Service and Thanksgiving

Namaste! Ap log kaise hei? Hum tik hei!

 

This week has been really good! Very rainy and lots of change in the West. A lot of missionaries from our district went to another place, and we got some new ones. My old companion Elder Key is our new Zone Leader. Elder Cooper (my companion from the MTC) is now back in Suva. I'll miss him a lot. Our district changed a lot but luckily last week at District Meeting we took district pictures. THis week after district meeting we'll have thanksgiving at the sherries. It will be on Tuesday, but it's really the only day that we could do it. 

 

  We had a really nice opportunity for service this week. There is a sister named Sister Chand. She is an indian sister and she supports her two children on her own because her husband left her about six months ago. Well just recently the husband's mother fell ill. He didn't know what to do, so he brought his mother to this sweet sister. While Sister Chand didn't really want to take the woman in, she felt like it was her christian duty to take this ailing woman in. She did and she took care of her. Well, the effort of the care made sister chand ill as well and it became hard for her to do her work. She called Elder Sherry to come and give her and the mother in law a blessing. Elder Sherry told us of her extreme need and how Sister Chand was sick. Elder Tay and I wanted to do something for her so badly, because Sister Chand always cooks for us and helps us. We prayed to know what we should do, and we decided we would get some veggies from the market and make some food for Sister Chand. We coordinated with the Sherries and they delivered the food. This week we will be going to cut her firewood.

We had a really cool new investigator this week. Elder Driso was the one that ran into him in the first place. We couldn't get a hold of him for a long time though. We tried probably five different times or more to no avail. On Saturday, because it was raining, we found him at home. His name is Tevita. He told us he would be free for us on Sunday, and so we came back yesterday and he asked us "What makes us different from his church?" We shared about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and told him he could know if it was true for himself. He seemed to enjoy it, we'll be seeing him again next week. 

I sent a package home last week! It mostly had letters to me and presents for christmas. Sorry there isn't something for everyone, but it was expensive as is to send what I sent.

 

I think this coming week will be a very productive week! I'm very excited for the new people in our district and to get to know them.

 

I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving! I'm grateful for all of you!

--
Elder Paul Leland Hill
Fiji Suva Mission

Mission Miracles

Namaste hummar pariwar!

 

This week was really awesome! I learned a lot more Hindi, soon I hope to be good, at least at bus conversations. I was all over the country this week. I went to Rakiraki on tuesday and wednesday and Lautoka on Saturday. Travelling makes me tired, but it is all good. I got to work with really good elders. I did a baptismal interview in Rakiraki too.

 

We really had a lot of success this week. I don't know if it was because half the week I was on exchanges in Rakiraki or Lautoka or if many of our efforts are finally paying off. I think it is the latter one. Elder Tay has been working really hard this week too. He's doing a really good job learning Fijian and leading the area even when I am gone on exchanges. He found several new investigators this week through opening his mouth and it has been a really rewarding week for him.

My exchange with Rakiraki this week was most productive because I was able to do a baptismal interview and to meet many of the investigators who are preparing for baptism. I continue to be impressed with Elder Driso (he's from Fiji) and the way he works with the people in Rakiraki.  The work is good in Rakiraki. They have four baptismal dates coming up in the next month. 

I also went on exchanges with Elder Owens our zone leader in Lautoka and that was really helpful. He's from Nephi, actually from Fountain Green I think. He's a really cool guy. We met an indian family, the pillays, who had recently been baptized. We shared about Alma the younger and his conversion. As I watched them read and discover more about the BofM, I saw how tenderly they grabbed their copies of the Book of Mormon and I knew they understood. I loved meeting them, they are definitely a tender mercy from the Lord. I was impressed by the way Elder Owens handles his area. He really does lead with inspiration. He complimented me a lot on the things I'm doing as well and it helped me to realize that I am doing a lot of things good, even though I'm not perfect.

