February 19, 2012

This week we spent most of our time working on a new branch outside of
town. We put in a floor and fixed it all up real nice. before it was
just a tin covering and dirt/mud floor. was really hard to keep it
church reverent and everything. Elder Terry is really handy. an old
engineer is always nice to have around and talk cars and guns and put
in wood floors.  The branch is newly started and the members very
young so training them is really important. they had a short extra
sacrament meeting after church last week that was no good. so working
on that kinda stuff... The sisters got robbed last week. guy just
grabbed her bag and took off. they arent so careful about being off
the streets before dark and just glad they learned from something less
then it could have been. so theyll be more careful now i hope.
Got some good hard work in with a hammer and got some good sun. those
two days were abnormally dry and hot. I loved it! it felt kinda like
bako! :) now its back to rain. in Labasa its all sugar cane area so
its gonna get hot in the dry season here. being district leader is
going alright. we'll see if by the time I leave the area's are doing
better then they are now. Its a lot harder to do missionary work when
your members are all recent converts and dont know what goes on that
much either.
there are some tough area's out here that are averaging 6 lessons a
week. somethings gotta change so we are working on all that. got zone
conf coming up.
now that im off island again i never get mail so im hoping when
president comes up he brings all the mail with him. hopefully some in
there for me :P
We had a confirmation this week that went really well. we got there
from our other branch we cover walk into the chapel and the Branch
Pres stands up right then and says "now we will have a confirmation by
the Elders" couldnt have been better timing. unless we were there
earlier. but in it Elder Hanke said "we ordain you" instead of
sustain.. no one said anything so i guess its okay haha
The senior couples out here are really making a difference. we need
them so bad. just cause all the leaders here are so young and need
training that we cant give.
and our couples out here are LOADED .. talked to a couple of them
about what they did for career.. one did stuff with HP and then
started a anti virus company thing and is neighbors with Mitt Romney
haha and another one owns 2 buildings (law firms that he owns) on main
street NY .. nice to get some career pointers from these guys. My mtc
branch pres guy has 3 new york times best sellers and co owns a
company.
I dont know why I talked about that just interesting stuff talking to
these senior couples that can make it great financially and
spiritually.  I like things simple life like my good friend Elder
Hanke who skips class in HS to go Fly fishing :)
We had a great lesson with the Kumar family and had a member indian
couple come with us to speak to them in Hindi. they dont know english
very well. there are so many indians in fiji i never would have
guessed. I really hope this family gets baptized. it went really well.
I was kinda lost most of the lesson. but its broken Hindi so i could
follow a bit. We are working on getting the bus company to send a bus
out to their place on sundays. they said that they used to but not
since the bus company changed. so it shouldnt be too bad.
the work is great life is wonderful.
We had some cool experiences in trying to find referrals that members
gave to us. turned out after us looking for this lady for 3 hours that
we got the addresses mixed up and that we were looking for the wrong
person in the wrong place. but what was cool about it is when we were
walking with these people to help us look for the person (before we
knew we were asking for the wrong person) we talked to him and asked
if he knew the other referral .. turns out it was his dad!!! and then
we learned we got the places mixed up and everything. little miracles
like that let us know who's work this is and that he is here helping
us :)
missionary life is wonderful .
Hope everyone is doing well. would like to hear from everyone.
Loloma
Elder Estill

January 5, 2012

Well its been a really good week! life is amazing.
Everyone was home this week, we only had one day of not very many
lessons. I think we ended at 16 lessons this week and for our area is
a lot of lessons. all of them were really good lessons too. and
everything usually all works out well right before you get transferred
lol.. so we figured id be transferred. I have been in this area 6
months now. So we got transfers called in sat night and Elder Malani
got his Visa to PNG! no one was expecting that at all. so Im still in
Korovou and am stoked. getting Elder Seila who is another Fijian. My
prayers to learn this language are working , in that im getting help I
mean.. i still cant speak well.
on that topic I went on splits to Burewai and the lesson we had there
was a 26 year old girl who said I have poor fijian and Im fat... lol
that was nice .
here they have avocado's but they call them pears . and we got one
this week that was giant! like a small watermelon. crazy.. didnt taste
very good . im used to only getting little tasty spoon fulls of
avocado but this was a lot and less taste. lol random
all of our investigators are progressing well. besides the ones we
dropped anyway. we had more come to church then ever. samisoni is
staying strong with no smoking. he even paid tithing! holy cow. lol
doing that for awhile now. when we were there Bro Tabua shared about
how the BoM is spoken about in the Bible and we had 3 inv there and
they all kinda got big eyed and were really happy about that lesson.
so Ill be able to be here and baptise the people ive been working so
hard to get there. which isnt very normal to get to be here and do it
myself so im very blessed :) so many small things Heavenly Father
takes care of when we are working hard.
Serema and Lekima are building their house and after its done are
going to get married! so its close. they got the foundation done. (not
too much there all the foundations here are on sticks lol) so we are
going to help them work on it this week.
This mission has changed my life in so many ways that I know could not
have come any other way then serving a mission. I almost missed out on
it all. I know where I would be if I didnt come and its scary to think
about all the things I would have missed out on. If anyone knows a
young man thats not thinking about going on a mission you just tell
him about me and Ill have a little chat with him. lol I have direction
and focus in life. that alone is worth more then money. and so many
other personal things that I cant explain well are from coming on a
mission. The gospel is true. Its the number one reason of everything.
Ive learned to be true to myself and the Lord first and the rest will
fall into place. it takes some soul searching and asking yourself some
questions to know what that means to each of us.

