Sorry, you can't get in... - 11 October 2015

This was a funny week. Let us start at ZTM. As I sat there with Elder Robinson coming up with insights, I thought of how we have missing baptismal records. So we made an insight called "the book of life." We gave it to the Wailoku sisters, S. Singleton, and Fiu. I told them about how only those in the book of life enter heaven, but this one is about baptismal records. They came to ZTM and had 4 missionaries act out life. When they got to the gate of heaven, she had the area book, and look for their baptismal records. She found the first 3, but the last person she told he could not enter, because his record was not found. Though he said he was baptized, it was not recorded. It was way fun.

Wailokus Heavens Gate

Later throughout the week, was just doing duties..... At times they are a drag, cause I just want to go teach, but it makes it so when I teach I pour a lot more into it. In fact this ward is amazing. Before I was dust to dust, but now I am given a rest from that side to do something else. The members find people for us here. It is easier for missionary work, and with the added duties it balances for how much you can do. It is good, because the previous missionaries worked hard.

I will give you an uplifting picture I drew one day. Lots of stuff to do, we have some things to do today making us a bit busy, I am on til called out the door. 

Elder MacLeod

Elder Robinson

Elder Robinson in Mass Effect? Who Knew.

Another day at the office - 4 October 2015

I will start with meetings. We had to do our DLC and MLC meetings this week. It is goal setting, and improving really. I hit my head Thursday morning, so I have this scratch on my head. People have been looking at me funny, wondering what happened.

Friday was cool. We went to Navua for exchanges. I went with a brand new missionary named Elder Levasa. He was way cool. Then I interviewed some one for baptism while there. We had 3 appointments that night. The next morning we had lunch at uprising. Elder Iosia was telling us about it, and my companion had been there before I think. I got this big burger while there I will put in a picture. It was a really nice place, but probably not one to go to for at least a while. Might not go, mostly cause we went only for exchanges, and Navua is the farthest place of our zone.

Other things that have happened I am not sure if I mentioned we had a baptism right after I got here. We are preparing for another baptism on the 17th, and another on the 24th. We just got some more people, that we are planning for the 2nd week of November. Schedule will be really busy to the end. Lots to plan for over the next 5 months. 

I will keep you all in all details, sorry if I am short on them. It seems relevant only at the time for me to share it, then I forget by Monday, then remember throughout the week, and think, " well to late now." 

Enjoy your Week!

Elder MacLeod

Yes. I ate the whole thing!

At the Mission Office

6 week Slam - 27 September 2015

I was transferred again. I am now in Tacirua. It is just a ways down the road from the temple. We had a baptism as soon as I got here. I also got my Selei finished, here is a picture of my Selei.

Things ought to be fun over here. We have too many people that want to come with us to teach. I have never had this issue before. Normally no one helps...... It was strange to be in a ward again. I have been having church in houses a while. They had me come up, but that is ok, after this I can finally rest at the chapel....

This was a fast week. We had to do transfers. I moved Thursday to help with transfers Friday. 9 missionaries go home including 2 sisters that came with us. Can't wait to have fun here.

My new Companion is Elder Robinson, who finishes in 6 weeks. I have met him before while I was in Lautoka and he was in Ba. He is from Alabama.

Hope you all enjoy this week. For now on I email at the office, so if I am fast, it is because we have only a little time, or if I am late it is because Nausori, Suva Zls, or the STLs beat us in.

Elder MacLeod

Cave of the stone that is lime - 20 September 2015

Yes that is true limestone cave, Sorry not much time for email we are in and out, just got back form the limestone cave in Wailotua no.1. There is a lot of history preserved with a tour that explains what cultural back grounds were, much was about the cannibalism and such. Not a pretty past, but a cool story.

I had a trip to Levuka, it was mostly a check on the missionaries out there, true I saw old faces, but it is not about visiting old faces, it is the work of the Lord. I did have a fun time though. We were on the move. I spent one day in our area.

We tried to make some district sulus, but they wanted to charge $60 for just the screen..... Rediculous, that is not even to buy the sulu.... I will send the picture I drew for our sulu print.

Sorry not much to say, we had fun, but it is in the moment stuff haha. Lots of being on the go, transfers will be called tomorrow, so I will tell you changes next week. 

Elder MacLeod

Candle Light - 13 September 2015

This week was filled with a candle lit dinner, going to 2 church sessions, and a baptism. 

