Coga na Motoka! (hit by a car)

Well, luckily it was not me, but that was this morning I will get back to that after these short recaps.

We will start with the beginning of the week..... Not much to tell. I was surprised how well we did this week, for how difficult it is to do something the week of Christmas. Well, we had a lot scheduled for Wednesday, but ended up going to a village called Kiuva. Well while there, we stopped by and took pictures at the beach. Sorry, I am at another email shop that does not allow picture uploading, but I have some good pictures.

Anyways the next day, we had a lovo at a half zone party. It was only 2 of 4 districts. The others were frustrated they were not invited haha, sorry. I didn't know they didn't know. Well, we had some funny times, with some things only the missionaries would really understand. Missions have mass inside jokes..... So if you think the missionaries are weird, chances are they are to you, but they think it is the funniest thing cause it is their inside joke.

We skyped the next day for a while where I explained a bit of what happened, and gave teasers to my pics (that I can not upload today). Thats all I have to say about that.....

my bad, I almost forgot, someone got hit by a van, so as I was sitting on the bus, 7 fijians smashed into me leaning over me to see what was going on. Sad day. Someone was  somewhat insensitive about it. Since it was an Indian, I heard them say that they were just being foolish Indian..... Very sad.... Most the people were grumpy with that one person though....

mmmm what you x-ray

Hmm well emails get more difficult each week. I sit at a computer reading the emails from home, and then when I want to email, I sit there for a bit beating myself up trying to think of the things worth sharing that people want to hear..... I mean I always have something, but if it is too boring, not even I would want to read it.

Anyways, (classic entry) This week started off with a visit to the physical therapist. Well, after doing some checks, I was told to go get an x-ray. Well, then we had to return one week later, so we had the appointment early this morning. I am tired...... Got my results though, but we'll get there.

Well, first off we had quite the week. This area improves every week. We go up at the same rate each week. We had an exchange where I went to Bau. I had to sleep in a mosquito net for once. Man do they suck. I walked into their flat, and this is my direct quote vs. E. Nawahine's response. I said," this is the worst flat I have ever been in," Nawahine said  "man this has been my best flat in the mission." hahahaha I laughed a bit. Well, I didn't fit in the coil, so it took ages for me to fall asleep. I could hear the mosquitos buzzing around my head the entire time, luckily they left my feet alone that were hanging out.

Well, we got back and had church and stuff same ole, same ole. Then went to a fireside, and came back. Well, here are my results. My hip has been pulled out of place by tight muscles. Show choir helped me with something, so I need a thank you to go to Sister Gull and Mr. Child. The Physical therapist said I was the most flexible guy he had worked with, which at first I didn't think I was flexible, but I was able to lay my knees flat to my chest. I almost got my legs straight, but they stopped still a bit bent. Well, I quickly grabbed the x-ray picture, and took a picture of it for you peeps! It is a good pelvis, just one hip is pulled slightly making it shallow. This means I makes my hip pull into a natural relax as I walk, which is causing the pain, cause my hip is pushing out wrong. (They gave him some exercises to do and taught him how to do real, effective lunges to stretch.)

I made some more art with my blanket a midst the mornings and nights. I will give the picture, see if you know what they are.

More Blanket art

Even more blanket art

 ( We are so impressed with Connor's blanket 

crafting abilities, maybe there is a future in this?)

Elder MacLeod by the ruins

My hip x ray

Pigeons dance off on the roof

minecraft wall, with lowered entrance

 (this one is for you Caden!)

