June 26, 2017

Still here in the best and the hottes city in all of Fiji:)

This week has been fantastic! Like I mentioned earlier, Labasa is hot. And me and Elder Christensen did LOTS of walking this week. Some days I think I'm going to melt, but it's all worth it ay. I love it here. Fiji helps you appreciate the little things like Air Con!

We did lots of work this week out in Namara which is one of the poorer areas in Labasa. It's amazing to see how happy people can be when they only have, sometimes, barely enough to survive. Especially as they except Christ into their lives. 

Finding that faith in Jesus Christ is so important, and with a lot of people, especially the Hindu people we work with, it can be really hard. One amazing way we saw one lady strengthen her testimony of Jesus Christ this week was through a blessing we were able to give. We were down at a house about a 30 minutes drive from town and a lady said she needed a blessing because her knee was really hurting her and she could barely walk. We gave her one and right after we finished she was able to walk perfectly and she wouldn't stop talking about how she had been healed. It was a really cool experience. 

We get our new Mission President this week, President Higgins, and we are all really excited to meet him. Up here in the north we won't be able to for another 4 weeks, but still it's exciting. President Layton is amazing and it's going to be hard to see him go!

The language is coming. I'm to the point now where I feel like I can understand almost everything in Hindi. The hard part is trying to put exactly what I want to say into words. 

This week we went on exchanges with the zone leaders and I got to go with Elder Chugg. He's the man!! We were here in Labasa and most of our lessons were in all hindi and so I had to do all of it and then translate for Elder Chugg a little so that they could understand. It felt really good and I feel like it was a huge milestone in the language even though I have a long way to go! 

If I've never mentioned it before, our flat is infested with mice!! Like so many! A couple week ago when the Nakawakawa Elders were here for district meeting, me and Elder Hammon got a bucket, a stick, and some floss. We caught like 4 in 30 minutes. It's pretty crazy, but also really annoying and gross. And we have been kerekereing mouse traps for a while now and finally we got some this week. They are the sticky kind, and the first day we set them out we caught 12!! I'll put a picture below of us catching 4 during the one hour we were doing planning. 

We have multiple investigators getting really close to baptism and it's exciting. All of the ones we have with baptismal dates I have been able to be with since the very first lesson and I feel so blessed to be a part of the change in their lives. Watching someone accept Christ into their lives is the best feeling in the world. The gospel of Jesus Christ is such an amazing thing.

Yesterday I got a knife thrown at me so that was cool. Don't worry he was 6 years old and didn't have a very strong arm. 

Oh yeah so I mentioned last week how I lost all my pictures. Well I wasn't sure if I really had or not, but now it's official. I lost all of my pictures and videos other than the ones I've sent home so that was depressing. 

Also random side note, but Elder Christensen is DL and so I get to be there when he has to deal with disobedience. At the moment there are two Elders who want to leave their area and travel a full day to get to another island called Rabi way out of the way. It's crazy how much freedom there is here in Fiji because it's so spread out, but it's also so sad to see missionaries try and take advantage of it.

Even though there is crazy stuff going on, the Fiji Suva Mission is the best mission in the entire world!! I love it 

Bhagvan aaplog ke ashirvaad dena ee hafta me.

Hum aaplog ke bhout pyar khare hei. 

Ee gir jar kar saache hei.

Elda Hess

June 19, 2017

Ayy this week has been really good! 

I want to say happy father's day to the best dad in the world. Dad you're the greatest dad I could ever ask for. Thank you for always being there for me. 

It was transfer week and Elder Tony left to Nausori. I am staying in Labasa and I'm really excited about that! My new companion is Elder Christensen from Utah and he is the man! He's a way hard worker and a beast at Hindi so I'm really excited for this transfer!

This week was chaos for a while. Transfer week usually is. Because every area up here on the north island of Fiji is so spread out, for transfers everyone who is getting moved and their companion have to travel in to Labasa for a day or two before their flight back to wherever they are going. It's nice to be able to see people! Sometimes it's pretty lonely because you can go a while without contact from anyone during the middle of the transfer. 

