Some people from here in Savusavu.
The Chapel in Savusavu
Monday, October 22, 2012
Kida cala sara ga! (very suprised!)
Ni sa bula vinaka na noqu matavuvale!
That is way cool that you guys met that girl that Elder Moaalii knows! He said that she was one of his really good friends back in American Samoa. They both served together on the Young Single Adults council thing together. That is way cool about Elder Patenaude too! He is a pretty funny guy. I think I asked him while he was here if he knew Judy and Randy but he said he didn't. I think that would be really cool if Rand could leave right after I got home. I would really like to get to see him before he leaves for sure. When we went to Suva this week I met one of the newer Elders and when I went and shook his hand and told him my name he said that his family is following that blog that you guys are making for me haha pretty funny. He said when he got his call they just started trying to find stuff about Fiji and the mission on the internet and they came across my blog and thought it was awesome so they have like been following it haha I also found out that Elder Wall, the one that I know from AZ that was supposed to be coming here soon went home while he was in the MTC. That was a big bummer. I was really looking forward to seeing him. We also just went on Daylight savings time here this week so we went an hour ahead, it is 12:30ish right now.
Well this week we were in Suva from Tuesday until Saturday. It was wayyy too long to be out of our area. It was really good though. We had our zone leader council meeting and then also we had a specialized district leader training where they brought in all of the DLs in the mission. Me and Elder Moaalii gave a training at that and it went super good. We also got to go on splits with the Suva ZLs which is Elder Stock and Elder Seila. I got to go with Elder Seila. It was really fun teaching with him again. He is the man. He finishes his mission on Thursday. Pretty crazy. We had a really cool experience though where we were walking to an appointment and this indian guy came running up to us and told us how his wife just ran off with their two little kids and how he wanted us to pray for him so that he could find them. Elder seila told him we could go into a house close by that he knew so that we wouldnt have to just pray right out in the street. So we walked over there and there is a really old lady that used to be a temple member but she has been less active for a long time. When we walked up she started crying really hard. We went in and said a prayer for the indian guy so he could go and then we started talking to this Fijian lady. She had a stroke a while back and her family that she is living with isnt really taking good care of her and they live in this terrible tin house in like a swamp pretty much and she said she was feeling so alone and down and then she saw us walking up and she felt like God still knows who she is and cares about her. It was a really cool experience to see how God really does know every single one of us and cares enough about us to have things like that happen.
There is also 2 boys in our branch here that got there mission calls this week!!! One of them is going to Ghana, Africa and the other one is going to Kiribati islands (where Elder Tamuera is from). I am sooo excited for them!! They are going to be awesome. One of them opened his call in sacrament meeting on sunday and he was bearing a super powerful testimony about how excited he is and things and I started crying too because I feel sooo amazingly blessed to be here on my mission. I cant even begin to explain of how big of a blessing it has been for me to be here.
Well now for the big news and the reason for the subject of this email. I also spoke in that sacrament meeting and it is because it was my last Sunday here in Savusavu.... I have been called to be the new Assistant to the president... AP.... I am still in shock and I think the whole mission is. Usually the AP is just called for the last 4 months of his mission or if an intake gets skipped than 6 months. But I still have 8 months left. Everyone in the mission is like in shock. The last person to be called to be the AP at this young in the mission was Brother Matheson, one of my teachers from the MTC. I am very very humbled about the whole thing and feel very unprepared and inadequate to be called to a position like this at this point in my mission. But I just need to have faith that it is the Lord's plan for me and that he will strengthen me to do my best and help this mission progress. I am super sad to have to leave this area. I love this area and especially the people in it. I cried a bunch while I was speaking in sacrament meeting ha big baby. I don't think that I will be the AP all the way til the end of my mission. I might get released towards the end and go open up some island or train again. I hope that is what happens at least. I am just going to do my best... All of the planes are booked up from here to the other island so us 3 that are getting transferred from here have to get on the boat tomorrow night and ride it for like 10 hours through the night to get over to the main island. Should be pretty crazy.