The start of the week, was the first training I had to give. Well I figured all these missionaries know how to do stuff, so we put it to practice. Each one had to get up and try selling an items to the group. That had to be interesting enough for us to want it. We scored them out of 100, on the categories: Creativity, Difficulty, Interesting, and Explanatory. The first scored low, we ended we 3 Fs and two As. It was a good day overall though. 

The following days were tedious stuff done for baptism preparation. I went with Elder Tu'i from my intake at the MTC on exchanges for him to interview Marika (the baptisee) we slept at the chapel, and since there is no electricity we had a candle light dinner.

Friday we rode up to Saioko where we met a man that when he saw the Smiths come he made us lunch, and invited us over all the time. We will try and see him when we can. Next week is difficult since we will be going to Levuka for exchange. We will get the Tuesday night, and come back Friday morning.

Not much stories these days, just the simple funny things that you run into.

Elder MacLeod

Bureiwai - 6 September 2015

This was a good week for Burewai, we got the record without a truck! This place is interesting, we planned with the Smiths (A senior missionary couple assigned to work the MLS in the area) to travel to the Ra providence. That entails Bureiwai and Saioko.

While out there I had to trnslate the temple classes for the Smiths. He went through all of lesson one, then looked at me. Not only did I have to translate, I had to remember the whole lesson on the Spot. It went well though.

I have been working on learning the Ra dialect, it goes a little like this conversation "Kemudou sa vano evei? Kei'ou sa vano sara e vale, me cava? Me lesu 'ale ka vasaga." A few change in words, but then they don't use ts hence the apostrophe.

This week was very fun, on an express bus I saw a little of the new Jurassic park. It looked pretty good, so I will add that to the bucket list-----------I now interrupt this to inform you of a current event, A missionary just broke one of the chairs and slammed the ground, picture below.

We had church in Burewwai I will show a picture of the Chapel, I have to teach Sunday school on a whim. I was volun-told by the Smiths hahaha, It went well though.

Elder MacLeod

Zone Meeting - 23 August 2015

I can't remember if I sent this or not, so I thought I would this time. I do not recall much of the week. Lots of road-trips. I spent much time driving from Korovou to Suva. I don't have much time today. We are getting the truck serviced, so I am at the mission office, where I am holding a package! Just in time right? Received the 24th of August.

We had Zone conference. this last week. This is a picture of our zone. Always a good time when there is zone conf. We are rolling more work in. I have not been to the whole area, but I am helping with splitting the area, and will probably be here for the change to a District. Still pending though, no confirmations.....

Sorry not to many pics. We did not do much interesting stuff. We met with people, wandered place to place. I am back into the driving groove now. I think I have got it now.

Elder MacLeod

Truck-a-saurus - 16 August 2015

Transfers were this week, and my new area has a truck that I drive. I stay in Korovou town, Burewai, Nasautoka, and Saioko.

We have the largest area on Viti Levu. For a heads up I am in the same district as before, I moved next door. I still see the same people hahahaha. I was just asked by someone here before where I was, I replied " Burewai," he died laughing..... It is funny, but I don't care, I get a rest from walking though. I do get to go back to Ovalau sometimes as well, so that is always fun!

I got my package, but I will retrieve it Thursday, when i go to Suva. There were some issues in the office, and I have a back-up pin for them, then I happen to remember. Good thing I have back-ups, otherwise, I would illegally be in Fiji all of a sudden. Can't have that can we? Not sure how it got lost in the office, but whatever though.

We have zone conference coming up. Thursday, that will be good!
I get to do zone qitos again. It is exciting!

Elder MacLeod

Finish to Finish to Finish? - 9 August 2015

I am trying out videos, to see if I can send one, the sizes on movies are massive,
but this one is a waterfall. We pass it nearly everyday.

We started the week on a boat to Viti Levu. While playing rugby, E. Kubera got his foot stabbed by a regular chain-link fence. It was bent into it, so we could not pull it straight-out. Once we got it out, I took him in the church building, E. Hafen was following us, so I sent him back to see if they had any badages, and disinfectant. He returned, and grabbed the first aid from the truck.

Meanwhile, I gave E. Kubera some damp paper towels to clean-out the dirt. Elder Hafen came with the stuff, so we got it disinfected, wrapped it with gauze, and adhesive tape, then returned to what we were doing. Pay attention in first aid classes, I was forced to take this about 6 or 7 times..... I remembered though......

