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