Well please keep me in all of your prayers that I can be strengthened to fulfill this big calling. I need all the help I can get. ha I love you all so much! Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma levu, Elder Hawk
That is way cool that you guys met that girl that Elder Moaalii knows! He said that she was one of his really good friends back in American Samoa. They both served together on the Young Single Adults council thing together. That is way cool about Elder Patenaude too! He is a pretty funny guy. I think I asked him while he was here if he knew Judy and Randy but he said he didn't. I think that would be really cool if Rand could leave right after I got home. I would really like to get to see him before he leaves for sure. When we went to Suva this week I met one of the newer Elders and when I went and shook his hand and told him my name he said that his family is following that blog that you guys are making for me haha pretty funny. He said when he got his call they just started trying to find stuff about Fiji and the mission on the internet and they came across my blog and thought it was awesome so they have like been following it haha I also found out that Elder Wall, the one that I know from AZ that was supposed to be coming here soon went home while he was in the MTC. That was a big bummer. I was really looking forward to seeing him. We also just went on Daylight savings time here this week so we went an hour ahead, it is 12:30ish right now.
Well this week we were in Suva from Tuesday until Saturday. It was wayyy too long to be out of our area. It was really good though. We had our zone leader council meeting and then also we had a specialized district leader training where they brought in all of the DLs in the mission. Me and Elder Moaalii gave a training at that and it went super good. We also got to go on splits with the Suva ZLs which is Elder Stock and Elder Seila. I got to go with Elder Seila. It was really fun teaching with him again. He is the man. He finishes his mission on Thursday. Pretty crazy. We had a really cool experience though where we were walking to an appointment and this indian guy came running up to us and told us how his wife just ran off with their two little kids and how he wanted us to pray for him so that he could find them. Elder seila told him we could go into a house close by that he knew so that we wouldnt have to just pray right out in the street. So we walked over there and there is a really old lady that used to be a temple member but she has been less active for a long time. When we walked up she started crying really hard. We went in and said a prayer for the indian guy so he could go and then we started talking to this Fijian lady. She had a stroke a while back and her family that she is living with isnt really taking good care of her and they live in this terrible tin house in like a swamp pretty much and she said she was feeling so alone and down and then she saw us walking up and she felt like God still knows who she is and cares about her. It was a really cool experience to see how God really does know every single one of us and cares enough about us to have things like that happen.
There is also 2 boys in our branch here that got there mission calls this week!!! One of them is going to Ghana, Africa and the other one is going to Kiribati islands (where Elder Tamuera is from). I am sooo excited for them!! They are going to be awesome. One of them opened his call in sacrament meeting on sunday and he was bearing a super powerful testimony about how excited he is and things and I started crying too because I feel sooo amazingly blessed to be here on my mission. I cant even begin to explain of how big of a blessing it has been for me to be here.
Well now for the big news and the reason for the subject of this email. I also spoke in that sacrament meeting and it is because it was my last Sunday here in Savusavu.... I have been called to be the new Assistant to the president... AP.... I am still in shock and I think the whole mission is. Usually the AP is just called for the last 4 months of his mission or if an intake gets skipped than 6 months. But I still have 8 months left. Everyone in the mission is like in shock. The last person to be called to be the AP at this young in the mission was Brother Matheson, one of my teachers from the MTC. I am very very humbled about the whole thing and feel very unprepared and inadequate to be called to a position like this at this point in my mission. But I just need to have faith that it is the Lord's plan for me and that he will strengthen me to do my best and help this mission progress. I am super sad to have to leave this area. I love this area and especially the people in it. I cried a bunch while I was speaking in sacrament meeting ha big baby. I don't think that I will be the AP all the way til the end of my mission. I might get released towards the end and go open up some island or train again. I hope that is what happens at least. I am just going to do my best... All of the planes are booked up from here to the other island so us 3 that are getting transferred from here have to get on the boat tomorrow night and ride it for like 10 hours through the night to get over to the main island. Should be pretty crazy.
Well please keep me in all of your prayers that I can be strengthened to fulfill this big calling. I need all the help I can get. ha I love you all so much! Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma levu, Elder Hawk
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Papitaiso tale mai Vunivesi!
Ni sa bula vinaka na noqu matavuvale!
