Tuvalu - Week 1

Dear family, 

I am writing this letter from......Suva!  Yeah that's right I am back on the main island.  I left Taveuni on Thursday.  It was really hard to leave that beautiful island and all the amazing people I met there.  I will definitely never forget it there.  

But here's the cool part....President called me last Tuesday for transfers, and he started off by saying, "Elder Harris are you ready for an adventure?"  And then he said I was being transferred to TUVALU!  I was completely speechless.  

Tuvalu is a tiny little island wayyyyy north of Fiji in the middle of the ocean.  It is actually a different country than Fiji, they speak Tuvaluan (a language similar to Samoan), and me and my companion will be the only missionaries there for the next little while.  Haha so I am like a nervous wreck right now.  

I was just starting to get the hang of Fijian, and now I have to start completely over:)  I will be there for the next 6 months, but I should be able to come into Suva in 3 months when I get a new companion.  My companion is named Elder Pomate who is Samoan from NZ.  So yeah, I don't have a lot of time so I will end it there!

Alofa atu!

Elder Harris

Saying Goodbye to Naliva

Boat Ride Back to Vanua Levu

Plane Ride Back to Suva

A note about Tuvalu.  Tuvalu is located about 700 miles north of Fiji.  It is a separate country with a population of about 10,000.  The country is made up of 9 small, inhabited islands and atolls.  The land mass of all 9 islands and atolls is about 10 square miles.  Elder Harris will be on the atoll of Funafuti, which has less than 1 square mile of land and has about 4,500 people. It's shaped like a ring and is very narrow (look at it on Google Maps).  There is a lot of ocean around him; probably no other missionaries within 500 miles.