The latest and greatest from Fiji...

Sup my matavuvale, 

Pretty interesting week; a lot went on so it was really busy again. It seems like every week is super busy, ha.  I feel bad mama, because the office work is hard stuff on the brain.

Anyways, first off, Elder Malohifo'ou is finishing his mission today so it’s been crazy. His family will be in Suva in about an hour and then he will be gone (but he will still be here for a week just spending time with his family and the people he was around for the last few years). So all week he has been freaking out, he was acting like a giant 12 year old girl (it kind of sucked, I'm not gonna lie).

Here’s the cool story for this week, though (I actually have one!).  So yesterday in church there was an unfamiliar face in the young men’s crowd and it turned out to be this kid who wasn't a member but he goes to the LDS school and he is enrolled in seminary and came to church, so pretty much the most Golden investigator possible.  I can't even think of a more perfect situation for this kid, I know he will be dunked in the waters of baptism in about a month.  We have our first lesson with him on Wednesday at 5:30, which is awesome because I haven't taught a lesson in forever, like four weeks (at least in my area).  But I'm super pumped for it; this is probably the biggest blessing I have received so far on my mission, someone that is so prepared that I won't even have to do hardly anything!  It is perfect, I’m so stoked!

That’s the only story I have really, and other than that I'm still stuck here in the offices just doing all sorts of nonsense, but such is life, haha.  Everything is so good though at the same time. I can't really explain it, but my life is so set, it’s not even funny. I freakin’ love it, sara ga man.  Hopefully we can start teaching this other family that I believe is prepared, too, and if that works there will be like seven baptisms next month, so things are just the bomb right now.

And the whole FRIENDS IN THE FIELD dealio, that was pretty sweet.  Keep doing that cuz it was way sweet to hear about all those in the gang and how they are doing. They are all workin’ it, I just hope I can be as good as Jacks, Dalt and all of them.

Anyways, sounds like you all had a good week and that’s always good to hear.

Peace and Blessings,

Elda Tavoi

We were able to email back and forth with Garrett a little bit again on Sunday, so here's a little more of our conversation:

I asked if he’d received a package we’d sent a few weeks ago:

Ya, I got the other package, thanks for that it was the bomb, haha. But really the shirts are what I'm looking for, haha (he asked to have some t-shirts printed and sent over for himself and some of the other missionaries).  If it’s possible you should send a 6XL tall shirt with SWK on it for Elder Diloi (the new companion), he is a freaking huge kid and he doesn't have very many shirts that fit so that would be a blessing for him (if not 6XL then as big as you can).  My comp is huge and hilarious, ha.  He is the man and we still see his family a bunch, which I don't think he is a huge fan of it so I don't know what will happen.

I asked how he has been feeling and if he’d received other emails:

YYYeeeeeeaaaahahhahh, I feel great, no worries. And ya, I got a lot of good e-mails from friends and family, which is awesome.

I sent a picture of Steve with some hot peppers that we got at the fruit/veggie stand:

Oh ya, haha, that’s classic man.  We eat some stinkin’ hot food here, these little chilies called rockets.  Man they are hot!  But man all of the other elders I'm with today freakin’ love Dad’s mustache, haha.

So there you go, the whole nine yards of the email correspondence from yesterday.  By the way, when Garrett wrote about “FRIENDS IN THE FIELD”, he is referring to a “newsletter” that a friend’s mother put together.  Her son, Jackson, is one of Garrett’s good friends (he is serving in Indianapolis); the newsletter includes updates on several of the boys Garrett’s age that are all buddies that she’ll send out monthly.  The boys are spread all over the country and world…Indiana, Oregon, Russia, Paraguay, Guatemala, South Africa (sweet, huh, Dallon?!), Tonga  and the last one just got his call today to South Dakota.  What a great group of kids, we love all of them.

Ciao for now… thanks to everyone for your love and support!

(Oh, and do I smell Conference Breakfast in the air....?  Yummmmmm!!)  J

Sega Na Lega

ok Matavuvale

The whole earthquake deal i don't even think the weather stations here knew there was an earthquake na i kena ibalebale now worries haha sega na lega.

So about last week it was probably very easily the busiest i have ever been in my whole entire life Monday through wednesday haha. So first sunday morning at 7 am we drove elder Tafuna'i home which was really weird but thats just how it is. second on Monday the new intake of missionaries came in so since i didn't have my new companion yet i was with the APs all day and i had to give this little orientation deal to the newbies about all the financial stuuf that i barely know.( by the way that took all flippen day)Third my companion cam in from Vanua Levu at around 6 at night so therefore no time at all to go e-mail sorry about that. 

Anyways my new companion is freakin awesome haha so the movie Blindside he is gunna be part 2 ha 6'6 300something pounds he is just a monster but at the same time he is probably the funniest elder the whole mission haha whatever we do were always laughin haha i can't get enough of the kid his name is Elda Diloi ha and he lives even closer than Elda Tafuna'i did. we've already ran into his family like three times and he spoke at his little sisters baptism this week so that was interesting but if you serve in your home country sometimes thats just how it is ha. i guess.

