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