CHRISTMAS IS FAST APPROACHING.  IT TAKES 2-3 WEEKS FOR A PACKAGE TO REACH FIJI SO IF YOU PLAN ON SENDING SOMETHING TO ANNIE, SEND IT EARLY!  I'VE FOUND THAT THE REGULAR US POSTAL SERVICE IS THE CHEAPEST WAY TO GO, AND I USE THE WORD "CHEAP" LOOSELY BECAUSE THE LAST PACKAGE I SENT WAS JUST A FEW POUNDS AND SHIPPING WAS $25.00!  SO THINK "LIGHT AND SMALL"!

-Mama Pyne-

So I'm sill in my first area, and almost done training my first daughter (companion).  The work here is doing really well.  We had two baptisms on  Saturday, Sami and Bradley, both really strong ysa boys.  They've had a rough time finding their testimonies, but with help from the ward and really good friends they pulled through.  Sami still has a lot of questions, He was really nervous about his testimony and was actually texting us till almost midnight asking questions but he's willing to trust and keep looking until he understands.:P He tries so hard to do everything well!!  He always asks if he can do the prayers for the lessons so he can practice, and always asks for feed back, lol!  Such a great boy.  He's actually a great example of those simple promptings.  We had had a ton of fall-throughs and had no idea what to do, then I was like" Hey, lets check on this less active!"  So we walked down the road, and she wasn't home.  We almost gave up, but then I remembered a family who we talked to a month before who didn't want lessons. I thought we could stop and say hi, but it turns out that they had moved and Sami's family was there instead! Now he's baptized, his brother is taking lessons from the elders, and some other family members are interested, all from a simple prompting.

 

Bradley is so humble and sincere.  He answers every question as truthfully as he can, and is very patient. is actually going to do baptisms at the temple tomorrow!!  His grade at school goes every year and last year he just waited outside.  After church yesterday we had a lesson on temple work etc and he was really excited!  He really took everything to heart, especially how you can be baptized for your ancestors.  Needless to say, we went straight to the bishops office and got him a recommend.  We will definitely be making a trip to the family history center in the next few weeks.

The food is really good!  There are a lot of  Indians here so we get curry a few times a week.  The Fijian food took some getting used to, but now I love it.  It will be hard to give up when i go home. The fruit is sooo good!  It's mango season here so we have them all the time.  The other day our taxi driver handed us a huge bag of them from his house and asked if we could hand them out!  Definitely some interesting people.  There are so many different cultures and religions here that every person you meet is totally different.  I've had investigators from England, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, India, and some from  Australia.  My favorite places to go are in  the settlement areas. the people are very willing to accept the gospel because theyre so humble.  You just say hi, and they invite you in!  They don't always want to take lessons, but definitely willing to share and visit. I love listening to the investigators prayers.  They're so sincere and because they're unsure of what to say they really look to us to help them.  My favorite is when they pray for my family or the ward leaders.  There's one Indian boy (Vikshal) who prays for every member of my family ( brothers, sister, parents, grandparents, everyone :D ) 

 

As for chapels, the temple is really the symbol of the church around here.  It's a short drive away and next to one of the main roads so everyone sees it.   Right now we meet in the LDS highschool, so no chapel.  We actually have sacrament meeting in the cafeteria and there's birds and geckos coming in and out the whole time. its pretty funny.

The water isnt too clean.  I  got sick a few weeks ago because the pipes are cracked and the nasty rain water gets into the water system.  Not fun!  

 
 I  definitely know that fiji is the perfect place for me to serve. there are so many people I've learned from and people I've helped. Couldn't have happened anywhere else.  I cant believe how fast its gone by! december is month nine. half way already!!  

 

This week is gonna be interesting. that last intake came in saturday morning and we've had sisters with us all weekend.  We've been super busy (baptism, ward party, primary program at church,) and I think we totally wiped them out, poor girls!  One went to her area this morning, but the other is still with us.  Only half of their intake made it and the other half might get here next week, so we'll have another transfer.  For now, I'm still in Tamavua.  Tomorrow we have our zone conference at presidents house, but thats the only big thing for this week. 

 

Love you all, thanks for all the letters and prayers!

