Sunday, March 25, 2012


My bamboo weight set
"The Box Boys"
EEL----------Yum!


Kai Kiribas na luvequ! (my son is from Kiribas!)

Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!

Well this has been another pretty crazy week here in Fiji. On Tuesday all of us
that are training had to go into Suva to pick up our trainees and to have a
training thing for all of us about the training program. I am training Elder
Tamuera from Kiribas!! He is the 2nd best boxer in all of the Pacific at his
weight. He went to the Pacific games in New Caledonia this last year and got
2nd place. He has told me about all of these crazy fights and stuff that he has
been in back in Kiribas haha His English is not too great so that has made
things a little rough. It is kind of hard to have that language barrier because
he doesn’t know Fijian good yet and his English isn’t the greatest but it’s all
good ha it has definitely been a good experience so far. It is definitely
teaching me a lot about patience, which is probably the reason the Lord put us
together because I know that hasn't always been one of my strong points haha
Well this week was a little rough. There was a ton of people that we were
trying to see but they weren’t home. So we were always just driving around to
all of these different villages trying to get lessons in. It was a little
frustrating but we ended up having not too bad of a week so it’s all good.
Since Elder Seila is gone and now I am the only one in the companionship that
can really speak Fijian it has been fun to become a lot closer with a lot of
the members. I don’t know how many times this week I had people tell me how
good my Fijian is, and I know that it is the Lord strengthening me to fulfill
this calling to train. It is so fun to be at a point now where I can joke
around and tell stories and just have fun with the people all in Fijian. It
makes things way fun. I am loving it here in Korovou. There are so many awesome
people here that I already love. If you guys come to pick me up we are
definitely going to go there for sure haha.
This week on one of the nights we were eating dinner at Bro. Tabua's house and
we had finished eating and we were just sitting down and talking and then he
said something about how the other boys that had just got home had brought some
duna (eel) and they were going to cook it up and eat it. I told him that I
wanted to try it and so that is what that picture is from haha that is the eel.
I didn’t eat it like that though don’t worry haha they cooked it up and then
brought it back out and it was actually way good! I am so excited that when I
get home I won’t be such a picky eater anymore. I will eat pretty much anything
and like pretty much everything that I have tried here. People here also eat
bat and I am trying to get it so that I can try it sometime because I really
want to try it ha I heard that it is really good.
Well this next week should be a really good week. We have 4 baptisms lined up
for this next Sunday so that will be awesome. We are really going to have to
start finding a lot of new investigators now to replace these ones that we are
baptizing. Some of the people that are supposed to be getting baptized are this
couple from out in Waimalua. They have been taking the missionary discussions
for like 3 years and are finally going to be getting baptized. They both have
such strong testimonies. We also found out this last week that Waimalua is
probably going to become a branch so that will be awesome!! We still have a lot
of other investigators out there and I called a member from out there this week
to see which of our investigators went to church and they said these two new
people just came to church and they want to start taking the lessons so that
will be awesome! I love going out there. It is the place that we have to park
and hike for like 40 minutes through the jungle haha So it will be way sweet if
it becomes a branch because that means they will probably build some kind of
little building out there for them to have church in. Right now we just have it
in one of the member’s houses and now that there are so many people coming it
is getting really crowded. I will try to take a picture of the house that we
have just at out there. You guys will think it is so cool. It is just like
right on the edge of like a little cliff thing out in the middle of the jungle.
It is awesome.
This weekend we are staying with Elder Stock and his Trainee Elder Ledoux. His
kid is HUGE. He is like 6'5 and 250 lbs. He is a cool kid so we have been
having a lot of fun. It is so fun to get to be with Stock all the time. It is
so cool how just going through these same experiences and serving the Lord
together brings people close. There are so many awesome kids here in this
mission that I probably would have never even given a chance to when I was home
but I am way tight with them here. Serving a mission is so fun. It is crazy how
you feel like you are doing such a great thing to re-pay the Lord for all the
blessings he has given by serving a mission but then you just keep getting even
more blessings and realize there is nothing we can do in this life to repay him
for how blessed we are but we still should try our best to do it.
I really do love getting everyone’s letters. Well alright, keep being awesome!
Au lomani kemudou!

Loloma, Elder Hawk

Sunday, March 18, 2012


Here is a picture from zone conference last week haha this is the best zone in the mission! Nausori zone!!

E dua na luvequ! (I have a child!)

Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!!

