2-11-18 Take advantage of the Book of Mormon

Kaise hei parivaar!

It's been a blessed week! 

Zone Conference was amazing, a great reiteration of the importance of focusing on the Book of Mormon when teaching and helping our investigators along their path of conversion. I've always had a bad habit of kinda dodging the Book of Mormon and not putting all that much focus on it (because it takes a while to even begin teaching the restored gospel to people who don't even know who Jesus is), but I was reminded of what 'Io taught me while on his mission: If you can gain a sure testimony of the Book of Mormon, then everything else falls into place. If the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith was a true prophet who did restore the gospel of Jesus Christ in this last dispensation the world will ever see, and all revelation received by him and every prophet to have followed was given of God our heavenly father. The Book of Mormon is becoming a huge focus to me now. I've been able to gain a greater testimony that you learn something new every time you read through the Book of Mormon, or a scripture you've read before will have a new significance the next time around. This mission-wide Book of Mormon read has been a great blessing to me, and I can see how it's influencing the members of my district. Take advantage of the Book of Mormon. Read it, ponder it, learn from it, and live its teachings. 

The rest of the week was kind of shot, we're seeing the effects of Gita coming in, but for now it's nothing more than a bunch of rain and subtle thunder storms. The more productive part of this rainy, rainy week was visiting our investigators. 

Our most progressing investigator, Shayal, is the cousin of a member family and has been taking the lessons. Shayal was brought up Hindu, married a muslim man, but has recently discovered and found interest in Christianity. Over this last week, Shayal closed our lesson in a prayer for the first time (BEAUTIFUL prayer, and so unusually specific and genuine for someone doing it for the first time out loud) and came to church for the first time yesterday! WAY happy for her and excited to continue the lessons with her. Sister Higgins said something I really like during one of the workshops at conference, "It's not about the baptisms, it's about conversion." I'm a big believer in not pushing anything or baptizing anyone before they're ready for the sake of reaching a transfer goal, so though we'll definitely try to get her baptized in this transfer period (because it is nicccce to reach the transfer goal), we'll follow the spirit as to when we should set the date for her baptism. 

Another investigator, Eta, had her divorce court case on Thursday and we were asked to attend in support. She and her kids are living with her boyfriend, so she can't be baptized until either they get married or she moves out, but the missionaries before me baptized her kids. Her plan was to finalize her divorce with her husband, immediately marry her boyfriend, and immediately thereafter be baptized. However (welcome to Fiji), the judge didn't show up to work, so the court case was moved to March 29th. This put a bit of a damper on the work for us, but it's okay because we do have work beyond that. We do have a lot of people we still need to go see, so that'll happen this coming week. 

Work is going well, and Elder Tavake and I are in great health and spirits. 

Glad to know everything is going well back home! U'i, thank you SO much for the pictures! Cannot WAIT to actually see and hold your fat little girl and play with your kids again. I feel like it hasn't been very long, but at the same time I feel like I've been gone forever because SO much has happened since I've been away. I'm so excited to see and meet everyone for myself. 

Funny, I had Elder Hunkin and Elder Green over this week for zone conference. The morning of zone conference, I was laying down studying when Elder Green jumped on me and said I JUST GOT THE CALL! About five minutes later, the mission office called and one of the office workers asked where my final destination would be. Ten minutes later, I got a call from Elder Hunkin (who'd gone out for breakfast) saying he got the call. When we met up at the chapel, Elder Green excitedly exclaimed "We only have two transfers left!"

Elder Hunkin: "Umm, we technically still have three."

Elder Green: "No, this transfer's done." 

*the AP from the intake is the most trunky*

Anyways, ALMOST HOME but who's keeping track, right?

Honestly just trying to finish strong, and Elder Tavake is doing an excellent job at assuring that I do.

Dad, I'm sure you're fulfilling your calling as a scoutmaster beautifully. If you can't tell, I honestly thought scouting was a huge waste of time as well and really only attended because of the company and camping trips, but I did learn a lot of really great things in scouts. Scouting, while there definitely may be more effective ways to strengthen our relationship with God, is an excellent program that has helped me exponentially throughout my life.

Give my love to grandma and the rest of the family!

MOM I'll send you the answers to the essay questions I have so far and I'll try to come by throughout the week to work on the others.

I'll be heading out soon, but everyone have an incredible and blessed week! I love you all heaps!

Baut pyaar aaplogke!

Khyaal rakna, 

Elder Ishibashi