Elder Connor MacLeod

Sunday, June 14, 2015

Classic Fiji

Right so this was for the most part an average week, It had its events, of which I will not share via email. Sorry to the lot of you, this is one that I hold to me, and share on occasion as fitting.

We started the week still on Viti Levu. It was fun to be with everyone. I received the May package with "Meet the Mormans" we are having a branch activity to watch it next Monday now. I took some videos of kids eating some warheads as well. Haha that is always great. The facial expression of the initial bitterness.

As for work, we are making it more meaningful. We have done much work, but it was not as effective as it could be. We are now doing more effective things, and putting only priorities on our very busy schedules.

I like how busy we are really. Time flies normally when you are busy. E. Kubera is good about having always find new peeps. This is helpful, cause I am not so good on that sometimes.

Elder MacLeod

Sitting with the Swan Family

Walking on the beach with E. Otene

Let’s Start with a Story

Let me go ahead and start with the story.

So it was a very dark morning as we rose at 3:00 am to catch our boat. We got on the boat, and arrived in Viti Levu at 6:30 am. We went with the Korovou Elders around to their appointments. We came across a place called Sotei/Naitokatoka. As we pondered on the slippery path we walked, we came across the bridge. Which was just a fallen palm tree. It was very muddy, and our shoes/feet were wet (my feet remained dry, cause I chose to where shoes). E. Danielson lead, followed by E. Kubera (my comp). As he nearly crossed he placed the bamboo to far down, and fell straight. Luckily he landed on his butt, but it looked like it may have hurt, I tried to video tape it, but my camera did not have battery to do so, so I got a pic instead. I was last to cross, and first back. No issues. Except my sulu broke during this journey. Easy fix, but I had to swap to another. Luckily another one awaited me at their truck.

We were not in Ovalau for a large chunk of the week. We had Zone Conference. I will have a picture of my zone below. It was about the Book of Mormon. Really expressing its importance. It is true though, to really know the truth of the message, you have to read the evidence we have. That is really the only tangible evidence the church has for proof of the troof!

I hope you are all well. I have another zone meeting.

I will send general pics. I have no idea what we really did. It was fast though. I think it was a lot of travel.

Elder MacLeod

Palm Tree Bridge

Wandering in Lomalagi Lailai

Northern Zone Conference 2015

2 Weeks worth of roaming

Right. So I missed the previous email, because reasons! but I got one question only to ask EXPLOSIONS!!??

It is more a picture description thing every time, cause I can't remember what we did very well. I taught Seru (2year-old) how to sword fight a bit hahaha.

I skyped, and wandered the mean streets to share the gospel. We have been working hard. I get a new companion next week. That will be interesting. I will officially be planning everything.

We shall see if I can hold the fire of the area.

Anyways, I drew a map, guess what it is. Was I close? I test my memory often will trivial tasks.

I took a pic in front of a wrap around sulu. I am looking older I think.

Elder MacLeod

Seru is Batman!

Building a home!

We brought the rest of our stuff to the new flat. That was tiring, but we could not stop there, we still needed to see the people. I am pretty sure my bags are over 50 lbs currently, which is alright. I will be leaving the unnecessary stuff before I leave. Like pillow and blankets. We have 2 baptisms coming up on the 17th. We will see how it all goes. We also went to the prison with pizza and ate with one of the prisoners. He will be released on Thursday. He is way cool! The last missionary he remembers was Elder Pence over a year ago.

We walked a lot that day. We sat down with many people though. Best is we had a non-member with us the whole time while we were visiting. Talk about birds and a stone.

I have been practicing my drawing. This is not an easy task, since I only took art in 7th grade. I compiled together what I remembered, and tried. I will send my best result. I drew this guy on a bench, but it was not top quality. This one was way better!

Sorry it is not that funny this week. We have our little funny things, but they would not make sense to you guys anymore. Fiji humor is way different from humor back home. Just the things people do as normal is funny to us back home. I say things ,like oi, and sa now. I feel sort of fob, but when I speak, I don't have an accent, just I say funny things that are normal here.

Like on the phone, when I ask for someone tis is what you say, O (insert name). Then they will tell you if they are there or not. I am pretty sure in the states we would confuse that with someone mistaking us for someone else.

Elder MacLeod

Looking Down to Levuka

Sunday, April 26, 2015

Firebat: "Smells like victory!"

Hahaha, I have fire bats on the field of war!!!!!

Well this week the war wages on, I finally saw a larger centipede. It was longer than my foot. This happened as I went to the bathroom. I grabbed some shoes, cause the bathroom floor was all wet from the shower. I walked in to see a centipede crawling around. E. Moantewa and I grabbed a lighter mosquito spray, and my camera.. One dead bug. Sorry no picture, just the video. Maybe when I come home.

Anyways, we are doing amazing. We have been working hard in what we are doing. The stake Presidency was congratulating us yesterday. I met with Bro. Ligica from Nakelo yesterday. He came for our branch conference.

