Killing our Goals

This is Naca!  He's 17, and is working toward baptism and serving a 2 year mission as well!

 This week, Heavenly Father gave us 6 new beloved children of His who are golden and fully prepared!  They all want to be Baptized and 2 of THEM aalllsssooo want to serve 2 year missions to share this glorious restored and beautiful truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The world is ready to rise up and follow the Savior! 

We just have to love them, ask for Heavenly Father's help, receive the Savior's enabling power, and simply with unrestrained joy and happiness, invite them, one at a time. 

They know this church is true and they already feel the incredible blessings and truth the Father has blessed their souls to feel.

This area is literally exploding with miracles!

We are hitting and overachieving ALL of our goals!

In fact, we're KILLING all of the goals Heavenly Father has told us to make!

Why I'm 8000 miles from home

​We're teaching some cannibals, and they had me for dinner the other night! 

This week has been LITERALLY nothing but miracles! 

 The language fully clicked for the first time this week! I've had dreams in Fijian!  I talk to everyone in Fijian and I'm forgetting how to speak English!  I'm getting darker and darker, and this food beats all American food except Susan Howard's!-- (my dear angel divine glorious beautiful Mother!) 

First time the language Fully Clicked:

We got on the bus on Monday after doing needed shopping and sharing the gospel and lifting and blessing and brightening people's lives, and I got on and initially went to a specific seat in the back half of the bus.  But then Heavenly Father told me that I needed to sit up by a lady near the front of this crowded bus.  It was amazing, because people were pouring in, but didn't sit next to her.  It was miraculous how her seat was preserved for me.  I acted on the prompting.  We talked for a good 30 minutes in just Fijian, about everything about me and everything about her.  We had talked for this long, and the bus hadn't even started going yet.  So, the Lord told me to share the gospel with her to bless her life.  We talked about her family, and the deep joy and happiness our Heavenly Father desires we all receive through His plan.  I went through the entire Restoration, and Book of Mormon and bore my testimony and we had amazing, deep conversations about her family and her feelings and life!  It was amazing!  The Lord blessed me to completely speak fluent Fijian!  It rolled out without effort!  She understood everything I said! I didn't have to translate in my head or anything--it truly rolled out with ease!  I shared with her, talking non-stop for about an entire long hour of just sharing the gospel and being super happy and enjoying each other!

I'm fluent!

Thanks to Heavenly Father--not myself.  He is a great giver of good gifts to all His children who will ask and then work to be fully one with Him so He can be unrestrained in pouring out enabling help and power.  Do His work, and you have His joy and power and are one with Him. 

We can all do this!

In our lives, there are things we can do to be one with Him in His work.  When we lay down our pride and our will, we pick up His power and His ridiculous happiness, purpose and meaning in life!

I have experienced it first hand every single day here! 

​Cucumber invites you!  Join Heavenly Father in His work.  Come unto Christ!  There is no greater happiness than when your all is given over to Him, fully and unrestrained and unreservedly!

It's to the point now where with effort and exertion, I look hard for any place or degree where I don't plainly, veillessly, undeniably & obviously see Heavenly Father's hand in my life.  There's not a single smallest detain or thing where I can't plainly see His hand, undeniably!  My whole soul and Being marvels and sings!

​Not that the windows of my Father's full and bounteous blessings just barely opened; but that my eyes just barely did.  By practice and prayers asking and petitioning Him for such, it's growing in greater degree than ever, every day! EVERY NEW DAY!

I used to try hard each day to see His hand.  Now by practice and His enabling gift and blessing--there's nowhere I DON'T see it plain as day and clear as all the passages of beautiful eternity!

Every new day, I'm not satisfied with all the improvement and good and progress I made yesterday and the depth of my oneness with Christ and the Father, through my Savior's help and enabling power.

I wake up, smile super ridiculously big and look my soul square in the eye, and look myself in the mirror and say,

"Old me, welcome to the new me.  This is the new me; the Lord will lead me to higher ground than I've ever been on."

