Halfway Done

Bula Bula

It was a good week here at the ole MTC. Not really eventful though. We have had a lot of fun in Fijian class and we learn a ton. We had our first TRC a week ago and it was definitely an interesting experience. We taught one of the old Fijian teachers and his soon-to-be wife but she didn't speak Fijian and was just along for the ride. We have another one today and hopefully it gets better.

Our Tuesday night devotional was a member of the 70 who is the head of the missionary department. He gave an awesome talk about missionary work in general and it was pretty inspiring!!

The old missionaries going to the marshall islands left the other day, and the new ones to replace them pulled up on Wednesday. There's an Elder from Fiji named Elder Lal. He is a really cool dude and said that his family would hook us up if we ever went to visit! There's a guy from New Zealand and he is way funny.

I also got pranked this week. Elder D'Arc somehow managed to take and swap name tags with me so I was walking around with his badge on for like an hour and a half and didn't even realize haha. We make fun here.

Well that's about it. Not much going on. I'll send some pics to make up for the short email.

Loloma Yani!!!

Elder Gwilliam

"Study Time"

Me with Elder Nielsen (One of the Old Marshall Island Elders who went to Riverton.) Sad to see him go!!

MTC--Week 3!

Yadra Na Matuvuvale!!

It was a great week! A lot of awesome stuff happened! to start off I guess one of the coolest things was that we had an apostle for this week's devotional. When I showed up for choir and saw all of the teleprompters I knew that someone important was coming and then they announced it would be D. Todd Christofferson. He gave an awesome talk regarding the name of the Lord's church. It was really insightful and while I know some elders didn't care too much for it because it wasn't what they were expecting it definitely needed to be said.

Fijian is coming... We have the wonderful amazing opportunity to give our first TRC today which is super awesome. Pretty much all it entails is we have to give a 15-20 minute lesson all in Fijian. I've heard from everyone that the first one is a train-wreck and I'm sure Andrew can attest to that. It will be good though.

Every day we get to exercise and we have the choice of going outside to play soccer or some other sports if we want. The other day I went out with some of the other kids from my zone and we all played soccer which was fun! On the way back we were crossing the crosswalk and when we got across we had to wait for some kids that got stuck on the other side. Two dudes in this big red truck started to gun it when the light turned green and the passenger gave us all the bird and started yelling at us. It was awesome to see all of us missionaries give him a smile and I gave him a loving thumbs up. That just reminds me about D&C 6:34. All of Earth and Hell are going to combine against the church in the last days but we have the lord on our side so we don't need to worry.

I also heard that school is starting back up at home so I said a silent prayer of gratitude when I remembered I didn't have to go back to Bingham anytime soon *Dab* But good luck to everyone and make sure that Mr. Boberg gets the proper treatment he deserves.

We have a lot of fun as Fijian districts. The other day Elder Andreason caught a cicada and put it in our bathroom; even though it says in the white handbook no pets of any kind lol. You can understand a little bit of our boredom level as the most interesting thing at the time was watching it defecate on our mirror. We left for 5 minutes and came back and some dunce ripped all his legs off and left him alive so we had to put him out of his misery. Looking at it now I'm not entirely sure why I put that story in here but I'm just going to keep it for kicks.

Thanks for the support everyone!!

Au lomani keitou!

Elder Gwilliam

Elder D'Arc looking studious

Elder Dial stretching bc he struggles with sitting cross-legged haha

Elder Edwards overcome by the spirit in class

"Hark All Ye Nations"

A super flattering picture taken of me without my consent

Week 2 in the MTC!

Bula Vinaka Na Matuvuvale!!

Greetings from the MTC. It's been a good week! We got to teach 4 lessons to our investigator Tevita (Just another one of the Fijian teachers Brother Banks) They went pretty well for the most part!! Both Fijian districts had a couple of funny incidents the first lesson. One Elder told Tevita, "We are the idiots." instead of missionaries. Somebody told him to pay attention for the good feeling of the spirit of the devil and i'm not even sure how that one happened. I managed to forget my Fijian triple combination to our first lesson and I was in charge of the scripture so I had to do some improvising. By the end of the week Elder Burge and I were giving lessons without any notes!! (Not to flex or anything but we are the first and only ones in both Fijian districts to do so haha) I understand his questions that he asks back but my vocab isn't strong enough yet to effectively respond so I have to do the best I can. 

We had our first Devotionals this past week and they were awesome. President Kearon from the 70 was our General Authority speaker and he gave an awesome talk with his wife! Sunday devotionals are also awesome! I'm in the MTC choir and we get to sing a number during the devotionals! I've never been an awesome singer but the spirit that you can get from hymns and music numbers has really been reaffirmed over these past few days. Whether it be a hymn sung by our district of 8 or a ton of kids from our floor belting out Nogu Masu it's always good! Nogu Masu isn't a hymn but it's a relatively popular Fijian song about a prayer! Well popular here in America at least. 

