week 25

How's my family doing this week? Sounds like all is going well and some good things happened this week! That talk from Elder Bednar sounds really good! I can't remember who said it but I heard a quote that every missionary should have at least one convert..themselves. It's so true that to be truly converted is a long process.  It's something we need to continually work for everyday. Also, can you send some Doritos next package?? Haha I've been craving them. Those gummies were soooo good  last package. For Christmas or whenever possible, ask Rick if he could make some taffy with like FSM or Fiji or something like that?? Let me know but I was thinking that would be awesome! If not, no big deal! So we witnessed with our own eyes cows swimming across the river! Who knew cows could freaking swim? Haha I didn't! We also bathed in a river this week because the house we stay at in Nasautoka ran out of water so it was the only place we could! It was sweet and felt soo good! Yeah, for some reason too, my name with a few people is now Elder Handsome. Haha its funny. Bula Elder Hansen, I mean Elder Handsome! Soo funny!  There are a bunch of Asians doing construction by the house we stay and the father of the house went out to talk to them.  Fijians plus Asians plus broken English = HILARIOUS!! It was seriously one of the funniest things ever! So I have almost finished watching all of conference.  I have the Sunday afternoon session left. It has been soo good!! How about Robert D Hales?? That's crazy!  I have started my study journal. Do you guys have any good suggestions for it? To make it the most effective. What things you guys have done? Let me know on that.  Oh yeah,  remember the picture of the eel? Yeah we actually ate one yesterday.  Haha not bad! And some sea crabs, which I guess if they bite you, it's very dangerous. I have a picture of those. Also we eat chicken feet! Haha it was pretty dang good! So Sala came to church again this week! Awesome! We watched conference in Fijian yesterday.  It was so weird. Everyone is just laying down.  The moms were just laying down on the floor breast feeding their kids. Ha that's how they do it in Fiji, I guess! We had a lesson with a less active Friday and it was probably the best Fijian lesson I have had. She lives ridiculously far from the church... like FAR!!! We talked about importance of church and how Heavenly Father would help her and stuff and guess what!! She came to church!!  It took her around 2 hours to walk there. She is like 16 or 17. It was sweet. I felt really good about it. So here is a funny story. There is an 8 year old who always comes to lessons with us and sleeps with us at the church. He's a little stud! Always prays and shares his testimony and its legit too,  not just a little baby one. He knows stories from the Book of Mormon.  He's way smart. Come to find out he's never been baptized! We both didn't know that and his parents are both nonmembers and so we are starting to teach him the lessons. We had our first lesson with him and set up a baptismal date on November 12. Fastest new investigator with a baptism date ever. SO things here are going good! We had a good week! Still waiting on the divorces.  They are so annoying. So yeah work is going good! My studies are going good, Fijian is slowly coming, haha trying to be patient but yeah I am happy and its fun! Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys we got up at 5:30 today and ran 5 miles!  Man my legs are out of shape! My breathing wasn't too bad but my legs were dead! Doesn't beat mom and dad's 11 miles though! Well hope all is well and have a good week this week!! Thanks for everything! Love you guys!! Kalougata Tiko! 

Elder Handsome :) Haha I wish!

week 24

Yadra vinaka!!

Vakacava tiko kemudou!!??

Things here from Fiji are great!! We are in Suva right now for our service for the truck so we have been chilling here so far today. I want to buy this ukulele that is legit beyond legit!! Its 60 bucks so I might have to sacrifice a little bit of money in a couple weeks! Haha But anyway! What's up guys? So the church here is going good, nothing is strange anymore, it's all good! Our branch president from Saioko is picking up his game.  He is doing a little better and he is starting to shave now! He always has a huge beard but he has shaved twice in a row pretty recently, haha. We don't have any mission leaders.  It's just us pretty much. In Saioko and Nasautoka, there are about 35-40 that go to church and Burewai about 12-15. Guess what!!?? Sala came to church!!!! We have been teaching her since I have been here and she was the one that we were so confused about. Our last lesson, we just committed her to be baptized and she said yes. We talked about how important it was to go to church and she came!!! It was the highlight of our week!!  There were surprise transfers yesterday. Elder Hillyard (his zone leader from West Jordan) is going to Kadavu, another island and the missionaries are the Branch President there so he is now the Branch President there.  Pretty legit! My comp will probably get transferred next transfer either next month or December, I'm not sure. I thought it was rainy season now  but everyone says hurricane season is November to April. So I'm not sure haha.  I'll tell you as it comes. It's not too bad here.  Some days are way hot!! Plus the flats are made of tin and so inside the house is even hotter. This week was really hot. I was sweating like crazy. The work we do in the jungle is tei tei or tabuka...farm or chop wood..Straight mud, dirt, everything, plus the sweat makes it bad too.  The dress shirt I am wearing right now has a little mold on it but were are going to get bleach tonight,. Yes, I got the box. It came pretty fast! Haha the picture that was in it, I just got today!  I found it in the office. It was just laying there. But thank you soo much!! It was awesome!! Also,  what was with the toilet paper?? Hahaha it was sooo funny!! We all just started laughing! But I'll tell you what...it was awesome to have American TP!!  Driving in Fiji is funny. In Suva, I hate it because sooo many buses and people don't know how to drive here.  But anytime there are cops, and you flash the lights to warn someone, you always get a wave haha. We did it like 20 times and to see peoples expressions are soo funny! Oh yeah, we had 6 blessings this week too, 3 in an hour. 5 of them to people and 1 to a house. Some girl was possessed so we blessed her and the home. I was disappointed nothing cool happened! Haha I have finally watched a little bit of conference, well priesthood and it was bomb!! Jeffrey R. Holland is the man!!!!  Soo good!! I started my study journal finally and its going pretty good, I am just trying to figure things out to make it most effective. I love doing it though! So I want to finish watching it this week. I am starting to talk in the dialect too. Vosa vakara! Some words are different and you drop the T's so I am slowly doing that with things I know I can say and what not. It's fun. I have also figured out that planning is awesome!! If you can plan, it will benefit you soo much! Goal setting too. I am working on that because I have always sucked at it but I am going to work on it! I challenge all of you to do the same! I promise as you do, you will be more effective and more successful throughout the day, week, year, or  however long!! It's awesome!!  So that's my missionary lesson to you guys today! I'm glad everything is going well! Continue to do good things!! Things here are going great!! Scripture of the day...Jacob 6:12 :) Read it!!  Love you all!!