Snow in Fiji?

hmmm, not my most creative title, but it makes you wonder? Let-uce start at the ending. I am emailing, go back a bit further, we are at our flat, a bit further, it was Sunday and we are at church. Further than that, and we were wandering around seeing fall-throughs rain from the sky. Even further, and we had a branch Christmas party. Further, we got a bit of lessons, then even more, we have our tri-zone Christmas party. We go into that(comma) but we skip back to the beginning. It was Monday, we finished emailing, and I went to a side shop where I found a back-up charger! It is junky and may break, but I had camera use! We had the rest of our P-day, then a district sleepover at our flat. We had to do so to all be on time to our zone conference the next day in Suva. Well we played a bit of chess, then went to sleep. Anyways we went the next day and had our zone conference and some activities. I was able to see all my original district that was still here. The only ones gone were our old ZLS. Which that means yes, I was reunited with my trainer! Anyways to get to the point of it all, we watched FROZEN as 3 zones! I missed about the last 45 minutes of it..... Even though it was out before my mission, I still don't know how it ends.....Anyways that is why snow in Fiji.... You all actually thought there was snow, you is na ulumukau! hahahahaha not much this week. Sorry so short, I am on my way to physical therapist.  Got to get my hip checked out today, it may be out of place, but that is ok!

Guess who's back!?

Ginger bread Fiji style (they are breakfast crackers)

Make shift airplane wing bridge

the ruins behind our flat.

The island life

Blanket Art 2

Potato soap from Idaho sold in Fiji

Fruits of our labor

And the Horse you rode in on.....

It was not even real leaving Lautoka. I had been there so long it was just automatic and natural. Yet as it all goes you need to move along. From the beginning:

I spent everyday from 9:30 to 10:30 packing from Sunday night. While packing, I noticed one item no longer in the house. My camera charger...... I will be needing one, If you could send one, I will look around as best I can, but better safe than no pictures, not many carry the brand of camera I have, so I am looking for places that sell micro usb cords, wish me luck?

Anyways, after packing my super huge bags full of stuff, I finished Tuesday night at 10:25. I left at 7:00 in the morning, then caught a very long bus ride. When the bus had finally arrived who other than my trainer greets me off the bus. If you all remember, he was sent off island to Taveuni, well, he was there for only 6 weeks. I always told him he would finish Suva Zone-Leader, so when I got there that is what I said to him. My entire original starting district for my first 3 months in Fiji will be at the same christmas party tomorrow. Well except our late zone-leaders E. Heath and Abplanalp, now Brothers Heath and Abplanalp. Anyways, my companion is E. Haretuku. He finishes his mission in about 5 weeks.

The area I am now in has been struggling. The APs came to try and fix the area, but it did not go, so they sought a new solution. I have the goal to make it a stable area before I leave, I may get low success on saints, but this place will be on track to get saints when I leave it!

Not sure how this side of the island works. It rains everyday here, and floods. I am in the flood zone. We are going through hurricane season. To see one would be way cool! That would be the scariest thing though! Funny how that works! Just pray our house doesn't get flooded. I don't like my stuff getting all wet...... anyways that is the week. Sorry no picture this week, the camera is dead, please send a charger!

oh Yes, My first morning I woke up to a huge 8  inch centipede crawling up my bed, well it made me so paranoid that I kept jumping out of bed every hour thinking one was on me. We ended up super poisoning the floor, and we find big huge dead spiders starting to pop-up everywhere.

These are some pics from E. Haretuku:

The Flood!

Sheltering a little kitten.

A B Cs and ABACAs

Sorry for being late we just got back from a mountain hike gone wrong...... I will get there though. This week has many events actually. Going out of Lautoka in a bang oops... spoilers.....

This week we had a great beginning, but were so busy in the end, then reality hit us Sunday. We kept lessons steady through all this side stuff, so brace yourselves, and hands in the truck, under the blackboard...... 

We will start with the beginning, we travel this one pathway often here, with a log you walk across, well I was walking, and partially fell in...... all was good, we matched our best day for lessons still with that, I was kind of all over the place and out of it. Moving along, the same day with me out of it, I was clapping (which is respectful finish here) but I kept clapping, so the lady was laughing like she never has before. Well, following which we left and went along with the day. Later the same week we had our long waited for Koroipita (Project Benjamin) that we have been working on for ages.... It went pretty decent, I may not get to see the after effects, but I saw the event through. We had some fun news reports from E. Johnson and KSL 5 news.  I sent my last 2 sd cards to the walkers to take home. You will have to wait longer on these videos. They were funny.

