FIRST HINDI WARD IN FIJI!! January 28, 2018

This week was really good! I was sick most of it and so it was a little slow which was really rough, but there were some cool things that happened and so I'll quickly write about those!

Well this Tuesday we got a call from President Higgins inviting us to go to a meeting with the stake presidency to talk about the "hindi speaking unit" we are trying to start up! Well this meeting was so cool!! Instead of being a unit we found out that it is going to be a hindi ward! It has already been approved by Elder Johannson our area 70 now we just need to finish all the paperwork and it should be able to start next month! I am so excited!! I have been talking about this so much because it is so exciting for us and for all the Indian people here in Fiji! First ever hindi speaking ward in Fiji! 

We also have a baptism coming up this Saturday for Roshni!! She is so great!! Her testimony has grown so strong over the past couple weeks and it is so special to be a part of! She has given up coffee and tea recently which was such a big step for her but she isn't looking back!

I feel like time is moving so fast! I have been in this area now for 5 transfers and so I have had a lot of time to grow a love for the people here in Suva!! It is so excited to see so many people show their faith by joining the church, but it is also so amazing to see all of the recent converts continue down this path towards the temple. We have 10 or more recent converts that we hopefully will be able to go to the temple to do baptisms with before I leave the area! 

I love this work so much! I am so happy! I am excited for Whitney's wedding coming up! So crazy that she is getting married!! Really excited to see all the pictures! 

Love you all! Have a good week!

Pictures:

1. Hindi class at church

2. Our dog which smiles

3. All the hindi elders from around the area

4. With Kala after giving her a CTR ring:)

Fiji is so cool December 3, 2017

This week was really good! A couple cool things that happened are...

We got to go down to Suva town and be a part of the Light the World initiative! It was really cool! There was a function and a choir and stuff like that! We as missionaries got to talk to so many people! Elder Johansson of the area presidency was there and spoke! It was so cool. We stayed there all day and it was awesome. As missionaries 6 of us gave out 2000 pass along cards, 600 light the world calendars, and over 150 Book of Mormons! It was a great day!

This week we also met a guy named Rafa! He is Brazilian which is way random in Fiji, but from back home I have a couple connections to Brazil, so it was cool! He is a fire guys and will stay here for a long time! He is really interested! 

We also had a super sad thing happen though... Shiel is moving:( She was really excited with her newly set baptismal date, but she is leaving next week to the west! But the other elders will finish the lessons for her and I am also praying I get send out there next transfer!

We also had a huge blessing this week!! Learning Fiji Hindi there is only one book in existence that is actually in Fiji Hindi! It is the New Testament translated by the Bible Society of the South Pacific! The thing is there are almost none of them in existence. I've only seen one in the whole year we've been here! Well me and Elder Shin thought it would be a good day to stop by the Bible Society headquarters and we walk in and the main man over the whole bible distributions of Fiji is there and lets up know that in a couple hours the 2nd EVER shipment of the hindi bibles was coming in!! He said that he could get us 20 of them!!! We called President Higgins right away and let him know! It was the best day ever! It was not a coincidence! God put us right in the path so that we could receive more resources as missionaries of Him. 

Life is really good! The church is true. Christ lives! Have a good Christmas season! Love you all!

Pictures:

1. Light the world sign right in Suva!

2. Selfie with the most hindi bibles in one place at one time! 

3. Light the World with Elder Johansson speaking

4. Had the light the world video playing all day in the middle of the shopping mall!

5. Passing out Book of Mormons in Hindi, Fijian, and English:)

Fiji November 26, 2017

Helllo this week was really good! I don't have much time but I'll hurry and write some for you guys! 

Ashley got baptized on Saturday and then confirmed yesterday!! She was so excited that she was at church an hour and a half early for the confirmation! She is so awesome! Love her heaps! 

Cho and Makalesi now both have baptismal dates for next month on the 23 they are really progressing well and it's special to watch as their faith grows! 

This week we are going to go into town with Mark to help him get a things worked out in the court with his previous marriage so that is going to be great! Him and his wife have been waiting 30 years for this and so it's awesome to see huge progress starting to be made through their faith and diligence. 

We are seeing so many blessing and it's special to see how God's hand is working in the lives of the people of Fiji. I love it out here. 

This week is transfer week. I can't believe me and elder shin are already half way through our time together! Time is going too fast! 

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Elda Hess

July 23, 2017 with lots of pictures

Zone Conference this week was great!! 

We started out by having a Zone Qito!! Which means we get to play rugby with the whole zone! We only get to be with the whole zone once every 6 weeks so we all really look forward to that! 

President Higgins is the man!! He honestly is so cool! His trainings in Zone Conference were so eye opening! It was all about finding those people who are prepared! And relying on the spirit to know who they are. It was great! I feel super unlifted about finding new investigators, which is something I definitely needed. Also President Higgins has changed the rule on shoes and so now we can wear open toed shoes!! So awesome! 

Zone Conference is such a spiritual boost and really motivated me to keep working to become the best servant of the Lord that I can be. 