Well as you can tell from the subject I have some pretty insane news... I am
training!!! I can’t believe it. It is going to be crazy because I am in an all
Fijian speaking area and this kid will know like NOTHING so it will be pretty
tough. I know that this is the Lord's work and that He will make it
possible, not easy, but possible. I know that it will really be a good learning
and growing experience for me. I don’t know who it will be yet but it is
happening on Wednesday. I am really going to miss Elder Seila. I have learned
more from him in the past 5 weeks or whatever than I have for probably the whole
rest of my mission so far.
So this week I finished the Book Of Mormon. It was awesome because this is like
the first time that I have actually gone through the whole thing and really
studied it and marked it and everything. When I was reading the last few
chapters I could really feel the spirit testifying to me that I already know
that it is true. We are so blessed to have such an amazing tool in our lives
that pretty much tells us exactly what we need to do and be in this life to
have happiness.
This week when we were going out to Waimalua we were on our hike to get out
there and Elder Seila stopped all of a sudden and he could hear some wild pigs
eating in the bush off to the side. We ran to this guy’s house that was close
and woke him up and they all grabbed like spears and machetes and I grabbed my
camera haha I really wanted to grab a weapon too but I decided I would rather
have it on video haha. So we were trying to figure out a way to get to it because
it was in really thick bush and they are like super fast so we couldn’t really
just charge our way in. So it ended up being pretty lame because we couldn’t
get to it so they decided to wait til we could get some dogs to come and help.
So nothing really happened but it was still really exciting for a while and it
is a pretty funny video haha I am going to send you guys my filled card and
then the card that I have that doesn’t work in my camera but does work on the
computer, I will put the videos and stuff from this new card on that and send
it too. Me and Elder Seila made a video of us singing my favorite Fijian hymn
for you guys so I will put that on there.
This week we also had a baptism of Luisa. It was way good but a little
different than other baptisms because she had been baptized already before but
her record had just been lost. We also set 5 other baptismal dates though for
the fist Sunday in April so that should be awesome. One of them is this other
girl named Luisa who is like in her 20's. She moved in with some members in our
ward so they asked her if she would take the lessons and she agreed. So we
started teaching her like 2 weeks ago and she is awesome. She reads the
pamphlets we give her and like marks them all up and stuff. So we invited her
to be baptized and she was really hesitant but she finally said yes. We knew
there was still something holding her back and the next time we went over she
told us that her parents are pretty much going to disown her if she is baptized
into the church. And that day she had gone to see her sister to tell her that
she was going to be baptized and her sister cried for a long time and was all
upset about it. She told us though that on the day of her baptism she is going
to call her parents and tell them that she is getting baptized and she said she
doesn’t care if they disown her or not she is going to go through with it
because she knows that it is true. It is crazy how fast her testimony grew.
Well it sounds like everything is going awesome back at home.

Thanks for being the best family on the earth! AU LOMANI KEMUDOU!!

Loloma, Elder Hawk

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Ruasagavulu na veilesoni!! (20 lessons!)

Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!!

I cant believe it is already another P-day again. The time just keeps getting even faster and faster. It sounds like you guys have had a lot of fun up in Utah. That is crazy that Rand is already thinking about where he is going to go to college. He seems like just a little boy to me still haha Me and Elder Stock were talking alot last week about plans after the mission and stuff and I am considering going to BYU too. I think it would be way fun to go there with Stock. I know my plans will change a million more times though haha I am not worried about it at all, I know it will all work out.

Well this week was a way awesome week. We had zone conference on Tuesday and it was WAY good. There was a lot of really good trainings and things. It is always good to go to those and just get another big boost of energy about the work and about how to become a better missionary. As you can see from the subject we taught 20 lessons this week which is way good!! Especially considering that we did it in only 5 days of proselyting. That is the most lessons that I have taught in one week in my whole mission so far. And the best part is that they were all really good quality lessons. Me and Elder Seila have really gotten good at teaching together. And it is so nice to be this busy and be teaching this many lessons because it really helps with my Fijian.

