Week 36- May 30, 2016

Fam Bam,

How's it hangin' everybody? This week has been weird, well to me and Elda Ruwhiu, at least.

Let me start by saying that I love my companion. Elda Ruwhiu is one of the coolest dudes. He's just really laid back but motivated at the same time. He's pretty young in the mission just like me, so he's never a junior companion to me. He's way awesome. 

So this week just seemed really boring. Our whole week kind of was thrown off because we had our District Meeting on Wednesday and not Tuesday, so it kind of messed up our schedule...you know, like when you have a school holiday on a Monday and then you can't ever remember what day it is for the rest of the week. It was a good District Meeting though. I gave a "How to be Metal" insight. It was pretty sick.

On Thursday we did service at a family's house and we painted their house. The Koroi Family are way awesome. It's just an old lady and her husband and they love us and make us bomb food, like Shepard's Pie and other way sweet stuff! 

The rest of my week has been super boring and average, sorry. Oh wait, on Saturday, I was asked to help with "casting out of Evil Spirits". Don't worry it wasn't as terrifying as people might think. Just some lonely Indian lady, I think, but jokes on her, now we know where she lives, so we are just going to return and teach her about Jesus. Ha-ha-ha, Eldas get the last laugh!!!!  

So something Elda Ruwhiu and I do to pass the time while we are walking around is free style rapping. We'll give each other subjects or a phrase or a word and we just spit bars. It's lots of fun and we are getting better and better every day. 

That's pretty much my week. I miss you guys and I love you tons! 

Elda Dawson

--

Peace Be Still

Keep it Real

Week 35-May 22, 2016

Yadra vina'a noqu matavuvale!

This has been a great week! Not to intense, but enough to keep us busy!! 

So you'll all be happy to know, I didn't get yelled at this week. #winning

Selfie stick

This past week started with a real adventure. The whole Nausori North Zone visited some sweet caves in Nausatoka. It was way cool, also probably the most touristy thing I've ever done in Fiji. I'm sure we were still leagues ahead of normal tourists because we were all speaking Fijian. It was so cool, and a little creepy. Part of the caves was an area where they would keep prisoners of war to eat...yikes. Pictures didn't turn out the best but it was still way sick! 

Scary!

Elder "Thanos-Insanos" Stevens and the "Killing Place"

Elda Dunn and a stud

Elda Johnson and a stud

Tuesday was pretty normal, we had District Meeting and then we went and visited some people. 

Wednesday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. It was pretty fun I guess. I was with my grandma Elda Lautogia in my area and we had a way productive day. 

Tang tongues

Thursday came and went, but on Friday we had another exchange with our District leader. I was in Kuku with Elda "Thanos-Insanos" Stevens! It was way fun. Saturday also just came and went. Sunday, yesterday was a very special day though.

My whole time in Bau we have been working woth a young lady named Maraia Dilomavata. She's 24 and she was a referral from her older sister who is a member. Well Maraia took to our message very quickly. By our third meeting she told us frequently that she knew what we were teaching was the truth. Well, yesterday she followed her Savior's example and got baptized. I was honored to see it happen. Maraia is such a special person to me. She's been one of my favorite people in Bau and it doesn't hurt that she's easy on the eyes. I'm pretty lucky, when she hits her year mark of membership, I'll still have four months left, so hopefully I'll be able to go to the Temple with her.  She's awesome, and she has already told us about people she wants us to teach. I love her and her sweet family.

Maraia Dilomavata

Maraia Dilomavata and family, and studs

Honestly, I hate getting mushy and stuff in emails. I just never felt like that was really me, you know? But, I love doing what I'm doing. I've watched people's lives change. I've watched families change, and you can only watch so much change without it effecting you. I'm blessed to be in the position I'm in. I'm thankful for my Heavenly Father, for my parents, and people like Andrew Hudson, Alex Crowley, and Marc Allred for making missions sound cool. I might not know everything, or even a lot of things, but I know that I have a Heavenly Father who loves me. I know that I have a brother who gave his life for me. I know families can be together forever because of the blessings of the priesthood and Temples. I know that we are here on earth to experience happiness. 

