Bula Vinaka from Sister Wayment

Bula Vinaka! This week has been a great week. We have extended a lot of baptismal invitations and we think a few of them might be baptized! We have been teaching an Indian family. The mom only speaks Hindi and the dad speaks limited English and Fijian. We have brought the Hindi elders over to help us to teach them, and they say they want to be baptized! They came to church yesterday. When they came a member of our bishopric was giving a talk in Fijian and occasionally was yelling. so I think they were a little scared. We are going to bring Hindi speaking members over to visit them this week so hopefully they will feel a little more comfortable. As the Christmas season is coming closer, I have been thinking about the Savior and what He has done for me. Of course we celebrate His birth on Christmas, but the greatest thing He has done for each of us is die in behalf of us. No matter where we are in life, what mistakes we have made, or how much we have been hurt, the Savior unders...

Bula Vinaka! This week has been a great week. We have been very busy and productive.  We were able to go to Vutia Island twice this week, on Thursday and yesterday. On Thursday we were able to teach 8 lessons and find a ton of people! There is so much work to be done there! The unit there is small but the members are actively working on missionary work. They have been inviting their friends to Church. They sit in on our teaching appointments as well, which helps a lot! One woman named Mere has attended church once all ready with her daughter. We taught her a lesson in Thursday and one lesson yesterday. We invited her to be baptized yesterday and she said she would, but she wanted to go to church more. I have seen the hand of the Lord in the work we do, specifically as we strive to be exactly obedient and more dedicated to the work. We had our first zone conference this week which was incredible! A very good experience. I learned a lot and it was a good time to start fres...

Bula Vinaka!  Fiji is wonderful! And absolutely beautiful. The sunsets are gorgeous, and the people here are so kind and loving and happy. I have seen boats and lots and lots of fish. In fact, my area here covers some outer islands so we have to take a tiny little motor boat out to them. Every day I feel so much love for Fiji and the people here. I can't really describe what it is like here. I have never felt such a love for people and for a place as I have here, especially a foreign place. They are so humble and so happy. Even if they don't want to hear our message they are way nice about it and let us share with them anyway. I wish you could see the sunrises and sunsets, meet all the people I meet everyday, and feel of the love for them. A camera can't capture all of that. I like being in the bush. Everyone here wants to go to America, specifically Utah. It is so funny how the roles change. In Utah, everyone wants to go to Fiji. In Fiji, everyone wants to go to Utah....

Bula Vinaka! This week was a good week. My trainer is very nice and funny. Her name is Sister Tune. She is almost done with her mission and she is from Kiribati. I am doing better at learning Fijian. I have been studying the Book of Mormon in Fijian every day and it has been helping a lot. It was very sunny for the first half, and i got burned on my neck really bad. I got so tan from just 2 days of being in the sun. We have been teaching a less active family because two of the kids are getting ready to get baptized, so we are giving them the lessons. We went over this week to give them a lesson. They hadn't done their B ook of Mormon reading, so we decided to read a chapter with them. We were helping them read, and my companion was reading out loud, then they would copy what she said. Towards the end all of the kids were reading at the same time. It was so funny and I had to try really hard not to laugh out loud. We found a lady who only spoke Fijian which is very uncommon. ...

I still can't believe that I am here in Fiji. it is so gorgeous, you would absolutely love it. My trainer is Sister Tune and she is awesome! I am learning so many good things from her. I am in the Toga area. It is the only "Bush" area for sisters and the only Fijian speaking Area for sisters. The members are so nice! The kids are so cute too. We went to church yesterday and we were sitting on the bench by ourselves because we were a little early. As soon as we sat down all these little kids came over and snuggled right next to me. It was the cutest thing ever. They really like to sit right next to us and sometimes fall asleep leaning against us. They like my hands and tell me my skin is pink. Haha everyone really likes my eyes too. I have not seen one white person, especially a white girl anywhere around here. There is a family in our ward, the Vavaloa's and they really like to feed us. On Saturday we were going to the Saturday session of Stake conference. We ha...

Bula Vinaka! This week has been great! This is my very last P-day in the MTC. I am so excited and ready to go to Fiji this Monday! We got our flight plans, and I will be packing tomorrow! Our Tuesday devotional this week was by Elder Soares from the quorum of the 12. He gave such an amazing talk! Something I really liked that he talked about was the power of hymns. He shared a story about a missionary who saw something on accident and couldn't get it out of his head. He asked his mom for advice and his mom told him to memorize a hymn and all the words. Whenever the thought would pop into his head, he could sing the hymn out loud or think of the words in his mind. I have a very strong testimony that his works. I love the reminder of this and I know that Satan cannot have power over us when we invite the Spirit. It is impossible. I love being a missionary! It is not easy at all, but it is the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I am so excited to serve the people of Fiji! I love ...