Our mission president asked us to share mission miracles that we have had. I feel like on my mission I have had about a million mission miracles. It's hard for me to pick one. I would pick one from Elder Tay this week, but that's his to share. One miracle I have experienced is when I was teaching a lady named Taiga. We had taught her for probably 4 months and she still was not committing to be baptized. Her family wanted to be baptized but she was the mom and she was kind of the hinge. If she would get baptized the whole family would follow her lead. She was struggling because she was the treasurer in her church and she had a lot of friends in her former church. She'd explained a lot of that and I was just thinking how can I relate to this woman. I knew she would have to give up almost everything to follow Christ and to join his true church. I thought I have never had to do that. Then the spirit whispered to me, "Share why you came on your mission and what you sacrificed." I shared how I had to put a scholarship on hold, I had to take a two year break from playing the piano, from a few job offers, and I had to leave my friends and family. Honestly, at first I was not willing to make the committment. One day after I was speaking with my single's ward bishop, I just felt the spirit whisper to me, "He has done so much for you. Shouldn't you do this for Him?" I felt like I had been called and after that it didn't matter what I had to give up, it was all worth it. Then we committed her to pray and she said ok. The next time we met with them, we followed up, "Did you pray?" With tears in her eyes and a smile on her face she said yes. I asked what did you feel/hear? (In Tuvaluan, they are the same word.) She said, "I heard the holy ghost whisper to me that this is true." I asked, "Then will you be baptized." She said yes, and she was baptized in September of this year.

One thing that was really great this week was Elder Tay was with Elder Patenaude(actually his mother is jewish and he's from Washington, DC), who serves in Rakiraki. They were going to buy bread because there was no food in the house. As they passed the bus stop, some boys invited them over and they began to ask some questions. Elder Tay and Elder Pate basically taught the first lesson to them and then invited them to learn more. They are so excited and they want to be missionaries too! I met them yesterday and they are such sincere seekers of truth. I'm so excited to teach them more.

 

This week we had thirteen lessons. That's low compared to our Tuvalu days, but that is a huge improvement from where the area was when we first got here. I'm so excited. It feels like everything is moving in the right direction.

This was such a good week! I am so happy. I am healthy too! I've realized that if I eat foods that aren't oily, my stomach is a lot more happy.

 

I love you all so much! Please email me and send me christmas cards! I'm hoping to make some Christmas cards today! Did anyone do anything cool for 11-11-11? I wanted to make a wish at 11:11, but I forgot. Loving you all!

 

PS if you have questions about what is going on, please ask. I don't know if I email the things you want to hear or if you would rather hear something else. Let me know!

--
Elder Paul Leland Hill
Fiji Suva Mission

Stressful!

Well I am on a really frustrating computer in Tavua, Fiji, but I am so happy to be able to write to all of you today. I wasn't able to email yesterday due to the fact that we were travelling from Suva back to the west. This week we had mission tour where all the missionaries in the whole mission come together and we got to hear from Elder Michael F. Watson from the quorum of the seventy. He is so fascinating, if you remember him, he read the statistics for Conference for probably 30 years. It was really cool to have him here in our mission. Something he talked about was how important it is that we let the things we teach get inside our hearts and not just be in our mouths and our minds. We should be making a permanent change while we're on our mission. Not just a two year change.

 

That was something I was wondering about before our mission conference. I have been thinking about what I will do when I return, not that I'm trunkie or anything, but it's an important question and I always plan ahead. So I was thinking about how I was before my mission, and I didn't make bad choices but I definitely could have, and I have weaknesses that make me afraid that someday I might get angry or ashamed and turn away from the truths I have learned on my mission. So this week I was studying and praying and I kept recieving piece upon piece to help me know how I can be sure I never fall. One scripture I liked was Helaman 5:12. I was reading this morning and something I found in one of my old study journals reminded me of my question. Elder Watson had told us, "You need to get it here [pointing to his heart]." The quote was "Pondering is the link between the mind and the heart." I think really reading and praying combined with deep pondering and feeling the spirit make it so that we can be strong enough we can't fall. I love the scriptures and the Living prophets, Apostles and leaders of the church.

 

This week was kind of frustrating while we were in our area because we had a lot of fall throughs and I got really worn out just going back and forth this week. We did have one lesson with a lady named Bibiana. She wants to get baptized so badly, but she isn't married yet. Her husband is a member, and he wants to marry her but he is still not divorced. So the sherrys are helping them so that soon hopefully they can get baptized. I really hope I can see Bibiana get baptized.

 

This week as part of our conference we were able to play sports for an afternoon. The whole thing was very relaxing, which I needed because I have been moved into a kind of high stress place, but I can definitely deal with it. I'm fortunate to have dealt with high amounts of stress before, I've learned that the best thing you can do is to exercise and just breathe when it gets to difficult. Trust in the lord and work your heart out and it will always work out. I'm excited because Bibiana's son will get baptized this week. He doesn't count as a new convert because he is eight and his father is a member. It will be a really great thing to help their family though.

