Eclipse

August 25, 2017

Hey Mom/guys!

Yeah we should be arriving in Fiji September 6, but we don't have flight plans or anything yet.

It's been another great week - we had great devotionals on Sunday and Tuesday. 

Foursquare for gym time is awesome and we've got a huge crowd coming now (it's kind of hilarious) - also my new PR for the mile is 6:39, and I hope I can get it below 6:30 before I leave the MTC. Everyone has me tune the songs when we sing in class now so that's also cool. 

The solar eclipse was awesome on Monday and we could see it with some stuff the other Elders and teachers brought, and I got some wild pictures of it. 

We got to basically home-teach over Skype with a woman in Fiji, her name was Naomi and she was awesome. Us Elders took our second SLE (second language evaluation) to see how we were coming along with the language and I felt pretty good about how poorly I could talk. I did ok but the questions were super simple so...

The language is coming along very well though, I'm getting more and more confident in it. My testimony is getting stronger as well. I think I can teach with the Spirit more now that I can move further away from worrying about language. I can start to make out what the scriptures are saying with minimal help and my gasenivuli valagi (teachers white) are almost totally understandable in a gospel setting. I've started trying to make the scriptures come alive when I read them, almost as if I'm watching a movie when I read, and it's super awesome - it helps a lot. I love to see the huge murals around the new studying buildings they've built, they help make the scriptures come alive too. 

I can't wait to make it to Fiji in a little over a week but I'm gonna miss some of these guys I've met and started loving. I'm grateful for this awesome opportunity to learn and serve - I thought I'd miss what I've left behind by now but I'm still doin' good. Maybe that will change once I go 5,500 miles away, but knowing that I'm here for the people has made a huge difference in my attitude and behavior.

Things are moving fast and I'm still loving all of it - I can't wait to do more.

Besides that I've seen a couple Elders I know - one from working at the temple and another from UA! Things are great, not much to report that I haven't already or won't in the pictures. 

Thank you guys so much, and have a great week!

-Reed