week 28

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Even though its on Wednesday but big 5-0!!! Its weird not celebrating our bdays together man! I'll drink some coconuts for you! Haha but yeah I am not a teenager anymore!!!!!!!!! What's going on my amazing family!?  As always, things are great here!! We are celebrating my birthday today because it was Sunday here and we couldn't buy anything. So tonight you know what it is... Cake and ice cream!! Can't wait! The AP that just went home was Elder Malo. His brother played at Cottonwood. They were the poly family that lived in Chillys house in Park Place. It was crazy when I met him and started talking about it. Transfers haven't come  yet but this week probably. Our President is out of the country,  I think in New Caledonia. The village drama has settled down now so we can baptize the one who was waiting on the divorce because the guy is in prison for rape I guess. The couple Saula and Aliti, who both wanted to be baptized and then said to stop until they were married and they would take the lessons together...well they got into a fight and Aliti cut Saulas finger with a machete so she left, but Saula still wants to be baptized. He just has to stop smoking than he's set. So out of all the drama, some good came out of it except we lost Aliti as an investigator. But this week we have found like 4 potential investigators. So its been a good week. The work could be picking up alot soon. We have three baptism dates for Dec 3 and possibly two more in December. In the Burewai village, the new Methodist church just came in. There are 4 girl missionaries and one of them is a preacher, I think haha. So people say they are the mission girls and we are the mission boys. We haven't met them yet. Ha, I want to though!! We talked to the Methodist preacher this week just for the heck of it.  He was a nice guy but he brought up experience. He said you need experience to live and know Christ. He said he knows because he was spent 30 years doing it.  We didn't argue or anything but the main thing that we said was that we were going to walk through the village and talk to the people in his church. Haha. He was ok with it though. So listen to how old school Saioko is. So they are suppose to start church at 11 and so we go up at 12:30 to see some people after. They had not started yet.  They said that they run on the old time from daylight savings. So to them it was only 11:30.  Well they are still late on the old time!  They said the new time is time of man and the old time is the time of God so that's why they don't change their clocks at all. So funny man!!  Freaking Saioko men, I love them though. They are awesome. So yeah that's about all! Hopefully I will get the package today! Thanks so much for sending it.  You guys are awesome!! One thing I have learned, is attitude is sooo big! You need to know what you need to do, do everything you can do that you have control of,  and leave everything else to Heavenly Father. If you sulk, things are not going to get better. If you keep moving forward, things will pass by. I love this mission! Its freaking awesome! Good days and bad days, I love it! Well I hope you have a great bday dad  and everyone else have a great week! Talk to you next week! Love you!!

Elder Hansen

week 27

Bula bula!!!

Yeah this is the only email I got but no worries! What's going on? How was st jeezy?? What did y'all do? This week was a bit of a crazy, fun and slow week at the same time. Haha. Slow in the work because we have hardly been in our area because we had our mission tour this week. I will tell you more about that in a bit! So the past couple of days we were in our area, this is what happened. The Saioko Branch president now knows that there are 50 states in America haha, and they say I am getting fatter!! They say iko sa levulevu! But in Fiji that is a good thing.  Ha, it's weird!  We had some big time village drama in both Saioko and Burewai this week. It's not been good! One of our investigators husband, one waiting on the divorce, went to prison last week but the good thing is now we can baptize her, but they can't live together when he gets out until they marry. So I don't exactly know what is going on with that! The family that we have had come to church at in Burewai is all messed up.  Let's just say, if things go as they are, work will go nowhere in that area. It sucks and we can't do anything about it but we did get a really good new investigator this week from there.  It would take too long to tell you everything and I have other things I want to tell you. It's been a bit of a crazy week so we'll see what happens. We are done with the training program now.  Transfers are this week and we are pretty sure that Elder Key will get transferred so I'll let you know more about that. I haven't got the package yet but maybe later today or tomorrow.  Oh yeah also, two investigators in Saioko need to get married and they both want to be baptized Saula and Aliti. But they decided, they want to stop taking lessons until they get married and then start all over again and take them together. It will push everything back but at the same time, I think it will be better for them to take the lessons together. Now to the good part! We just had our mission tour this week and so that is what I want to share with you this month. Our mission tour was bomb!! All the missionaries came to Suva. We had a training on Saturday and a presentation Sunday. Elder and Sister Watson came to it. Elder Watson has been a secretary for 7 prophets and now is in the area presidency for the Pacific. It was awesome. I learned a lot of things that strengthened my testimony. I have a whole list of things that I am going to share...so yeah!

1. Elder Watson said Moms are the reason why we are on missions. Without moms, the church would die. I agree with this big time! Thank you sooo much Mom for all the help and support you give to me. You really are a BIG reason why I am here today!

2.Sister Klingler said, "Never be the student who never studies and wants help on the big test." She talked about how important it is to study and what not." She also said, "We need to have a vision of who we are and what we want to do." She told us to think about what our vision is for investigators. That was good, too.

3. Talking about the spirit and doing things by the spirit, President Klingler said "The single biggest obstacle for missionaries to help investigators feel the spirit, is not knowing what it feels like."

