Some catchy title.....

Man it is hard to think of stuff once I sit down, but as I am going through the week, I can get great titles.

 Anyways, this week was slow. Since the change, we had to move to another flat. We packed our stuff up at like 10:30 pm when we got called. Our flat is a bit smaller, but still alright. It looks way more homey than the last one, that's for sure.

 We said goodbye to most of our district. We played volleyball at our chapel, wish we would have earlier. Our volleyball poles are way better than 2nd wards. Well.....

 So this week was alright it was boring and uneventful....... Why can't something happen right? Or is it a good thing nothing happens? Makes it too easy I say. 

 The really big things were

Stake conference, the lifesaver, and the possible curfew thing. Well that and dumping alcohol out with our investigator after the lesson on the word of wisdom. We have a video of most of it, but I got a picture of E. Pence dumping wine.

 We will go in order shall we? On Thursdays, we do a split with the ward to visit less-actives. I went with Bro Naceba, and E. Pence with Rohit Prasad. Well as I was walking to a members house, I noticed a man sitting in the door (it was dark outside) of the big building on my right. I said bula as normally I would do to some random passer by. He responded with excitement and a bit startled:" Ni sa bula vinaka." At that point I thought nothing of it, cause we had planned to visit someone, but I was completely constrained to talk with the man. I felt as if I lost control walking over to him. Once up to him I was stunned in a sense. He said, "do you have any spiritual advice for me, I have tried to commit suicide." I nearly shut down at this point. Bro. Naceba turned and all he could say was "kua, kua ni cakava ya." I pulled out my handi-dandi aivola i momani, and asked "E rawa me keirau wasea e dua na ka baleta nai vola oqo?" (can we share about this book) He asked us in, we were there sharing about the Book of Mormon a while, and giving him scriptures to help him. He said to me he had filled a basin with water, and put an electrical cord in it, but he couldn't quite jump in. Bro. Naceba said, "It is not your appointed time." Those words settled strongly in the man's heart. He said we saved his life. And that was my Thursday excitement.

 Anyways, we had a great stake conference, yet afterwards everyone needed us at the same time, then they were mad at us cause we didn't come to them when they wanted, then the schedule went all out of whack.......... Glad it is over. Then our lesson the same day. Our members said that there was a curfew on Wednesday because of voting. I don't know how serious that is. People here are way superstitious because of the number of coups they have had. Mostly I just don't trust peoples word here, cause no one keeps their word. We pretty much have to hold everyones hand......

 Until next time

Donuts made for us

landscape pic

Make shift doorbell

Word of Wisdom lesson

 

The walking dead........

This has been a week for helping less-actives. Not as many investigator lessons. We put in our miles though. If anything is for sure, my legs should be jacked at the end of my mission haha. Well as for the week's stuff:

Alright so transfers were Saturday (which has a huge surprise) and a(n) cancelled open house. Members getting mad at us for things we have no say in, and blessings?

So I will start with the members. I do not know what it is about the people here, but they expect missionaries to be able to solve every problem (non-gospel as well) exactly when it comes around. Missionaries in the majority of their eyes are perfect. Others think they can lie to us cause we got hit by a stupid stick or something......

 Well anyways after that, we had an open house. Well we told everyone to invite people to come, well it comes to time, and they thought people would "magically" appear at the thing........ Honestly........

 Blessings, we got many of those to perform..... We give blessings like candy.  haha. Somethimes people ask us fora blessing right when we have like 10 things to do in 2 minutes. I don't know math to well on that, but I am still sure that a man can not do so much that fast.

 Now for the huge surprise.... Drum roll....... E. Pence is..........Staying! Huge surprise. We have been companinons 4 months. By the next transfer we will hit 5 and a half months together. We are the only companionship that has not changed in the west. We are the "qase" or old guys. Yeah so we will still be here.

 Now for the reason of the title. In the transfer, the sisters area was shut down. We are loaded with dinners, but now we have the biggest area of the west. Good luck eh?

 Loves lots from dat Elda in Lautoka!

ZTM lesson

Eye infection

Fijian Driver's license

Drinking a coconut ( not quite as sweet as I thought)

Another pair of sandals bites the dust. (3rd pair in 5 months)

>error

Sorry no pictures this time.  The crazy asian in the shop is being a usb Nazi. He tried to run off with my sd card hahahahaha. No. The shop we normally go to is filled with kids, cause school starts for them next week. Next week, I should have more time, and double the photos.

First, I should let you all know that golfing was alright last week. It went slow, due to the wait time with the sisters going and such.

 Other than that, this was our most busy week. It was ridiculous. We could not even teach really, and teach together in that matter. Tuesday, we got out and taught very little, cause we had District meeting and such. The next day was DLC, early in the morning, then we had lunch with the luatoka leaders. We drank Otai, a tongan drink. Well, we taught immediately following, before going to the flat to do studies, which took up almost the rest of the day.

