May 23, 2010 - The church is springing forth!

Elder Wall ran into some computer difficulties last week and wasn't able to e-mail us, so here is his latest message to us.

Well this week was an awesome week. I loved it! Honestly last week was a little slow and we struggled a bit to stay busy. But me and Elder Farley kept at it, worked hard, and had a great week. By far the highlight of the week was church yesterday. It was by far the best church we have had since I have been here. Everything went picture perfect and we had great lessons and talks. One of our investigators wanted to go church but was shy and didn't know anyone. So our new Relief Society went and visited her and like it always does when people do their visiting, it worked and she came to church. It was great. Also she is an older lady and very respected in the community so a lot of other people have been asking us about the church and trying to find out what it is that made this woman leave the methodist church and go to church with us. It has been good.

We had really good priesthood and sunday school classes with lots of questions. The members are all recent converts and are all studying hard and trying to learn the gospel. So they have lots of great questions. It keeps me on my toes. But all the classes were awesome with great discussions and learning. It is so cool to see their knowledge and testimony of the gospel growing! The Lord truly is preparing them to be the foundation for the church in the future here in Kadavu.

Bro Seru gave a talk in sacrament that was amazing. It was his first time ever speaking in public in his 59 years of life. He was very nervous but prepared well and gave one of the best talks on the restoration of the gospel and Joseph Smiths calling as a prophet. I was so impressed with his level of understanding and how he really "got" the message of the gospel. He ended with describing what a great blessing the knowledge of the restoration is and how it has changed his life as well as all of ours and how now it is our responsibility to share this happiness and blessing with others. I was so proud of him. It has been amazing to see him and his family's amazing progression and the change that they have had as a family and as individuals. It was like a pay day for me yesterday to see some of the fruits of our hard work.

Also, the Relief Society has taken it upon themselves to clean and put fresh flowers in the church building to prepare for Sunday; it made all the difference. It looked so nice and invited the spirit to be strongly with us. We also got a locking book cabinet to put all our hymnbooks and manuals in instead of piling them in the corner, and it looks so great. It has been cool to see our little wooden one room shack turn into a church building with a pulpit, white board, chairs, sacrament table, and now book cabinet. I still remember my first Sunday when it was an empty room and we all sat on the floor. I am so grateful to be a part of the progression and establishment of the church in Kadavu. We also had some good things happen with Rogo and Lasarusa who have wanted to be baptized but were preachers for the Methodist church. They went this week and resigned from the methodist church and are now ready to move forward with joining and becoming strong members in our happy little unit. I am excited for them.

I am loving my new companion! He is great and we are having a really good time and working hard. That is what it is all about. All is well and I hope the same for you. Love you all.

Love,
Elder Wall

PS. Six months from today I will be getting on a plane. Where has all the time gone? I gotta use these last precious six months wisely, my time is running out.