week 12

Bula Vinaka!! 

Well my first week in Fiji has definitely been a crazy week but a very good week! My area is called the burewai area...We cover three villages sai oko, burewai, and nasautoka...Every area is awesome but the kids in nasautoka are awesome! So driving a stick when i dont know how and on the left side of road was very interesting! But its ok... the car and us are in one piece! You definitely learn alot on the mission! haha Now I can drive a stick shift! haha Im pretty comfortable with it now but man these roads that i drive on are sketch! Dad there is no shot in this life or the life after that you would allow the truck on these roads! haha they are pure dirt and up and down mountains. The description is very accurate....very poor. We have used candle light and we sleep in two churches which are houses of members. They are not big at all and our flat where we are suppose to be at, is about the size of our kitchen...with 4 elders in it..but we only stay there twice a week cuz we travel to three different areas. I have used one real shower, a hose, and a pvc pipe (picture) to shower haha its awesome..Food has actually been pretty good. I've been suprised. We ate shrimp right out of the ocean. ha we had to take the legs and head off and what not.I have a video but its too big. We crossed a river on a bilibili which is a bamboo raft type thing. We stand on it and cross it ha its sweet...All the teenage girls here call me prince william haha its funny. I dont know why but its funny! The kids is nasautoka are awesome. They follow us everywhere, sleep with us, and just have fun. Its awesome...All the babies just stare at me and wonder why a white guy is here. haha its awesome. Church is definitely different here. We started almost 45 minutes late and we had preisthood with the YW. We teach sunday school too. We had 3 baptisms Saturday and I baptized one of them and also did the confirmation for one(english). I didnt know i was doing the confirmation until 5 seconds before. I was nervous!! But you learn by doing, right? It was a really cool experience though. Its crazy people don't know their birthdays and some dont know their last name here. Its sad. We have 4 baptism interviews scheduled for next week so the work is doing really well in our area right now. This family, the Inkoes, really impressed me the first time i met them. They have had all the lessons and go to church every week and hold a FHE every week and they are just waiting for a divorce to get settled then they will be baptized. Its awesome...the dad was telling me about how it happened and all and the man has great faith and loves his family! The language is frustrating, but sometimes I can understand but others just talk way too fast!! Its frustrating but just gotta be patient and continue to work..My area is pure Fijian and people say this is the best place to start for the language. Things are great though. Im in the bush and getting dirty and just experiencing all different kinds of things ha i love it. Tell everyone I say hi too! Elder key is really good...we get a long very well. He's from Samoa and been out just a little over a year. He is really good in Fijian so i just try to listen as much as i can and try to pick up on things..Alright well hope all is well!! Love you all!! Miss you!! But i love Fiji! Time to get back to work!

Elder Hansen