Elder and Sister Roberts Suva Fiji Mission: Still finding our way

We are starting to get the feel for the area, but it is very small in population but the area is quite large when speaking geographically. We have several branches and several "groups". The best way to describe the "group" is to say, a small number of saints live outside the towns in villages or on a farm. They hold church there and on fast Sunday they travel and meet with the branch nearest them.

We are teaching a temple preparation class in the Savusavu Branch and have been asked to "take it on the road" to have a class in these "groups". It is difficult setting up and scheduling the same day and time each week, and travel to and from is time consuming. I wait for the group leader to call and set a date and time to begin a class; there are two young men wanting to go on a mission that need the class. I will call Brother Sepo today to see if he can set something up. We have one sister that already has her mission call to the Marshall Islands that is taking the class. She is eager and has a smile that will light up a room. You cannot help but feel happy when you look at her.

We have been told that it takes a couple months to get acclimated to the area and to find out what is needed for us to do, but that "waiting" is hard for us. We pray everyday for guidance, so we know what we need to be doing and how we can help.

We had the missionaries, 6 Elders and 2 Sisters, to our house for their district conference. Jackie made Taco soup to feed them after the meeting. These missionaries are so dedicated to the work and some of them live in a more remote area than we do. They have electricity a couple hours a night, cook on a camp stove and travel a great deal just to see people in order to find someone to teach. One of the biggest efforts here is the re-activation of members. Many members live far from the meeting house so they just stop going. Re-activation is easier because they have a name and location where they live, but they still have to pray for guidance with these inactive members.

When dinner was done on the 4th, we invited some volunteers from Utah that are here working in the town to assist an elementary school repair their playground and replant a garden. They brought sparklers to help with the 4th of July celebration. Fun was had by all.

A few pictures of the planes we had to take to get to or island. Some are of the Geckos that are on the ceiling of our porch and looking for food. There is also a picture of a Chinese cat for the Justus's, who were in China with us and are now in Melbourne on a mission. Also is the picture of the missionaries that attended the zone conference a couple of weeks ago.

Love from Fiji and please pray for us, we need all we can get.

Elder and Sister Roberts