True Vine

The week started off with a little bit of a crazy P-Day proselyting night. The man Soni we have been teaching for a little bit lives in a village and just a few days earlier we tried to visit him and this man told us that we weren't allowed to proselyte there.All the members tell us that those rules are more of just recommendations. The police can't kick us out of the village if we go in. He said that only the Methodist and Catholic churches were allowed in. We were pretty cut because of how much he has been progressing so we just decided to send it at night.

We went when it was dark and hoped to make it to his house. It was pretty nervewracking just walking through this village in the pitch black meanwhile the village lali (Church drum) was banging so it added a little suspense. When we got to his house we told him the situation and told him sorry we weren't possible able to visit with him anymore, but he told us, "Oqo na Noqu vale, lako ga mai." (this is my house, just come in) Then we got to put him on date for the end of this Month. It's awesome to see his dedication, some people definitely would just say shucks too bad because they don't want the koro gossip to hurt them but he didn't care.

We also reset Sherran's baptismal date. She wasn't able to attend church but she told us that now she was going to set a habit of church weekly. Her date is also the 29th of September.

We've also seen some cool experiences with referrals. I'm usually pretty bad at asking for referrals, and when we do try it seems like it's the same ole, "Not yet." But this week we felt like asking 2 people for referrals and both of them had one for us! It was awesome to see people eager to share the gospel with friends and family. If you want to help the missionaries wherever you stay, give them referrals.

President Higgins has also asked us to memorize 5 scriptures from the New Testament as well as 5 from the Book of Mormon that strengthen our Faith in Jesus Christ. One I chose was John 15:5 as we hook ourselves into Jesus Christ or the true vine we can do all things, if we don't however... Nothing happens. This fits into all aspects of life. Remember him and he will help you out in everything you go through!

Sunset near Urata

Elder DeBruce sets up the famous "DeBruce Timed Shot"

Elder Wilson's 21st Birthday. The Key is a Fijian Tradition for the 21st Birthday. 

qaqa shorts

It was a way rainy week here. Got wrecked by rain almost every day, but then one random day in there that was scorching hot. Feels a bit like Utah weather.

We had a couple of cool experiences with a few of the people we teach this week. One day we were out and decided to visit a man who we taught who had denied a baptismal invitation to see how he was doing. He invited us right in and was excited to talk and told us plenty of times it had been a long time. Then we taught him a lesson and were about to leave. He told us that plenty of people trash on the Book of Mormon in the villages around him but he said that he told them all  that they need to get past the barrier of a new book and just understand that it's about Jesus Christ.

Then he talked about how other people said they were having visions about black figures and snakes with human heads and he proceeded to tell them that the momani (mormons) were better than all of that stuff. He said he likes it so much more when the kai merika or americans talk with him. He also told us that he was about to leave for dinner with his family, but he felt like he should just stay behind and then we showed up! Nothing too crazy but it was nice to see him defending us.

Well transfers are over, so I'll be staying here in Savusavu for another transfer! Excited to see what we can get done with our people in the next few weeks. Sherran and Lasarusa got married! It was awesome to see her and we were able to promise her blessings the day before that would be coming in hot because of her willingness to be obedient to Heavenly Father's command.

So'a viro na macawa mai ia

Elda Gwilliam

Treated ourselves to some snowy house waffles to celebrate transfers being done.

Too much rain

 Nice to serve by the ocean. 

Soli mada

Mission Tour with the Yamashitas was awesome! We got a lot of awesome advice and it has been awesome to apply it!

On the way back from the meeting we met a white family at an ice-cream stand and my comp invited them to church using the way that they recommended and then next thing you know they showed up to church! It was awesome.

We also had a cool experience with Sherran this week. She has recently been trying to get married to her partner Lasarusa (The fijianized version of Lazarus) and a few struggles came up. Just on last Monday we went to talk to her and she said that things weren't going so well with it. She said that the pastor that was going to marry them legally decided that he wasn't going to do it unless Sherran came to his church for 6 months. So that wasn't sounding too good. Then Lasarusa's parents were pressuring them to do it with the pastor that told them about the 6 month thing. So my companion and I decided that we would fast on Tuesday and then we saw her on Saturday and she said that everything worked out and just changed out of nowhere. So she will be getting married this Friday! 1 Nephi 3:7 just got proved right.

We were able to teach one of our people named Soni about the Book of Mormon. We taught him about how they are like a 2 lighthouses that help us get into the bay safely. The whole time we taught him about the restoration of the Gospel he just kept looking down, nodding, and whispering, "Restoration" This isn't Joseph Smith's church, this is Christ's church!

Love you all!

Elda Gwilliam

The North Zone and Elder and Sister Yamashita

Rainbow ending in the ocean.

Island hopper planes are cramped

Kids from Nakasa.

Living on a Prayer

Bula Vina'a 'emuni 'ece

It was a fun week today! We had a lot of travelling, so we weren't able to do much proselyting which was too bad but we made work with what we had which was good. Got to go over to Taveuni again and visit Tukavesi!

On the way back from Taveuni I got to burn my shirt and we went up to a random hill that turned out to be probably the best view I've ever seen in Fiji.

