Bula Vinaka everyone!
Wow this has literally been the craziest week of my whole entire life. There is so much to talk about but I guess I will just start from Monday when we flew out.
Monday we were so excited to finally get out of the MTC. We flew to LAX then to Fiji. It was so crazy to think that when we took off from LA that we wouldn't be in America again for two years... just mind blowing haha. We traveled for well over 20 hours all together and finally got to the Nadi airport about 5 o'clock Wednesday morning because of the time switch. It's about 19 hours ahead here so I am writing this at about 12 o'clock on Monday, haha crazy. Oh and we also had Stev-O and the Fijian Prime minister on the plane which was like way random. Anyways we landed and were greeted by two airport elders (one of who is my companion now.) We got put on a bus ride over to Suva which is where the mission home is and which is all the way across the island. It's about a 5 hour drive on the coast of the island to get to Suva. Man talk about pretty! It was also possibly the coldest bus ride ever, like they had the ac all the way turned up the whole time and we almost died because it was so cold... hahaha I didn't think I would be cold in Fiji that quick... haha
Anyways we finally reached the mission home about 11 Wednesday morning and we had new missionary orientation all day. We finally split off at night with missionaries that night to teach. And me and a few other guys got split off with the AP's. We went and taught a few lessons with them and we talked to this ten year old kid who had just been baptized. He said he gets made fun of at school for being Mormon but he knows its true so he doesn't care. Man what a testimony. We went back to the flat that night and conked out at like 9 because we were so tired.
Thursday morning we went back to the mission home where president told us that day that one of us would be switched to a Hindi speaking mission... Man I was so scared that was going to be me. Learning Fijian for six weeks and then being switched completely to Hindi... No thanks.. haha Anyways we had interviews with our mission President first. Man President Layton is the man. Just such a successful guy and knows exactly what he is doing and exactly what he wants from us. I already respect him so much. Then we got our SULUS (skirts) Man they are the most amazing, most comfortable things on the planet. WOW they are great! I'll attach pics. When I went to the changing room to try on my Sulu I noticed that I had no idea how to put it on... hahah I was so glad to have the AP there to come in and help me out... hhaahah After we got our sulus we finally found out where we will be serving for the next 3 months while we are being trained! I'm serving in the Dratabu zone as an airport elder.
SO just a little bit about my area, Nadi is a so called "city" and it has the international airport here. It's kind of a village with an airport... haha weird. but anyways as airport elders we have the responsibility of doing everything involved with the airport. Whether it's holding missionaries that are waiting for visas or transferring elders to different areas. It's so much extra work on top of our missionary work but it is needed in the mission so we are glad to do it. My companion is Elder Moore from New Zealand who has been here for about 16 months already. He is awesome. I am so blessed with a companion like him who is obedient and knows the language well. We are going to kill it for the next twelve weeks!
So anyways on Friday I hopped on a bus back to Nadi where I met my companion and actually started missionary work. We were pretty much at the airport for all of Friday and Saturday just helping people who were going home from the missions and to help all the transfers... Wow just so much work. We got to teach a few lessons but not to many. The Fijian they speak here might as well be a different language. Geez its so fast and just makes my head spin... I will get it eventually though hahah.
Sunday came around and we had church. What a weird church experience. We serve in a unit (smaller then a branch) so we only had about 40 members there. Church was held in a little shack thing that had no walls just a roof... way weird. But anyways we as Elders serving in the Unit here are responsible to run the whole church service. From sacrament meeting to classes we have to organize it all. We thought we were going to speak in sacrament but we got bailed out by an old crazy lady who just screamed in Fijian for literally like 35 minutes... haha so funny. Also because there are no walls on the church building there were just chickens and dogs running all around us. I can honestly say I've never had chicken or dogs in sacrament... haha so that was way new. I saw this 4 year old kid like pick up a cat in the middle of the aisle and body slam it haha I was just dying watching it all.
This is truly a crazy place and I'm so lucky to be here. Sorry my thoughts are kind of all scattered because of all the new stuff so this email is all over the place. I promise I will have a more organized email next week. I Love you all so much and thank you so much for all the support. Moce everyone!
