MTC - Week 6

Ni sa bula vinaka!

This last week at the MTC has been a good one.  It has been hard at times, but I felt like I have learned a lot, and I am ready to go to Fiji!  I leave the MTC on Monday at 1:30, and then we fly from Salt Lake to L.A., and L.A. to Fiji.  I'm so excited!  The MTC has been great, but I am ready to leave.  My Fijian is coming along, but I still have a lot to learn.  I feel like I have learned so much, but then I realize that there is still a lot of Fijian that I don't know at all.  I think once I get to Fiji it will be good because I will have to use it all the time, and eventually I will get the hang of it.  But I am praying hard for the gift of tongues!

This week I learned a lot about hope.  Not the word hope that we use everyday, like "I hope the Seahawks win the Super Bowl" (which I heard didn't happen haha).  Hope is having a firm belief that God is real and that He will fulfill His promises to you.  My mission prep teacher used to say that you can almost always replace the word "hope" in the scriptures with the word "testimony".  I know that if we have a steadfast hope in our Heavenly Father, He will fulfill His blessings to us.  

Some parts of this week were pretty crazy.  So in the MTC, the first night you get here, all the new missionaries go to this workshop where they watch missionaries start a lesson with an investigator up at the front of this big room, and then all the new missionaries are given the opportunity to ask questions and teach this investigator.  I thought it was pretty cool back when I did it.  But then my companion and I were selected to be the demo missionaries for the new missionaries!.....  I really like teaching lessons, but I was freaking out because now I had to do it in front of an audience!  

We did two demonstrations.  The first one wasn't very good haha.  The guy we were talking to was really hard to talk to, and my companion and I were struggling with what to say (my companion hardly said anything because of his English).  It was just really hard.  So I was kind of bummed about how that went.  But the next demo we did was really cool.  It was this girl that we were able to talk to and get her to open up so the missionaries could know what to teach her.  It was great!  So that was a little stressful haha but it was a good experience at the same time.

Looking back on my experience in the MTC, I have changed so much since I have been here.  I am a better teacher, a better listener, and a better missionary.  I have come closer to my Heavenly Father than ever before, and I know that he is watching over me.  I have become a better disciple of Christ.  Our branch's motto is 3 Nephi 5:13, "For behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the son of God; I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people, that they might have everlasting life."  I feel like I have come to better understand what that truly means. 

I would like to share my testimony in Fijian.

Au via wasea na noqu ivakadinadina

Au kila ni dina na kosipeli i Jisu Karisito

Au kila ni vosa ni kalou na iVola i Momani

Au vakadinadinataka ni noda ivakabula o Jisu Karisito

Au kila ni tawamudu na matavuvale.

Au kila ni cakacaka ni Kalou na cakacaka daukaulotu.

Au vakadinadinataka ni parofita dina o Josefa Simici

Au vakavinavinakataka na marau mai na kosipeli.

Ena yaca i Jisu Karisito, Emeni.

Thanks everyone for the prayers, next letter will be from Fiji!

Love,

Elder Harris