Sunday, June 24, 2012
Transferred!!
Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!
Well yes I did get transferred. I am back in Suva haha In an English ward, but
I am the district leader. It was super hard to leave Korovou. When I was
leaving the Tabua's house I gave Bro. Tabua a hug and he just held onto me for
like 3 minutes and he was crying and I was crying, it really sucked. I felt
like I was leaving my family again. Suva will be fun. My comp is a Fijian so I
will still be able to speak Fijian a lot. And now that I know Fijian good it doesn’t
really matter as much where I go because there will always be people to speak
Fijian too. It will be pretty crazy being the district leader. I am not really
looking forward to having sisters in my district though haha they are the only
ones that ever have problems. The ones that are in my district though are cool
ones. It was sad to leave Elder Tamuera too, I love that kid. He is the man.
Well this week was a really good week. For a few days me and Elder Yashko went
on exchanges up into his area, Burewai. Their area is all up the coast so it
was way sweet. And we tried to take this different road that goes to the 2
different parts of their area and it was probably the most beautiful place I
have ever been in my life. We were like way up this mountain and the ocean was
just right there. It was so sweet. While we were on the exchange we saw a huge
snake that this guy caught in the jungle. That is what that picture is of. It
was insane. There are like hardly any snakes at all on this main island because
there are millions of mongoose. It was crazy though. I was hoping they were
going to go cook it up and eat it because I wanted to try it but they didn’t
haha.
We also had our 2 baptisms this week which was really good. Elder Tamuera got
to baptize the little girl so that was way awesome. And then the other old man
that we baptized, his younger brother who is a member and just went through the
temple for the first time like last week baptized him so that was way awesome
too. I can’t believe that I have baptized 18 people already in my mission. A
lot of the best investigators that I had while I was in Korovou aren’t baptized
yet just because they went to other places for a little while and haven’t come
back yet. The Elder that is getting transferred there now is pretty old in the
mission but his Fijian is terrible so I am a little worried about it. Elder
Tamuera will do good though.
We also had zone conference on Tuesday which was way awesome. I love zone
conferences. This one was probably the most spiritual one that I have been to
so far. It was so good. After zone conference our district had to go to
Presidents house for interviews because our areas are farther away and we were
waiting in there and then Sister Klingler came in and she made us pancakes!! It
was so amazing haha she is the bomb. This week was one of the funnest weeks
ever.
Its insane that only one year from now I will be back home and we will all be
going the cabin. That will be so fun. But I am happy that I still have a whole
year left. I am still having the time of my life. Thank you so much for all of
your support. I love you all so much. Au lomani kemudou vakalevu sara!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Well yes I did get transferred. I am back in Suva haha In an English ward, but
I am the district leader. It was super hard to leave Korovou. When I was
leaving the Tabua's house I gave Bro. Tabua a hug and he just held onto me for
like 3 minutes and he was crying and I was crying, it really sucked. I felt
like I was leaving my family again. Suva will be fun. My comp is a Fijian so I
will still be able to speak Fijian a lot. And now that I know Fijian good it doesn’t
really matter as much where I go because there will always be people to speak
Fijian too. It will be pretty crazy being the district leader. I am not really
looking forward to having sisters in my district though haha they are the only
ones that ever have problems. The ones that are in my district though are cool
ones. It was sad to leave Elder Tamuera too, I love that kid. He is the man.
Well this week was a really good week. For a few days me and Elder Yashko went
on exchanges up into his area, Burewai. Their area is all up the coast so it
was way sweet. And we tried to take this different road that goes to the 2
different parts of their area and it was probably the most beautiful place I
have ever been in my life. We were like way up this mountain and the ocean was
just right there. It was so sweet. While we were on the exchange we saw a huge
snake that this guy caught in the jungle. That is what that picture is of. It
was insane. There are like hardly any snakes at all on this main island because
there are millions of mongoose. It was crazy though. I was hoping they were
going to go cook it up and eat it because I wanted to try it but they didn’t
haha.
We also had our 2 baptisms this week which was really good. Elder Tamuera got
to baptize the little girl so that was way awesome. And then the other old man
that we baptized, his younger brother who is a member and just went through the
temple for the first time like last week baptized him so that was way awesome
too. I can’t believe that I have baptized 18 people already in my mission. A
lot of the best investigators that I had while I was in Korovou aren’t baptized
yet just because they went to other places for a little while and haven’t come
back yet. The Elder that is getting transferred there now is pretty old in the
mission but his Fijian is terrible so I am a little worried about it. Elder
Tamuera will do good though.
