Fiji: Church - Day 4

As soon as we had picked our island I went onto the churches website to see if there was a local branch we could go to.  I have never been to a church service outside of the United States - and actually I have never been to a branch - only normal, large wards.  There wasn't one on our island - but there was one over on the bigger island, Taviuni.  I was practically giddy at the thought of taking a boat ride to church and spending 3 hours with Fijian Saints.  This was definitely one of the highlights of my trip!!

I love how Jason had to roll up his suit pants while waiting for and getting on the boat - it felt just like "The Other Side of Heaven"

The Branch was pretty tiny - but did have a nice building.  It was this one big room - with 2 tiny rooms behind those closed doors.  This was the sacrament table.  The service was in Fijian - but it wasn't hard to know what they were saying.  Actually they sing their hymns and read their scriptures in English - so that was fun.

The hymns were awesome.  It was all acappella and with their accents and not really knowing the tunes everything was sung just a little off - they emphasized and held different words than we do - so it was beautiful - I couldn't stop smiling.

This was our Relief Society meeting.  This room was TINY and HOT and STUFFY.  But none of them seemed to mind and were so loving and sweet.  Our closing hymn was "As Sister's In Zion"  - which of course made me cry and feel so connected to these women.  I love that I can feel connected to these women who I don't know and have almost nothing in common with  accept for that I feel like I have everything in common with them and that I felt like I knew them and they knew me.  I loved them instantly.

After the 3 hour block they held a meeting to talk about an upcoming area conference.  They had to travel by boat for 2 days to get there and pay 40 dollars a ticket (which is a lot!).  Many have had to prepare for months to go to the conference and some members couldn't go because of the cost.

This is their branch president.

How CUTE are these kids!?!

For the record the church correlation department works beautifully - we were on the EXACT same lessons in both Sunday School and Relief Society. 

I love this gospel.  I love my husband in sharing my passion and love for the gospel and that we made this a priority on our vacation.