Monday we were so excited to finally get out of the MTC. We flew to LAX then to Fiji. It was so crazy to think that when we took off from LA that we wouldn't be in America again for two years... just mind blowing haha. We traveled for well over 20 hours all together and finally got to the Nadi airport about 5 o'clock Wednesday morning because of the time switch. It's about 19 hours ahead here so I am writing this at about 12 o'clock on Monday, haha crazy. Oh and we also had Stev-O and the Fijian Prime minister on the plane which was like way random. Anyways we landed and were greeted by two airport elders (one of who is my companion now.) We got put on a bus ride over to Suva which is where the mission home is and which is all the way across the island. It's about a 5 hour drive on the coast of the island to get to Suva. Man talk about pretty! It was also possibly the coldest bus ride ever, like they had the ac all the way turned up the whole time and we almost died because it was so cold... hahaha I didn't think I would be cold in Fiji that quick... haha
Anyways we finally reached the mission home about 11 Wednesday morning and we had new missionary orientation all day. We finally split off at night with missionaries that night to teach. And me and a few other guys got split off with the AP's. We went and taught a few lessons with them and we talked to this ten year old kid who had just been baptized. He said he gets made fun of at school for being Mormon but he knows its true so he doesn't care. Man what a testimony. We went back to the flat that night and conked out at like 9 because we were so tired.
Thursday morning we went back to the mission home where president told us that day that one of us would be switched to a Hindi speaking mission... Man I was so scared that was going to be me. Learning Fijian for six weeks and then being switched completely to Hindi... No thanks.. haha Anyways we had interviews with our mission President first. Man President Layton is the man. Just such a successful guy and knows exactly what he is doing and exactly what he wants from us. I already respect him so much. Then we got our SULUS (skirts) Man they are the most amazing, most comfortable things on the planet. WOW they are great! I'll attach pics. When I went to the changing room to try on my Sulu I noticed that I had no idea how to put it on... hahah I was so glad to have the AP there to come in and help me out... hhaahah After we got our sulus we finally found out where we will be serving for the next 3 months while we are being trained! I'm serving in the Dratabu zone as an airport elder.
SO just a little bit about my area, Nadi is a so called "city" and it has the international airport here. It's kind of a village with an airport... haha weird. but anyways as airport elders we have the responsibility of doing everything involved with the airport. Whether it's holding missionaries that are waiting for visas or transferring elders to different areas. It's so much extra work on top of our missionary work but it is needed in the mission so we are glad to do it. My companion is Elder Moore from New Zealand who has been here for about 16 months already. He is awesome. I am so blessed with a companion like him who is obedient and knows the language well. We are going to kill it for the next twelve weeks!
So anyways on Friday I hopped on a bus back to Nadi where I met my companion and actually started missionary work. We were pretty much at the airport for all of Friday and Saturday just helping people who were going home from the missions and to help all the transfers... Wow just so much work. We got to teach a few lessons but not to many. The Fijian they speak here might as well be a different language. Geez its so fast and just makes my head spin... I will get it eventually though hahah.
Sunday came around and we had church. What a weird church experience. We serve in a unit (smaller then a branch) so we only had about 40 members there. Church was held in a little shack thing that had no walls just a roof... way weird. But anyways we as Elders serving in the Unit here are responsible to run the whole church service. From sacrament meeting to classes we have to organize it all. We thought we were going to speak in sacrament but we got bailed out by an old crazy lady who just screamed in Fijian for literally like 35 minutes... haha so funny. Also because there are no walls on the church building there were just chickens and dogs running all around us. I can honestly say I've never had chicken or dogs in sacrament... haha so that was way new. I saw this 4 year old kid like pick up a cat in the middle of the aisle and body slam it haha I was just dying watching it all.
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| After church with a couple of the members |
This is truly a crazy place and I'm so lucky to be here. Sorry my thoughts are kind of all scattered because of all the new stuff so this email is all over the place. I promise I will have a more organized email next week. I Love you all so much and thank you so much for all the support. Moce everyone!
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