24 New and 24 Yet To

We are truly giving August our ALL, and it is AWESOME!  

I know I am going to leave no potential unrealized from the time I have from the Lord in this area--the largest mission in the mission--ALL of the biggest city in Fiji is the responsibility of Elder Luatua and Elder Howard.  Heavenly Father is guiding us and we are yielding to Him--and that is the formula for a fullness of joy and miracles and no regrets and no potential unrealized!

We aren't just reaching our potential giving our all to Christ; we are consuming and enveloping the fullness of our potential by giving our all to Christ.  He is transforming us, and we are transforming the part of His vineyard He has entrusted to us. We serve and lift each other and that gives us the power to lift up and edify and positively influence all things around us ever in our influence minute by minute, one day at a time.

My companion and I have become from the start, the best of friends.  We found out that we had both been praying for exactly all that this companionship is--and then we were put together, and now we are linked to our fullness of potential because he has the lessons I wanted to gain, and I have what he had wanted to gain!  The Lord is alwayys so wise about who He puts with who on the mission!  We have had zero conflicts at all, only because we both know the correct principles of Christlike relationships and use meekness, humility, unity, love, work, and selflessness.  We are soaring over what we thought we could've accomplished in many areas.  

This is my favorite area so far in so many ways!  

The other day we gave 9 blessings in one house!  They are all now our new investigators after we taught them and committed them and got a return appointment.  

The Lord has blessed us with 24 GOOD new investigators in just one week!  The work here is getting very fired up.  I believe we will be at least contacting each of these at least once this week, plus those we already had, so this week's lesson count and meaningful power of each lesson should surpass 25 and we will be giving Baptismal Commitments and giving ALL we have.  

I have grown more than I could have imagined, and am still growing. 

I always say this, but that really is because it always is true, but this week was the best week of my mission so far BECAUSE of how me and Elder Luatua followed the 4 keys of success I mentioned a few emails ago, with all our effort and relying on the Lord's help--and we are seeing the results in every aspect of the work in all 3 wards! 

My favorite part of my mission at the moment is my companion.  We are perfectly brothers and I found one of the truly best friend I've had in my life yet, and we have SOOO much we are learning from each other.  We are fully committed to the Savior--and His works are being manifest in everything we do.

President, thank you for sending me here.  We are transforming these 3 wards together, and consecrating ourselves only to the Savior's work here has tied us to Heavenly Father's vision and power. 

I have been so humbled to witness more miracles than I knew were possible to happen. . . I've never given more priesthood blessings in one week than in this week--maybe 15 in one week... I lost count.  I has taught me that the Lord knows us individually, and loves us fully, and will send us the help we need and then it is up to us to connect to Christ and take action.  

Heavenly Father has given me the gift of overwhelming love for every individual in my area.  Individuals are ready, even if I just walk by them on the street--the Holy Ghost tells me who is one of the 48 left, and He is leading us to EACH ONE!  He is truly providing us with A LOT OF WORK... a WHOLE lot.  There is more potential, and we're living to see it all realized.  

We won't leave one soul without opportunity while we yet have the power to say a silent prayer and then take immediate bold action to open our mouth and be who we were destined to be--disciples of the Christ.  

This is the path of a fullness of joy.  This path has your name on it.  

Connect to Christ fully.  That is your mission--and if you choose to accept it with all your heart, it will make you 901273458912347540895174534xmore out of you than you ever even knew was half impossibly possible.  

This picture was right after 2am when our car was broken into by a gang in our new neighborhood.  :)  We enjoyed it so much and were only positively affected by it. 


I have never worked harder or more nonstop in my life.  And I think I have worked hard all my life... but the work I am now fully diving into with my whole being and heart--is more than any I've ever had.  

THIS WAS THE FASTEST WEEK OF MY LIFE!!!

Every week of the mission is a blur and a haze that feels unbelievably fast...but this week surpasses all prior weeks of my mission so far.  We cover the most work I know of in the mission so far, and we are constantly engaged in saving people in real ways, and leading them to eternal exaltation.  People are truly coming unto Christ and we are truly coming to know Him deeper than every before.  

We have no time to write in our journals, write letters to family or all the beloved eternal friendships we have established in the other parts of the nation we have already served in, we sometimes don't even have time to eat!  A spare minute has become an extinct thing in my life--and I LOVE IT!!!  Thrive is the word that describes what a mission will make of anyone that fully engages themselves all the way to it.  Likewise what Christ will make of anyone that gives themselves all the way to Him with no reservations.  He is the master of writing the best stories the book of our life could become.  Let's hand the pen over to the Hand of the best friend our souls and destinies have--and that's Jesus Christ!

