Soli wale

Twas a nice week. Started off pretty nice. Elder Rasband came to visit his grandson which was nice because he met with all the missionaries as well. It was awesome to hear from him and everyone was really excited to go do missionary work afterwards. He talked a lot about the importance of following the spirit when doing missionary work and it's the same back home. If you have the promptings to talk to someone about the gospel do it!

Adi was baptized as well! She's been meeting with the missionaries for about 7 months now and now everything worked out for her to be baptized. We also started visiting a less-active man who lives in her house (who was also baptized in Missouri, close to Odessa as a matter of fact)  and he says that now is his time to change! He knows he was being prideful and says that he is starting his pathway back to church. We have family home evening scheduled with them tonight!

Cool Miracle. In Savusavu, the one lady that we put on baptismal date in the area close to Brother Nainoca's home went to a wedding one time and never came back. I was always just waiting for her to come back so we could visit her and she never did. Well we talked to her neighbors and she was in Suva. Then just a few days ago we were walking down the street after a few fall throughs and I saw her son walking towards us on the side of the road! We talked to him and got his mom's number and now she permanently moved into my new area! Coincidence? I think not. But we've made contact with her and I'm excited to see what comes from it.

The primary program was yesterday which was awesome. Love watching those. The Stake President in my first area made an interesting comment about a year back. He talked about how the Primary is the only organization in the church that gets its own sacrament meeting. There's no YSA program, there's no Priesthood Program. So maybe Heavenly Father wants us to learn from them. I can attest that it's true. Even if the kids do try eating the microphone.

Love you all, bout to head to mosquito island.

Elda Gwilliam

Adi got baptized! (I don't know why Fijians never smile in pictures. LIterally every time we've been over there she's talked about how excited she was to be baptized with a big smile)

Share a coke with Boso.

Elder Rasband and *most* of the FSM. Let's just say good thing I got off the North island when I did

Hello and Goodbye

Plenty of goodbyes. Got transferred to the Tacirua area this week. My new comp is Elder Tautu who went to Lone Peak and we are going to have a good time. The work here is going really well and I'm excited to be here.

Just started off with Ana and Salome's baptism! Our area has a TON of people, and it's weird finding people who have lived there for years and never had the missionaries meet with them before. And so many people here are from Naitasiri which is fun to make connections. Veivosaki VakaNaitasiri mada.

Elder Rasband's grandson lives in this mission and he is coming to go on exchanges with him, but he has set up a meeting with most of the missionaries in Fiji! I guess that's a nice perk of having the grandson of an Apostle in the mission. That will be this Thursday

Well I think that's about it for this week.

Elda Gwilliam

 Elder Tautu my new comp, Hunky Dogs, and our van

Massive Yaqona (Grog) plant behind me. Worth a Few thousand

 Hibiscus Flower

Vuniyasawa Kids

Goodbyes with Derrick and his Fam (Plus one random Indian Kid)

Farewell to Elder Jonathan

Ana and Salome got baptized.

"Ruha sa lesu Viro Mata" "Ooooh nice"

Once again another great week in Savusavu

Well we actually were out of our area for a bit again but that's all good. Until Wednesday we were in Taveuni and on Friday we had to drive to Tukavesi. Those roads will make anybody want to be back to a nice paved road.

We had some good progress with the people we taught this week. Found some new cool people and got to help some of our others progress. The man from Natua is going along well and liking our visits. We take Brother Nainoca the ex AOG Pastor along, and it helps out so much. He is doing a great job at member missionary work. He told us that he takes the boat when he could take the plane to Suva because he gets to share about the church more on the boat. He works for the government and is the Government rep for Caukaudrove (The province we stay in) and goes to Suva often for meetings with all the government officials. He said that last meeting when they brought out the Coffee and Tea the Prime Minister said, "Find the biggest cup we have and fill it with Milo for Brother Nainoca. He's LDS now." Which he was very proud about

On another note we got fired by one man we were teaching. We had only been like 3 times and he loved our visits. He was a Methodist Pastor but still let us come and visit with him. Then we show up and he comes out and says, "Kedatou Veitalanoa, Kemudrau sa Cegu. Kakua ni lesu tale mai." (Let's talk. You two take a rest. Never come back again) He said that the higher ups in the Methodist church were talking badly about him which is too bad.

Loloma Bibi

Elda Gwilliam

Some of the Taveuni water (Yes it does have a filter but that's what it actually looks like. The Camera can't capture it in normal mode)

Somosomo Village on Taveuni