9-30-2018

Hey guys I'm sorry but I've got to go! We are heading out right now to go finish up our training, and then this afternoon we are headed to the west for zone conference. From the west we will be going up to the north! I'm gonna get to go to Labasa again which is so exciting!!! I honestly can’t wait! Also the cool thing is that Elder Shin is serving there right now and we are gonna go on exchanges with them! It's gonna be awesome! Hopefully I can go back and see some people I used to teach and now actually be able to talk to them haha! Sorry about the dry email! Feel free to correct anything before you send it out if you want because I feel like I am not writing very good emails anymore due to time. Love you guys so much! Hope all is well! BYE!

 

Thanks for all your support. I know he appreciates it as well. He would love to hear from you all.

He asked that I forward the group email and photos along to you all.

Jason

 

 

Samuel Jason Hess <samuel.hess@myldsmail.net>

To:Marianne Hess,Jason Hess

Sep 30 at 5:10 PM

 

Hello everyone! Sorry for no messages for the past few weeks. Things have been pretty crazy here! But in a good way haha. Everything is going really good! This week has been awesome! I got shifted areas last week and so I am now in the Samabula area! I love it here! It's pretty funny though because this ward is like almost a mini America haha. Everyone speaks good English and most of them work in the US embassy which is just around the corner. It's way fun though and I am really excited to be here.

 

There have been so many things going on, but it honestly feels so good to be engaged in the work of the Lord. My favorite part of the week this past week was teaching lessons. We had a goal as a companionship to visit all of our people this week and teach 20 lessons. We made sure to do the best we could and saw lots of blessing from the effort. We were able to teach 21 lessons this week and visit every one of our investigators at least once. And visited some of them more than 3 times. We were really happy about that. I am the happiest I've every been. Also the busiest I've ever been, but I think those two things go together well. When we are busy doing the Lord's work we just feel happier because the Spirit is with us and we are avoiding being idle.

 

He are some pictures down below! I try and send more if they will load. I love you all and am thankful for the prayers and support. Life is good when we are engaged in the work of the Lord. Have a great week!

Pictures:

1&2. After one of our lessons with Anji this week.

3,4,&5. Bridge in the Makoi area from exchanges this week.

6. First time wearing pant in 1.5 years

7&8. The Gounder family. The first one I set the timer and then, after it was too late, I realized there was nowhere to sit down haha! 

9. Uma and Sunil are taking self-reliance class right now and just started up there own business. They sell Indian sweets from home and already made over 10 dollars their first week!

10. Sister Maivanualala(the fijian) just found out they got her visa and so she will be flying to Zimbabwe this week/ She is so excited! 

11. This is our new chapel in Nausori!! It's so nice! 

12. Had to take a picture because this is the greatest example of how fertile Fiji's soil is! These fence post that were just stuck into the ground are now turning into a tree. Farming in Fiji honest consists of just sticking sticks into the ground and waiting for them to grow into food.

Love you guys! Sorry not much time today so I thought I'd just send some pictures from the week because I wasn't able to last week! Life is good! Rishap, Shidhant, and Michael are looking forward to their baptisms this week! I'll keep you guys updated! Have a great week:)

Love,

Elder Hess

9-16-2018

This week has been a great week. One that has taught me a lot. I really enjoyed the mission conference as well as the missionary leadership counsel. President Higgins gave us the advice to preparing myself spiritually and then having faith that the Lord will prompt Elder Ardern to give those answers. I really received a testimony of the truthfulness of that promise as I was humbled to see all the answers I received. It really build my testimony in many things.

 

This week we have seen so many miracles. Just yesterday on Sunday I fasted to be able to find some new people to teach in this area. It feels like things have been becoming a little slow with the work and I know that that is not what God wants to happen. During church in Waila ward a past investigator showed up with his friend for the first time in 7 months. He explained how he was in the west with his family, but now is back and both him and his friend want to take the lessons and be baptized! Then in Naulu ward our recent convert from the 4th week I was in this area brought her 2 sisters for the first time!! We have been visiting them for the past 7 and a half months to be able to see this day and when we got there to church! They called me over and told me how they want to get baptized and that the mother had given them permission! They had already gone to bishop and told him the same thing before we'd arrived. And on top of that, while I was talking with them, another Indian family in the ward was talking with Elder Lee about another family of 3 that had contacted them and told them they are wanting to take the missionary lessons and come to church!! Fasting is amazing!! Faith brings miracles! It was one of the best days ever! 

