E na yaco mai na gauna

it was a great week. We met a new family this week who was a referral. They have plenty of family members who are members of the church. They have been recieving invitations for years to come to church but always responded with, "E na yaco mai na gauna." (The time will come) But I guess the time has come! They love the Book of Mormon and Come, Follow me. They are cool and we are excited for them.

We went to Navua and got some Fish Bits. It's a nice restaurant with some Good Fish and Fried Cassava. All for $2.50 USD. Really nice.

Pretty much all that happened this week. Supposedly more cyclones are coming so that's awesome!

Love you all

Elda Gwilliam

Fish Bits

Navua Beach with Beqa Island in the back. 

The Church College campus. Where we have church. 

yabaki vou

Well this week was a good one.

Starting off work wise, we had an awesome experience with our lady Lai. I think that I mentioned her last week but a bit more background. When we were looking for new people over by her area the man she is a caretaker for saw us walking around and wanted to come say Hi. We were a little shocked to see a random member walking around, but he is also from South Jordan so it was fun to talk.

While this conversation was happening Lai was watching from the window thinking to herself about how much she hates us walking around in our shirts and ties and visiting people. (She grew up in the AOG church learning every Sunday from the pastor that our church believes Joseph Smith {God} only lives in America) Obviously not true, but that's what she had been hearing her whole life.

Anyway time moves on and we came over a couple times just to talk to Brother Latu. His bishop came and gave him a fresh copy of the Book of Mormon and a copy of Come, Follow Me and Lai saw it on the counter one day. She asked him if we only use the Book of Mormon and he told her to ask us. Next thing you know a couple of weeks later she is on date for this month! She loves everything we teach and might I add the first Fijian i've ever taught to understand the concept of Priesthood Authority the first try. Not sure why but that one just doesn't seem to make sense to Fijians.

Anyway it was also new years. A few new years traditions
Qiri Cover - Bang on any metal object you can find with a stick all night long
Veisui - Get anyone and everyone wet.
Lovo - Earth Oven
These last 2 weeks

We were proselyting in one area and had a fall through. There were a lot of people there hanging around but we just walked back to our van. We saw some people wrapping some fabric around our van but didn't think much of it. Not sure why. Anyways one girl comes up to us and wipes baby powder on our face and I was like that's nice we get the powder instead of water. And then out of nowhere a few more come flying out with buckets of water. My comp dips and I thought for some reason since I had the phone in my hand they wouldn't get me. I was sorely mistaken. Took a fat bucket of water to my right side. Drenching the phone and my bag but luckily it was all good.

Here's a longer email to make up for some of the shorter ones. Kalougata tiko!

Elda Gwilliam

New Years day BBQ

The Church College. We have church in the basketball gym a bit further down

My Ibe or Mat

Brother Nawaqasema and some Vudi. I'll eat whatever they put in front of me but the cooking banana is a struggle sometimes

Post Veisui Pic

Proselyted in a cyclone! *NoT CliCKbaIT*

It was another awesome week here in Fiji.

Well it was another cyclone. It was more intense than the one last year but still not too crazy. Everytime you ask any Fijian what the latest new is, they will all guaranteed give you a different answer. But the cyclone didn't do much, just knocked a few dead trees over and cut out water and electricity for a few days. We just got our water back this morning and our electricity yesterday.

It's been a good week work wise too. We had to end up dropping a lot of our people here these last few days. Many of them are so willing to accept a date and follow through on smaller commitments but when it comes to church and a few of the commandments it's always a roadblock.

But on a good note one of our people really opened up to us this week. We were finding some new people and stumbled across a member from the English ward. We came back a few times to visit and met his caretaker! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she had endless questions for us. Then just these past few days she told us that she has never met with any other denominations but she felt like she should meet with us here we are! Cool stuff!

Well other than that it's been a pretty good week. New transfer, new year! Loloma bibi vakanuinuivinaka ena nomuni yabaki vou!


Elda Gwilliam

Closed it a little too fast. Now there's no excuses for forgetting her reading assignment

 Flooding from my first area

Storm Chasers

Some clever seatbelt propaganda.

Siga Ni Sucu

It's christmas time. And the only way you can tell is because Feliz Navidad is on repeat. There's about 3 christmas songs in Fiji and that seems to be the most liked.

Running short on time, but thought I would share some pictures and some scripture insights.

I was reading in the BofM the other day and thought it was interesting how even the worst of the worst can be saved through Christ's Grace.

Alma the Younger was the "vilest of Sinners" and the Anti-Nephi-Lehies were the "Most lost of all mankind" but regardless they were saved through Christ's atonement. Just a reminder that nobody is lost and that Christ is always waiting for us to repent.

Love you all!

Elda Gwilliam

Vilisi and Elizabeth

Rainbow

"Christ walked on water, but i'm walking on air."

That quote is from recently baptized Adi after getting out of the temple for the first time. It was also my first time at the temple since the MTC. She was really happy and wants to go every day now.

Our area is pretty much right next to the temple, so it's nice to see the temple all the time. The church did a good job of picking the spot. You can see it for miles pretty much anywhere in Suva and greater Suva area. We could even see it on Korobaba.

We've been making good progress with our people! Are wasn't able to get married this week so his date may be pushed back a little bit.

Also both the Church Technical college and the Church Primary school are in our area, so every once in a while a less-active brings their 9 year old kids to get baptized for the member discount on tuition, but then sometimes it reactivates the parent! So we have been teaching Elizabeth for a few weeks and hopefully will be baptized this next week.

Well that's pretty much it. Don't take the temple for granted

Elda Gwilliam

Adi

Peep the Obedience

Temple

sa cabeta oti na ulunivanua cecere duadua i suva

We hiked Mount Korobaba this morning, which is the highest mountain in Suva. It was over in just under an hour but pretty much a staircase the whole time with Fijian summer heat. It was a fun time though my legs were uncontrollably shaking afterwards.

Are and his wife Lou have been progressing great over these last few days. We were teaching him the other day about living prophets and it was hard for him to catch it. Finally we explained that Russell M Nelson is like a living Moses here on earth. He responded with, "Parofita sa bula tiko? yawa." (Prophets are living? Far out.) We asked him to pray and ask God if He was a prophet and he said, "It's okay Elders, We believe everything that you share in this home."

Well i'm about out of time so I'll send some pics to make up for the short email. Love you all!

Elda Gwilliam

Korobaba (Gotta flex the fake preme)

Elder D'Arc from the intake

Exchanges and Temple with Elder Hibbert

Mosquito Island Badge Pic from last week

Us with Ratu

Service

Oca

It was a great week. Once again. We teach some really cool people so I'll just talk about that because my mind is drawing a blank on everything else.

A few weeks ago a man walked up to the Suva Zone Leaders and asked them how he could be baptized, but he lived in our area so they referred him to us. We've taught him these last few weeks and he has been progressing great! Always accepts the things we teach, and loves the Book of Mormon. We set his baptismal date a few days ago.

We also just recently started teaching one other lady. She walked up to our van when we were waiting for an appointment and started talking to us. We had seen her once before but she said that she felt prompted to talk to us. Then we invited her to church and she came! Very Cool.

We taught a man whose father is Chinese and his Mom is Fijian. We invited him to pray about Joseph Smith's story and he said, "Sure. Nothing to lose and something to gain I guess." It was awesome to see his humble and willing attitude. Plenty of people wouldn't even consider the offer.

That's pretty much it right now. We got a lot done this week but it seems like the weeks where lots happens I remember the least. Love you all!

Elda Gwilliam