It's transfer time...

Alooooooooha from Australia everyone!

Well it has been two months---time flies when you are working hard! I can't believe how busy missionary life is---it kinda makes me feel like I wasn't really doing anything before my mission, hahaha!

I will be getting transferred this week and I literally do not know where I am going---it could be anywhere, Swan Hill, Central Melbourne, Craigeburn, Tazzie (Tasmania) or even THE BUSH! I think I need to go to the bush so I can lose my weight and get back in to all the pants I got before I left---hahaha. I will miss so many families here, especially The Danielson's.  I will also be paired up with my first single companion.

I have been blessed to be trained by two incredible missionaries and will be sad to leave them but excited for another new adventure and assignment. One of my current companions will remain a Zone Leader and the other is moving on to be AP. I will still be under a trainer in my new area because I am still considered a Golden. President Maxwell uses the term Golden instead of Greenie for new missionaries because he thinks of them as Golden Opportunities---pretty awesome huh?

One thing I have learned out here in the mission is how important the Book of Mormon is! I admonish all of you to not just read a chapter a day but STUDY a chapter a day! It is so important to keeping our lives in check with what we need to do to get back to our Heavenly Father. It helps us to remember our covenants and to feel the love of Heavenly Father and the Savior for us personally. Reading the Book of Mormon is so important! Please do it---I have given special counsel to my brother, sister and mother on this and I feel strongly to let the whole world know. If you are back at home and need a Book of Mormon call my mom and she will get you one!

Well I have a couple of pics---and yes I know---pick up your jaws from the ground---I gained weight. But hey, someone had to eat all that good food. How rude would I be if I turned it down? I was just doing what a good missionary would do---blame it on my upbringing! Hahaha!

Hold to the rod---stay close to the Lord---Love and serve others!

Ka Kite Ano!
Aloha 'Oe!
Fa'a Soifua!

Elder Fiaui

Meanwhile in Dandenong...

G'day mates and sheilas! How is everyone doing?.....good you say? That's just awesome!:) This week has just flown by. We are always busy over here!

Last Monday on P-day after emails i headed off to the beach at Frankston. I was surprised at how cold the water was.........jokes!:) We just went out on the pier at watched people fish. 

The rest of the week we just did our usual tracting, knocking on doors, teaching new converts, new investigators, all that good stuff!:) My comps and I go into a lot of Afghani and Sri Lankan homes. Always learning new phrases and words. This week: Hoda Hafas! That's Arabaic for something like "God be with you".....I felt like Altair! (For those who know who I'm talking about)

On Friday, we had something call "Zone Conference". It's where 3 zones from the mission (roughly 80+ missionaries), come and we have multiple training's on how to be better missionaries. Skill wise and spiritual wise. And we all met in the Mission chapel with President and Sister Maxwell.....yes President Maxwell. Neil A. Maxwell's son....that's bi-winning! The man is so humble and loving. He's a great leader too! Probably gonna be a General Authority someday.

Another thing that's going on my laddies.......is the food situation. WE GET FED HEAPS. Just yesterday we had a feed at Bishop Lavaka's house. It was mean. I probably ate 8 huge drumsticks, chop suey, fish, and much much more. Then last week members fed us everyday. I'm so grateful, but I have to be careful and exercise. The taro is getting to me.

Anyways the work is going great over here! We set another baptism this week. So that's 2 for the 29th. Young men do your home teaching. Love and serve the families that you visit. I've come across too many Elderly sisters that don't get visited by their visiting/home teachers. So just do it and the Lord will bless them and also you. Have a great week.

Fa Soifua!

One Step Closer to Converting Wolverine

G’day Mates!  This is going to be a short one because I only have about 20-30 minutes and I spend most of it in convo with the homebase.

My week was great!:) I went on exchanges with Elder Talaipa in Dande. North (humble area) and another with Elder Mott in Narre Warren (wealthy area). I also had golden review! It was where we just reviewed on the scriptures we had to memorize. We had an awesome Halloween! We ate at the Savea's and Sister Foenander's home. Here is a pic of the cool Halloween decorations the fam sent me to put up, my companions loved all the cheery Halloween stuff in the pad. Forcing me to decorate from across the otherside of the world---nice!

