Back to Suva for training
The AP's and Zone Leaders at the Presidents house
At the Suva, Fiji Temple
A dead dog, and it stinketh
The Beauty of Fiji
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Levu na veilakoyaki!! (lots of moving around!)
Ni sa bula vinaka na noqu matavuvale!!
Well yet another week down. This week just flew by because we were traveling around a lot. It was really awesome though. On Wednesday morning we had to ride 3 hours on a bus to go to Labasa to the airport to flay back over to Suva for our Zone leader council meeting. The bus ride sucked, it is a lot of mountains and the bus is old and packed of people so it literally just crawls up these big hills. If we take our truck the same drive only takes about an hour and a half haha so we flew back over to Viti Levu (the main island) and stayed the night and then on Thursday we had our meeting. It was a way awesome meeting. We pretty much just talk about things that we can do to make our mission better. I know that it really motivated me personally, but also gave me a lot of good ideas on how to better help our zone out too. Then that day we had a ton of stuff we had to get for our zone in the office so we were just in there all day and then on Friday morning we flew back over here to Labasa and rode the same bus ride back. We had to ride the bus because we share our truck with some other Elders by us and so we let them use it the whole time we were gone. One of the things that really stuck out to me from the meeting was a training that Sister Klingler gave about Faith. She just talked alot about how our actions show are faith and different ways that we can grow our faith and things. I know that is something that I have been pretty good at in my life is having faith. I know that it has helped me a ton on my mission and will help me a ton after the mission too.
The work in our area is also going really good right now. We have those 6 baptismal dates that we set last week and we have a couple of other investigators that are doing really well that we should be setting dates with soon too. It is really hard sometimes because we are gone from our area so much so we don't get to see our investigators as much as we would like. This next intake that is coming in is HUGE though so they might put some more missionaries in our area so that even when we are gone there will still be good work getting done here. That would be way awesome. The place that those 6 baptismal dates are at is called Vunivesi. They speak a dialect called vosa vakawailevu. It is one of the very hardest dialects here. It is way awesome though. It is the one that I wrote the greeting thing to my email in last week. But me and Elder Moaalii have been trying really hard to learn it just because we have a lot of work out there and the people think that it is so awesome when you can speak their dialect, even though they would still understand if we spoke normal Bauan. We have actually learned a lot so far and it has been so fun to speak it to people and see how shocked they are when we can speak their dialect to them (as if a white kid speaking normal Fijian wasn't shocking enough... ha) It will be awesome though. I think it will really open up a lot more work there for us, just because the people will see the desire that we have to learn their dialect. and they will just be interested to hear us speak.
This week is going to be a super busy week too. Today right after this, us and the other 2 elders over here will be driving up to Labasa for pday and then tomorrow we will have a combined zone training meeting with them. then on Wednesday me and Elder Moaalii will be taking the boat over to Taveuni (the garden island of Fiji) and having another zone training meeting over there and then coming back on the boat on Thursday morning. So lots more traveling this week. and then next week is our Zone Conference so President and the APs and stuff will all be coming in and we will be having zone conference here. It is pretty crazy having to figure out how to get everyone moved around on boats and buses and planes so that we can all get them here for zone conference haha it is fun though, and it will help a lot for after the mission too.
Thanks so much for being such an awesome family. I know that the package you guys sent is here in Fiji but I wont be able to get it until the APs come next week for Zone conference, hopefully they will be able to bring it with them. Thanks again for all of that stuff. I love you all so much! Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Well yet another week down. This week just flew by because we were traveling around a lot. It was really awesome though. On Wednesday morning we had to ride 3 hours on a bus to go to Labasa to the airport to flay back over to Suva for our Zone leader council meeting. The bus ride sucked, it is a lot of mountains and the bus is old and packed of people so it literally just crawls up these big hills. If we take our truck the same drive only takes about an hour and a half haha so we flew back over to Viti Levu (the main island) and stayed the night and then on Thursday we had our meeting. It was a way awesome meeting. We pretty much just talk about things that we can do to make our mission better. I know that it really motivated me personally, but also gave me a lot of good ideas on how to better help our zone out too. Then that day we had a ton of stuff we had to get for our zone in the office so we were just in there all day and then on Friday morning we flew back over here to Labasa and rode the same bus ride back. We had to ride the bus because we share our truck with some other Elders by us and so we let them use it the whole time we were gone. One of the things that really stuck out to me from the meeting was a training that Sister Klingler gave about Faith. She just talked alot about how our actions show are faith and different ways that we can grow our faith and things. I know that is something that I have been pretty good at in my life is having faith. I know that it has helped me a ton on my mission and will help me a ton after the mission too.
