December 16th, 2013

Hey fam! 

I'm back in Tuvalu and man, I love this place. I really missed it. We flew back with the branch president and his wife and they were so happy to see us. When we arrived, it spread like wild fire that "the boys are back in town" haha. I took my new comp to visit the members so he could get to know them and introduce himself. Every time we went, the members got all excited to see the elders haha. I guess we mean more to the people here than i thought. Also, before i left, i thought that only the members knew my name and maybe not even all of them. But being back, i've had like the whole island call me my name and say hi and i don't even know them haha, i'm a legend sir! The bad thing though is that all our investigators went to their home islands for the holidays so we're looking for people to teach. Plus, i'm trying to get my Tuvaluan back and i need to teach my new comp the language haha. We got some referrals yesterday which was a blessing so we'll be fine. 

Funny story, so they had the primary program yesterday and the people leading it are still kinda new converts and they did this, like, drama on the First Vision haha. They had kids holding branches to be trees, they had a kid be Joseph, and then they had two kids on a table, one the Father and one the Son haha it was so weird and so funny. ALso when we got back, we were blessed with three full water tanks but for some reason our pipes weren't working, our shower wasn't working. So that night i climbed up on the tank and filled buckets up with water to shower and fill our toilet with water. Took a bucket shower haha it sucked. The day after i talked to a plumber in the branch and he fixed our pipes so now the pressure is better than my first three months here and the sink that never worked now works haha. It was cool because we prayed for help and Heavenly Father provided. My new comp is awesome. He really wants to help and he really has a testimony of the gospel, we've had some great experiences sharing about the scriptures and the blessings we've recieved from the gospel. We're working hard to spread the gospel here. I love ya guys. We'll skype next week!

Elder Cashen

December 8th, 2013

This week was great! Mission tour was awesome, Elder Pearson is the man and as Elder Holland would put it, he "singed our eyebrows a little". He spoke about how our mission is doing great but we could easily double the baptisms we just need to get out of our own way. He was telling us that we need to stop doubting and that this time is a very unique time in history for missionary work, and that the Lord waited for the right people on the earth to carry it out. But that we need to stop doubting and, "call down miracles". He was also telling us the importance of attitude, he did this example thing of how an elder with a good attitude and an elder with a bad attitude would view a crappy situation. If we stop saying me me me i i i and think about how we can help people not really caring about numbers, the mission will be more fun and effective. In general we need to stop being casual about missionary work. 

At the very end though he said something awesome, he was like "Elders and Sisters, we've felt the spirit today and i want to tell you, your sins are forgiven. If you keep thinking about things you've done in the past, those thought aren't there to make you feel guilty, they're there to remind you not to do it again. You're forgiven" man it was awesome i got kinda choked up haha. He said so many things it would take me all day to write them down. But it was awesome hearing from a 70. We've been exchanging with other elders from this zone and working in there areas, i can say i've worked all around Suva and Nausori without actually being assigned there haha. We taught some really great lessons and contacted these awesome Rotumans, who were so nice and wanted us to come back. I go back to Tuvalu and Thursday, and i can't wait, man i miss my island, i'm a little nervous to go back because its been so long but man i can' wait. Love you guys and hope you're doing well. The church is true! Share it with someone!

Love,

Elder Cashen

November 11th, 2013

Hey!

This week was great! We had a baptism of our investigator Tealava, he's 14 it was great. t was high tide in the ocean which was great so we didn't have to walk out far to baptize. He was baptized with his cousin Nieli who was baptized by his dad Peni Tala, which was awesome, because a lot of dads are scared to do stuff like that and they just want the elders to do it but we encouraged him to do it and man, he did awesome, he's the man! I'll have Elder Leiataua send some pics. 