And then He does!

There hasn't been a single day here, that wasn't better than the last!  

Each day LITERALLY is better than the last!

That is how the Gospel blesses my life; it allows me to be on a never ending, upward climb of joy, regardless of my circumstances, trials and difficulties... in fact!: It's BECAUSE of and through those joyful difficulties and trials and circumstances!

This is life at its fullest!  And fuller every day!

So many sorrows and challenges and Goliath's and trials every day! I choose to lay all of them upon the Atonement's enabling power, and choose joy and then BAM!! ALL BAD THINGS TRANSFORM FOR MY JOY AND GOOD. 

Gratitude makes literally everything minister to adding and enhancing my joys and happiness even when horrible things happen to me!
Thanks to Christ, there's nothing bad in my life--for all things are transformed for my good and joy and oneness with Him.

That's why I'm 8000miles away from home for two years doing absolutely nothing but sharing THIS message!

​ 

A loving Heavenly Father (Part 2: Prayer)

So, Life.  What's it all about?  Why is it?  And how can we make the most of it?

How do we individually and personally reach Life @ it's Fullest?

​We approach our loving Heavenly Father, and give our lives to Him.  

And mean it.  Trust His love.  Feed all the light and good and faith and joy and divinity and righteousness and happiness inside of you!  Feed it and starve ALL the bad.

What does He do then?

He Himself can then teach us.

How?

This gospel of Jesus Christ.

The beauty and perfection of the gospel God our loving Heavenly Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ, restored in our day and age--personally and permanently, to bless the lives of all the children of God.

I would like to suggest that life at its fullest is accessed very largely through prayer.

​This is a picture my companion took without me knowing.  We had had a long day, and this restaurant didn't have anything but expensive cola drinks and juices.  We wanted water, but they didn't have any.  We walked over to our table and sat down.  Heavenly Father heard our prayers and desires.  A waitress walked over and surprised us by giving us a jug full of water, and two cups!

It was a small thing, but it impacted us hugely and we felt our Heavenly Father's love and kindness. 

I stopped what I was doing and immediately thanked Him.

He hears us.

He always hears us.

The Bible Dictionary says this about Prayer:

As soon as we learn the true relationship in which we stand toward God (namely, God is our Father, and we are His children), then at once prayer becomes natural and instinctive on our part (Matt. 7:7–11). Many of the so-called difficulties about prayer arise from forgetting this relationship. Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.

There are many passages in the New Testament that teach the duty of prayer (Matt. 7:7; 26:41; Luke 18:1; 21:36; Eph. 6:18; Philip. 4:6; Col. 4:2; 1 Thes.5:17, 25; 1 Tim. 2:1, 8). Christians are taught to pray in Christ’s name (John14:13–14; 15:7, 16; 16:23–24). We pray in Christ’s name when our mind is the mind of Christ, and our wishes the wishes of Christ—when His words abide in us (John 15:7). We then ask for things it is possible for God to grant. Many prayers remain unanswered because they are not in Christ’s name at all; they in no way represent His mind but spring out of the selfishness of man’s heart.

Book of Mormon references on prayer include 1 Ne. 18:3; Alma 34:17–28;Ether 2:14.

A Loving Heavenly Father -- You have to SEE this!

Ni Sa Bula Vinaka!!!

This week, I want to try to get you a few good  pictures right off:

This is what Fijian's in our village love to do in their spare time

And this....

...is our [Christmas] house!

These are a few of the hilarious, mischievous, beautiful little cute Fijian children in my area.

This is Me in a Tree.  I hope to live here soon.

And these are Fijian children I taught to breakdance.

This is a huge storm coming our way.  We had more this week than probably any week yet. It was AWESOME! :)

Ilaitia, climbing a vuniniu(coconut tree,) to get my first ever authentic Fijian coconut.

And this is me drinking it!

These are sad children.  They are hilarious! I love them!

These are beautiful!!!  What more need I say?