Anyways, Transfers were this week, and we all guessed what would happen... I have being driven out of Lautoka to a small village known as  Nakelo in Nausouri Zone. Luckily it is just out of town, so I go to Nausouri Town every week, I am in a koro, but emails and P-days are all good! I have a comp there who will be with me 6 weeks before he goes home. President has told me things concerning the future of the mission for me, but I will let them play out, and leave you all guessing. I am in on the future for once, and I know what will happen to me in transfer 6 weeks from now, but that is for me to know, and you all to find in due time. Just know it is an opportunity to grow, and become a better disciple.

Anyways, I was really late back today to email, a 2 hour trip turned to 4 fast. Sister Wright will be going home from finishing her mission, and she has never been on (a) adventure. We went to the mountain koro of abaca (ahm-bah-thah) to hike to a waterfall, well our tour guide was very prideful, and thought she knew her way, and did not want to look dumb in front of the missionaries........  Well word of advice, it is better to look dumb, than be the reason of sorrow. These emails are not for me, if they were I would say so little, but I have learned, and President Layton has told me how these emails are to encourage and uplift others. 

Long story short, we ran into a Fijian guy who was shocked I knew fijian. 

He pointed out the way. It was a good trip though.

The hike

pictures on the hike

More landscape from hike

Chillin in Fiji

crazy voodoo like thing, I added a sasa to (sasa is broom) 

ward mission last time together in action! Moce Lautoka 1st!

Nakelo flood (we are officially in flood season)

waiyavi waterfall

Preparing Chocolate pudding pies to go along with our Thanksgiving Feast from care package.  (Thanks Mom)

This week's fridge.  Care packages are great!

Richardson?

Man things are lining up here.

Let-uce start with Monday. We didn't qito cause I didn't want to pay $5 to be somewhere for 15 minutes, so we sat around. E. Johnson was not feeling the greatest Monday anyway so it was all good. Tuesday we got out to go teaching. We had a lesson where we really complimented each other. We took extra time on each principle, well, the investigator was almost crying on every principle cause how happy he felt. We have got that a lot. Another missionary said he is always happy around us, cause we get along and just a an aurora of happiness about us.

Anyways moving along in the week. I went on an exchange with E. Raju...... He doesn't speak Fijian, cause he is the Hindi speaking Elder. This meant I had to teach every principle. Well I also had to move his baptismal date, so I dreaded the lesson the whole day thinking of how I would word it to not hurt his feelings. It went surprisingly well, and now as of result he will be baptized on the 29th.

Besides that I bought some new shoes for really cheap. It would be the equivalent of $10 USD so I got them to save for after I come home. I also wear them in the flat to keep my feet narrow. 

Not sure if I have said much , but we have been organizing a church media event. E. Pence and I had come up with the idea a long time back. Now we are still driving, just E. Pence is no longer here. It is scheduled to be on the 29th. We as the missionaries drew this idea up, and it has become a big thing now. I will let you all know how it goes. We were handing out fliers last week. Thus...... Richardson. (movie reference) 

Sorry not to much funny stuff...... I like this to be fun to read, but sometimes not much happens. Just the little trivial things. Ninjas with the kids, playing chicken with an umbrella versus a car (I totally won though.) Having popsicles (we made them out of water and those flavoring packets we got in the Halloween pkg). E Johnson's bollywood dream... And the bunch of Indian ladies trying to give me their daughters for marriage...... There was also E. Johnson speaking Hindi to the Fijian girls, then he realized it as we walked away, he was embarrassed, but he got to show off the Hindi speaking. We just rocked through giving out fliers by him speaking Hindi or Fijian. We even found a girl that wanted to be a missionary like us, so we told her if she comes to the event on Saturday we can show her how. Trivial stuff. This is like normal everyday. I guess there were missionaries is the news paper.....

Dinner out in a nice restaurant

My new shoes

Party in Lautoka

My name maze in progress

Missionaries from Fiji in the newspaper

Need I say more?