We had the opportunity to watch an Elder Bednar talk called Character of Christ on Sunday. I recommend that you all check it out because it teaches a lot of good lessons!! It was really humbling and was a great message to have early on in the mission. One thing that Brother Brower was talking to us about last night is how awesome it is that we get to serve missions. Regardless of where you go you get to sacrifice and spend 2 years serving the lord which is really cool. 

Fijian is also coming along very well so far. We have a lot of opportunities to speak and it's a fun language. It's been fun to have lessons from Bro Brower and Bro Banks. They are amazing teachers and really nice dudes. We also had help from the Elders who were waiting for their reassignments. Elders Hae Hae, Iafeta, and Tanuvasu were all great Elders and really helpful! Our districts have a lot of fun together and sometimes like to throw down on the volleyball court. There are a lot of Polynesian kids in our zone so it gets pretty intense at some points haha. 

It's been good so far and thanks for all the support!! We have lots of fun here but also get a lot of work done.

Elder Gwillie

(Sam couldn't get any pics to me this week, so thank goodness Elder Dial's mom came through!) 

Elder Burge and Sam 

Elder Burge, Elder Dial, Sam 

(I am told that the white board says "We love you" in Fijian behind them 💙)

The Fijian Districts!

Week 1 in the MTC--First P-Day!

Hello Everyone,

Luckily we got a P-Day pretty close to when we arrived so that is really nice! So obviously I will be sending all of my emails on Fridays. There is lots to do here and it can be pretty tiring at some points. We haven't had any gym time so far and all this energy is dying to get out. Thank goodness after today we will get an hour to exercise every day. My companion is Elder Burge who also went to Bingham! Elder Dial is in my district and he went to Bingham also so the Miners represent in District F. We have a lot of time to study and it is pretty awesome! Also shout out to the inversion for making it feel like I am at scout camp smelling campfire every time I leave a building. SUPER excited to live here in college.

My Fijian teacher situation is a little bit weird. Right now we are being taught by Brother Brower. He went to Fiji in 2013 and I got to watch some of his videos on lifey.com so I thought that was funny. Our real teacher was on vacation and seems to be gone a lot so the 2 Fijian districts combine into one with the Brow. He is a really good teacher though! I've only had class twice but we can say a few things. I am currently learning how to say a simple prayer in Fijian. The alphabet is pronounced a little differently so that took a minute to get used to. For example, the c makes a "TH" sound. So saying goodbye (Moce) Sounds like "Mowthay" if that makes any sense. But it is coming along well! We have class again tonight so we will see how that goes. We are supposed to be able to give a lesson tomorrow using only Fijian so that will be interesting.

I've seen a lot of people here that I know which is awesome! It's a little weird calling them Elder Whatever but I'm getting used to it. So far I've seen: Elder Thomas, Elder Davis, Elder Christensen, Elder Hilton, Elder Brown, and Elder Orton is in my zone so I get to see him a lot. Our zone has a lot of of Polynesia in it! We have Elders and Sisters going to Kiribus, Tonga, Samoa, Australia, Fiji, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Marshall Islands. There are a few Elders going to Fiji who had to stay in the MTC due to visa problems. They got their reassignments and two are headed to Long Beach and the others are going to Idaho. Seeing as how late I had to turn in my visa application I think I will be spending a transfer here stateside to start off my mission. But that's okay because I can say I got to serve in two different missions! One of the possibilities is even West Virginia so Elder Cox I'm coming for you!

Anyway, the MTC has been really awesome so far. I will admit though it is kinda hard to fall asleep sometimes. Even though we are all exhausted we are still adjusting. I've come to understand true jealousy when I hear one of my roommates start to snore. Hopefully I will be good in a few days. Also I don't really have any email addresses so if you want an email shoot me a blank one or something so it gets added to my address book!

Love you all,

Elder Gwilliam

Me and my companion Elder Burge (Sam wanted me to add that if his eyes look a little weird it's because there must be something else in the smoke there. Oh Sam. Ever the jokester. )

Note from Sarah: This one is a little better--I borrowed it from Elder Burge's email (Thanks Jen!) 

My Classroom

The view from my class.  Air quality level? Green

My room and ping-pong table

He's Off!!

Sam entered the MTC today with courage and determination.  There were a few tears on our end but it's only because we love him and will miss him terribly. Good-byes stink.  We are mostly just happy that he is willing to take these two years and give them to Heavenly Father and we are so proud of him  He is going to be a great missionary! Instead of Good-bye, we'll just remember that it's SEE YOU IN 2!