Bula everyone! Today is exactly a month since I came into the MTC and 10 days until I leave for Fiji! I am so excited to go! We had a very good week this week. We were very productive and it went by very quickly. We had our first Skype TRC last night. During normal TRC's (in person) some people sing a song in the language to use up time. We decided to sing a song this time but didn't think about how it might be a little weird over skype. Anyway, we told our member we were going to sing. We started singing and he didn't even try to join in, he just started laughing! Haha, it was so funny, but we didn't know what to do so we just finished the song on our own. The rest of the lesson went pretty well, in fact, I think it was the best lesson yet, despite the singing ;) I am really excited for this coming week's class. We will be going more of the culture stuff we need to know. We really haven't been over a lot of it yet so I am excited to know some of that. I am jus...

Bula Vinaka! This week has been great! I have grown a lot in the language and spiritually. We are preparing for our second TRC tonight. We had our first TRC last Friday night which went much better than I thought it would! The only thing was when we first got to the building there were a couple of fire trucks and the fire alarms were going off in the building. So that was exciting. Because we had to wait to find out that there was no fire, we had to cut our lessons short 5 minutes. That was just fine with us. We had Fijians come into the MTC so that we could talk to them and it was really fun. I enjoyed it a lot and was able to say things that I hadn't memorized and form sentences on the spot. So that was cool. Every day I learn a little bit more and am able to use a little bit more Fijian. Saturday I got to sing in conference, so that was really fun! I am so grateful for that opportunity. I auditioned for a musical number this week and they emailed me wanting me to play it twice ...

Singing Hope of Israel in General Conference during the Saturday afternoon session. Pictures courtesy of Benjamin and Meg Christensen

Bula Vinaka! This week has been really good! The time is flying by. We have our first TRC tonight which is a memorized lesson in Fijian. I feel mostly ready so I am sure it will go well. I have learned a lot this week, and I feel very productive. We were playing trashsketball in class and you would have to guess a word before the other person did. If you guessed it first, you had to throw a wad of paper into the trash can. I got the word when it was my turn, and chose a one pointer. It was like 3 feet away. I threw it and I missed!! it bounced off the edge of the garbage can. The elders thought it was hilarious. So that was funny. In other news, I am doing well! I am seeing a lot of people here that I know. Even some from high school. So there is this cat that lives here. The elders absolutely love it. They named it Sylvia and during the breakfast line they run over and pick it up and hold it. During the breakfast line today, some elders were talking to it and wer...

Bula! What a great week. The days here are so full of things to do that the time flies! I can say a prayer in Fijian, bear my testimony, share a scripture, and share the first lesson (with a companion) in Fijian memorized. Heavenly Father is blessing me so much with what I need. I know that by myself I couldn't do even half of what I am doing every day. P- day has been much needed! (especially for laundry). I love going to the temple every week because I know that there I can not worry about anything except feeling the spirit. I love being a missionary! It is seriously the most amazing, hardest, yet incredible thing ever! I have to rely on the Holy Ghost so much here, which has been just amazing. Yesterday we had to teach a lesson in Fijian. Right before we went into the room, I could not remember anything! My mind was blank. I was just going to bring in my notes, but Sister Wilcox told me it would be okay and that I would remember. We prayed right before, and during the lesson I ...

Bula vinaka! My P-day is on Friday :) We have successfully made it through two days of the MTC. It is great! My companion is Sister Wilcox, and she is a Hawaiian from Alaska. There are three other sisters in our district going to Fiji, so five of us in all. Almost all of the elders in our district are going to Fiji, but two are going to California Fijian speaking. It is so cold here in the mornings! We have three teachers who all went to Fiji on their missions. We have an elder from New Guinea who is going through the temple for the first time, so we got to go with him today! Me and Sister Wilcox share a room with two sisters going to Tonga, one of which is Tongan. The first night she asked me if I was from Micronesia. When I said no, she said I looked Polynesian or a mix, so that was funny. One of the members of our Branch Presidency interviewed me last night and showed me a picture of his son-in-law who is a first generation Fijian. I think he (the member of the Branch Presidency) is...

I'm Off! Bula everyone! I made it to my classroom! They said to write you a short email to let you know I am fine. We went right into learning the language. I hope you all have a great day!  Love, Sister Wayment