Week 13 - Another Crazy Week

Well, this was a crazy amazing week here in Fiji!!! On Wednesday I started another exchange with Elder Tera from Somosomo. This is his second week on Taveuni but has been out on the mission for over a year. It was one of the hardest exchanges of my mission so far. He had a hard time getting out of bed and wanting to go to work. But we got through it and we did have some good lessons. 

We have a little girl who is really close to baptism but her mom, who is a member, wants her to wait until she can understand everything. We are trying to help her understand that it is better for her daughter to grow up with the Holy Ghost then to wait but it is hard. Then the next morning, we woke up to what we found out was a mini cyclone!! The rain was coming down hard and sideways because of how strong the wind was. But, we had appointments so we headed out. I was wearing my hoodie and I was soaked in about ten minutes. We walked to all of our appointments and most of them where gone or didn't want us in their house because of how wet we were. (completely understandable haha)  But we did end up getting a couple of lessons. One was way good. We talked about the Holy Ghost and His role in helping with conversion and about reading the Book of Mormon. I went into that lesson ready to drop them and now I think they really want to change, we will see in our next lesson. :) I hope so, I really like this family. 

The next day we went back to Somosomo to switch back. The plan was for me and Elder Noble to get on another bus headed down to Vuna. But the buses were not going there because of all the rain. We actually caught the last bus to come out. So we stayed in Somosomo and helped with a baptism they had. But it stinks because all of my stuff was still in Vuna and we didn't go back down until Wednesday so I wore the same clothes. Haha! I was camping for real now!! Haha 

This week was definitely a trial for me and I had a lot of things in my way, cyclone, comp, sickness, but it all just made me want to work harder. One of the things that Elder Nelson said to us at the MTC was that we "are on the lords time not ours, so we need to do everything in our power to make the most of it." So I know that when I don't want to work or things get in my way, I think of whose time I am on and it gives me a desire to work. One of the quotes that Elder Noble has on his quote calendar for October 17 "FORGET YOURSELF AND GO TO WORK" Pres. Gordan B. HInckley. This helped me get out the door and working this week. I feel all of the love and support that you guys have and I don't want to let anyone down. "Today's trial is tomorrows testimony"! 

I guess the last adventure we tried to go on was a hike this morning. There is a flower that only grows on this island so we went this morning to go see it. Well, we tried to go without a formal guide and just have a villager take us but we ended up on the very top of the mountain not being able to see anything because of the fog. So we are going to try next week with an actual guide. But it is funny, we can relate this to following the prophet. We can find our own way without a guide, even find a road to drive on, and think that we will get to that same place as if we had a guide, but all we will be is in the fog. We need to follow the people that know so we are not lost.

Well, I love you guys and love hearing about things!!!

Moce,

Elda Brown 

This is us with the Somosomo Elders and the Zone leaders and the best restaurant in Somosomo. They have a facebook page we are on a couple of times called "the meeting place" or just "meeting place".

 So this is stingray. Some members went diving the night before and got it. it was way good. but it tasted way fishy. I loved it! haha

This is a Lovo. They cook the meat in the ground and it is way good. This was after church in Somosomo.