And as for the week still the same crappy office job 9-5 everyday just doin what a senior couple should do. I also think that this could help me down the road but that doesn't mean i have to like it ha i am learning a lot but its not exactly what i wanted or thought i would learn on my mission. But still whatever is wanted i will do. We still get to go out at night talk to a few people and then go to a members house for a sweet dinner. One problem though is when i leave i will feel way lazy because i'm so busy here and when i leave there will definately be tme when i'm not busy at all. hopefully we can get some lessons in this week though i'm really feelin deprived of the spirit in my life but i don't really know what to do since i can't study or teach.

Thats it for now 

Peace and Blessings

 

(He sent a few of his friends and us some pic's this week!)

 

Bula Vinaka na kequ itaba mai na noqu bula mai viti!

 

-Elder Adams from the MTC just both happened to have some jerseys so this happened.

 

Pig we killed for the good ol' LOVO(earth oven) for one missionary just about to leave this pig was just livin in a dog cage haha until we brought it out killed it with a dull knife and got quite a bit of blood every where ha all part of the experience baby ya

 

This is how we do cooking in Fiji ha this lady is making the Mity cocunut milk with the onion and the Chilli so fliipen good

 

(I can't make it rotate, sorry!)

Me and one of the recent converts from Tamavua ward that i'm in right now they are the sweetest family haha.

Classic Temple picture haha this is what i see every day

(Garrett has an eye for taking awesome pic's.)

PS this is to mom for sending me a picture of swedish pancakes look who's jelious
now haaha

Peace and Blessings

Elda Hanke

Looks like Elder Hanke is having a great time and meeting lots of amazing people. Thank you to all of our family and friends for supporting him through out this amazing jorney!

 

No email from Elder Hanke this week.  What a bummer...

What a sick week, sara ga,

What’s up with you all?

Anyways, the week, well first your questions, ha.

Food- We eat a lot of curry which I stinkin’ hated at first, but now I stinkin’ love it, ha. Dad should learn how to make it, ha, but your gang probably wouldn't like it. It’s super oily and what not but when you have to eat it you learn to love it, ha. Elder Tafuna'i can make it way good, he is a stinkin’ chef. He's been teaching me some tricks too, so that is sweet. As for other stuff, I love the fish we eat here, there is one especially good one. We eat the fried fish or however it’s cooked with this stuff called mity that’s really good.  It’s just coconut milk with like onions that you put on fish and veggies. We also eat a ton of chicken here all differently cooked and what not, but we always have bomb dinners.

The New Training- It’s just for the intakes coming in now, I didn't have to do it and unless I train someone I never will.  It really just adds an extra hour to studies, haha, so I'm kind of glad I don't have to do it (three hours is good for me, by that time I'm just itching to get out of the house, haha). But there is another thing about it; it’s the fundamentals of Preach My Gospel. It just refines PMG to focus more on the basics but we really haven't dealt a whole lot with it here. I know what they are but I haven't used them.

Now to the week. We always have a blast each week, living with Elder Malohifo'ou is sweet, he's the bomb.  (FYI Elder Fisher trained Elder Malo, so we talk about Fisher all the time. Sounds like they had some fun times together, haha). But ya, the office is sweet but it took some getting used to. We’re still busy, just in a different way, but it’s not too bad anymore. But being able to go to Nausori last week made me miss teaching way bad. We got to go out to a couple Koro's/Villages and teach out there, that was sick. Just teaching at night with nothing but a lantern for light and all in Fijian was way sweet.  It made me realize how much I need to work on my Fijian, but all in all I felt pretty good about it.  They talked faster than the people in Suva so it was hard to understand but I caught most of it.

Dang, Utah State did really good! Ha, I know a family in Suva that has a son who goes out with us a lot, but they have ESPN, hahahaha, classic! But I just told him to watch the game and call me when it’s over, so I knew that already, ha!  I had him give me updates on the other games, so that was sweet.  I'm stoked to get updates, though, throughout the season and when Malo goes home his one job is to send me updates and what not, letting me know how it goes.

Oh ya, as for the baptism talk, I give quite a few of them. All of the people I was going to baptize in Suva 1^st Ward, so that’s just the norm, but it’s fun, I like it.

Say hi to that gang in Duchesne for me. Man, Keaton and Trey look like they have grown a ton!

The Fiji National basketball team is in New Caledonia right now for the Pacific games so we haven't played basketball with them for a while, but we will go play b-ball and volleyball in about an hour for P Day.

So Happy Father’s Day to Dad and the Gramps, also Happy Birthday to Grandma, hope you and the gang had a good day.

That’s it for now.

Peace and Blessings,

Elder Hanke

Sounds like he’s doing well.  And yes, it is Father’s Day in Fiji!  J  And by the way, "Elder Fisher" is my sweet friend Suzanne's son Brayden.... who returned from the Fiji Suva mission one week before Garrett got his call last year.  Small world.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Finally.... some pictures!!!

Kyndra found this message on Garrett’s Facebook page today:

Elder Hanke spoke at my baptism yesterday and it's awesome!! He's doing good here!! He said Hi to his family. (Posted on 8/30/11 by Jan Chen from Suva, Fiji.)

She then found the below pictures on this girl's Facebook page - which we were pretty excited to see.  (We'll take pictures however we can get them at this point!)  It's pretty apparent that Gar still likes to strike a pose, too.

Enjoy!  :)