Well it sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun up in Utah! Rand and especially Parker look so big! crazy. That will be good if Rand at least waits until I get home haha I really want to see him before he heads out too. It will be really exciting to see where he goes. I am excited to get to write him while he is gone and help him with things that I also learned here on my mission. I am sure it will be a way different experience somewhere else in the world but there will still be a lot of similarities. I am way excited for him. I know he will be a way awesome missionary. Did you read Isaac the letter that I sent? Hopefully it was alright haha This week will be pretty weird. We are flying over to Suva tomorrow and then on Wednesday we have our zone leader council. Then on Thursday all of the District leaders from the whole mission will be coming in and we will have another training for them that day. Me and Elder Moaalii have to give a training. I think that it will be really good. We based it mostly off of a talk by Spencer W. Kimball called "Jesus Christ: The Perfect Leader" or something along those lines. It is a way good talk. Especially for comparing it to being a leader here in the mission. And then they couldn't get us a flight back on Friday so we have to wait until Saturday to fly back to Savusavu. It really sucks because we have so much stuff going on and we are going to get taken out of our area for pretty much a whole week! We will be alright though.
As far as this last week goes it was really awesome. The APs came over for a few days and we did splits with them so we were able to get a ton of work done. We just keep finding more and more people to teach. We really need another set of missionaries here to help us out since we are gone so much. One of the days that we were on splits I was with Elder Estill and we were walking through a village called Yaroi. As we were walking through a man just came walking up to us and told us to come into his house and teach them. He is a pretty plump guy and he is missing a lot of his teeth but he is the man. We went in and had a good intro lesson about our purpose as missionaries with them. He just kept telling us that he was feeling the Spirit. Me and Elder Moaalii went back the other day to teach them again and they are way awesome. He was so thankful for all the new stuff that he has already learned from us and for the Spirit he says that he always feels as we teach. His name is Jimmy. His wife is half Chinese and half Fijian. Pretty weird mixture haha they are all awesome though. they have 5 kids. hopefully things will work out well with them. Me and Elder Estill also taught a lesson and we were sitting outside of this ladies house in a different village because there was no man home so we couldn't go in. As we were teaching her tons of kids just started coming and gathering around us because they were so amazed that we could speak Fijian haha Their dialect has some similarities to the one in Vunivesi that I have been learning so when I started throwing in some of that stuff they were going insane haha it was awesome.
So the baptisms in Vunivesi were really awesome. There was a ton of people there again, and we had an amazing feast again. Every Sunday pretty much they have a big feast out there and they make you eat so much haha pretty much the more you eat the more they love you, so I am starting to gain wait from eating so much. It is way good food though. I can't wait for you guys to come and try the food. It was a bummer that Semi wasn't able to get baptized with them but he is still the man. On Tuesday night me and Elder Myer the other AP went out there and we taught him a lesson and I thought that he would be all down and embarrassed and stuff about not passing his interview and the smoking thing and stuff but he was just super happy and kept saying how he knows with the Lord's help he will be able to stop smoking so that he can get baptized too. It was really awesome. We had a really good lesson with him about the atonement and about how Christ took on EVERYTHING that we will ever go through in this life so that he would know how to best help us. I got some better pictures from the baptism this time so I will send those haha.
I also just found out this week that Brother and Sister Bavoro, the old couple that I baptized from Naulu and that has been in the bishopric for a long time now, well they are going through the temple at the end of next month!!! I REALLY hope that it will work out to where I will be in Suva for meetings that week so that I can go with them but I don't know if it will. That would be SO awesome to be able to get to go through with them. It is awesome enough I guess that they are going through anyways. haha
Well I am glad all of you are doing so good! Say hello to everyone up in Utah for me! Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Well it sounds like you guys are having a lot of fun up in Utah! Rand and especially Parker look so big! crazy. That will be good if Rand at least waits until I get home haha I really want to see him before he heads out too. It will be really exciting to see where he goes. I am excited to get to write him while he is gone and help him with things that I also learned here on my mission. I am sure it will be a way different experience somewhere else in the world but there will still be a lot of similarities. I am way excited for him. I know he will be a way awesome missionary. Did you read Isaac the letter that I sent? Hopefully it was alright haha This week will be pretty weird. We are flying over to Suva tomorrow and then on Wednesday we have our zone leader council. Then on Thursday all of the District leaders from the whole mission will be coming in and we will have another training for them that day. Me and Elder Moaalii have to give a training. I think that it will be really good. We based it mostly off of a talk by Spencer W. Kimball called "Jesus Christ: The Perfect Leader" or something along those lines. It is a way good talk. Especially for comparing it to being a leader here in the mission. And then they couldn't get us a flight back on Friday so we have to wait until Saturday to fly back to Savusavu. It really sucks because we have so much stuff going on and we are going to get taken out of our area for pretty much a whole week! We will be alright though.
