week 81

Hello family!!

Sorry I have been on this computer for a long time and I am sick of

technology trying to do all the stuff I need to do so it might be a kind of

short email...forgive me!! Sounds like time is coming up with Christmas. Ha

time goes too fast! Well we had a good week this week...Its been busy and

going to get even busier!  I am excited though.  Lets see how much I can

handle, shall we? Fun fact about Savusavu...there are hot springs here and

people legit take their food and cook it in the hot springs, haha. That's

sweet!! But yeah,  we also had the seminary and institute graduation this

week.  That was pretty fun. There has been a big rugby tournament here and a

team from Toga came. We talked to one of them and he said that there are 12

church members on the team ...another fun fact. Thanksgiving was good too!

Sister Muir baked a red velvet...It was soo good! She struggled on it

though, it was her first time making it. It didn't look good and but it

tasted good and thats what counts...It was a full chow! Our training for ZC

will be on less actives and working with members. Members are very weak here

so it's on helping them and teaching them and what not. We are excited for

it. We have a good training planned. President likes our two ideas. We are

really trying to train the district leaders well and so we are making this

district meeting log to make it more effective and account for the things we

train on and the commitments and follow up  and see the results in the work

from that training.  so we made this log. Elder Moaalii is awesome ha he has

a lot of awesome ideas and is creative. That's what being 26 and being in

the marines does for ya! haha jk I am just not that creative of a person. Oh

well!! So we are excited to get these things going at the beginning of the

year.  We want to get them folders to  be more organized and put all these

things in and really help know what they need to know and do what they need

to do.

We will be going to Suva on thursday and come back the following Thursday.

So it will be full of meetings and things to do! I am excited!  Speaking of

meetings. We had our district conference yesterday and it was broadcast in

Savusavu and Labasa and you couldn't understand a thing. The sound was way

bad. I guess the area seventy that was there was not the happiest about

everything. Things are very unorganized and new here on this island. We are

helping with that! I just gave up and read the Book of Mormon. I have also

gain a desire to get journals.   Unfortunately none of my comps until Elder

Moaalii have been really good at keeping journals and study journals and I

have decided to try my best to keep a really good study journal and journal

after the mission.. Take the study journal to institute, sacrament, Sunday

school, everything. I just want to learn and truly study all these things. A

real journal just because its interesting, haha its cool. I am still not the

greatest in my journal now, I am getting better though!! I was also reading

through the family stories that Val gave me and I have read them a few times

but I really read them with a purpose this time. They are sweet man!! I had

no idea that grandpa knows about the Islamic culture! Theres a bunch of

Muslims here!! Any hints?? Haha jk we can't teach them anyway. Leslie was

the first in the southern states mission to have a car! Yeah! Charlotte

asked her father Charles North Paull why he moved from England to America.

She missed having grandparents, aunt and uncles...well come on Charlotte, he

did it for you!!! That is bomb! Hahaha We have a sweet family...period!  Man

you know how sometimes when I get tired I am really hyper and annoying

sometimes. Well that's how I am right now... if you can't tell. But yeah!

Anyway all is good! I will let you know how things go this week! Hope all is

well! Keep working hard at the things you are doing! Be happy! Read the

scriptures! Moce mada!

Shane opened up a new area this week and these are pictures from the
ceremony. Below is his description of the pictures. Just a couple of
notes...picture number 2 has Pres. And Sis. Klinger in it (his mission
president) and in the last picture, if you wonder what his companion is
doing, he is fanning the flies away. Ha!


The guy in the green...He is the son of the Chief of Natewa....That is a
district...We can now proselyte everywhere in his area...His father actually
just died this past week...The son took the tabua because he was in the
hospital and a few days after he died....The man in the read is the chief of
Loa...The man in the black is the chief of the village I think, I can't
remember...The guy with tabua is in the district presidency...Guy with the
old lady is the branch president in that area and the old lady is the wife
of that man who died....The whole district presidency was there and all the
Terrys...Muirs..and Klinglers.

Joni

week 80

Bula Vinaka family!!!

