Wow!  My dad speaks Fijian!!  Bula Vinaka to you too, pops.  Sounds like life is movin’ over there.  When I get back I think im gonna spend alot of my time hiking in the canyons before the snow comes.  I miss that.  Isa, those pups.  Did they freak out?  Hahah!   Sounds like the weather here.  Last week was pretty cold.  I’ve actually resorted to wearing my jackets everyday and  scrubs at night.  Sister Chong and I share my big blanket to keep warm Lol!  Hmm, no sauna eh?  Maybe we can find a way to route the dryer vent into my flat.....  Yay for boating!  But don’t think I forgot about windsurfing,  I’m still gonna try it.  Hopefully I’m buff enough to pull on the sail,  I’ve gotten a little wimpy here.  Way to go on the kneeboard!  Was that a yardsale find?  I heard it was just a major junk swap as usual.  

Ooooo!! EFY!!  Way to go Scoot! Tell him to send me awkward first date pics!!   Funny story by the way.  Remember when I went to EFY and I was still 13?  My birthday was the week after so they let it slide.  Anyways, during the dances these senior guys kept asking me to dance and during the chatting they found out that I was still 13.  Awkward silence!!!  

Plan on going to Lagoon for Frightmares when I get back!! I think I’m gonna get butterflies on the little kid rides.  I almost died on the elevator in town today and it was only 4 floors up!   Yea, all the elders were like wow!!   It was pretty funny.

Hmm,  so Mom is getting Facebook friend requests from people in Fifi?  :D  I think a ton of them might be from the ward.  We were taking a group picture the last week and one of the YW behind me said "so your birthday is on july 7th?" I had never told anyone! Turns out all the YW totally stalk my Facebook and see all Mom’s posts.  And, speaking of looking at pages, our new mission president’s wife read my blog and said it helped her prepare and get excited.  Pressure!!!  I wonder what she read..... hopefully she didn’t see anything embarrassing!! 

Tell Scott to take better care of Granny’s car, although it’s in for a wake up call when I get home.  You know how I’ve always been the super-cautious-always-yields person?  Not any more!!!  Fiji has turned me into an aggressive driver.  I actually honked at someone today,  everyone in the car was shocked because I’m the only one who doesn’t honk all the time!!  I tried to hold on to my Utah ways, but you gotta fight for the right to drive here.

Things are going well here in Fiji!!  Typical missionary week.  In the beginning nothing goes according to plan, but by the end you realize who's plan really matters and everything works out for the better.  I’m blessed to see the Hand of God in everything we do.  Sometimes it doesn’t make sense, but if we keep moving forward with faith, you know you’re in the right direction. Starting  the week we had some rough appointments and a ton of fall throughs. during our exchanges on Wednesday every appointment fell through, we used up our list of referrals and former investigators with only a few lessons to show for it. but we were able to give those people a chance to hear the gospel. or their second chance. or third!!  And honestly, that’s our purpose as missionaries; to give people as many opportunities as they need to accept the gospel and align their lives with Christ.  To quote one of the elders here, “When we have to drop an investigator we didn’t fail, we just haven’t succeeded yet!"  So true!  We just keep on keepin’ on…doing what we can until it’s their time.  Things are really picking up here in Samabula 1st.  This past Friday we had our ward farewell for the Klinglers.  It was so much fun and we had a ton of investigators attend.  We were running around like crazy trying to take care of them all, helping with the food and picking up things for Sister Klingler.  I think Heavenly Father know how crazy things were, because all at once our investigators were sudden hanging out with members and we had nothing to do!! 

Aah! one minute left.  Love you all!!! 

Sister Pyne

Dou Bula!!

Today is my official 4 months left mark, June 23rd!!!! Aahh!!! Where did the month go?

Samabula is gearing up for some major work.  We're getting lots of referrals and new investigators from the members, and it's wonderful!! 

We had some sick sisters staying with us all week so we were a quad at the flat with two running out at a time to do appointments and the sick sister being taken care of at home. 

news for the week.  