This week had its events.......I will start at our really lame Qito (sport) There was only 4 of us, and it was no-contest..... We had no fun with it. After which we were at our new investigators house. They made us pie and dinner. Well, while there we went through our food. Of course, I pounded through it faster than E. Johnson. Well, just before eating a member called and asked if we could run to the hospital to give a blessing...... We asked if she could call the Hindi Elders cause we were pre-occupied, but she insisted we call. Well, we called them and gave them the info, but they reworked the hospital entrance, so they called me to ask where the door was, but I didn't know they reworked it...... 

Well, they figured that out, so we ate food. Well, E. Johnson randomly came out and asked if he could step outside for a phone call. He walked outside, and came back in to tell me what really happened. He went out to puke. He puked 4 times. 

The next day was mission tour. Elder Halleck of the Quorum of the 70 came to speak to us. We had just an open discussion session. It was awesome. I loved it. I will probably save what happened there for when I come home 16 ish months from now. 

As the week went on we went to a settlement called Vunato for a return visit. Well, there was no male in the house again, so we left. As we were leaving, this lady  and this girl that saw us pass stopped us to ask about our church. After giving them a pamphlet, we heard the girl in the house yell, "Uro levu" which by translation would be super sexy......

That was not the end. We cut through the next settlement to get to our appointment faster. Well, as we entered, there was a girl in the tete on the left, 2 girls on the porch, and one behind us walking. They started to try and flirt, so we walked away a bit faster. We were walking through the middle when we passed a house with 8 girls on the porch. Also on the porch was this 12-year-old kid we had met while he rode his bike a week back. He started to talk to us (fijian) then as we were about to leave, he said E. Johnson was Kai Bua.  So then the girls were falling all over themselves so we turned yelling to each other lako lako lako! (lako=go) As we walked to the next place, E. Johnson turns and says," Man, I am questioning President on putting 2 skuxes together." hahhaha.  We have some funny moments. We end up running from settlement to settlement avoiding the girls.

Later, we had the 1 liter challenge, but somewhere along the way it became the 2 liter challenge. We each bought 2 liters of ice cream and had a race. Well, from the picture you can see I dominated!!! No one else finished. It was done in 15 minutes!

There are so many funny moments this week, like speaking Hindi (or the very little we know) at the Rameshwars, which lead to Sunday with a very embarrassing moment. Bro Rameshwar grabbed one of the YSA girls, turned to E. Johnson and said," Tum mangta?" which in Hindi that is: you want?  She was embarrassed, and we had a good laugh. Bro. Rameshwar really wants him to marry an Indian girl.  hhahahaha.

Until next time!

1. 2 liter challenge

2. Walking into the distance

This is Steve.

Notice how Steve is now down in the gutter..... 

Don't be like Steve, 

cause being in the gutter is no fun!

A Stick-ee situation

Let-tuce begin!

We had Zone P-day last Monday, which was really boring..... Everyone was bored so we sat around talking and catching up essentially. I bought a soccer ball, so I played a small bit of soccer! Most of the time at Zone P-day it is volley and rugby.

Anywhose..... Later that night we stayed with Ba. There is an E. Johnson in Ba right now (he has a blog). Well, we did splits with them, so the Johnsons went around convincing all the members they were brothers somehow in the same mission.... It was way funny. Well, then we sat around telling stories a long while, this lead to me and Johnson from Ba talking all night...... We even had like an hour and a half of language study. I just got too lazy to speak English...... Well ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) was the next day. I was so tired. Luckily E. Johnson had Zip-Fizz, which got me through it. It was way funny. I have some videos of it, but I can't really mail that yet.

Following this event, we had another Exchange. We had some good lessons with some of our investigators, then moved along to go home. Pres. Vuataki (mission 2nd counselor) gave E. Reeder and I dinner that night.

The next day we re-united and wandered from lesson to lesson. (normally the weeks start slow, but speed up after Wednesday.) We got a good bit in. We ate out like every single night. Well when we got back I said:"Nanuma, Nanuma na kalima ni Noveba." Nanuma is remember, and lima is 5. kalima is 5th. 