Also something that hit me hard reading David O McKay talk is this
simple thing that we have all heard before but has a lot more meaning
then I ever knew. "Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner." He was talking
about the time when the people brought the lady caught in adultery to
him and tempted him asking what he said should be done. He never said
a word that condoned the sin or excused her from it. He had mercy and
said Go and Sin no more. I think we can all learn from his example
here when we react to the sins of people around us. directly or
indirectly concerning us. The love and ability to Love the person and
not label them with the Sin. They are sons and daughters of our
Heavenly Father with great potential. I can testify of that myself as
being one that appeared to have little potential from having made
great mistakes. And now look where I am from the power and love of the
Atonement. I would be nothing without it. So that is something I
learned about forgiveness. Having a hope and a desire for people to
reach their potential. How we treat others will greatly effect them on
that path. Use loving language. dont shout or label them with things
like, Lazy, stupid, dumb, ect. I did a lot of things that were lazy
stupid and dumb lol but its not who I am. When you label someone like
that they will believe you and thats what they will be. Just something
I liked to help me when Im a parent and also all those around me. to
watch what I say and do. Is it helping that person? if its not dont do
it. cause your only doing it for selfish reasons.

well thats my spill on that haha

hope all those pictures go through okay.

Love you all!

Loloma, Elder Estill

Au talataka sara vakalevu na sere ni viti. E dodonu mo ni ciqoma na
yalodina vua na Kalou.

October 23, 2011


Vinaka
Well just a quick note this week.


In town we were gonna hand out some dvds to some people and we were
short on time so we picked one person to hand out one to and it turned
out that this guy just got back from visiting his brother and his
brother told him that he needs to look into the LDS church. the church
is known as LDS here not mormons. and we talked for a little while and
it was just really neat the only guy that we talked to.


We got some really good referrals by finding LA families in the ward
that have kids not yet baptized. so we are gonna go teach them and get
the families active again. Some of them live on the very edge of our
area so it would be better for them to get moved to the other ward.
But just a really good way that I didnt think of before of getting new
inv.


Got to watch conf. and I burned copies and watched the church news
stuff and holy cow thats so awesome whats going on! the church is
really being recognized everywhere all over the world and really being
profound. I love it. All the knew temples. I loved it when President
Monson announced them haha he's so funny. and the new one in provo
sounds sweet!


not much going on this week. had a really good day planned and ALL of
it fell through.. AUGH! was horrible. was the big day for our lessons
and to see people and it all went bad. grr. had members with us and
everything. so we went to town at the end of the day and I got them
Ice cream bars to say thanks lol


well another week ahead to improve and to become better change the
things we didnt do so good last week and try harder. soon we'll have a
perfect week :) someday lol


loloma


Elder Estill

rabi end of April

MAURI!!!

sorry all have to make this fast before our desiel runs out in the generator! haha

so this week was another crazy one for sure!

we got called friday that a boat was coming from taveuni with a truck and timber for a members house thats being built this next week! and at the same time we are doing a picnic with members and a shipment of seed for a farming initiative through the church that helps people with seeds and tools.