 Thursday, we woke up to do service. After service, we had to return home to do studies and eat. We then had an interview, all the way in 2nd ward in balawa side. Well we got back for our ward split, so we really did no proselyting. I went with a member named Waisea Sekitoga, and  Elder Pence went with Bro. Naceba. We met back together, then returned home to end the night. Friday was ridiculous by all standards.

 Normally, Fridays are planning day. The fact we got it done amazes me. We got up, did studies, then left to meet the 2nd sisters at the bus stand. We got on a bus for 25 mintues, to go deep into their area. Well we got to see how far later, but while there we did another interview for baptism. We then walked back to the main road, luckily a road side shop was there so I bought some sodas for the journey. The whole walk was that we walked(speedily) for 2 and a half hours straight. It was so hot, I walked with a hand towel draped over my head to keep from sunburns. Did I mention my eye hurt to blink, and it was swollen all of friday and Saturday? I just wore sunglasses those days, but I had to do a baptism on Saturday. Well, after the very long walk that took a very long time, we got to the 1st sisters to do the baptism interview for their investigator. Well we left our flat at 11:30am, then got home at 7:00pm, and we still had planning. So we had another no-proselyting day. Then we had to meet the zone-leaders for an exchange at 9:00. I went with Elder Abplanalp the whole day, and Elder Pence with Elder Painter. This was the day to teach. Well we had fall-through, drunk guy lectures, and all manner of craziness go. One of the people we visited was expecting us to show, but we never planned to see them. My eye was way swollen this morning, I took a picture, but will send next week when I can. Travis can't be the only one of us that had his eyes swollen shut. Luckily by the baptism it did not look so bad.

 Sunday is ridiculous busy always. Just before sacrament, everyone needs something at once. I would like to thank Mr. Child for teaching me what he did about music. I have been the ward chorister for the past 3 weeks. Some of the songs I have no idea what they sound like, but sight-singing is a virtue.......... Anyways, crazy week in all honesty.  Sorry the crazy asian has ancient hardware that I can not send pictures from!

 

Love,

Elder MacLeod

The cyst! The sharks, and the balloon light show......

So lets take a walk (WALK) through the week.

So this week was a great week. We set a record for the Lautoka 1st (elders)  area for 20 lessons. Pretty dang impressive in my books. 

Now as for the behind the scenes. This week has been pretty stressful since one of the missionaries in our district got mugged. We have been trying to settle everything, then the other set are freaking out, then the Zone-leaders, unaware of the other effects this would cause, put them together, then we tell them, they stopped them from staying together any longer, when we told him this would happen, and crazy drama stuff that has involved everyone, but me. How's that for staying out of the drama?

Then we have some we are teaching who gave us this cool story. We had gone over, and taught him part of lesson one, including the way we pray in our church. Well, he goes diving really often, so he went the next day. While there, he cut some of the fish in the water before sending them up. Well that attracted 4 sharks. Well, they started to circle about towards him, so he swam away, only to find 2 more sharks. The 6 circled round-about him, so seeing his helplessness, he turned off his light, and decided to pray. The difference was that he prayed the way we had taught him. He got his witness of what we said was true, and immediately after opening his eyes, he saw a gap in the sharks that he swam through, and made it to safety. His wife is the one who told us later in the day, after he opened up in the lesson. He told nothing of his story, only that he knew what we have taught is true. Amazing!

 Now for that cyst, I have a cyst in my right foot, that has been there all week. It makes walking way annoying. I talked to our specialist about it, who is taking her sweet time.  She asked me if I direly needed it removed?  I said "Well, I walk everyday, so it is a large annoyance. Cysts grow, so would it be better to take care of it quicker?"  she said I will get back to you.  Well, it has been a couple of days and I haven't heard back yet.  I will keep you posted.

And the balloon light show. (We sent Connor a package with all kinds of random things for his birthday.)  We did it last night. I felt pretty kai colo (dumb struck) with the balloons. When the bag said glow-in-the-dark, I thought the normal glow, these ones had full-on lights in them, so we threw the balloons around on camera with a song. Way funny.

Another night we were drawing faces in my blanket, cause I figured out that I could.  Enjoy them pix!

 

Connor's 19th birthday balloon light show

Birthday eve diner (ground beef, potatoes, and eggs)

 

 Faces in the blanket

My study book called the book of people.

 

 

 

"Its a schooner sir!"

 

The Ebola refuge!

Well this week was Zone conference for us, so I met with the president again. While there, we met a couple Elder from Africa who were reassigned, due to the crazy plague that mocks around in Africa, and it encloses towards him everyday, so I said "Maybe you get reassigned to Fiji with me!" 

