, and I only have the Lord to thank for giving me someone with such a drive and love of the restored gospel as him.
A big part of the training process is watching The District. As a trainee, I didn't like The District. As I watched, one of the only things running through my head was "We can't do that in Fiji, the people wouldn't react well to that", or "We can't apply that to our ward, things work differently here". Now, I LOVE the district. I've been glued to it for the last 11 weeks, studying and re-watching episode after episode and doing my best to apply the teachings. No, we can't apply a lot of the precise things they do and say in The District here in Fiji, but the principle is the same everywhere. As we've applied these principles, Elder Tui'one and I have been able to see a lot of success in the work! 

Elder Tui'one and I were blessed to witness the baptism of Charmaine yesterday! It was a really special experience because Charmaine was able to be baptized by her father, who hasn't been able to attend church in over a year. He received permission to baptize her, and my hope is that he and the rest of the family will be able to and have the courage to come back to church regularly again. It was a beautiful service, and I'll be happy if I leave the area with that having been my final baptism in Nadi.

This week is transfer week, so either Elder Tui'one or I will be emailing from a different area next week. Transfers within the Hindi program were pretty easy to predict before, but President Higgins does things a different way so I have NO clue where we could go. Something tells me that precisely because I don't want to train again, President mayyy feel inspired to have me do exactly that.

Very much like 'Io, I want so badly to finish my mission stronger than I've ever been. I'm praying very sincerely for Heavenly Father to give me a companion that can help me to become better and who is willing to support me in my efforts to finish strong spiritually, mentally, and physically as I near the conclusion of my full-time service. Six months is a long time but not enough. I'm more desperate than ever to herd in as many of His sheep as I can while in this service. 

We're heading out now, I'm glad everything/everyone is going well! 
Continue to be safe, I love you all so much! Have a blessed week! 

Khyaal rakna, 
Elder Ishibashi 

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