So ran around all day letting everyone know about helping with the unloading the boat and the picinic information. augh! no one has phones or service or minutes on their phones! so we ran up and down the island all day. and working out hometeaching and typing it all up and handing them out. finally got that done for now till we make changes dew to other members and ranges of people to visit. anyways. the seed stuff was another story all together. so I just kinda took charge of it cause I knew if I didnt do it then it wouldnt get done and people would get their seeds. And I saw it as an opportunity to serve the branch and to gain their trust. which it ended up doing both after a long weekend. had to carry it all to the branch after helping unload the timber at the house on saturday afternoon. got help from two young men there.

oops got to go

Pictures

Rabi 4/18/11 - 4/26/11

Mauri everyone! sorry its so late for the email but we've had a hard time getting to internet this week. Easter monday and good friday are public hollidays here! so the library was closed and other persons computer is getting repaired. and then tuesday the library left an extension cord at the funeral so no tue either.

So it was another slow week. There was a funeral that started wed and went all week till sunday. so all of our people were there helping with that or participating in it. so we only had our lessons in uma and thats only twice a week. but we had some really good times getting to know new people and spending time with members. We bought a chicken and some sausage and rice and took it to our family that we ussually have FHE with every week cause they didnt have any cash this week and good friday is a feast kinda day out here so we ate with them. I love that family. Pita is tongan and moved out here like 20years ago and married reke and she's just awesome. they planning on going to the temple in october! he is such a huge strength to us in our work.

Ive been trying their massage medicine. They use massage to heal everything out here. to reset bones and when lymph nodes are swollen and pretty much everything else. so he's been massaging my butt and lower back mostly. And on my buldged disk in my back so if he could heal that it would be awesome ahaha. but when the funeral started stopped cause he was busy so gonna have to start all over but i think it was helping. thought jacque would like to hear about the massage healing out here.

No investigator is really progessing fast right now but working on it. theres a few kids that need to get baptised and should be ready in a few weeks. but most of our problems that we are facing is getting people to church and smoking. Matang has been smoking for 35 years so its not gonna be easy! but he's strong. Rajen is waiting to talk with his wife.. but thats been awhile.. I know that he knows its true and wants to come but idk. Qelokai (my rabi wife) is gonna get back into school in 2 weeks. I went and bought material and got one of the member ladies (mere, also an amazing woman!) to sew the uniform for her. She should be in class 6-7, well she's 9 yrs old, and she's only gonna be in class 2! both her parents are gone and she stays with her grandparents.. in their house there is 6 adults and 9 children! in this tiny house. Even then i cant believe they cant get 10 stinken dollars for qelokai to go to school! she pretty much just helps raise all the children.. I wasnt happy. but anyways

We got some really good tuna from a local fisherman and took it too a members house to cook it. it was really good and they all liked it. in this culture only the men eat at the table first then everyone else eats after or in a seperate room. kinda stinks when the person that made the food isnt there for the prayer most of the time. but this time the dad was gone so we just had everyone eat all at once. And then when your done eating the woman come and take the food away and bring a wash bowl to clean your hands. oh yeah theres no utensils here. its all finger food haha

spring break is for the next two weeks after this one for the schools.

We've had some really good lessons but nothing very consistent and Ive been feeling a little down since the work is slow and I feel like I could be doing better and working harder. So gonna change that this week and work our butts off.

We've gotten better at having member present lessons. We are using recent converts to help translate and teach. The lessons go soo much better and you see the spirit shine in the eyes of the member. Its so awesome haha

I still havent killed that stinken rat! or caught a fish! grr .. my water bottle fishing pole isnt top of the line haha but the kids do it! soon i will master it! but we dont spend much time doing it anyway.

Miss and love you all! cant wait till we meet again!

Loloma Elder Estill

Rabi

Mauri everyone! so this is the report for my week in rabi from 3-21 to 28

didnt get to email monday cause the internet was down so we moved things around a little to write home.

so last tuesday we went down to rabi to check up on the three people that we had schedualed for baptisms and to have some lessons with new members. on the trasnport ride down to the village uma(a truck with beanches in the back and a canopy cover) we saw one of our appointments walking the other way. so that was the first fall through and postponed baptism for that weekend because we had to meet with him to finish his lessons on time. so that was a bummer. then we went to one house to check on a lady and the other lady that is suppose to get baptised saturday that lives a few houses down walks by smoking! so within the first hour. but the third came through for us. and passed the test and is ready to be baptised but we dont have any clothes to do it here! so we had no baptisms this weekend. we had three really good lessons tho. we meet matagn daughter, 19 yr old just had a baby.. a HUGE baby lol kids a beast. and had a good lesson think she understood a lot of it. Matagn is the man tho. really workin hard on him and he knows its true he's just working on kickin smoking. so we are doing two addiction lessons with him and the lady and they are trying really hard. cutting back a lot. if we get matagn he will be a great strength to the branch out on rabi.

