April 23, 2018 Ii haafta saab se achcha ra

Hello! This week has been really good and has really gone by so fast! Probably because we were able to spend the entire week in our area and didn't have to run around doing so much administration like in the past two weeks because of the floods and so forth. Ministering is much more enjoyable than administering. 

Oh one funny/awesome story from this week! So up until now I have been driving on my American driver's license, but I am at the point that I needed to transfer into a full Fijian license. This process requires going to the LTA which is the same as a DMV in America, and taking a written and driving test. This process can take a long time because they almost always fail you a couple of times before you can pass the test! They are very particular at the little things and so it really can take such a long time. For example when I was with Elder Christensen he took the test 5 times and never passed. Even though he has been driving his whole life. Well this past Friday was the day I was set to go take the test in Suva and I show up and see that it is an Indian man who is going to be doing my test. We start out by going to the car and doing the driving test. He was pretty cranky for the first few minutes and I was just speaking English to him. Then he asked a question about missionaries and I took that as my opportunity to start speaking Hindi and to explain to him that we are the Hindi Elders and can speak Hindi. He got such a shock, like most people do, and became super interested and happy! We were planning on driving around the whole tip of Suva all the way to Suva town and so forth, but less than one minute after I started speaking Hindi he told me to take a right turn and then another and then to pull back into the LTA. His whole whole demeanor had changed and he was laughing and smiling and we were having a great time. The driving test only lasted about 10 minutes total!! He called me to the back room and said that I was finished and I was surprised because I still hadn't taken the written test! He filled out all the paperwork and then said,"Well you're all finished Samuel! Go get your license at the front desk!" I was so surprised!! I have heard from other missionaries how it is a nightmare to try and get their license finished but it only took me 15 minutes total!! And then the coolest part is, when I was leaving after I had grabbed my license he called from the back room saying saying loudly,"Samuel, Samuel, Have you already eaten lunch? You should come have lunch with me today." I wish so badly we could've gone with him, but we had to get back to our area for some lessons, and so I explained that to him. The funny thing is that this whole conversation was in Hindi and there were a ton of people sitting in the LTA watching the whole thing, they were all looking way surprised and funny because they'd never seen a white kid speak Hindi before! It was just awesome, because what I thought was going to be a miserable day turned out to be one of the favorite moments of my mission! 

Tomasi and Fatulia both got confirmed this Sunday which was just awesome! Marica was picked up by her uncle the night before to go stay at his house for a celebration going on there and so she wasn't able to be confirmed. But their mother is awesome and we pray everything is going to work out next week:)

The investigators are doing so good right now. Like I said the past two weeks were crazy busy, but this past week was awesome because we got to spend a whole week with our investigators just teaching lessons and being real missionaries. I love this work and am so happy! 

Love you all!

Pictures: 

1-7: At Navua beach yesterday as a zone! It was so much fun! The one doing the splits is my companion Elder Ishibashi! He is such a good guy and we have so much fun together. HAHA that one is such a quality picture lol! 

8: This is Violet our recent convert. She is super cute and really smart. She reminds me a lot of Sadie! 

9-12: Found this beetle at our house haha! It was HUGE!