Man sounds like things are doing very good back there…Except the Twinkie deal! That’s not good! Man Farley and Tyson are home already? That’s crazy...I don’t feel like I have been here that long. Not at all! It’s weird! Unlike Jace I am not fit, ha I am so fat! I like the beard thing though! Haha… Not going to lie...People said it would change on the mission but I still wish I could grow my goatee again! Haha.  Well this week was a pretty good week. We were in our area more than 2-3 days. We did two isevusevus this week...It’s the culture thing to open a village or an area. We did with two chiefs. It was pretty cool.  They use a Tabua...(whales tooth) for anything like that or a marriage or stuff like that.  You offer a tabua, it’s a big deal here in Fiji. It was cool to be a part of that. I finished the Book of Mormon in Fijian this week too. I want to finish it in English this month. I don’t know if I will because we have our Zone Conference to worry about but next month for sure. We have been way busy figuring out the ZC things. We need to get all the flights and boat schedules ready and make sure people are at the right place at the right time. Our zone consists of 4 islands but only 3 will be coming. ZC and mission tour is going to be soo busy. So much traveling and we need to give 2 different trainings and get all the numbers ready for the ZC. We are working on  two new ideas for the zone that we came up with to help so we are busy with that too. One is this area thing...5 different summaries about the goals and vision of the area, plans, situation now, area challenges and stuff like that we are doing for this next year...President really likes and wants us to bring it up in our ZL meeting on the 29th...yeah that week we will be in Suva for a whole week...We are also doing this district meeting log sheet thing for the district leaders and the district to focus more on the training, giving a commitment and the district actually doing the commitment and logging all the results and topic.  It sounds confusing now but it will take too long to explain. So we are trying to improve this zone even more so I think these two things will help. We are hoping that it will be a long term thing and not just while we are here you know. Oh yeah my two ward missionaries....Josefa Raika and Kaitani....Raika is going to the Marshall Islands and Kaitani is going to the Philippines. Kaitani called me the day he got his call and was way stoked!! It’s cool to see them get their calls and excited to serve. I felt like I did my job of making them excited and wanting to serve. It was way fun with both of them. We baptized Semi this week! It was an awesome baptism! He asked me to baptize him. He was the only one left in his family that need to be baptized. They were baptized not too long ago but he failed the interview because he smoked  but from that day, he quit and hasn’t gone back to it and I noticed he was very humble, and soft spoken and very grateful. The spirit was very strong there and it was awesome! Very good baptism! So now we need new investigators.  We have dropped quite a bit that aren’t progressing, but we need to kind of start over. We had a cool experience with Inoke. He is that 81 year old. We talked about Joseph Smith and asked him to read his testimony in The Book of Mormon. He said he read it and the power of it was so strong that he was up the whole night. It was awesome! He is way excited to learn! He has a bad leg though so the only thing is helping him get to church somehow. I think when he goes to church once or twice, he will get moving even more. That’s been a problem for us… getting people to church. So yeah all is good here though! Things are busy but going good! I sent that quote last week about pride and I was thinking about how I was a pretty prideful and selfish person before and as a leader I have really learned to be humble and just to serve! I forget about myself and my needs but try to just help the best I can,  the missionaries in their work and in their lives.  In my Book of Mormon reading, I am in Helaman where the Nephites are starting to turn away and it talks about pride and what not...Pride is evil!! Haha. So yeah lots of things I am learning. I have been thinking about the things I have learned and not necessarily deep doctrine things but learning more deeply and understanding the basics...the fundamentals of the gospel. As missionaries, we simplify the gospel, not make it deep and complicated. If you don’t have a strong foundation and testimony on the basics...you won’t move anywhere. So yeah it’s been good! I was thinking also about peoples conversion stories and realized I don’t even know my own families conversion stories! So I would like to ask all of you, if it is ok...To share with me your conversion story...the what, when, where, why type of thing of your conversion story. When you guys started to really progress in the gospel and what not. If not, no worries! I just thought it would be interesting! Well take it easy ! Have a good week! Love you guys!

Elder Hansen

Oh yeah I have been called Elder Handsome in this area too...haha fun fact.

week 79

Mi'au ba bula re na oku ma'avuvale! haha yeah thats in this new dialect...I

am still learning it ha its so hard!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPS!!!! Dont worry