We also got to go proselyting with 2 Returned Missionaries from the San Francisco Mission! They learned Fijian and served in the Fijian branch there! They had great Fijian and were very excited to come out to some lessons, then we played touch with them today before they left!

Elder Yamashita from the 70 is coming to visit the mission this week! We will have mission tour and have to go back to Labasa. So that means more travelling.

The people we are teaching are doing well, we regained contact with one who had been gone for a bit and that was great! We visited with a recent convert and that ended up in one less active member who made it to church and 4 people who we can now teach! Wananvu sara ga.

Loloma yani

Elda G

Nice year mark pizza

We already burned a house, but a shirt works too

Wonderful view from the top of a nice hill

Stood in yesterday and today in Taveuni on the Date line

You know I had to do it to 'em

Got to play some touch rugby with some old elders from the San Francisco mission assigned to speak Fijian there.

Lako E Nabouwalu vakadua ga.

My knees have been wrecked.

Well this week was good, started off with exchanges with the Labasa Hindi elders. We got outside of an appointment with Sherran and walked to our car and they were parked right by our car 4 hours before we were supposed to exchange. They said they got lost and needed help because they were on their way to a baptismal interview for Elda Hawkins and Elda Pakofe. We decided to do exchanges a little bit earlier than planned for convenience, so then I got in the car with them and we drove to Nakawakawa. Elda Christensen did a baptismal interview there and then we swung around the island back to Labasa for exchanges. 7 hours later we arrived in Labasa, hence the wrecked knees.

But it was an okay week work wise. One of our progessing investigators Joseph passed away the other day due to cancer. The surgery to take out the cancer masses seemed to be successful but then he was left un-stitched for what could potentially have been days and got infected. Very sad. On the bright side his mother has been recovering from her sicknesses.

We also got the wonderful opportunity to go and visit some of the nicer houses in the area. Most of them were from America, New Zealand, and Australia. Reminded me of Missouri. One woman got very confrontational when I asked her what her name was. Gotta love it. But we were kind of ready to leave and knocked one more house and a nice man named Jerry from Australia came out. He said it was crazy because he was thinking about joining a church when he goes back to Australia and we just showed up. He said he doesn't want to be forced into anything and isn't even sure if there is God, but we were able to leave him with a Book of Mormon and we let him know that the Book of Mormon answers questions like that. There might not be any physical evidence, but that's where Faith and Prayer comes in. We didn't get any return appointment but it was nice to talk to him. You never know what could happen in the future!

Loloma yani sara vakalevu.

Elda Gwilliam

Map of the travels. Started in the lower X. Excuse my poor Microsoft Paint handwriting

Proof I made it to Nabouwalu. These signs are at the beginning of pretty much all the big villages. 

This badge pic describes the last 2 weeks.

Fijian kids. The kid with the stick has a dead dog on the end of it...

Me with b r o t h e r  deters

Wet Keens

Pretty good week this week.

All of our people that we had on date have moved away and haven't been back for a few weeks  which is hard. We'll see them again soon hopefully though.

Sherran is doing good. She has been helping her husband wean off of smoking and has a date set to get married on August 23rd. She was planning on coming to church but then a village chief came and asked her to cook for him so she wasn't able to make it... But next week!

We taught one boy whose parents own an island so that was pretty cool.

It's been raining all week and that's not too fun, had some sicknesses rolling around the flat. Haven't been 100% since probably because it's been really cold here. A whopping 19C That does calculate out to about 70F but man it still feels freezing cold here. I had to go and buy a big fleece blanket because of how freezing it felt.


Vinaha sara vahalevu na veivuhe miau ba solia mai vei au na wehaku mai vale. Loloma yani

Elda G

 Crab

 When the bond money from the old flat rolls in and you feel like a high roller for a few minutes and then the housing coordinator takes the money from you mere minutes later...

too many travels

Well, it was a pretty uneventful week, lots of time spent travelling so not much proselyting could happen but we were able to get some cool stuff done in the time we had!

We were able to visit one less active woman who we had been trying to contact for a bit. In Fijian culture, if your husband wants something you have to listen no questions asked, so when they got married he wanted her to forget everything about the church and leave it all behind so she did. But we finally got in to the house and started talking to her.

We had visited her husband a few times earlier and nothing came out of it. He was a pretty strong Anglican and wasn't too interested in what we had to share. When we came back she said that he had a total change of heart. He was reading the things we left with him and was way more accepting of us coming! He said to never turn the Elders away. You never know, nothing may come of it but it's a testimony builder to me that the Spirit changes hearts. It's nothing that I said, it's nothing that my companion said, it was him and his willingness to open up to the spirit.

We also got to go to District Conference in Labasa. It was a great experience and the spirit was strong there. Plenty of people who are so open to the messages of their leaders. None of the talks were coordinated but themes of tithing and family history definitely emerged which show just how important they are.

Last night at about 2 in the morning this cat started screaming so loud. It had been down the road screaming for a few hours before that but decided to go right under our balcony. My companion started hissing at it to make it stop and groggy me walked out on the balcony and picked up and was attempting to spot it to silence it, but luckily he got away. He has still been screaming down the road as of this morning.

Well, it's been a good week. Love you all!

Elda Gwilliam

Views from Balcony #1 in our flat. 

This baby be chilling