 

I'm headed to Rakiraki today to do another baptismal interview. I am really excited for the elders in Rakiraki! They are having so much success. So are we, but in a different way.

 

Well I love you all and I hope to hear from you all soon!

--
Elder Paul Leland Hill
Fiji Suva Mission

With a name like Ba, it has to be good

Bula Vinaka my sweet family!

This week was a really exciting week! One of the most exciting things
this week was that Ba now has a Bishop! I don't know if you remember a
family called the ratu family, but the father of the home is now the
bishop. Good 'ole Bishop Ratu! He is a very humble man with lots of
experience in the church. His wife always says, "He's not a well
educated man." I can't help but think of the prophet Joseph and how
humble yet powerful he was. Brother Mateiwai who we have been working
with as well is the first counselor in the Bishopric. We had a lot of
potential counselors at church yesterday too. So soon hopefully we'll
have a full bishopric. They will be able to do it, but it's a big job.
I'm just happy that they were willing.

On Wednesday this week was Diwali. There were so many fireworks and
sweets and lights. Diwali if you remember is like Halloween, Christmas
and the 4th of July all mixed together. IT was good last year, but I
think I enjoyed it more this year. It's a hindu holiday so we went to
a few people's houses and had some sweets.

We did exchanges with Rakiraki this week to do a baptismal interview.
I love going there, it is so relaxing and mountainous up there. It
reminds me of home a little bit. I went with Elder Driso. The sister I
interviewed was so ready to be baptized. She cannot read, but a member
sister who lives nearby always reads the book of mormon to her. She
told me "I know the Book of Mormon is true." Someday she'll know how
to read.

Things are moving good this week! The chapel was packed for church
this week. I hope these good things continue. Next week we are going
to Suva! Yeah baby!

I love you all!



--
Elder Paul Leland Hill
Fiji Suva Mission

Being cool again

Bula family and friends,

Another week has flown by! It has been quite a great week too. It has rained a lot this past week, making it difficult for us to go out on Friday. It has been really good for the farmers around here, especially for the sugar cane.

One success story from this week was a member named Sister Ratu. She came with us on Saturday to take us to meet three less active families. We were able to sit down and talk with one of the families, the Cabebula family. We shared with them about the story of Christ in 3 Ne 11 where he invites them to come and feel the wounds in his hands. We told them Christ is doing the same for all of us. He is inviting all of us to come to him. He will never reject or turn anyone away. He only says "Come unto me." They actually came to church yesterday. It was amazing to see the success we can have when we combine members with missionaries and do this wonderful work.

Another story of members helping in missionary work is a boy named Joeli. He is sixteen years old and he plays on the Ba soccer team. He is an exceptional young man, he invited two of his friends to meet with us this week, Jekope and Apakuki (Habbakuk in Fijian.) Both of these guys are real seekers of truth. Jekope has been reading and reading the Book of Mormon and he came to church yesterday. They are probably our investigators that are progressing the most this week.

We visited quite a few less active member families this week to invite them to church and help them. Another family was the Chand family. They are a wonderful indian family that has promised to teach me to make indian food. Watch out I'm going to cook spicy delicious curry when I get home. We invited them to church and the daughter sonia told us in church, "It just felt so nice for someone to invite us."

Please my dear family, if you know that one of your friends or family is not going to church, invite them. Don't do it because of your calling or a sense of duty, do it because you love them so much and you know that the savior would do it himself if he were here right now. To those who may not be going to church regularly, please know how much the savior, Jesus Christ loves you and he is holding out his hand to you saying, "Come unto me." I have felt his love so strongly in the past few days as he has reached out to the strayed and the weary here in Ba. 

Yesterday I felt a strong spirit of love and unity while we were at church. The aaronic priesthood passed and blessed the sacrament, and many of our family came to church yesterday who don't usually come to church. We had one recent convert interviewed to recieve the aaronic priesthood and one child of record to get baptized in the coming weeks. I think a large part of it was one brother named Brother Ratu. Our usual president, Bro. Ganilau, from Lautoka was running late so he asked Brother Ratu to take charge at church. Brother Ratu made sure the aaronic priesthood set up the sacrament, that there was someone to teach all of the classes (he taught the primary.) and he with quiet dignity helped everything to run smoothly. Brother Ratu hadn't come to church for a few weeks and it felt a little empty without him doing his calling as the executive secretary or clerk (I'm not sure which.)