about me, you guys go celebrate pops birthday!!! What are you guys going to

do for it? Man thats so weird to hear all those girls going on missions! So

weird!  Tim at the MTC huh? I have thought about that actually...I dont know

what to do! Snow....cold..Im not excited! No I have not yet eaten the

turtle. Next time we go to Taveuni we should. Taveuni is the tourist place

ha its weird! Rabi was way cool!! Tremea is picking up that language pretty

quick! The boat was way fun! It wasnt like a ferry boat, it was a small

fiber boat, ha so fun! Fun fact about Rabi, according to the people

there...There are only about 5,000 Rabians and only 2,000 maybe live in

Rabi...weird. We rode bikes there too! First time I have rode a bike in my

mission! My butt hurt after. It was fun though. Rabians are not educated

either.  That's one thing I learned....Schools are not the best in Rabi,

very few people know how to read and write. It was a way cool experience to

go over there. We did 2 baptism interviews and we had Elder Tremeas comp who

is from Kiribati translate and he doesn't speak the best english either so

it was a Fijian gilbertese interview! We had our baptism with Lusia...it was

really good! The man in the sweet pink striped shirt is Semi. He is getting

baptized this week. I was laughing so hard when he came into the room

wearing that shirt! We have 4 baptismal dates for December and we just got 2

new investigators this week. They both seem pretty good. A lot of old

investigators are here. So we need to start dropping them or getting them to

progress and find new ones. One of the baptism dates...Inoke he is 81 and

is like one of the highest guys in the village. He is pretty funny. He told

me I had a voice of an angel! Haha.  We had a branch council this week

too... I love this island! I really want to help this branch progress. I

have thought twice in my mission, and one of them was at the branch council,

to move to Fiji is just work in a small branch. We have some ideas and we

are going to talk a lot with the Branch President about things we can do to

increase the numbers and what not to move this branch forward. That's one

thing in Fiji especially this island, you see a lot of inexperienced people

running churches and you learn about the way the church works. It's fun. A

lot of these members in Fiji are either 1st or 2nd generation members. No

one has really taught them so we teach them as well as 3 couple missionaries

who are here. It's fun though! Work is going good right now, definitely

could improve. We were only in our area for like 3 days this past week. We

drive around the island a lot for zone leader things.  I am excited for this

zone, we are already tearing it up from before but we want to improve it

more. Master the fundamentals you know! So yeah we are starting to prepare

for the Zone Conference on the 1st and our talent show. We are going back to

Labasa today to practice some dance...SO yeah.  Its busy and its fun and it

keeps me on my toes! I haven't received the box yet...I will keep you

updated! We are going to do two isevusevu this week. It's the culture thing

to open up a village or an area. So that should be really cool. President

and Sister Klingler are both coming up so it should be good! So yeah all is

well! Dad have a good week! I am very grateful for  your example to me and

always encouraging me to be the best I can be. Thank you so much for

teaching me everything I know! You taught me in a way to be most effective

for me and for me to learn things for myself! Thank you! Love you guys!!

Have a great week! I am going to celebrate my bday with the Terrys tonight!

CHOW!!! haha love you guys! Moce toha valehaleha!

Elder Hansen

weel 78

Bula Vinaka family! Well once again the pictures arent working! haI have

quite a bit to send to you guys too!! Ill try again next week! Forgive me!
Well it sounds like all is well back there. Mom eat protein!  Dad good work

on the school! Jace and Ashlee...good work on not being wastes of space!

Yeah, so Mother, I will be going to Suva the last week of November to the
3rd of December. After that, I am not sure. So whatever you would like to do
is fine! I can find a way! I am good on things here. I don't really need
much. I do with what I've got! So I tried to find the guy who does the
nativities before I left Suva but I didn't find him. I will keep trying.
Fiji doesn't really celebrate Christmas.  Man it has been busy this week! We
were only in our area for like 2 1/2 days. We went to Taveuni this past week
and we are going to Rabi tomorrow. Yes that is where Hillyard was. Have you
guys looked up these islands online? Taveuni was good, the boat was good. I

am still waiting to see a dolphin or a shark! I forgot to tell you last
week, the boat ride to Vanua Levu from Suva was 7 hours haha long! I ate raw

fish last week too. It was sooo good!  We went to Taveuni and had a training
with them. It went well. We had a pretty good experience up there. So
Taveuni is straight mountains! We wanted to go see some flower. I don't know
I guess its the only time of year and place where you can see it. Well we
didn't make it. The truck couldn't get up the mountain. We got stuck pretty

bad!! It was not a good place at all to get stuck so we were kind of freakin

out trying to figure out how to get it out. Well luckily a senior couple was
with us so they had more wisdom than us missionaries, haha. We tried this

and tried that...didnt work! The back tire was off the ground all the weight

on the front. We decided to say a prayer. I was the voice of the prayer
asking for help and protection. Well we pretty much lifted the car up and
moved it. Ha It was much easier than everything else we tried! It was pretty

sweet! We then knelt and gave a prayer of thanks and I again was the voice

of that prayer and after we celebrated by eating crackers! Haha man it was

intense!!! So Elder Moaalii and I from that experience challenged our zone

to have a more spiritual pday. Usually all the work is thrown out the door
on pday and we just play sports.  So we decided before every activity or
sports to start with an opening prayer and a closing prayer too. It was
cool. We had a fish feast there too!  We ate crab babies! Haha opened the
mother crab right open and ate!  It wasn't the best tasting. Big fish and
what not man! The guy said next time we go, we will eat turtle! I'm excited!
It was really good to see Tremea too! He's the man! I am excited to to go
Rabi with him. We have a baptism this week...Lusia, she is bomb! We have
another one next week and  more dates for December. Sorry I am running out
of time! I wasted time trying to do the pictures. I have been studying about
Captain Moroni this week. He is the MAN!!!
The way he stands up for his people, family, the gospel, his testimony,

everything!! Thats how we should be!!! We have the truth, we know it, we

live it! Dont be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet it's much easier
to say it than to do it...SO I challenge the HANSEN/TIBBITTS Families to DO

