Samabula - Week 24

Christmas 2016

It was great talking to these two missionaries on Christmas.  Elder Harris will return home on December 31, 2016.

Elder Zachary Harris skyping his family and his brother Elder Jarom Harris serving in Lima, Peru.

 

Samabula - Week 23

Sa luvu na vanua

Bula vinaka!

I'm on a bit late today because of the weather.  Fiji had a big low pressure spot over it and it has been raining almost constantly for the past week.  We had to go and send some food by boat to 4 elders because the road is flooded leading to their house.  I've never seen this much rain!

We've just been working hard in our area.  One of the people we've been working with, Lia, was able to receive a calling this week, and her sister-in-law, Lesi, was able to give a prayer in sacrament meeting.  It's great to see that after working with them for a few months!  

We're still working with quite a few investigators and less-active members, and things are going well.  Last week we talked about Kesa and Efereimi's baby who was very sick with a boil on his head; we found out after we went back that right after our blessing he went to sleep, and the next morning it all drained!  It was a miracle for sure, and I hope we can continue to help them develop their faith in Jesus Christ.  

Eta is doing good as well!  She was having doubts about being baptized because she said she felt like a bad person, and it was very powerful for Elder Faamoe and I at that time to testify of the Atonement, and how even if our sins are as scarlet, they can be white like snow.  She is really excited to be baptized.  We were able to help two older Indian ladies, one of whom is not Christian, come to church this week.  They felt the Spirit and were very excited to be there.  Their names are Marine and Rajishwarim.  

I love being a missionary and a representative of Jesus Christ and I am so grateful for all these wonderful opportunities I have to serve God's children here in this amazing place. Being Christmas, I feel like a great gift to give our Savior is to help our fellow man.  But as I've come to understand if we give that gift we will always receive more than we ever give.

Love,

Elder Harris

Samabula - Week 22

Rui totolo na gauna

Bula!

Man these weeks are going by too fast!  The work is moving here in Fiji and I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.....white jumpsuits that is in front of a font of water:)  We are working really hard in our area to help people to come unto Christ this Christmas.  

This week we had a zone conference here in Suva, so we didn't have to do any travelling or go anywhere.  It was nice to just focus on our area and our investigators.  We have been bringing our ward mission leader, Brother Nand, out with us to teach, which has been great because he can speak in Hindi.  We've seen a lot of miracles this week.  Mostly we've been focusing on Eta, who is getting excited to be baptized.  She's the only Fijian I've met who religiously drinks coffee, so that was our biggest worry with her because she REALLY liked her coffee.  But she gave it up!  It was a great example to me of repentance and coming unto Christ to be perfected in him.  We are looking to have her baptism right before the end of the year.  Kesa and Efereimi are doing great as well, but just struggling a bit with coming to church.  They were all set to come this week because Efereimi had a day off on Sunday, but when we went to visit the day before, their little baby Meke was so sick.  He had a big boil right on his forehead, and his whole face was swollen.  We were able to give him a blessing, but they weren't able to come the next day because they took him to the hospital.  I feel peace though knowing they're on the right track.  

I mentioned the family last week where the mom had stomach cancer and the father had a stroke.  They are doing a bit better.  The dad is coming home today but he is not able to speak or do anything really.  We went to visit him in the hospital, and while we were there we had a neat experience.  Fijian hospitals are pretty crowded, so they don't have the privacy that you would in America.  So when two missionaries walk in everybody who is there visiting a sick family member is looking at you.   We were just looking at this father because he was sleeping and we didn't want to wake him up, when a random family asked us to bless their ill grandfather.  We went and blessed him, and then another family asked us to bless their father.  After that we met a couple who told us they were members who had been very less-active but wanted to come back, so we were able to contact the missionaries to go and visit them.  It was an intense 30 min period, but it made me wonder what it must have been like for Jesus every day as the multitudes swarmed and asked for him to bless them.  I am grateful to hold that priesthood and to be considered as one sent by Him.

Love you all,

Elder Harris

Samabula - Week 21

Gali ki loa

Talofa!