We also had zone conference on Tuesday which was way awesome. I love zone
conferences. This one was probably the most spiritual one that I have been to
so far. It was so good. After zone conference our district had to go to
Presidents house for interviews because our areas are farther away and we were
waiting in there and then Sister Klingler came in and she made us pancakes!! It
was so amazing haha she is the bomb. This week was one of the funnest weeks
ever.
Its insane that only one year from now I will be back home and we will all be
going the cabin. That will be so fun. But I am happy that I still have a whole
year left. I am still having the time of my life. Thank you so much for all of
your support. I love you all so much. Au lomani kemudou vakalevu sara!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Monday, June 18, 2012
Bau Island!
Our District visiting Bau Island
Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!!
Sorry my email is a little late today. This morning our district got to go out to this tiny little island called Bau. It is the one we tried to go to a couple months ago but it didnt work out. It was way awesome. We got to ride this little tiny fiber boat out there. It is super close to the main island. It only took like 3 minutes in the boat haha I heard when it is low tide you can even walk out there. It is a tiny little island but it has a ton of history because that is where like the highest chiefly family of Fiji is from. It used to be like the political center of Fiji. It was way sweet. We kind of got in trouble because to be able to go out there you are supposed to like get permission from a certain chief and bring a gift and stuff and we were going to do that but this member guy that lives out there said we didnt need to, but then when we got out there someone else said we did. But we just talked to one chief guy and he said it was ok and he actually took us on a tour of the whole island and explained a bunch of the history and stuff. It was way sweet. All the pictures on this email are from there today. Probably all the pics I send today will be from that.
As far as the rest of the week goes we had a really good week. We had 2 people pass their baptismal interviews so we should be having 2 baptisms next week. Transfers will come in this Satuday. I really have no idea if I will get transferred or not. It could really go either way. I would be totally fine with staying here in Korovou. But it would also be nice to just have something new too. I just really want to stay in an area where I can just speak Fijian all the time.
This week we found 2 way awesome new investigators. We went to some members house one day to teach a lesson to some other people in that koro but before the people we were supposed to teach came to the house another guy just came in and then the people we were supposed to teach came in and we started the lesson and it was about the restoration. The one guy that just happened to be there loved it and then at the end of the lesson he told us that he feels like it is God talking to him and guiding him because he just happened to walk over to the house and then saw we were sharing a message so decided to stay. It was way awesome. And then the other way good guy we found was when we went back to teach that family from Kiribati. We went to teach them and there was a Fijian guy in there and so we just started sharing with him too. It was way cool because Elder Tamuera was teaching that family from Kiribati in his language and then I was teaching that guy in Fijian and then sometimes we would be speaking English too. So it was like a tri-lingual lesson haha it was way sweet. But the one Fijian guy was way interested and loved it and so was one of the boys from the Kiribati family.
On Tuesday we also got to do a little sevusevu (Fijian gift ceremony thing) out in Naloto, that one koro that we have trying to open. We just went with our member guy out there and we went to the chiefs house and did the little ceremony and gave him a thing of yaqona (kava). It was pretty sweet. That was just the little tiny sevusevu to let him know that we want to open the koro so that he can announce it in their koro meeting and pick a date for us to come and do the actually sevusevu to open the koro where we will give the tabua (whales tooth). Way cool.
We are having zone conference tomorrow so that will be awesome. We will get to eat some good food haha sounds like everything is going really good back at home. That is way sweet you guys will be going to the cabin next week. Happy fathers day dad! I will probably write you another email. Au lomani kemudou!! O yeah also for my year mark all I want is new white shirts that are a smaller size. Like 15-15 1/2 or whatever neck size a size medium is. Maybe just buy one first and send it to me and I can try it and then you can send me some more if it is good. Vinaka!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Vavavi! (lovo/earth oven)
Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!
This week was probably one of the funniest weeks of my mission so far. We did a
ton of way fun stuff. I have been thinking that I will be getting transferred
in 2 weeks and I kind of felt like I wanted to but this week made me not want
to get transferred just yet. haha I love the people in this area so much
and I have gotten really close with a lot of the members.
So I think that last Monday I told you about how that night we were going to
get to go teach that family that we found from giving that DVD to that boy in
that random koro. So we went to teach them that night and it was way awesome.
It is a family and a grandma and grandpa. We started teaching them the first
lesson and they were just talking about how good all of the stuff was and then
at the end of the lesson the grandpa came back from some meeting thing and told
us that he already told the family that they need to join this church and
started talking about how he loves what we taught about eternal families and he
knows it is true and stuff and then at the end I bore them my testimony and I
told them the whole story about how we ended up even going to that koro that
day and how I have hardly ever given out many DVDs on my mission and I had
never just given people our phone number before that day and stuff and I bore
my testimony that we were lead to them that day so that they could receive the
blessings of this gospel and they thought that it was the coolest thing ever
and said they know it was meant from God that we met that day and stuff. It was
a way cool experience. We are staying at the ZL's flat again so that we can go
with them to teach them again tonight.
