A mate le dua, sa qai sucu le lima na ka vou‏

Ni sa bula Vinaka noqu matavuvale!

Well yet another very busy week down. The time is going by way too fast. It goes by soo fast when we are so busy like we are. These next 2 weeks are probably going to be the busiest that we ever have too haha this next week we have our zone leaders council. Then the WHOLE mission is coming into suva and we are having our huge mission combined zone conference, and the Christmas party on Saturday. Then sunday we are having a missionary fireside. All 80 missionaries will be singing and stuff so that should be really sweet. and then on Monday the North zone and west zone will be busing back to the west to have their mission tour with Elder Hamula and we will be flying there that morning with president and then we will fly back that same night with President and with Elder Hamula. Then on Tuesday we will be doing the same mission tour thing in Suva with the other 2 zones. Then on wednesday we will be having another zone leaders council thing with President Hamula. It is going to be awesome, but way insane for us because we have to be the ones that make sure everything goes as planned with no problems getting all these 80 missionaries moved all over Fiji. Pray for us... haha

O yeah, so because of all that I dont really know when I will be emailing next week. It definitely wont be at the normal time like this ha I am sure I will get the chance to email at some point though, so if you dont get any email from me dont freak out haha

This week was really good though. On Tuesday there was an Elder that extended his mission a month and he was going home so we took him to the temple and did all the stuff we do when people go home. He was a way awesome missionary. Then on Thursday the new intake of 5 came in. But actually only 4 came because one of them got stuck in San Francisco. So we did all of their new orientation stuff and then that night we had a big Thanksgiving dinner at Presidents house with all of them and with some of the senior couples that work here in the office. No turkey though because here a 4kg turkey cost $180 haha so we had chicken and mashed potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole and carrots and apple pie with ice cream, it was amazing haha I definitely ate way too much. I will try to send you some pictures from that today.

On Saturday was the transfer. So all day we were driving people around to get on buses and airplanes and then the other Elder that got stuck in San Francisco came in so we had to hurry and do all of his orientation stuff and we got to take him to dinner at this nice restaurant so that was really sweet haha we took the other new guys to Chee Wais which is our chinese investigators restaurant. It is a WAY nice restaurant and pretty expensive but they give us a way good deal because they love us haha if you guys come get me then we will go and eat there for sure! They are going to feed me some sushi soon so I will let you know how it is.

Kevin and Yungyung are doing really awesome. They should be getting baptized this sunday after church. I am way excited for them. Their is another guy that lives there named Lou and he is the cook of the restaurant and the brother of the mom and we have started teaching him and he is way awesome too. They understand so much even though they have no type of really Christian background.

Things are going way awesome with Filipe too. This week we had a way good lesson with him and he just kept referring back to his mom and how he sees how happy she is and how blessed she is and everything. He bore a way powerful testimony and said that he knows that the church is true just because of that. It really just made me want to make sure that I continue living the gospel to its fullest so that I can continue receiving its blessings that will be an example to others that will testify that the gospel is true. I know that all of you are that kind of great examples and I am thankful that I had all of you as the great examples around me to help strengthen my own testimony and especially in being a good example to others.

The Bavoros are going through the temple and getting sealed this week on Thursday! I am so stoked to get to go to it. What an awesome blessing to have had the opportunity to teach such great people that the Lord had prepared. I really need to write letters to a bunch of my other recent converts.

Well life is good. Sounds like you guys had an awesome Thanksgiving! Au lomani kemudou!!!

Loloma,

Elder Hawk

 Elder Riley is getting ready to head home and this is our van

Our Thanksgiving Dinner

 This is Levuka town. The ocean is right there across the street.
 

This is me and Elder Mema'ofa before our 2 hour walk across the island

 

 

The chapel in Levuka

 

This is the place we stayed the first night in Levuka town

 



 The golfing gang
 



Levuka!

Bula Vinaka!!

Well, this week was way awesome. Lots of really cool and fun experiences. I don't have a whole lot of time to write, so I will try to get as much in as I can.

First off, this last Tuesday was a huge Indian holiday called Diwali. It is like Christmas and the 4th of July combined haha All the Indians decorate their houses in lights and they light of TONS of fireworks. They actually have some pretty sweet fireworks in Fiji and they were going off EVERYWHERE on Diwali night. That night we went to our landlords house which is upstairs and had a ton of Indian sweets that they make and Indian food and stuff like that. It was pretty fun. This week we also got to eat with a couple of the senior couples for dinner. They are all the coolest people ever! haha I guess that is a requirement to serve in Fiji, you have to be awesome... haha

This week we also spent thousands upon thousands of dollars to buy all of the plane tickets and bus tickets to get everyone in here and around and stuff for the mission tour and the Christmas party and stuff. Lots and lots of planning and things. It will definitely help me out a lot later in life to have planned all kinds of stuff like that. We spent so much money that we maxed out our credit card and had to start using other peoples church credit cards haha crazy. I think all of the Christmas and mission tour stuff should be really good though. I am really excited about it.

