Pi Oso Oso (Busy Bee)

 Bula vinaka everyone! It's been a crazy past couple weeks and unfortunately I wasn't able to get my email out last week, sorry about that! But I am doing well and the work here continues to go strong.

I'd like to share something that has been very prominent during my personal studies recently; that the Second Coming is getting VERY close! And time is a very weird thing, I can't believe that I've been in Fiji for almost a whole month now. And even if that weren't the case, there is never a better time to act than now. I know many of you might be thinking of something that you feel like you should do, so I'm encouraging you to do it! As long as it's safe and legal, preferably. Our bodies are amazing gifts and each day presents a new chance for us to improve, and I promise if you take a leap of faith and strive to better yourself you'll be very very happy! Of course God is already happy with you but He also loves it when you improve.

I've been teaching an insane amount of people, Fiji really has one of the best communities in the world. When a young man has a close relationship with an older man, they call them 'uncle'. I now have about three new uncles, one being my landlord.

Random Stuff

- boat rides across Fijian rivers are insanely fun, the trees grow diagonally so there's still a bunch of shade over you and sometimes the river gets so narrow you can jump to the shore on either side of you

- fijian clothes are the best, they always have some cool pattern or picture on them. You can see my new favorite shirt in the pictures, the Fiji Independance jersey

- it isn't just birthdays that people go crazy for here. Literally every holiday is celebrated like Christmas. Not only that, but celebrations last throughout the week instead of just a single day. Fireworks every single night, lights everywhere, sales, all that jazz

- kids are so funny here, they're so reckless and they just have crazy ideas all the time. One day we saw a group of kids throwing lighted fire crackers at each other and trying to catch them with their hats. I met a little boy who's favorite thing to do is spear eels in a creek near his house. I saw a kid who couldn't have been older than ten climbing a thirty-foot coconut tree, and he was already halfway up when I spotted him. We met some boys who made a giant mud slide down a hill during a storm

- umbrellas really just keep my hair dry. It might as well rain horizontally here

- the word for moon, vula, is also the word for month. Pretty sure it's because of the moon phases and stuff throughout the month

- the term 'Fiji Time' is very real. Everyone is relaxed and slow and usually late. I have to actively slow down my walking pace if I'm walking with a Fijian. It also doesn't help that they're most often a lot shorter than me

- they call any liquid that you drink and isn't water 'tea' or 'juice'. No soda, pop, milk, smoothie, lemonade, anything. Only tea and juice no matter what

-there is a juice company here called Juss (pronounced like juice)

- Fijian's equivalent to Nike is called Qaqa, which means win, overcome, succeed, etc. On the other hand, Nike was the Greek God of Success so I like how there seems to be an international pattern for sport companies

Pictures

- changed a tire after it rained, so plenty of mud

- Burger King while my comp and ZL get haircuts

- cool flag

- pretty butterfly

- pretty sunset

- me and comp at the temple

- Zone Leader after haircuts

I’m Immune to Everything

Bucko’s email from October 10:

 Good news! I haven't gotten sick yet by some miracle. It's a regular routine for the greeny missionaries to get pretty sick, especially in new countries and even more especially in Fiji. As far as I know, all the other new missionaries have gotten some kind of sickness, and even the ones who have been here for a while say they got sick at some point during the first two weeks or so. But not me! All I'm getting is a sick tan and stronger testimony. And a million bug bites but that doesn't count.

So things have been going great. We've been getting a lot of rain recently so I've been soaked for half the week, but the other half has been full of a lot of teaching and meetings. There continue to be people who surprise me around every corner, and believe me when I say there are a lot of corners here. I've only gotten lost a couple hundred times. But each house we pass by has awesome potential, and that's been very evident this past week. The conversations we have and the questions we get asked are all bringing people closer to Christ. There are still plenty of people who aren't interested in hearing anything about the church, but that's completely fine! I can stand around here talking about God all day, but ultimately I'm not the one teaching them. All I have to do is bring the Spirit to them and go from there.

More good news, I actually have some pictures this week! None from my little camera but we took a couple with the phone so that's wonderful.

Random Stuff

-barely anything is illegal here, there are so many people doing some crazy stuff

-the sun is warming up

-hot rain doesn't feel good if you're wearing a suit

-personal study is very very important!