I love you all so much. Keep the Faith.

Elda Jasen Dawson

Elda Ruwhiu the Exterminator

Ants, no more

-- 

Peace Be Still

Keep it Real

Week 34-May 16, 2016-A Good Scolding is All I’ve Never Wanted!

Matavuvvale,

Yadra Vinaka, everyone. This past week seemed to fly by, and it was pretty eventful. 

The peak of my week probably came in the beginning. I got a chance to talk with my family. Technology is so sweet. It was great seeing them and hearing about all of the exciting (but not as exciting as Fiji) adventures they are having. The rest of the week has just been tons of hard work.

So Bau is an interesting area. A lot of Eldas say it’s a hard area, but honestly it's an area that just makes you work hard.

Bau

Bau

Bau

Last Tuesday we were given a challenge by our Zone Leaders to hit the Standard of Excellence to teach 20 lessons a week. Well, in Bau, President Layton came and witnessed the work and actually dropped our Standard of Excellence to 14 lessons a week. (Bau’s reputation in well earned.)

Elder Ruwhiu and I are over-achievers so 20 seemed like a righteous goal.  We worked as hard as we could, bustin' our tails sometimes biking to appointments in under 5 minutes. We ended that week with 19 lessons. We felt good, but we knew we could hit 20.

Elda Ruwhiu and his intense study sessions

This past week, we worked even harder…this time without bikes, because, you know, I lost my handle bars and all.

#hardmodeactivated  

Please note that these bikes have only one gear, no hand breaks and they weigh about 500 lbs.

My handle bars, before I lost them!

There seemed to be an endless supply of fall-through appointments and after about Friday we really just stopped counting lessons.  We figured whatever happened happened. Well, Sunday morning during planning we counted.  Elda Ruwhiu looked at me, a little shocked, and told me that we were sitting at 17 lessons.  We were stoked. We planned the day with close to 8 lessons on our schedule. After church, as we were going about, there were so many fall-through appointments. Even with the disappointment of the  fall-throughs, we kept our heads high and kept working. When our District Leader called for our numbers, I was happy to tell him that we had hit our goal of 20 lessons. This past week, we have met so many great people and have really made progress with a few of our investigators. We will hopefully be having a baptism on the 22nd. 

My flat made of tin!  So nice!

Now for the title of my email. During church we were approached by a man who is infamous for railing on Eldas. He came right up to us, in the chapel and started yelling at us. Just really digging into us. He kept asking us where we had been this past week, why we weren't helping them with home teaching, and why we had missed his dinner appointment. Even after explaining to him that we had been super busy with investigators, and less actives, and that we had been given a dinner list without his name on it, he continued to yell. He kept saying "You're not doing your job.  Where are all your baptisms?" (I was pretty close to throwing a right cross and knocking his old self out.) We both just held our tongue and kept eating our food that the Branch Relief Society made for Branch Conference. After he was finished he walked over to a bunch of the members and then in Fijian started talking to them about us, in not a nice manner. Jokes on him though, I understand Fijian, so I know exactly what he called us! HAHAHA *laughs...cries in side*
Then we went outside and got yelled at by another infamous person from our Branch for the same thing.

The best food in Fiji!  Branch Conference!

I tell this story for two reasons. For a good laugh and also for some advice. If you feel like the Elders in your Ward or Branch or Stake aren't doing their jobs, volunteer to go out with them and find out for yourself. Just because you don't see the Elders all week does not mean they aren't working. Love the Elders in your area. ELDERS ARE PEOPLE TOO! (I'm going to trademark that slogan so....no one steal it, kerekere.)  Also, if you aren’t a member of the church and you see Elders or Sisters walking down the street or eating in Denny’s or whatever, say “hi.”  They probably take a lot of abuse in the name of “serving the children of Heavenly Father and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ” and could use some kindness!

Eldas need love too.

Elda Ruwhiu, pronounced ROO-FEE-UH, is a Maori from New Zealand.  He's the best!

Fiji is awesome and I love my companion.

I love you all and I miss you tons. 