We had dinner with President and Sister Klingler this week. This is the last week for President Klingler, so everyone has been busy doing farewells and such.  A very well off member invited us to dinner along with President and Sister Klingler.  It was a little nerve wracking at first, but everything went well and we were able to hear some of their stories from former missions.

Loata is a new guard at the temple.  She is amazing!!  She's reading from the Book of Mormon, meeting with us almost everyday and already wanting to share with her family.  She has her eyes on the temple and can't wait for her baptism.  She has been searching for a long time and was currently attending a denomination called "The church of Jesus Christ of PRESENT Day Saints'.  First time I've heard of that church!  We have been focusing on the need for priesthood power in the true church and leadership from a living prophet (which they do not have).  She has accepted everything we share and is receiving daily confirmation that she has found the truth here.  Her testimony is on fire!! 

Teineuea is doing well.  She's very excited to continue learning about the gospel and begin working on her personal progress.  We received another referral from Sister Kaititi (as soon as her latest referral gets baptized she finds us a new family to teach). She moved this past week and the referral is for her tuvalu/kiribati neighbors. They seem pretty interested, the whole family came to church and even brought some relatives along!  We're very excited to begin teaching them this week.

Random news for the week.  While I was on exchanges on Saturday, my companion heard some weird noises coming from the stairwell outside.  She went out to check and found the senior elders lugging a clothes dryer up to surprise us!!!  We were shocked!!  Thank you for being so thoughtful elders!!!  We love you!  We did a celebratory load that night and I fell asleep to the sound of a dryer.  Sounded like home!

Well, that's it for this week, the computer is gonna shut me off if I try and send more. Much love to you all!! Read your Preach My Gospels and go share with some friends!!! 

Sister Pyne

Well, life is good.  Tons of stuff going on as usual, and I'm learning more about myself everyday and changing for the better.  Today we went on a crazy hike that kicked my butt, we will definitely be paining tomorrow.

We have an amazing new family that is doing well.  The husband is constantly feeling the spirit, and even though he can't speak English he struggles through his prayers so we can understand. His first time he was nervous so we told him to pray silently for help first.  He immediately closed his eyes and prayed.  Then, when he began we could barely make out what he was saying but the spirit was so strong it didn't matter.  Reminded me of how simple our relationship with God is.  He is our Father, we are his children, and he is always willing to listen and answer us as long as we have the faith.
We are hoping for a baptism this saturday, the 14 year old Kiribati girl. She has been going strong and passed her interview (poor Elder Rainsdon had to have a translator the whole time).  We tend to have alot of investigators that need interpreters lately, not sure why but it has made me think a lot more about what to say.  When youve only got half the time and they don't really know what you are saying (before help) we have to do all we can to help them feel the testimony of the spirit.
We are putting some investigators on hold, picking up formers, and getting some new referrals.  Our new mission president is due in a few weeks and everyone is getting prepped.  The work continues on.  That's all I've got time for now, but know I love you all!!  Also, one of my new favorite hymns is 'Count Your Many Blessings'.  Have you ever actually counted your blessings?  Not the usual food, family, home.  I'm talking about really thinking about the small things that make a huge difference. Something that hit me as I wrote some down, is that I'm truly grateful for the experiences I've had in my life, both the good and the bad.  Without going through trials we can never learn or grow.  I know I wouldnt be the missionary I am today if i hadn't fought through the hard times and relied on the Savior.  I love who I am and I'm grateful for that.  M aking a list was an eye opener for me and I hope you each have the opportunity to do the same.

That's it for now,

Love always
Sista Pyne

Hey!! Sorry I'm on late today, we went on a hike this morning. Actually it ended up taking us 7 hours to get to the peak and back, we got lost a few times and ended up bum sliding most of the way down because it was so steep.  Sounds like my kinda p-day eh?!  It's called Mt. Korobaba and I've wanted to go on this hike since I was in Tamavua!!! That's one check on my mission bucket list.

 Here's a "before" pic of some of the group. (Those are our crazy Canadian ap's sporting their gear)

 This is what your feet look like after climbing a mountain barefoot.  It was so muddy that

our shoes kept coming off and we eventually gave up.

