Nu sa bula nakwa! (that is the dialect of this place that I went this week, Naitasiri)
Well this was a pretty exciting week. Earlier in the week Elder Stock and I got our calendar for the next 2 months and we put in all of the trainings and intakes and outtakes and all of that stuff that we have to do and then we made of list of all the people that we thought it would be good for us to go on transfers with and tried to plan that all in. One of the people we want to go on exchanges with is the Elders in Tuvalu, it is another country and it is just one tiny little strip of land out in the middle of the ocean with like 4,000 people on the island and they speak Tuvaluan. We are the ones that take their numbers and all of that and so we thought it will be really good for us to get out there and see what it is like, and of coarse how awesome would it be to get to go to another country that is some tiny little speck in the ocean that no one has even heard of. Back like 2 years ago was the last time that any other missionaries went out there to visit it besides the Elders that are actually serving on the island. So we pitched it to President and moved some stuff in the schedule around and on April 9th we are going to TUVALU!!! I don't think me and Elder Stock have ever been so excited in our lives haha You will have to look it up on google earth. It is Funafuti Tuvalu. It will be like a 2 hour and 20 minute flight. It will be really good though. The Elders out there are way stoked for us to come too. We also have a lot of other really good exchanges planned. We are going to be getting out a lot more and be in the field working with some of the missionaries that are training and stuff so it will be really good. We are going to Savusavu this week on Friday to do exchanges there as well so that is always fun to go back to that area.
So this week we went on a really awesome exchange. We went on exchanges with the Nausori zone leaders. I went with Elder Palmer up to this little unit that they cover up in the interior that is pretty much just one family. This family has 3 kids that are albino. There is actually quite a few albino Fijians. They look pretty awesome. I will send you pics. So it was like a 45 minute drive up into the bush and it is way awesome up there. We got there and taught a lesson to some young girls that live with that member family and then we took Brother Qaqanisautu with us and we drove another 10 minutes to a different village called Nadakuni and there is a family that is members that lives there and they have some kids that are over 8 and not baptized yet so we were going to teach them but we got there and they were gone so we just started talking to this one other lady in the village that was right there and then this man comes back from spear fishing in the river and told us to come sit on his porch thing. So they spread out the ibe and we go sit there and before we know it there is like 8 people all sitting there on the porch with us and they are all in awe that we can speak Fijian haha it is always way fun to go to bush places like that that have never seen much of the missionaries because they always think it is insane how well we can speak Fijian. So we start to teach them about what our purpose is as missionaries and stuff and some of them were way interested. They hadn't really ever heard anything about the LDS church so I talked to them a little about prophets and a living prophet today and stuff like that and they were way into it. The one old lady said that she has been going to the Methodist church for years but lately she doesn't go much because she knows that a lot of the stuff they do isn't right so she is very interested to learn more. So that was way awesome and the spirit was super strong and then we got back in the truck and drove another 20 minutes to the end of the road where there is a river with a village on the other side. The member guy that was with us told an old man in that village a long time ago that he would have the missionaries come see him but they have never gone. So we get in this little boat (that is what the picture on this email is) and this little Fijian girl pulls us across the river. We go to his house and he is asleep and we wake him up and go in and he said that he knew we were coming because that day 3 Maina birds flew into his house and were just standing there in the house chirping and they never do that so he knew that he would have 3 visitors today. Pretty cool. But he is the Tuirara for the Methodist church in that village which is a pretty high up position but he really wanted to see the missionaries because this member man had been sharing with him about the church and he really liked it. So we started teaching him and his wife about our purpose as missionaries and stuff and he started talking about having hope in this life and it reminded me instantly of one of my favorite scriptures from Moroni 7:41-43 that talks about how we have hope through Christ and His Atonement. It is the scripture I read that time in Vunivesi. But I got a Fijian BOM out of my backpack and read that scripture to him and testified about it and the Spirit was super strong. I gave him that BOM and he took and and said that the minute we left he would start reading it. Way awesome lesson. But then they were both sick so we gave both of them blessings and that was awesome too. Then we went back across the river and back to the village where the member is from and changed into service clothes and went to his farm with our machetes and did some work haha we worked way hard, it felt good to work like that.
So then after that we went back down to their flat, showered and then went to the dinner appointment with this Indian family that just got baptized a few months ago. They are so awesome. But we were sharing a spiritual thought and I cant really remember what they were sharing about but then I felt like I should use that same scripture from Moroni again so I did and this time I bore testimony about how we don't just have hope because of Christ but we have hope because the Prophet Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and they restored the fullness of the Gospel through him. And the spirit was super strong again and it was a way good testimony builder again for me of all of that. So that day was pretty much just a day full of way good testimony building, spirit filled lessons.... that is what it is all about.. the best thing ever.
Well I think this is a pretty huge email so I will leave it at that. Sounds like you guys had an awesome spring break. That will have to be one of the first things we do when I get back... go out in the desert, ride the 4 wheeler and shoot guns.. haha how are Rand's papers going? When do you think he will get his call? I can't wait! Well au lomani kemudou!
Loloma levu, Elder Hawk
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