We serve over the first LDS ward that was ever established in Fiji, along with Suva 3rd, and Nasinu 2nd Wards.  Well over 1,000 individuals, but only serving one person at a time as Christ would.  There are real needs in this world--and they lie in the lives of the next few people you are going to see today within the next hour, those who you'll sit next to on the bus, the one who God tells you in your heart to help--everyone.  The work we each have from God is just to help one person now... always be loving and brightening the spirits and eternal prospects of somebody...at all times.   

The time we got doesn't last; it goes fast. 

The power is in just making now a moment of light and service to your Heavenly Father.  Just make now all it can be, and that practice by itself automatically makes the long run become something amazing to look back on and then build up from, so we reach endless progress and deeper levels of joy and celestial vision.


This picture is me in my new front yard.


And this is a Fijian nativity one of our friends made by HAND and sells to anyone around the world or just right here in Fiji.  Ask me about it if you're interested :)


The Lord really does provide for his servants--any of us who will, may.  The title servant of the Lord isn't "Missionary," it is you and all who choose the highest way of life--Christ's way.  If we are giving our all to Him, we can ask and see His all showering upon us.  We're all welcome to rely on Him for all the needs we have, for He can magnify and strengthen and enable us to all that we can become.  All He requires is a willing heart that asks and then has the plain simple faith to look up and forward and take the action wherein lies the power.  

We were blessed with a dinner last night, in which were CHICKEN FEET!  I love the new experiences of life that it endlessly gives us as we just give it another step forward.



When we were told by Heavenly Father that there were at least 48 people in this area who were ready to be found and brought unto Him, we took up the challenge as a step in the dark.  It was a step in the dark--but the Lord has stepped forward to meet us in the effort we'll be willing to consecrate unto His causes.  IN JUST A WEEK, He led us miraculously to 24 new investigators who He led us to.  That surprised us because it is exactly half of the number Heavenly Father told Elder Luatua and I.  And it has only been a week!

One example of how unusual and inexplicably divine the inspiration is that leads us to these prepared individuals; is, that the other day we were driving around trying to find a referral we had received from the members here, and Elder Luatua directed me to drive to a house and told me that the people we needed to see were in the hidden basement of this house directly to our right.  We got out of the car and walked to the gate.  And, how you call people out to meet you is never by door bell (those don't exist).  We call out "Auntie!" or "Uncle!" (which is what you call any Hindi person who is an older adult,) and then they come out and meet you at the gate.  

Well, a man came out to us, told us he was the landlord of the house and would go downstairs and bring up the tenants who stayed below.  A woman came up and we asked if she held the name we were looking for.  She said no, and indeed we had come to the incorrect house.  She was very closed and was trying to get us to leave.  

It would have been easy for us to just say, "sorry, thank you. We got the wrong house and understand you don't want us."  But, Heavenly Father told us that isn't good enough--in our hearts we chose to step forward in our love for these His beloved eternal children.  As we kept taking interest and simple friendship in this dear woman, her elderly mother hobbled up the stars with purpose in her eyes and curiosity in her countenance.  She called out, "Don't go.  I want you to come teach me."  

We came in and went down to this home and established a friendship with this family.  Everything transformed from them being closed and there appearing to perhaps be no potential, to them loving us, listening to a powerful lesson, really, really being interested, opening up all the way, telling us that they are going to come to our church this next week and that the young man in their family hasn't been baptized yet and that he would like to be baptized the way Christ was baptized.  They even wanted to give us the key to their gate so we could just come in any time and teach them!


What amazing things can come from just keeping on going forward and upward.  Going all the way out of our comfort zone, reaches us all the way up to our potential--boundless success and satisfaction in the eternal, meaningful purposes of the Almighty in us and those our life touches. 



















I have now finally experienced BED BUGS!!! 



It rains every day here in Suva.  We got Bedbugs and needed to sun our mattresses, so the very next day, Heavenly Father miraculously gave us the first sunny day we've seen in my time here yet! We now have no bedbugs!

Own Your Outlook --- Best Yet!