 

Sister Pyne

Nothing new for the blog.  Tons of meetings this week, super rainy, I was sick for a few days. This past week was Halloween, but no one here celebrates :(   There was a huge Hindu holiday on the 3rd called Diwali.  It's a festival of lights so there were "Christmas" lights up everywhere, TONS of fireworks (I mean the huge, super dangerous ones that people probably shouldn't do in their yards). till about 2 am and of course delicious Diwali treats. Other than that we had alot of rain, and its been super humid.  I walked out of the mission office this morning (a.c.) and my glasses actually steamed up because it was so humid lol! We had to post pone our baptism again. Boo!! There's another one from our ward on the 16 and bishop wants to do everyone together, so we have to wait.  We have a few new investigators and some we have to drop, so it should be an interesting week.

Aahh!! I'm out of time!! yosota!!

Au lomani keda,

Sista Pyne

Hey!! We had a crazy busy week! Exchanges on Tuesday, so I had another sister with me in Tamavua. It's always weird to be with a different companion :P  We found a bunch of new investigators this week and got to work out some problems with investigators.  The work here is booming!!  We have 2 other companionships covering the same area as us so we run into each other alot.  Friday night we were at a members house teaching Sami and the new elders were going around knocking on doors trying to find someone!  We went into the other room for our lesson and they quickly asked the others about the boy they were looking for. AWKWARD SARA GA!!  Whenever we go to that area, all our families say that the elders have been coming around lol!  The good thing, is they're finding some referrals for us :D
Anyways.... as I said, we had alot to do.  Tuesday morning at district meeting, President Klingler walked in for a surprise visit!  So glad I didn't have to do the training that day!

Saturday we took a YSA from our ward with us. She's prepping for her mission and we found some investigators that she would be really good for.  It was sooo nice to have her with us in the lessons. We have a new family we're teaching and the dad's English isn't very good.  She was able to translate alot into Hindi and bear testimony so he would understand more.  Awesome!!

We were also able to go out to a new part of my area I hadnt been to yet.  It's way out in Colo-i-suva forest and there aren't any buses so we had to wait for a member who knew the way.

Not much time left, but things here are going great.  Lots of work, lots of rain and lots of fun.

Here's my letter to the Mission President to fill in the gaps (I hope it's not weird that I send these)

Dear President Klingler

This week went really well.  First off we had exchanges on tuesday. I stayed in tamavua with sister Tsu'a.  We were able to visit alot of families and found some new investigators. one of which we have started teaching.  Her name is Matila,  She's 14, lives with her siblings and grandma.  We just had our first lesson with her, but hopefully the others will join later on.  We were also able to visit with Vakacegu and her family.  They had baptism dates earlier, but haven't been keeping appointments and we havent been able to see them in a while.  We reviewed lesson three, focusing on faith and acting on what they know.  She shared that she is scared to ask her husband if they can be baptized.  He has been supportive of them taking lessons, but so far only the kids have been attending church.  We are finding another fellowshipper that we think will be able to help her work up the courage.  Meanwhile all we can do is continue teaching, show our support and pray that his heart will be softened.  We received a referral from the Tamavua First elders and were able to contact her yesterday.  She didn't have time for a lesson, but we have an appointment for next week.  Her name is Kal.  She has a few kids and from what the elders told us, her husband died a while ago.  She had visitors over, so we couldn't sit and talk.  Another good new investigator is Fina. Sister Maile and I OYMed her a long time ago and I've been stopping by with my other companions but till now shes been too busy in her village.  But Friday we were able to sit down with her, and we made a return appointment for next week.  She and a few of our other investigators are good families for us to teach in Fijian, and we are hoping she will be willing to help us out.

A new ward mission leader hasn't been called yet (I think we have a lack of priesthood brethren in our ward) so for now, we are reporting to the Bishop.  As we've been speaking with him more, I noticed that he doesn't seem to understand much about missionary work and what his role is, so that might account for the lack of support from the ward in the past.  We are trying to share as much as we can with him and he's been more willing to meet with us.  We've been working with the Relief Society president and her family to help us with some investigators and visiting less actives.  There's one family in particular that we're worried about, the Samisoni's are a recent convert family and we have been teaching Siliwaqa (their niece who lives with them).  She is ready for baptism, but missed the date because the family is going less active.  We think they're being pressured by Brother Samisoni's dad.  He's not LDS and has recently asked us to stop teaching the kids about the Book of Mormon and only do Bible stories.  We have talked to the bishop about having some priesthood brethren visit with us to speak with the parents and see if they need help from the ward.

