Elder Zachary Harris—Fiji Suva Mission: Navua

Yabaki vou.

Bula vinaka!

Man it has been another fantastic week here in Fiji. We have so many blessings down here and amazingly prepared people to receive our message! I had my year mark.....can't believe how fast time flies. And we had a cyclone!

To start off we'll talk about our amazing people that we are teaching down in Navua. First of all the Waqabaca family is doing amazing and is preparing for baptism in a few weeks! Maciu, the grandfather was baptized back in July, but throughout the whole time his wife didn't want anything to do with it. But his daughter and 7 of his grandkids were taking lessons with the sisters in Lami, getting ready to be baptized, when they suddenly had to move back to Navua because of house problems. But when they came back, all of a sudden Maciu's wife wants to be baptized as well! Turns out she has been studying the Book of Mormon and read it all! She finally made a decision to come to church yesterday with everyone, and she loved it. It's been amazing to see the change in their hearts by reading the Book of Mormon. It's been such a blessing just to get to know this great family!

We found another guy this week named Barney. He lives with his brother who is a less-active member. We found out that he just got back from Australia after being in prison for 15 years! He is so humble right now, and wants to be baptized and start over, and we got him and his brother to come to church yesterday, so we'll start visiting them more regularly. I could write more about other people, but the bottom line is the Lord is helping us find so many people who are ready for Him!

Poor Elder Giacalone got super sick from something (possible this chicken curry we had), and celebrated New Years Eve by throwing up all night. So we had a sick day on New Years, just sitting in the flat. But it worked out well because there was a cyclone warning all of New Years, so it would have been a crappy day proselyting. It was just really windy and rainy all day, but nothing too crazy and definitely not as bad as the storm last year. So that was fun. We burned my shirt to celebrate my year mark, and that was that.

I can hardly believe my mission is halfway over. The time went by so fast. But it has been so good so far, and I have learned a ton! I've met so many great people and learned so much from them. And especially I have grown closer to my Heavenly Father and learned that when we are obedient to Him, He will bless us! I'm looking forward to another great year that hopefully won't fly by so fast. Ciao.

Love,

Elder Harris