January 31st, 2016

The Big Transfer To Taveuni

One of the last pictures in my old area.

My new ride.

My new home.

Bula Taveuni!

This last week we received transfer calls and President Layton told me that I would be serving on Taveuni. It is nicknamed the garden island. It is very beautiful! Some people don't even get the chance to get off the main island so I am grateful for the opportunity. I have been called to follow up train Elder Dunn. He is from Las Vegas and he is a good missionary.

I am going to miss you all the people in my old area. I really got close with all of the members and my companion Elder Whitworth. I will miss all of it. But we don't change if we stay in one spot. It is good to get new areas and meet new people and have new experiences.

Just getting to my area was crazy. I had to take a plane, a bus, a truck, a boat, and then another bus to get to my area. But I am very happy to be serving here. It will take some time to get adjusting to but I know I can do anything with the Lords help.

I am grateful for my testimony of the gospel. It helps me everyday. Jesus Christ is my savior and redeemer. I know that through his grace, we can be filled. I wish everyone a good week and will rely on the Lord in our times of need. He will carry us when we are too sad, weak, or tired to carry ourselves.

Loloma levu vei kemuni. Moce mada mai Taveuni

January 31st, 2016

Sweet, Sweet Akosita.

Making pancakes mom sent me.

Hanging out with the kids after church.

Me and elder Whitworth.

Chillin on a ride home.

Monday: P Day, and we all went to the chapel and played touch rugby. It was fun. I scored heaps

Tuesday: We brought all of our clothes into Korovou to wash it at the other Elders Flat. So we had to bus it all back up along with our groceries and some weights we got. It was a struggle. Also we went to the field to burn our trash and a pig kept coming to get into the trash so I tried to scare it away and it charged me but I got away fast enough. We got some kids in the village to scare it off for us.

Wednesday: We went to teach Akosita, one of our investegators, and she asked me to baptize her. I was a bit shocked but I was so happy. I felt her love for me and her excitement to be baptized.

Thursday: We taught a girl about the Plan of Salvation and it was amazing. She kept telling us how interesting it was and I could see a light go off in her. Things made so much more sense. I am grateful for the Plan of Salvation which puts things into perspective.

Friday: Elder Whitworth and I cooked up some mean pancakes. 

Saturday: Akosita passed her baptisimal interview. We had 4 other Elders stay up at our flat in the village. There was some contention going on up there a little firey but it ended up all good.

Sunday: I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize Akosita. She is wonderful and she started crying because she was so happy to be baptized. I have a testimony of this gospel and I know that it blesses lives.

Love Elder Jones

January 24th, 2016

Food Creations by Riley Jones

Serving in the best place in the world
What a fun week it was. I finally got feeling better from the kai. Elder Whitworth and I had to stay in Korovou town for a little because District Meeting was delayed. We went back up to our area and got back to work.

I was very excited about this one girl named Amalaini. She agreed to be baptized and we started teaching her but she is gone in Nausori for a while and transfers are next week. If I don't get transferred I would love to see her continue to progress.

We have also been teaching an old lady. She bore her testimony to us this week and she expressed so much appreciation for us coming to teach her. It filled my heart. She can barely see so I assigned her son to read to her some of the stuff that we gave to her.

This Sunday we went to church and it was an awesome time. Like always, the branch president leaned over to us during sacrament after we had blessed the bread and asked us if we could speak. I don't know if very many people understand what in the world I was saying but I hope they could feel my love for them.

Although we walk everyday for hours on end in the hot sun, I find so much happiness in what I am doing. My testimony is stronger than ever. I love the gospel and I am excited to be serving in the best place in the world.

O Karisito sai koya na vuna

Mom keeps me hooked up with the good stuff.

Da boys.

January 10th, 2016

This week was full of long walks, and lots of success. This week we took a trip up to one of the villages in our area called Nalidi. It was a 3 hour walk up the mountain. It was muddy the whole way up and we had to cross to rivers. One of them was about waste deep.

Got to go on exchanges with Elder Pomate. He is the man. I love being out here. It gets hard sometimes but that's how I know that it is worth it. Hard things usually mean they are going to be worth it in the end.

I woke up this morning and was not feeling good at all. Elder Whitworth had been up all file:///Users/Kristi/Desktop/DSC01213.JPGnight and he had been throwing up. I woke up and threw up as well. We are both feeling it right now and it sucks. Hopefully I will feel better soon. I am pretty sure we are sick because yesterday we ate kai. It is fresh water mussels that some of the members pulled out of the river. Apparently these can mess up your health way bad if your not used to it. Our district leader said that some missionaries have gone home after eating this because it messes with you health so much.

I love this mission though. It honestly is the coolest mission in the world. I am so blessed to be able to serve here. I love the people so much. I love the food (when it doesn't make me sick). I am grateful to a Heavenly Father that loves us all so much

Moce mada
Elda Jones

As we try to get to the villages we got stuck in the mud.

Some of the kids in our area.

What a beautiful place I get to serve the Lord.

I love when I get to wear my college shirts.

January 3rd, 2016

At the start of the week it was just normal. We just proselyted but didn't have much success. Everyone is still busy being gone or being with family for the New Years. We did however meet a man from a different village who was visiting Nasautoka. He is a preacher for the Assembly of God church. We started teaching him about the restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. He went back home now but hopefully he read and prayed about it. 

We have also been seeing this less active guy who is pretty old. We have just been going over to his house and sharing some small messages with him and he has been going to church ever since. It makes me so happy to see people's lives change when they add the gospel.

New Years Eve was crazy. Everyone in Fiji lights off fireworks and shoots bamboo canons. Everyone also just bangs on drums and throws water on each other. Thursday night I went to bad at like 10. I was way too tired to stay up. We got calls of a cyclone warning and they told us to have food and water in the flat (two things we didn't have). We then went to bed and the storm was getting pretty bad. We woke up and we had no power. Our neighbor's houses got pretty messed up. Our neighbor's entire roof flew off of their little tin house.

The cell towers were down so we didn't have service, we were very low on money and food, and we didn't know what to do. We got some of our stuff together and decided to take the bus ride down to Korovo town to get some groceries. We waited by the road for a long time until finally someone came up to us and told us that buses weren't running today because and area was flooded. So, we just hitch hiked with some random people headed to Korovou. They were nice people. We finally made it and go some groceries and were good. The cyclone missed Viti Levu and instead headed for the other Fiji islands the Lau group. Glad we didn't get destroyed.

Our power has still been out though and it has been so hot. It is so hot that sometimes it is hard to fall asleep. It is all good though. I am happy out here doing the Lord's work. Hopefully work will pick up once everyone goes back home for the holidays.

Catching the mini bus.

This is some of the damage the bad weather did. Blew the roof off of our neighbors flat.

Rainy Fifi.