Food wise, we have to make do with the items we get, I have gotten questions on what I eat, well.... When I cooked this week, I made spaghetti with bacon. (They don't sell ground beef in Levuka, so I looked for alternatives) I found bacon. I won't be getting it often, but it is an option.

I have more nice pictures of where I went and such.

chickens in the trees

nice cloud picture

Scoping Moturiki

House in Moturiki

New spiders

New flat

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Walking through stories, War of the Bugs, and the Zed-bra

This was a wild week, hopefully I can remember.

Anyways, we will start with walking through stories, that is reference to almost all Elder Pence's mission stories came from out here in Levuka. I met many of the people he told me about.

So we rode in on a large ferry. The boat ride is about 1 hour. I am currently sleeping in a Hammock. I like this for the moment, cause it means no bugs can crawl on me. I am elevated. This brought me to the next part. In my flat in Nakelo, I woke up with a centipede in my bed. Well, I am determined this will not happen again.

I was told coming in that the centipedes are bigger here, well I have only seen one here, and it was smaller than the one in Nakelo (could have been younger.) Well, I asked Elder Moantewa where the permetherin was (most of the Elders forget to use it, so I kill the flat over with it.) I dilluded it a bit, then I proceeded to spray the ENTIRE house. I did this in Nakelo in hopes that it would be bug free. Well in Nakelo, the largest of bugs would show up dead at random. I did so here in Levuka, bought some mosquito coils, lit them up, sprayed the hammock with mosquito repellent, sprayed my pillow and blanket as well. I woke up the next morning looked down to see the centipede squirming, I decided to seal the deal, and sprayed him again for sure measures. Wish I knifed it, but I cut of the pincers and left. Well came back and it was not there.............. So now there is an undead centipede with no pincers running around. Good thing I disarmed him.... This has now become war!

In other news, I have already climbed the 199 steps. Gathered sand for service, but have not yet gone to Moturiki. We do that tomorrow (Moturiki is a smaller island of the side of Ovalau).

Anyways the last part of the title is on account of Friday where I was arguing over the letter Z. Well in other countries they say Zed, yet when they sing the song they say Zee. Well this girl was about 4 or 5, and while eating she was showing me this card with letters w-z. Her parents watched and laughed during this whole ordeal. Well, she got to letter Z and she said Zed, I pointed at the picture, and said what is this (it was a Zebra) Well she then seeing the spelling, and being a bit distracted said the zed-bra. Her parents thought it was hysterical. Well I think I won, cause then I told it was the zebra not the zed-bra. She then switched and said Zebra (VICTORY!!!!)

ovalau from the mainland

me on the shore of ovalau

My bed!

first place we visited has a white board that says DANGER ZONE!!!!!

Dying centipede!

this cool building in town (the Symbol looks like AC)

Sunday, April 12, 2015

"I'm On a Highway to Levuka!"

We lit stuff on fire, crossed a stream, walked bare-foot on bushes, rode in a truck, crammed a small flat, took many road-trips to waila, and tomorrow I will actually report to my new area.

As you may have gathered I am transferred to Levuka. My area is the Island of Ovalau just off the east coast, I go by boat Tuesday.

I am replacing Elder D. Johnson, and will be with Elder Moantewa for 6 weeks (missionary 2 for the kill count) I am just destined to get missionaries at the worst time. The end. You would imagine great, they will be knowledgeable, but with the constant lurk of home on their mind, it is hard for them to focus.

Anyways not much for this week. I am officially exiled to the boonies! I will be off the main land in Elder Pence's old area. I guess this will be my mission "claim to fame". Well, let me summarize the week. Tuesday I was called bright and early. I sat at my desk when the phone went off. It was President Layton's set ringtone. Elder Motuliki thought I was lying, but I showed him the ID. I walked out to find reception, and was given assignment to go to Levuka. This ought to be way fun. I have seen the effects of stress on other missionaries, but I have not been really stressed in my other areas, so I should manage amazingly. That and my lack of care to where I am, I will do what I am called to do; attitude will keep me very well fine-tuned.

As for events we have been staying with the Burewai Elders just out of Korovou. I met the Stake President of Nausori for the first time yesterday. He is way cool! We seem to have a far increased focus of the work in this district. Looks like the leaders are pushing for it to grow. Much work will come soon.

Well we stayed in Korovou where they did a little party outside our flat. It awoke Elder Noble and I, so Elder Noble tricked them to think the truck alarm was sound sensitive. He kept setting it off whenever they got loud. Well they started to shush each other eventually. We slept the rest of the night really well.

Another thing was my new companion killing a mouse with a clean gut. He used a dull butter knife. We saw one in the flat. Elder Hafen trapped it, then told Elder Moantewa to wait for it. E. Moantewa said he needed something to kill it with, and found a dull butter knife, as opposed to a shoe to smash it. Well it came out, and with one fatal swing E. Moantewa sliced it open without hitting it into the floor or against the wall. Then walks off to dispose of the knife as if nothing happened.

I get to stay in the Nausori zone, and will normally see the zone once a month. This month will be special. We get to come back 2 more times. Then it will be normal for the time being. Love you all! Next chapter mada!