Elder Dawson: The Adventure Mormon Goes To Fiji: 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

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!