Week 3 in Fiji

On a bridge in Kuku

Bula vinaka na noqu matavuvale!

Well this week has definitely been a crazy week haha on Tuesday after district meeting I went on exchanges and so I went over to Kuku which isnt too far from here with Elder Church. He is way cool. He has family in Delta and goes there for the 4th almost every year so I am sure we have seen him there before haha His companion in the MTC was the kid from Delta that grandma and grandpa know so I might get to meet that kid too at some point.

So now for the crazy part haha so on Wednesday me and him were walking down this dirt road in his area and probably like 20 feet in front of us there was an older Indian man walking and all of a sudden we just heard him like gasp and we looked up and he collapsed to the ground. I just thought that he was drunk or something but we ran over there and we flipped him over and he was breathing really heavy and was like passed out and so then all these other people came running out to help us and we sat him up and some people brought water and they were pouring it down the back of his neck and stuff to try to get him to wake up and then his body started like twitching for a little bit and then it just stopped and he went really limp and one of the guys that was helping us grabbed his wrist to feel his pulse and he just said "he’s done". it was such a weird feeling to have been right there when he died. And we were the first ones there and so some people went and got the police and they came and talked to me and elder church and took our names and number and we told them the story and they said they might be investigating so i might have to go back out there or something. That night me and him were pretty shaken up about it and so we just sat up all night until like 5 in the morning talking and stuff ha we finally got a couple hours of sleep though so it was alright. But what is even crazier is that his companion is from Fiji and he just got here a couple months ago because he was in another mission in Australia but him and his companion there walked into a house where a guy had hung himself and so it messed him up seeing something like that so they sent him here to see if he could finish out his mission here and he has still kind of been having a hard time with it. So it was crazy that we were on exchanges when that happened because if he would have seen it he would probably be done. It was such a testimony to me that Heavenly Father is so aware of all of us and he knows what we all need and how he will make things work out. Especially with his missionaries. when the man’s wife and daughter came running down the street crying the first thing I thought of is how happy I am to have a knowledge of this gospel and that we can see our loved ones again. We talked to them a little bit so hopefully they can go over and teach them. It was definitely something I will never forget. and then when I got back to Naulu a man in our ward had died and he was in his 30's and had a wife and 6 small kids so all the rest of this week we have been helping them and doing stuff for the funeral and stuff. It was pretty cool to see that side of Fijian culture. Everyone comes and brings all these gifts and things and they just stay up for like a couple days straight and sing and drink grog "kava" it’s pretty crazy.

Alright well now for some more positive things. haha We picked up some awesome new investigators this week that were referrals from our ward. One is a family that the two parents are probably in their 60's and they have a son in his 20's and 2 other girls that I think are their daughter in laws that were there and their kids and we taught all of them the first lesson. I love telling the story of the first vision and how powerful that experience is. We also got one girl who is about 13 and her aunt is in our ward and is an RM and she is a really good investigator too. The people here have so much faith and are so humble. It has really made me appreciate all of the things that I have been so blessed in my life to have. We need to make sure that we always thank the Lord for how blessed we are in our lives.

Wearing a sulu is amazing haha I know that I am going to hate wearing pants when I get back haha I am never wearing pants to church again though for the rest of my life haha We don’t hear much news about the US but we hear about the rugby world cup all the time haha Usually the games are on at everyone’s house and they won’t turn them off so we catch little glimpses every once in a while haha I now eat a lot of curry chicken, curry duck, curry everything haha and tons of vegetables and noodles and rice and kasava and dalo which that root plant that is kind of like potato. I haven’t eaten a ton of fish but I have had some and it was really good the couple of times that I have had it.

Well sounds like everything is going good with you guys at home. Keep being the great examples that you are to the people around you. Never be afraid to open your mouth and share anything about this gospel because it can bless EVERYONE! I am going to try to send some pictures so hopefully they work haha there is some good ones that can go on my plaque so just pick one haha AU LOMANI KEMUDOU!!!

Lomana, Elder Hawk