Bula Vinaka,
Phew, what a week.
SO this week seemed to
drag on forever. I had a lot of fun down in Lautoka, we had Zone Qito and
we played Rugby and Ultimate Frisbee in the rain which was way sweet. I
think I'm getting pretty good at Rugby. I think I would be a little better if I
could just have people try and tackle me instead of tag me, but I think I'm
getting pretty good.
We stayed down in Nadi, the
city with the airport that we flew into, for Zone conference on Tuesday. Zone
Conference was pretty cool. I got to see my "Grandpa" Elder Lemalu. I
love that guy. Seeing guys from the MTC is always good. This past week has been way awesome!
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| Zone Conference |
We got to go on splits
with some of the Elders down in Nadi. I went with Elders Van and Carter. We met
with some super old guy who was way cool. His Fijian was hard to understand but
he kept saying "vinaka vinaka" whenever we said anything about Jesus
Christ, so basically the whole lesson.
On the way back to Ba we
stopped at McDonalds. When we were at McDonalds I met Bu Kini. She's super
famous in Fiji, She's Fiji Rugby's biggest fan. She was way bomb and no Mom, I
am not checking out hotties in McDonalds. She’s not what you think!
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| Bu Kini |
On Wednesday, we just
had a super weird day. It started raining way hard, which was a miracle to the people of
Ba. It stayed way hot, but it was raining. Most of the roads in Ba are dirt,
which quickly turned to mud. Yes, we were walking. We received a referral to
a family who lived on top of this hill, and on the way up we were
slipping and sliding all over the place. When I got to the top I was
covered in mud and soaking wet. The husband was outside sitting on the porch
and when I saw him I said the only thing I knew how to say in that situation.
"Au via wasea na itukutuku baleti Jisu Karisito." I'm sure
that freaked him out a little. Just some white
guy covered in mud, saying he wanted to share a message
about Jesus Christ. He told us they were busy, but we are going to go see them
on Wednesday.
So, Thanksgiving is
actually just as big here as it is in America. Which is cool, but at the same
time sucks because it makes me miss home. We had a super rad dinner appointment
set up for Thanksgiving. They said they
would make a whole chicken for each of us and they said they would make
potatoes and curry and rice and roti and all other sorts of good stuff. Well we
had had a really long day of canceled appointments and we had walked like 15
miles in around 39 C. So we were way stoked for this rad dinner. We got halfway
up the hill that this family lives on, and they called us and told us that they
were in Suva for Thanksgiving and they had to cancel. Well, what could I
do? I just sat down and adjusted my sandals for
the 45 minute walk back to town and started for home. When we got back to our
flat, my companion just went right to bed. I said to myself, I want something for
Thanksgiving dinner. So I used what we had, and had a dope PB&J sandwich
and some Mango Tang. (And I might have listened to Sia, Ed Sheeran, T Swift,
and Iggy Azalea, but the world will never know.)
On Friday we taught some
awesome lessons to our investigators. One is named Akosita. She's way awesome
and progressing really well. We committed her to the Word of Wisdom and she
said she loved Tea and Tobacco, but we said we would help her by praying for
her.
On Saturday I went on
exchanges with my District Leader Elder Kumar. His half of the area speaks
Hindi so I had no clue what was going on but they really loved the white guy.
I'm actually kinda famous in Ba. I'm one of the four white
people who lives here, and I'm the only American. I'll go into someone's home
and people will say things like "I’ve heard about you, but I didn't know
it was true."
On Sunday as a ward we
all went down to the stakes seminary graduation. We got to see some new faces,
some familiar, and Elder Visawaqa even saw his Girlfriend, who was on holiday,
oops. This week has been way bomb. Like way bomb. I love Ba, even though it's
like 39 degrees here every day. I love the Fijian people. I love my Savior and
my Heavenly Father. I love you and I miss you a lot.
Much Love,
Elder Dawson
Oh, I
just realized I didn't answer any of your questions:
To
convert Celsius to Farenheit just double the number and add 30. So, for example, 39 degrees Celsius is 108
degrees Farenheit! It’s freaking hot,
dude.
We use Fijian money.
Like ever 50 cents in America is 1
dollar here. But everything here is basically just like home only twice as
expensive. We live on basically $80 every two weeks.
Some food pics:
In my flat it's just
Elder Visawaga and I. We often stay the night with Elders Kumar and Fitisemanu
though. They have air conditioning.
Our Ward breaks up into
all the auxiliaries. All 40 of us.
We drink milk all the
time. There isn't a lot of cheese. Oh and get this, I eat ice cream now, like a
crap ton. Miracles for missionaries. (Please send me some Lactaid pills!)
I haven't bought a
machete, because a young man in my ward is going to teach me to make one.
The dogs are way mean.
I've kicked two. They don't have homes, they're just chillin on 'da streets.
People laugh at me a lot
when I try to speak and when I don't understand something. It bothers me
sometimes, but for the most part, everyone is always way nice.
I killed my first rat
this week. It was the size of a Chihuahua. I went to go get my camera but
before I could two spiders, the size of normal rats in New York, dragged it
way. I feel safe here.
Anyways, I love you guys
and I miss you way a lot.
Elder Dawson
--
Peace Be Still
Keep it Real
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