The work in our area is also going really good right now. We have those 6 baptismal dates that we set last week and we have a couple of other investigators that are doing really well that we should be setting dates with soon too. It is really hard sometimes because we are gone from our area so much so we don't get to see our investigators as much as we would like. This next intake that is coming in is HUGE though so they might put some more missionaries in our area so that even when we are gone there will still be good work getting done here. That would be way awesome. The place that those 6 baptismal dates are at is called Vunivesi. They speak a dialect called vosa vakawailevu. It is one of the very hardest dialects here. It is way awesome though. It is the one that I wrote the greeting thing to my email in last week. But me and Elder Moaalii have been trying really hard to learn it just because we have a lot of work out there and the people think that it is so awesome when you can speak their dialect, even though they would still understand if we spoke normal Bauan. We have actually learned a lot so far and it has been so fun to speak it to people and see how shocked they are when we can speak their dialect to them (as if a white kid speaking normal Fijian wasn't shocking enough... ha) It will be awesome though. I think it will really open up a lot more work there for us, just because the people will see the desire that we have to learn their dialect. and they will just be interested to hear us speak.
This week is going to be a super busy week too. Today right after this, us and the other 2 elders over here will be driving up to Labasa for pday and then tomorrow we will have a combined zone training meeting with them. then on Wednesday me and Elder Moaalii will be taking the boat over to Taveuni (the garden island of Fiji) and having another zone training meeting over there and then coming back on the boat on Thursday morning. So lots more traveling this week. and then next week is our Zone Conference so President and the APs and stuff will all be coming in and we will be having zone conference here. It is pretty crazy having to figure out how to get everyone moved around on boats and buses and planes so that we can all get them here for zone conference haha it is fun though, and it will help a lot for after the mission too.
Thanks so much for being such an awesome family. I know that the package you guys sent is here in Fiji but I wont be able to get it until the APs come next week for Zone conference, hopefully they will be able to bring it with them. Thanks again for all of that stuff. I love you all so much! Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Savusavu!!
Ba bula re na oku ma'avuvale!! (That is one of the dialects here)
Well... I am here in Savusavu!! It is probably the most beautiful place that I have ever been to in my whole life, and it will be my home for the next while haha The plane ride here was so awesome. It was a way clear day. The plane was really small too so that was cool. I was in the very front seat and the cockpit was pretty much just open so I pretty much felt like it was me flying the plane haha I took a lot of way cool pictures from the air. I will send some more today. Savusavu is a way cool little town. It is known here as "hidden paradise" because it is just a tiny little town but it is so beautiful. Over here there is like a different dialect in like every different village that we go to. Some of the dialects are so insane! As you can see from the greeting on this email haha that is the same thing that I write every week but in Vunivesi dialect. It sounds soooo cool when they speak it. It doesn't even sound like Fijian haha but pretty much everyone knows the Bauan dialect too which is the main one all over Fiji and the one we learn so we just speak that. I am trying to learn some of the other ones too though because it is way cool, and the people just go crazy and think it is so cool when you can speak in their dialect. My companion Elder Moaalii is the man! He is 26 now and he was a special force US marine for 4 years. He has been all over the world and went on some like special missions to Afghanistan. He is Samoan but grew up all in America pretty much. Just a little time in American Samoa. He is WAY funny and relaxed, and we work way good together. He is just in the intake ahead of me and has only been in this area for like a month so I really hope we get to be here together for a long time. Our flat is amazing. It is known as "the purple mansion" and the picture I sent you of it explains why haha That one picture of the bay is the view from off of the porch. Pretty amazing. That is what I get to look at all morning while I study haha How lucky am I?! We also have 2 other Elders that stay with us some nights and one of them is Elder Haimin who I actually went to 7th grade with at South Hills. He went to Riverton and is way good friends with Jordan Hollingsworth. He is the man. Well this week we set 6 baptismal dates!! We went out to this WAY bush