I'm gaining weight. It's bad. Like BAD. I'm taking a mass gainer protein AND having Samoan feeds---a mix that equals serious weight gain. I eat taro now too lol. Wait. I may start eating Samoan food BUT I have noticed and decided that I love and live the Hawaiian ways. I was raised on true cultural Hawaiian values and have been able to live and share them here, I have found it to be helpful in my missionary work, thanks Mom.

Here is a pic of the Danielson brothers. 2 of them went to school with my grandpa in Samoa---that is so cool! 

But here is the “story of the week”, so to prep everyone---before I left the family joke was “go and convert Wolverine” because we are big X-Men fans and he was my fave---but let’s face it he is everyone’s fave! Anyway as time got closer I was like---I am totally going to convert Wolverine!  In fact on the way to the airport I was like “AJ, wouldn’t it be cool if I actually converted Hugh Jackman?” So this is why this is even more of a cool story. Okay. Here we go.

My friends Elder Howard and McCleary received a referral from President Maxwell who received a referral originating from President Uchtdorf himself. The referral came to fruition due to Hugh Jackman's wife being presented with an LDS humanitarian award by President Uchtdorf. President asked her if he could do anything. She said yes. Her mother needed a blessing due to her being very sick. So Presdient Uchtdorf told her it would be taken cared of.

Fast forward down the line of rank. The referral was given to the AP's. Elder Howard and McCleary. So they went to this house....MASSIVE. It had a full on tennis court, pool, mansion. So they gave her a blessing. And she absolutely loved it. They even gave their numbers to Howard...I saw Wolverine's wife’s number!!! Hahahahahaha So my mom said she would find a pic of him and his wife and mother-in-law and put it on the blog.

Love you all I gotta go! Have a great week

I'm out here to obey my Father in Heaven and to be a great servant of the Lord. Simple as that.

G'day mates!:) How are my friends and family doing? Sorry for not emailing sooner, missionary life is busy! I've been out a month now! Australia is legit! Besides everything costing an arm and a leg it's a pretty fun place.

My first area is called Dandenong! It's a very diverse area filled with Sri Lankans, Afghanis, Polynesians, Suddanese, you name it! They are all here. And because of that I've picked up a lot of different language greetings and phrases. Plus my broken english game is on point:)

There are so many Poly's down here. Samoans, Maoris, Tongans, Cooke Islanders...but no Hawaiians. I am the lone (but very proud!) Hawaiian down under. Gotta represent! The Poly families feed us heaps! I think I've gained like 5kgs in the past 3 weeks:)

I also turned 19 and the Danielson's (Samoan family) threw me a huge surprise dinner! And Sister Danielson even baked me a cake! I LOVE THAT FAMILY!:))

B-Day cake baked by Sis. Danielson

All of my loot from Mom, AJ, and Anisee

Missionary work is fun:) Sure it's hard work. Knocking doors, getting accepted and rejected, teaching, service, but in the end it's all about being positive. And foremost remembering why you're out here. I'm out here to obey my Father in Heaven and to be a great servant of the Lord. Simple as that. 

I hope everything is going good back home! Everyone take care and please forward this to those whose email I don't have.

I have no time...but got three more!

This week I don't have time for a general email because I decided to spend my time writing my brother and sister! But some of  my highlights of the week are that we had success with 3 more commitments to baptism---that is 6 in 2 weeks!!! I also get to work out every morning and am bulking up---so I get to keep physically fit AND serve a mission and bring people to Christ---I am so blessed! This place is very ethnically diverse--- Mauritians, Iranians, Polynesians etc. The area I am in now is  pretty poor and I am humbled and grateful for the opportunity to serve here. Thanks to my awesome family for my birthday and Halloween box--- Mom, AJ, and Anisee you guys are awesome---who has the best family?  Me!!!!  Well as I said---short on time but everything is great here and have a great week!

Elder Fiaui in Dandenong

Got my Birthday/Halloween box from Mom, AJ and Anisee

My new friend, Paki Danielson leaving for the Fiji Suva Mission

Heaps of learning in Melbourne!