 

Also one other thing that happened on Sunday was that Janend talked with bishop and planned for their wedding and baptism which will be 2 weeks from this Saturday!! We just need to get in contact with Bishop Qaqa in Suva, because he is the only one with a license to do marriages.

 

Life is good here in Fiji! Transfers is this week so I'll let you know what happens next Monday! I hope I get to stay, but we will see what happens. 

 

Love you all! Have a great week!

 

Elder Hess

Some great things have happened this week! We have found a lot of new people to teach and just seen a lot of good things happen. One of the best things that has happened this week was Janand and Joyreen coming to church and being able to meet with President Gounder who is in our Stake Presidency. President Gounder is a great fellow shipper, and sat down with them and have figured out all the details so that they will be able to have a their marriage in the church hopefully next week!! We are so excited! It's funny, sometimes I feel like I have gotten more people married on my mission than baptized. Jokes! I guess temple marriage is the end goal though. But first I think we will just focus on the baptismal service:)

This week we were out in Baulevu and after having a lesson fall through, we felt like we needed to go see the Gounder family. We did and after a few minutes guess who walked by!? Anji!! She told us that she has been waiting for another opportunity to see us so that we could meet again. Last time we talked to Anji was as her husband told us to never come back. It was heartbreaking, but when we saw her we were so excited and asked the Gounders if we could use their house to meet with Anji. They agreed and we were able to finally sit down with her and hear her powerful testimony of the past 2 months since we hadn't seen her! Even though she right now isn't able to come to church, she has been following the word of wisdom, reading the Book of Mormon, and following all the other commandments we have already shared with her. She said that her life is different since she started taking the lessons!  We read together Mosiah 24 and it was a sweet moment to be there together and feel the Spirit testify of the hope of Christ in our trials. Right now it's hard to know what will happen in the short term, but one miracle from this story is that her husband found out she was coming to see us and didn't say anything. So he is allowing her to at least come and talk with us and the Gounders at the Gounder's home. For now, up until another way is made for her to come to church and be baptized this is a huge blessing. I know that with strong faith and hope in the future she will be able to one day be able to receive the full blessings of the gospel.

Here are some pictures of some things from the week! 

Pictures:

1. This was a cottage meeting we had at the Gounder's house yesterday. Anji is the one on the very right who is barely fitting inside the photo. 

2-4. The other night we were helping Aunti our landlord peel peas with a bunch of other ladies from around the neighborhood. It was definitely a highlight of the week.

5-6. Found these both this week. The centapede is about the 15th I've killed in this flat alone. That's gotta be a record or something. The Spider was about a big as my palm although it doesn't look as big in the photo bc I copied it from a video.

7-8. Two quotes I found on Saturday! Such great messages! 

--

Elda Hess

9-2-2018

This week has been really good. We have been able to see some pretty cool miracles.

Kaka got baptized which was so exciting! His daughter Alisha was baptized about a month ago and now he has made the step to make it possible for him to join her as a member of the Church.

This week we taught the Law of Chastity to some of the people we are teaching, and it came up that him and his wife are not legally married. In fact they both had previous marriages whose divorces were not final. Even though they have been living together for years and have a daughter, they shared their discouragement of now understanding that baptism would need to wait until after the marriage. Having this problem in the past in my mission I know how frustrating it is to get legal these divorces and marriages figured out, we were a little sad because of this big set back. But in the lesson we felt prompted to reset the baptismal date and promise that if they have faith and do all that they can, that God will make it possible for baptism on the 15th. 2 days later we went to town together, and even though they had 2 divorces that needed to be finalized(a process that is usually takes months to accomplish), it was finished in one day!! They are so great and have so much faith. The last step is to take those papers and now get the marriage license. God is in the work and that is such a blessing.

Elder Lee's health is back to normal for the most part. The work here is going good! I've attached some pictures below from the past 2 weeks.

Pictures:

1-2: Kaka's baptism.

3. Sonu, a new person we met out in a village this week.

4. After a lesson yesterday with our recent converts Joseva and Timoci. Joseva is was recently called as Young Men's president in the Navatuyaba branch. Timoci is his first counselor.

5. Since the funeral there have been ceremonies every night and we go and sit with them all for a few minute pretty often. Great way to meet new people.

6. Picture at a stake activity.

7. Elder Giles and Pomat on their new bikes. They crashed just a few minutes after this was taken haha.

8-9. This is a picture of the wedding from last week. I took the picture from our front door haha. They seriously surrounded the house! So funny! It was so loud all night long.

10. Our lesson about Jonah yesterday in church.

Love you guys! The Church is true!

Elder Hess