August 28, 2017

This week has been good! I just want to apologize in advance. This is going to be short again this week! 

This week has been really good. The Zone Leaders came and did Kumari's baptismal interview. Sorry I've been buildups about it, it will be this Saturday! It will be Elder Mounga's last Saturday in Fiji and so he is really excited to be a part of it. 

It rained really hard one day and flooded the road. I didn't get a really good picture of where it was the worst but i think you can see some of it in the pic I'll send. We gave a blessing to a girl from the ward that day and it was crazy to try and get to her house. 

We have some new friends in our flat... BED BUGS... dang they are the worst! I think we were able to get rid of most of them on Saturday though.

Elder Mounga goes next week and he is really excited and also really sad. 

Got invited to a wedding that's going to be at the rugby stadium! There is going to be so much food and so we will probably go! I'll take lots of pictures if we do! 

I got to go on exchanges with Elder Aisa this week! He was my comp in the MTC and so it was just like old times! It was seriously so much fun!! 

Okay love you all sorry for the short letter!

--

Elda Hess

August 20, 2017

This week was good! It went by really fast!

I don't have a lot of time this week, so I'm sorry, but I'm still alive and doing well! 

We decided to wait and have Kumari get baptised next week! So I'll send those pictures next week! 

Umm other than that this week has been pretty normal.

We had one big leqa this week. The family we have been teaching from Vanuatu disappeared two days ago. We have no idea where they are. So I'll keep you updated on that. They all had baptismal dates and have been coming to church consistently for a couple months now. They honestly are no where to be found and we are worried that they might have been forced to move back to Vanuatu. I'll keep you updated though!

We had Zone Conference last Tuesday and it was fire. Such good advise that really helped up. For one part of President Higgins' training he would give us a situation and as a companionship we had to find a scriptural source to help solve the problem. It was way powerful. Using the scriptures really is such a powerful way to invite the spirit! 

Alright sorry for the short email! I'd love you hear from you guys on how you all are doing! 

Love y'all! 

Elda Hess

August 13, 2017

This week has been good! We have been working really hard to help our investigators progress! A lot of the craziness with funerals and such is starting to die down, and so it's been nice to start being able to put 100 percent attention on our investigators. Like how it should be:)

Kumari one of our investigators gets baptized this Saturday and we are super excited! He has been looking forward to it for a while now! His wife also wants to be baptized really bad and talks about it as much as Kumari or more, but she had an accident and now she can't walk. We are in the process of helping her get a wheelchair so that she can also be baptized soon. 

A lot of the time it is frustrating because in Suva lots of people can speak English, and so sometimes I get frustrated and wonder why we have to go through all this difficulty to try and learn Hindi, but people like Kumari and Kala make it worth it. They can't speak any English and are right in the city. As of two years ago they wouldn't have been able to hear the gospel, but now because the Hindi speaking program has opened up we are able to find them. And it's not just them, all of our Indian investigators right now only speak Hindi, and so that is what motivates me to keep going even when the language is hard. Elder Mounga has been a big help. He goes home in 4 weeks and so he is very experience in the language and can answer lots of questions that I never understood before now. There is still so much to learn language wise, but I now feel comfortable and so that has been a blessing being able to focus more now on the details. 

On Wednesday last week we were finding in a Fijian settlement and asked a family if there were any Indian families that lived there. The little boy led us to the back corner of the settlement and sure enough there were 4 indian houses. It was such a blessing. We were guided there for a reason! We ended up getting 8 new investigators in just 1 hour. Those families were prepared for us to meet them. That is always such a cool experience. 

On the walk back from those appointments, we had a crazy guy try and mess with us. It was pretty nuts. He was shoving us and stuff. He even licked Elda Mounga's arm hahaha. That part was way funny!! But yeah it looked pretty bad for a minute, but we said a prayer together and then were able to leave without him really noticing. 

Yesterday me and Elder Mounga taught the YSA class at our Suva 3rd Ward. It went really good! We talked about Nauvoo and how the church grew during that time through the sacrifice of the saints. I learned lots as I studies D&C 124. God has promised us so much as we devote to build His kingdom. We must always try to keep an eternal perspective on things, because helping build the kingdom of God is the most important work. 

Ah so much has happened this week and I just never have time to write it all down. Hopefully you all know how much I love it out here. There is so much we are going through, but it is all such a blessing. I love being a missionary! 

Hum ii kam ke bhohut passand karta. Hum janta hei ki ii gir jar kar sache hei. Tou keonki hum uu janta, hum mangta aapan zinda ke devote karta. Hum janta hei ki Ishu Massi ke balidaan ke dwara, saab humlog sakta saffa hoige. Hum aaplog se bhohut pyar khare hei! Namaste! 

--

Elda Hess

Pictures! 

