Made it to Tonga!

9-18-18

fefe hake mama. i have made it to the island safely and feeling great.

love you it is great here the flights were great and the mission president is great and i will email more sometime. ofa atu. nofo a e

tell everybody else malei from Tonga

Last Week in the MTC

9-14-18

Malei fam,

this week has been just fine. super chill as always. im gonna miss all the people though. i wont be able to see them all the time anymore how sad. im very excited to get out of here and get to work in Tonga.

 had a great devotional on tuesday. forgot who spoke but before he went to the mike in front of a couple thousand people he ripped up his notes and gave a completely different talk. that takes faith honestly and if you do that you better be sure the Lord is bouta deliver you haha. He spoke what he felt, and what i got out of it most is to give up what you want, do what you know God wants and go hard. finish with no regrets. Shout out to my bro nicholas for being that example to me. 

saw a few guys i know arrive this week. nice to see them. we like to hang out on the grass by the stairs while the new missionaries arrive to check out the new crowd its fun. thursday did another skype trc to a family in tonga. the lady was so nice, at first she was just tryna talk to us in english because she didnt think we could speak tongan haha. bunch of little kids running around, i asked how big the family was she said there is 17 in the fam. what a fun household. we remembered to pray and i was able to testify with the spirit and listen and understand better. twas good. class after was fun. did grammer (my very favorite) talked with schaap about tonga. played fitu ki olunga.

  i love all my poly tokos. and my palangi boys. theyr so fun to be around. thursday night was the shiz. last pday eve in the mtc. talking, working out, messing around, eating out of the vending machines. our floor is the best.

 i have loved my experience at the MTC. I've progressed faster here than I ever did at home.NEXT WEEK ILL BE IN TONGA. cant wait. Tau alu tokos bout time to get to work. ima miss spiking hardcore on my toks and balling out everday at gym time. and cutting the cafeteria lines with the district. and just in general the massive parties we threw (jk scripture study sessions). The Tongan and Samoan districts have been the best I love these guys. we the big dogs around the mtc, i mean at least the polys are haha. 

sorry i havent been able to send pictures. i picked up a sd card reader but the computers here block the app so ill try to send some once i get out of here if I can. we check out monday at 12, fly out of salt lake at 5 to san fran, from there an 8 hour flight to new zealand, and from there to Tonga. hopefully all goes well and we dont miss our flights or anything. im excited though flying is so fun to me.

this is my last email from the mtc so i just want to share some words about my boy Jesus. I testify though email that Jesus is alive. The only way to salvation is though is Him and His atonement. He gave himself as a sacrifice to redeem mankind. The people could not kill him, He very literally gave his own life up for us. And he took it back because He is the Son of God in the flesh. He suffered more than we will ever know for the redemption of Gods children. He did this because he loves us. He loves us as God loves us. He is my friend. He is the chosen one, the savior of all worlds and people who have ever and will ever live. He is perfect and an example for everyone. He gives us hope. Dont ever forget Him because that isnt what He deserves. This is His church. This is His work. Thats why i'm out here. i say that i he huafa o Sisu Kalaisi, emeni.

elder leki mo'unga

sike got it, didnt pull up all my pics but here are a few

Week 5

9-7-18

malo e lelei famili!

what up tokos, started out the week with a couple great trc's. they actually had some members this time and we were able to teach and spit some tongan. ill tell you guys the same thing i told them, reading the Book of Mormon every day is key dont ever forget it.

lol funny story after teaching we were hanging out waiting for everyone to get done and elder tueller was talking to some teacher. the teacher never heard tongan so he asked him if he could bear his testimony in tongan. and so elder tueller starts saying his memorized prayer in tongan and hes saying it as fast as he can to show off you know because this guy cant tell the difference. anyways i walked up late to the conversation and just heard tueller praying at this guy in rapid fire tongan and i said "dude what are you praying to him for? lol he was so mad and it was totally an accident too but i embarrassed him hardcore. i had to tell the rest of the district  though because it was so funny. idk i guess its probably funnier if youve heard him pray before. we were all laughing so hard i shed some tears.

been making some serious progress on the language. i mean i still suck but me and elder anderson taught the entire first lesson in tongan to sister lotulelei so that was dope as.