So ya, going to Fiji tomorrow! Can't wait, going to Fiji is cool because you get to see more elders and when we go we usually can go to Suva and shop but we got the shaft and we're staying in Nausori which is like the arm pit of Fiji. We are going to kerekere the APs to go to Suva and get some stuff.We also can go to the mission office and get mail and other stuff. I still don't know who my comp is. Elder Leiataua hasn't even been transferred because the new intake, their visas weren't accepted or something so they are serving in the states until they get their visas so the mission is in a little pickle right now. Which also means we don't know how long we are staying there for, mission tour is first week in december but we may stay longer than that which would suck. We have a ton of work up here i want to get started on, like 5 really good investigators who have a good chance of getting baptized and i don't want to lose my Tuvaluan either. But when i do get my new comp i'll teach him Tuvaluan the best i can.

 Like a month ago i had a cold and when it went away i had a cough and i still have a cough, its been like 4 weeks so i went to the doc here and she was like if you keep going out and not rest you'll get pneumonia so this week i had to take it easy but the doctors here suck. So i'm gonna try and go to the doc in Suva, another perk about Fiji. 

Love,

Elder Cashen

November 3rd, 2013

Talofa,

  Well this week Sister Vii died from breast cancer that she had been fighting for four months. Really early tuesday morning at like three we woke up from pounding on the door and "elders elders" it was brother Vii and he told us that Milani had died and that he needed our help with the funeral. President Niko came later in the morning and gave us assignments, he told me to speak on families at the funeral service that was gonna be held in the chapel. We spent the whole day doing funeral stuff, Polynesian funerals are quite the event, its like a sad wedding, because everybody takes pictures. I spoke on families and it was a good missionary effort a lot of the people were non members and didn't know our beliefs about how the family can be together forever. A lot of members came up to me afterwards and told me i did a great job. President Niko said "Elder Cashen you speak very well thank you for the talk" he told me to do it in english haha so i did it in english.

 I also gave my first baptismal interview to this kid named Telava and he did great! He'll be baptized in Saturday. We started teaching Pres. Niko's cousin and his cousin's wife. When we started the lesson it was just his cousin but we asked if his wife wanted to join. SHe came in and we taught the lesson. After when we asked if they had any questions, she shared with us that when she saw us go in with her cousin that she really wanted to join too and felt kind of cheated that she couldn't listen, but when her husband came and told her that we wanted her there too she started crying and new it was a sign haha it was awesome. The Lord does prepare people. Me and my comp also gave a baby blessing on Sunday.

This week was kinda weird because we started the week with a funeral and the polynesian funeral services are like huge events and we were part of every stage of it, it took all day. From 3 in the morning to 9 whoa.

 Well this is my last week in Tuvalu then to Fiji and back for another 3 months.

 I'll find out my new comp on saturday.

Ya, living here is just life i'm used to it, it's not that bad but then sometimes its like am i really living here haha. I hope you guys have had a good week, Love ya guys!

Elder Cashen

October 27th, 2013

My Family! 

This week was great, we are constantly busy going from one appointment to another, teaching investigators, recent converts, and strengthening less actives. We have a baptism in a couple weeks and another one when we get back from Fiji, that's the problem though, we leave for Fiji, Nov. 12 and don't come back till early December, really screws with the work but it'll be good to talk with Pres. see my friends and hopefully go through the temple. 

 I made a list of scriptures for every principle in the ch. 3 of PMG and other things like Jehovah of OT is Jesus of NT, its like that missionary pal book but personalized and updated. Oh ya during our comp studies its like impossible to get my comp to do it seriously, so today i told him about the importance of the white handbook and told him the story about Lehonti and how the white handbook protects us from Satan and temptation and he's like man, you give some good examples for training, i'm gonna use that haha. 

