Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!
Well, today is my 20th birthday!! I still feel like I am 17 haha it is insane
how fast life goes by. Especially when all of your time is just devoted to
serving other people and not worrying about yourself. I love it. We haven’t
really done anything for my birthday yet, but I think the 2 sisters in our zone
are making me a cake and bringing it to the chapel where we all go to play
sports on P-days so that should be way cool. And then tonight like always we
are having dinner and family home evening with Maya and her family. She knows it’s
my birthday and she is the bomb so I am sure that she will probably make us a
way good dinner and have cake and make everyone sing to me haha It is crazy
that this week on the 6th is my 6 month mark! I am mostly just excited that I
get to burn a tie haha I will make sure to send pictures of that next week. For
new year’s we just bought some oreo's and sprite, which is pretty rare for us
to get because they are kind of more expensive and we just stayed up til
midnight talking about stupid stories and stuff haha it was still pretty fun.
And then at midnight there was a lot of people lighting off fireworks so we
went outside for like 5 minutes and watched and just went to bed.
Well, this week was really good. We have gotten quite a few new investigators
lately and pretty much all of them have been doing awesome. There are 4 people
that could possibly be getting baptized this next week on the 14th. One is this
boy Roko who is the grandson of Esira and Sai who we baptized a while ago. They
are awesome and want their WHOLE family to become members and this kid is
living with them right now and he has been coming to church every week and
loves it so we have just been teaching him quick so he should for sure be
getting baptized next week. He is turning 13 next week too so it will be sweet
that he can get the priesthood too. He is pretty much the man. And then another
one is Shabina that Indian lady that I was telling you about that always just
tells us about all of her problems even though most of them are just in her
head. She is finally starting to realize how many blessings and things she is
already getting from coming to church and things so she should be getting
baptized next week. And then Angeline who is another Indian lady that her whole
family but her is members and she has been coming to church for a long time but
her and her "Husband" of like 17 years have just never gotten married
so we have been trying to get them married for months and hopefully it will
happen this week and if it does she will be getting baptized next week. And
then Joseph who is Rabian, his wife is a really good member and he has taken
the lessons way back but he could never stop smoking. So we have been teaching
him for a while and this week he said he is really ready to trust the Lord and
stop smoking so that he can get baptized. He told us how the other day he
walked up to the shop to buy his cigs but when he got there he just realized
that he needs to stop and he bought his kids gum instead. So that was a big
step for him. So hopefully if he can keep it up this whole week he will be able
to get baptized next week too. So that would be way awesome to get all 4 in one
day! Especially since we think I will probably get transferred the week after
that when the new intake comes in. There is a kid from the new intake coming in
that I went to middle school with in Herriman. I never really hung out with him
so you guys wouldn’t know him but he is a way cool kid. So that should be cool
to have someone in the mission to talk to about people from up there.
O yeah, so Fijians for new year’s used to always do this thing, where on new year’s
day they pretty much just have a massive water fight with buckets of water and
stuff but now that tradition has kind of died. They still do it out in the
villages and stuff sometimes but now for the most part especially in Suva and
stuff it is a lot like it is in America. They light fireworks and have a big
party in the streets in Suva. But today we might have a water fight at the
chapel with the other missionaries so that will be fun.
Well thank you all for the birthday wishes! Even if I don’t really do anything
for it or get any presents or anything it is still one of the best birthdays I
have had because I am in FIJI!! How could you have a bad birthday when you are
in Fiji?! haha Well you guys are all amazing. It was so good to get to see you
guys last week. You guys have all been good examples to me all growing up and
are still good examples to me because of the great people that you are.
Happy New Year!! Au lomani kemudou vakalevu!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
how fast life goes by. Especially when all of your time is just devoted to
serving other people and not worrying about yourself. I love it. We haven’t
really done anything for my birthday yet, but I think the 2 sisters in our zone
are making me a cake and bringing it to the chapel where we all go to play
sports on P-days so that should be way cool. And then tonight like always we
are having dinner and family home evening with Maya and her family. She knows it’s
my birthday and she is the bomb so I am sure that she will probably make us a
way good dinner and have cake and make everyone sing to me haha It is crazy
that this week on the 6th is my 6 month mark! I am mostly just excited that I
get to burn a tie haha I will make sure to send pictures of that next week. For
new year’s we just bought some oreo's and sprite, which is pretty rare for us
to get because they are kind of more expensive and we just stayed up til
midnight talking about stupid stories and stuff haha it was still pretty fun.
And then at midnight there was a lot of people lighting off fireworks so we
went outside for like 5 minutes and watched and just went to bed.
Well, this week was really good. We have gotten quite a few new investigators
lately and pretty much all of them have been doing awesome. There are 4 people
that could possibly be getting baptized this next week on the 14th. One is this
boy Roko who is the grandson of Esira and Sai who we baptized a while ago. They
are awesome and want their WHOLE family to become members and this kid is
living with them right now and he has been coming to church every week and
loves it so we have just been teaching him quick so he should for sure be
getting baptized next week. He is turning 13 next week too so it will be sweet
that he can get the priesthood too. He is pretty much the man. And then another
one is Shabina that Indian lady that I was telling you about that always just
tells us about all of her problems even though most of them are just in her
head. She is finally starting to realize how many blessings and things she is
already getting from coming to church and things so she should be getting
baptized next week. And then Angeline who is another Indian lady that her whole
family but her is members and she has been coming to church for a long time but
her and her "Husband" of like 17 years have just never gotten married
so we have been trying to get them married for months and hopefully it will
happen this week and if it does she will be getting baptized next week. And
then Joseph who is Rabian, his wife is a really good member and he has taken
the lessons way back but he could never stop smoking. So we have been teaching
him for a while and this week he said he is really ready to trust the Lord and
stop smoking so that he can get baptized. He told us how the other day he
walked up to the shop to buy his cigs but when he got there he just realized
that he needs to stop and he bought his kids gum instead. So that was a big
step for him. So hopefully if he can keep it up this whole week he will be able
to get baptized next week too. So that would be way awesome to get all 4 in one
day! Especially since we think I will probably get transferred the week after
that when the new intake comes in. There is a kid from the new intake coming in
that I went to middle school with in Herriman. I never really hung out with him
so you guys wouldn’t know him but he is a way cool kid. So that should be cool
to have someone in the mission to talk to about people from up there.
O yeah, so Fijians for new year’s used to always do this thing, where on new year’s
day they pretty much just have a massive water fight with buckets of water and
stuff but now that tradition has kind of died. They still do it out in the
villages and stuff sometimes but now for the most part especially in Suva and
stuff it is a lot like it is in America. They light fireworks and have a big
party in the streets in Suva. But today we might have a water fight at the
chapel with the other missionaries so that will be fun.
Well thank you all for the birthday wishes! Even if I don’t really do anything
for it or get any presents or anything it is still one of the best birthdays I
have had because I am in FIJI!! How could you have a bad birthday when you are
in Fiji?! haha Well you guys are all amazing. It was so good to get to see you
guys last week. You guys have all been good examples to me all growing up and
are still good examples to me because of the great people that you are.
Happy New Year!! Au lomani kemudou vakalevu!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
January 2, 2012
ReplyDeleteWe always remember your Birthday because it's the day after New Years and the day before Janae's birthday. Happy 20th!! Two great decades . . .
The Hawk girls are sending you birthday wishes. Hope you're doing well!
Laura, Carol Ann, and Cynthia