Kana beka! (eat bat!)

Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!

I can’t believe that you guys are out of school already! That is crazy. Sounds
like you guys are going to have a fun and busy summer. That is way cool that
Casey is working at the warehouse.
Well this week a lot of cool stuff happened. First off I will talk about the
story behind the subject of this email and the pictures that I sent. So for the
last few weeks I have been telling the people out in Waimalua that I want to
try to eat bat one day. They always tell me that it tastes good and I just want
to try as many cool crazy things as possible while I am here. So this week I
told them again and they said that they would try to get one that day. So we
went out on our big hike all the way out there and taught some lessons and on
the way back me and Elder Tamuera were also trying to get a bat to take back.
The way they do it is they get a stick or something and while the bat is eating
fruit they throw it at it and it knocks it to the ground and they can’t take
off from the ground so then you just run over and grab it and kill it or tie it
up. So we were trying but all the ones we saw were just flying way high so we couldn’t
get them. So we get back to the Toroca's house and we were teaching a lesson
there and then it gets over and Lekima the guy that said he would get us one
come in and I asked him if he got us one and he just walks outside and brings
in this live bat that is just tied up haha So he unties it and we were taking
all kinds of pictures with it. It was crazy because you had to hold the wing
super tight because it was like trying to pull in your hand to bite you haha So
then they just boiled it up and we ate it! It was actually pretty good. I even
ate the wing, but that was pretty much just like chewing on a rubber band haha
It was way awesome. They said they will get us another one this week and cook
it up better before we get there haha
So a couple other cool things that happened was that Bro. Tabua's daughter just
had a baby and we actually had to drive her to the hospital because all the
hospital’s trucks were gone. So on the drive over there I told her that they
should name the baby after me, that is a pretty big deal here in Fiji, they
always name kids after other people and then that is your yaca (namesake). So a
few days after she had the baby we went over there and it was a boy and his
name is Apalosa Hawk Tabua!!! hahaha Way awesome. Sister Tabua also told me
this week that when I speak Fijian now that I sound just like a Fijian. It was
pretty cool. I know I still have a whole lot to learn in Fijian but it still
made me feel good. I also got the wedding announcement of one of our teachers
from the MTC and I wrote him a whole two page letter all in Fijian. It was way
fun writing it and just thinking how cool it is that I can write someone a
letter all in Fijian. And it is even cooler that the person I am sending to is
another white kid and that he will be able to write all Fijian back to me! haha
I am sure he will be way stoked to get it.
Another way cool thing that happened this week was that on Monday we get a call
from a random number on our phone and it is a Fijian lady and she starts
telling me how we gave a DVD to her son a few weeks ago and how they watched it
and loved it and now they want us to go over and teach them! It is way cool
because the day that we gave the DVD to that kid was the day a few weeks ago
when we went to go find that one referral way out in that one crazy koro and we
went all the way out to this place that missionaries have probably never even
been before and it ended up that the girl we were looking for didn’t even live
there but there was a bunch of kids on this bridge and I had a “Finding Faith
In Christ” DVD and a card with our number on it and I just gave it to one of
the kids and thought nothing of it but now look what has happened from it! The
Lord has His hand in every part of this work. The only thing that kind of stinks
is that they actually don’t live in our area, they were just visiting in that
koro, but they live in our ZL's area and they have a lesson set up with them
this next week so it will be cool to see how it works out.
Well as far as the work goes, things are going really good. We have been
picking up a lot of new investigators lately and some of them have been really
awesome so I am looking forward to the next couple of weeks. I think that I
will probably be getting transferred at the end of June which is the next
transfer. I will definitely miss this area and the people but it will be good
to see some more of Fiji. Thanks for being awesome! Hope you enjoy all of these
stories about my adventures this week! haha Tell everyone that I love them!

Au lomani kemudou!!!

Loloma, Elder Hawk

Hangin' Loose in Fiji 

 Meliki's Baptism

Samisone's Baptism

Rua na papitaiso! (2 baptisms!)

Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!