As far as this last week goes it was really awesome. The APs came over for a few days and we did splits with them so we were able to get a ton of work done. We just keep finding more and more people to teach. We really need another set of missionaries here to help us out since we are gone so much. One of the days that we were on splits I was with Elder Estill and we were walking through a village called Yaroi. As we were walking through a man just came walking up to us and told us to come into his house and teach them. He is a pretty plump guy and he is missing a lot of his teeth but he is the man. We went in and had a good intro lesson about our purpose as missionaries with them. He just kept telling us that he was feeling the Spirit. Me and Elder Moaalii went back the other day to teach them again and they are way awesome. He was so thankful for all the new stuff that he has already learned from us and for the Spirit he says that he always feels as we teach. His name is Jimmy. His wife is half Chinese and half Fijian. Pretty weird mixture haha they are all awesome though. they have 5 kids. hopefully things will work out well with them. Me and Elder Estill also taught a lesson and we were sitting outside of this ladies house in a different village because there was no man home so we couldn't go in. As we were teaching her tons of kids just started coming and gathering around us because they were so amazed that we could speak Fijian haha Their dialect has some similarities to the one in Vunivesi that I have been learning so when I started throwing in some of that stuff they were going insane haha it was awesome.
So the baptisms in Vunivesi were really awesome. There was a ton of people there again, and we had an amazing feast again. Every Sunday pretty much they have a big feast out there and they make you eat so much haha pretty much the more you eat the more they love you, so I am starting to gain wait from eating so much. It is way good food though. I can't wait for you guys to come and try the food. It was a bummer that Semi wasn't able to get baptized with them but he is still the man. On Tuesday night me and Elder Myer the other AP went out there and we taught him a lesson and I thought that he would be all down and embarrassed and stuff about not passing his interview and the smoking thing and stuff but he was just super happy and kept saying how he knows with the Lord's help he will be able to stop smoking so that he can get baptized too. It was really awesome. We had a really good lesson with him about the atonement and about how Christ took on EVERYTHING that we will ever go through in this life so that he would know how to best help us. I got some better pictures from the baptism this time so I will send those haha.
I also just found out this week that Brother and Sister Bavoro, the old couple that I baptized from Naulu and that has been in the bishopric for a long time now, well they are going through the temple at the end of next month!!! I REALLY hope that it will work out to where I will be in Suva for meetings that week so that I can go with them but I don't know if it will. That would be SO awesome to be able to get to go through with them. It is awesome enough I guess that they are going through anyways. haha
Well I am glad all of you are doing so good! Say hello to everyone up in Utah for me! Au lomani kemudou!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Sunday, October 7, 2012
a sotava nona ta (met her dad)
mi'au ba bula re na oku ma'avuvale!!
WOW! How about that announcement!?? Right when Elder Muir, one of our senior couple missionaries told us I instantly thought of Rand. I know that he will pray and fast about it and make the right decision for him. Just because they changed it does not mean everyone should go right at 18. It will be hard if he leaves before I get home but no matter what he does I will just be glad that he goes. That is way funny that he was homecoming king! haha he is the man. Shows the world that you don't have to do all the things the rest of the world is doing to be popular and liked. People will like and respect us even more when we live the standards of the church. We just got to listen to the audio of the Saturday morning session this morning because Elder Muir put it on my flash drive for me. He is going to download the other audios onto my flash when he gets them in the next few days so I will be way excited to get to listen to them. We won't get to watch any of it until the 28th of this month when hopefully we will get to see 2 of the sessions for church.
Well this week was really awesome. Lots more traveling. On Tuesday we were up in Labasa and we did our zone training meeting there. Came back to savusavu that night. Then woke up Wednesday morning for the 3 hour bus ride and then 2 hour boat ride to Taveuni and then did our zone training meeting there with those elders. Then woke up on Thursday morning and did the 2 hour boat ride and then the 3 hour bus ride all over again haha pretty crazy. But our trainings went really good. We are really excited though because this week we actually get to be in our area for the full week! I think that will only be the 2nd time in the whole time that I have been here haha
In Taveuni I met Sister Maiwiriwiri's dad! That picture is of me and him, so you will have to send that to Harry so that he can show it to her. Me and Elder Moaalii had to meet with the district president because that is one of the things we have to do as ZL's and her dad was at the church so I was talking to him about how you guys took his daughter to lunch in Florida and stuff and he thought that was pretty cool haha Taveuni is a cool place too because the international date line runs through the island, so technically it is a different day on the 2 different sides of that island but they don't follow it haha But it is cool that we are the first ones to live the new day every single day.