This week was great, we have a lady who is in the hospital with breaast cancer and she is pretty close to dying and we made a goal to visit every night because her husband said she feels alive when the elders come. We were coming back home and it was almost 9 and you have to be back by 9 and as we were passing the hospital i looked at it and turned towards the house and i had this feeling like a balloon like blowing up in my chest it was really weird like i had to go to the hospital but i turned towards the house because i was tired and the time and the feeling came back even stronger, so i told E. Leiataua we need to go see Milani. We went to the hospital and Milani can barely breathe and its really hard for her to sleep. When we got there she said, please i need a blessing, we blessed her and after the blessing she said thank you and went to sleep. We are all tools in the Lord's hands to help his children. The mission is great, i love it here, the language is tough but the people are warming up to me and the work is great. 

Love ya guys. 

Elder Cashen

October 20th, 2013

Talofa!

This week was great. Like three of our really good investigators are Deacon/Teacher aged kids (12-15) and we thought they were members because they came to church all the time but they weren't so we're teaching them right now and they're awesome. 

We buy our own food for breakfast and lunch but members feed us every night so we have these massive dinners and then just come home plan shower and sleep, thats why i think i've gained like 15 pounds im like 76 77 kgs. We've been back in our house for a month, the place is a freakin crap hole, i hate it, its so dirty. Our fridge stopped working so we got someone to pick it up and fix it so we don't have any food right now. Some days it rains super super hard and days like today its hotter than Africa. Two cool stories. So there is this school on an outer island that most of the kids on Funafuti go to and they come back for breaks and stuff and when they come back we teach some of the kids who are recent converts. So we taught this girl named Nepai (a recent convert) and after the lesson we found out that her brother in law who is like 40 something is a member and he is married to Nepai's sister who is like 30 something and has three kids. The sister and one of the kids were sick and we gave them both a blessing and they both got better and when we would see them in the streets they would always say hi to us so we thought we would go and see if they wanted to take the lessons. We went to the house and they told us they were really wanted to but the grandma and other houses in the village wouldn't allow it and didn't like us coming by. Well yesterday they all came to church out of the blue! It was awesome. 

Second story. So we got home last night and i was hungry so I started making noodles on our counter top stove, and there is space between the stove and table, so when i turned the stove on a rat ran out from under it, i bent down to look under and two more ran out! I yelled for my comp and got my flashlight and looked again (we both had our tennis raquets ready) and there were two more under the stove! SO i got a knife and started poking one side and my comp was gonna get them when they ran out but he missed them. There was all this trash under the stove that i pulled out and there was all this rat poop everywhere. SO today we bought rat poison and rat traps. We're going to evict the family living with us. Yes, i'm funny. 

The language is going well, i can teach the lessons great and answer questions but i get real lost in conversational stuff. I'll pick it up faster when i come back with my new comp. We go back to Fiji Nov 12 and i may be there for 3 weeks which would suck and screw with the work and the language. Miss you guys! thanks for the update!

Alofa atu!

Elder Hank Cashen  

October 13th, 2013

(Sorry for the lazy posting lately...Hank's letters have been really short so here are some excerpts from a bunch of messages)

Last week and this week are public holidays for the independence so its been hard to contact investigators and find new people because everyone is involved in the games. The new Prime Minister is like Commodus from Gladiator, he schedules all these games and festivities to please the people and have them like him haha. But, we want to plan an open house at the church to get more investigators, so we're working on that. The work is coming along and the language as well, nothing really new this week. 

Just imagine sitting on the floor all day teaching lessons in that. I have a big callus on my foot from sitting all day in a sulu haha. (in response to a picture of dad wearing a sulu)

I'm doing fine, the work is starting to pick up here so we are busier and busier. I was pissed till like wednesday and then i got my package and a letter from Anne and i forgot all about it haha, i'm doing great now. 

We're lucky we get to watch the conference dvd this weekend as a branch, i saw Pres Uchtdorf's talk and man, what an amazing talk, if someone was on the edge before...they have to see that. At least the first presidency loves you for you! 

Yesterday i again ate raw fish, still getting used to it. It's kinda like sushi, its like a fish and then they cut the meat into cubes put it in coconut cream with cucumbers, i though it was potato salad the first time i had it.  Don't know what kind of fish, probably some fish they found in the pacific ocean somewhere.

