Elder Tyler Mumford: Hey guys!

Well I get to email this week which is nice. So much has happened these past two weeks. Lots of ups and downs, goods and bads. But I love this work so much. I really do! So last Sunday, which was Easter, was honestly such a tough day. I mean everything is super great about the message of Easter and there was definitely a special spirit in sacrament for all of that, but man after it was tough. Throughout the day we ended up losing all three of our investigators that were actually progressing towards baptism... One moved away and the other two kids... their dad, who lives in Suva, told them they aren't allowed to be baptized. Man I was so mad! A guy that doesn't even live with them is holding them back from getting one of the biggest blessings they will ever have in their life. Just heart breaking.... so these last two weeks have just been trying to rebuild back up the work.

We have our two awesome less actives who are on fire coming back to church and taking the lessons again. One of them is our ward chorister now because she is just a killer singer, so its a pretty good calling for her. Then the other lady is this old lady in the 70's who was willing to come back to church but was shy to accept a calling in church. So we prayed on a calling for her and felt like we should offer her a responsibility to decorate the church with flowers every Sunday because she has heaps of flowers by her house. We were super scared to give her the calling to see how she would react, but we gave it and she literally brightened up from ear to ear. She ran over to her friend's house next door, who is also a member, and started planning the flowers. Sunday morning they came to our house around 6 AM and woke us up so that we could open the church for them to decorate it with flowers. They decorated it so beautifully and it just brought such a special spirit to the meeting. She told us she was so happy and felt like this really gave her the opportunity to give something to Heavenly Father. She said she wasn't a good speaker or teacher but she could decorate with flowers so that's what she did. Man just a great example of the need to feel important in church! So those two returning members were awesome!

Yesterday at church we had a miracle and one of the most unexpected thing ever. We were in the chapel waiting for church to start when this guy came wandering in. We always see him when he rides the car around Rabi, and he seemed kind of crazy and talked to himself a little, but he showed up at church and sacrament meeting. So right after church, I just basically pounced on him and asked him heaps of questions about why he came and if we could teach him. He agreed and we set up an appointment later in the day, then taught him a great lesson. He is definetly a different guy but he is awesome and just like the rest of us has questions that the gospel can answer! Another testimony to me about how God loves all his children, no matter who they are and is preparing them to accept the gospel! This church is true and God is working out here in Fiji.

This work is hard but with the challenges comes the blessings. It's all about just focusing on those blessings and being positive. I love this work and know without a doubt its true. I love you all so much!

Elder Mumford

These are from an email of my companion since I couldn't get pictures to send this week.

Had an awesome district service moving 7 50kg bags of cement up a quarter mile hill. It doesn't sound so bad but they don't really have sidewalks here in the villages AND it rained really bad all day but it was fun! Had some good papaya bread and juice after! I haven't had juice in awhile so you know I had to take a selfie!

Its also been raining a lot recently so that picture was the last day I wore my sandals. Your shoes just get stuck in the mud and flings it all over so right now I'm barefoot. Pretty nice actually!

There's a picture of Alice (Relief Society president) making us some donuts. Man, idk how she takes care of 4 kids on her own as her husband is away working all the time and always insists on feeding us. Whenever we see her before dinner, she never knows what to cook and says she'll just cook "whatever the Lord wants you guys to have". If its donuts then I'll take it! But her faith is so strong and she's so optimistic that whenever we're tired, we go talk to her and she makes us feel good for our hard work haha.

Idk if you ever had dried fish before where they salt it and let it sit outside but its really nice. We just started teaching this lady and her husband who last week just invited us over because they always see us walk up and down her road.

This kid showed us her book of the story of Noah's Ark and this is a prime example why missionaries are only allowed to read church books. If you look in the picture, you see eels going to the ark. HOW DID THOSE EELS WALK TO THE ARK?