So the work here in our area is still exploding. We are having 2 baptisms again out in Vunivesi this sunday. Semi didn't pass his interview yet because we found out that he smokes so we will have to help him with that before he can get baptized. He is the man though. We should also have like 5 more baptisms next month which will be way awesome. One of the guys we are teaching is an 80 year old man named Inoke. He is the one that just called us over to his house one day while we were walking through his village. We were on exchanges this week because of baptismal interviews and so me and Elder Inu went and taught him and we had a way awesome lesson with him about baptism and he was just explaining to us all these reasons why he knows that his baptism as a child was wrong and how he has such a desire to be baptized by us because he knows it is the right baptism and we used the picture book thing and I explained to him about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism and we showed the picture of the girl with the hands on her head receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and he started bearing his testimony and he started to cry and told us how when he sees those hands he felt like they were the hands of God that will be giving him this great gift. He bore testimony of his desire to be baptized and receive that peace in his life before he passes away so that he can pass in peace and know that he will be received by God. It was way powerful. He is the man. I love him so much.
So my favorite talk by FAR that I heard just from conference so far was President Uchdorfs talk from the Saturday morning session. It was amazing. How he just talked about living life and enjoying the journey and being happy with every day that we live and making the most out of our lives and becoming who our Heavenly Father wants us to be. I felt so blessed to have lived such an amazingly happy and blessed life so far and am so looking forward to everyday that I still have to become a better person and be happy! this life is so great!!! What a blessing. And what an amazing blessing and opportunity I am living now by being here in Fiji and serving the Lord. I have honestly never felt such happiness in my life as I have this past year and a few months. I am going to continue to enjoy everyday of it. My favorite of his many amazing quotes from the talk was "don't wait until we are ready to die before we truly learn to live" I feel so blessed to know how to truly live when I still have to much life ahead of me, and that way to live is to live this gospel to its fullest and enjoy its blessings in our lives. I love you all so much and am so thankful for the times that we have had and the many more to come!! Au lomani kemudou!!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
WOW! How about that announcement!?? Right when Elder Muir, one of our senior couple missionaries told us I instantly thought of Rand. I know that he will pray and fast about it and make the right decision for him. Just because they changed it does not mean everyone should go right at 18. It will be hard if he leaves before I get home but no matter what he does I will just be glad that he goes. That is way funny that he was homecoming king! haha he is the man. Shows the world that you don't have to do all the things the rest of the world is doing to be popular and liked. People will like and respect us even more when we live the standards of the church. We just got to listen to the audio of the Saturday morning session this morning because Elder Muir put it on my flash drive for me. He is going to download the other audios onto my flash when he gets them in the next few days so I will be way excited to get to listen to them. We won't get to watch any of it until the 28th of this month when hopefully we will get to see 2 of the sessions for church.
Well this week was really awesome. Lots more traveling. On Tuesday we were up in Labasa and we did our zone training meeting there. Came back to savusavu that night. Then woke up Wednesday morning for the 3 hour bus ride and then 2 hour boat ride to Taveuni and then did our zone training meeting there with those elders. Then woke up on Thursday morning and did the 2 hour boat ride and then the 3 hour bus ride all over again haha pretty crazy. But our trainings went really good. We are really excited though because this week we actually get to be in our area for the full week! I think that will only be the 2nd time in the whole time that I have been here haha
In Taveuni I met Sister Maiwiriwiri's dad! That picture is of me and him, so you will have to send that to Harry so that he can show it to her. Me and Elder Moaalii had to meet with the district president because that is one of the things we have to do as ZL's and her dad was at the church so I was talking to him about how you guys took his daughter to lunch in Florida and stuff and he thought that was pretty cool haha Taveuni is a cool place too because the international date line runs through the island, so technically it is a different day on the 2 different sides of that island but they don't follow it haha But it is cool that we are the first ones to live the new day every single day.