This is a Fijian warrior(Ilaitia) 

This is a delicious Fijian meal with his family^

OOps!!! That's two horses and a boy who randomly walked into our front yard while we were studying.

THIS :) is the meal...

And this is a spider as big as my hand.  It lives with us.  My companion screamed like a girl and chopped a few of its legs off the other day though.  I haven't named it yet. 

What should I name it??

My little buddies!!! Playing around after spending all day gardening and working and singing out in the hot sun.

Another cool picture of the boys jumping the bridge

A picture of how sweaty I am all the time, and my friend in the backround. 

These are pictures of us before and after working in the fields.  I sang in Fijian the whole time and worked hard.  So fun!  Learned a lot about Fijian agriculture! 

I am proud to say I am indeed gaining weight!  Haha! Zero fat though.  The Fijian life and diet is perfect for muscle building!  In the flat every day, we wake up and lift buckets of water and do pull ups on the wood ceiling beams, and do pushups and ghetto workouts!  You don't need a gym! Just like I said every day with my Facebook Fitness Page!  No excuses! Just choices.

 

More working in the fields

Sele!  (Fijian Jungle Sword!)

Near Death and Walking on Water

I almost died this week!  

It was absolutely awesome!  

[--Editors note: Please don't freak out--] Don't get upset or fear for me or worry, because Heavenly Father's got me perfectly in His hands and the power of the Priesthood in His church is true and raised me from death.

I'll get to that though...


This is about faith. The kind Christ commands of us; the kind He knows we're capable of.  The kind that makes our lives flooded with joy and deep happiness regardless of the losses or pains or trials we all will face while in this stage of Eternal Life. 

 I've learned we really can walk on water, God has not ceased to do miracles. I can literally testify of Him, with perfect knowledge of His reality and awareness  of each of us His children, individually and perfectly.

He's ready to guide you, if you're ready to believe He can make you into something amazing.  I testify He can.  He can and will exceed your highest expectations and hopes for yourself, if you'll simply be willing to,and then with His enabling and strengthening power, GIVE YOURSELF FULLY(not somely :) to Him.

I testify this is where joy lies.

I testify this brings the kinds of miracles I'm talking about.
They're in every day and minute of YOUR life.

Will you choose to allow Him to show you 10,000 miracles?

I testify of them.

They are yours.  They are mine.  They are from a loving Father.

Our Eternal, loving, perfect, exalted, wonderful, heavenly Father.

​"Where did we come from? Why are we here? Where do we go after this life? No longer need these universal questions remain unanswered":

Read or listen to the Prophet-> http://bit.ly/1l6thS4

I cannot keep my mouth shut.  How can any of us?  
His truths are too desperately needed, and they're too true and perfect and fulfilling and soul-satisfying and sweet and precious above all that is sweet; precious above all that is precious.

No life can be all it can be, if it is lacking the answers to those questions^ three.

I feel like the prophets in the Book of Mormon who said, "I cannot write a hundreth part" of all the adventures and mindblowing and beautiful miracles that happened this week in my mission!!!!  

I WISH I had enough time!!

There are hundreds of miracles and stories and ministries that are truly mindblowing, and I have recoreded all of them in my journal, SO PLEASE FIND ME AFTER MY MISSION AND ASK ME ABOUT ALL OF THEM!!! 

PLEASE!

but I have to just skip to where I almost left this life:

BUT, first a thought:
I really feel like I may have felt the Holy Ghost & my Father's eye opening influence & presence more than... ever.  It comes when I let myself truly stop in time & fully be swallowed up in gratitude.  The realest, deepest, real gratitude for literally all things.

******************************************************************

I got a really bad disease. Called (of all things,) "Dangi"  

My stomach hurt more than I can describe.  I was near fainting.  I lost all energy and strength in my limbs.  I lost my appetite completely. (THAT IS SUPER WEIRD.  I ALWAYS EAT AND EAT AND NEVER GET FULL!  I'M KNOWN HERE FOR THAT)  And we had to cancel all our lessons that day, and all I could do was lay in my bed and sweat and smile and choose joy and be super ridiculously happpy! And I seriously was.  But I was dying. All my energy was sapped.  My temperature had now risen over 100Fer. degrees, and rising.  I wrote a letter to my family.  I talked with my Heavenly Father extensively.  

