Toku mea tenei

Talofa!

This week has been absolutely wonderful! We have walked so much, and our bodies are so tired. Last night, I couldn't keep my eyes open past nine o'clock. My legs are sore and I am always hungry even though I eat so much food! It is the wonderful feeling of the mission. That feeling of being directed in the path more strongly than ever before, that feeling of knowing you said just the right thing to heal a broken heart, and that feeling of knowing that somewhere down the line those you teach can inherit eternal life.

I am really excited to listen to Conference! We will be listening to it within the next few weeks, because President Niko received the disc from Fiji. I'm excited! I have loved reading what everyone has been sending me and been excited for when we can listen, and then to read it again and again.

This week was really great! We had 26 lessons, which is really great! We have 7 baptisms coming up on the 30th of April. The branch is strong, but something that's frustrating is that a lot of people are missing on Sundays. I always think of Sunday as a little bit of a judgement day to see who is going to be faithful and come each week. It takes a lot of faith to come to church! There's one of our investigators that came yesterday, that it finally clicked for him this week. Usually, he said, "I'll come sometime to see what your church is about." This week he said, "I have to come and know for myself if it is true. I want to know if I should join this people." His name is Iosua. At church he really loved our sunday school lesson on the man that was blind but now can see. He said, "I think that's how I was. I think that I need to open my eyes and join this church." He will be leaving on a boat on Wednesday, but will come back in 2 weeks, and I feel confident that he will be baptized and be a leader in this remarkable church.

The first part of our week was challenging, because we had lots of fall throughs and we had some investigators that it has come time to say, "Well if you won't come to church, we probably won't come by and visit very often." That is always frustrating because we love all the people we teach. We had one day in particular that I felt like we didn't really help anyone that day and I felt bad because we had two that we will probably have to stop teaching in order to teach more people. Then we were having companionship study the next day and I realized something I need to do to teach more effectively and to really help these people. One of the fundamental principles in Preach My Gospel is that of Teach People, Not Lessons. I have been hearing that for months now, almost a whole year. I just keep forgetting what it means and how to do it. When I started focusing more on the people I could serve, and less on the lesson we came to present, the spirit could teach a whole lot more effectively.

We had one family that we have been trying to get them to come to church for several weeks even a few months. This sunday, they still didn't come to church. However, when we went to their house the mother who is a strong member of another church, in fact she's the treasurer, she told us I believe this book is true. When asked to be baptized, her husband said, "I don't know about them, but for me. Yes, absolutely yes." The mom is going to be thinking and praying about it, and I know God will answer her prayers.

I did have a funny thing I said in Sunday school yesterday. We were sharing about a piece of paper we had received to explain how we might have been blind but could then see. Well in Tuvalu if you don't know what the name for it is you just call it a "mea" or thing. So I said "Toku mea tenei." Which means my thing here. The only thing is... in Tuvaluan there are two posessive pronouns Taku and Toku. Taku is for most things that aren't family or personal things. Toku is for personal things like body parts, family, and your name stuff like that. Well if you say Toku Mea, you aren't referencing your thing on the paper, you're referencing your private parts. Whoops!

Well Elder Whipple and I get along wonderfully! We're just both really tired! But that's the point of the mission.

I know that this church is true! I know that it is the only church on the earth. Here in Tuvalu a lot of people think that every church is true. They usually say, "I know your church is good. All churches are good." That much is true. All churches that bring people to Christ are good. But are they all true? I absolutely know that this church is the true church on the earth. Not only that but it is the Kingdom of God our father on the Earth. I am so glad I get to help build his kingdom on Earth. It is so important, I'm glad I didn't waste this short time to help me prepare so I can live my life right.

Love you all,

Elder Hill