So the work here in our area is still exploding. We are having 2 baptisms again out in Vunivesi this sunday. Semi didn't pass his interview yet because we found out that he smokes so we will have to help him with that before he can get baptized. He is the man though. We should also have like 5 more baptisms next month which will be way awesome. One of the guys we are teaching is an 80 year old man named Inoke. He is the one that just called us over to his house one day while we were walking through his village. We were on exchanges this week because of baptismal interviews and so me and Elder Inu went and taught him and we had a way awesome lesson with him about baptism and he was just explaining to us all these reasons why he knows that his baptism as a child was wrong and how he has such a desire to be baptized by us because he knows it is the right baptism and we used the picture book thing and I explained to him about receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost after baptism and we showed the picture of the girl with the hands on her head receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and he started bearing his testimony and he started to cry and told us how when he sees those hands he felt like they were the hands of God that will be giving him this great gift. He bore testimony of his desire to be baptized and receive that peace in his life before he passes away so that he can pass in peace and know that he will be received by God. It was way powerful. He is the man. I love him so much.
So my favorite talk by FAR that I heard just from conference so far was President Uchdorfs talk from the Saturday morning session. It was amazing. How he just talked about living life and enjoying the journey and being happy with every day that we live and making the most out of our lives and becoming who our Heavenly Father wants us to be. I felt so blessed to have lived such an amazingly happy and blessed life so far and am so looking forward to everyday that I still have to become a better person and be happy! this life is so great!!! What a blessing. And what an amazing blessing and opportunity I am living now by being here in Fiji and serving the Lord. I have honestly never felt such happiness in my life as I have this past year and a few months. I am going to continue to enjoy everyday of it. My favorite of his many amazing quotes from the talk was "don't wait until we are ready to die before we truly learn to live" I feel so blessed to know how to truly live when I still have to much life ahead of me, and that way to live is to live this gospel to its fullest and enjoy its blessings in our lives. I love you all so much and am so thankful for the times that we have had and the many more to come!! Au lomani kemudou!!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
Vuka tale i suva (fly again to suva)
Mi'au ba bula re na oku ma'avuvale!
I am glad you all liked my email so much last week. It is going to be hard to ever top that email haha I know this week for sure will not even come close. This week was some traveling, and this week isn't going to be any different. Today right after this we are actually driving up to Labasa which is like an hour and a half away and we are doing our zone training meeting there tomorrow and then on Wednesday we are taking the boat over to Taveuni and then doing the zone training meeting with them there too. Our training should be really good. Me and Elder Moaalii have given a lot of really good trainings, we work really good together so it is way fun. We even made this way sweet like spread sheet thing with graphs and all kinds of stuff to show all of the areas in our zone how they have been doing so far this quarter. When we were making it in the office this week when we were in Suva all the other zls saw it and they all took it so that they could use it too haha it was a whole lot of work filling it out this week but it will be really good. Our training is going to be on setting good goals and how to actually achieve the goals that we set.
So this week on Monday we went out to Vunivesi. The same village where we baptized those kids last week. We taught the adults that are going to be getting baptized next week. They are probably the most humble and thankful people I have ever met in my life. It is so cool to see how thankful they are to have the knowledge of this gospel now in their lives. Especially about the Plan of Salvation. It is funny how we really take for granted a lot of the time that we actually have a knowledge of where we came from, why we are here on this earth, and where we can go after this life. I have really gained a testimony a lot lately about how important the lesson on the plan of salvation is. I think a lot of times on my mission I have focused a lot more on like the Joseph Smith story and that part of it, but a lot of times the part that most people are more interested in and the part that makes them want to convert is actually the lesson on the plan of salvation. Out in Vunivesi this week there was 31 people that came to church. We didn't get to go out there because we didn't have the truck but that is way awesome that there was that many people without a baptism or anything going on. It shows how powerful that baptismal service really was last week. It is awesome too because there is probably only like 20 members total that live out there so that means there are a ton of non members coming to church that we can hopefully start teaching soon. It could end up being a whole lot of baptisms out there.
This week when we went to Suva we had the zone leaders council. It was really fun to get to be with all the other zls. It feels really weird being there because I still feel so young in the mission but it makes me realize that I am actually in the older group now. So crazy. I love going to those meetings too because it gives us a good feel about what is going on in the rest of the mission and we talk about all kinds of things that we can all do to help the mission be better. All of the leaders right now are way awesome. We don't have any of the type of Nazi leaders that just point people out and tell them they are doing things wrong and force them to do things right and stuff like that. It is really good because all of the missionaries really are respecting the leaders now because they actually like us haha It has been so cool to see how much this mission has changed just in the time that I have been here. There are so many things about it that are WAY better now then before and it just keeps getting better.
