May 2, 2010: The Blessings of Obedience

Well this week was a great week(except the long miserable boat ride). Zone Conference was incredible- such a strong spirit and so motivating, as well as interviews with President Ostler! It was actually quite a humbling experience. It seems like they are always talking about exactly what I need to improve on. I am really excited to go back at it and have a great next six weeks applying what we learned. One thing I really liked about what President Ostler said was that with missionaries he notices that attitude and behavior make all the difference. So I am really going to be trying to have a better outlook and attitude. We also talked a lot about charity and how important it is love everyone and show our heavenly father our love for him through loving his children. By this shall men know ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another.

Elder Finch got an ingrown toenail that got infected and really swollen, so we went to the hospital and they said that he cannot go back to Kadavu until it is better. So one of the AP’s Elder Matheson came back to Kadavu with me and Elder Finch is in Suva till we figure out what else to do. He goes home on the tenth, so I don’t think he will be coming back to Kadavu. We are not sure what I am going to do for a companion because Elder Matheson has to get back pretty soon to do AP things. I guess we will see what happens.

The work is going well. Church was really really good yesterday. We had good attendance and a great meeting with great spirit. I was really happy with it and all the members really enjoyed it as well. Two members from Utah were there and really helped to bear testimony and help the members know that even though in Kadavu the church is really new and there is not many members, that we are a worldwide church with millions of faithful members. Also our primary was sponsored by a member from Utah to take a temple trip to Suva and see the temple. We have heard they have had lots of fun and it has been a great experience for them.

We did interviews this week for callings within the branch and it was something that I was really nervous for- just some young kid coming in and interviewing grown men who are married with children, but it went so well. I loved it. It was really nice to get to sit down and talk with these wonderful members about how they are doing. They are so strong and faithful. We will be doing more this week and I am very excited. I think the callings are really going to help these wonderful members and help to grow our branch. They are all definitely ready and excited to progress the work here.

One really good story from this week: last week I talked about how the Seru family made the sacrifice and payed their tithing. Well the Lord kept his promised and opened up the windows of heaven and poured out a blessing upon them. On Tuesday morning, Bro Seru was going to go out fishing and while he was walking out, he saw a pool of water that was trapped up on the land when the tide went out. He walked over and looked inside and a HUGE fish was swimming trapped inside this tide pool. So he ran home and grabbed a spear, came back, and speared this huge fish that was trapped inside. It was a 19 Kg traveli, a really valuable fish. So he took it and sold it for 80$; that is over a couple months wages for this wonderful family. I was so happy to see the blessing poured out upon them as they kept the commandments. I am also really excited to follow up teaching them and helping them recognize the blessings they are receiving from following the commandments and how many more blessings await them.

Well I had an incredible week and look forward to more to come.

Love,
Elder Wall



P.S. I have spent my whole mission wishing I could play rugby barefoot and run and plant on the asphalt like nothing, like the Fijian boys do…well this week in Suva, we woke up early to go play rugby for morning exercise and I played with no shoes. I did really good and played well, still not Fijian but I'm getting there.