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