Tuvalu - Week 22

Sopo?

Taaaaaalofa!  Hey everybody its me again coming from Tuvalu!  It's been a really good week with a lot of great stuff happening here!

This kid is half Tuvaluan/half Fijian and 

always wants to fusu (fight) with me:)

I've been trying to soak it all in and enjoy the Tuvaluan life seeing as I only have (trying not to cry) less than 3 weeks left!  I'm in denial that its actually coming to an end; time flies by way too fast!  But I am giving it all I've got for these last two and a half weeks.

Logotau is doing way good!  He is ready to be baptized right now, but we have to wait two weeks because of scheduling conflicts.  But he is pretty much already a member!  He is participating in Church really well and making great friendships with the members! 

Apparently there was a recent convert who was baptized in Fiji, but was too shy to come to church here, and Logotau found out and got him to come to Church!  He's planning on going on a mission after a year, and he is definitely seeing the joys the gospel is bringing to his life.  It's awesome!  It's really brought him closer to his brother and sister who are already members, and Elder Paki and I have grown way close to that family!

We had another cool experience this week in which we were able to bring a less-active man back to church.  So back when Elder Pomate was here with me, we felt impressed to knock at a random house, and when we knocked we found out the man was a member!  His name is Brother Kalo and he is a rather old guy who was a member almost 30 years ago in Kirabus.  But when he moved to Tuvalu around 15 years ago he stopped going to church. He has always had a strong testimony for the restored gospel, but coming back to

church seemed to be something really scary for him after all these years.  

Elder Paki and I have been trying to visit him every week since then, but haven't got him to come to church.  This week on Wednesday, we tried again, and he came to us expressing a lot of anxiety and burden on his soul.  We were able to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him and show him how faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end can help him overcome that burden, and the Spirit definitely touched him.  

It was one of the happiest moments on my mission when I saw him show up to sacrament meeting!  He had a great time at church, and afterwards I could see how happy he was to be back.  It really showed me that we should never give up on bringing the lost sheep back to the fold, and I was glad that the Spirit touched him enough to come back!

Elder Paki found a hermit
crab and wanted to pick it up

On Saturday night we got to go to a little celebration put on by the main bank in Tuvalu celebrating their 35th Anniversary.  2 out of the 3 people in our branch presidency and a few other people in our branch work for the bank, so they really wanted us to come.  It was really fun!  They had a huge feast and a lot of cultural dancing and such! (I promise we didn't do any dancing!)  It was nice to enjoy the culture and to stuff myself with all the food!

I hope everything is going well at home and everyone has a great week!

Alofa atu,

Elder Herish

I found this photo in one of our 

recent convert's Book of Morrmon.....