October 25, 2009 E-mail

Well this week again was pretty disappointing. We're trying hard but things are not working well from the stand point of investigators. We have six or seven people who had baptismal dates and were completely ready and then just got cold feet and now we can't get them to even come to church. It is frustrating.

Things with the ward work is going well though. We have some of the most amazing recent converts I have ever met. We have been working with them preparing them to enter the temple, getting them callings, and giving them the priesthood. Sunday we did seven priesthood advancement and ordinations on recent converts and less actives. It was cool. Probably the best part of my week though was a temple preparation lesson we had with a recent convert. She wanted to go up and look around at the temple but when she went, she was too scared of the gaurds at the gate and wouldn't go in. So we had her meet us there and we took her on a tour and showed her around and tried to explain about everything. We went in and had an amazingly powerful lesson in the waiting room with her. It was great, the spirit was so strong. It just shows how powerful temples are, even just the waiting room. She is excited and ready to enter the temple. Unfortunately her husband is not yet a member so she can't be sealed yet. But we're gonna try to work on that.

We have been trying to find some new people to teach. We have some good ones, but it is too early to tell if they are gonna make it through to the end.

This saturday for the young mens activity, I am going to teach the young men how to play american football. Everyone is really excited and we have quiet a few investigators who want to come. So that should be good for us.

Well things are going well. I miss you all. Thanks so much for all you do. Hope everyone's week is awesome. Talk to you next week. Moce.

Loloma Levu,
Elda Lalaga

October 18, 2009 E-mail from the Birthday Boy

Well this week was pretty slow. I feel really bad for Elder Gollman my
new comp. It is his first week in the mission field and we had more
fall through appointments then I have ever had on my entire mission.
Every single appointment we had set, fell through. We dropped in on a
few people unannounced and came out of it alright but none of our
investigators are doing good right now. I am thinking about just
wiping the slate and starting over; fropping all of the investigators
and try to find new ones. We will see how it goes.

Elder Gollman is good. He is excited to be a missionary, but I underestimated what it
would be like training. It didn't really click to me that he wouldn't know Fijian and that I would literally have to do everything. It is going good though. It is tiring but I will keep chugging along. Elder Gollman is a six year convert from Oregon. He is from Austria, so his first language was German, but he knows English since he grew up in America.

One cool thing that happened this week is Vilitati, a recent convert who is like 85 and incapable of going to church cause he cant get around well, is going to be given the Aaronic priesthood and Melchazadik soon. We're trying to prepare him to go to the temple at his one year mark on January 31. I hope he makes it though; everytime I ask him how he is doing he just says, "Almost dead, maybe tomorrow." He just wants to go to the temple so bad. I hope he makes it.

We also had a couple of less actives that we have been working with since I got here that came to church for the first time yesterday. I was very excited.

My birthday was good. I ate way too much food and am going to have another lovo tonight, where I always eat way too much.

That is my week. I love and miss you all.
Moch Love,
Elder Wall

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

October 4, 2009 *Double Digits*

Well this week was awesome. I hit my ten month mark! It is crazy how fast time is going. But this week was really good.

We had two baptisms: Timoci and Iva. Unfortunately, Rusila had to work and so again we had to push back her baptism, which is not cool. I guess we will just keep working with her. Her less active family just keeps telling her that work is more important, so that sucks. But we will get her there eventually. She knows the church is true.

Iva was baptized Friday, which was really cool. We had a good turn out of people to come and support her and welcome her into the ward. She was very excited and nervous but seemed really happy and content afterward and is ready to jump head first into the relief society, so I have high hopes. I hope she will be able to soften her husband's heart and help him accept the gospel.

Then Timoci was baptized on Saturday. I can't remember if I mentioned this before, but he is like an ex-gangster. It's funny because they do not have guns, so they don't seem like real gangsters to me, but he has got the gang tatoos and things, so it is funny. After I baptized him, we were going to go change and he said, "Man, that was cool, all those bad things I did are gone...Thanks". It was awesome! Then after, he was a changed man. He came to church so motivated to learn. I just hope he can make some good friends from the ward cause his friends now are all no good. He said this whole week, they all tried to go get him to do bad things and tried to drag him out of the house, but he wouldn't. He said that on the morning of his baptism, they tried harder then they ever had before. Satan is very aware of the change and decision he made and is trying hard to fight against. I am gonna do what I can to make sure we keep him clean. I am gonna give him a white shirt and tie and get him looking nice so he can get the priesthood and start passing the sacrament and blessing. I just pray that the ward will strengthen him and help make the change into the church.

Things are going very well though; the ward is great and I am very excited to have zone conference on Friday and then general conference on Saturday and Sunday. So this next week is going to be awesome.

I hope you all are well and have an awesome next week. Thanks so much for all the love and support everyone of you give me. You're the best. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Wall

September 27, 2009 E-mail

Well this week was really good. I cannot believe how fast it went, but it was really good. We have three baptisms that are going to happen this saturday. Two of them have already passed their interview and we just have one more to do tomorrow. Rusila, Timoci, and Iva. They will be awesome because they are all adults. We have tons of converts, but they are all children. I think it is gonna be good to have some adult converts to strengthen the ward.