Elder Hansen

week 23

Bula mai viti tale!

What's up yall? How's everything going? Sounds like things are going good there! Crazy how fast time flies, huh? Its ridiculous!! Yes I am very very close to the ocean, the village in Saioko is about 15 steps from the ocean. Haha, if a hurricane or something hit there it would be completely done! Thanks for the packages! I'll be waiting for them! I do need a couple things! My t shirts are muddy and moldy and I can't get them out, just from working in the jungle and what not. So if Jace could go get a few shirts just plain colors... black white red blue or whatever just plain t shirts! Also, if you could send a hat or two!? Either the braves, reds or puerto rico one. Ask jace which one he doesn't wear....Vinaka!!! Also if possible, could you maybe call the MTC and ask for President Roger Conners email?? He was my branch pres in the MTC and I want to email him.  Yes we did have zone conference this week and it was really good! This week has been a pretty fun week. Zone conference was very good. We combined with the Suva zone.  We did numbers for the past 3 months and our zone had 47 baptisms the past three months.  We murdered the Suva zone. Haha it was funny! But yeah for one zone, it's pretty dang good. So we did that, then had lunch, then trainings by the President and APs. Pres, Klingler's was really good! A few things I really liked about his was he talking about doing and becoming. He used this... DO+BE=Hypocrisy DO+BE=Self-deception. I can't do it on here  but he crossed out the BE on the first one and the DO on the second one. So you can't do and become but you can't become if you don't do.  It was really good! Also, I related this to sports and things dad has taught me, like what do you do when no coaches are watching?? He did that same thing with the gospel. When no one is watching do we still read the scriptures, do we still pray, do we still act like we are still wearing our badge, you know? It was really good and something to think about ourselves. So I really enjoyed it. It was awesome! Did you guys get the Liahona or Ensign for this month?? It is bomb!!! ALL about the Book of Mormon.  We have been giving it to all of our investigators.  Haha its soo good! And guess what? There is a picture in there and its of people working on a translation in Coban Guatemala, in the Kekchi language!! Haha I was flipping out when I saw that! So I hope you guys are able to get and read it! It's awesome! We have yet to watch conference.  I don't know if we even will. We are trying to get it somehow. The branch in Saioko didn't even know conference was going on.  There is no communication up there. Oh yeah I think I can say something that not a whole lot of missionaries can say.  Haha but we found out that one of our investigators got kidnapped! Haha. She was related to our branch president and he told us that but no big deal here. I guess in the old days guys would steal girls and then marry them. Saioko still lives in the old days so our investigator that we were planning on baptizing very soon is now somewhere married after she got stolen in the middle of the night! We also had a guy tells about cannibalism too! Haha it was crazy!! I have heard some crazy stories this week but I'll wait to tell you. It will take too long! Another way Fijians are crazy is we were cutting wood in the jungle and this marama (old lady) tells me to take a small piece down and she was going to take a huge piece! I was trying to convince her to let me take the big one cause she was going to kill herself! So we get down and she comes down and has the piece of wood on her shoulder perfectly fine.  Elder Key and I were like what the freak! Crazy woman!  The last pday after we emailed, we went to this Indian place to eat and it was me and this other kid. He is white also. We get there and it was like we are rock stars! Two white kids together equals service like no other!  They brought our meal fresh out on separate plates and asked how we wanted it to be.  They put the fan right on us and was just giving us all this stuff . We were laughing sooo hard!!! It was soo funny! Also, cool story! We went to dinner with two elders in their area, and we were talking and one of the guys just got back from his mission about a year ago, and he served in Cali, guess where? In Marcia's ward!!  He knows Marcia, Matt,  and Josh.  Small world!!  I can't remember their last name but I will send a picture next week. Some of the questions you asked...Elder Key is the district leader, so I am learning all the DL duties. I have been wanting to learn more about the behind the scenes stuff' so I'll be paying attention! Yeah, we eat leaves, cabbage, fish, noodles and that's about it! We are still doing training. I love it. Right now, it's more doing things as we teach so it's really good. Everyone in the zone and district are really good. It's fun. Language is doing good. This week has been very busy and we haven't had much time for studies because of going to Suva and all, but its coming.  Just working on learning more words. So I have been writing them down and asking Fijians.  So it's coming slowly. I am trying to be patient. So yeah, that's about all, things are good.  It's been raining like crazy here the past couple days! Tell everyone I say hi! I love you all!! Have fun and enjoy life!! 