I haven't had a harder, more painful, trying, difficult, growth-stimulating time, and because of that and a constant personal relationship with Jesus Christ, this is therefore the happiest and most successful, deeply rich, rewarding joyful, unlimited, untouchably thriving and transformed-self, satisfying time!

There is nowhere else I belong right now.  

This is the time.

I have gone from a small wonderful branch in the beautiful bush land, to now covering 3 wards in the biggest city in all of Fiji!


SO MUCH TO TELL AND RELAY THIS WEEK!  RICHEST LESSONS OF THE MISSION COMING UP!  

... Pictures first...


Me and Elder Singh leaving the flat for the last time together. 

 

Us at the bus stop.

When I was informed by President Layton that I was going to be leaving Lautoka after over 6 months of blood, sweat, and tears, joys, and eternal work and memories in this area, I was going to be moving now to Suva...

When I was informed, we were in a lesson, and it was another powerful moment of my mission where the Lord strengthened and magnified me and I submitted with all my being to His will.

This family came running out to me as I was leaving after giving them my departing gifts and last goodbyes, and they told me, "Elder Howard, that picture you drew of us just coming out of the Suva Temple, that will happen just as you drew it.  We will all be standing the way you drew us, and this will really happen.  This is our promise.  We are going to be an eternal family!  Don't worry.  Thank you for everything!"  I love them.  I know that I came to Fiji for them.  I know that they have a grand part in their Father's plan of joy!  Families are meant to be forever!  Let's live for our Father's greatest vision--we can reach the fullness of it!! SO LETS DO IT!!! Nothing but our own willing or unwilling heart could stop us--for we have the power of the Living Christ, which comes to us personally to lift us above all things if we'll connect ourselves to His Atonement.

In my 6 months in Lautoka, the burning West of Fiji, this family was one I gave my whole heart and effort and time to.  I have watched them come pretty much from Hindu, newly knowing Christ, and now knowing their Savior fully and changing their lives through this message of the restored gospel.  When I first came, they had many truly nearly impossible difficulties and problems, and they had separated as a family--and now EVERYTHING is changing.  Through Baptism and living this restored gospel, I got to see them all together and happy and moving toward becoming ready for Exaltation and Eternal Life as a forever family.  I have great love and hopes for these, my beloved and eternal friends.  My heart will forever be wrapped around this family as if they were my own. I am so filled with joy and admiration for these AMAZING people!  This family has great eternal things ahead of them.  Kirti will serve a mission.  She and her mother have a great vision and are daily moving forward in the Lord's kingdom. They know their Savior Jesus Christ and have embraced Him and His restored gospel.  It has made all the difference in their lives, forever.

They are a living testimony of what this gospel can do to anyone, anyone who desires to reach the rich and enveloping fullness of how abundant and happy Heavenly Father desires we let Him reach us to.  This message changes lives.

Christ changes us.  If we change all that limits Him, to letting Him all the way in, He changes us all the way to our allness! (not a real word, I know, but it's a real thing I'm witnessing in the lives of these people who are giving all for their faith)



Above is me and Elder Singh and Raul on the way to teaching and celebrating with our dear friends in Koroipita.  

A family home evening and a birthday. 


This picture is one of our dear investigators named Satiish.  He plays a small amazing wind piano!  His family is transforming in every way and becoming eternal and giving all they are and have to the Lord.  They are some of my most dearly beloved friends I've gained in my endless joys in Fiji.  They will be in the Temple as an eternal and joyful family in just 1 year. Send your prayers their way, they feel the difference and you can make all the difference in their lives as you fuel them with your supportive love and prayers.

And below [editor's note: this picture apparently didn't attach] is us celebrating Keshni's birthday! I took a picture of everyone as they ate the cake--haha!  My whole being is expanded in perfect pure happiness as I see these people choosing the richest riches of eternity, becoming a transformed eternal family and knowing and living daily with their personal and loving Savior Jesus Christ and letting Him carry them through all that is ahead.

I am at the happiest point of my mission.  I have gone through SO much, and all the pain and refinement and trials have made me more joyful and useful and diverse and more depth in my vision and personality and passion.  I haven't been negatively affected by anything in my mission.  I have really grown those 4 things President shared with us last week.  I am working on them as my whole mission focus for personal realization of all the Father expects of me. 

I am so happy to say from my heart that I have no regrets from Lautoka!  I can feel I pleased the Lord and grew so much and am accepted in what I have reaped upon His alter for His work through the West area.  That I did all that the Lord wanted me to do, is the feeling I always want to leave areas assured of. 