But i'm feeling good, the work is going well, we are getting more and more people to teach after weeks of having slow work, it's great. Hurricane season is starting though so we've had lots of rain this week, and we won't be able to play tennis today, bummer.

Sorry for the short emails. Miss you all.

Love, Elder Cashen

September 22nd, 2013

Talofa

This week on my island was tough. Trying to figure out our house and every lesson falling through sucked real bad. But we had a lot of cool experiences. We went to a restaurant for dinner and there was a wedding reception going on so we were about to leave when the family asked us to stay and eat with them. So they brought us into the room where it was just the bride and groom and close friends and we ate with them haha. Then they asked my comp to speak haha and he talked about the importance of the family it was awesome. We crashed a wedding and my comp spoke at it and we didn't even know the people. After we went to a fa'atele that Pres. Niko invited us to and man it was awesome. They did all these dances and songs. Tuvalu is a lot like Samoa, its a Polynesian country and has a lot of things common throughout the Polynesian islands where as Fiji is Melanesian and a lot different from like Tonga and Samoa. So i get to experience all this cool stuff. We also had a great baptism on Saturday, the guy is the man. Yesterday we went to visit a sister in the hospital and she has cancer and we found out yesterday that she only has like four months to live and she just hit her 3 month mark. She is such a strong member and is so sad cause her family is less active. She started crying and was like all i want, is to see the temple and have my family sealed. Freak! I started crying. Families are so important and its important that no matter what we keep a good relationship with all of them. And also what a special and important place the temple is, don't take it for granted, go as much as you can. 

Love ya guys

(excerpt from Hank's letter to Jaimie)

Ya living conditions pretty much suck here haha, you'd puke if you saw our house. We pump water out of a bucket that we fill up from the tap outside our house and in the bucket are all these nasty little worms swimming around. I've just gotten use to it though haha. After an elder comes off Tuvalu he's usually made a Zone Leader pretty quickly and zls always have nice flats.  Thanks for writing me, life is tough out here on the streets haha. Alofa ki a koe

Elder Henry Cashen

September 15th, 2013

This week has been tough, with the lack of water and living in a different house and then having storms hit us, we're trying to survive haha. We're still roughing it in at the church. I'm sleeping on a mat in the church. Hopefully we get water this   week, the whole living situation sucks here in Tuvalu, we want a new flat. This week was pretty dull, its getting close to cyclone season so we've had a lot of strong wind and lots of rain, which we're trying to work around. 

On Saturday we had a great baptism of this 14 yr old kid named Akatasa. He's the man, and for a 14 year old kid he really had an awesome understanding of the Gospel.

We have another baptism this Saturday of a guy named Ukasi who is also the man and will be a great addition to the priesthood here in Tuvalu. We have a girl we are teaching named Emma. She's a great investigator but she wants to get baptized with her husband who is in Fiji. She came to church yesterday and after talking to her and finding out some of her problems we offered her a blessing which she accepted. My comp anointed her and i gave the blessing and afterwards she was wiping tears from her eyes. The priesthood and priesthood power are real. Teaching the gospel is fun and hard but its always worth it seeing the effects of your work and service. Being on a mission you see that no one is perfect and that every family has their problems. Its important for missionaries to be there to help and be that love that people need but its also important for members to show their love and not judge or gossip. Oh ya, as you know i love cats. And here in the islands people treat dogs and cats like crap. So this morning while we were doing our studies this kid picked up his kitten and was like using it as a toy airplane, and like swooping it down on these big dogs who were hitting it. So after watching this for like five minutes i got up and yelled at the kid to stop haha. My comp was like, man you really like cats haha. Anyways, Love ya guys and hope you're all doing well. 

Love 

Elder Cashen

September 9th, 2013

Hello everyone,

Well there once was a place where it never rained...the end. 

