...Name them one by one.

Cola Vina!

This week was MLC again! Yay! :) We had a nice road trip to Suva and got to spend some time with the sisters there! And we enjoyed some FABULOUS trainings.  My favorite was on the difference between testimony and conversion.  Every day we meet plenty people who have testimonies.  They will tell you over and over that they know this church is true. But something is missing. They aren't yet truly converted. Testimony is knowing the Gospel is True. But conversion is living true to the Gospel. The difference is action. And real intent. I pray that each of us are striving each day to become more and more CONVERTED through our actions. 

This week during sacrament I was a little disappointed because most of our investigators were not able to come to church like we were planning. Sometimes missions are hard because you Love so much and you give your heart out to all of your investigators and then you just feel so sad when things don't work out like you planned.  Missions are good at teaching us how to deal with disappointments! You don't get down, you just keep looking up and moving forward. :) But as I was listing in my planner all the people that WEREN'T at church, I happened to flip to the Hymn...."Count Your Many Blessings." As I started reading the words, I realized I needed to be grateful for all of the wonderful people that WERE there.  I needed to "name them one by one." Because each one of them was a blessing from Heavenly Father. There is so much to be grateful for in this life! Every day I wake up so grateful for the choice I made to serve a mission and the opportunity I have to serve the people of Fiji. And for all of the other wonderful blessings I enjoy! I am a lucky girl! :) 

Loloma Levu,

Sista Matheson :)

 Sister Kaisisi hopping the fence to Surprise Sister Uate for her Birthday! 

Sunsets here are the bomb.

Our Flag for MLC. 

Nadi Town Flooded (The whole Sidewalk was covered in water after like 10 minutes of rain.)

P-Day RAIN BATH! (I promise we didn't go swimming)

Check out that water! Holy cow! 

Roadtrip pit stop. 

Coolest Potty break ever! 

Fiji is beautiful. 

(sorry for the picture overload)

Happy (late) Valentine's Day!

Bula Vinaka! 

Happy Late Valentine's Day! I hope you all had a lovely week! We sure did! We celebrated Valentine's day with a Baptism! Yay! Loata was baptized! We are so proud of her! She is such a cute girl and has such a strong testimony! We had water issues and the font was only half way up the Elder who was baptizing her's shin. So she had to be baptized a few times, but she was a real trooper! 

Transfers were this week and Sister Kaisisi and I are both staying! YAY! Good because we have plenty of work to do! And I just love my companion! She's the cutest! And we are going to the North and TAVEUNI next week! SOOO exciting! :)

In our District Meeting this week, we talked about using the skills we have gained in the mission to help us throughout the rest of our life. I really like this quote our District Leader shared....

"Lack of plans to achieve worthy goals, will turn converted missionaries into careless members."  

Scary eh? Just thought I'd share that because it's really deep and good and has stuck with me all week. :) Plans and goals are important. 

Also, this week for my personal study, I really wanted to learn something new and cool and exciting! So I prayed for the Spirit to teach me. And my eyes were opened! I read Alma 34 and was really interested in vs. 10......

 "For it is expedient that there should be a great and last sacrifice; yea, not a sacrifice of man, neither of beast, neither of any manner of fowl; for it shall not be a human sacrifice; but it must be an infinite and eternal sacrifice."

I kept thinking about the Atonement and Sacrifice so I looked up sacrifice in the Bible Dictionary. WOW! Go read it. But you gotta put your spiritual glasses on first. It talked about how today, sacrifices have been replaced with the Sacrament. So I read about each of the different kinds of traditional sacrifices (Sin offering, Burnt offering, and Peace offering) and applied it to the Sacrament. So cool. The sacrament is so simple yet so profound. I realized that when we partake of the sacrament, we are cleansed of our sins, after we have repented (sin offering), recognize the hand of God in our lives (burnt offering) and are renewed and given the strength to endure to the end and develop our relationship with our Savior (Peace Offering). 

I'm so grateful for the opportunity we have to partake of the sacrament each week!

Loloma Levu,

Sista Matheson :)

 District Lunch at Mama's Pizza! (L to R: E. Cagimaivuna, E. Arthur, E. Morgan, E. Tonumaipea, Me, S. Kaisisi)

 Last picture with Elder Gregory before he goes to the North as a Zone Leader. We'll miss him!

Frankie the Love Fern. :) 

 We decided to celebrate Valentine's day and buy a LOVE FERN! (I really miss Adolf, our avacado plant from Samabula)

 Nola is my best friend. I'm gonna be like her someday. :) (Also, she is Amber Jones' twin!)

 Proselyting in the flooded village! Ha! Rain here is so crazy!

 My little Sisters here in Fiji! :) LOVE THESE TWO!

Loata's Baptism! Best Valentine's day EVA! :) We are so proud of her!