August 1, 2010 - Magic healing leaves?

Well this week was interesting. It actually was pretty good. It was really really slow throughout the entire week but then on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, things went great. The definite highlight of the week was a lesson we had with Iotene from Rabi. They had a big YSA activity on Friday for the whole district of Taveuni, so a boat of people from Rabi came over. We used this oppurtunity to get some extra teaching time with our investigators there. Iotene is awesome! He really wants to be baptized and his father said that ever since our visit, he has really changed and has been very motivated to go to church, read, pray and learn more. We had an incredible lesson with him on the gospel of Jesus Christ. While teaching repentance, I watched his eyes well up with tears. I could see and feel his deep desire to repent of his sins, receive forgiveness, and feel of the peace we were telling him about. It was incredible and the spirit was so strong. He has such a desire to know more and join the church. I really hope we can get him baptized within the next month or so. It is just so hard with transport over to Rabi. It is lessons like this one with Iotene, that make being a missionary worth it. The long walks, soaking wet in the rain and mud, waking up early, everything that is hard to do seems like a small sacrifice compared to the huge change, peace and happiness people recieve when they accept the gospel. Lessons like that motivate me to continue on even when the area is struggling and I didn't really feel like what were doing was making a difference. I loved it and hope we can get him baptized quickly.

We also had good lessons with four other investigators from Rabi. One man we saw while in Rabi is a less active from Toga who married a woman from Rabi and now lives in Rabi. He had some unfortunate things happen in the church and became bitter and fell away. He is now back and his seven children and wife have been coming to church and want to take lessons. It is awesome! The church is really going well in Rabi.

Things here in Matei picked up a bit this week. We had a good Branch Counsel and now if people will do all the things we talked about, we are going be in good shape. We also have one investigator who will be baptized either this week or next.

Vili, the one I made do push ups, has really opened up to us and has been reading and praying and recieved an answer to his prayer and now knows for himself that the church is true. He is excited to be baptized. Another woman Doli,is a relative of a recent convert family. She has been coming to church and has started taking lessons. She told us this week that she wants to be baptized and bore an awesome testimony in fast and testimony meeting yesterday. We set her date for the 21st. She is great!

We also had a cool experience with priesthood blessings this week. Sis NauRosa, a recent convert, had a huge puss-filled growth on the back of her head that smelt like rotten death. It is quite serious because people actually die from infections like these fairly often here. We gave her a blessing, then went to go get some leaf that the Fijians believe helps it (whether or not it does I don't know, but I am gonna guess no). By the time we found this special leaf, then got back, the boil had already popped and leaked death puss all over the place. It was cool to see blessings for the faithfull be fullfilled so quickly. Hopefully she can now recover and be back to everyday life.

Well that about covers my week. This week the Zone Leaders are coming over from Labasa and we will be on splits with them. I will be with Elder Munton this week in Qeleni, so that should be fun. In Qeleni we have to pump our own water so I will either come back really stinky and dirty or with huge arms, I hope the second. Ha ha.

Love you all and hope all is well. I am praying extra hard. Dad- if your leg doesn't get better I will bring you home one of the special leaves.

Love,
Elder Wall