This week was really cool too because we finally got our Chinese lesson pamphlets that we can now use to teach all of these Chinese investigators that we have. They LOVED them. Everything just started clicking so much better with them now that they could see it and read it in their own language. Kevin and Yungyung will probably be getting baptized really soon. I really love that family so much. The mom too is now getting a lot more interested and asking questions and stuff. This week we also got a way awesome new investigator. His name is Filipe. He is the son of one of the old time members in our ward, Sister Sinu. He is like 50. He was in the Fijian military for a long time and was in Sinai and Lebanon for a few years. He is such an awesome guy. We had a way good intro lesson with him. The spirit was super strong in the lesson. I love how every time we teach lessons and we feel  the spirit that strong and we see these people that have such a great desire to get the gospel and stuff that it strengthens my own testimony so much. I am truly so much more converted to this gospel now than I ever was at home, and I know there is nothing else that I could have done with the last year and a half of my life that could have helped me to learn all of the amazing things that I have learned and experienced. Really can't even begin to explain how grateful and blessed I feel to be here and to be serving my mission especially in Fiji.

Well the highlight of the week was definitely going to Levuka. On Thursday we got on a bus which took us to the boat and then it was like an hour boat ride to the island and than another half hour bus ride to the other side where the town is. It is such a cool place! It was established way back in the 1800's and it was the old capitol of Fiji for a while. That is where the pictures on this email are from. That is the chapel out there. The first night we got there we were supposed to sleep in the chapel but we couldn't find anyone that had the keys so we slept in this hotel haha than the 2nd night we slept in the chapel. I will show you the shower in the chapel haha it was just a hose up of the wall. Pretty cold water. It was so much fun though. Me and Elder Mema'ofa walked for 2 hours one way to get to this village to go and see some people. It was way awesome because the road is literally right on the ocean around the island. We saw this big iguana on our walk haha it was pretty sweet. We actually almost stepped on it because we didn't see it. Then on Friday morning we got on the bus and the boat and than the other bus at 4 in the morning. It was a way good trip though. I think that it will get opened back up to Elders soon.

This morning we went golfing!!! It was me Elder Estill, Elder Whiting and Elder Tennis. It was SO much fun! I actually did alright considering how long it has been haha I pared 2 of the par 3s. Hit some way good shots there. I will send some more pictures of that today.

Well sounds like you guys will be having an awesome Thanksgiving! You should try to send me a video of something of the wrestling matches. We have a new intake of 5 coming from the MTC that day so we will be having Thanksgiving dinner at Presidents house with all of them that night. Should be pretty sweet.

Well, au lomani kemodou!!!

Loloma, Elder Hawk

Levu na veivakavulici (lots of lessons)

Ni sa bula vinaka noqu matavuvale!

Well it sounds like everything is going good back home! That is cool about the regional conference thing. I finally got to go to church this week in both of the wards that we cover and it was way awesome. The English ward that we cover is probably the strongest ward in Fiji, and it is where like the temple president and President Klingler and a bunch of the senior couples go so that helps it out a ton. It feels a lot more like church at home, which is good in ways but I kind of miss the small branch jungle feel ha. President Klingler was gone pretty much this whole week to a mission presidents conference in New Zealand. They told him there that by the end of next year we will have 150 missionaries here in the mission!! That is almost double, right now there are 80. It is going to be sooo awesome.There are going to be a lot of new areas opening up and things and other areas will get the extra attention that they need. It is really cool how we get to work so closely with President and how he shares with us all of the things that he learns from meetings and from General authorities he gets to meet with and just things he has learned in life. I know that I have already learned so much from him since I have been here. I think that I might be AP for a while and then get released to go and open up an area and maybe train again. I think that would be so awesome. We will see though. Everyone who has been called as an AP has finished as the AP, but there also hasn't been any for 8 months either so I think I got a chance haha I am not going to worry about it though. I will work my hardest and do my best wherever the Lord wants me.

This week was really good too because we actually got to teach quite a few lessons. We have way good investigators that are getting close to baptism. We have Kevin and Yungyung, those chinese people that should be getting baptized next week. They are so awesome. The mom and another guy that lives there even came to church this week so that was exciting. One day this week we taught them about Faith and we read Alma 32 about how faith is like a seed and Yungyung the boy said the prayer at the end and in his very broken english he said "I now know that I have a seed inside of me, please help me to make it grow strong" It was way cool. They have so much faith and it is so cool to see how much this gospel changes peoples lives. We also started teaching another Chinese couple this week named Shelly and Tony. They just started coming to church because they want their kid to go to LDS primary school but they are way awesome. They have very broken english too and have really no christian background so it is really fun to teach them too. It is so great to see how much these people need the gospel in their lives and how as they learn about it they can feel of its importance to them and they realize so many things about life that they never even have thought about before. We also have another investigator named Apanisa. He is 24 and he is kind of a wild guy. His grandma is a super strong member and so she wanted us to teach him. He has such a strong desire to change and he really realizes the importance of the gospel and our message and how this is what he needs to change his life around. I love him so much. I love all of these people so much even though I have just barely started meeting and teaching them. I love that love that we feel for others as we share the gospel with them. I always feel like Heavenly Father helps us to feel that love for them, just so that we can get a tiny little glimpse of what His love is like for them. We have some other way awesome investigators too but I will talk about them some other time haha