1. Me and elda aisa with some kids from the ward last P day! 

2. Cutest little kids

3. SUVA

4. Me and Elda Arrieta(Argentina) and Elda Morolo(PNG)

5. Me and Elda Mo'unga! He's the man!

6 MONTHS!!! August 6, 2017

This week was crazy!

The work is going good! We have lots of investigators who are progressing towards baptism and it is so exciting! We are working with one family from Vanuatu. There are 6 of them and they all have baptismal dates and so it's really exciting. Last lesson the father was having a couple questions about how baptisms should be performed, and we had a super powerful lesson explaining about it from the Bible. One of the best lessons I've been able to be a part of so far on my mission! The spirit was just so strong.

There has been a crazy sickness going around recently and Elder Mounga got really sick! On Wednesday he didn't even wake up until 8 pm.  I thought he was dead for a while, but everything turned out alright when he woke up! That was probably the longest day of my entire life. I watched The District 3 times all the way through and then watched The Mountain Of The Lord (which is a great movie by the way) another 4 or 5 times. The very next day though we were able to get out on time and have a good normal day which was such a blessing!

This week we had a tragedy happen. Sister Bibi died. We were with her just 2 days earlier. It was so out of the blue and really has been sad for everyone here. She is  a single mom in our Suva 3rd ward. She has one son who we are actually really close with. He is an Indian boy and so he comes to our lessons every once in a while. We were asked to carry the casket on Saturday and it was good to be able to help. President and Sister Higgins were both there. 

Can't remember if I said this last week or not but our flat is flooded so we stay with the Zone Leaders and other missionaries when we can! We cleaned it up a little last night though and so we might be able to move back in permanently! 

We got a couple great new investigators this week. Two Tongan boys showed up at church yesterday! They were their with their uncle who is a return missionary from Tonga, and they both wanted to take the lessons. We will see them on Wednesday! The mom sounds like a pretty strong catholic, but I'm excited. 

We were eating dinner at Demotor City and we started talking to an Indian guy. Being a white guys and being able to talk in Hindi really helps start a conversation!! Turns out he want to become Christian and be baptized. We are really excited! His name is Alexander and he's awesome!! 

It's easy to see miracles when you are looking for them! We have been so blessed this week! 

Yesterday in Sunday School we studied D&C 121 and it really got to me. Those sections are powerful and relate to missionary work so much more than I ever though they did. 

Love you all. So sorry I still can't send pictures.

Have a great week!  

Elda Hess

July 30, 2017

I'm in Suva! We had transfers this week and I got transferred to Suva! This place is massive! Compared to Labasa this place is NYC and so I'm a little overwhelmed. 

New apartment is flooded. Seriously water everywhere. Pretty crazy. There aren't any mice though so that's a bonus. The new problem is frogs though. We have lots that come inside our flat. ​​​​​​​​

It was really hard to leave Labasa. Probably just as hard as it was to leave home and come on my mission. I really love all of the people there so much. Lots of tears were cried as I had to quickly say my goodbyes and catch a flight back to Viti Levu. 

I GOT A YACA. Which means I had a baby that was named after me! A lady from Nakawakawa had twins and named her son Samuel after me! No joke! How awesome is that! AHAH I love Fiji!  

My new companion is Elder Mounga! He grew up in Utah, but is kai Tonga. He's the man! He has one transfer left on his mission and so I am his very last companion! He's awesome and even though we have only been together for 3 days, we are going to get along great! He's way humble and just is the man.

Our new area covers most of Suva. We overlap with a lot of other missionaries that are all Fijian speaking! It's pretty different but I'm gonna like it here! We have more than one restaurant in our area and so that's going to be a big change! We cover two wards now! Suva 1st and Suva 3rd. It keep us very busy! Yesterday was really, really busy! Starting at 8 with one sacrament and then having to taxi over to another chapel at 11 for the second church service. 

I don't have a lot of time right now because I was on exchanges with Elder Urisi from PNG this morning while our companions were going to self reliance class. Well that probably wasn't a very good idea because we are both new to Suva and got lost trying to find the internet shop! 

I have lots of pictures I want to send, but last time I plugged my sd card into these computers I lost them all, and so I don't really want to risk it! 

All the pictures from Whitney's homecoming are making me wish I was there. I miss you all, but I love it here though and this new area is gonna be awesome!! 

Okay I've got to go! We are having combined qito and so we will have like 50 missionaries there! Gonna be way fun! 

Okay I love you all! Have a great week! 

Pictures:

1. INTRODUCING SAMUEL RUWHIU DUNN MARIKA aka NOQU YACA!!

2. He's huge! 4.95 kgs

3. Picture from last week I had at Zone Conference

4. Hiking ​


(Pictures wouldn't open this week under the format he sent them) 

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