On Tuesday to Thursday we went on exchanges and I went up to Burewai's area
with Elder Palmer. On Tuesday night we got to cross a river on bamboo rafts, it
was way sweet. And then on Wednesday and Friday we went up to a place called
Saioko which is like way up on the North side of the island. It looks way
different up there. It looks more like a forest you would find in America, not
like the jungles of Fiji. It is right on the ocean though and it is gorgeous.
That one building with the horse in the picture is the chapel for them in
Saioko. That is also where the Elders sleep so we slept in there that night. It
was a way fun exchange. Then on Friday we did a lovo just at our flat. It was
way sweet. It was just us 4 missionaries and a couple of boys from the koro.
The food was SOO good. We will for sure have to do one like that when I come
home. haha
Then on Saturday we took a boy named Iliki with us to go and teach. We had a
good day and then we were in Korovou town and I saw some people that looked
like they could be from Kiribati or Rabi and so I told Elder Tamuera and so we
went and talked to them and he was just talking to them in his/their language
and then he told me that the girl was actually one of his best friends from
back home! She said that she just lived not too far away so we all walked to
their house and it was like a big family of all these people from Kiribati and
it ended up that we started teaching them and Elder Tamuera was teaching them
in their language and me and Iliki were kind of just sitting there watching but
it was way cool haha they know English too so I said a few things but it was
way cool to see Elder Tamuera just talking to them in their language. So now we
have this whole family of investigators that speak his language. Pretty
awesome!
We have a couple people that are getting close to baptism.
One is an old man out in Waimalua named Livai. If you see him
he just looks like an old hobo that has smoked WAY too much in his
life, but he is the man. I wasn’t there to teach him on Wednesday because we
were on exchanges so we went back out there on Sunday to teach him again and to
start the lesson I just asked him what he thought about the Book of Mormon and
Joseph Smith and things and he almost started crying and bore his testimony
that it was all true and he has already stopped smoking. It was way powerful.
He is the man. So humble. I love that so much about the people here. I know
that it has made me more that way too.
Well I think that is pretty much it for this week.
We got a bunch of referrals this last week so this week
we should be getting some good new investigators. The work is going really
awesome here in Fiji right now, and I think this next month when the mission
splits it will just take off even more. I am excited to see how things go.
Sounds like everything is still going good with all of you! I will be at my
year mark in like 3 weeks! Insane. AU LOMANI KEMUDOU!!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
This week was probably one of the funniest weeks of my mission so far. We did a
ton of way fun stuff. I have been thinking that I will be getting transferred
in 2 weeks and I kind of felt like I wanted to but this week made me not want
to get transferred just yet. haha I love the people in this area so much
and I have gotten really close with a lot of the members.
So I think that last Monday I told you about how that night we were going to
get to go teach that family that we found from giving that DVD to that boy in
that random koro. So we went to teach them that night and it was way awesome.
It is a family and a grandma and grandpa. We started teaching them the first
lesson and they were just talking about how good all of the stuff was and then
at the end of the lesson the grandpa came back from some meeting thing and told
us that he already told the family that they need to join this church and
started talking about how he loves what we taught about eternal families and he
knows it is true and stuff and then at the end I bore them my testimony and I
told them the whole story about how we ended up even going to that koro that
day and how I have hardly ever given out many DVDs on my mission and I had
never just given people our phone number before that day and stuff and I bore
my testimony that we were lead to them that day so that they could receive the
blessings of this gospel and they thought that it was the coolest thing ever
and said they know it was meant from God that we met that day and stuff. It was
a way cool experience. We are staying at the ZL's flat again so that we can go
with them to teach them again tonight.
On Tuesday to Thursday we went on exchanges and I went up to Burewai's area
with Elder Palmer. On Tuesday night we got to cross a river on bamboo rafts, it
was way sweet. And then on Wednesday and Friday we went up to a place called
Saioko which is like way up on the North side of the island. It looks way
different up there. It looks more like a forest you would find in America, not
like the jungles of Fiji. It is right on the ocean though and it is gorgeous.
That one building with the horse in the picture is the chapel for them in
Saioko. That is also where the Elders sleep so we slept in there that night. It
was a way fun exchange. Then on Friday we did a lovo just at our flat. It was
way sweet. It was just us 4 missionaries and a couple of boys from the koro.
