October 11, 2009 E-mail

Here is the latest email from Jake. I pasted the response he sent to Mom about the tsunami on the bottom of this message

Wow! Conference was awesome! I loved it. My favorite was by far Jeffery R. Holland. That man doesn't hold any punches, just like I like it. Elder Ballard had an amazing talk as well. President Uchtdorf was amazing... I just loved them all. I am excited that on November 11, President Uchtdorf is going to be coming here and talking to us. It will be so so good.

We also had Zone Conference this week, which was awesome as always. We are going to start reporting unplanned contacts (like talking to people and trying to teach mini lessons when we meet them on the street). It will be hard, but I am sure it was an inspired decision so we will see how it goes.

The biggest news this week is that Elder Smiler got transferred to Kuku and is going to be tested and tried in a rough area under some tough circumstances, but I have done my best to teach him well and he is an awesome kid, so I am sure he will do awesome.

I will be training a freshy from the MTC. His plane landed this morning and I will be picking him up tomorrow. I am a little bit nervous, but I am going to learn and grow a lot so it will be good. I am gonna do my best to make him the best missionary he can be. Maybe I can make him run with me in the morning and I can lose this extra baggage I got hanging over my waist line.

Missionary work this week was a little slow. We lost two full days of proselyting from General Conference and One for Zone Conference and then most of one because of the Tsunami so we didn't accomplish half of what I was hoping for this last week. But we met a new investigator named Akei who I am really excited about. He is a landscaper for the temple grounds and is looking to make a change in his life. After talking to some members, he got really excited about taking lessons, so that will be good.

Rusila is same old same old. Super fun to teach, but just a little on the flaky side. We will just take it slow and keep working with her. I also got news this week that two elders are going to go to Rakiraki to try and get things going there again. I wish the best for them, so pray very hard. They are going to be going back and have lots of things to deal with.

Well I am excited to open this next chapter in my mission. I hope all goes well. Pray for me and my newbie. Love you all. Thanks again and I'm praying for you.

Loloma Levu
Lalaga

We had two tsunami warnings. The an earthquake hit Vanuatu and Samoa. Both times nothing happened, but all the people panicked and went to high ground. We just went to the mission home and watched "On the Lord's Errand", the new movie on Thomas S. Monson. It is awesome! My area is probably the safest place in all of Fiji. No tsunami is gonna
come this high. I got plenty of white shirts. I have not used sun screen or bug spray. It is so humid that you burn and then it's gone instantly. Bug spray doesn't even faze the bush mosquitos. I love you and will love anything that you send me. I am old... 21 WOW!

Love.
Luvemuni Your Son