De$ignated Driver

Hello All!!

It was a good week! It was Diwali this week and that was pretty crazy! I felt like I was in a WW2 movie because it looked like bombs were exploding everywhere. Our Indian neighbors invited us over for some sweets. Every Indian man is Uncle and every woman is Auntie. I'll try and send a picture of them. The internet here is pretty bad.

Our flat also had some interesting Wildlife encounters this week. We caught 2 rats with glue traps, a mongoose ran out from under my chair and the Polynesian comps in the flat trapped it with a fan cover. We also found out we had bedbugs. I thought they were just mosquito bites but then I saw one crawling on my scriptures and found a few filled with blood on my mattress. We deep cleaned for a whole day and we think that they are gone now. I also woke up one morning and my back started to burn, so I put my hand back there and felt something wrap around it. I have never moved faster. I flicked it down and it was a 6 inch long centipede. Crazy stuff.

It has been raining a lot over the past few days and when we tried to leave our area last night the bridge was flooded. We had to park the car, walk through it and get picked up by the other Naitasiri elders. It was wild. That's Fiji for ya I guess. Oh yeah we finally got a truck haha. I'm the driver and it's been weird. I've driven in the right lane a few times accidentally and turned off the wipers when I was trying to signal but I'm getting used to it.

Sunday was awesome. Our unit is about 20 people. It was pretty much a testimony meeting. I had to give a message. People kept nodding their heads so I am just hoping it made sense. They totally improvise hymns. We sang a sacrament hymn to "Brightly Beams". They love that song. Afterwards we had a huge feast of Fish in coconut milk, taro, cassava, and tons of other stuff. The Maramas kept telling me to eat more though. After everyone has a 30 minute nap then we went to visit members who are less active. Then we had 2 more meals that night . I've never felt more full.

We have a boy on date for the 25th and supposedly I am baptizing him! It will be an awesome experience. The Fijian people are so nice though. Before we had the truck we were just walking around and people would always come and pick us up. Some guy even gave us a ride and then his wife wouldn't let us leave unless we took money from her!

Anyway. It's been awesome here. I love it and I love my sulu. Hopefully some pics load.

Me with Auntie and Uncle

A Fijian house we see often

Chillin on a bridge

Throwbax to MO and longer hair

Our flat