An Instrument in His Hands: The power of NOW.

Bula!

Holy wonderful week! Nadi is the bomb. I just really love it here! Especially with a fabulous companion and a car and so much work to do! We saw a lot of fabulous things happen this week. We were able to find three new fabulous investigators and we gave two of them baptismal dates for February. One of them is a little girl named Loata. Our district leader gave us a casual referral for her after district lunch then we happened to meet her. And we decided to go back to her house and meet her family right then. She will be baptized in three weeks. It was a great reminder of the power of NOW. Sometimes I have a tendency to procrastinate. But there are blessings in doing things NOW.

I love Nadi. But I am REAL sick of the cockroaches here. We killed about 15 or so (no exaggeration) before lunch time today. And some of them are barely insects. They should probably be classified as animals because they are HUGE! But I'm getting real good at killing em. The nice thing about cockroaches? You just flip em on their back and they can't flip back over so they die. (Deep Gospel insight about cockroaches coming soon!) But it's all part of the adventure eh?

Last night Sister Kaititi and I were adding up our numbers and all of the sudden..... No electricity. It was SO pitch black dark. Like a little bit scary. And we were helpless. We started feeling around the ground for the phone to use for light. But no luck. We crawled around looking for it for what seemed like forever- bumping into all sort of random objects. The thought came to my mind..."Man, I wish someone would just happen to call us right now. Then we could find the phone and have some light. We can't find it by ourselves." Later, when the issue was resolved I was reflecting back on the experience. I just imagine how many less actives are out there feeling around in the dark for some small source of light because there has been a temporary electricity outage in their lives. They need to be called. Visited. Reached out to. I feel like Heavenly Father has sent me to Nadi to gain experience working with Less Actives. Because I feel like that's something I haven't had much experience with. And I'm so excited to bring em back!

This week we were also able to witness the beautiful baptism of Connie and Gru. Our favorite Chinese investigators here in Nadi! They are so precious. And teaching them has been such a blessing! I was so touched by their testimonies. Both of them. Sometimes they struggle to express everything they feel in English, but the Spirit is so strong. I know they will be strong members for the rest of their lives. We are so proud of them!

We had the chance to go to Ward Council yesterday. And I was really impressed with our Bishop. He talked about how it is his goal to "vabula" or shake hands with every member of the ward each Sunday. I started thinking about it. Can you imagine the power that would come into a ward if every member of the ward council reached out to each new face that stepped in the building? They would immediately feel welcome and comfortable. They would keep coming back. But we can't reach out to each new face if we don't know the people who are there every week. We have to know our sheep. Each one of them. Individually. Talk to them often and just LOVE them. Then we can know who is attending for the first time. That's my goal. For the rest of my life. I'm so excited to serve in the church. And to build up the Lord's Kingdom little by little in whichever ways He wants me to. :)

Loloma Levu,

Sister Matheson :)