Ikarua papitaiso e na Uciwai!

Good week this week!

We were able to baptize one of the investigators that we inherited from Elda Burge and Elda Gabba. Way cool stuff! He was way prepared to be baptized and he is just an all around way cool guy. I felt way happy when he showed up which was a testimony builder that true happiness comes from the gospel of Christ, and the happiness of the world fades.

Oh also transfers happened and things got a little shaken up. Elda Jonathan is gone, and Elda Hippolite has come to replace him. Hippolite is from NZ and a way chill dude. We have been working way hard these past few days and seeing the fruits of our labors. Sireli's younger brother wants to take the lessons an we have permission to teach him but it is kinda hard to get a hold of him. That's okay though we will keep trying. Our investigator Aliki has been showing progress with living the word of wisdom which is cool. Blessings and prayers really work.

We have been doing a mission wide read of the BofM recently and it has been awesome. Reading about the blessings that Nephi received from obedience are awesome motivators to remain obedient even when it seems like a hassle.

Oh also one time we were teaching one of the members and a centipede was in his shirt so that definitely was an adrenaline rush when he flicked it off himself and it started coming right at me. Afterwards we were all laughing way hard even though I saw my life flash before my eyes.

Love everyone lots and thanks for the support I've gotten!!

Sota Tale macawa mai oqo.

Elda G

Brother Raisema and his family. He's one of a kind for sure. 

River Baptism

Temple!

Seva (The one we baptized to my left) and other members of the unit!

Cikinovo

It was a great week since last Monday.

We were able to do some service for one of our investigators named Aliki we have been working with for a while. He wanted us to help him clean out an old house he inherited so we gladly helped him out. It was in pretty rough shape but about 10 kids from the village who were all playing together saw us and all came in and helped which made the work go so much faster. At one point I was picking up an old box spring, and one of the kids yelled, "Cikinovo! Cikinovo! Rua Rua! Ka Levu!" I wasn't 100% sure what Cikinovo meant but then I was like yeah that probably means centipede so I dropped it, and Elda Jonathan came out of nowhere with some metal pipe and the dude came over with a chunk of wood and they made quick work of them and we went back on working. Fun stuff. We have been trying to get him to church but he hasn't come yet which is too bad but we keep trying.

Also here's the story of how I almost had to sleep in a village overnight. So we had an appointment with one dude who had a lot of Q's for us and we already had to reschedule because of the fake cyclone last week, so we were determined to make it this week. We parked the truck offsite and crossed 2 bridges with knee high water that were pretty strong. Well, after our appt we went to the first bridge and it was chest high so we couldn't really go for it so we said some prayers and then chilled at a member's house who was going to let us sleep there if we had to. Well at about 9:30 the water died down enough that we could cross but it was still way strong, so some Fijian man pretty much carried me across haha. Good times though we just had to walk through the jungle in the pitch black in the rain which was awesome.

It's been fun here though. Elda Jonathan is coming up on his 6 month mark in Naita which mean he might be leaving tomorrow. But change is okay just more chances to grow. Love you all

Elda G

(sorry, no pics this week.  Sam says the computer has a virus so he didn't want to put his SD card into it)

Psychlone Mona

Yeah so totally in the dark about everything that was going on with the cyclone, but from what I know I think it passed and just missed Viti Levu. We still got lots of rain though and lots of wind. Learned that Cyclone in Fijian is Cagi Laba or Murderous wind. But yeah we were totally fine. Our area got flooded though so we got evacuated to the Zone Leader's area. Got to work in an English area for a few days. We should be back after Zone Conference on Tuesday.

Also other news Elda Burge got transferred and so did his comp mid transfer so now we cover both Naitasiri areas. We have lots of work to do now. We also have the mega flat to ourselves so you know I made a mega bed with the extra stuff in our flat. It's a little weird having all that space to ourselves now but I guess it's just part of the Naita experience.

We got permission from Sereli's dad to baptize his younger brother Mosese!! He has been coming to church too for a while and we just needed to ask him and he said it was okay with him which was awesome! Great to see him working with his family to help them make covenants with our Heavenly Father as well. One of our other people on date, Aliki, was progressing way nice on his WofW problems. Way nice spirit in those lessons.

Well yeah not much else to say.
Shout out to Man City for beating Liverpool.

loloma bibi

Elda Gwilliam

Cooking up some Ota (Fern leaf)

The face says it all

Elda Burge hit a bird

The Setup

Tei Tei army putting in work on a Chief's gravesite

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