This week we also got to go to some nice dinners ha one night we went with one of the Senior couples, Elder and Sister Terry. I had grilled Mahimahi and it was soo good. I was telling them that I am pretty sure that was the first time I have ever ordered fish from a restaurant haha I am so excited that I have broken all of those stupid picky eating habits that I had before my mission haha There is so much amazing food that I was missing out on!!

O yeah, there is this lady in our ward here and I told her I was from AZ and she said she has a sister that lives there and I asked her where and she said Gilbert! She actually was in Gilbert last year to visit. Pretty crazy. You should try to find her. She is a member. Her name is Kiti Sheffett. I don't know if that is spelled right or not ha

Well this next week we get to go to Levuka which is another little island right off of this main island. They havent had that area opened for a few years but one of the Zone Leaders go out there every few months and we get to go with them because they have baptismal interviews! It was the old capitol of Fiji back in the day. I heard it is a way cool place. I will make sure to take lots of pics since I haven't taken like any since I came here haha

Well au lomani kemudou sara vakalevu! Im still livin' the dream!!

Loloma, Elder Hawk

Oso oso sara ga (very busy)

Ni sa bula vinaka na noqu matavuvale!

Well it sounds like everyone had a really awesome week this last week! That is way sweet that that little boy dressed up as a stripling warrior haha On Halloween me and Elder Estill switched badges and ties and watches and that was our costume for Halloween. That is about the extent that we could do and get away with haha I thought it was pretty funny. There was a couple times where we got called the wrong name or the people were really confused. Pretty funny.

Well this week was another CRAZY busy week. Alot of going to bed late and getting up real early to run people to the ariport or pick people up or the bus stops or all kinds of crazy things. Part of the job I guess. It is really fun though to get to be with all of the missionaries a lot though. We have so many way awesome missionaries here right now. I have made a lot of really good friends. This week was especially busy because we brought in all of the sister missionaries and had a specialized training for them and then we also brought in all of the Elders that are training and being trained to have a special training for them as well. It is so weird to be the one giving all of these trainings now. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was the one sitting on the other side of the table just looking at the APs like they were the man and now I guess I need to live up to that. Pretty humbling experience. One part of the training was way awesome though. It is cool how much we learn too when we give a training. But we were giving the training and it was about our purpose as missionaries and living up to that purpose at all times and things like that, but there was a part where I started just talking about letting our missions change us, which originally wasnt a part of our plan. But I started talking about how at the start of our missions a lot of us just think that we dont want to be weird or whatever when we go home and we still want to be "ourselves" or whatever and so we hold ourselves back from letting our missions change us into what they could. And I just talked about how at the beginning of my mission that is kind of how I was. But especially the last few months, probably since I went to Savusavu, I have really just let the mission mold me into what the Lord wants me to be and it has been so awesome to see how much I have changed for the good, but I am still me. The spirit was way strong as I was saying it and I really felt like not only was it a huge moment for me to realize that and let that continue in my mission, but I know that because it was by the spirit it was able to help all the Elders that were there too. Way sweet.

There was also another sweet thing that was shared by one of the sister missionaries in the other training where she said "be the missionary that my parents are praying for" I think that it really hit all of the sisters and me as well that all of our parents are praying so hard for us and think we are the best missionaries ever so we really need to live up to that. It was really good.

Another cool thing that happened this week is that we have these investigators that are straight from China and speak very little English. It is way cool though because we just get to teach them so simply and realize that power of the simple principles of the gospel. But they are the bomb. We set a baptismal date with them and they will be getting baptized at the end of this month. Their names are Kevin and Yungyung, and we also started teaching another guy there named Lou. I already love them all so much. They are awesome people. It is really the first time I have taught people that didn't have a Christian background so it is cool to see how much they love to know the things about Christ. The coolest thing is when they pray because they do it in english and they are just way sincere.

Yesterday we also drove again to the other side of the island to Nadi with President to go and do another missionary fireside. It was way awesome. There was some recent converts that bore their testimonies and they were way powerful. Then we got to drive Presidents car home by ourselves haha that was pretty cool. We also had a new intake that came in this week from New Zealand. It was 3 Fijians. They are all way cool. We had to do all of their orientation and stuff. On the 20th is when the intake comes from Provo. 

Alright well I love you all so much! Thanks for being the bomb. Au lomani kemudou!!

Loloma levu, Elder Hawk

PS: That is a picture of me with a Tabua (Whales tooth) I've got to get one for when I come home. They are way sweet.