week 54

Well, Hello my family...How is it? Dad, Congrats on your talk! You always do
good no matter what the circumstances. Dad you are absolutely right about
what you said, sometimes I get like that, we  all know that haha but guess
what? My time here in Seaqaqa has come to an end. I got transferred this
week. I am going to the big city in Suva! I am opening an area Tamavua 2 and
training again. I leave tomorrow morning! Haha man I am lost every time I go
to Suva and I have a brand new missionary who doesn't know where anything is so it should
be interesting! I am excited though. It will be challenging but bring it! I
said all the goodbyes last night and man it was hard!! It really opened my
eyes about my time in Seaqaqa...There are two older ladies that just started
to bawl!!! I felt so bad!! They were very grateful and a couple that I got
very close to was tough too. He is going to the temple for the first time in
August and they want me  to go with him. Tamavua is where the temple is so I
will see what President says. Bro Raiwalui was talking about how we made
history in  the Naduri Village. He said you two will always be the ones that
started the church in Naduri. I was thinking about that and yeah not a lot
of baptisms, but we strengthened those members in Naduri and helped them
want to go to church. We had 24 in Naduri on Sunday  and only 14 in Seaqaqa.
I really feel that now the work will pick up in the next year or so in
Naduri. So I was very grateful and humbled  last night. Sis Raiwalui said
"Shane (haha she calls me Shane) You  have done soo much for this family.
You will always be in my  heart. As hard has the work was, I leave and I see
how much every minute was worth it! This area has definitely changed me and
it shows that no matter how well the work is or how bad it is, you can
always  help people and change their lives as well as change your life. So
yeah it was tough saying bye. I really love these people here but they are
going to Suva in August so I will probably see them there. So off to a new
area and a new challenge! Haha my comp will ask ok where we going? I will
tell him I have no idea, let's go find out together! I guess when it was
opened before it was known for the best dinner appts. YES! The gym is very
close so we can go every  morning. It's the best gym in Fiji, close to the
office and temple, I  am excited. We are walking too so time to get into
shape! It will  definitely be a big change, first time in a city, in
organized work  and all that stuff and an actual ward. The only thing is
it's an  English ward, kind of a bummer. I will still speak as much Fijian
as I can and tell my comp to do the same! So well see what  happens. I went
to the dentist today too. I went last week for a checkup and no cavities or
anything so I just went for a cleaning today. It  was good...of course
flossing, my weakness but he said nothing  big, it's all good, kind of
surprised me. I didn't have a cavity. We  went to Bua as well. We have a
baptism date! Well they do  now. It  will be on June 17th...so that will be
good!! So funny story haha, so the word "uro" literally means fat but it's
like saying you're hot in English. In Naduri, every week, these girls always
call out...URO URO URO haha its so funny! So this week, one of them said it,
so I went and contacted her! OYM man! I don't think she was really
interested in the message but hey its worth a shot! So yeah I was thinking
also this week, how big of a miracle the scriptures are. In class we were
talking about the  Mulekites and how they had no record. We were talking
about what the world would be like without the scriptures. It's a  miracle!
A record so old, and still used today. It's crazy! So yeah, it was a pretty
good week. I will let you  know how Suva is! I have pics but the computer is
messed so I will  just wait to do it in Suva... Well love you all! Hope all
is well! Be happy, be united, we are the HANSEN FAMILY!! Moce!

Elder Hansen

week 53

We did not get an email this week because we skyped on Sunday. He looks
great and is doing awesome! Here are some pictures of his burning of them
shirt to celebrate his half way mark. Thanks for your love and support this
past year!
Love,
Joni

week 52

Ni sa bula re  na we'aqu!

How's it going this week?? Things sounds like they are going good!! Dad I am

glad you are liking your new calling! Its very nice you can sit with my

wonderful Mother again too! We'll people can you believe it? One year! The

burning of the shirt will happen tonight! I decided to wait when we come to

Labasa. It's crazy! Time goes soo fast! I am not sure if I will go this
transfer or the next transfer in June. I go off and on wanting to be
transferred this time or wait until the next one. Haha, oh well its not my
decision. I just do what I am told! Well things were much better with a

truck this week! Its pretty hot in the day but at night its been cold! Oh
yeah it is 1:00 right now and probably around this time we will be skyping

next week. I dont think it will be as long as last time but yeah. Well
everything else was pretty much the same this week. The unit in Naduri will
be starting next week! I am so happy it is finally going to happen. It was
supposed to happen in Feb but its all good so I am hoping some good things
will come out of that. We went to Bua this weekend. I am so sick of being
the only one who can drive I might add!! Haha I feel my whole mission I
might have a truck but oh well.  I just hope my comps can drive too! Well

this week, we had a Pacific area leadership meeting we watched on

DVD...Hamula, Pearson, and Watson of the area presidency put it on. It was
awesome!! This will be the main point of this email but before that Ill
share some other things from Bua. We have a new investigator who wants to be
baptized...BOMB!!! THe only thing that sucks is we don't go there very often

so we just teach the whole lesson very simple and have the members help her

to understand while we are gone. She is like 16 or 17 and a good girl. She
has been going to church for the past few weeks down there so that's good.