We had to move Sami's baptism date to the 9th of November because of stake conference, but he is continually progressing.  We have been teaching more about prayer and testimonies.  He is still nervous, but is always willing to participate share his testimony.  He has asked one of his friends from the ward to baptize him and we are very excited that he has so many friends in the ward.

That's all I have time for this week.  I'm very excited about the sisters training this week and about all of our new investigators.  We have a lot of work to do .

Thank you for all your help and advice president!

Love always Sister Pyne

Love you alll!!!!!!!

Moce toka,  Sista Pyne

This is from our meeting for the training companionships, at the presidents house

Hey everyone!!
 
So this has been an interesting week.  Lots of new experiences.  First of all, there was an earthquake here!  Crazy!!  To be honest I didn't feel anything, because the house we were in shakes everytime you walk, so we had no idea until we heard a member talking about it  :P   I think its the same one that hit the Philippines.  No damage here though so that's good.  Weird thing number two.  Woke up around 2 am Thursday morning with a giganto black centipede crawling down my arm!!! Aahhh!!!! FYI, they're poisonous, about 6 inches long and like to bite people.  Not to mention super creepy. (I sent a picture of an orange one a while ago) and it was in my beeeeeeeeed!!!!  Luckily, I've had plenty of animals jump on me in my sleep ( ie geckos, spiders chipmunks...) so I didn't freak out until after we took care of it. (can you tell I'm still grossed out?) Needless to say, I couldn't sleep the rest of the night, and I had to shake out my bed and bug proof the bedroom door for a few days.  Hopefully it wont happen again or I might be scarred for life!!

Other news, its cyclone season again.  Yay!  It's been raining almost everyday.  Pretty sure I wont be dry again till next spring lol!  I love hearing the rain outside.  It's really good for proselyting because we get free rides from our taxi friends and everyone invites us in to get out of the rain, so we're meeting lots of new people.

OK. low on time, and I want to send some pictures. so I'll tack on my letter to president to finish things up.

Dear President
 

This week went well.  We had alot of fall-throughs, but the lessons we were able to have were wonderful!  Especially with Sami.  We have been teaching him at a members home and this past week we watched the restoration video.  He took it very seriously and was able to feel the spirit strongly.  The Sogari family bore wonderful testimonies about how they joined the church and their personal conversion.  Sami really understood, and even though he wasn't comfortable sharing his own testimony yet, you can see that he has one and he's becoming closer to Christ.  He is still keeping all of his commitments and even gave some pamphlets and a true to the faith book to a friend who was asking questions.  He is such a strong boy and is sticking to every truth that he learns.  We were able to attend our stake music festival with him and some other less actives.  They all really enjoyed it and Sami even participated in the ward numbers.

We haven't heard from Jokaveti, but we gave a Book of Mormon study guide to her fellowshippers to pass along.  She said she was trying to read, but it was confusing for her.  I hope she can turn to the scriptures and the members for support while we aren't able to help her.

On Saturday we went to Siliwaqas house with our relief society president so she could visit with her aunt and uncle, but they were on a trip and only the kids were home with the grandparents.  We weren't able to discuss their church attendance, but it did give us the chance to OYM the grandparents who sat in on the lesson.

Vakacegu and her family aren't keeping appointments and aren't calling us back.  We have stopped by the house a few times but were unable to contact them.  We will keep trying, and discuss their expectations from our visits. 

Prem and Rita (our newest investigators) had to cancel because of a wedding so we weren't able to finish lesson one with them, but Prems leg is healing quickly so we hope they will be able to attend church soon and start getting to know the members.  We are planning on bringing a member with us soon.  She's putting in her mission papers and asked us if she could come with us, the same night that we were planning to invite her!  It's amazing to see how the lord prompts from both sides. 

On Sunday one of the zone leaders investigators attended our ward!  He was a referral we received, but he didn't seem comfortable with us, so we handed him over to the elders.  This was his first time at church.   I'm so happy they were able to help!!  Elder Ohlson said they would help him progress then hand him back over to us so he can get used to the ward.

The talks on Sunday were really wonderful. the youth spoke on what they learned from conference and were able to share exactly what the ward needed.  Everyone is getting together to help fellowship  and I have high hopes for this area.  There's so much more work we can do with the members help.

That's it for this week, thank you for all you do president.

 Love always, Sister Pyne.