so after all our lessons we stopped by natans shop , the branch president, doesnt speak english. him or his wife. and she wanted to feed us... so we sat down to a quick meal. some rice, noodles with canned fish in it, and raw corned beef out of a can... i tried to eat fast cause it tasted like dog food. Blue def wouldnt have eaten it! so then i got food poisoning from the raw corn beef.

that night the district leader elders were comming over to do the baptismal interviews the next day. I wasnt feeling good that night and threw up before dinner and decided didnt want to eat and just drank water. all went to bed. after beating some fools at chess haha even when i was feeling like junk. and woke up at 11 and well... i sleep in a masquito net to keep the bugs off.. well i found out that those nets filter the chunks really well ... hahah

well had to clean it all up mostly just water and went back to sleep. next time i made it to the br just fine. and slept out the rest of the night. went the next day on just a cup of water for lunch. slept in a little and had some coka (you can guess what that is in english) and went about doing lessons. had a really good one with fule and tebuki that night and my comp went to uma and did the interviews with the other elder. so we taught the importance of prophets and their purpose and the truth of their calling. really made me realize how amazing it is to have a true witness of christ guiding us. It really was a good lesson. tebuki is a muslim since she married her husband and he died but that really touched her and made her start thinking. and talking about christ being the son of god in the flesh. With how much ive been serving and studying I can testify with more strength and power then ever before. I can see the lives of the people that we teach change . its another evident of the truthfulness. with so many religions here we have to teach that there is a one and only true church and that they can all find out the truth for themselves just by acting on the commitments we give them. my scripture this week is luke 12 really like it when doing my studies.

fri i was pretty much back to good. throughout the whole sickness i never felt bad. it was weird . It was just things going on . ussually my body hurts when sick but this time i just kept on going about my work and was strong and happy. didnt really hurt just more inconvinience.

thur night adventure...

so companion elder hillyard was laying in bed and i was sitting on mine. lights are off cause the generator is already turned off and no electricity. so i had a lighter in my hand and was talking to him with it lit when i heard a fly near my ear and i swat at it and said (what was that!) and the light went out cause i jumped and im like what the heck is that cause it wouldnt leave me alone. so my companoin just takes off cause all he knew is me freaking out and the lights go off like some scary movie haha

then i got stung in my left bicep and i was like ahhh it bit me! and he's runnning around looking for a light and im trying to kill these things i cant see that wont leave me alone so i picked up my sheets and tried swinging them around to kill them all and didnt work too well . i could see anything. well he gets a candle light and look at my arm and theres still a huge stinger sticking out of it (my misquito net was still outside drying from the night befores experience,,, it needed to be cleaned lol) and my arm was itching so bad and a little red the next day. we stayed up a couple hours and killed like 5 bees in the house. idk why they were there. only night we have had them in the house.

so that was me getting attacked at night

still got 9 lessons in this week even with being sick and all so we are trying for high goals this week to get more in.

goals are really important with achieving great things. learning a lot there. and with making small goals that get to the big ones that actually have purposes.

I miss alberstons! and stores and elecricity haaha but then again i have tropics and beaches.

papaya are getting ripe. tavioka is pretty good. not much dalo on rabi but thats good too. then they eat the leaves of both too.

My companion is really great. helps a lot and teaches me a lot. we are a good team when we teach and know how to work with eachother. im glad i got a good trainer. he might get transfered next week tho. he's been on rabi 6 months! hope he doesnt leave tho. either way it will be good. we have a lot of fun and get a lot of work done. our studies are good cause we teach eachother with our different insights of things.

my leg is doing good. its getting a lot stronger already. who knows maybe ill play football again someday. getting my workouts in and strecthing in the mornings.

found some really good ways to cook canned chicken potatos rice and chow noodles. drink a lot of drau ni moli and ovaltine stuff. drau ni moli is a ti you boil a citrus tree leaf in and its really good.

pictures of me and Matagn . love that guy and his argentina shirt. haha how random?!

had a lot of really good lessons this week.

mainly teaching. elanor, fule, tebuki, matagn, rajen, kabaroro and couple others those are our best i think

Im doing great . really best time of my life. hope all is well at home!

miss my family but its nice to see the blessings they are recieving from my sacrafice. my life is on a new path that leads to great great things and i know that i could not have any other way then serving a mission. I think everyone that is able and worthy man or woman should serve a mission. the entire world would change. and every single one of their lives would be on a whole knew track that always lead to the best.

love you all so much. think about you all the time and are in my prayers. keep the letters coming!

Elder Estill