The interview with President was great! Talked about Motorcycles, fishing, snowboarding, surfing, and mission stuff too obviously! He is such a devoted deciple of Jesus Christ and is so smart, and he is going to do so much good for the mission!! He is very serious about the work and the Fiji Suva Mission is blessed to have him! 

Elda Mumford went home this week!! That was so hard to see him go! He was the first one I went out with the first night I got here, then was my first Zone Leader and came up to the north with me, and after that he was AP for 2 1/2 transfers. He's probably the missionary I'm closest with out here and so it was really hard to see him go!! 

We had a great day of work on Friday. We were able to get out early and do lots of finding! Along with a couple great lessons with some of our progressing investigators. We have 6 baptismal dates right now and with their dates coming up there is lots of work to be doing with them! It's so amazing to be a missionary!

This Saturday me and Elda Christensen got so sick. We had some bad fish and so neither of us left our bed all day Saturday unless it was to go to the bathroom to throw up. We are all good now and our immune systems are stronger now because of it:)

The hindi language this week has felt good! I've been trying to speak it as much as I can with Elder Christensen. Sometimes it's easy for me to forget to be thinking about the language throughout the day when I am just with him because we are both from the same place and most people speak in fijian, but as I have been having conversations with him in Hindi it's helped a lot. Especially with my vocab of day to day things and small talk. I feel pretty confident about talking about gospel things, but where I see I could improve would be my day to day conversations! 

I have felt the Spirit lots this week. I really feel the Lord's guidance in the work! 

I am reading right now in 3 Nephi and I have received many answers to questions I've had for a while! 

In a lesson with Lote this week we read Alma 42 where Alma is talking to his son Corianton but instead of where it says "my son" we put her name in there. It was really powerful! She said it helped her a lot! We got this idea from a talk given by Joaquin Costa in the last General Conference. He actually came to the MTC when I was there! 

Okay bye! Love you all!

Also it's Benny's birthday this Wednesday! He's the real stud of the family! Best brother anyone could ask for!

-- 

Elda Hess

Pictures:

1. With Elda Mumford @ the airport right before he left 

2. Me and Presidnet Naan 

3. My fijian mom, aunti, and little sister:)

4. A funeral we went to 

5. Labasa District!! 

6. Little Kali 

7. After chruch yesterday

8. Selfie @ the Three Sisters hike

5 months July 2, 2017

Hello!

5 months mark is this week! It's crazy how fast time flies out here! 

The power has been shut down for a couple hours here in Labasa bc one of the power lines broke, but there is still one internet shop that has power thankfully! 

The start of this week we went on exchanges down to Nakawakawa. This is down at the very bottom of Vanua Levu, and is in the middle of nowhere. To get there you have to take a  hour bus ride on a dirt road and it's pretty miserable to be honest, but once you are there it is beautiful. The elders that stay there sleep in the chapel. There are a couple of koros surrounding it and so the work is pretty good. We went into a couple of the koros and I was able to practice my Fijian. Most of the people down there are strong methodists, and so the work can be hard. One of the guys we were talking to opened up to us about his life and it was such a special experience to share Matthew 16:19 and talk about the priesthood power and how it can seal families together forever. We ended up finding 6 new investigators in total in just 3 hours. After that we headed down the the river to shower! It was a way fun experience! The next morning me and Elder Kris woke up at 3:45 am and caught the 7 hour bus ride back to Labasa! If the power turns back on I'll be able to send pictures of all of this back at the chapel.

Oh random, but on the ride back a crazy guy came onto the bus. I don't know what had happened to him but he was all bloody and was bleeding all over the place. He was yelling and it was a little scary, but everything turned out okay! 

Once we got back in Labasa we went straight to work! We have been doing lots these past few weeks to help the work and it is getting better!! We have some Baptisms coming up soon and we are excited! Uliasi is getting baptized next Sunday and that'll be so good to see. He's a Fijian boy from a koro down in Bua, but he lives here in Labasa now with his grandparents! He's the man! Really excited for next Sunday!

Also Parpa's date is coming up soon! She has been in Suva for the past week and a half because of a death in the family, but she comes back tomorrow and so it'll be good to see her again. Her husband passed away this year and so as she has strengthened her testimony in the Plan of Salvation we have been able to see that hope come back into her life and it's so special to watch! 

While we were 'OYM'ing this week I think 90 % of the people we met were hindu priests. So that was hard. Most of them were pretty nice, but some weren't. That's a hard situation, but we just always make sure we bear our testimonies of Jesus Christ. And when we do that it always turns out okay:) 

Dang to be honest I don't know much more to write about! This week has been good! Me and Elder Kris are having tons of fun! He's the man! I love Fiji so much. I love all of you and miss you tons!

Pictures: 

1. Me and Elda "Amoni" 

2. Flat in Nakawakawa @ also the chapel

3. Down in Nakawakawa

4. Climbing a coconut tree is way harder than you'd think

5. Random pic of a "bulamakau" and a famer burning his sugar cane

6. That's a dog and a baby pig lol ONLY in Fiji