Well, we get back from the lesson and this guy said this other guy was hurt

and he couldnt walk and the whole left side of his body was hurting. I dont
know how it happened. They were talking really fast and in their dialect so
I couldn't understand it. The only thing I do know is that it could have
been something from his smoking or like a stroke or something... not really
sure, but we gave him a blessing and then took him to the hospital. He
couldnt walk so he was carried to the car across the river. We get to the
hospital and was waiting for the doctor...guess what? He is walking around
talking with the nurses and all this stuff. He said the pain was all gone!

Power of the Priesthood!! They just gave him some medicine after and we saw

him the next morning and he was fine!  It was awesome!! The real power of
God! Yeah, we are the first missionaries to ever give a blessing or even go
into that hospital. Haha, fun fact. So yeah that was a cool experience. So
now about the training! It was about Real growth in the church. First here

are some fun facts that I thought were interesting in the Pacific for 2012.

They want 12 new stakes in the Pacific, there are 11,200 prospective elders
and their goal is to ordain 25 new elders every stake conference. There are
just as many missionaries serving from the Pacific as there are serving in

the Pacific..1674 missionaries. They have also started this Food Imitative.
The church is giving free seeds to plant, a few different kinds of seeds and
they want 40 percent to go to the members and 60 percent to nonmembers. Just
giving free seeds and all the tools you need to plant and harvest it, this
plan is to help people learn how to plant and eat health. It is also a
missionary type deal giving 60 percent to nonmembers. It will be starting
very soon in Vanua Levu. They have already started it in Taveuni and I guess
it has been exploding and doing really really well. So it's kind of
interesting. So the training was based on growth in the church and how their
goal to grow the church is thru attendance in sacrament, priesthood, family,
saving rising generation, and sustaining conversion. What is real growth?
Not the total number of members, but the  number in attendance at sacrament,
elders quorum, missionaries, etc. or is it Spiritual Conversion. That's what
real growth is, being spiritually converted. They talked about how sacrament
is the most important meeting and should be spiritual and productive. I
really liked how they said when you give topics for talks, don't just give
one, help the person understand what is to be accomplished...teach them and
guide them in their talk so they know how to help the whole ward. Big thing
was receive the saving ordinances too. Christ began his ministry in an
ordinance(baptism), he ended his life in an ordinance (sacrament),
Church=individual and families= Gospel=Saving ordinances and covenants. I
really liked what, I think it was Hamula, said "Just because you have the

church, doesnt mean you have the gospel" I was thinking about how true that

is. You see so much, yeah I am a member for a long time! Yet they are not
living the gospel or dont have the gospel. They really emphasized the New
and Everlasting Gospel or the saving ordinances. I can't remember if this
was in the Pacific or the whole church but 80 percent of males 19-30 that
get married in the temple, served missions. They explained that each one
builds up to the next, baptism in primary, priesthood at age 12 prepares to
receive Melchizedek, go on mission and then marry in the temple. It all

starts with primary! Its up the the leaders in the priesthood and

auxiliaries to make sure this happens because they are the ones involved
with it. From primary we are building ourselves to live with God, not in the
presence of God, but literally WITH Him. They talked about how worthy
priesthood helps the women receive these ordinances and getting married in
the temple. Boyd K Packer said in 1986, by the way it's just now starting to
really hit home, "True doctrines understood changes attitude and behavior"
No unclean thing can make another unclean thing to be clean. It just won't

happen!  They just talked about how building ourselves in the gospel and

receiving the ordinances will build the church. Each step prepares us for
the next step and you think if a worthy priesthood holder served mission and
married in the temple, chances are a very good, their sons will go through
the same pattern. How many people will receive all of these ordinances?? A
whole lot!! The way they broke this down was soo good and so simple! It was

awesome! I also heard something that I thought goes along with this was 5
things that are very important for families to do together...pray, read, go

to church, dinner, and talk. I am very grateful for you two, my wonderful
amazing parents, for teaching us and doing these things with us! Pops, you
started it with receiving the priesthood, living worthily, serving a

mission, marrying in the temple with my wonderful mother and showing us the
example! Now Jace and I have the priesthood, served/ing missions, and one

day will marry in the temple. Mom and Ashlee...the men can't do it without a
woman!! Woman are just naturally better and have got to keep us in check! So
I thank you and because of you two, it will go on for generations! It was such a good training as you can tell in my very very fast break down of it!
So the real growth of the church is not total numbers, but being spiritually
converted...receive these ordinances! We build people, we build the church!
Well love you all thats about all this week!! Take it easy! Everything is
good here, comp is good, still feel like I am babysitting sometimes, but he
is improving! All is well! All is well!! Love you!!

