November 15, 2015

Navua - Week 2

Diwali!


Isa matavuvale.......Bula vinaka!

Well it has been another great week down here in Fiji.  I can't believe how fast the time flies while serving as a missionary!  This week has been interesting and busy with adjusting to my new area, but it has been really fun!

First of all we had two baptisms this week!  Elder Levasa and his former companion have been working with these two girls for awhile.  First off there is Cannan whose parents are a bit less-active so she didn't get baptized when she was 8, and then another little girl named Raijeli who lives with a member family but her parents are not members.  It was really good and Elder Levasa was able to perform the baptism for both of them!  He was nervous because it was his first one, but he did a great job.  We had a great turnout at the baptism, and a ton of less-active members and nonmembers came.  Also Raijeli's father came and really liked the baptism so we're going to try and follow up on that! 

A lot of this week was spent on exchanges in our area.  The zone leaders came down on Tuesday and then our district leader came down on Friday.  It was good to go with my leaders and get their advice on how to help my area.

So Navua is an interesting place to serve!  It is the second largest area in the mission covering a lot of the southern part of Viti Levu, but we have no car and our bikes don't   work:(  Also the actual Navua town is just a bunch of spread out houses and farmland.  It kind of reminds me of the area on the other side of the freeway back in Beaver (minus the coconut trees!).  Most of our time is spent walking from one house to another, and if we need to go out to another town we have to bus.  So it is going to be a fun challenge planning the days so we can see as many people as possible!

It has been interesting getting used to the Indian culture.  For those of you who don't know, 1/3 of the population in Fiji is originally from India.  They are definitely an interesting people and culture.  I haven't served very much around them until now, but Navua has a very large Indian population.  This week they had their holiday called Diwhali (I think that's how you spell it) which is some Hindu holiday.  It was pretty fun!  We got a bunch of Indian homemade sweets from everyone and there were tons of fireworks from the time the sun set until midnight! 

I am thankful for this opportunity to serve in Navua!  I love the members already after seeing them at the baptism and in church.  It's going to be a blast serving in this area!
Hope you all have a great week.

Love,


Elder Harris

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