The week has come pretty fast. We have just got a rule that was not implied previously, that we can not leave to members in our wards house, unless they are in our area. We just lost all our dinner appointments in a month except 3 a month. Things will start to get interesting. We also had a great turnout at church. We have been working with lots of Less-active, and inactive members, and were able to bring back about 17 people to church, so church attendance rose fro 40 some to like 60 some. It just goes to show (WE ARE DOING SOMETHING YEAH!!!!!!!) 

I study, and have nearly completed the Old testament page to page. I finished the New testament page to page early on..... I teach a Preach My Gospel class after church. I have been making a book of people, so that people I read about, I put a description of them.

I want to say happy Birthday To Cameron, and to our former Elder Heath, who now is just Haden on the 19th! I have a picture for you. Make this the description "happy birthday punk" 

 We had a great week, we tied the highest record for the area for lessons. 

Not too much crazy stuff happened, sorry there are no super eventful things! Next time I email, It will be my Birthday, yet for you when you receive, it will have not happened yet! So I will say, today is my birthday tomorrow.

Picture of planners 1-4 each planner is a transfer. I am still using 3, it will finish Sept 14

 

.......end.

Happy Birthday Punk!

Planners 1-4

My flat(outside)

Flat

Flat(bedroom)

Flat(kitchen)

Zone conference - Me and Elder Fong

Rewrote a hymn

Random moments

This week didn't have anything too special, so I will spice it up with random moments that I had a quick laugh about, but first I need to say hello to someone! Hello Preethi Tum kaise hay? Sorry if I spelled your name wrong, that is the way the sisters spelled it.

So, We will start off with volleyball....... Well, it is not as fun with the change in our district. People are not as good, so it turned into us trying to play 6's on call of duty....... Everyone backs-out........

We played some games with the members we visited, namely the if.... then.... game. It was way funny the first time. The next time we played it the member had something way too serious, so it was not as funny. Then another member loved it too much....... She laughed at it hysterically, even when it made no sense at all......

The only real  laugh I was able to get while out walking about, was walking to a members house, only to see another member bobbing, and dancing to the neighbors music. Mostly it looked funny, cause he was sitting, and we only saw his head over the wall. Apparently he just woke up, so E. Pence sat down, and danced around to, by bobbing his head..... 

Service, we did it two days. Thursday, we painted part of a house, Friday, we were going to build up a wall, but ended up tearing down a bigger wall, with crowbars, and hammers....... Tiring work, but we had fun doing it!

I must first throw a shout out to Jeremy....... HA YOU GOT A SNAKE!

Bless your face.... BOOP!

 

Til next week,

 

Elder MacLeod

Elder Pence with toy rat

 

Dinner-Fish w/tomatoes and onions

 

Service

 

 

....And then dead silence......

Alright, so through the boring part......

The end. Now, no I am kidding.

Monday we played volleyball, for the last time with E. Heath. The next day was a bit more interesting, I will leave pictures. 

On Tuesday we got up early, and left early for District meeting. We had lunch, then were dropped off at a highschool in Field 40 (In the 2nd sisters area about 5 miles from our area.)Well, we were there to represent the church in giving a 10,000 liter water tank to this school, for LDS Charities. I think there may be a website, just look it up for Lautoka Fiji water tank or something. Well, they provided a number of foods, like cakes, cake, watermelone!, cake, dalo, dried raice, cake, and more cake. I feel like they like them their cakes. 

Well, then following this meeting, was the long walk back to our area, then to the far other side of our area...... Well, we finally got there, and had to explain the words of Isaiah, the prophet, to our less active member. We are trying to get him on a mission, so we are going through the Book of Mormon with him..... Well, we finished the words of Isaiah in one week!  Jiji!!!!! (equivelent of woo woo)

The middle days of the week were boring, and had really no events. 

Good news, two pkgs have arrived. One arrived shortly after the MLC in June, so it was there about 20 days, and then the other arrived just before the July MLC, so they both got to me.... When I read the funnies, I felt like Batman from Holy musical b@man when he received a letter from Spider man about his plane.(I sent Connor some missionary comic strips.  Life of an Elder)

Now as for the finale. The title of this email. Which I have sent to you. Na vuna na vakamacala sai koya "and then dead silence," na bogi oti keirau (E. Pence Kei au) cakava na veika ni e dua siga tabu, ni e dua na tamata Kaila eso vosa ca sara vei e dua tale na ka tamata mai na vale. Nah, I will write to you in English.  Well, the neighbors had a fight, and yelled some vulgar words, while Elder Pence and I were doing normal Sunday stuff. Well, there is often something going on over there, but one started screaming, yet they were muffled like someone was covering their mouth. I was still like whatever, because Fijians beat disrespectful people, but this was different. I could hear rustling of a small object, then it just went dead silent...... The silence is the part that spoke the most. Elder Pence was way on edge, that he shut every blind, since he didn't want to get involved. It was quite the night. Well we still stand today, so everything turned out fine the other day! Enjoy the pictures!