One thing that did suck about this week though is that we were supposed to have a baptism of this 11 year old girl named Meliki. She is the bomb. She is only 11 but she has like a way strong testimony and way good understanding of the gospel for how young she is. Her parents are both members but they are both back into different churches now so that is the reason she didnt get baptized. Because they said they still need to talk about it, but they said they will ask Meliki what she wants and I know that she wants to be baptized into the TRUE church ha. It was really awesome because on the night we went over there the mom told us that they still needed to talk about it and they werent sure if she would get baptized into the LDS or into the other church they go to and at the end I bore my testimony and I told her to think about her baptism into this church because that is the baptism that had the authority and that was the baptism that she followed the example of Jesus Christ and his baptism. It was probably one of the most powerful testimonies I have ever born and it really made me think about my baptism and how blessed I am to have been born of such great parents that have given me the blessings of this gospel in my life.

Right now we have so many way awesome investigators but the only thing that is really stopping them from progressing is that the chapel that most of them are supposed to go to is way far away from their villages. It is like 2 KMs from the main road just up the dirt road that goes to our flat and the chapel. It is so stupid that they built the chapel up there but I am pretty sure they just did it because the Village that it is right next to is the stake presidents village. All they would have had to do is build it out close to the main road and it would be sooo much easier for people to get to it. But we had some good lessons this week with some people about them going to church even though it is hard so hopefully we can build their testimonies enough to be willing to sacrifice like that.

This week should be another good week. We should be having 2 baptisms on Sunday. Meliki the girl that didnt get baptized this last week and then another girl that actually was baptized a long time ago but they lost her records haha pretty stupid.

This week we almost got stuck out in that Waimalua place again. We were on the hike down and it started DUMPING rain. It was way funny because the one member that was coming with us ran over to this banana tree and ripped off some of the big huge leaves and we were using them as our umbrellas haha it was pretty funny. I made a pretty funny video after we had got some shelter under this little roof thing.

Well I am glad that you guys had some fun up in Utah. We always had the best family vacations haha We will have to all go on a sweet family vacation when I get back! Au lomani kemudou!!

Loloma, Elder Hawk

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Stranded!!

Ni Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!!

Well as you may be able to tell from the subject of this email this week was pretty crazy. At least one of the days. So I will just start from that. So as you know last week I was really sick but I was feeling a lot better on Tuesday when we got back up to our area but then Wednesday morning I woke up and I had a big time migraine, and wednesdays are the days that we go out to that crazy jungle place that we have to hike for like half an hour. But of course I did not want to be a wimp so we went. When we got out there it was POURING rain. So we were hiking in the pouring rain and I slipped multiple times and got all muddy all while having this stupid migraine. So we finally get all the way out there and we teach a few lessons but it was pouring rain this whole time and to get back we have to drive on a bridge that goes over this river and we thought it might be getting flooded so we started our hike back. On the hike back there is another smaller river that we cross that just has these 2 big logs that we walk across as a bridge, so when we got there the water was flooded over the logs so we couldnt even see the logs. So we just figured out where the logs were with our feet and pretty much just slowly skooted along the log with our feet because we couldnt even see the logs at all . I almost fell into the water once but I caught myself so it was all good ha so we finally get back up to where the truck is and start the drive back.This whole time it has not stopped pouring rain. So we drive for a while and get about 75 feet from where the bridge is and that is where the water line now was. It had flooded completely over the bridge by along ways so there was no way for us to get back. so we parked the truck and at this time it was like 4:30. We decided all we could really do was wait there for the rain to stop and the water level to go back down enough for us to cross. So long story short we sat there for 4 hours... so now it is 8:30 at night, pitch black outside and the water has not gone down at all... and I still have a migraine haha soElder Seila calls some members that live back out in Waimalua that bush place that we had just come from, so we turn the truck around drive back out there and stayed the night in a little tin shack out in the bush. When we woke up the next morning we drove back and the flood had gone down enough for us to get across. It was a pretty awesome experience haha It would have been way awesome and I would have thought it was a whole lot cooler in the moment if I wouldnt have had the migraine but its all good, it just makes the story that much better haha Well other than that it was a pretty normal week. We went on exchanges with the ZL's and Elder Alleman came up to Korovou with me. It was way fun. He is the man and he has become one of my really good friends here on the mission. He is leaving next month so that will be sad.When we were on exchanges all of these old Fijian ladies in theVillage were telling us that we need to come back someday and marry some Fijian girls haha they were like trying to set us up with people.It was pretty hillarious. We have zone conference tomorrow and I am way excited. It is always fun to go in with all the missionaries and have some fun, and also geta ton of way awesome training from our leaders. We are staying inWainibokasi with Elder Stock so tonight me and him get to go on splits. It will be way fun. Well, I love you all!! Au lomani kemudou!!

Loloma, Elder Hawk