I don't ever want to go home or go back to how I was before. I look forward to seeing you my family, but I don't want the spirit to cease in my life. I don't want to ever leave the Savior. I think I'm realizing more and more though, that the pattern I know as a missionary is something I must continue and live throughout my life. The pattern of selfless service, relying on the savior, and constantly praying to our Father in Heaven.

Last night we visited with the Mateiwai family and Brother Mateiwai saw a picture of the Prophet and he said, "My lifelong wish is just to go to Utah and to see the prophet speak." As I told him about the conference center and the Salt Lake Temple, he just listened with wonder and pure hunger. I hope someday he is able to go there, what a blessing that I have been able to do that.

This coming week we will be watching Conference. I am so excited to finally watch it. Dad keeps sending me talks and I just keep thinking about it. The talk from President Packer seemed like one of his usual powerful talks. I am so grateful for living prophets and apostles who speak to us and guide us today.

This week a senior couple from Oregon will be coming to Ba. I think it spells change for the ward here, and I think it is definitely positive change. I feel like there is so much for us to do here, but not nearly enough time to do it all. It will be nice to have help. I feel like the stripling warriors when they recieved reenforcements and it says that their souls were greatly cheered. Senior missionaries are really important too, they can do things that other missionaries cannot do. Someday, I would really like to serve a mission with my eternal companion, but for now I will be serving with my current companion Elder Tay.

I am so lucky to have Elder Tay as my companion because he is such an amazing cook. I still will always love Mom's cooking (she is honestly a very talented cook I have realized), but I am very happy with the food Elder Tay often cooks for me. I usually cook breakfast, either porridge or pancakes or eggs, and he prepares lunch and we go to a member's house for dinner generally.

I am very healthy this week! It feels great to work hard and not worry if I will make me sick the next day. I am really grateful for my health!

Have a lovely week, and enjoy that fall weather! I love you so much!

--
Elder Paul Leland Hill
Fiji Suva Mission

He never, ever wants to go home...

Bula family and friends,

Another week has flown by! It has been quite a great week too. It has rained a lot this past week, making it difficult for us to go out on Friday. It has been really good for the farmers around here, especially for the sugar cane.

One success story from this week was a member named Sister Ratu. She came with us on Saturday to take us to meet three less active families. We were able to sit down and talk with one of the families, the Cabebula family. We shared with them about the story of Christ in 3 Ne 11 where he invites them to come and feel the wounds in his hands. We told them Christ is doing the same for all of us. He is inviting all of us to come to him. He will never reject or turn anyone away. He only says "Come unto me." They actually came to church yesterday. It was amazing to see the success we can have when we combine members with missionaries and do this wonderful work.

Another story of members helping in missionary work is a boy named Joeli. He is sixteen years old and he plays on the Ba soccer team. He is an exceptional young man, he invited two of his friends to meet with us this week, Jekope and Apakuki (Habbakuk in Fijian.) Both of these guys are real seekers of truth. Jekope has been reading and reading the Book of Mormon and he came to church yesterday. They are probably our investigators that are progressing the most this week.

We visited quite a few less active member families this week to invite them to church and help them. Another family was the Chand family. They are a wonderful indian family that has promised to teach me to make indian food. Watch out I'm going to cook spicy delicious curry when I get home. We invited them to church and the daughter sonia told us in church, "It just felt so nice for someone to invite us."

Please my dear family, if you know that one of your friends or family is not going to church, invite them. Don't do it because of your calling or a sense of duty, do it because you love them so much and you know that the savior would do it himself if he were here right now. To those who may not be going to church regularly, please know how much the savior, Jesus Christ loves you and he is holding out his hand to you saying, "Come unto me." I have felt his love so strongly in the past few days as he has reached out to the strayed and the weary here in Ba. 