Later in the week, we had Burewai  [Elder Hafen and Elder Otene)] on Ovalau with us 2 days. We had some fun exchanges with many banana smoothies.

On Sunday we had a man who let us share, then his grandchildren sang us a couple songs haha. It was interesting. They definitely memorized more scriptures than I have, but I now have a little book I have been constructing that proves everyone of our principles in the bible. The book is disguised as an Iphone.....

Other instances in the week, include a man with strange interpretations of scripture, accuse me of heresy ha ha It was over a principle shared by Christ, that which the Pharisees said was doctrine of the Devil.... but as it says in 3 Nephi "contention is of the devil", so I resisted the evil.

I am making a new planner. I have done so with 5 gum wrappers! Here is the front picture of it.

Hope you all have great weeks! I get fun an interesting stuff each day, I get to laugh to myself.

Elder MacLeod

Elder Haffen

Un-originality - 2 August 2015

I email you all from Viti Levu. We have finally come in after 26 days. We had much success with-in this time. Rest 2 days, then start again.

We had to change plans, and did not travel to Moturiki this week. Mid-week, we were in a lesson on the Law of chastity and word of wisdom with the same 75-year-old from last week. He is a bit deaf, so just after Elder Kubera shared, I was about to speak, when he thanked us for coming, and shared stuff people normally say at the end, but then he said loudly, "Masu!" which is pray. Then he prayed to close. Everyone was confused, and just bowed their heads. Afterwards they laughed a bit, but we asked if there were any questions, and did a quick follow-up to make sure he remembers.

This week, we were confronted by a Pastor of another church. He came up to me with a familiar scripture, that was told to me while in Lautoka. The man said that we were quote "of the devil." Well when he quoted the scripture, I recognized it. I was sad that it was not original. He re-used the same scripture to tell me I was of the devil. We asked where the info came, he said you can find it anywhere, and he got it from members that left our church....... Great source of info. Well he was very misinformed, and would not let me give words, so I said "thank you for the meeting" as I reached my hand to shake his hand. He refused it ha ha.

We saw him later in the week in a taxi, we waved, but he ignored us. Whatever though, life moves on.

Niu-ate-ive - 26 July 2015

Tagi Moucia (tang-ee moh-thee-ah) I use my Fijian very often yes.

Next is the title. Saturday we went to Lovoni which is inside  Ovalau. We arrived mid-day, then left 1 1/2 hours later. Well thus bus did not come as we had planned for, so we started to walk. We walked all the way out to the outside road. We walked for 1 hour 45 minutes before a taxi happened to pass by. We were late to the next place, so we just shared, and cancelled lunch. This brought us back close to time. From skipping lunch we were able to be only 10 minutes behind. The day went on and such from there, every second counted.

Back to the long walk though. While walking we found coconuts that were at one time tied together spread across the road. We picked them up, to find they were good coconuts. We picked up 5 in total. While walking Elder Kubera was thirsty, and found a stick, he husked the coconut, then cracked it up with a rock. Then ate a bit of the coconut. True native right? We had some laughs before moving on.

We have this old man we teach. This week we went to teach, and he was about to go shower, but we shared before he went. When we walked back down, As E. Kubera walked near the bathroom our investigator turned around and said this, just in Fijian," I do not have a wife to clean my towel, but it is nothing (points into the air) amen!" Then wanders off through a cassava farm to the neighbors house to shower.

Other instances involve  someone asking if I would come back for them... I was shocked by the request and evaded with humor. I didn't want awkwardness to enter my mission. Ain't nobody got time for dat!

Elder MacLeod

Elder Kubera with Coconut and Stick

Sonic the Missionary - 19 July 2015

If only I had sonic's powers, they would be useful.

We had an extremely busy week, it was nice to have something to do every minute of the day. Not much things have happened. We are teaching more interesting people. The smarter people are around here, the more interesting it gets. You start getting questions, and the light goes off.
I
 spent a lot of my time at the end of the day, and our p-day time drawing. I am starting to get the hang of it I think. Here are some things I drew.

Sorry not much to say this week. We had little out of the ordinary stuff. Just the usual random kai valagi with an accordion and such. I am slowly running out of things to say now days. I wrote a letter to my family. It is in Fijian with the translation with it. That way if anyone asks you what Fijian is like, you can show them something.

I hope you all have had a great week, always rainbows after rain right?

Have a great week eh?