It was way good to talk to you guys last week! And then after I went to the
office and the package was there so I got my shirt! I am for sure wearing it
for our p-day today haha Transfers came in and no one in our district got
transferred out so that was good. Our district is the best. We got those shirts
made up and they are way cool. They just emailed me the design for it so I will
forward it to you so you can see it. I think I will probably get transferred at
the end of next month. That is when the next transfer should be in because an
intake is leaving. That is only 5 weeks away. I can’t believe that my year mark
is only 6 weeks away. I just started on a new planner and by the time I am
ready for my next one that will be the week that I hit my year mark. The time
goes by way too fast. I remember you always told me that dad and now I know how
true that really is. And I dont think it will be slowing down anytime soon. We
only have 3 weeks left in Elder Tamuera's training program. That will be 12
weeks that we have been together. That time has flown by. We have had a whole
lot of fun and done a lot of good work. He is the man. O yeah, last week I was
in the office and I saw this new missionary training DVD thing that they are
going to give to missionaries when they are training I think and I was looking
at it and the cover is just a picture of these 2 missionaries walking and one
of them looked familiar so I looked at it closer and it is Riley Lewis!! It was
way cool haha I was like telling everyone that I know that kid haha
Well this week was way good. We were supposed to have 4 baptisms but Miriama
the old lady still isn’t back from Ba so she didn’t get baptized and also the
other boy Timoci didnt get baptized because his dad refused to sign the
baptismal form so we can’t baptize him. We will keep working with him though
and I think we can still get it to happen. But Meliki and Samisone did end up
getting baptized. I baptized Meliki. She is only like 13 years old but she is
probably one of the best investigators I have ever had. And there is a few
missionaries that served in Korovou before and they all have been trying to get
Samisone baptized forever and we finally got it to work out so I was talking to
one of the missionaries that taught him before and he was congratulating us for
finally getting it done haha He is the man and has been wanting to get baptized
forever, there was just always things that came up right when his baptism was
supposed to happen. That actually almost happened this time too. We were supposed
to do his interview on Wednesday but he went to Suva (which is the reason that
he didn’t get baptized a couple of other times before) but he came back on
Saturday and I called out district leader and luckily it is one of the Elders
that stays at the box with us and they were going to be coming back that night
so when they got back me and him went out to Waimalua and did his interview so
that he could get baptized haha it was sweet.
O yeah so Meliki's mom, who is a very less active member and is the one that
stopped her from getting baptized last time has been awesome. She comes to
church every week now, and this week when we went to their house I asked her
what it was that changed her mind about Meliki getting baptized and she said
she was reading the BOM one day and she read Alma 5:60 which talks about how
the Lord is calling for us to come to his fold but how satan is going to try to
lead us away and she said she just felt the spirit when she read it and
realized that that is what has happened in her life and that she really does
have a testimony about this gospel. It was awesome. The BOM is the most
powerful thing we have in converting people, with the Spirit of coarse haha
So there is this family that has just
taken the lessons a little bit from the missionaries before and me and Elder
Seila only went and saw them like twice when me and him were together and they
were always busy and stuff so I haven’t seen them since I have been with Elder
Tamuera but for some reason when we did weekly planning every week I would
always think about them and think that we need to try to see them again
sometime. So finally this week I saw the dad, Pau, and I asked if we could come
over someday and he said yeah on Saturday so we tried Saturday but he wasn’t
home so I told them we would come again on Sunday. So we were way busy on
Sunday just with the baptism and stuff and we were running out of time until we
had to head down to Nausori to stay for the weekend so I wasn’t going to go and
see them but I just felt like we should at the last second so we went, and they
actually were home. So we just talked and then I just shared a spiritual
thought from Mosiah 2:41 which is the spiritual thought that I pretty much
always share, and it just talks about how when we follow the gospel we will be
blessed and be happy and things like that and I just started talking about that
and then I started talking about families and things and then the spirit was
just really strong and I bore a really strong testimony about how I truly know
that this gospel will bless their lives and it was just way awesome. Moments
like that are what make this work so much fun. So now they are excited for us
to come back next week and they were just telling us how thankful they were
that we came back. Awesome.
Well that was pretty much our week. The weeks all just mesh together now. O
yeah that last picture is the picture of my first boil! I popped it and it is
all good now. Those things are pretty painful though haha Well you guys are the
best family ever. I love you guys so much! Au lomani kemudou!!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk

 My new gumboots

 "When you are in the service of your fellow beings,
you are only in the service of your God"

 Carrying Dalo

Walkin' on Water

Vula tini! (10 months!)

Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!                                                                           

Man, the intake just before me hit their year mark this last week. That means I am next... insane. And I have always heard that once you hit your year mark the time just speeds up even more. I don’t want it to haha I am loving every minute of it. This morning we were staying with the Elders serving in Toga and the song "I heard him come" came on and it instantly just reminded me of when mom used to sing that to us when we were kids. Good times haha I am WAY excited to skype you guys next week.

Well we had a really good week this week. We got more lessons than we have been getting in the last couple weeks so that was good. We were hoping that we were going to get to open up that village this week but it doesn’t look like it will be happening. So since that is the case it might not be happening for a while… which REALLY stinks. I might get transferred before it even happens, which would be a big bummer. I am thinking I will probably get transferred towards the end of June but you never know. I really don’t want to be anywhere but the bush for the rest of my mission haha I LOVE it.

So this week we went out to Waimalua for two days instead of just the usual one, because we have a lot of investigators out there that are getting close to their baptism date.  We wanted to help them get more prepared. So on Thursday morning we went out there and did service pretty much all day and then taught some lessons just in our service clothes. haha We bought ourselves some gumboots for when we go out there now and it is SO much nicer ha I don’t know why I didn’t buy them a long time ago. For service we were pretty much just hacking down parts of the jungle with our machetes so that people could plant their stuff. And we also planted some kasava and some duruka and then we carried some dalo all the way back out. Carrying the dalo out was actually pretty hard. That stuff is heavy. Now I know why Fijians are all so ripped haha

This week we also went back to that one village called Dakuinuku which is right on the ocean and we taught that old guy named Bola. He is the MAN! When we teach him he is just like way into it and then at the end of the lesson I asked him if he knew anyone else in that village that might want to take the lessons from us and he was all excited and said that he will ask around. Way cool guy. After though we went over to the ocean and the tide was SUPER low so we walked all the way out to where the water line was (that is what that picture of me walking in the water is from) and Elder Tamuera was catching this crab and I took a way sweet video of it haha I will maybe send this card home too soon so you guys can see it.

This week we also set up for a carrier to go to some of the villages and pick up some of our investigators to go to church so that was way awesome. We had 8 investigators go to church this week and we have 10 baptismal dates right now which is way awesome. We should be having at least a few of those 10 on the 20th of this month. O YEAH! do you remember how me and Elder Seila were going to baptize that girl named Meliki, but then her mom like stopped it and wanted her to get baptized into that other church even though her mom is also a member of this church? Well bishop went and like visited them and they told him that it was sent from God that he came that day because the mom hadn’t been going to her other church for a few weeks and they were all fighting and stuff and so they said they want to come back to this church and Meliki is probably going to get baptized on the 20th!! Way exciting!

Alright well I am way pumped to talk to you guys next week! Hopefully we get to go into Suva to skype or else it will probably not be very good. They might be making us keep our calls super short this time too but I am not sure yet. I will definitely stay on it for as long as I can haha Au lomani kemudou!!

Loloma, Elder Hawk