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