Wesley wrote me a letter. I am sending him a letter back today. You guys should write to him. He is doing really good. I am way proud of him. He is going to get to baptize some people this week so that should be way awesome. He is doing really good.
Well I love you all so much. Sorry kind of a more boring email. I love you all though!!! Au lomani kemudou!!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
I am glad you all liked my email so much last week. It is going to be hard to ever top that email haha I know this week for sure will not even come close. This week was some traveling, and this week isn't going to be any different. Today right after this we are actually driving up to Labasa which is like an hour and a half away and we are doing our zone training meeting there tomorrow and then on Wednesday we are taking the boat over to Taveuni and then doing the zone training meeting with them there too. Our training should be really good. Me and Elder Moaalii have given a lot of really good trainings, we work really good together so it is way fun. We even made this way sweet like spread sheet thing with graphs and all kinds of stuff to show all of the areas in our zone how they have been doing so far this quarter. When we were making it in the office this week when we were in Suva all the other zls saw it and they all took it so that they could use it too haha it was a whole lot of work filling it out this week but it will be really good. Our training is going to be on setting good goals and how to actually achieve the goals that we set.
So this week on Monday we went out to Vunivesi. The same village where we baptized those kids last week. We taught the adults that are going to be getting baptized next week. They are probably the most humble and thankful people I have ever met in my life. It is so cool to see how thankful they are to have the knowledge of this gospel now in their lives. Especially about the Plan of Salvation. It is funny how we really take for granted a lot of the time that we actually have a knowledge of where we came from, why we are here on this earth, and where we can go after this life. I have really gained a testimony a lot lately about how important the lesson on the plan of salvation is. I think a lot of times on my mission I have focused a lot more on like the Joseph Smith story and that part of it, but a lot of times the part that most people are more interested in and the part that makes them want to convert is actually the lesson on the plan of salvation. Out in Vunivesi this week there was 31 people that came to church. We didn't get to go out there because we didn't have the truck but that is way awesome that there was that many people without a baptism or anything going on. It shows how powerful that baptismal service really was last week. It is awesome too because there is probably only like 20 members total that live out there so that means there are a ton of non members coming to church that we can hopefully start teaching soon. It could end up being a whole lot of baptisms out there.
This week when we went to Suva we had the zone leaders council. It was really fun to get to be with all the other zls. It feels really weird being there because I still feel so young in the mission but it makes me realize that I am actually in the older group now. So crazy. I love going to those meetings too because it gives us a good feel about what is going on in the rest of the mission and we talk about all kinds of things that we can all do to help the mission be better. All of the leaders right now are way awesome. We don't have any of the type of Nazi leaders that just point people out and tell them they are doing things wrong and force them to do things right and stuff like that. It is really good because all of the missionaries really are respecting the leaders now because they actually like us haha It has been so cool to see how much this mission has changed just in the time that I have been here. There are so many things about it that are WAY better now then before and it just keeps getting better.
Wesley wrote me a letter. I am sending him a letter back today. You guys should write to him. He is doing really good. I am way proud of him. He is going to get to baptize some people this week so that should be way awesome. He is doing really good.
Well I love you all so much. Sorry kind of a more boring email. I love you all though!!! Au lomani kemudou!!!
Loloma, Elder Hawk
Sunday, September 23, 2012
Tolu na papitaiso e loma ni uciwai (3 baptisms in the river)
Ni sa bula vinaka na noqu matavuvale!
Well this week's email might be a little different than a lot of the
other emails that I have sent home in the past, but I promise that you
will love it.
So this week the transfers were happening so we had to figure out how
to get all of the people leaving our zone onto their flights back to
the other island and how to get all of the new people coming into our
zone to their new areas as well. It all actually worked out really awesome.
So for a lot of the week we were driving people all over the island
and putting them on boats and things to get to their new areas. Elder
Tamuera and Elder Tremea are going to Rabi island where they speak
Kiribati language so we had to go and put them on the boat to get over
there.