Then, while talking with Heavenly Father, He told me to ask my companion for a priesthood blessing https://www.lds.org/youth/article/importance-of-priesthood-blessings?lang=eng, & https://www.lds.org/search?lang=eng&country=hk%2F&query=priesthood, and so I heeded my Heavenly Father's invitation, and asked my companion, Elder Nawahine (who holds that sacred and eternal Priesthood power above described in the links provided,) and he agreed.

Here is my journal entry about exactly what then happened:

"He and I became filled with the most sacred reverence and I looked him in the eye and asked him if he felt spiritually prepared.  He went into the other room and prayed and then came back.  I read from the Doctrine and Covenants, and then we felt ready.  All day I had been getting hotter and hotter and more sick and energiless, and weak, and even lost my appetite.  But while the blessing was administed and pronounced upon me, I felt my body healing and changing in real time.  My ora and feelings and body changed.  I could feel & sense & experience all I'd lost come pouring back into me.  After the blessing, my appetite was restored! All the pain was gone!  My body and energy felt perfect and healthy and lively!  I got up, hugged my companion and thanked and praised my Heavenly Father, and went into the kitchen and ate food!!!

I slept deep and perfectly!  And the entire next day, I was more energetic than everyone around me!  I told my companion, when he finally woke up after me, 'I feel like I could run 100miles with you on my back!!"  And I did!  We were amazed. I smiled ridiculously big and talked with my Father for a long time. My praise and love and reverence for him have no bounds!  

I can say in truth, that my spirit and body have been renewed.

I testify of this Priesthood.  I know this church is true.  It holds that Priesthood authority and power that created this world, and governs the heavens and binds on earth and in heaven.  I testify of it because I have experienced it and I humbly and reverently hold it and am a bearer of it's sacred power and authority.

My Zone: 

Your DESTINY

Ni Sa Bula Vinaka, from the Island of Fiji!

This is one of the houses here around my area!  This is an example of what Fijian Houses look like!  With how much it rains here, a house like this isn't a bad idea.  These fantastic people decided to build their house as a Boat.  

I think I'm going to do this when I get back to America and start my own family and make a house.

Too bad American building codes are ridiculous and make it impossible for one to build anything like this back home!  

Here, you just ask the village chief for a piece of land, and if he grants it, you're free to build whatever weird thing your heart desires! 



Everywhere I go now, I greet people as I pass them and when I see them, like this:
"Bula, (or moce, depending on the time of day,) luve ni Kalou!"  

Which means, "Hello, child of God!" 

If this is one of the greatest, truest, most uplifting of all eternal truths, and the one that is the most worth understanding and teaching, and the one that inspires and lifts us the most everytime we remind ourselves of it... Then why not greet everyone this way?  

Remind the world, and each divine soul in it, of their eternal and grand origin, destiny, worth and potential. 

DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE?

DO YOU KNOW YOUR POTENTIAL?

It's Awesome!!! 



I've seen miracles literally every day of my mission.  There hasn't been one single day where I couldn't see Heavenly Father's hand undeniably, awesomely, and unmistakably! If you ask Him to show you how His hand and love have been in your day, and then let His Spirit show you, you will find so many things in your day where He made Himself obvious.  

He loves YOU.  

I testify Heavenly Father loves you.

Look for His hand.  I testify that it's literally everywhere!  

I have decided I will bring the gospel to the entire nation of Fiji.  How will I do that?  By not doing it>>>>>>>By letting Heavenly Father do it through me!  Not me doing it--HIM doing it and just using me as the channel by which He does it.

I will do it the way He does all His ministering and blessing of His eternal children:

One by one.

One at a time.

Loving, Serving, Blessing, & Ministering to Individuals.