The next day, we did service in two places, got 2 lunches, but got taken away on one, so we had to throw it out to keep from getting bad. We were fed at the Nacebas house and got a golden referral from them. He is actually making us a pie today for visit number 2. We almost had 2 dinner appointments today, but the other cancelled since he will be home late.

Sunday was probably the funny day. We got out of church, and this was the 3rd time we have gotten Ice cream after church, except we were also provided lunch this time. Seems harmless at first, it just got funnier from there. We look to the side where we see Iva, this little girl chug a pepsi, then toss it like a drunk. We have no clue where she got it. Well then E. Raju ate the frosting off E. Johnsons cake...... Then Elder Johnson destroyed Rajus plate, then a food fight broke out between the 2. Well, E. Raju had chocolate frosting on his sulu, so a 2 year-old chased him around trying to get the chocolate. Well he left, and when we were standing around, the kid came back, but had a nice sized stick in his hands....... Well, he proceeded to start smacking my legs, hahhahaha, it stung a little but was way funny. The boys mom was way embarrassed, hahaha, but, we all had a great Sunday! Well that was the week.  E dua na nomuni taro? (any questions?)

Lunch at church with ICE CREAM!

Iva and her Pepsi

Lautoka Ward Building

Rockin Jeans on P-Day and my tan Lines! (we are going into Fiji summer here)

Smashing Elder Reeder

The difference between tomatoes, and Missionaries on service days....

The difference between tomatoes, and Missionaries on service days....

Well if you don't know....... you may not find it.....

Anyways to answer the package question I got it this week! Yet since Merika is a day behind, I got it on Halloween in America. So we celebrated Halloween a day late, but it was the greatest! Our neighbor is really nice, so she just keeps giving us mangos..... Well we had so much so for Halloween, we carved mangoes and took some pictures for the peeps back home.

Most of the week was just showing E. Johnson around. I mean we went to a settlement that I had never been to within my area, and picked up 9 potentials with return appointments within 15 minutes....... Sometimes I wonder if missionaries before us actually talk to people.... Everyone there was saying, Oh the missionaries would just walk through and never talk to us..... It is amazing what happens when you just talk to people, the principle is being friendly and kind.  You don't need to  share anything, but be as you would to your friends. (That is just what I spoke about in my farewell talk)

My mission starting in what is supposedly a "good ward" in Fiji is a testimony to me of how a functioning ward runs by certain aspects. The biggest way to retain activity is in activities themself. People do not like boring. Lots of people just go inactive with no activities. Do not take them for granted. Before I leave here, I want to get the mutual established here. It may not happen, but I know if I won't E. Johnson will. We had a great fireside a couple weeks ago. The ward loved it on the basis that it was a(n) fun activity.

Anyways Zone P-day is today...... I think I will buy a soccer ball at one of the side shops. Let me know if you have any questions like example, how to make fun of someone in Fijian, or what kind of food do you eat?  Not much more happened that was interesting in the week. Just the normal missionary talk. Funny stuff, but not memorable as well. Anyways, pictures are clogging the internet.

Mango Jack-o-lanterns

Part of Halloween Stash

The lighting, of Good triumphing over Evil

The lighting, of Good triumphing over Evil or in other words Diwali.(A week long Fijian Holiday) The week as I know it was great. Somehow, even with transfers (which I have something to say concerning those, and will get there later) we had more investigator lessons then last week.

Well that is the success of the week! Anyways the next part....transfers......