Tuvalu gets all its water from the rain and it hasn't rained here for like 3 weeks so our flat ran out of water Saturday night, so i took a shower with a water bottle i had filled up previously....i didn't feel clean haha. We decided to go to church early and use the shower there and it didn't work. 7:00 in the morning contemplating on what to do, my comp and I decided the lagoon was the only choice. So we took a table cloth, cut it in half, wrapped ourselves up and bathed in the ocean. It was awesome and really weird and I still didn't feel clean. Don't worry we didn't break any rules, it's allowed if we run out of water. They got the shower at the church to work so last night and probably for a few more days we'll be sleeping on the floor on mats in the church. The island is great. this week was slow because there were a lot of funerals and when that happens on the south pacific, all Polynesians drop what they're doing and its like a week event. We have great investigators right now but they all have the same problem: smoking, and we don't know what to do. But the language is coming more and more every week its just gonna take time and dilligent study.We have a baptism next week of this 14 year old kid who's the man. We're also teaching these two ladies who are on like a search for religious truth so they're studying all these religions and we are the "scholars" as she puts it that they want to hear mormonism from. They started like questioning us and the first question they asked was about the BoM and how revelations says not to add to this book. So i explained to them the verse and how John was on an island and that he was talking about his book, revelations. She then pulled out a Jehovah's Wittness magazine saying that the LDS church teaches that the soul will never die which is true, its eternal. But this ex-mormon in this magazine was saying that in ezekiel the soul dies. So i asked her to turn to the verse and the guy had totally butchered the verse for his own cause and she saw that and was like oh the soul that "sinneth" dies. I explained that through the atonement and repentance we can be clean and saved from spiritual death. She was like thanks we really learned a lot today, so hopefully we can start actually teaching them the lessons soon. We also had a great lesson with an investigator Melton who had problems with the BoM because he said the Bible doesn't talk about the BoM, so we shared with him John 10:16 about other sheep and Ezekiel 37 about the stick of judah and Joseph, and finished the lesson with Elder Hollands testimony of the BoM, Melton told us he knew it was true after the lesson.  Anyways love you guys and i hope you're doing well. I'm working hard and trying to survive haha. 

love

Elder Cashen

August 25th, 2013

Hey everyone,

Right now, I'm in Suva. I've been here for the past week.

 We're staying with the Suva ZLs who are really cool guys and one of them served in Tuvalu as well so its been cool talking to him about it. I've had to switch back to Fijian and man i miss it. The ZLs both told me i was good, all these fijian we visited in the city were surprised with my fijian, hopefully that will be the same with Tuvaluan. Its funny because when you go into a house there are like mannerisms and things that fijians do that i've picked up pretty well and i went out with a different elder who goes home pretty soon and he was so surprised and the people in the house loved it haha. Like i asked where they are from and they said Tailevu North, and i was like oh vinaka tai, au mai tailevu south (where i started) and we knew the villages we were both from haha. I guess you'd have to be here to understand. I miss FIJI and fijians. I had mcdonalds for the first time here as well which was a nice change haha. There is also this big festival here called Hibiscus and part of it is like a beauty pageant and i met the winner last night, we went to a less actives house and her daughter was the winner, me and my ZL comp tried on her crown haha. Its awesome here. We have Zone conference tomorrow and then we go back to tuvalu on thursday. I bought a tennis raquet to play tennis with my comp in Tuvalu. Other than that we are workin! I've met some awesome people in Suva, we met three people who were like "I have always prayed that one day you people would come to visit me" and one lady was like "when you two came into the house, i felt like a light went on inside me". The gospel is true and its all of our responsibilty to share it but being a missionary is even cooler!

Love you guys,

Elder Cashen

August 14th, 2013

Hello!

This week has been great and kinda weird. Tomorrow we leave for Fiji for two weeks for Zone Conference and the cool thing about flying to and from Tuvalu is that you are told when you are leaving and when you are coming back. So when i leave Fiji to come back here, I'll know when i'm going back to Fiji the next time. 