I am way excited for them. They are going to do awesome work out there
because Elder Tamuera knows the language and Elder Tremea is really
excited to learn it. Pretty much all the other white Elders that have
ever served there didn't even really try to learn the language which is
sad, but I am way excited that Elder Tremea is so pumped and willing to learn
it. We also got sisters in our zone which is going to be really weird.
I don't really like being a leader over sisters because it is just a
whole lot different than dealing with Elders and there are like all
kinds of rules that go along with it. But it should be all good. We actually did get
a ton of work done in our area too though because we were able to go
on splits alot with other missionaries that were staying at our flat
for a little before they headed out. The highlight of the week of
course was the 3 baptisms.
I had probably one of the biggest spiritual experiences of my life and
so that is pretty much the only other thing I am going to write about
in my email today.
So we woke up on Sunday morning, the day of the baptism, and it was
POURING rain. It was super windy too and pretty much like a hurricane.
I was upset because our baptism was just out in the river in the
middle of the bush and the only shelter that we had for the service
and stuff was going to be a blue tarp tied to the trees and proped up with bamboo and mats on
the ground for us to sit on. But I knelt down and prayed hard that the
Lord could show us that he was aware of us and what we were doing and
if he could please keep the rain away from Vunivesi so that our
baptism could go well.
About ten minutes after I prayed the rain almost stopped completely
but it was still super cloudy and looked like it was raining over on
the other side of the bay where Vunivesi is but I knew it would all
work out alright. So we go over to Vunivesi for the baptism and it was
raining on the way there but we get out to where the baptism is going to be and I asked all the
members if it was dumping rain out there like it was at our flat and
they said that it didn't even rain at all. So that was just the
beginning of the awesome day, to know that Heavenly Father heard my
prayer and really was aware of where we were and what we were doing.
SO then there was about 43 people that showed up for this baptismal service
out in the jungle. And more than half of them were non-members. That unit usually
averages an attendance of less than 20. So the baptismal service goes
really awesome. It was so cool having it all outside underneath the tarp covering
sitting on the floor. The spirit was really strong. So then after all that we had a little break
and then we had our sacrament meeting service at the same place. We
did the confirmations for all three of them that were baptized and
then our branch president that came out there with us to preside got up and said
the speakers today will be Elder Muir, who is our senior couple missionary,
Elder Moaalii, and then Elder Hawk. So I was just planning on sharing just
any normal old short talk when I got up, but then I really felt like I
should try to be guided by the spirit and share something that would actually
mean more to these people and invite the spirit more than just some little thought that
I put no effort in on. So I started looking through my scriptures and I wanted
to kind of try to tie in the restoration some how and Christ too, so I
found this scripture in Moroni 7:41-42. It talks about how because of Christ
and his atonement we have hope. And so I really felt like that is what I should share.
So it was my turn to talk and I got up and I began to talk and I
shared a scripture from 2 Nephi 31:17-21 where it talks about the
gospel of Jesus Christ and how it is the only way to return to live with our Heavenly Father
and I also talked about how we can return to live with our Heavenly Father
and with our families for eternity in happiness if we follow this
gospel. So then I shared the scripture from Moroni about the hope in
Christ and talked about that, and then I started talking about how we now have a hope
today in this life to return to live with our Heavenly Father and our Families for eternity
because God called a young man named Joseph Smith to restore his
gospel, and this hope back to the earth. As soon as those words left
my mouth about Joseph Smith and the restoration I was hit with the feelings
of the spirit like I have never felt before and I could not hold back the tears. I paused and
began to cry. As I looked up at the congregation sitting on the ground in
front of me almost everyone was crying along with me. The spirit
filled our little shelter for church.
I finished off with my testimony as I continued to cry. I felt so much
love for all of these people there and so thankful that I now had an
experience that I will remember for the rest of my life of the day
that I gained a true unshakable testimony of Joseph Smith and the
Restoration of this gospel. And the coolest part about it is that it all happened,
in the middle of the jungle, while I was speaking in Fijian.
Well I love all of you so much. Thank you so much for helping me to
get to this point in my life, to be here in Fiji with these people
that I love so much, and to be able to have such amazing experiences
as this. Au lomani kemudou!! The Church is TRUE!!
Loloma levu,
Elder Hawk
Alena,Sereima,and Aisake ready for baptism
Our chapel in the jungle
Monday, September 17, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)