So as we know from last time E. Pence and I were finally separated. We had some good times, and we had some bad. As all the Earth must go, we leave. The new Companion E. Johnson (Ryland) (from Bountiful) is awesome. The day he was getting here, I became really involved in transfers. E. Pence left early Wednesday morning. This left me with the District Leader phone....... I got a call from the ZLs to go get E. Johnson at 1:00 pm, so with the Hindi Elders we left to get him. Well in this transfer the ZLs were not too well in contact, since they had someone transferring from Nasivikoso. This meant the Airport District Leader (E. Pulli) was running transfers. Well 1:00 comes around, so we go to get E. Johnson, well he was not there, but luckily we arrived when we did. Sister Wright was there by herself...... She apparently was not told to get off in Nadi to meet with her Companion there. Well, I was put in Contact with E. Pull from this point, and had to arrange her getting here. Well, eventually we got that solved, and set them to their area. Well, anyways E. Johnson did not leave Nadi though...... He stuck around, and did not get here til 4:30 pm, as I predicted. Well, sometime in there something happened to the ZLs, cause transfers were all over. Well E. Johnson got here, so I oversaw E. Roberts getting to Tavua, and gave an estimated time for him to get there. The next morning, I awoke to hear what Happened. The ZLs rolled their Truck 3 times. Luckily, only minor injuries. E. Tanoai was pinned inside, but they got him out. He just had a few scrapes, and a sore back. E. Fiso had the worst of it, and went to Suva. E. Johnson had to leave with E. Raju early to pick them up. Later we had the most food E. Johnson has seen his whole mission.

We had 3 lunches, and 2 dinners.......... Diwali makes people love you....

Well, the next day we had a missionary farewell, where I lead us in a song, and shared my thoughts.......... man, I just became the go-to guy here for stuff..... Well, again we had a lot of food, E. Johnson hardly touched it he was not used to  so much. Well, then I took a picture of the doub-step kid. He just did the same move...... Doub-step starts young here.

The rest of the week was less eventful, just Ice cream on sunday for an after church snack.... That was irregular. the other pick is us posing, I am too fast to be seen!

Trebek.........

hmmmm yeah I like that title, it has a ring to it.

This week was good, transfers will be gotten to......

Starting at the beginning, we had, well..... I am drawing a blank for the beginning of the week. I think cause the frustration others cause in our lessons. We were teaching an investigator to pray (this was the second time since he didn't get it the first time) Well this time he was ready (as it seemed) so we reminded him of the steps, then he started na tamada vakalomalagi o Jisu (face palm) We noticed that right off, so we stayed quiet let him finish, and were about to reschedule to come back (which we would have gone over it again) but then his (member) son said hey nomu masu cala..... I sat there thinking no please don't criticize him...... Well the next lesson he blamed us for making fun of him, so a 50 year-old man was giving us the silent treatment. Well he forgave us 2 days later (his wife told us) and we have yet to return.......

Frustrating.... it is because people criticize others that the church is hindered. To be completely honest the church is perfect, but it is filled with imperfect members. Yes we all make mistakes, but at least think it so that you don't push someone away.....

Anyways we have been planning a fireside to help the members understand this purpose. We sat planning (I sat quietly for the longest time as usual) about 45 minutes in after they have gotten their idea, I finally throw out one idea, and their whole plan was thrown out the window. We decided to do Jeopardy. We had a topic, so we decided categories, and what we would do. Hindi elders took the categories home and church, we took public and work.  I was to be the host, them the judges. (picture before the  start) It was the members' favorite fireside of all time. They liked it more than the Christmas party they had last year...... It was way funny cause we mocked around (well the judges did so). We had Elder Reeder give us on scene reports, asked people how they felt and all manner of stuff. Then when they were to judge an answer (role play) At the same time they would place on their glasses, and start discussing secretly..... (way funny cause the members called them shady judges) It was a close game too.....

As for the big news, sorry I could not hide it. I was way too lazy to make it a secret written within. E. Pence is going to Tavuni (the bush) My new comp will be E. R. Johnson (cause there is 3 johnsons in the mission) E. Painter (the previous ZL) is new AP, S. Au (2nd sisters) is leaving, and  S. Wright (she has a blog) is replacing S. Au, and will be in my district, so if you want another blog to read of someone near by, I am pretty sure she has one. Until next week!

1. Jeopardy before start

2. Rohit's (the new Ward mission leader) makeshift badge

We made it with card board white paper sharpie, and an aluminum thread.

Judges Tables

Makeshift Marbles