Week 31-April 24, 2016

Ni sa bula noqu matavuvale, 

This week was transfers.  Boy, was I caught off guard

when President Layton told me I was leaving Toga. 

I've been transferred to an area north of Toga called Bau. 

Bau is way sweet. It's a lot of farm land. It reminds 

me a little bit of those farm towns we would drive

past in Utah. 

My new companion's name is Elda Ruwhiu. He's from 

New Zealand and he's actually only one intake ahead 

of me. He was also in my zone when I was in Ba and we 

got transferred from the west at the same time. He's way 

awesome. 

Our area isn't crazy big, it's just very long and flat. We 

have bikes though, so that helps. Or at least it will as soon 

as my butt gets use to sitting on the seat. 

Before I got to Bau I only knew three things about it, the flat 

sucked (like one of the worst in the mission), there were heaps 

of centipedes, and the branch was dying. I can testify to none 

of that. 

When I got here, the Eldas were actually moving flats. We 

now live in this sweet farm house and our landlord's name 

is "Big Momma". It's awesome! 

The branch is great. I was able to meet a lot of great people 

these past 5 days. I met a Sister named Tagilevu and she's way 

cool. She's like 75 and she still does all of her own house care 

and landscaping. She's just the sweetest person. I also met a 

young family who lives next to Sister Tagilevu. Their names are 

Tumeli and Jade. Tumeli is a less active and Jade is an investigator. 

They have the cutest little boy named Nephi who is just barely 

under one year old. The dude looks like a little pumpkin, he's way 

cute. 

This week has been way nice. Oh, the Elda who is replacing 

me in Toga...Ogden. Yeah, that bum! Tera is still there. Nausori 

South (Ogden and Tera's zone) and Nausori North (my zone) 

have a sweet combined beach P-day every six weeks, so I'll see 

them in six weeks. I miss and love you guys so much! 

Elda Jasen Dawson

-- 

Peace Be Still

Keep it Real

Week 30-April 17, 2016 Turning Around

Yadra Vina'a kemudou kece

Wow, what a week. Like for reals, this week will go down in the depths of my mind. So, we had a Zone Conference this week it was AMAZING! The whole meeting was based on conversion. Something Sister Layton stressed in her training was that we had to be converted before we can convert. It really hit home for me. Then the Assistants to the President gave a training on how to be successful. It was probably the best training I've ever received. They talked about four steps. I know, I know four steps to success, I wasn't very excited either until they explained it. They asked us what the four traits of a successful missionary are. In this mission we have been taught:

-Exactly Obedience

-Hard Working

-Having a Relationship with God

-Being Teachable

 The APs explained that these were actually also the four steps for life success. But in a different, specific order. The four steps are:

1. Relationship with God

2. Exact Obedience

3. Hard work

4. Be teachable

They explained that if we have a strong relationship with the Lord that all the other traits/steps will just fall in line. We will want to work hard, we will want to be teachable, we will want to be exactly obedient! 

They shared a wonderful quote by President Boyd K. Packer 

"The study of the Doctrines of the Gospel will improve behavior quicker than a study of behavior will improve behavior."

They told us that as we strengthened our relationship with God, it won't be hard to obey the rules, because we will want to be obedient to our Father in Heaven. 

Lately, I have been having an issue with obedience, nothing major, it was just becoming a pain, you know. Tera and I did what we were supposed to, but with little to no purpose. The APs shared another quote:

"Don't mistake activity with achievement."

                                         -John Wooden

That is exactly what we were doing. We thought that because we were following the rules we were fine, but we were following the rules because we had to, not because we wanted to. 

It really made me rethink myself as a missionary. It made me take a hard look at the way I was living. Something happened later that night. Something a little to special to share through email. It made the difference. It gave me the push I needed. SInce then, nothing has stopped me from being a missionary the Lord wants me to be. We had a very nice and wet trip to Vutia this past week. Hopefully we'll see a baptism next week! Transfer calls are tomorrow, so we'll see what goes down. Tera and I both have a bad feeling, but it is what it is. 

Stairway to heaven!

I'm loving the work and I'm loving the people. My companion is a skux and I'm doing great. Love you all!