part of our area called Vunivesi where there is a unit and there are these 6 people that have been going to church out there for a couple weeks but they aren't members. We set baptismal dates with all of them. That is the place that speaks the dialect that I wrote up top. It is such an insane dialect. It sounds legit though. The work here is going really good. It is going to be hard though because we travel around so much. Me and Elder Moaalii teach super good together though and this week we taught some way awesome lessons. It is way fun to be with a comp that is such a good missionary. That is sweet that you are the YM president dad! That will be way fun to get to work with Rand and Parker all the time. I wish you would have been the YM pres when I was there haha That is cool mom is the sunbeams teacher now too. That is a perfect job for you mom! It is crazy you guys are already back in school again. Time goes by way too fast. Well this week we will be flying back to Suva to go to Zone Leader council meeting. We have it every month. And then the week after that we get to take the boat over to Taveuni. I am way excited. Should be fun. Well I love you all so much. Thank you for always being so supportive to me! I know I wouldn't be here where I am now if it wasn't for all of you guys. Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Well... I am here in Savusavu!! It is probably the most beautiful place that I have ever been to in my whole life, and it will be my home for the next while haha The plane ride here was so awesome. It was a way clear day. The plane was really small too so that was cool. I was in the very front seat and the cockpit was pretty much just open so I pretty much felt like it was me flying the plane haha I took a lot of way cool pictures from the air. I will send some more today. Savusavu is a way cool little town. It is known here as "hidden paradise" because it is just a tiny little town but it is so beautiful. Over here there is like a different dialect in like every different village that we go to. Some of the dialects are so insane! As you can see from the greeting on this email haha that is the same thing that I write every week but in Vunivesi dialect. It sounds soooo cool when they speak it. It doesn't even sound like Fijian haha but pretty much everyone knows the Bauan dialect too which is the main one all over Fiji and the one we learn so we just speak that. I am trying to learn some of the other ones too though because it is way cool, and the people just go crazy and think it is so cool when you can speak in their dialect. My companion Elder Moaalii is the man! He is 26 now and he was a special force US marine for 4 years. He has been all over the world and went on some like special missions to Afghanistan. He is Samoan but grew up all in America pretty much. Just a little time in American Samoa. He is WAY funny and relaxed, and we work way good together. He is just in the intake ahead of me and has only been in this area for like a month so I really hope we get to be here together for a long time. Our flat is amazing. It is known as "the purple mansion" and the picture I sent you of it explains why haha That one picture of the bay is the view from off of the porch. Pretty amazing. That is what I get to look at all morning while I study haha How lucky am I?! We also have 2 other Elders that stay with us some nights and one of them is Elder Haimin who I actually went to 7th grade with at South Hills. He went to Riverton and is way good friends with Jordan Hollingsworth. He is the man. Well this week we set 6 baptismal dates!! We went out to this WAY bush part of our area called Vunivesi where there is a unit and there are these 6 people that have been going to church out there for a couple weeks but they aren't members. We set baptismal dates with all of them. That is the place that speaks the dialect that I wrote up top. It is such an insane dialect. It sounds legit though. The work here is going really good. It is going to be hard though because we travel around so much. Me and Elder Moaalii teach super good together though and this week we taught some way awesome lessons. It is way fun to be with a comp that is such a good missionary. That is sweet that you are the YM president dad! That will be way fun to get to work with Rand and Parker all the time. I wish you would have been the YM pres when I was there haha That is cool mom is the sunbeams teacher now too. That is a perfect job for you mom! It is crazy you guys are already back in school again. Time goes by way too fast. Well this week we will be flying back to Suva to go to Zone Leader council meeting. We have it every month. And then the week after that we get to take the boat over to Taveuni. I am way excited. Should be fun. Well I love you all so much. Thank you for always being so supportive to me! I know I wouldn't be here where I am now if it wasn't for all of you guys. Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Monday, August 13, 2012
Sa na vuka na manulevu!! (the Hawk is going to fly!)
Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!!
Well.... I just got transferred... again... but... I am going to Savusavu to be the Zone Leader!!! Savusavu is on the other island called Vanua Levu. The flat is called "the Purple Mansion" and it is up on a hill that overlooks this gorgeous bay. I will also get to go to two other little islands that will be in my zone. I dont think I have ever been so excited about anything in my life. Elder Stock is the Suva ZL now too. I will be flying over there tomorrow morning. It will be way cool to because I will get to fly back to Suva every month to go to Zone leader training council stuff. I will be taking a lot of planes and boats and going all over. I was so excited when we got the transfer that I couldnt really fall asleep that night haha I was so shocked. I cant believe that I am going to be a ZL already. I am ready for it though. Just got to keep working hard.
As far as the rest of this week goes it was a way good week. As far as lessons it was not good at all. But a lot of other way cool stuff happened. I went on exchanges to Lami with Elder Dakunimata who is Fijian and whenever he would give me the time to introduce myself I would always tell the people that I am from Tailevu which is the Province that Korovou is in and I tell them that I am from Davetalevu village and we had this one kid convinced that I actually grew up there haha And all of the families that we went and saw could not stop laughing because they said my Fijian was so good haha They said I had the best Fijian of any white person they had ever met besides this one Elder that served there a few years back. But some of them said I was even better than him. I am soo grateful that I have been given the gift of tongues. I know that there is no way that I could have Fijian like this by myself. When I think about it sometimes I cant help but just be so grateful t the Lord for helping me so much with it.
It has been raining non stop here this whole week. But today is finally a beautiful day. I really hope tomorrow is too because when I fly over there I want to be able to see good out the windows because it is going to be gorgeous. This last Tuesday we also had a pretty cool experience. It was after district meeting and we were supposed to go eat lunch somewhere else, but I accidentally started going up to this other place and so we just decided to go up there and when we got up there these 2 white guys ran up to us and they were members from Utah and they said that they were so happy to see us because they were here for some business thing and the guy they are working with started asking a lot of questions about the church and they were just thinking how they really wished they had like a Restoration pamphlet or something and then we showed up. It was way awesome. So cool how the Lord works in guiding us to find the people that he is preparing to receive his gospel, even when it is something that to me was just my mistake at first, but turned out it was being guided by the spirit ha way awesome. and then the guy came up and gave us each 10 dollars so that was a nice blessing too haha
This week we were also trying to find this referral and we only knew like the general area it was in so we just kind of started asking random people and we went to this random house and the guy came out and we just asked him about these people we were looking for I just really felt like I should contact him, so i just started asking him questions and stuff and he invited us in. Probably partly just to listen to a white kid speak Fijian haha but he said how he is related to this member that is in our ward and how the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is his favorite Choir ever and stuff and we had a way good like intro lesson with him. It will be cool to hear how that goes with him. We also found these 3 other girls that became new investigators this week. They were asking us a ton of WAY good questions so it was way awesome.
Well thanks for sending the package! Hopefully it is here by next week because I will be flying back here to Suva next week for a zone leader council thing so I could get it then. Hope all you guys recover from your surgery stuff! How is josh doing? He never emailed me back or anything. Well, I love you all so much!!
loloma, Elder Hawk
Well.... I just got transferred... again... but... I am going to Savusavu to be the Zone Leader!!! Savusavu is on the other island called Vanua Levu. The flat is called "the Purple Mansion" and it is up on a hill that overlooks this gorgeous bay. I will also get to go to two other little islands that will be in my zone. I dont think I have ever been so excited about anything in my life. Elder Stock is the Suva ZL now too. I will be flying over there tomorrow morning. It will be way cool to because I will get to fly back to Suva every month to go to Zone leader training council stuff. I will be taking a lot of planes and boats and going all over. I was so excited when we got the transfer that I couldnt really fall asleep that night haha I was so shocked. I cant believe that I am going to be a ZL already. I am ready for it though. Just got to keep working hard.
