Monday, September 15, 2014

BULA VINAKA! I'M IN FIJI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha just kidding, I'm still in Grand Junction. But Sister Keavali and I have brought Fiji to Colorado! On Tuesday night we had a Relief Society activity that was something about traveling around the world, and they had all these people who were from different places teach everyone about the culture and stuff. It was fun. They asked Sister Keavali to do one for Fiji because she's from there (they didn't ask me to do one for Washington...I guess it was just too awesome for them to handle. Or maybe they knew they wouldn't understand the culture no matter how much I tried to explain it). We got all dressed up and I wore a Jaba (pronounced chamba) which is a traditional Fijian dress!!! It was so much fun! And she taught me their traditional "welcoming" song and we danced. It was superb. All the ladies loved it.

Me with Sister Keavali! 

Getting ready for our Fijian dance 

I love missionary life :)

Next week on Sunday, we are having a special "Come and See" Sunday where we invite as many people as we can (and the Ward does too) and then we have a special sacrament meeting and focus on the Savior and stuff. This is a mission-wide thing, which is really awesome. And Sister Keavali is speaking in our Ward! And then she and I are singing a hymn! We are so unprepared - like we don't even have a song picked yet - but we have all this ambition haha. The plan is to sing in Fijian and then English. She wants just me to sing, but I'm like "Dude I'm not going to sing a solo in Fijian while my FIJIAN COMPANION is sitting on the stand behind me. I'm not a poser. That's lame." but she's still convinced that she's not singing. Hahaha stinks for her. If you're my companion, you're going to sing.

We've had some pretty awesome things happen this week. On Thursday, Sister Keavali wanted to try a former investigator who she hadn't seen in a while. We stopped by her house and she was sooo nice! But she hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon at all or anything like that. We asked her if she believed it to be a true book, and she said yes. She also believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet. So I said "Why aren't you a Mormon?!" and she said "Because I'm a Baptist!" and I said "Well that's dumb." ............why did God let me come out on a mission. I do not understand. But actually she received that really well! Surprisingly. Maybe God made her hear me differently haha. But we talked about why she wasn't a member, and how if she KNOWS it's true, it doesn't matter what church she grew up in. She needs to be a member of the Lord's true church. She was still stubborn though. We asked her if she would commit to going to church on the 21st, for the Come and See Sunday, and she said maybe. She wouldn't fully commit though.

We asked her if we could come back in a couple days and read the Book of Mormon with her, and she said of course. So we did, and we brought a member with us. They hit it off really well! And we listened to 2 Nephi 29. Great chapter. At the end, we asked her if she would come to church on the 21st and she gave a solid yes! She even promised us! And then again we asked her if she thought the Book of Mormon was true, and she said she thought it was. Sister Keavali looked at her and said "When you come to KNOW that these things are true, and really know, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?" and she said YES!!!!!!!!!!!! It was fantastic. Apparently they had asked her a bunch of times in the past, and she always said no. She is so prepared!

Another really cool thing happened yesterday. We had our Ward Coordination mtg. after church, and the Ward Mission Leader gave us a referral to a part-member family that he home teaches. We went over there last night, just dropped by, and they totally opened their home and their hearts to us! The mom was baptized a long time ago, but only to please her grandpa who was a member and who was dying. She didn't really know anything about the church, and never really went. She married a Catholic (he wasn't there last night) who is really nice, but doesn't like the LDS church. They have two boys; one is 14 and the other is 7, and they were both there last night. We just started chatting and really enjoying each other's company and it was awesome. We were able to answer some of the mom's questions, like "What is the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price?" and I realized that I don't think anyone has asked me that before. I struggled to describe the Pearl of Great Price haha. Good thing I have a companion!

They are awesome people though, and they are dying to have us come back! They said that it has been a long time since missionaries have stopped by, and that we were the coolest missionaries they had ever met. I felt honored haha. When we were leaving we asked if there was anything we could do for them and the mom joked that we could clean her house and we were like "Ok! When do you want us?" and she was like "wait what" and we said "We would love to clean your house." They are just about to do foster care, and they have to have a housing inspection tomorrow, so we're going to go in the morning and help clean :) The house isn't even dirty though, sooo I'm guessing there will just be a lot of chatting lol. And then the mom said "When can we have you guys over for dinner?" It was so cute. I am so excited to teach them. The 14 year old isn't baptized, and obviously neither is the 7 year old. But there is so much potential there! They are really genuinely good people.

Oh my gosh I almost forgot the funniest thing that happened this week. One day we saw a less-active, and she absolutely adores Sister Keavali, so she always gives her little presents. It's cute. This week she gave her some fuzzy slippers! They're beautiful. And fluffy. Later that night we came home for a minute to grab something and Sister Keavali said "I have a headache. I need to lay down for just a minute." She got all cuddled up in her bed and she was cold so she put her new slippers on. We left like 10 minutes later to go teach one of our investigators. After we had been at her house for a while, she reached down to Sister Keavali's feet and said "Wow, I love your slippers, where did you get them? Haha." Sister Keavali looked down in horror at her feet - she had forgotten to switch back to her normal shoes before we left the house!!!! It was really ridiculously funny. I couldn't stop laughing, and Sister Keavali was blushing so badly and didn't say anything for like 15 minutes after that because she was so embarrassed. Gooooooood times. Man I love her so much.

Sister Keavali (no slippers though)

And I love Grand Junction. Have I mentioned that? I mean it's not Fiji, but we make it work. The people here are just so awesome, and even though everyone is a little gun crazy, I love them! :P Being a missionary is literally the best thing I have ever done with my life, and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father pushed me to do this and made it possible. He's the best.

I love you all. Stay fantastic. Share the gospel with everyone you meet. It's the best thing you could do for them. :)

Love,
Sister Koenig


This one's for Jonah :)


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