The food was SOO good. We will for sure have to do one like that when I come
home. haha
Then on Saturday we took a boy named Iliki with us to go and teach. We had a
good day and then we were in Korovou town and I saw some people that looked
like they could be from Kiribati or Rabi and so I told Elder Tamuera and so we
went and talked to them and he was just talking to them in his/their language
and then he told me that the girl was actually one of his best friends from
back home! She said that she just lived not too far away so we all walked to
their house and it was like a big family of all these people from Kiribati and
it ended up that we started teaching them and Elder Tamuera was teaching them
in their language and me and Iliki were kind of just sitting there watching but
it was way cool haha they know English too so I said a few things but it was
way cool to see Elder Tamuera just talking to them in their language. So now we
have this whole family of investigators that speak his language. Pretty
awesome!
We have a couple people that are getting close to baptism.
One is an old man out in Waimalua named Livai. If you see him
he just looks like an old hobo that has smoked WAY too much in his
life, but he is the man. I wasn’t there to teach him on Wednesday because we
were on exchanges so we went back out there on Sunday to teach him again and to
start the lesson I just asked him what he thought about the Book of Mormon and
Joseph Smith and things and he almost started crying and bore his testimony
that it was all true and he has already stopped smoking. It was way powerful.
He is the man. So humble. I love that so much about the people here. I know
that it has made me more that way too.
Well I think that is pretty much it for this week.
We got a bunch of referrals this last week so this week
we should be getting some good new investigators. The work is going really
awesome here in Fiji right now, and I think this next month when the mission
splits it will just take off even more. I am excited to see how things go.
Sounds like everything is still going good with all of you! I will be at my
year mark in like 3 weeks! Insane. AU LOMANI KEMUDOU!!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Vaqara beka (hunting for bats)
Bats hanging in the tree
"A hunting we will go"
Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!
Man, this week just flew by, but that isn’t really anything new I guess. What
is that boys state thing that Rand is going to Flagstaff for? Is it for
freestyle? That is funny that the missionaries brought that Thomas S. Monson
movie over to watch because we did that same thing with some members this week
haha That movie is way awesome though. I have seen it quite a few times since I
have been out. President Monson is the man. Crazy to see how the Lord prepares
his servants from the time that they are so young. This week was a little bit
of a rough week just because so many of our investigators aren’t in town right
now. A lot of them have just gone to other places for different reasons so
hopefully they come back this week. This next week should be way fun. We are
going on exchanges and I get to go to Burewai's area. It is a way cool area. On
Tuesday I will get to ride a bilibili (bamboo raft) across a big river to go
teach one of their investigators.
Well this week for service on Thursday we went out to Waimalua because last
week they told us about this huge tree out in the jungle where TONS of bats go
and hang on it during the day. So we went out there Thursday morning and did
some service and then me, Elder Tamuera and Lekima headed out into the jungle
haha I felt like I was in a movie. I had my sele and we were like chopping our
way through the jungle and it was pouring rain. It was way cool. I wish I could
like show you guys on google earth where we were because it is pretty crazy
haha So we get out there and we finally find the tree and there are a few
hundred bats hanging on this thing. That is what that picture is of. And that
is just one little section of the tree. We were trying to throw sticks up there
to knock them down so that we could eat them again but they were too high up
and the jungle was too thick to get a clear shot at them. If we had a shotgun
we could have killed sooo many. I took some way sweet videos while we were out
there haha I will have to send this card home sometime soon so you guys can
see.
So on Friday it was Elder Stocks birthday and Elder Stocks comp was up in the
box with us because he was on exchanges with Elder Yashko and so on Friday
morning us 4 from the box all rode down to switch them back and so that we
could have a birthday breakfast with Elder Stock. It was pretty fun haha
On Sunday it was my yaca's (namesakes) bogi va, which is just like a
celebration they do in Fiji like the week after the child is born. So after
church on Sunday we went over to Bro. Tabua's house and we had a huge feast.
They made a lovo, which is the earth oven thing, and we had pork and beef and
fish and all kinds of way good food. I ate soo much. Then I gave 2 big bars of
this laundry soap as my gift for my namesake haha that is like a Fijian tradition
too because they will have to wash so many clothes having a baby. They all
thought it was pretty cool that I did that.
Well other than that the rest of the week was pretty normal. This next week
should be a lot better. We have planned to set baptismal dates with 8 more
people this next week so hopefully that all works out. I would really like to
get a couple more of these people baptized before I get transferred. I think I
will get transferred on the transfer that is in like 3 weeks but you never know.
O yeah, remember that story I told you guys last week about how we gave that
DVD to that kid that day and then they called us and things? Well the ZL's went
and taught them and they said they are awesome, we are staying with the ZL's
this weekend so tonight we are going on splits with them and I am going to get
to go and teach them. I think it will be really powerful when I can tell them
the whole story about how we even ended up out in that koro and everything that
day. Should be pretty cool. Well sorry this email isnt as long as usual ha you
guys are all the bomb. I love you guys so much. Au lomani kemudou!!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
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