Man this week has been so great.  I talked a little bit last week about Elder Cardon; well this week was spent just listening to a General Authority teach.  It was great.  We started the Mission tour in Taveuni, and listening to all of Elder Cardon's knowledge was awesome.  He taught about the Abrahamic Covenant and also recognizing the Spirit.  I learned so much!  On Tuesday, we were just waiting for our flight, and all the other missionaries had left, so we had nothing to do.  The Cardons and the Laytons were going to go to Bouma Falls to sightsee, so they invited us to haul the water and lunch:)  It was awesome.  We then flew to Nadi and had the Mission tour there the next day, and we ended off back in Suva for a Mission Leadership Council on Thursday and our big Mission tour on Friday.  It was a great week and every meeting was full of the Spirit and revelation for me.

While in Taveuni I was able to see both of my recent converts, Senitiki and Naliva.  From talking to other missionaries throughout my mission, I had heard that Senitiki was having a rough time getting to church every week with taxi fare, but recently he has been coming back strong, so I was glad to hear that.  But of all the missionaries I've talked to, nobody knew who Naliva was.  That always made me wonder what happened to him.  But on church in Taveuni, guess who shows up?  Naliva!  He told me he had been in Suva and in the west for a long time, and just felt that he needed to move back to Taveuni that very week.  He said he wanted to come back to church, so I told the elders there to go visit him. That was a miracle to me.

Our area is doing pretty good.  Lesi is doing great after her baptism.  We are working with her sister-in-law and her brother right now to get them active as well.  It's cool because all the Navua gang came to their house for the holidays, so it's like a little reunion for me.  We are also working with a girl named Eta who is sincerely searching to find out if these things are true.  We've been visiting the Chand family for a few weeks now.  Roselyn, the mom, is dying of cancer, and is completely bedridden.  They had asked us to come and pray for her (that's really big in the Indian culture), and we had also been teaching Praveen the father and Prashant the 8 year old boy.  Praveen and Prashant even came to church last week, and we were planning to really work with them to exercise their faith in Jesus Christ.  But then we just found out that Praveen had a stroke and is unconscious in the hospital!  I feel horrible for this little boy, so we are going to continue to visit them and also their father in the hospital.  I have really felt that they need us right now at this point because of everything that is happening.  More importantly they need God.

If you haven't yet, check out the #LighttheWorld video on mormon.org!

Love,

Elder Harris

Samabula - Week 20

Noqu vanua au mai butu'a!

Bula vina'a!

Well yes I know this is an early email, but I promise we have permission from President!  So I know it was a question last week where I was going to be going, so I guess I'll just let you know.

I'm in Taveuni!

That's right on Thursday I got to return to the beautiful garden island which I call my birthplace.  Except this time I didn't have to take any buses or boats; we just flew in.  We are here with President and Sister Layton and the entire Taveuni zone.  We had zone conference/Christmas party yesterday where we had an amazingly spiritual meeting in the morning about our Savior Jesus Christ.  I learned so much.  In the afternoon, President and Sister Layton thought it would be good to have a little fun, so we played some games and got to watch Finding Dory!  Pretty rad.

We will be here until Tuesday, because this is also the time for our mission tour.  Mission tour happens once a year where a General Authority comes and tours the mission.  We have Elder Cardon of the Seventy who is here in Taveuni doing a district conference and then mission tour on Monday.  We will then fly to Nadi and then back to Suva later on next week.  We had dinner with the Cardons and the Laytons yesterday which was so cool!  He asked Elder Faamoe and I, "What questions do you have for a General Authority?"  So we asked a bunch.  I think the best quote I got from him was, "There are no secrets and there are no shortcuts."

Taveuni is great; it's like a dream being back here.  I got to see Senitiki today and also talk to Tuicakau, the big-time chief whom he works for.  We have 26 missionaries on the island, so we just flooded the villages inviting everyone to district conference.  I am looking for Naliva, which is crazy because I found out he moved to Suva for a while but just came back recently to help his father who is sick.  I am hoping to meet up with him because I heard it's been a while since he's been at church.  We were also able to meet this lady named Aileen whom we met in Samabula.  She came to church with one of our recent converts, and we invited her to district conference, and she was like "Of course I'll come!"  It's gonna be a great week.

Loloma levu,

Elda Harris

Borrowed these pictures from Elder and Sister Whitehead's Blog

They are from Joti's Baptism in October