As far as the rest of this week goes it was a way good week. As far as lessons it was not good at all. But a lot of other way cool stuff happened. I went on exchanges to Lami with Elder Dakunimata who is Fijian and whenever he would give me the time to introduce myself I would always tell the people that I am from Tailevu which is the Province that Korovou is in and I tell them that I am from Davetalevu village and we had this one kid convinced that I actually grew up there haha And all of the families that we went and saw could not stop laughing because they said my Fijian was so good haha They said I had the best Fijian of any white person they had ever met besides this one Elder that served there a few years back. But some of them said I was even better than him. I am soo grateful that I have been given the gift of tongues. I know that there is no way that I could have Fijian like this by myself. When I think about it sometimes I cant help but just be so grateful t the Lord for helping me so much with it.
It has been raining non stop here this whole week. But today is finally a beautiful day. I really hope tomorrow is too because when I fly over there I want to be able to see good out the windows because it is going to be gorgeous. This last Tuesday we also had a pretty cool experience. It was after district meeting and we were supposed to go eat lunch somewhere else, but I accidentally started going up to this other place and so we just decided to go up there and when we got up there these 2 white guys ran up to us and they were members from Utah and they said that they were so happy to see us because they were here for some business thing and the guy they are working with started asking a lot of questions about the church and they were just thinking how they really wished they had like a Restoration pamphlet or something and then we showed up. It was way awesome. So cool how the Lord works in guiding us to find the people that he is preparing to receive his gospel, even when it is something that to me was just my mistake at first, but turned out it was being guided by the spirit ha way awesome. and then the guy came up and gave us each 10 dollars so that was a nice blessing too haha
This week we were also trying to find this referral and we only knew like the general area it was in so we just kind of started asking random people and we went to this random house and the guy came out and we just asked him about these people we were looking for I just really felt like I should contact him, so i just started asking him questions and stuff and he invited us in. Probably partly just to listen to a white kid speak Fijian haha but he said how he is related to this member that is in our ward and how the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is his favorite Choir ever and stuff and we had a way good like intro lesson with him. It will be cool to hear how that goes with him. We also found these 3 other girls that became new investigators this week. They were asking us a ton of WAY good questions so it was way awesome.
Well thanks for sending the package! Hopefully it is here by next week because I will be flying back here to Suva next week for a zone leader council thing so I could get it then. Hope all you guys recover from your surgery stuff! How is josh doing? He never emailed me back or anything. Well, I love you all so much!!
loloma, Elder Hawk
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Papitaiso!
Ni sa Bula Vinaka na noqu matavuvale!
Well yet another week down. It seems like last week was my year mark, but it has already been another month. This was a really good week. It was pretty tough at times just with investigators not being home and things but it ended up being a really good week. I guess it is hard for it to not be a good week when you get to baptize someone! Emma's baptism was really good. She has such a strong testimony of this gospel and it has already changed her outlook on life so much. Nothing better in this life than getting to be a part of that for someone. That is so crazy that you guys are already going back to school. I didnt even know that Danny went to Afghanistan! That is way crazy. If you cant find short sleeve shirts in a better material than you can just buy long sleeve ones and I can take them to a tailor here and get the sleeves shortened for like 2 dollars per shirt. And if I am going to be doing a few I may even be able to talk my way into getting a better deal for it ha.
Other than the baptism not too many exciting things happened this week. We do have this new investigator though named Navi and he is the MAN! A lot of his family is members and he told us that last sunday he woke up and that something just specifically told him that he needed to go to church. So he went and now we have been teaching him and we have just committed him to being baptized. It was way cool though because when I gave him the comittment to be baptized I just said "once you know that the BOM is true and that Joseph Smith is the true Prophet what will be the next step for you to take?" and he said "To share this message with everyone that I know and to go and serve my mission" it was way cool. And then I just said, well yeah that is good you are thinking that far ahead but first you got to get baptized haha and then he was just like "o well yeah I knew that too" ha he is the man.