IT!!! Read the Book of Mormon and see what happens with the people who

stands up for it!! I love you all!! Next week I'm hoping you will get
pictures!! Love you guys!!! Do work! Moce toka!!!

Elder Hansen

week 77

Mi'au ba bula re!

Isa maan! Its busy!! I am actually emailing you guys from Taveuni, another
island. We rode the boat here this morning! Sorry I dont have a whole lot of
time today, we are about to go on a hike. Well, the first few days in
Savusavu was really good! Its called "Hidden Paradise" haha. Sorry I forgot
my camera cord so I will send some pictures next week! Its been awesome
here! We have a huge flat! Its the biggest in the mission. Elder Moaalii is
awesome, he has been here for 3 months, and Elder Inu is ZL in Suva now. We
are pretty much the AP's on this island. This is probably one of the busiest
ZL places in the mission. You have Rabi, Taveuni and Rotuma to worry about
and then the whole rest of Vanua Levu. Rabi is where Elder Tremea is. He is
here too, in Taveuni.  We are doing a little conference tomorrow. We rode
the boat together here, hes the man!! He is learning the language there
pretty well! Elder Estill is the AP, he goes home in December. Yeah this
area is pretty much all Fijian. There are a few people who arent Fijian so
to them we speak English. There are a lot of white people that have houses
here in Savusavu. The Terrys (Senior couple that Shane adores)are very very
happy I am back! We had dinner with them the first night I came! SO fun!
Boy, we have changed this island!! It is totally different now, than the
first time I came. There has been sooo much improvement and growth here its
amazing! Neimanis family in Seaqaqa just got baptized this past week. I knew
they would once he did.  I am going to learn the dialect here, I am
determined!! Its one of the hardest dialects here and I want to learn it! I
can speak the other one in the area pretty well, not bad. There are soo many
here  in this area...but yeah....So I am excited to be here again. This is
definitely the hardest island in the mission but its going up! There are 3
districts here. We travel a lot! This next week  we will only be in our area
for like 2 and a half days. We do a lot!! We need to worry about plane and
boat things. The other islands, especially the 3 outer islands, we are the
communication to them to president. They are given a lot of trust being out
there. So we need to know whats going on and what not. We have a truck but
we share it with two other elders. They need it bad though, their areas are
very spread out so we try to get it to them when we are in town. Church was
really good, we watched conference. I guess theres usually 60sh every Sunday
but it goes up and down a lot. Anyway, yes there are 3 sisters in Labasa.
One of them was in my district before. One of our goals is to train our
district leaders very well...Really help them be confident and lead their
districts and have effective meetings. Also to master the fundamentals! I am
very excited to work here. That's sweet Tim came home, thats so crazy! Time
flies man!! I had a list to tell you guys but I dont know where it is! Oh
here is a cool fact! We set the record for baptisms in a year for this
mission and the year is not even over yet! We have over 500 this year. It's
a great time to be in Fiji, things are happening! Man I can't remember what
I had on that list! haha my bad!! Yeah we are in Taveuni now, and then next
week we are going to Rabi with Elder Tremea and his companion. They are
doing way good too!! Rabi used to be terrible, but really the missionaries
wouldn't do anything, but now they are tearing it up! There are a lot of new
people in the whole mission I haven't ever met yet. There a few in this zone
that I have met that seem good. This next two months will be very busy!! We
have our Zone Conference coming up and our mission tour that Pres. Hamula of
the Pacific Area will be coming. So yeah it will keep my on my toes! I told
Elder Moaalii to be patient with me because sometimes I am very slow!!
Theres a lot to know! But President said something really good to me in his
email today.... he said "Thank you for your excellent and dedicated service
as the district leader in Tamavua.  You definitely left your area better
than you found it!  I am confident that you  will do what it takes to be a
great zone leader." So yeah time for a new chapter in the mission and time
to work!! I am glad all is well!! Its really really hot in Taveuni right
now, I want some ice cream! Sorry its short this week!! Send all my love!
The church is true! Amen! Moce mada!

Elder Hansen