NAVATUYABA - Week 16

He is Risen

Bula Vinaka!

Hey everyone and vakanuinui vinaka na nomu siga ni tucake tale (Happy Easter)! It's been a pretty good week! Fiji is a very Christian nation, so Easter is a huge holiday here. Except their Easter started on Good Friday and it's apparently still Easter now (it's Monday here....). Haha. But it's great!

Today is a public holiday, so school's out and most work places are closed. As we were walking up to the internet cafe to email, we were surprised to see a cool little carnival! Complete with a bouncy house, a couple blow-up slides, a Ferris wheel, and little tents with trinkets to buy! It was way cool! AND, get this, they even had SNOW CONES! I've only seen snow cones 1 other time in my entire missionary life. The guy that gave it to us had a huge smile on his face and told us that we were the first people to buy one! After we laughed and grabbed the cones from his hands he raised his arms high up in the air and said, "In the name of the Lord Jesus!!" It's so great to be in such a Christian county.

This week was good for us teaching as well! Though most people were pretty busy with the holidays, we found some really good potential! First one was just a random home that we knocked on. Her name is Wini (Winnie). She LOVED the message about eternal families. She told us that EVERY home needs to know this message! It's true isn't it?? We do have such an amazing message. The other great thing that happened for us was a name we received from some members. Her name is Mareca (Martha). She has had a very hard life so far. She's only 1 year older than I am. She told us that she's never really believed in God because of everything that's happened to her. Lately she has been wanting to learn more about God and Jesus Christ. She wants to feel more peace in her life. We are SO excited for her because we know just how much peace and joy she will feel from this gospel. She's accepted to be baptized on May 6th, so we'll keep working with her to get her ready!

Another interesting thing you might want to see is a video released by the Church for Easter.... and I'm in it! It's about Elder Amai, a missionary friend from New Zealand that passed away in a tragic car accident only 5 weeks after he returned from his mission in Fiji. If you would like to see a good message for Easter (and see a couple glimpses of me!) follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/LDSPacificArea/videos/1277370548998466/

Well that's about it for us here in Navatuyaba! Life is so great, isn't it? I hope that this Easter, you take the time to reflect on what Jesus Christ and His gospel has done for you in your life. Then thank Him! I love you all so much! Until next week, keep on keepin' on!

Au lomani kemuni kece!

-Elder Jaxson Jeremy Miller

LDS.org video screenshots: 

Screen shot of Jaxson's area!

                                 {All the above pictures are screenshots of the lds.org movie}

NAVATAUYABA - Week 15

Zone and General Conference

Bula vinaka! 

Hey everyone! It's been a super uplifting and inspiring week for us here in the Fiji Suva Mission! This week we had Zone Conference, where we receive instruction from our local leader, our Mission President. Then we watched General Conference, where we receive instruction from our Prophets and Apostles. It was awesome! I feel so inspired to keep smashing the missionary work.

Wednesday was Zone Conference. We met at the Mission Home in Suva. I always love going into the Mission Home. It was a great conference. We usually receive trainings from about 9-12, have lunch, and then continue from about 1-3. After that we have one-on-one interviews with President Layton. It's just a wonderful time! The best part is, our lunch was pizza! (Which is a commodity here)

Then on Saturday and Sunday we watched General Conference. All of Fiji watches it a weekend later because of the time difference. We'd be up until like 4 in the morning if we wanted to watch it live. Man, wasn't it great?? I loved Gary B. Sabin's talk. It was hilarious, yet so insightful. A good quote from his talk: 

"We may need to let go of the world so we can hang on to eternity."

I love this quote! We really truly need to become humble and submit our will to the Father's. Any disobedience we commit is us basically telling the Father that we think our ways are better or more fun than His. Just let go of the world!

So I just wanted to explain a bit more about my area. So I'm serving in Navatuyaba ward. It's named that because that's the village it's in. On an average Sunday, we get an attendance of around 80-100. That's MASSIVE for Fiji's standards. The ward is AWESOME. They feed us without fail, every single night. Our area is pretty small, our own little "island". They call it that because it's completely surrounded by water, 2 rivers. It's actually called Toga island. Some people tell me it's called that because there used to be a lot of people from Tonga that moved here and began a settlement a LONG time ago. It takes about an hour and a half to walk from one end of our area to the other. There are 3 villages in our area, with a couple other small settlements. It's beautiful. A lot of farming as well. Fijians farm all kinds of plants such as taro, tapioka, sweet potato, watermelon, pumpkin, and banana. That doesn't include all the way nice natural fruits like coconut, passion fruit, guava, and mango. Fiji's the best!

So that's about it for this week! I hope you are all doing well! Until next week, keep on keepin' on!!

Au lomani kemuni kece!

-Elder Jaxson Jeremy Miller

 {Mom is late posting his blog! Sorry!!} 

Jaxson's camera broke - thank you to his companion, other missionaires and Julie Toone (daughter of Elda and Sista Edmunds "Mama Papa Eds" who visited her parents and ran into Elder Miller and his companion - Elder Howard!

NAVATAUYABA - Week 14

Improving

Bula Vinaka everyone!

It's been yet another week! It's been a good one! Elder Howard and I have been working so hard in this area, and it's been a blast! Things are slowly improving! We're finding people to teach. 

One investigator that is progressing is Niko. He's married to a member. The first time we met him, he had questions about things concerning the priesthood. When we answered them and I showed him my line of authority, he stopped me and asked, "Wait.... so you can baptize?" I answered yes. He then said, "I've been wanting to be baptized." *Imagine Hallelujah chorus singing here* We were so excited! Also another thing interesting about him, his wife just gave birth to their first child! Like 5 days ago! A way cute baby. So we're trying to help him establish his family on the gospel foundation.

Something random we did this week was that we made donuts! There's an Elder that can make WAY good donuts. I don't know if I've just been out on my mission too long or what, because they taste just like Krispy Kreme. No lie. I learned the recipe and everything! It was for another Elder's birthday, Elder DeMoors (as you can see in the picture). It was fun, and they're delicious. 

So what did you learn from conference?? Pick something. Anything. Just one thing from conference that stood out to you, and improve yourself! Make short term and long term goals for it! For example, if you were impressed to visit the temple more, set a goal that you'll visit every Tuesday morning, NO MATTER WHAT. Become humble and let the Lord change you. You'll see a new brightness and light to your life!

Well, that's about it for us! Thanks for tuning in again! I love you all! Until next week, keep on keepin' on!

Au lomani kemuni!

-Elder Jaxson Jeremy Miller

Me, Elder Green and Elder Christensen

Mmmmmm... Donuts...  

At the email shop