 I served my companion daily and told him how much I love him daily and enjoyed and grew from his many strengths and our deep friendship.  I love Elder Singh!  I am so grateful for how much I learned from him and the friendship we have!  I saw the most miracles so far in my mission, with him. I gained SOOO MUCH from him!!!  

My new companion is pure.  He is the most humble and tender and good-spirited, desirous and loving missionary I may have met my whole mission so far.  He is so meek and so powerful.  We hit it off perfect from moment number one!   Each of my companions has become an eternal brother to me, whom I have been soooprivileged to serve with.  We are fully bonded, me and Elder Luatua.  He is remarkable in every way.  He is OUTSTANDING in HINDI!!! I can tell you, he will be ready to teach and train in Hindi by the end of this transfer at this rate.  I have never met anyone who asks such great questions and who is so down to earth teachable and pure and gentle and thoughtful.  We are learning SO much from each other already! 

We have sat down together and discussed our vision for the program here in Suva Hindi.  We have both committed to each other that we will do 30 minute workouts each morning, we'll tell each other whenever we have promptings and then in perfect unity we will act on the promptings from the Holy Ghost we both receive together.  

We feel strongly that there are at least 48 people that the Lord is able to reach us to becoming Saints in this area. We have committed to consecrate ourselves fully in every way so we can reach all of them.  

We have committed to each other and the Lord exact obedience in the rules and in the standards and schedule.  We have discussed this a lot, and know that since we are both committed to it and have learned the needed techniques and skills to be proactive enough to master our situations and plans, we will be keeping this commitment very happily and successfully.  

The Lord has put two extremely happy and dedicated tools in one meshed focused powerhouse in the Lord's hand.  We have set a high vision start for ourselves of 25 lessons per week.  We can see who these people will be in 10 years if we give it our all NOW and hold nothing back, the harvest will overwhelm us in joy looking back.  We aren't earning pillows by the end of every day, (I don't even have one, haha,) we are earning eternal satisfaction with our brothers and sisters the Lord has used us to save.


This is a picture of me at my new flat!!! 

We are probably in the biggest area of the mission. When I received the call from President to move to Suva, I was led to believe that we would be covering the biggest area and that we would have no car and that we would have to walk, use buses, taxis, and that it rains every day here in the big city.  When I arrived, the Lord surprised me by giving me the best companion I could have wished for, and by immediately making me the designated driver of a CAR!  We are just smashing the work here!  Things are just going so incredibly.  The Lord is amazing!  He has plans and unfolds them, one of our decisions of obedience at a time.


This family is the Daat family!  They are our landlords who live in the bottom half of our house!  They are AMAZING!! They have already become such strong and enjoyable friends.  They have fed us twice already! They fed us dinner my first night and then breakfast this morning!! They are professional dancers and are such strong members of the church!


This is my companion!!! Elder Luatua!!!  He plays the piano for multiple ward meetings every week--and now I will be too!!!  We just click.  We are the strongest of friends.  We really are!! I am soooo excited  about all that is before us now in this work!!! This is my 2nd companion from Australia!!  He is from Brisbane!  He is probably my favorite person I've met in the mission so far, in a lot of ways.  I am soooo privileged to serve by his side in this most glorious work of eternity. 

My first day in the wards here in Suva, I was privileged to perform a Baptism and a Confirmation!  My first time setting foot on the grounds of these new wards, I baptized an amazing young boy and got to be the one to Confirm him a member of the church and witness him making the best and most influential decision of his eternity yet.  I am bewildered and overwhelmed in awe!!! My companion performed a baptism as well the same day.  The Sisters here do amazing missionary work! 

Our wards are so big and have so many Hindi people!!! WOW!!! The chapels are more remarkable than even the ones I've seen in America!! I am astounded and in amazement at how beautiful this place is.  We do get rain every day, and the traffic is just like Washington D.C. roads and traffic!!! i was prepared for this area, from before my mission! :)  We are really having fun!

My Hindi is at a level I never imagined it ever could be.  I am so humbled to see the gift of tongues and the gift of just never stopping putting one foot in front of the other, one step turns into hundreds of uphill miles bringing you to the most glorious peaks! KEEP WALKING

We have already faced a car break in and our immediate united reaction was instantly happy and amused and we turned the situation into 2 police officers knowing about the restored gospel and letting us come and teach them and their families soon!  We are only positively affected, thanks to the Atonement, we are empowered beyond mortal abilities.  

