3 month (Week 12)

Today is my 3 month mark! Fastest 3 months of my life! I love it out here. This week has been really awesome.

So this week was transfer week which means halfway through we had a bunch of Elders who are transferring come and stay with us for a night or two before their flights back to Viti Levu. It was way fun to have them here! One of those Elders was Elder Faamoe who was up in Somosomo. He was AP for a while and is a way cool guy. He left home on Saturday and we got to spend all of Thursday with him. I learned heaps. 

This week we have been doing lots of finding. It can be pretty discouraging sometimes, because lots of the hindu people here don't want anything to do with Christianity, but it is all worth it when we meet that one person who is just so open and ready for the message. And This week we were definitely led to some amazing new investigators.

I have made lots of progress in the language this week. I feel a lot more confident in getting involved in the lessons that are in all Hindi. It is such a good feeling to be able to say something and they actually understand what I am saying ahah! I still can't understand very much because they talk really fast, but at least I have felt a little improvement.

So we had a couple really cool things happen this week. 

So yesterday we got a call that someone needed us in the hospital and so we caught a taxi and went there. We had no idea who is was we just new that the name was William Brown. We got there and asked where he was staying and they led us to the very back corner of the hospital in the children's wing. They were staying in a room with 6 beds which were all full of really sick kids:( It turns out that it was a mom and her boy and who were members from Savusavu and the little boy had been running with a sucker in his mouth and he fell and it went down his throat. He is stable and is doing fine, but they still haven't been able to find the stick in his stomach so they are a little scared. We were able to give him a blessing and it was such an amazing experience. He is doing good and should be okay and be able to go home soon.

FINALLY killed the mouse that has been living in our kitchen. We threw a piece of wood across the counter and got him. Just a little guy, but dang he was hard to get. Lots of failed attempts.

The other day me and Elder Tony were out proselyting and we came to this one house way out in the middle of a sugar cane field. Well we got up to it and called to see if anyone was home an uncle came out and happily invited us in. As soon as we got up there we started to introduce ourselves a little in Hindi and he immediately started questioning us! He said he knew who the missionaries were and he was really mad that we thought we needed to share with him a message. He was really mad that we thought to even come his Indian community and yeah he just started going off. He said he had studied Christianity for 14 years and that he knows everything about it and he was telling us that we should go teach the people in the prison because that's where all the Christians are. He also was saying how we are wrong because we have  New Testament. He was like what is wrong with the old one. It was pretty ridiculous. Once he let me speak I explained to him a little bit of what our purpose was for coming. I explained to him what the the New and Old Testament really are also bore my testimony. It ended up turning out alright, but it was really frustrating too. We have this type of experience happen pretty often and it can be pretty discouraging. But we just keep on keeping on and everything turns out good in the end:)

So I get the opportunity to play soccer actually quite a bit here and it's so much fun to play with the kids in the streets. The other day I was playing with a couple kids and while I was playing I was asking them questions about themselves. They said that they are staying with their grandma during the holiday break and they showed me her house. I told them to go ask their grandma if she wanted to hear a message about Jesus Christ and they ran in and when they came back out they said that she is busy right now,but wantsyou to come back Tuesday at 6 o'clock and they told me that the only reason she wants us to come back is because we were playing with her grandkids:) BINGO ah it felt so good to hear that! I guess soccer did pay off!! haha:)

Okay this email was full of a couple pretty random stories but I'm a pretty random person so it makes sense. 

I love you all and I am thankful for all of your support. 

I love it here in Viti am thankful for this opportunity to serve the Lord.

Have a great week!

-- 

Elda Hess

Week 12

I know that this is how I start every single email, but dang this week has gone by so fast.

SO this week was Zone Conference and it was such a fun time. We had some way good training and I learned heaps!

It was so much fun to have all the other elders here in Labasa. It was really crowded, but I enjoyed it. Sometimes it can get a little lonely up here in the north because all the areas are so spread out, and so it was way fun. There were 24 elders in our flat for two nights, and we all stayed up pretty late just talking, freestyle rapping, and telling stories haha. It was such a good time. 

Elder Mumford is now AP which is awesome! He was a Zone Leader in Suva when I very first got here, and so he is the one I went out on exchanges with my very first night in Fiji. He is the coolest kid!

Elder Afatasi goes home this week. He is the other AP and so we will be getting another new AP this week! The picture below with me in the middle of 2 guys is a picture with those two. They're seriously the coolest. Such good missionaries.