4. So this is Elder and Sister Watsons training. Sister Watson talked about the articles of faith. She broke down each one and explained it. It was awesome. It really build my testimony on using them more in our teaching. It was sweet. Elder Watson talked about PMG and the first vision. AWESOME! So he showed us a video of Elder Holland explaining PMG when it first came out. He said President Hinckley got up in a meeting and gave the reason for PMG. When missionaries come home and go inactive it shows there's a problem in the missionary program. So really the foundation at first was to help keep RM's active. Its crazy! I love PMG!! Elder Holland then said" We need to convert you first, then you figure out how to convert the investigator." So now, here is the freakin best part!! Elder Watson was talking about the First Vision and we read it verse by verse in the JSH. He explained what was happening and it was sooo sick!! One thing I loved was in 1803 Lucy Mack went to a grove and prayed and asked for the truth to be presented. 17 years later Joseph, her son, also went to a grove and prayed to know what church he should join. Look at it now! Its freakin awesome! He showed us another clip of Elder Holland and he was holding the exact book that Hyrum Smith had when he was killed. He folded a page where he was reading and the fold was still here in the book Elder Holland was reading. It was soo sweet! Elder Watson was talking about how Joseph and Hyrum were willing to die for the church and The Book of Mormon. He said why would they die for a fictional church or book? He told us a story of a temple meeting with President Hinckley and President Hinckley said ' I went to the grove...I didn't have a vision or hear a voice, but a statement came to my head....it happened or it didn't.....I testify to you that it did happen! MAN! I had the biggest chills!! It was awesome! Definitely strengthened my testimony of the restoration and the Book of Mormon. It was such a good conference! I loved it! Saturday, we presented all of our areas to Elder and Sister Watson and then had lunch and chilled.

So it was a great weekend! So that's about all! Things are awesome! I am happy and I love this work! I love reading the scriptures, PMG, everything. I love studying. SO I hope this helps all of you somehow and strengthens you. I am very grateful to you, my awesome parents, for raising me in the church and helping me get here today. I will be partying it up this week for my birthday, drink some coconuts and what not.  I hope you all have a good week! Love you all! Tell everyone hi! Moce!

Elda Hansen

week 26

What's up  "handsome" family!?  Haha funny thing huh?  I went on exchanges in another area and we went to teach a 13 year old girl and she said the same thing Elder Handsome. Haha. People liked the chicken feet huh!  Haha.  They were really good to be honest. It's weird at first thinking you are eating chicken feet but it was very good!  I was thinking this week how someone must have prayed for me to like the food or something because I have been surprised how much I have liked the weird stuff cause we all know I am picky! They don't celebrate Halloween here! They just celebrated an Indian holiday Diwali.  We didn't because there are no Indians in our area but it's like the festival of lights and the story behind it is weird.  I don't get it. There were a bunch of lights in town and eat a lot of Indian sweets. Fall cleaning huh?? FUN!!! Living in the flat we live in has made me really want to be clean and organized.  It's much easier... so mom I see what you have been saying these past 19 almost 20 years. Haha. This week was a slow week in the work. We had stake conference so we were only in our area for like 3-4 days. We had 2 fall through with a couple. We don't know what's going on. We talked to the father of the guy and seems like something might have happened so we are hoping to meet with them this week and see what's going on. We had stake conference so we came to town Saturday and Sunday for that. It was really good. Pres Klingler spoke at both of them and gave really good talks.  He even bore his testimony in Fijian during the Sunday session. It was sick! Everyone was just listening, it was very powerful and very impressive. There were some really good talks about the priesthood and not losing the one. Also the stake president got up and just straight up said DONT DRINK KAVA!! Haha, it was sweet! Everyone drinks kava wayyyy toooo much!! But it's one thing that is very tough for the missionaries to talk to them about because it's a cultural drink so they don't listen to us. It starts with the leaders though, even our leaders drink it so it makes it even harder. So yeah overall the meetings were very good. We had a huge lunch with all the wards and branches in the stake after and the stake pres wife who lives in Korovou where the flat is, told the Korovou elders to get Elder Key and I.  The four of us ate privately with her and she fed us beef, cake, juice.  I was in heaven!!! It was soo good!! Also I forgot to say this earlier, but some little kid got a hold of my camera and somehow deleted all the pictures on my camera. I still have no idea how he did it. Not happy!  All the ones I wanted to send, I already had so it wasn't too big of a deal.  So I won't be sending the memory card home for a while! Guess what?? We had a nail in our tire, guess what I did? I changed it all by myself. The first one I have ever done. So I can check that one off the list of things to learn on the mission. Change a tire..CHECK! My next one I figured out this morning was to learn how to play chess..We slept at Wainobokasi today and me and this kid was teaching how to play. So I am going to become a chess master! Fun fact for the week! My studies are going good, I continue in my study journal. Any suggestions on it?? I have organized my studies so I can get15-20 of each thing so I try to study PMG every day. It's been very good to get an overall study of everything. It's awesome. I love studying them...I wish there could be a day where that is all we do. I want more than just an hour! This is the scripture for the day. 3 John 1:4...This is mostly for the parents, but for us children as well.  To keep us in check in our lives and when we have children! Things are going well still, unfortunately still thinking in English a bit but the confusion of the two is starting to come which I'm happy about. So yeah I am good and healthy and most important, HAPPY! I'm glad everything is going well at home! I love you all and miss you all!! Kalougata Tiko! 

Elder Handsome (Hansen)

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