I feel the Lord shaping me to be a real man in my full spectrum of potential for all He's ever fully envisioned I become in this life, for future career, family, relationships, callings, service, leadership, learning, loving, forgiving, pressing forward, planning, and a hundred other skills.

AS to the car break in, it was at 2am and a gang threw a huge brick through our window and stole a backpack that had 3 restoration pamphlets and a baptismal jumper. 

4Steps 4Success 4Eternity

Dear Family and Friends--both of which I see as my beloved family--
This might be my last week in Lautoka Fiji

My Report:

I have been living and working every week lately to make it so I could look the Savior Jesus Christ in the eyes and say I have done all the work He sent me to do here in Lautoka.  I won't leave an ounce of possible regret here.

Despite Elder Singh leaving to Suva for his possibly broken arm (turned out to be torn muscles--phew! Yay!!!!!! Our PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED :), and my getting very sick and losing my voice entirely, and my having to go to the Dentist for my teeth, STILL, through

Being Teachable

Exact Obedience

Hard Work

Developing a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ

Elder Singh and I have still reached at least 20 lessons per week, at least 4 weeks in a row now, I believe.  It feels great!  We have really helped a tremendous amount of Heavenly Father's very needy and now satisfied children in Lautoka.  Our converts and investigators and returning members are strong and facing their trials well.  My only worry is about Soni.  She is elderly and we are just doing everything we can to help her in her quest to keep her testimony and become self reliant.  The wards here are excellent.  We are going over with a member family to do a family home evening with them tonight.

Elder Singh is a real leader.  I have learned so much from him and really enjoy our friendship.  We have become one, so strong, and so close.  We laugh hard, work hard, play hard, and serve each other hard.  We've really been there for each other through a whole lot of things, and we've seen a LOT of success.  I thank Heavenly Father immensely for sending Elder Singh back into the field, and especially sending him to me as my companion.

I love Elder Singh so much and it is thanks to him that I have gained a deeper level of following the Spirit and being exact in my obedience in ALL things.  My nature has been changed in wonderful ways just by my friendship with this stellar missionary.

I have completely changed, and I love the change I see.  My pride has gone down the drain and I don't miss any of it a bit.  I am one with all my brothers and sisters in the work and am lifting them up and they are lifting me up. :) I am more humble than I have ever been in my life, and I truly have embraced the FULL joy of being fully teachable before the Lord.  I am seeing REAL and lasting change for the eternal best!

I can search my heart, and I can say before heaven, that I really have been exactly obedient in all things this week, except for this morning I was ironing my shirt while memorizing scriptures to help some of our investigators, and then realized it was about 9 and got started on today's comp at 9:03, and besides that there was only the fact that I didn't do a full 30 minute workout while I was really sick.  I just did a little because I knew that was wise and proper principles to govern by.  Besides that I can tell you that I really have been exact in all things the Lord has asked of me with the rules.  And I am connecting fully with the full power of a real relationship with Jesus Christ like never before. I am able to defend Him and see Him personally defending me.

I have learned full Hindi and am so excited about it.  I love it and am still excited for what more I can improve on. Elder Singh said there isn't really much more I could do to improve, just practice what I have and keep moving forward every day.


The other day, when Elder Singh had to leave for Suva, I was given 3 new companions.  With them, I had to find a way to feed all of them and how we would manage our plans for that day with the changes that had been hurdled to us.  The Lord told me, "Look at all the yesterdays where I blessed everything to work out, and from that, looking unto me, know that I know what you face and will provide and bless as I have all yesterdays."  I took great comfort in that and moved forward.  As we got to a Family Home Evening that night, we planned a fun game and played it and shared what Heavenly Father told us those people needed from Him, and then they surprised us by telling us they had felt inspired by heaven to provide 3x more food than originally planned!  We were given the perfect amount of food out of nowhere!

The next morning, we all got up and I led us in a workout.  We had so much fun and could hardly move later.  They requested an ab workout, and from my pre-mission life, I ran Fitness Motivation BSH and taught people all these things. It was so fun to lead the workout with my friends, these great Elders.  I love this work and have so much fun and make so many memories every single day.

This is a good key/map for the Sanskrit Hindi Language.  This is the language I write and read in often here in Fiji.  It is a sound-system.  It is so fun and makes a lot of sense.  I really love the language.