Yesterday I felt a strong spirit of love and unity while we were at church. The aaronic priesthood passed and blessed the sacrament, and many of our family came to church yesterday who don't usually come to church. We had one recent convert interviewed to recieve the aaronic priesthood and one child of record to get baptized in the coming weeks. I think a large part of it was one brother named Brother Ratu. Our usual president, Bro. Ganilau, from Lautoka was running late so he asked Brother Ratu to take charge at church. Brother Ratu made sure the aaronic priesthood set up the sacrament, that there was someone to teach all of the classes (he taught the primary.) and he with quiet dignity helped everything to run smoothly. Brother Ratu hadn't come to church for a few weeks and it felt a little empty without him doing his calling as the executive secretary or clerk (I'm not sure which.)

I don't ever want to go home or go back to how I was before. I look forward to seeing you my family, but I don't want the spirit to cease in my life. I don't want to ever leave the Savior. I think I'm realizing more and more though, that the pattern I know as a missionary is something I must continue and live throughout my life. The pattern of selfless service, relying on the savior, and constantly praying to our Father in Heaven.

Last night we visited with the Mateiwai family and Brother Mateiwai saw a picture of the Prophet and he said, "My lifelong wish is just to go to Utah and to see the prophet speak." As I told him about the conference center and the Salt Lake Temple, he just listened with wonder and pure hunger. I hope someday he is able to go there, what a blessing that I have been able to do that.

This coming week we will be watching Conference. I am so excited to finally watch it. Dad keeps sending me talks and I just keep thinking about it. The talk from President Packer seemed like one of his usual powerful talks. I am so grateful for living prophets and apostles who speak to us and guide us today.

This week a senior couple from Oregon will be coming to Ba. I think it spells change for the ward here, and I think it is definitely positive change. I feel like there is so much for us to do here, but not nearly enough time to do it all. It will be nice to have help. I feel like the stripling warriors when they recieved reenforcements and it says that their souls were greatly cheered. Senior missionaries are really important too, they can do things that other missionaries cannot do. Someday, I would really like to serve a mission with my eternal companion, but for now I will be serving with my current companion Elder Tay.

I am so lucky to have Elder Tay as my companion because he is such an amazing cook. I still will always love Mom's cooking (she is honestly a very talented cook I have realized), but I am very happy with the food Elder Tay often cooks for me. I usually cook breakfast, either porridge or pancakes or eggs, and he prepares lunch and we go to a member's house for dinner generally.

I am very healthy this week! It feels great to work hard and not worry if I will make me sick the next day. I am really grateful for my health!

Have a lovely week, and enjoy that fall weather! I love you so much!

--
Elder Paul Leland Hill
Fiji Suva Mission

Let's talk about diarrhea...

Kaise hai!

This week was good. I'm still getting used to the work here in Ba because it is a lot slower than the work I have done for most of the rest of my mission. We usually get maybe eight to ten lessons a week. Elder Tay is a really good companion, we've been bonding a lot this week. He takes good care of me and cooks me really good food.

This past week I was kind of sick. Do you all remember when the lady at the State Health Department said ,"Now let's talk about diarrhea."? I wish I had paid a little better attention when she was speaking. All is well though. We have a mission nurse who just came in two weeks ago and he has been helping me to stay healthy inspite of whatever is happening to my bowels. I'm actually feeling quite good today.

One of the highlights of our week this week was the Mateiwai family. They just keep bringing more of their family to church. Bro. Mateiwai is the brother that got the melchizedek priesthood last week and he is just being strong. He's asking a lot of questions about the priesthood and trying to serve well. I have a feeling he will be a leader here in Ba. He is so sincere and so good. Yesterday we talked to them about FHE but they already do it pretty regularly. They are a really good family. Their boys kind of remind me of the McEntires. I don't know why!

Another really funny thing is that we went to teach a family that we have desperately been trying to get in touch with, and when we went there, they didn't sit down with us. The mom's brother did though, and so we taught him the plan of Salvation. He loved it and we'll be going back to see him on Tuesday. It's weird how sometimes you think you're going somewhere for one person, but then someone else comes into your path.

The Lord is blessing us so much in the work. We haven't seen conference yet but I hope we'll be able to soon. If nothing else, I'll buy the DVD when we go into Suva in November. The longer I wait, the more I'll enjoy it maybe.

BY the way! Baby Drew is a super stud! Way to go Heidi and Andrew! I'm really excited to meet him when I come home! Which is not that far away...

Love you,

--
Elder Paul Leland Hill
Fiji Suva Mission