Cyclone Warning

It was a great Christmas week!!! Christmas really is just such a happy time for everyone here in the bush. They all make the best of the situation and have a lot of fun with their family celebrating the birth of the savior which is all that matters anyway.

But yeah we have had a lot of heavy rains, and our area got flooded this week. One day we drove as far as we could, then trekked through a river to teach some lessons #grinddoesn'tstopforrain. Supposedly the rain is supposed to get worse tonight and President told us to prep for a cyclone even though it isn't confirmed yet. As we learn in Alma it's always better to be prepared and rely on  the Lord than rely on your own strength. We will all be fine though.

Grateful for the blessings that we have from the atoning sacrifice of Christ. One cool thing about Fijian is the word for Atonement. The word for sacrifice is Sorovaki, but atonement is veisorovaki, which makes the word reflexive. Pretty much it means it is a personal relationship between us and the sacrifice. Cool stuff.

Au mistaki kemudou sara vakalevu

Elda G

Future AP Burge

When the flooding started to go down.

Fijian Lightning Storm

Man it was a good week. As you can probably tell by the title we had so much rain. The Thunder literally made the tin roofs of the houses shake which was crazy. Fijian rain doesn't mess around.

It was a slow teaching week this week, every Friday and Saturday our whole area goes to Suva to sell the goods from their Tei Tei. We just visit members and try to make the best of the scenarios! Christmas time is a good time to teach people because everyone's heart is softened to a message about the savior more than they normally are. The Fijian people are really so nice to the missionaries. They all respect us and try to feed us even if they don't want anything to do with our lessons.

On Sunday we had fun after the unit. I get to speak every week at the unit and it is a great way to work on the Fijian. They are all also willing to help me out which is nice. But anyways, afterwards we were walking back and took another shortcut which was pretty much bushwhacking and I saw one of those giant millipedes and that was quite a sight. Also had to climb a few trees in the Sulu and that was fun. Other than that it was just an awesomely normal week.

Loloma bibi

Elda G

Sorry for little pictures this week. Bad internet. But the one I was able to get out is our normal shopping haul for the 4 of us in Naitasiri. We don't usually get fed by members that often so this is more than other people get.

Tei Tei Mada

Great week. Got to log some hours on a Dalo Tei Tei which was fun. Got to break in the new iSele. Getting close to Christmas and it doesn't feel like it here other than the Mariah Carey blaring at the mall right now. It's okay though because it's a nice reminder to focus on the Savior during Christmas.

Found out that one of the members in our ward used to be a DJ in Suva haha. DJ Rups. Hit him up on Reverb Nation.

We have problems with getting people to church because of how far away it is and the Methodist and Catholic churches in their villages are hard to compete with but that's where agency comes in. We get to invite, promise blessings, and wait. It's their choice all of the time. We can't make them come but making sacrifices for sure brings forth blessings from Heaven. One of our members for example was walking to church and we walked with him. He walks it whenever there is no truck to pick him up and it is about a 1.5 hour walk in the heat and humidity. Mad respect.

Have an awesome week everyone!!

Loloma Bibi

Elda G

Elda Jonathan enjoying some Rolos

Tei Tei

More Tei Tei

Our Sunday meal

December 9th

It was a great week here.

I'll just dive right in because my time is winding down quickly. We are teaching a lady named Mariah and she read the whole Book of Mormon in one week. Fijians are awesome. She just said she liked it and whenever she had free time she would read from it. Really cool. Got lots of work done this week and got to visit with the members a lot. We had some amazing fried fish yesterday that was probably the best fish I've ever eaten. Lots of other cool stuff happened but the clock is ticking down faster than ever.

Bought my first iSele here. Put in some work in our back yard. We had some awesome roadside BBQ the other day. for $3.50 USD you get 4 chunks of cassava, 4 sausages, a heap of noodles, a hard boiled egg, and either lamb or chicken. We got a passion fruit pie slice too and that was good.

Was thinking about the story of the good shepherd and the hireling in John chapter 10 this week. When we put our comfort in things of the world (The hireling) and the storms come, they will flee from the wolves faster than they came. But if we put our comfort and our safety in the Good shepherd or spiritual things, we will never be left alone. That is just super comforting to know that the savior is always on our side.

As always, Love you all

Elda G

Teitei Army

iSele

The BBQ

Kerekere

Bula Maleka kece!!

It was a good week here. Had a leqa with the truck so it stayed at the flat so that meant lots of walking. I say lots of walking because people weren't feeling like giving us free rides this week but that's okay. Usually we get buses that pick us up when we get to the main road but we walked from a village caled Waitaqolo all the way to one called Nawaqabena. Probably doesn't mean anything to you guys back home but that's a LOT of walking. And we did it 3 days in a row.

Samu and his siblings are in Nadi right now for Christmas break so our unit was unusually low this last Sunday but that's okay! Still an awesome spirit. I always have some sort of spiritual message to give because chances are that I will probably be speaking every Sunday.

Normal meal for me here is Rice and Chow noodles (Fijian Brand of Ramen noodles) with some corned beef mixed in. Cheap and filling. Occasionally we get some cream loaves and those are really good. There is a small bakery in our area that sells them and we can get like 4 loaves of fresh bread for about $1.50 USD. Really awesome for a bread guy like me. For breakfast we have some Drau ni moli (Lemon leaf tea) or some cocoa and breakfast crackers. Nobody knows for dinner but it's always fun.

Sorry for the short email. Just got the 5 minute warning.

Love you all

Elda Gwilliam

Elda Jonathan's 1 year mark!

Lots of cows here

Still hard to believe that bag was $1.50