This week we got a referral for these two ladies who wanted to be taught in English and they said they had been everywhere searching for the right church. So we gave them an intro lesson and a Book of Mormon and scheduled to come back. When we came back they had a lot of questions about the Book of Mormon and about Joseph Smith and we gave an awesome lesson on the truthfullness of the book and the calling of Joseph Smith to be a prophet. It was awesome and they both were so interested. We told them to follow the example of Joseph Smith and pray about the Book of Mormon and they will know of its truthfullness and also Joseph Smith being a true prophet. Ruby (one of the girls) is very sincere and curious and she asked about the scripture in Rev. about not adding to this book and i pulled out all these scriptures how that is a misinterpretation of that scripture and helped her understand, man the spirit really helped us in the lesson.

 We are continuing to help two of our investigators stop smoking, and it amazes me that a 19 year old kid is giving this guy advice on how to stop smoking but i know that it is really the spirit and the gospel that will help this man.

 I baptized this great investigator in the lagoon yesterday and it was so cool to see her bare her testimony, even though i couldn't understand it, i know the spirit was there. 

Something hard though is that a lot of people like the past elders and you have to gain their trust and respect, i've had some people tell me to go back to Fiji and let the other elder come back haha, it tough and my comp is a cool guy but he hates the people here so that doesn't help, he gets angry cause they tease him, i tell him just let it roll off your back man who cares. 

We don't have hot water, which is okay because Tuvalu is freakin hot! And comfy bed...not really, i'm so tired by the end of the day it doesn't matter haha, the mattress is so thin i can feel the wood planks of the bed frame beneath haha. And our house is nice, but its disgusting, the elders from the past have just destroyed it and its just super dirty and nasty. We rely on rain water for everything so if no rain water, SOL my friend, here i come ocean. And our sink doesn't work so we fill a bucket up with water, put it in the sink and pump the water out to purify it haha. 

Anyways the work is great and still trying to learn this new language.

Love ya,

Elder Henry Cashen

August 11th, 2013

Talofa!

Tuvalu is the coolest, the only thing that sucks is learning a whole new language and i don't have the help of the mtc, luckily some past missionaries have written some study helps. Its awesome here because we are by ourselves and no one comes to check on us and we report to the APs, i'm happy because i feel like i don't have to impress other missionaries or mission leaders, i just gotta do the work i can up in Tuvalu. My new comp is the man, he's not the most obedient elder and pres sent him here because he was the only samoan that could go but he's the man, he's hilarious and i feel like i'm in an episode of summer heights high when i talk to him.  i'm working to learn the language which is a lot harder than fijian, working to get to know the members and gain their trust and working to find and teach people the gospel of Jesus Christ. Book of Mormon is awesome and true and Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God! The work is going great here in Tuvalu, we have a baptism next week and my comp wants me to do it so i'll be baptizing in the lagoon! 

I'm still getting acquainted with the members here. 

At dinner last night, I ate this thing that i thought was potato salad but it did't taste like potato salad and i asked the member and he's like "oh, that's coconut cream onions and raw fish" haha it was really weird, i also ate lamb neck. 

This week, we ran into a white baptist pastor from Wisconsin who has moved to Tuvalu to start the church here (Illegally) We started talking, just small talk and then he started making these comments that were like subtly bashing the church, and he said, "I think if you make a prophecy, and its wrong, than you're a false prophet" and i said, "Well what did Joseph Smith prophecy that was false>?" and he said, "Well I'd have to go back and check" and i said, "well we'd love to come over and answer your quesitons if you want." and he's like "um ya, lets just put the bible down and discuss it" I think he wants to debate instead of answering questions so we'll see what happens.

