week 35

Bula Rei!! haha Rei is vinaka in this dialect...

Happy New Year peeps!!!!! How is it? It was really good talking to you guys last week, really weird, but good! Haha and yes, I am still Shane! Sorry I am late. We just got back from the beach.  We had a lovo, an underground bbq, chicken and pig, then played volleyball at the beach. It was pretty fun...The beach wasn't the coolest beach but it was decent. Well work wise, this week sucked man!!! This week we didn't have the car and 2 days, the bus didn't show up!!! We waited over an hour for the bus to come and it never showed so we were barely in our area. It's a couple hour walk if we didn't take the bus so it made it difficult plus with the holidays a lot of people were  out of town so there wasn't much work to do. Hopefully this week or next week, everyone will be back. I have yet to meet one of our investigators. She is in Suva and Eroni the one that we are planning to baptize this month, has been sick throwing up so its been bad luck. I have been trying to think of ways to find new investigators and help the less actives come to church but really the toughest thing that stops them is the transportation. There is no transportation to come to church and if there is a taxi its like 20 bucks or so to get to church and people don't have that kind of money. So it is very tough that all of the villages are so far away from the church because its the same thing...So its tough to teach people when we know they arent going to be able to come to church, you know. So we are trying to figure something out. We are going to Bua this week. We go when it's our truck week. Its about 3-4 hours from our flat..There is a unit there and this trip we are going to confirm a 5 day trip there this month. There are 8 open villages around there that we are going to just go give out our dvds and pamphlets and see if we can find some people to teach and try to start a branch out there. Bua I guess is pretty bush so we'll see what happens. This whole island is tough because its soo spread out and transportation is not good. But we are trying to figure something out. The church and the leadership is pretty week here on this island. Most of the sr. couples are on this island and are in charge of getting the organization and leadership worked out so we have been talking with Elder and Sister Terry to figure out what we can do. We set a yearly goal for baptisms this year....Last year they had 4 the whole year, we set it for 14...Pretty much we are trying really hard to get Bua to be a branch and hopefully we can get approved this 5 day trip. One of the members was suppose to go to each chief in the village and tell them that we want to do it, so I hope they approve it. So this week I have been on a crazy study run man. The pages I used in my study journal just this week, was the amount I used since like November.  Since the buses didnt show up, I just read and read and read. Ha it made my brain hurt! I was reading about kowledge in PMG and it said knowledge is a Christlike attribute.. I studied the word Knowledge in the bible dictionary and it says that is it essential to salvation and you can only progress as fast as you gain knowledge and it just kind of clicked... freak man I want to learn!! If we want to become more Christlike, thats not just charity and love and all that but knowledge too.  We should strive to be like Him and be omniscient( big word I learned this week ;) haha in everything I do.  I am excited to learn. I look back now and just say isa man I could have had my associates in high school! What was I thinking!!!?? So I have seen and gained a great testimony about gaining knowledge and pushing yourself in the books. I love it!!! Also in the  PMG ch. 6 Christlike attributes, it says we should be a Christlike missionary, not just do missionary things. I was thinking about that and what not and it really motivated me to try to be Christlike in everything I do. Anyone can go out and teach a few lessons, study scriptures, you know, but really doing everything as He would...that is what makes the difference from an average missionary to the top notch gets work done missionary.. So yeah those two things are the things I have been thinking about lately... So you know that lady that gives us kisses and she has like 3 teeth...she is an awesome lady and way fun, haha. We were drinking ti (hot water with a plant in it, not tea) one day and I was putting sugar in it and she goes that is your name. I was confused.  I was like what? "Suka! nomu yaca! Sa kamakamica oi iko! haha Sugar, thats your name! your sweet!! Hahahaha I was laughing soo hard!!! It was hilarous man!! But yeah thats about it for this week! I hope you guys have a great start to a new year! These scriptures will be my theme for this new year....Read 1 Nephi Ch 18. When Nephi builds the ship. Read that whole chapter and then Jeremiah 7:23-24 I think it is....Also read again ch 18 verses 1-4 or 5 and whenever he says ship, put your own name in place of it. It talks about how we should build our ship or our life in the manner of the gospel and Christ, not in the manner of men...If we do that, our ship would be pushed back by the waves that come into our lives,...we will be able to push forward in our lives and so thats kind  of my theme for this new year....Hope you all have a great week and set your goals for the new year...yearly, 6 months, monthly, whatever you decid, set them and strive to achieve them everyday...plan the things you need to do to accomplish them...I love you all!! Ni sa moce!!!!

Elder Hansen