Navua - Week 12

Sili mada!

Bula everyone!

We had a great week this week!  Definitely the highlight of the week was our baptism that we held.  We were able to see the Waqabaca family and Api get baptized on Saturday!  It was an awesome experience.  We scheduled our baptism at 4 on Saturday, but with a bit of Fiji time we finally got everyone we needed there around 5.  

Everyone was dressed in white and super excited!  It was an absolute gorgeous day in Navua.  Our chapel is up on top of a hill that looks over the lush Navua river and all the farmland, and the sunset just made everything look so good!  Elder Giacalone, another guy, and I were able to perform the ordinance between the 8 being baptized, which took a while but was definitely a fun experience!  And everyone was just so happy and enjoying the moment!  

My favorite part of every baptism is hearing the recent converts bear their testimony, and it was for sure my favorite this time as well!  I was just so happy to see everyone making that important step in their life and how much it meant to them.  A miracle for sure!

Unfortunately Ciri, the oldest one being baptized was having some health problems the next day.  Her leg was all swollen and she wasn't able to walk.  And her husband was sick as well so the others had to stay home and take care of them.  So only Api was able to be confirmed the next day.  Hopefully she will be able to get her leg better so we can confirm them all next week.  They were really sad to not be able to come.

We also saw some progress with a few other investigators this week.  We have been working with Jerry and Emma and their family for a while now, and it just hasn't progressed too well until the past few weeks.  Jerry is a less-active member, and his wife is not a member.  But recently they have been feeling that they need to come to church!  So we have been visiting them trying to help them get the drive to go, and they came this week!  It's great because two of their daughters really want to be baptized, but they were just waiting for their mom.  But now the mom wants to be baptized as well!  So that's another little miracle we saw this week!

I'm super excited because the open house for the temple starts today!  We are way pumped to go and see the new inside.  We are trying to organize times with our investigators so they can come and see the House of the Lord.  It's going to be a great time for the church here in Fiji!

I'm just super excited for the work right now.  Too bad we're still waiting for that car haha.  We have been walking a ton on these dusty Navua roads; our feet get pretty dirty every day.  But I'm too scared to wipe it off my sandals!

Loloma yani,

Elder Harris

Waqabaca Family and Api Baptism

Dinner after the Baptism