This week Elda Grimaud(Kremo) and Elder Willoughby(Waloby) finished their missions and left home! It was really hard to see them go because I was really close with both of them! We were able to drop them off at the airport and so that was fun! It was also really hard to see Elder Tony go. He is such a good missionary and I loved being companions with him! He taught me so many valuable things that I will always treasure. 

There are two new missionaries being trained in my district. Yay I'm not the youngest missionary on the island anymore! 

Me and Elder Kris(Christensen) have been hard at work the past couple of days. We are working hard in the area and are excited about the next couple of weeks. 

We have 6 baptismal dates set right now(Pria and Pita, Parpa Wati, Avi, Elvy, and Uliaisi). Right when things start going really good there always seems to be something that comes up and pushed us back, but we are excited for the investigators we have. 

I've been studying a lot in the Book of Mormon recently, and I feel a huge gratitude for it in my life. I had the opportunity the other day to answer some questions for a guy name Singh while driving in a car. He was wondering why there are so many churches out there that claim to be the true one. What a great question. I was able to tell him the story about another boy who had the same question who's name is Joseph Smith. I then was able to go on and teach the first lesson to this man in while driving to the market and I felt the Spirit really strong. So to tie that all back into the Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon is how we know. It's how we know Joseph Smith was a true prophet. It's how we know that the Priesthood is back on the earth. And most importantly, it's how we know that Jesus Christ lives. 

I don't have a lot of time, but I am thankful to be here in Fiji. I love being a missionary and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ! 

Have a great week all!

Pretty sure I just got my sd card wiped from these virus infested computers so you might not be getting any pictures this week. Sorry.

--

Elda Hess

June 11, 2017

This week was really good! We were really busy the whole time! Busy days and weeks are the best though. It means there is a lot less time to let your mind get distracted by things that don't matter. 

The work here gets better and better each week! We currently have 5 baptismal date set. And a couple others that should be coming soon! I am really excited for all of them. I am praying they all keep growing their testimonies of the restored gospel. 

This week is my last week in training! Which means tomorrow I will find out who my follow-up trainer is! I have a feeling I will be getting transferred which is super sad. I have grown such a love for Labasa and all the people living here!! Especially all of our incredible investigators and the members! 

This week was week 11 which meant I was the senior companion! I learned a ton and really enjoyed it. 

We made donuts again for our investigators this week and it was awesome! Just that one simple thing goes way far and it really opens the doors for us to help them progress! 

I got my new Hindi name badge this week and so now I'm official aye;)

We had dinner last night at the Vosa's and I think it was the best food I have had since I've been here. It was fish and it was SOOO good. I'll send a pic below! 

We have made huge progress with Pria aur app ke parivaar. Her husband was able to sit in on a couple lessons and now he is totally on board. He wants to be baptized bi! Absolute miracle!! They want to be baptized together though, which is awesome, but it does mean that we have to push Pria's baptism back a little bit into next transfer, but it will be so worth it when they both are able to be baptized on the same day!

I was able to lead the lesson their lesson this week in Hindi and it felt great! They were able to understand what I was trying to say so that was good haha! 

I am praying that I will be able to stay here in Labasa taki I will be able to be here for all the baptisms coming up, but we will see what happens! 

This is President and Sister Layton's last transfer in the mission, and also we have 10 missionaries leaving with them. And 5 of those 10 are Zone Leaders!! And next transfer another 3 of those 5 remaining Zone leaders will be leaving. And also Elder Mumford the AP and Elder Fitisemanu who was AP when I got here will leave. So the Fiji Suva Mission is about to get turned upside down, but it'll be fun to see where everyone ends up. 

So I don't have a lot of time this week, sorry, but it's been really good here. I'm still alive and doing great. I absolutely love it here. 

I hope you are all doing good! 

Have a fantastic week! 

Hum tumlong se bohut pyar khare he!

--

Elda Hess

Pictures: 

1. Sister Tarisi 

2. Dinner @ the Vosa's

3. How'd I get so lucky

4. Found the Tree of Life

5. From an investigators front porch

6. Logan(spider-man) @ church