Hello everyone! These past few days have been crazy runnin around all over the place! I'll just go day to day with what we did. (Plus I can say certain words over here, like 'dammit', 'damn', 'what the hell', 'fetch'. They're not bad over here in Australia, they'll say it at the pulpit. Like the Mission Pres. doesn't care lol) My mission
president is good man. He's really kind and a great, organized leader. You can send my mail to 76 Cathies Lane, Wantirna South, VIC 3152. My companions are awesome. Elder Woodruff and Cox. I'm in a tripanionship. They serve as the ZL's so I've learned heaps.

Thursday 16th (Australia is like a day ahead of you guys) - So 1st off. I got a car for my 1st area lol. A nice one too! We got up at 5:30 to go lift at the AP's (Elder Howard and McCleary) house. They had heaps of weights! So we did that for an hour. Get big get strong! lol Then we headed back to the flat, got ready, and studied for 2 hours. 1 hour for personal and 1 hour for companion study. Then we went to a zone meeting. There's so many Polynesian missionaries in our zone. Samoans and Maori's primarily. They have to put all of them here in the area, just because most Samoans won't talk to haoles. Pretty interesting!lol It's just the fobs though.Then we went to go eat at the mall at some Aussie meat wrap place. I'll send a picture of what I got. But get this! We went to go eat at a Samoan families house, the Danielsons. They fed us heaps of food!! It was awesome. But I guess the Aunt and Uncle who was visiting were from Fasito'iuta? Or whichever Grandpa is from. She knew Loia! And the Uncle was friends of Fata! It was pretty funny!

Friday-Sunday 17th-19th

The next few days the mornings were the same. Except for Saturday we did mixed martial arts and kicked the fetch out of each other hahaha. But this weekend I watched conference a second time! Since times are different they played it on the weekend over here too. It was great though. I learned heaps. 

I also set 3 baptismal dates on Sunday. Like here's how it went:  After teaching them the 1st Vision and Joseph Smith. I looked them straight into the windows of their soul! And said! Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?.....And they all said yes. I was pretty shocked they said yes lol. But hey, that's what happens when the Spirit is there and does the converting:) 

I advise everyone to look over this past General Conference and keep them close to their hearts. It just dawned on me of who I was actually listening to all these years. Those 15 men. The 1st Presidency and 12 apostles are prophets,seers, and revelators. When President Monson speaks, we should listen as if it were the prophet Nephi or Alma the younger or Moroni. Because President Monson is our Nephi or our Moses of these days. Our days. That's my spiritual piece of this email. Listen to these prophets in Salt Lake. Because they're real.

Anyways random things about Australia......everything is fetchin' expensive in the land down unda! Everyone's accents are extremely thick! Even my soas (companions) have accents and one's from Western Utah for crying out loud! haha, it's soooo awesome. Let's see what else. Oh! The money is pretty awesome looking down here. People drive on the left side, still freaks me out. haha, and I can't forget the spiders! There's heaps of them. The stories are true for the spiders at least. Google the Australian Huntsman. Yeah. That's real!!

It's been an awesome few days!! The members are so kind to us. Like a lady dished out 200 AUD's to pay for my district's lunch. So so sweet of her. The Lord has blessed me with so much over here temporally and spiritually. I love you all! Email me soon!:) amron-blue.fiaui@myldsmail.net 

Touchdown in Melbourne!

I'm officially deployed in the Australia Melbourne Mission! 

I've met my mission president and his wife, President Cory Maxwell and Sister Karen Maxwell. He is President Neal A. Maxwell's son...so I will probably need to go buy a dictionary. They are so nice and far more welcoming than I imagined! I expected mission presidents to be drill sergeants:) 




I am assigned to labor in the Dandenong North area with Elder Woodruff and Cox. So I'm in a tripanionship! It's very surreal to be in Australia. I've wanted to go to Australia so bad before my mission. So I knock two birds with one stone!:) haha.

I placed my 1st Book of Mormon on the plane. It was an elderly Australian lady i sat next to. She was very receptive of it!:) It's funny because I was looking around in the MTC bookshop and just felt impressed to buy a mini book of mormon and stuck it in my bottom suit pocket. So when right before we got off the plane i remembered I had one. pulled it out and gave it to her.......weird. hahaha anyways!  

I'm excited to serve, no matter the opposition!:)