Earthquake!

Ni sa bula vinaka na noqu matavuvale!

This week was a little bit of a tough week. There has just been soo many people
that just aren’t home or are busy when we try to go see them so that was way
frustrating. We worked our butts off though and ended have a pretty decent
week. We were able to set 2 more baptismal dates so that puts us at 8 baptismal
dates for this next month. A lot of things still have to happen for them all to
work out but a lot of the people are doing really good. But first I will
explain the subject of this email haha I saw that you said that Lupe said there
was a small earthquake and I totally felt it! It was way sweet! I was laying
down on the floor of the flat after weekly planning and everything just started
shaking, it was only for like 5 seconds and it was too hard but it was way
sweet. I jumped up and yelled earthquake! haha it was awesome. I called Elder
Stock to see if he felt it but he said they didn’t. I thought I might have just
been astro trippin' but later we were at these peoples house and I asked them
if they had felt it and they said yeah so I was glad to find out it wasn’t just
me tripping out haha O yeah, Dad, the other new Elder that is staying in the
box from us has been to Cortez a bunch of times and he has family that live in
Ignacio. I told him I would ask you if you know any Palmers from Ignacio. Me
and him were talking about Durango and stuff haha it was pretty funny. Small
world.
So one Thursday of this week we did a way sweet service. We just walked over to
these peoples house that just live down the road from us and I took my sele
(machete) and we asked them if they had anything we could do for them. The one
older boy was just about to go out to do some work so we just went with him. We
went out into the jungle with our seles and chopped down a bunch of these like
pretty skinny trees and then we carried them out and used them to build a fence
for some baby pigs that are about to be born haha It was way fun. And then they
fed us a way good lunch after, it was really good fish. We have had fish a ton
lately but I love it so much haha That night though we were trying to teach
lessons and like everyone was gone. We finally found out it was because at the
school they were doing a concert thing. So since no one was home anyways we
just went to the concert haha It was way awesome. All the kids were doing mekes
which is just like Fijian dances and singing songs and stuff and there was a
ton of people there. It was way cool to just see some more of the Fijian
culture. One of the way funny things about their culture is in performances
like that people from the crowd just go up and mess with the people performing
like throw powder on them and stuff like that and the people performing cant do
anything about it hahah they just do it to be funny.
Another funny thing that happened was on Tuesday night we drove out to that one
village that we are going to open up soon to have dinner with the one members
that live there (that sweet picture of like the sunset with that dirt road is
on the way to get to that village). So on the way back it was super dark and I
took a wrong turn and we ended up in some other village and there was all of
these other little kids standing there and they started freaking out because we
were in this sweet truck and there was a white guy driving it haha so they all
came running up to the truck and I was just speaking Fijian to them and then
they were freaking out even more because I was speaking Fijian haha it was way
awesome. Fijian kids are the bomb. Most of those kids have probably only seen
white people on the movies and definitely never seen a white kid that can speak
their language haha
On Sunday we went to church in one of the units we cover in a village called
Burerua. There is a guy that lives not too far from there and his wife is a
member and he has been taking the lessons for over 2 years. They haven’t gone
to church forever, so in that unit it is always just the one family whose house
we do it at that are there. So we have really been pushing for him to finally
get baptized because he has a way strong testimony and stuff and his wife is a
really good member too but they are always just too lazy to go to church. So
this week I told them that we were going to come park the truck at their house
in the morning and then we would all walk together to go to church. The guy
said ok but that he wouldn’t be there because he was going to a different
village that night but I figured we would go anyways because his wife is less
active too. So we went that morning and we parked the truck and the two little
girls came running down the hill in their dresses and they were so excited to
go to church with us. I asked if their dad was coming too and they said yes so
that was way awesome. We all walked to church together and the one little girl
would not let go of my hand haha so she held my hand all the way to church
(that is what that picture is, that is the nicest road in Fiji haha it is the
Kings road that goes around the whole big island.) And it was really good
because they really loved church and remembered how good they feel when they go
so hopefully they will keep going!
One other cool thing I found out this week is that Brother Bavoro, the one old
Fijian guy that I baptized while I was in Naulu just became the 2nd counselor
in the bishopric in that ward! Pretty awesome!! He is the man. His wife, who we
also baptized is in the relief society presidency too which is way cool. They
are the bomb. I feel so lucky to have been a part of bringing such great strong
people like that to this gospel.
Well I am way excited to talk to you guys in 2 weeks! It is insane that it was
already 5 months ago that we skyped on Christmas. The time just flies by. 10
months next week man. Insane! I am loving life. There is no place else I would
rather be. Au lomani kemudou!!

Loloma, Elder Hawk