Your favorite Elda,

Elda Dawson

Myself and my man, Akuila!  He's the best, seriously!

P.s. Happy Birthday old man!

P.s.s. Congrats Emma. I'm sure you killed your performance.  Wish I could have seen it!

-- 

Peace Be Still

Keep it Real

So much Tang!

My accidental mohawk.  Sorry, President Layton.

Week 33-May 9, 2016 HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

Happy Mother's Day to me!!!

Mother's Day is one of the two days of the year that LDS missionaries get to call home!  I have been anxiously looking forward to Skyping with my boy for weeks now!  We planned on Skyping Elda Dawson at noon.  After seven long hours we received word that the call wouldn't happen until the next day.  I was pretty bummed.  However, at 10 pm our Skype beeped and low and behold, Elda Dawson was on the other end!  We got to talk with him for about 2 hours and it was wonderful.  

Some of my favorite things about talking to Jasen:

*His laugh is full, loud and genuine!

*His honestly is refreshing, albeit a tiny bit worrisome.

*His verbal description of places and people are detailed and filled with his humor.

*His love of his companion and the other missionaries he works with is obvious and on occasion they stepped into the screen and watching the interaction was an absolute delight.  They are truly best of friends.

*His sense of humor, with all the inappropriate irreverence included, is fully intact and blossoming.

*He appreciates me...like, for real.  Washing your clothes in the sink and eating canned corn beef hash for weeks on end will do that to you!

*He is fiercely independent and motivated.

*His love of the people of Fiji...I think that was the one thing that brought tears to my eyes the most and the fastest.  He loves the people of Fiji!  He loves the island, the culture, the language, the adventure but mostly he loves the people!

*He loves Heavenly Father and the Savior, Jesus Christ more than ever before.  He doesn't see his time in Fiji as a sacrifice.  He sees it more as a gift.

I did NOT like hearing about how he slipped in the mud, (wearing only his underwear, in the middle of the night while turning off their water outside) and injured his shoulder.  (OK, I admit that I can laugh about it now.)  

I did NOT like seeing his ring worm rash...still very rashy and out of control.

I did NOT like saying good-bye.

I am so thankful for our Elda Dawson and for this amazing opportunity he has been blessed with.  He inspires me every day to be more kind, more compassionate, more accepting, more willing to help, and more bold in sharing my feelings about my Savior, whom I love and strive to be like.

Love,

Andrea

Peace, Be Still

Keep It Real

Week 32-May 1, 2016

Ni sa bula noqu matavuvale,

So, this week has been way sick. Lots of rain, like lots of rain. It's been 

way nice. Our house is made of tin so it stays nice and cool. 

Sometimes a little bit to cool. Yes, I said it.  Sometimes I have to use 

both of my blankets at night! Yeah crazy. I know! 

Bau is a way awesome place. My companion, Elda Ruwhiu is a way

cool dude.  We just get a long well. The area has been described as a more 

difficult area, and I can feel that, but right now the work has really been 

picking up. In this week alone, we almost tripled our teaching pool. We 

have been asking everyone for referrals and we just meet random people on 

the street and we are getting appointments. We stopped at one ladies watermelon 

stand and set up an appointment with her and her daughters. We got to 

meet with them yesterday and then her brother in law, who lived right next 

door, invited us in as well to get out of the rain, and so we shared something 

with him also. The rain is a blessing!

 Well, sometimes the rain is a blessing. On our way back home last night we 

were riding and the rain started picking up. Ruwhiu and I were flying so we 

didn't care to much, but then my handle bars got really wiggly. Suddenly, POP! 

My handlebars just came right off my bike. That was something to behold. I 

slammed my feet into the ground, but because it was wet I slid for a few meters. 

Then we just walked\carried my bike back to our flat. I got a hot shower at Nakelo 

though, so I don't care to much. 

Elda Ruwhiu and I were given the assignment to share an insight for Zone Training 

Meeting tomorrow. It's going to be the illest insight ever. I'll try and get a video. 

I love you guys and I miss you tons! 

Elda Jasen Dawson

-- 

Peace Be Still

Keep it Real