Our dear sister who was Baptized just last week, had her birthday and we bought her balloons and cake and brought them over to her as a surprise gift.  We had so much fun. She is so strong in her testimony.  She went over to her neighbor's house who is a Hindu, and read the Book of Mormon with her and is so loving and humble and faithful.  She is growing in her knowledge and faith and happiness.  She is such a bright and valiant spirit.

Elder Singh taught me how to make Indian Curry!  I am learning how to cook all Indian dishes!!!




​This is a drawing I did for one of our families here.  They have changed their lives.  They are working toward the Temple.  The husband is one of my heroes.  We are both the youngest in our families and have such a close bond together.  He has quit smoking.  He used to be associated with the worst and most abominable lifestyles and was a completely different kind of person, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ has fully changed him and his family.  That is what this fullness of Christ's restored Gospel does.  It changes any life that will try it out and turn to the Savior Jesus Christ.

There was another family we started teaching this week.  They are Muslim.  Their beliefs are very different, but we are loving teaching them.  I love them so much.  The head of the household looks just like Brother Corbett from before my mission.  I love this family a lot.  The Book of Mormon has now entered their lives and is a planted seed that will bring them unto Christ.

The Mission is such an experience!

I simply testify that we can have our relationship with Heavenly Father as strong as we choose.  He is really there.  He really lives, and He will be along side us as close as we choose to make ourselves to Him.  I know He loves each of us personally and that this restored gospel is His as He has personally repeated and I declare that He has invited all the ends of the earth to come and see.  Try it out.  This message will change your life.

In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

_Elder Howard

Eternal Goals Today. Life is fun, if embraced!

Greetings from Sunny Fiji! 

Pictures first this week, since I was really slack on that last week!


This is a tie I made out of a Palm Tree


And this is a Spider about as big as my hand
This was a sunbow one beautiful day this week


This was a Service Project we did.  We lifted a engine out of an old car for someone who needed our help. The Reddy family.


Sugar Cane fields are one of Fiji's biggest industries.  It is now cutting season.  They burn the crops after harvesting.  Hundreds of massive fires roar around us this season, in nearly every direction you can spot one if you look around the hills at night


This was the difference after I shined my shoes from a guy who was shoe-shining on the corner in town.  I didn't realize how much my sandals had needed it!  They are almost destroyed. I will need a new pair maybe soon.  The Lord is good.  I'm blessed and my feet are calloused.

This is a family we are working with.  They are the Chand's. They are working to become an eternal family.  They are wonderful!  


This is another family--Fijian.   Matavuso/Vakawai.

Random bits of information I gained this week:

The House of the Lord is always clean--why should ours be any different? 

Don't change for anyone--only for the better. 

4-Part formula for receiving revelation: 1 softening our hearts, 2) asking with faith in Christ, 3)Believing that we will receive, and 4)keeping the commandments. (1 Nephi 15:11)

If we are ever tempted to be less than our best selves, let us remember that our choices now are forming all we'll be both in this world and in the world to come. 

Helpful principles of relationship keys that have refined me to the point that I now know that whatever I face future in my life, nothing will be able to break my relationships if I repeat what I did on my mission in those relations:

Relationships of every kind with people are about building and strengthening one another.  Avoid focusing on yourself. 
Be vulnerable in that you don't put walls up, even if everyone else has them or you get hurt by someone.  
Love the individual the way Christ does.  
Integrity, compassion, love.  These are the things I will be judged on.  
Smile more. Show love in your face. Show it in your constant actions. 
Set aside your own way of seeing it and set aside your own will and pride and connect soul-to-soul with people. 
Validate and acknowledge them. 
Edify them.  Heal them.  Compliment them. Look at their good and tell them. 
Being heard is akin to being loved. 
"It takes two to contend, and I will never be one of them."
Turn all hurt over to the Atonement and watch it come back to you recycled and for your good and joy only:

A good principle for all of life's adversity: 
H.U.R.T.
The Lord taught me that through the Atonement, all our Hurt in this life (of every kind that will or may ever come upon us,) can make us 
Happy on a deeper level, if we turn to the Lord and His enabling strength
Untouchable to the level of having Heavenly Father become our only foundation, and thus only He can affect us, because we're only built on Him
Ready to lift others that may ever face the same hurt, and to lift and love them as we wished someone had when we were there
Transformed into a diamond, gold, full potential of ourselves instead of anything less--like coal without heat and pressure can't reach its potential.