Through taking advantage of literally every opportunity my Heavenly Father gives me--and doing it by His enabling and strengthening power.

Thus, I will reach His FULL potential for this mission and these 2 VERY short years--and not just SOME of His potential and vision for my mission. 

Whenever we ask for our Father's help and strength, He gives it.  Trust His love.  Give yourself all the way to Him, and awesome things happen!




These lizards are everywhere in our house.  They act like dogs.  They bark, wag their tails, and playfully bite each others' heads.  They walk around on our ceiling, and randomly fall with a loud "SMACK" while we're studying.  

They're the Fijian version of the Squirrels back in Virginia!

Go get to work on something that will have an eternal differnece.  Some small act of kindness.  Share the gospel in beautiful and simple ways completely and only motivated by love.  Pray.  Read the Scriptures.  Smile. Write in your journal.

For, God chooses His while they're working;
But, Satan chooses his while they're idle.

Because of and thanks to, and most importantly through Jesus Christ, we have the same agency(power to chooose,) and potential as He.  If we follow someone, we arrive at the same destination they arrived at. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ will help us reach literally all our potential if we live for one joyful purpose: to be completely one with them.

We can take in and become any good quality or characteristic we desire.  Any good and great and noble quality and characteristic we see in the people around us, or of whom we read about, we can be and have all those good qualities!

Every hero we have.  Every prophet of any dispensation.  Anyone in our neighborhood whom we admire.  We can have those good qualities.  We are free to choose to become anything and everything we want--and we can reach Heavenly Father's full vision for who and what we can fully become as His son or daughter.

Pick an attribute or characteristic or quality of someone you admire--and pray for help to make it a part of you.  Then, practice it.  Act as if you already possessed that attribute, and you'll become it.  

We are created with this capabilitiy.  For God has said in the New Testament, and in the Book of Mormon:

"I would that ye should be perfect even as I, or your Father in heaven is perfect." ~3rd Nephi 12:48

"What manner of men aught you to be?  Verily I say unto you, even as I (Christ,) am.
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."~Matthew 5:48

He isn't asking the impossible.

He is inviting us to believe He can make of us, what we cannot make of ourselves.

Let's accept His invitation!

Become every good quality you see around you. 
Become all you can become! 
Ask for every good gift.

Heavenly Father invites us to ask Him for every good gift and to develop all our unbounded  and limiitless potential.

This gospel makes it possible to reach all of it.


This is more than worth traveling 12,872km/8,000mi for 2 whole years to share with the Children of God--these people of Fiji!




You don't just have permission to shine your brightest & reach your full potential as a Child of the greatest Being in existence--your Heavenly Father--but it is your DESTINY to.

I challenge you to go out of your way & do something for the Lord.  It will bring you closer to Him, and you're the one it will bless.

Do you REALLY want a Miracle?

I challenge you to go out of your way & do something for the Lord.  It will bring you closer to Him, and you're the one it will bless.

​FASTING BRINGS ABOUT MIRACLES.

Faith is not willing your desires into existence.  It is finding out what the will of God is and then being at peace with what that is.
Our Branch here in the Bau Area, has been struggling so much.  We had what seemed like impossible roadblocks in nearly every aspect of the work here.  But we didn't become discouraged.  We know that Jesus Christ lives and is at the head of this church, and that if we did His work His wway and by His power, His miracles would flood this area.

We were right.

We fasted this Sunday, and that same day, EVERY PROBLEM WAS VERRRRRYMIRACULOUSLY FIXED!

WE WERE BLOWN AWAY!!!!

We came to church, and more people packed the rooms than we've ever seen before!  The Priesthood, on their own initiative, discussed and fixed all of our Branch's problems!  We're now on our way to becoming a Ward!  The ward is finally stopping drinking Grog/Kava, they're now doing their home teaching, they're reading the Book of Mormon daily, they're reaching out and bringing all the inactive and less-active members back into activity in the church, and all the halts and stops on young people here putting in their mission papers to go serve around the world, have now all been miraculously resolved and things are moving again!