We had really good attendance again this week with less actives who made it out to church so that is something I am very happy about.

We had a cool experience saturday and sunday. We have a less active man Bro. Nailati we always visit. He is really awesome and has been coming to church, but we had a good lesson where I decided to just read a chapter from the Book of Mormon together and then talk about it. We read Alma 34 and it was just what he needed to hear: that he needs to stop procrastinating his repentance, and come back to church and start fulfilling a calling. It was awesome! Then in sacrament, he was asked to bear his testimony and he told about us always visiting and coming to see him and how we got him to come back to church and now he is going to never fall away again. He is great! Him and his wife are taking the temple preparation class. I am very excited for them.

This next week we are gonna have to spend some time trying to find new people to teach. We have a lot of people, but none of them are doing anything to change and are only half committed. So after the baptism, that is going to be the end of all our good investigators. It will be good though.

This morning we went and hiked Mt. Korobaba. I don't know if it is the highest point in Fiji, but it is the highest on this side of the island. It was really cool. The last half was more climbing then hiking and it was an awesome view. I had a lot of fun and got some great pictures.

I hope you're all doing good. That about sums up my week.

Thanks for all you do. I love you all. Moce.

Loloma Levu,
Elda Lalaga

September 13, 2009 E-mail

Well this week was interesting, but it was good. I had an experience that I was not going to share but after some encouragement from my companion, I guess I will.

So to start in Fiji, you eat and drink a lot of things that are not the most sanitary. Part of being a missionary here is dealing with some pretty constant diarrhea which usually is not too big of deal. So I had some pretty good diarrhea in the morning, but thought nothing of it. We went about our day anyways. Then we went to a recent converts house and as I was sitting
down. I decided to crack off a real quick fart. I let loose and then realized
that I had defiled my covenants. So I turned to my comp and said we need to
go. And he said, "Why?"

I replied that we need to go now. He was about to object again and ask why, when an awful stench reached his nose and he said, "oohh ok lets go."

In fijian culture, when you enter a home, you have to be really respectful and ask for Tatau or permission to leave. So we were shouting and asking for permission to leave as we were running out the door and trying to come up with a decent excuse. Luckily I don't think they knew what happened. Although after changing when I went back, a little boy asked me if I put on deodorant cause I stink. All in all it turned out not too bad though.

Other than that, we have had some competition from the missionaries from the Anglican church. They have been sending in their missionaries in houses right after we leave. But we're still doing really good. They are just mad cause we are cutting into their paycheck.

Russilla just got really sick, so we had to push back her baptismal date again. But she still says she really wants to be baptized, so thats good. Jone and his family are doing good. He is ready to be baptized, but we're dragging feet trying to get him baptized with his whole family. I hope it works out. His dad has awesome questions and reads everything we give him. He just works constantly.

Kini is doing awesome. It was pooring rain so not very many people came to church but she walked alone with no umbrella all the way from her village and showed up soaked but with a huge smile. Strongest little girl ever.

We have some programs set up for firesides and home teaching together in both Wailoku and Tamavua wards. So things are going good and I am having a good time. I hope all is well back home. I love you all and miss you tons.

I hope your week goes well and I will try my best to not shart my pants this week.

Love y'all,

Elder Wall

September 6, 2009 E-mail

Happy Fathers Day all you dads. Yesterday was fathers day in Fiji so, for the one I missed in America, I hope this makes up for it! Well this week was good but really frustrating at times. It is ok though, cause this next week is gonna be much better.

So when I first got to this area, Wailoku was dead and Tamavua was on fire. But I like Wailoku more cause it is in the bush. So we spend most our time there. Which in result, things have really picked up and been doing good.

Things in Tamavua have kind of slacked off. All of our investigators are not keeping their commitments so I guess I need to find a better balance. But in Wailoku we got an awesome new investigator, Venina, who is 18 and takes notes during lessons and reads everything we give. She is always highlighting and writing down questions; she is awesome!

Jone's dad is reading everything even though he is always working so we can't meet with him. He has lots of questions so we're trying to arrange a time to meet with him, so their whole family could accept the gospel together. But Jone is doing awesome and has some great friends in the ward, so that is really good.

Kini's mom has agreed to sit down and take the lessons with us. I really think it is because of the service we did. I think it softened her heart, so I hope that works out well. I love their family.

Rusila frustrated the crap out of me. She decided to work when we were supposed to do her baptismal interview and said she was too tired to come to church, so we had to put off her baptismal date. I guess we will just have to keep working with her try to get her back to where she needs to be.

We spent all day wading through rivers flowing through the street yesterday cause it rained non-stop, day and night. So that was no fun. But we walked and walked and froze our butts off and ended up with a pretty good day.

The Bishop and Elders Qurom president have been working hard with us and it is making huge differences in Wailoku! Things are going really good. That about sums up my week.

Oh! I got a parking ticket and then went and talked to the courthouse guy in Fijian and got it cleared for knowing Fijian, so that was cool.

Well love you all and talk to you again next week.

-Elder Wall