We also met these way cool guys from the Solomon Islands when we went to USP (University of the South Pacific) we were just walking there and they called us over and we were just talking and stuff and they were way cool. We gave them a DVD and our number and they were fighting over the DVD on who was going to get to take it and watch it first haha it was way funny. Hopefully they will call us because I at least want to go and hang out with them sometime because they were way cool ha
We also had a lesson with these 2 girls that are from Tuvalu. They are related to another member in our ward and they were all just speaking Tuvaluan to each other like the whole time so it was kind of annoying ha but it was really cool to listen to the language. I told them that they need to teach it to me, so I am going to start learning a little bit of Tuvaluan too haha one of the Elders from my intake Elder Zajac is actually serving out on Tuvalu right now so he is learning that language right now. It is really close to Samoan language. Pretty much the same. It is so cool how many different cultures and things we get to come into contact with and learn about here.
This week I am going to be doing my training in district meeting about the Book of Mormon. One of the things that Sister Klingler talked about at leadership training the other week was about how any problems or challenges anyone is facing can be solved by just studying and reading from the Book Of Mormon everyday. So I am going to make a goal for my district that we are all going to finish the whole BOM in a month. I hope they are as excited about it as I am and will take it seriously and do it because I know that it will really help all of us not only be way better missionaries but just better people in general.
Well I love you guys so much! Thanks for so much support. Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Well yet another week down. It seems like last week was my year mark, but it has already been another month. This was a really good week. It was pretty tough at times just with investigators not being home and things but it ended up being a really good week. I guess it is hard for it to not be a good week when you get to baptize someone! Emma's baptism was really good. She has such a strong testimony of this gospel and it has already changed her outlook on life so much. Nothing better in this life than getting to be a part of that for someone. That is so crazy that you guys are already going back to school. I didnt even know that Danny went to Afghanistan! That is way crazy. If you cant find short sleeve shirts in a better material than you can just buy long sleeve ones and I can take them to a tailor here and get the sleeves shortened for like 2 dollars per shirt. And if I am going to be doing a few I may even be able to talk my way into getting a better deal for it ha.
Other than the baptism not too many exciting things happened this week. We do have this new investigator though named Navi and he is the MAN! A lot of his family is members and he told us that last sunday he woke up and that something just specifically told him that he needed to go to church. So he went and now we have been teaching him and we have just committed him to being baptized. It was way cool though because when I gave him the comittment to be baptized I just said "once you know that the BOM is true and that Joseph Smith is the true Prophet what will be the next step for you to take?" and he said "To share this message with everyone that I know and to go and serve my mission" it was way cool. And then I just said, well yeah that is good you are thinking that far ahead but first you got to get baptized haha and then he was just like "o well yeah I knew that too" ha he is the man.
We also met these way cool guys from the Solomon Islands when we went to USP (University of the South Pacific) we were just walking there and they called us over and we were just talking and stuff and they were way cool. We gave them a DVD and our number and they were fighting over the DVD on who was going to get to take it and watch it first haha it was way funny. Hopefully they will call us because I at least want to go and hang out with them sometime because they were way cool ha
We also had a lesson with these 2 girls that are from Tuvalu. They are related to another member in our ward and they were all just speaking Tuvaluan to each other like the whole time so it was kind of annoying ha but it was really cool to listen to the language. I told them that they need to teach it to me, so I am going to start learning a little bit of Tuvaluan too haha one of the Elders from my intake Elder Zajac is actually serving out on Tuvalu right now so he is learning that language right now. It is really close to Samoan language. Pretty much the same. It is so cool how many different cultures and things we get to come into contact with and learn about here.
This week I am going to be doing my training in district meeting about the Book of Mormon. One of the things that Sister Klingler talked about at leadership training the other week was about how any problems or challenges anyone is facing can be solved by just studying and reading from the Book Of Mormon everyday. So I am going to make a goal for my district that we are all going to finish the whole BOM in a month. I hope they are as excited about it as I am and will take it seriously and do it because I know that it will really help all of us not only be way better missionaries but just better people in general.
Well I love you guys so much! Thanks for so much support. Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
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