V0ew from the top of the mountain. You can see all of Suva!! Try and find the temple

 Finally made it to the top!!! Signed my name on the Fiji flag

Cegu Mada!! We were so dead.  We barely survived! Didn't help that it had been

raining all night.....  we all fell at least once.  Good zone bonding time.



 Elder Wakolo and his family will be leaving next week to be the new

mission president couple in  Arkansas, so we had a farewell party. 

All the auxiliaries planned "American" dances to perform. Hilarious!

 The YW did the 'Cha Cha Slide'

 The YM did a breakdance (weve got some talent!!),

 The YSA did 'We Go Together' from Grease

 The Elders Quorum did 'YMCA'.

The YSA and Elders Quorums were the best, sooooo funny!!

The Primary did a rainbow song 

The Relief Society did 'achy breaky heart' 

The high priests doing the 'bunny hop' complete with paper ears

 

we got spam!!!! this is the first time in who knows how long that i have had spam!! it was a wonderful night.

 

 

 

 

Us dropping Sister Ngauamo at the airport.  No one told me it was a funny picture!!



Hey Dad!!!

Yes, I've been soooo busy!! Last week we went to 2 zone conferences, MLC meeting, that Tongan sister was still staying with us, and all sorts of other craziness. We are getting ready for the new mission president. So sad!!  We found some new part member families and investigators this week. Cool story of the week.  Sister Klingler was checking our area books during zone conference and she felt prompted to ask about this member she hasn't seen in a while.  We had never heard of him before so we decided to ask around.  Miracle!  The first two random members we talked to were good friends of his and one had actually seen him the week before!  We were able to figure out where his house is and visit.  When we sat down with him he said he was thinking about going back to church for a while now and was planning on coming if it hadn't been for the rain ( it was POURING sara ga!!)  We were the confirmation he needed to decide to come back.  So grateful for the spirit prompting all these members!! 

The driving is good,  I barely hit the wipers anymore!  The hardest part is trying not to crash into all these insane drivers!!  Let's just say ive learned learned to drive aggressively.  Salt Lake drivers had better watch out!!  I'm still glad I'm extending, but it gets kinda hard seeing the other missionaries go home.  That's one of the bad parts about staying so close to the office.  It messes with your mind a little. 

As for my positive attitude in my letters; being around so many missionaries makes it easy to figure out what kind I want to be.  Some are complaining all the time or focus on the negative and they end up getting trunky and depressed.  Who wants to be sad on their mission!!!  I made a decision early on to not get upset.  When I was in Tamavua someone shared a quote in sacrament meeting. " It takes two to fight, and I will never be one of them".  I've kinda applied that to everything I do.  It takes two to be disobedient. it takes two to bible bash.  I flipped it the  other way too.  It takes two to be happy, or learn the language, or feel the spirit, and I will always be one of them.  If something upsetting happens and theres nothing I can do to change it, why waste time and energy being mad!!  I can take the lead in the companionship, put it behind me, and choose to be happy.  Having a positive mindset has been such a blessing!!

We drove that Tongan sister to the airport this morning, and on the way back we realized that it's summer break back home!!  Mind blown.  It's weird to think of everyone finishing up with classes and heading to their summer destinations.  Any fun trips planned yet?  It's kinda made me think of the first things I want to do when i get home.  Straight after the airport I want to go the the temple as a missionary (the Fiji temple will be closed so I won't get to go before I leave!!! ) and say hi to my buddies in temple square, then have a cold glass of home made root beer (there is NO root beer in Fiji and I'm going through withdrawls)  and the next day, head up one of the canyons for a family cook out.  It's funny how you miss the little things eh?  I'm looking forward to driving around aimlessly with those three boys again. they had better get their voices warmed up cuz im gonna be pumping my Fijian and Indian tunes!

 

Well, im out of time as usual, but know that I'm loving life, and can't wait to see what each new week brings.

Love you all!!

Sister Pyne