Elda Jasen Dawson

-- 

Peace Be Still

Keep it Real

Week 29-April 10, 2016

Mom,

So I just wanted to put your mind at ease.

Another set of parents, our Heavenly parents sent their darling boy on a mission, a mission to save us all. They knew that it was going to be hard and that it wasn't going to end well for him. 

Just like them, you knew you were sending me away, but my mission won't end like his. I'll be home safe and sound in a little under 17 months. I know it's scary, seeing all that craziness going on over here but everything is okay. Just know I'm okay. I know you can't help but worry, but just remember that I'm His son also, and He's got my back. I love you! 

Ni sa bula vinaka kemudou kece,

So my life just kind of seems to be like one big day with little naps in between.

This was a good week though.

We had lots of rain, and some flooding, but nothing to bad. 

Lately it's been kind of hard visiting people. It's been a lot of, "Yeah come back tomorrow.", but they are never home. It's kind of stinky. But we keep on keeping on. 

We got some news that Elda Feliuai' Lene was getting transferred to Kadavu.  This news is also stinky and I'll miss him. An upside to the transfer is that Elda Green is coming to Naitasiri. So I'll see Green like at least once a week! So stoked!

We did get to watch General Conference this Sunday, and we even had a couple of less actives and recent converts there.  I loved Elder D Todd Christopherson's talk on Fathers and obviously Holland's talk was amazing. We didn't get to see Saturday or Priesthood, we were told it was in Fijian, but it was in English. It's all good though. Our Branch President has the DVDS, so I'll just watch it during personal study or something. 

I'm loving my area more and more. Having the District Leader as a companion means we go on exchanges, and exchanges give me the opportunity to lead my area. Something happens when you lead your area. You have to open up a lot more to the people, so I've become good friends with some of the families here. 

We learned that one of our investigators, Loata, we are teaching came back from Nadi. The best part, she kept taking lessons in Nadi and she even had the Eldas there start teaching her family there. She's awesome!

I have ringworm.  Like an ish ton of ringworm.  Like my whole right side is covered in ringworm.  It itches...a lot.  I also just found more on my nethers.  Yeah, I have gosh darn ringworm and it sucks.  I have cream for it though, so I'm sure it will clear up by the time I have a wife.  lolz!

The good news, no pink-eye for me. We were pretty sure we were going to get it cause it was spreading around like wild fire, but it never happened so it's all good. 

We killed a rat this week. It was pretty big. 

And pictures...finally lots of pictures!!  I know there aren't many captions but use your imagination!

I love you guys and I miss you a ton. 

Elda Dawson

 

Mud socks

6 month tie burning!!

-- 

Peace Be Still

Keep it Real

Week 28-April 3, 2016

Matavuvale,

Okay, so a pretty solid week has passed. Don't worry about my boil. It sucked that first day but afterwards, it was fine. It hasn't bothered me since.

So this week has actually been like crazy cold for the most part. It's been really windy and rainy. It's been a nice break from the heat though, so no complaints.

Sadly, no conference for us this week. We get the discs this next week or something so that's when we'll watch it. I'm looking forward to it.

This past week we did a lot of OYMing. OYM is Open Your Mouth. It's just finding people or tracting or whatever you want to call it, who want to learn more about the gospel,  just by asking or starting up conversations. It was actually way fun. We got very creative to try and get into homes for conversations. We asked one man to use his bathroom and I just sat in the bathroom while Elda Tera spoke to the man and his wife. Pretty sneaky, huh?! 

We found a bunch of people who previous Eldas had been visiting but they had been forgotten about, a lot of Indian families. Lucky for me they speak English.  We found a bunch of Rotuman families as well. Rotuma is a small island in our mission. It's a coveted place to go and they speak their own language. So hopefully I'll be able to learn some Rotuman from them and maybe one day I'll get sent out to Rotuma. I'm not aspiring, just dreaming. Ha, ha.

Toga is amazing though. I love the people here.

Sorry. I'm getting kinda boring. Please don't stop loving me. 

I love you guys and I miss you. 

Elda Dawson

--

Peace Be Still

Keep it Real