Our phone ring tone is a very VERY realistic cat "Meow." Whenever we get a call, people always look around in confusion.  Even when we are on public buses or in lessons with people.  People are always fooled by it.  And when they find out it is actually our phone, everyone bursts out laughing.  It's so funny! 

This week, I fell in a deep ditch.  There are hundreds of ditches everywhere here in Fiji.  There aren't always just gutters like in America--often there are deep trenches running everywhere in place of gutters.  I lost my footing while sharing the gospel one day this week and fell in this ditch completely by instantaneous surprise!  I was blessed that nothing got hurt.  No broken anything.  Just adrenaline and surprise and bewilderment!  I continued on sharing the gospel as soon as I was out of the ditch. 

I have had many times where I was falsely accused and torn at by others and attacked--and I'm so grateful! I have learned the real grace and usability of the Atonement.  I can have someone attacking or piling up all things against me, and I can plead silently to my Heavenly Father for grace, and I am able to respond to all warmly and wisely and full of love and compliments and humility and power and overcome any roadblock or obstacle that may come between another and me.  By the Holy Ghost I always chose not to revile revilers or to retaliate with anything but love, peace, happiness. I have learned the truth of Christ telling us that this really works: Walk an extra mile with those that place burdens on you, surprise them!  If they strip me of my coat, I also freely give my shirt and pure love and forgiveness.  This is such a joyful way to live.  These secrets really work. 

Heavenly Father is ready to help us live His best secrets. All knowledge comes as we faithfully simply are faithful in keeping His commandments--no matter what. 

A good question I am learning to ask myself and evaluate myself on is "Was I like Christ yesterday? How?"  In retrospect, I examine, then ask, "Am I today more than I was yesterday? How?" 

This week I attained a level of humility that I never have reached in my life before.  There is nothing sweeter or more productive than reaching the deepest levels of humility and teachableness and meekness.  These things make real men; men formed for eternity and fully usable by the Lord.  These make us more powerful than all the world around us.  I prayed sincerely with real intent that Father keep me at this blessed level--and deeper.  Being humbled in Christ's way, to His highest level of humility is the richest, most advanced and rewarding way to live.  

Self aggrandizement gets me nothing but emptiness, and threatens destruction of my soul.  

To love and accept people fully and treat them as the Holy Ghost tells me that Christ would treat them, or how I would treat them as if they were Christ-- this is my mission and it is why I am happy.  The power I need to draw on to do it, is all drawn out from the power that is in my covenants.  

In the eternal scheme of things, a couple of years is no big deal--but what I become in these couple of years, will determine everything for the rest of the eternal scheme of all things in my existence.  I can rely on Christ and that will reach me to His level of ability if I firmly attach myself to Him. 

This week has been amazing





That was a picture of me during a service project.

Mrs. Narian got Baptized! 


Just one month ago, we were prompted by Heavenly Father to go up a hill.  We acted on this prompting, and at the top was a house.  We called out and a lady came out.  She was in her 70's.  We asked her that if she were to come to know that the things we were teaching were true, for herself from Heavenly Father, would she be baptized?  She said yes. 

We have taught her for one month.  

She has left everything behind.  She was Hindu and didn't even believe in Christ of know who He was.  And now she has given up everything to follow Him because she knows Him for herself and has transformed. We have only taught her a total of 17 hours.

17 hours changed Mrs. Parvathamma Narian's 73 year old life. 


I have never come across anyone like her in all of my mission.  

She walks to church on her own if no one comes to get her. 

All of her neighbors are against her and despise her for abandoning what she had followed all her life, but she isn't swayed by all the opposition.  She was Baptized the day before her birthday, and on her birthday (sunday,) she became a member of the Lord's true church and she received the gift of the Holy Ghost!  

I was privileged to baptize her by her request. 

She has said in Hindi, "who would have thought I would be baptized.  Heavenly Father sent the missionaries.  He knows me. This was all from Him. I'm going to come to church every sunday for the rest of my life."

She had gotten very weak and sick the day before her baptism.  We gave her a Priesthood blessing and by the next day she was completely healed and recovered and entered the waters of Baptism. 

She is so excited to go to the Temple next year. 

This last bit is for you, Mommy. 

I read your letter on top of a mountain. 

And I saw this and wanted to send it to you.  I love you soo much!

My companion broke his arm.  A big dog chased us and he fell in a ditch.  Pray for him.