Elder Hansen

week 22

Bula vinaka e na mataka lailai vinaka nikua!!! 

Man I am jealous! I want to watch conference so bad! I am not sure what is the deal with that we dont hear about anything in our area unless we are in town which is twice a week. Things here are great!!! We had the baptism!! It was a very good one...Vani, she is 16-17 years old and she is awesome! I can really tell she has the desire to learn and always sharing her testimony.  It is awesome! She is a great example to everyone around her and her desire to learn. I had the opportunity to conduct the baptism which was cool. Dad, I am sorry that I gave you that impression! Haha no its not boring, but I guess what I meant was, no baptism commitments or anything like that. Just taught lessons and what not. I dont even know what I am saying haha but no things are not boring. My comp and I have gotten a lot closer in the past couple weeks and things are going good!! We got a new investigator this week. Its our branch presidents niece. She lived in another city but she moved because her mom was beating her(not the normal fijian beating) She is a very nice girl and I think the gospel is exactly what she needs right now so we will be starting to teach her this week. One of our investigators in Saioko, Saula.  At first he barely said aword and when he did, it was a whisper. The last couple times we have seen him he has been laughing and what not. He asks us questions and stuff, its awesome! We have built that trust with him and he is willing to talk about certain things with us. He has a smoking problem so we are working with him on that and he and his girlfriend need to get married so we are working with that as well and they both will be baptized.  From what I hear marriages are much easier than divorces. Still waiting on the 3 divorces :( haha its annoying!! We have another really good one, Susana. She comes to church everyweek and she loves reading the Book of Mormon and just awesome! She is one of the divorces though haha and she is still praying to Jesus so we will be talking about that real soon too. Yesterday we went to church in Nasautoka and it was a great meeting...Confirmed Vani and then testimonies...A few people got up and thanked Elder Key and I for our work, and how day or night, rain or sun, hot or cold, we are always working in the village helping people and it was a really good feeling to know how much they appreciated it and how we are helping them. They have been really good lately to help us with their friends so I think some good things will continue to happen there. Umm two random things...first, I love cucumbers!! Haha they are soo good! And second, I have decided that cows are the laziest animals ever!!! They are always walking in the middle of the road or on the side laying down or eating grass. Haha!! But yeah this week was a very good week! Transfers are probably November. We have Zone Conference Wednesday so Im excited for my first one! Its crazy I have been out like 5 months or however long it is.  Haha time flies by so fast!! In our comp study today, we were talking about the priesthood lesson in church yesterday,about Alma the younger.  We were reading it again in Alma 36,  his repentance process...its a great example of true repentance. Verse 20 talks about how his joy was as exceeding as his pain...alot of pain he felt but when he truly repented, thats how much happiness he had. Then Jeremiah 7:23-24 talks about obeying. Verse 24 talks about how we move backward when we dont obey not forward and this life is for us to progress and move forward and when we dont repent or obey, we are just moving ourselves backwards. I think this goes with everything in life.  Two quotes that I read recently that I have now started to read a lot is first, "Hell is when the person you are, meets the person you could have been" second, " If I keep doing what I have always done, I will get what I always got...Therefore...to be what I am not, I must do what I do not." I really like these and it tells us to always move forward and learn and grow and do everything we can to become better in everything we do. So that's my two cents for the day! Haha, hope all is well! Things are going great! I am still very happy and love being a missionary, I am healthy and am having fun! Tell everyone I say hi! Oh yeah funny story haha so world cup is going on right now...last night Fiji lost to Wales 66-0 EMBARRASSING!!! Hahaha they are not happy here!! but anyway have a great week!! Vinaka sara vakalevu! Love you all and miss you all!! Moce!

Elder Hansen