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

I showed Brother Saba how to do Thomas's mosquito face. Bad idea!!

Doing the puzzle with Sister Iro 

We had a baptism this last week for Junior. He's a little 8 year old kid from Kiribas and he's so funny.  It took 15 minutes for him to get in the font because he was so scared! In order for him to get in they had to send his cousin in to stand there next to the Elder and then me and his Aunt had to hold his hands walking down the stairs.  So funny!  But he was finally baptized and confirmed on Sunday. 

  The roti and curry I made after skype last week! yum.

Crazy hibiscus flower!! Pretty eh?

This week was a little crazy with all the extra things going on in our area, but as usual we had help from all sides and everything worked out, even if it wasn't how we planned it. Life as a sister training leader never slows down. We got a new intake, which means we have to go shopping with the new sisters to get them set up. We were helping out with transfers all week and we've had 6 sisters in and out of our flat with more to come. After sister Iro left, sister Mataoa (my daughter) stayed with us for a few days, it was so fun! She and sister Chong were companions in the MTC so we already knew each other really well. Let's just say things got a little crazy! Then Sister Ngauamo came from Tonga. She has already been serving there for 10 months but her family is moving to Utah so she came to get her visa and will be staying with us till Friday.   Having sister Mataoa and Sister Ngauamo with us allowed us to contact all of our referrals and we have some new investigators to teach.  There's a new Indian family, mom and dad are both orphans, and they have 3 kids. They're a referral from a member living just down the road from them.  They've already come to church 3 weeks in a row and have a strong desire to learn as much as they can.  We're so excited to be sharing the gospel with this wonderful family!  We also started teaching a 14 year old Kiribati girl staying with a family in the ward.  From what we understand she already finished the lessons in Kiribati and just needs to be re-taught before baptism.  We need to have translators to help in the lessons which makes it a little hard, but we have the opportunity to bring along a prospective missionary and help her prepare. With scheduling for Sister Ngauamo and Sister Mataoa's appointments, visiting sick sisters in the hospital, upcoming baptisms and a farewell for Elder Wakolo's family, we have been jumping between the hospital, the office, and the U.S. embassy, somehow finding time for our investigators.  After all this I think I'll be a pro soccer mom, on the go 24/7!
In the midst of all this we were preparing for a baptism on Saturday.  When the day came we had the programs and white's ready, filled the font, packed up our burnt brownies  and waited. our investigator didn't show!  You would think that all this would be the end of the world for a missionary, but I felt this peace through the whole thing that it would all turn out ok.  After being m.i.a. that whole day, we ran into him and had the opportunity to really talk things over.  Now he knows what he needs to do.
This week we'll be spending most of our time in the mission home.  Tuesday and Wednesday we will be helping with zone conferences and Thursday is our mission leadership council, then we have one more zone conference next week. Who knew missionaries had so many meetings?!