This week has been absolutely crazy! I arrived in Nadi Fiji Wednesday morning and right away got on a 4 hour bus to Suva. It felt a lot shorter though because it is absolutely beautiful here and so the scenery was very captivating.
Once we arrived in Suva we straight away were picked up by the APs! They're so cool! We drove to the mission home and met President Layton and his wife! They're also so nice and awesome. We had lunch and a little training and then went out right away with the Zone Leaders in the area. I went with Elder Mumford and it was awesome. He is such a good missionary. I was surprised at how much Fijian I understood. I was able to introduce myself, say the opening prayer, and also give my testimony. I also said a couple comments throughout the lesson. It felt really good and really motivated me.
Okay so that night we stayed with those elders in their flat and that was when we saw and killed that massive centipede in the pictures below haha!!
The next morning we were going to be given our companions and first area. We met back up at the mission home and the trainers were all there waiting for us. We didn't know who's was who's trainer so it was kinda weird. We received our calls and I was the first one to open mine. It read you will serve in the Labasa Hindi Area.... WAIT WHAT!!?? HINDI!! Yep so now I will be speaking or at least attempting once again to learn a different language. This one being much more complex.
FUN FACT: I am now one of 12 missionaries in the world speaking Hindi.
My trainer is Elder Tony from Kiribati and he is such a cool guy!! He is really good at the language and so I don't feel as nervous as I first felt. The next morning we caught a flight to Labasa which is on the northern island.
It is absolutely beautiful here. The people are all really nice. Even though I will be speaking Hindi in all of our lessons, I have been trying to speak with all the members in Fijian because the ward is mostly Fijians.
On Saturday we did service the whole day with the Vosa family. They are seriously so nice. I have only known them for 3 days but they already feel like family. They recently bought a farm so we went and were clearing weeds and planting kasava.
OH yeah it is HOTTTT here. Like way hot. Maybe mostly because my body is used to the cold but wow its crazy how much I have been sweating haha. Like everywhere I go.
I initially was trying to filter all the water I drank but I decided that my body has got to get used to it sometime so the past two days I haven't and I feel fine so maybe I'm all good, but still wish my stomach good luck lol!
Me and Elder Tony are whitewashing the area so these past couple days we have just been trying to talk to as many people as possible.
I know like 3 things in Hindi... Hello, how are you? I'm Elder Hess. I am from America haha. I will get better thought. I hope. Also I will be able to read Sanscrit so that'll be cool!
I feel like I am in the middle of nowhere. There are some sisters kinda close to our area but most of the time it's just me and elder tony. This is his first time leaving the main island so it's definitely hard because the dialect(or however you spell it) is different here. But we have the Lord on our side.
Our ward is an English branch so that makes it really nice. I gave a talk on Sunday with hardly any notice, but it went really well. It makes it a lot easier that I could give it in English!
Our flat is actually one of the nicer ones in the mission. It pretty good size because during transfers we have a lot of other elders stay with us because we are the closest the airport on the northern island. But we still have plenty of cockroaches, mice, spiders, centipedes.Our shower is broken so we shower from a little hole in the wall that shoots out some cold water. The thing is it is so hot here that I wouldn't want a hot shower anyways so it's all good:)
The food is soooooo good!! Some of it is really different but i have really enjoyed it so far. We have eaten with the members a lot in the last couple days so it is great!
Anyways, I am alive for those of you who are wondering.
I am happy to be a missionary and excited for the challenges ahead of me.
I love this gospel.
I am so thankful for all of your support.
My address for letters and packages is:
Elder Samuel Hess
Fiji Suva Mission
P. O. Box 215
Suva
Fiji
--
Elda Hess
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