Elder Zachary Harris—Fiji Suva Mission: Somosomo, Taveuni Island

Ni sa bula vinaka!

Man! Weeks fly by so fast in the mission life! We are just always busy everyday, and for some reason it goes by way fast. I can't believe it's Pday again already haha. Is it still cold back home? It's super hot here... But the good news is that I'm getting used to it! I'm just accustomed to being hot all the time now. We have a fan on us at night which is pretty lucky for Taveuni, but still it is way hot at night. Good thing I have a cold shower to cool me off in the morning;) But honestly I am starting to like the warmth and the humidity. The other day I had an interview with President Layton in an air-conditioned office, and I was so cold! It was like a freezer in there!

Speaking of that....this week we had Zone Conference! It was way fun. It took up most of the week though since we are so far away from the middle of the zone. We left Thursday morning (2 hour boat ride and 4 1/2 hour bus ride) and we had Zone Training Meeting that night in Labasa. We stayed with the Labasa elders that night: 22 elders sleeping in one flat was fun haha.

The next day we had our Zone Conference with President and Sister Layton and the APs. It was way good to take a step back and reevaluate where I am as a missionary and what I need to do to improve.

That afternoon and the next day were spent doing interviews. We weren't able to go back to Somosomo on Saturday because the owners of the bus are 7th Day Adventists and their Sabbath is Saturday haha. So we went to Savusavu and stayed with the zone leaders so we could take the bus and boat back on Sunday. But we did eat at this really good place on Saturday night called Captains. It was like right on the bay and it was way gorgeous!

Then, we got back to Somosomo on Sunday in time for the last 5 minutes of church haha. But it was a way exciting week:) It was a ton of traveling in crappy buses, but honestly most of the time I just looked out the window and enjoyed the view because Fiji is just so awesome:)

Besides being away for 3 1/2 days, we had a pretty good week with our work here in Somosomo. N_____ is doing so good in the lessons; he is asking a lot of good questions and just taking everything in when we teach him! It has been amazing to see him change from the time I first met him. He has a baptismal interview this week when the zone leaders come over, and his scheduled date for baptism is the 21st. I am way excited!!

We also have another hopeful investigator whose name is T__. He lives way up at the top of this hill, and he has been listening to all the lessons with one of our recent converts, and he really wants to be baptized, but he has a hard time getting to church because he has way bow legs and his toes are always curled up (I think from 50+ years of sitting cross-legged and climbing coconut trees). But we are trying to get him to come to church so he can finally get baptized.

We still have a lot of work to do because none of our other investigators are following our commitments, but I am really excited about our area right now:)

One thing I learned this week is the importance of following the spirit. Before my mission I thought we just kind of wait around and go through life, and if there is a spiritual prompting we follow it. That is partially true, but there is a way better way! If we constantly seek out the direction of the Spirit, in prayer or in our daily lives, we will be given so many more opportunities to follow promptings and help others! As long as we are worthy and ask for promptings, our Heavenly Father wants to give us these opportunities to obey.

Au lomani kemuni!

Loloma levu,

Elder Harris