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

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

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

Livin' the Dream in Fiji

Papitaiso e loma ni waitui (baptism in the ocean!)

Me'u ba bula re na oku ma'avuvale

Well the first part of this last week was officially my one year mark of actually being in Fiji! Pretty crazy. I can't believe that I am almost down to single digits on how many months I have left. Time goes by WAY too fast. I got a letter from Brother Reeves a week or 2 ago and I wrote him back today. I wrote him some stuff to tell to the priest quorum too so that should be good ha It is so funny how I remember hearing the letters and stuff from people that were on their missions and now I am the one writing the letters. That is so crazy that Parker got his permit to drive! Can he drive stick shift yet? I love sitting on the right side of the car here and being able to shift with my left hand and steer with my right. It is way better. I want to try to get an imported car that is like that when I get home. haha

So this week we were hardly even in our area at all. Last Monday we went over to Taveuni and we were there until Thursday morning when we rode the boat back. When we were riding the little ferry boat back it started pouring rain and the sea was pretty rough but I thought it was way cool haha I don't get sea sick or anything at all. Taveuni was really awesome. It is a beautiful place. It was really good too to be able to be over there with those elders and to help them. There are only 4 Elders on that island and 2 of the Elders are still being trained so it was good for us to go and help them out some more. I really like being able to help other missionaries because I remember when I was new and how much I always looked up to the zone leaders. Hopefully people will look up to me in the same way. In Taveuni there is a senior couple, Elder and Sister Sherry. They are way awesome people. They are hilarious. There house is SO gorgeous. I will try to send some pictures of the view they have. They live in this super nice house up on the side of a big mountain and they have a beautiful view of the ocean and some other islands and there are like not any other houses close and stuff so it is really quiet. It is amazing. I am for sure going to have to come back to Fiji to serve with my wife haha there is actually a senior couple here in Savusavu, The Muirs, and he actually was one of the first missionaries to ever come to Fiji. When he came Fiji was part of the Tonga mission and there was only 4 missionaries assigned to cover all of Fiji and he was one of them. They just had their 48th wedding anniversary yesterday and we got to go eat lasagna at their house which was amazing. haha

I wish that the subject of my email was actually one of our baptisms but it isn't. There is a lady from Australia that lives on one of the resorts here because her husband is like the manager of it and she is a member and one of their daughters got baptized this week and they did it on this way nice beach on the resort and we got to go. It was way awesome haha we are actually having three baptisms this weekend though so that will be awesome. There are 3 adults and 3 kids out in a village called Vunivesi where we have a unit and they are all going to get baptized but we are baptizing the kids first this weekend and then in a couple more weeks after we teach the adults some more they will be getting baptized too. They are all such awesome people. We were teaching the adults this week and all 3 of them bore such strong testimonies about how they know Joseph Smith is a prophet and that this is the true church and how they have already been receiving blessings in their lives because of it. Way awesome. We are going to get to baptize all of them in this sweet river too so that will be awesome. I usually always try to make it so that a member baptizes the investigators so that they can have the experience too but this time I do hope that one of the kids picks me because I want to do a baptism in a river. haha

Transfers came in this week and my son Elder Tamuera will be coming to our zone. He is reopening an island called Rabi. It is an island where they are all people from Kiribati where he is from so they speak his language. I think he will do way good work out there. It will be awesome. We lost one of the other 2 Elders that stays in our flat with us sometimes, Elder Haimin. He is the one that went to South Hills Junior High the year I went there too. He is the man. We will miss him.

Well all is well in paradise. Still livin' the dream just like my whole life! Thanks for being such an amazing family!! Au lomani Kemudou vakalevu!!


Loloma, Elder Hawk

 Swingin' on a vine.....livin' the dream!

 Boat ride to  Taveuni

Sunset view from the deck of the Purple Mansion