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

Lots of Mud and Muck!

This week has been very challenging, very rewarding, and very motivating to keep going in the work. We had exchanges this week with Rakiraki so that I could do the baptismal interview for a boy in Rakiraki. I went with Elder Patenaude and Elder Driso went with Elder Tay. Elder Patenaude is from Washington D.C. His father is from quebec and speaks french and his mother is of Jewish Descent. He's really cool and we get along really well. We faced a lot of opposition however on the day that we did the baptismal interview. The sky was pretty clear and still quite light when we left on our bikes. Suddenly, rain began to fall and the dirt road on which we were riding became a muddy field. My bike was sliding all over the road and I thought we would have to turn back. However, if we didn't do the baptismal interview that day, it wouldn't have been possible for us to come back to Ba when we needed to for Zone Conference. So we decided to press forward. Soon the mud became so thick I wouldn't ride my bike, but I just pushed it through the muddy street. Elder Patenaude too was unable to ride in the pretty bad conditions. We kept walking but eventually the mud clogged our tires and made it impossible to go any farther with the bikes. So we decided to hide the bikes by the side of the road and continue onward on foot. Dirty beyond belief and sweaty, we arrived at the house to find the boy and his family still awake. I did the interview and I felt sweet peace from the Lord telling me that the boy was ready to be baptized. The mother thanked us for coming and we then faced the daunting task of heading back. I thought, "There is no way we can make it back by nine o'clock and be obedient." Then as we found our bikes, we tried to clean off the tires so that we could ride home. They were so clogged with mud and grass that the brakes clung to the tires and would not turn. Resigning himself to carry the bike that would not turn, Elder Patenaude continued on carrying the broken bike. THe one I had still turned slowly. We were blessed to be able to flag down a truck, that agreed to take us home, even though we were dirty and our bikes were too. When we got home, I looked at my watch and the time was nine o'clock. The Lord really does provide a way for us to be obedient.

 

    One really big success this week is we had a less active man, Bro. Mateiwai, who has been coming back to church. This week the Stake President interviewed him and found him worthy to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood. He was then ordained to the priesthood. We have been working a lot with his family. They are such wonderful people and his wife, also less active, is the relief society president. Yesterday we talked to them about keeping the Sabbath day holy and they shared a powerful testimony that they know that they need to come to church. We'll keep visiting them and I think it will be very effective.

 

Mom asked a few questions so I'll now proceed to answer those. First, My companion's name is Elder Tay. He is recently from Pocatello, ID. He has lived in Hawaii, Singapore, and Utah. He went to one year of college at BYU before he came on his mission. He is nineteen years old. He is a really excellent chef, and is actually thinking about going to culinary school after his mission. His father is Chinese from Singapore, and his mother is from the Phillipines. He is learning the language very quickly.

 

Ba is a really interesting area. It is more dry here and hot then the Eastern part of Fiji. There is always something burning around here because there are farms everywhere, but that is why people call this the burning West. The ward here has been struggling a lot. One year ago, their bishop died suddenly. There weren't very many worthy priesthood holders, so the stake took over the ward implementing the high councilman as the leader, although the stake president is really the leader of the ward. There are probably 200-250 members in this area but we only have about 40-50 come to church each week. A year and a half ago we had a really large flood that made it so members had to travel to a far away town for church. Transport is limited here and very expensive, making it difficult for people to frequently come to church. We only have one ward, but the amount of land in one ward is quite large. The work is slow here, because our primary focus in a lot of ways is in helping lift and nourish the ward that we have, before seeking out new people. However, we are still looking for those who are prepared to recieve the gospel as well.

 

The people in Ba are probably the most loving and friendly people I've ever met. Maybe that's why it is so easy for some of them to get offended. They welcome us into their homes and feed us. I just wish their actions always matched their kind words. Many will say they're interesting in learning about the gospel but really they dodge us and won't meet with us. There are a lot of Indians here so maybe I will learn some more Hindi. We'll see how it goes.

 

I am really looking forward to serving in this area because the people are wonderful. I know that the Lord has a plan to build and help this area.

I love you!
--
Elder Paul Leland Hill
Fiji Suva Mission