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