Elder MacLeod

Suva Jaiga! bye-byes - 12 July 2015

We started the week with a Suva trip. I said goodbye to may missionaries I will not see for a time, until mission reunions maybe.

Reason for being in Suva was the train the trainers meeting. We had this pizza with bacon and bbq sauce..... ooooh man Suva...... if only if only.... It sure was a nice change. I mostly eat bread, and what ever the members feed us. Every Sunday we get fish cooked in coconut milk (ika valolo).
In our time in Viti Levu we were able to play some volleyball. We pretty much only qito on Viti Levu. I got sick on Saturday, so we are relaxing today. We were going to fish, but you know. My bud Trav though..... That is truly an epic finish to your epic mission man.... Cherries?!

Au na masulaki iko na noqu karua! E kalougata na nomu veiqaravi mo kauti na tamata tani mera kilai na veivakabulai ni Karisito. Au nuitaki o iko na vakila na vakacequ. Iko na rawata na veivakacequ sa vakarau vei iko.

Back to the emails. That will be translated in its due time for he that it is entitled.
We were only in our area half the week, but we had one of our best weeks. We were all over. Amidst it all I had sinus pressure. On Sunday everyone needed my help with something immediately after church. I had my own plan for things, and not much room for extras... I also lead the music amidst my sickness. Thing is I can't complain. I mean, meanwhile my friend has malaria and has been in the hospital a while.

There was some funny things that I missed to film with my camera, I got a picture with three others who came to Fiji with me.

Not a super eventful week. At least no crazies like last week.

Elder MacLeod

Bashing, the variety of the sorts - 5 July 2015

The sun rose and set on another week.
I messed around with camera settings and got some nice pictures.

When I last left you I went to play some touch rugby at the chapel. While playing I started to run to catch someone across the field. To the eyes of everyone, it seemed an impossible feat to accomplish. Determined I ran full sprint to barely catch him outside the try zone, but as I looked up, the fence was a bit closer than I remembered. I quickly tucked to the side as I was already airborne. Yet I hit the pole just above my hip bone. I wrapped a little around the side, as the pain seeped to my spine. I lay on the ground will many missionaries in awe at the occurrence. Though in pain, I made a few jokes at it ha ha. Yet when I tried to move, I found difficulty in moving my right leg. I could feel the intense pain, so I knew nothing had gone really wrong. I finally was assisted to my feet, only to find a gash on my right thigh as well. I could not feel it due to the intensity in my lower right back. I cleaned the cuts, and walked out my other injury a while. I told the specialist about the occurrence. I told her that I would like to keep going a while, because it might just become a bruise. Well I was right about that. I got a picture for you all of my bruise.


I was later involved in LDS charities donations again. I was grasping my side from the pain I was enduring, so now our whole mission has a picture of me grasping my side. They have no idea though hahaha. (President emailed it to the mission).

Encountered a person with harsh comments of missionaries and the Church. Looks like that will hit us all at some time. He cared not for what I had to say, he only wished to force his opinion on me, but I shrugged it off and moved on ha ha. E. Kubera was asking what just happened? He knew what was said, just could not believe it. Especially that a Fijian walked by and said yes, though not knowing what the question is......

It was an interesting week though. Next week we go to Suva for TTT, I was right about transfers. I stay again, and I guessed who was leaving. I can never give it for certain, but you get pretty good over time. It makes sense to you.

Elder MacLeod

Northern Zone Conference

Sasa Wars - 28 Jun 2015

Another good week for missionary work. Never a shortage of rocking it! Let me jump right in!
We started with a Branch activity. We had a few non-members there, and a large portion of the branch. It ended up being worth our efforts when we had much success through-out the week.
We went to Moturiki again and found 8 new people to teach in a day. They were very nice, and we are slowly getting to know everyone on Moturiki.

The Head-Master invited us to talk with the students, it was very strange.... They said to "bula vinaka saka" which is a form of respect given to that of a king, or governing official of high-rank, I was very uncomfortable with it..... but we moved on.

Later in the week we were walking into Baba where we found a member raking her yard, we immediately through down our bags to help. I later had a sword fight with a sasa (broom) then the kids had the 2 sasas and proceeded to try and beat me with sasas.

We have eaten much fish boiled in coconut this week. I think it is a sign of appreciation from the members, and others we sit with. Transfer call is tomorrow, and we know what that means!


Elder MacLeod