Navua - Week 1

Isa lei I'm back in Fiji.

Leaving Tuvalu was not very fun.  I don't like saying goodbye!  But we left on Thursday after saying goodbye to everyone at the airport (I got a lot of necklaces!).  I was super happy because we took off and then circled around the island, so I got to see all of Tuvalu from the air before I left!  I was pretty somber the whole time, and I think I still am a little bit.  Luckily I'm going back to Fiji which I love, but I'll always miss Tuvalu!!

Now to my new area.  So I'm serving in a place called Navua, which is on the south coast of the big island Viti Levu.  I am in the same zone as the temple, mission office, assistants, etc., but my area is the farthest away in the zone, about a 40 minute bus ride from the nearest missionaries.  It's on main road from Nadi to Suva and there are a lot of resorts around (and nice beaches!).  But where we live it is mostly just a really huge flat area that is all farmland, so everyone is very spread out and far apart!  Our ward is an English ward mainly because there are a ton of Indians in the area, but hopefully I can still speak Fijian with the Fijians in the area.

My companion is Elder Levasa who was living in Australia but is originally from New Zealand.  He is Samoan and speaks the language so hopefully I can learn a little Samoan with him because Tuvaluan is pretty close!  He's a super cool guy and really humble so I'm happy to be working with him.  He got to the mission just 6 weeks ago so I am finishing his training for the next 6 weeks.  It'll be a good time!  We're supposed to be having a baptism this week so the area seems to be good:)

I've only spent one day in my area so far because we had stake conference yesterday at the LDS high school here in Fiji.  It was awesome and the theme it seemed was the temple!  The temple open house will begin in January, so they all spoke on the importance of the temple and inviting everyone to the open house!  The new temple president President Yee and also President Layton spoke and it was a very spiritual meeting! 

So yeah.  My district is super cool.  My new district leader Elder Danielson is this massive Samoan who could snap me in half if he wanted to.  He was on the under 20s team for Australia before he came out which probably means he'll go play proffesionally rugby after the mission.  Samoans are really funny so we are always laughing and joking around!  I'm glad I've been around the island people so I can fit in and fit in with my district!

Anyway, I'm excited to work in Navua and see how it goes this week.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Loloma yani,

Elder Harris

Just before we left on the plane to Fiji

This is in my new area.  This member family was making brooms by the beach.

There's a lot of cows in my area.  Smells like home.