The language is hard. I am trying really hard but it is still a struggle. There are just so little resources it is really frustrating.

The food is still incredible. Now that we are getting to know the members better we have a ton more dinner appointments throughout the week!

The other night we had a dinner appointment with a member named Joji and we showed up at his house and it turns out that it was his grandfathers birthday party! It was so much fun. Because we are missionaries and visitors they pulled us up to the very front of the ceremony before the food and it was a little uncomfortable because I had no idea what was going on, but was still fun:) It was a MASSIVE feed and was soooo good. The picture below is with all of them after the party.

The missionary work here is hard. Me and elder Tony were told by President Layton to try and focus more in the Indian people and so that is what we have been working on these past couple days. It is really hard because most of them don't have a background of Christianity at all and so it is a much slower process, but it is also a really cool experience to try and help others understand the very basics. Even when you focus on the very basic doctrine like that we have a loving Heavenly Father, it is amazing how strong the spirit can be during the lesson.

We found a couple new investigators this week who are awesome. One woman's name is Anita and her and her two sisters are really open to the message. They are super kind and are really excited for our next appointment tomorrow.

The hardest thing about the work here in Labasa is getting people to church. There are so many people that are having amazing experiences building their testimonies, but it is so hard to get them to church. There always seems to be something getting in the way and it is so frustrating.

I am loving it out here. We have seen so many miracles every day.

Life is good, and I am very grateful to be a missionary.

I love you all. Sorry I had to write this email really fast so sorry it's kinda random!

Have a great week:)

--

Elda Hess

Week 11

Week 11 (I think) and I'm still alive!

I guess I'll start off with an update of the language. So Hindi is coming very slow. It's a really interesting language and it is fun to learn, but it is really hard. I still haven't hit the point that I know as much Hindi as I do Fijian, but that day should be coming soon. The hard thing is that most of the Indians I'm just trying to do my part to make it possible for me to be able to receive the gift of tongues.

Okay the coolest thing happened this week! Seriously the most random thing ever!! So me and Elder Tony were up in the bush of Siberia, which is totally in the middle of nowhere, and we roll up to this Fijian house and call to see if anyone is home. Well this old Fijian man with a walker come out and invites us to go talk to him. So we started talking to this guy and he started speaking English to us, and it was crazy, this guy had FLAWLESS English. I was super surprised and so I asked him where he learned to speak English so well, and right as I said that, he said come in and I'll show you.

Okay so it turns out that this guy is the most interesting man in the world. So he started telling us his life story and it is so crazy!! I'm not going to have time to write everything, but this guy is amazing! So he grew up in a village on the north part of the main island and when he was 21 the British military came to Fiji recruiting people and they picked him up! He moved straight away to England and starting working with the military! He somehow through the military he started working for security for the royal family and working his way up over a few short years. By the time he was 30 he was the driver for the Queen!! Then after that he became head of security for Prince Edward and followed him all around the world for years and years. He showed us heaps of pictures of him with all the royal family!

Okay yeah so I don't have time to write all about him, but he speaks like 6 languages, he has lived in like 7 different countries! He also during the Firemen's strike in England was the temporary Fire Chief!! There is so much more too. He is so cool and it was the most random thing ever to meet him! His name is George. He is so kind and is really interested in the gospel. He has already heard about The Book of Mormon and says that he really admires Joseph Smith and feel like he connects with him a lot. So yeah we are really excited about him and hope for the best.

We have met lots of others this week and are excited. We have one investigator who had a confirmation this week that The Book of Mormon is true and she wants to be baptized so bad now, but her husband is very against it.. So sad, but we will see what happens. Hopefully he softens his heart.

We are working hard and time is starting to go a little faster each day. We have our hard days filled with lots of rejection, but we keep our head up and keep trying. There are people here that are ready to hear the message and I want more than anything to be able to find them. And I feel like we are slowly:)

Because we are out in the hot sun everyday I have gotten some gnarly tan lines from my crocks and my watch that I am really, really proud of hahaha.

Zone Conference starts today and I am super excited! It'll be good to see President Layton again and the APs. It is going to be here in Labasa, and so we will have 22 other elders staying in our flat for the next couple days. So wish us luck. We have already hid all our food and valuables and so hopefully they don't find them!! I'll let you know how it goes next week.

  

Thanks for everything! 

Love you all! 

Sorry this letter is super random and weird haha. ​