-sulus are not very convenient if it's windy

-mosquitos can and will go for the bottoms of your feet

-rugby and volleyball are even bigger here than football and basketball is in America 

-everyone wears blue shirts all the time

-sugar is more like sand here

-music is pretty different! Fijians tend to have very loud and proud voices so they sing like a choir a lot without any instruments or background music

Mormon 9:9

Pictures:

-me outside a village we've been teaching at

-wet floor sign during a thunderstorm

His mission President often posts other pictures. Here are a few I’ve snagged:

Plane Rides and Sweat

 Hello everyone! I think it is Sunday now for all of you except a couple (you know who you are, hello) however it's now Monday for me! I am in the glorious country of Fiji which happens to have one of the greatest time zone differences in relation to America.

I arrived in Fiji this past Wednesday (Tuesday for you Americans) and it was an adventure for sure. After about 30 hours of constant travel, changing my watch time twice, completely losing my appetite on the plane, eating a meal while sitting on the airport floor, and flying thousands of feet above an abyss of water during a very dark night, I was finally rewarded for my efforts by being slapped in the face with the most hot and humid air I've ever had the displeasure of breathing. Does this sound like paradise yet?

Okay, although that all may be true, it's actually been awesome. In just a few days I've met amazing people and done amazing things and seen the most amazing sunsets. I got a coconut from some guy on the street! How cool is that? If you're wondering, it tastes like warm sprite. I guarantee you if I refrigerate that stuff it'll bring me right back to those 7th grade parties. I've also taught a bunch of people about the church! Which is good since that's why I'm here. The people here are always super nice and willing to talk about religion regardless of what they believe. I've been learning a lot about some religions that I never even heard of before. But the same goes for the people I teach, many of them don't know about the LDS church so it's a great opportunity to introduce it. Religion is a big deal in Fiji so it seems a lot more normal to talk about it than in America. Half the time I don't even need to find people, they find me just fine. I'm not surprised, it isn't every day you see a random white guy in a sulu and tie walking around pretty much anywhere other than a vacation spot. A lot of people are curious about where I come from and what I'm doing here.

Unfortunately, I've been taking pictures on my little handheld camera and can't get them onto this email, but you can take my word that Fiji is amazing! I never thought I would see coconuts and bananas growing in someone's front yard but here we are. Sometimes the vegetation gets so thick it looks more like the Amazon. Many missionaries get machetes to help walk through the more wild bush areas, so I'll be sure to get a really cool picture with one if I get that opportunity. At the moment I'm in more of a small poor city area rather than  the wilderness.

Other short thoughts

-the boats from Moana are Fijian

-Fijian tattoos are the coolest looking ones

-if you think you know what a hot sun feels like but haven't been to Fiji, you don't know what a hot sun feels like

-Burger King here is genuinely good. It doesn't taste like American fast food at all. A Fijian burger King chocolate milkshake will change your life, trust me

-people driving on the left side of the road is weird

-coconuts are bigger than I expected

-only the main roads have sidewalks which is fun

-there are dogs everywhere here, whether they be pets or wild. Just chilling on the side of the street or wherever. Some of them may or may not attack. But seriously they're everywhere

-frogs always come out at night because it's cooler, but then they get run over and then dry out when the sun comes up. Because of this there are a ton of flat frog corpses everywhere. I thought they were leaves at first

-fijians speak really fast which is not good for my slow adjusting brain

-the food here is always either bland and horrible or straight from heaven, no in between

-ice cream here is weird, they leave little chunks of ice in it so it's more like ice slime

-it hit me recently that there isn't pizza here. That will most likely be my first meal when I get back to America. Or maybe Chick-fil-A

-please continue to email me anytime throughout the week! I love hearing from  all of you

2 Corinthians 4: 17

Loloma kei masu, Elda Coleman

Love and prayers, Elder Coleman

Homecoming

 What a day! Everyone was busy from the moment we woke up. It’s almost 11:00 PM and it has been a packed, fun day! Minnie and Goofy had a fox and hound race this morning for cross country. Since Minnie is the only girl in the team, she ran with the boys. They all caught her, and Goofy even got a PR at 23:08, but it was a really fun race to watch. I was glad I finally got to see one if their races this season! 

We grabbed a couple pizzas on the way to the school. We made it in time to watch the homecoming volleyball game, but the little girls were tired so I took them to Tink. She is dog and house sitting this weekend, but they decided to hang out at our house. When they tried to leave in Tink’s car, though, it wouldn’t start. Dead battery. PC jumped it and bought a new battery for it. He ran the Colorado Springs Marathon with three of his brothers this morning. He finished 40th out of over 200. His time was 3 hours 51 minutes. Remember how I mentioned it’s been a busy day?

Well, after the volleyball game we decorated for the homecoming dance. I was in charge of decorations and I think it turned out amazing. I had amazing parents who helped out a ton. The kids got all ready with friends. They had a blast and are currently at their after parties. I expect them home soon. It was a fun day!