Elder Tukai

week 51

Hello my family! Whats going on in the 801?? Man those pictures are sweet!!!
I have always wanted to ride one of those train things what are they called?
Drive on the golden gate also! Thats sweet! Yeah I tried to send a few
pictures but its wiggin out sorry! Ill try next week. Thats cool that Marcia

visited you guys, tell her I say hi! That's way cool about the setting
apart. We just need to do the best we can and magnify our callings and
things will be ok! I am excited for you pops! Yeah man one year friday! It

goes by so fast! Yeah I think next monday Ill bring my shirt to Labasa and

burn it with the other two elders.  So fast! Mother I am pretty positive we

will be able to skype just like Christmas, no one has said anything about it

so far, but I am guessing it will be the same. That time went by fast! I
feel like we just called! Well, this week was a rough week! We didn't have
the truck this week which makes it harder and our only good investigator got

baptized already! We are at the beginning again! We walked a ton this week

too! We saw Neimani twice and we walked to his house each time, which is a 2
hour walk and so 4 hours in the day walking just to see one person plus the

lesson and just talking and what not so it takes up a lot of time! It was
ridiculously hot this week so the sun plus the walking just wore us out!

Wednesday night, we walked from his house in the rain the whole time! Haha

Everything is so spread out and when you dont have the truck its so hard to

have effective time because you need to walk so far and what not...One of

the lessons with Neimani though, we were reviewing the Restoration with him
and I kept on thinking about how much Heavenly Father loves each and every

one us. As I was teaching, I was just sharing ways of how He loves us and in
my head more and more came. There is absolutely nothing that we should

complain about! Yes we are human and weak and we always complain, but if we
truly look at it and do our best to always remember those things, we should

be grateful every second of the day. We had flat checks this week and the

Muirs and Barfuss (from Suva) came to check it and there is a whole lot that

needs to be changed. I told you that Elder Yashko and I were the first to
ever really clean the flat. So they were like you poor things, you guys are

struggling, you need more, you need a bigger fridge, this and that, this and

that! Yes, that was coming from American sr couples (no offense to anyone
who reads this haha) I just told them you know, we are grateful! We don't
complain about this or that, we just live with what we have. It was a good
lesson this week. But more about those flat checks! Its sad...I felt like it

was Christmas! We actually got a mop, rags, and a broom! It was awesome! So
Mother you would be very proud of me! I scrubbed the mold off the walls in
the shower and the bathroom, scrubbed the toilet, mopped the floor and all

that jazz! YEAH! Haha I was just laughing and said my mom would be so proud
right now! Haha, So yeah things were so so this week, some tough, but some

good! So there are 4 different church preachers that live on our street,
which make the work even harder and I guess one of them in their sermon was

calling out the LDS and how we are a branch off from a church that broke off
from the Methodist. Oh well, we just keep on moving! Another thing that I
learned and is very useful to study is hymns. I love "I need thee every
hour". Every time I sing it, I get so happy! I love it! There is power in

music for sure and we can also study the words of the hymns and they all

have scriptures that relate to it. I also read the Teachings of Brigham
Young like the Sunday school class type book. I gave a talk on it on Sunday,
about two chapters. The gospel defined and living the gospel. The gospel

defined one pretty much said, Mormonism is truth! Anything true and good is
mormonsim and we claim it..we say this church is true and what not, what
does that exactly mean?? EVERYTHING is a truth...Truth will never pass away!
It was sweet! He always talked about how the gospel is a plan or system to
help us return to Heavenly Father, it is a perfect system and we are not

perfect but the gospel is designed to perfect us. It is made to make bad
people good and good people better. In everything we do, temporally or
spiritually, we should put our God and religion in it. He talked about how

every business should be asking for a Mormon to work for him, because he can

be trusted, work, and do everything the right way. Thats living the gospel,
thats how we should be every day. Brigham Young is the man! He said that he

never cared about what happened at the millenium, but his duty is teach the

things the is needed in the everyday lives. The millenium will take care of

itself, but to live the gospel today and everyday and when that day comes,

we will  be able to rest and know what will happen to us. It was cool! I
also finished Mosiah in my reading The Book of Mormon in Fijian. I had a

goal to finish it before I leave Seaqaqa so I figured that if I leave in

May, to finish by the end of May, I need to read 11 pages per day. So I am

going to focus on that! So yeah it will be good! Two questions...Can you
email me a copy of my call letter? Second, a member tried to add me on
Facebook, but he couldnt find me, he used all the names I could think of it

could be under. My knowledge of that stuff is gone, so I dont know why he
couldn't find me. You know why?? ANyway, I am glad all is going well!!

Always study! Scriptures, hymns, living prophets, study something! Love you
all!! Have a good week! Talk to you very soon!
Moce!

Elder Tukai (I have also decided I am naming my first son, Tukai...Tuks!!)