I can't count the miracles!

Me and my companion were absolutely blown away!

We have many, many potential baptisms this month.  The other day, an investigator of ours, accepted my invitation to be Baptized and receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  

Miracles truly happen!

Fasting is amazing!


Heavenly Father is amazing! 


This gospel is beautiful and perfect in every way!

​So confident am I in my destiny and divine potential as a son of God, because God and I are the joint authors of my story(my eternal life)__but I'm confident all the way in it, because I gave the pen to Him and His are the hands that write it.  

HAND HIM THE PEN AND HE'LL WRITE MORE AWESOME THINGS THAN YOU HIGHEST HOPE.

I've asked myself, "at the end of my mission, what difference will I have made?  How can I leave absolutely none of my potential untouched--and literally all of it seized?"  Heavenly Father answered me:

It comes down to being positively completely different than the world.  The more positively different you are, the more of a positive difference my personal and Eternal Father can make through me!

I live each moment as the Holy Spirit tells me that moment's highest potential is; and I do that by asking Him to give me His enabling and strengthening power, for His glory and the joy and blessing of my fellow eternal brothers and sisters here on earth.  

By His power, we can do all things!

ALL our potential.

FULLness, not SOMEness of JOY!

God never gives us a commandment that isn't for our benefit; even eternal benefit.  He never gives us one single commandment that doesn't have a blessing tied to it.  Nothing He asks of us, (if obeyed from a willing and loving heart,) blesses anyone more than ourselves.  It's interesting to see that the more selfless we become, the more we receive meaningful and lasting happiness.  And the more we leave the world's motives, desires, things it lives for, the praise it loves, and the low standards it grossly rolls around in--and instead come unto ourselves and choose God's motives, desires, things He lives for, and the praise of Him and His exalted standards, the more we receive His joy and His fulness of life!

​​There are people out there only you can bless.
There are things you agreed you would do, before you came down here to earth.
There are joys that you can only know if you lose yourself all the way to Heavenly Father's better and best version of your life.

Whatever situation you ever find yourself in, 

CHOOSE JOY.

PRAY FOR HIS ENABLING STRENGTH to enable you to do His highest will for you in that moment. 

You can share His restored gospel in any and every moment you ever find yourself in, if you'll ask Him to give you His enabling and strengthening power, and then simply open your mouth, motivated only out of love for Heavenly Father and perfect love for the person you're joyfully sharin with.

Every moment you find yourself in.

Not just some.

This was the final Sunset of 2015.... 

​The best thing you can set as your goal, is something eternal.

• What's an eternal goal you can set?

• Something that will bless eternity, and make you more like your Heavenly Father.  

• Something that you will thank yourself for, all the years down the road yet to come.

• Something your future generations will bless and thank you for choosing to make of yourself?

• Something that stretches you and yet, is attainable?

Read Moroni 7:47-48, and ponder it.

This is what Heavenly Father has told me I need to make my fullest goal.  For if I posses this, then I will be one with Heavenly Father, and I will reach His full potential for me.

Next week I'll show you our Christmas house.  It's green and red.

I testify that eternal and real truth exists.

Heavenly Father wants each of His children to know the truth of this gospel, for themselves, from Him. 

The power and witness of the Holy Ghost, is real.

I testify with one of the Prophets of our day:

"The Spirit of God speaking to the spirit of man has power to impart truth with greater effect and understanding than the truth can be imparted by personal contact even with heavenly beings.  Through the Holy Ghost the truth is woven into the very fibre and sinews of the body so that it cannot be forgotten."

I testify that I know Heavenly Father lives and I KNOW with a capital K, that HE Hears YOUR prayers.  I know He restored this church, Himself, and that we are led by living prophets.  I have received my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon and the sacred and holy calling the Lord has given His living prophet on the earth today, President Thomas S. Monson.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ.  He and His Atonement are literally everything to me. 

I am here to share His light.