Mayhem!

Bula Re!

Well... this has been one of the craziest weeks ever. It has been good though. This whole month is going to be pretty insane. We gave 2 trainings this week in the North and in the West. And we will be giving 2 more this week here in Suva and Nausori. And then we have a one week break from giving trainings and then we start the zone conference tour so that is 4 more trainings in all of the zones haha it is fun though. It is cool doing trainings with Elder Stock because we teach really well together and we come up with good ideas.

On Wednesday we woke up early, like 5:00, and came into the office to put the programs and stuff for the trainings together before we had to leave to get to the airport because we hadn't had anytime to do that yet. So while we were there other stuff just kept coming up that we had to do, like usual ha, so we ended up grabbing President and Sister Klingler and barely making it to the airport in time to get onto our flight. PHEW! that would have been bad.. ha so we got onto that flight and then flew up to Labasa, went to the chapel, had our leadership training with the leaders in that zone from 9-3 (it was a way good meeting) and then made it back to the airport there by 5 to get on our next flight at 6 to fly back to Suva. We flew back to Suva, got off of that plane, got onto another plane, and flew over to Nadi. We got there at about 7:30. We went to the hotel that President and Sister Klingler were going to be staying at. We were walking with them to their room and President was pushing 2 of their bags and there was a rain grate type of thing in the walkway and when the bags hit that it made them tumble, which then made him tumble and land hard on the concrete walkway. It was scary. We scrambled over to him and helped him up. He had a knot on his forehead, his glasses were completely scratched and we were thinking that he probably broke his wrist. It was scary. It is pretty scary watching a man that we love and care about so much take a spill like that. So we helped them to the room and President Klingler was already making jokes about it. He is the man!! He was beat up pretty good and had been dealing with a whole lot of hard stuff the whole week and then this but he was still in good spirits. Way awesome. Then we got to eat dinner with them at the hotel, which is always an awesome experience. Cajun chicken burger from a nice fancy resort kitchen has got corn beef and noodles beat in my book... haha Then that night we went and stayed with a bunch of the Elders that were in for the training in the Nadi Elders flat. Then woke up the next morning and had the training meeting all over again but with the leaders in the west. Our training was about planning. At the end we were focusing on planning and including the Lord in the planning to be able to bring about His will in all things. I had found this scripture in Ephesians 6:5-6 that talks about not being "menpleasers" or trying to do "eyeservice" but doing the will of God from the heart. Way awesome scripture. That is what life is all about, and something that I didn't have a very well understanding of before. It's all about doing the will of God in all things, from your heart, with real intent. Then President gave a way awesome training where he read some entries from his journal about when he was getting called to be a mission President. It was really emotional during his training. You could really feel of his love for all of us, and that the love he has for us started way before he even knew us, it started the minute he found out that he would be a mission president, and that he would be a mission president in Fiji. A really cool part though was when he was talking about how when he was on the video conference with Henry B. Eyring and President told us about that experience "I did not want to do anything else other than exactly what this apostle and Prophet of God wanted me to do". I really felt such a strong desire in the same way that I do not want to do anything else other than exactly what President Klingler wants me to do and I can have a sure knowledge that it is exactly what the Lord wants me to do because it just follows the proper line through the prophets and apostles. Way good feeling. Then that night we got on another flight and flew back to Suva and took President to the hospital here. He got x-rays and luckily his wrist wasn't broken. Just lots of soft tissue damage. It is pretty bruised up.

Then Saturday Saki got baptized! It was great. It was been such a miracle to have seen the change in him from the first time that me and Elder Estill taught him. It is cool because it has been a different transformation than I have seen at any other time in my mission. I have seen lots of transformations from bad to good and things like that but this was just a literal transformation from someone who was already so good and pure but just had his mind completely opened and the spirit teaching him in the way that he could understand and remember. Awesome experience.

On Sunday I confirmed Saki in sacrament meeting. I love being able to do those kind of priesthood ordinances in Fijian. But the best part about Sunday was that I was fasting, and I was fasting that I could be more humble and submit myself more to the will of the Lord and kind of just have help being stripped of some of my pride because I have been feeling too prideful lately, and that night we ate dinner with the Klinglers (we had probably my favorite meal of my mission so far, this amazing chicken pot pie and biscuits and homemade raspberry jam... enough said) but after dinner we were sharing a spiritual thought with them and Elder Stock started and he shared Ether 12:27 about being humble and talked about how he too had been fasting to have help being more humble and then I thought of a scripture that I just put on the cover of the program for one of the leadership trainings and it is Words of Mormon 1:7 and it talks about how we don't know all things but the Lord does and "He worketh in me to do according to His will" but that can only happen if we are humble enough to accept it and do it. And I just talked about how I too want that in my life. Then I started just talking about how that first week that I came here to Samabula to be the AP that intake was going home and we were at their departing testimony meeting and how amazingly humbling it was to be there in the presence of all of these amazing people and missionaries that I had looked up to my whole mission and then to just feel the humbling weight of the responsibility that I had just been given. All of those same humbling feelings came rushing back and I started to cry because it felt so good to feel that humility and that is the way that the Lord answered my prayer and fasting. I know it is something that I will always need to work on and improve on, but it felt good to have another good experience like that to get me on track.

Well I am starving and we have been running around like crazy trying to help all of the missionaries coming in here for P-day and stuff but I love you guys so much! Keep up the good work in sharing your testimonies! There is nothing better! And kick some butt next week at State!! I will be excited to hear about it next week! Au lomani kemudou!!!

Loloma levu, Elder Hawk

 Saki's Baptism

  Nausori zone for district meeting

 

Very Big Beetle in our Flat