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