We have a lot of people to teach but the tough thing here is that my comp is Samoan and Tuvaluans and Samoans don't get along and he hates a lot of people here so it turns people off. The white elders stay here so long that the people get attached to them and when the next one comes in, its tough for them to gain the respect of the people because they feel like you were only there cause the other white elder left, thats what some lady told me haha. Anyways i love you guys and love hearing about whats going on.

 as E. Leiataua says, "latahs."

Love, Elder Cashen

August 4th, 2013

I made it to Tuvalu! I don't understand a thing haha. Its not a different dialect, its a different language, its close to samoan, so I'm back to square one, but I'll learn it!  So, i'm just trying to get settled in with my new companion who is a Samoan from Australia.  He was in a Samoan gang and was telling me about his life and I said "you sound just like the guys from Green Street Hooligans" and he's like, "you've seen that!! Ya man that was my life." haha. 

Tuvalu isn't as ghetto as it may sound on the internet, it's still ghetto though haha but B E A utiful! It's like  Fiji but a lot more westernized, and a lot more like what you see in the movie The Other Side of Heaven. I'm still getting settled in and don't have a lot to report because I have no idea what is going on haha. Apparently all the elders who serve out here get to slaughter a pig so, hopefully ill get to do that haha. Not much to report other than its beautiful here and awesome.  We are on Funafuti and its super hot and soooooooo tempting to just run into the water and go swimming haha, don't worry i won't. We baptize people in the ocean here so hopefully i'll have the chance to do that. I'm working hard and need to work harder learning this new language.

Sorry this is short, i'm really tired and i got sick on my second day. I guess i'm not used to the food and threw it all up, my stomach is still recooperating. Its cool being here but quite a shock with the new language and new people, Elder smith, the one that leaves tomorrow told me the people here are his favorite out of his whole mission, which is good because ill be here for a long long long time.

ill send pics next week cause my card reader is in fiji. Love you guys and hope all is going great!

PO Box 40 Vaiaku Road Funafuti Tuvalu is the new mailing address 

July 29th, 2013

 So i've been in Bau, my first area for  5 months which is usually when you get transferred, so Saturday night i got a call from the District leader and he said there is a small transfer, Elder Spackman is going to Bau and

 Elder Cashen you are going to..................TUVALU!!

Tuvalu is this super small island way north of everything else and they speak tuvaluan there. Its so small you can see ocean on all sides of you and because you have to learn another language, you're there for like 6-8 months haha, so i'll spend Christmas and probably hit my year mark in Tuvalu, i'm not sure how the whole email and letter thing works out there so we'll see haha. I'm super stoked, it kinda sucks to have to learn another language because i'm getting good at fijian, but from what i hear Tuvalu is one of the coolest most beautiful places in the mission. After the District Leader called me, my Zone Leader, Elder Tremea called and was super excited for me and told me they usually have an islander and a white kid out there and the white kid is always someone obedient who the president trusts haha because you're so far away and never come in and no one goes to see you so its easy to be disobedient like going swimming haha. My comp is a Samoan from Australia who seems like a cool guy. I fly out on Thursday in a really small plane, its gonna be awesome.

I'm gonna miss my area, a lot of the older women came up to me and kissed me on the cheek haha, and our recent convert who i baptized and was confirmed yesterday, came up to me and said "i'll never forget you, Elder Cashen." Sister Wainiqolo, the grandma to three grandsons i baptized and also gave her a few blessings came up to me and said "thank you for the blessing you have been to me and my family." and started crying. Sister Vesikula who i baptized said, "our family is gonna miss you so much" because i baptized one of her sons and taught the rest of her sons who were also baptized. President Tagicakibau asked me to give a parting testimony and after sacrament meeting, they sang to me God Be With You Till We Meet Again. It was so awesome, these people have become like family and because of the Lord preparing people in our area we were able have a lot of success and help a lot of people. I'm really gonna miss them. Missionary work is the the hardest but most fulfilling joyful work in the world.  

I love you all! wish me luck for Tuvalu.

Elder Cashen