cool experience with prayer. so elder hansen lost his wallet and hes been walking around with about 200$ in it along with id so he was hardcore stressing about it. we searched the whole room and he went to the gym, the front office, nothing. i told him not to worry. but next day every 2 hours he would ask if anybody had seen it. we all prayed for it to turn up and you already know hansen was praying for it. he would say to me " hey bro you think God will answer? and just kept saying of course man. i looked around the whole room again, under the beds, still nothing. later on all the sudden he runs out of the room yelling LETS GOOO and holding his wallet up, ive never seen so much joy. we were all celebrating and singing praises. i asked where he found it and he said under the bed. where we had checked multiple times. we dont know what happened. but he was the happiest guy alive that night. anyways prayer is real.

fast sunday was hardcore we had like 6 hours of meetings it was rough. but later we watched Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration and gave me flashbacks to watching it in the visitor center back in the day with the fam. that is the best restoration movie i think.

caught up with Elder Miraglia sunday night and took a pic and said see you later and goodluck. he left monday to go to the phillipines mtc. said goodbye to the zls from when we arrived they were cool. good luck to those guys as they leave to the mission field.

the new elder we got, elder moleni, is way cool. he went to hillcrest, played football for them, played rugby for west valley. he knew a couple of the guys at Pine View from football, hes a g. we went on splits with me and anderson because we didnt want to sing in the choir. hes way funny and cool im glad hes in the district. 

with the language there are good days and there are bad days. we did another trc yesterday over skype with a member in Tonga named Ruita. it was so hard. we prepared well but it just was difficult and the internet was bad we disconnected 2 times.. we did the lesson but it was tough to feel the spirit because we were struggling so bad. afterwards i figured out what was wrong. we forgot to pray to begin the lesson. no freaking wonder the spirit wasnt felt. i was telling brother schaup and he was like awe dude come on, it wasnt the internet connection that was bad, you forgot to turn on the spiritual wifi! i knew it. so yeah dont forget to pray ever. prayer is key. still though it was a good experience. she knew english well and after the lesson we just talked to her about Tonga and stuff, im so excited to go over there. Schaup actually knew her and had had dinner at her house. she lives right across the street from the mission president. 

today on the way back from the temple we started walking across the street and we made a car stop for us. i told elder ikafaanga to look first before he walks out into the street but he said back to me, nah man thats faith, cross the crosswalk with your eyes closed. so true. we all need to be crossing the crosswalks with our eyes closed having faith.

I really like the MTC but i am so ready to get out of here. not neccesarily prepared to get out of here yet, but definitely ready to leave if you know what i mean. we get our travel plans today so thats exciting. I am going to miss being with all the other missionaries though.

it has been a good week. let me know if there is anything you want to hear about cuz i only have 1 more week and im outa here

peace, Elder Hill

Big Happy Birthday & Uike Fa

8-31-18

i actually wasnt sure when your birthday was so i was going to ask you guys when your birthdays were so i didnt forget them but dad reminded me as well so. I just want to say happy birthday and i hope you have a good one. i dont even know how old you are, like 49 right? doesnt matter cuz i was only alive for 18 of them. I know i tell you every week but mom i love you so much i will never be able to show it enough. you are the best mom in the world i hope you know that. the best part of my life right now is being able to email you. im so sorry for all the times i have made your life more difficult. also sorry because i still dont know how to upload my pictures to my missionary email and that sucks :( i appreciate all that you have done for me and i love and miss going on trips and paddle boarding and hikes and just being with you and the family. ofa atu fa'e. i wish i could give you a hug in person but just imagine one from me ok. Happy birthday i hope you have a good day and week


8-31-18

sup famili. good week this week

last weekend was cool. friday me and eleta anderson taught our first trc in the evening. idk what that stands for but basically you prepare and teach a lesson to a member, for us completely in tongan. it was so bad but i think its fine. we taught about the importance of reading ko e tohi a molomona every day. even though our tongan sucked we got the message to him and afterwards he said that it was exactly the message and commitment that he needed to hear. it was brother pritt that we taught and he teaches the other tongan district (they didnt have enough members show up) so idk he mightve just been playing a part but i felt the spirit and so did elder anderson so idc it was beast. saturday the district was hit with a bit of trials. a few of the polys got in trouble for getting haircuts from another elder in r5, at night, without their comps. they all got interrogated by brother goold tryna make them snitch on each other.and he was making it seem like a huge deal that they might get sent home and stuff but everything turned out all right president clark just talked to them and said like hey stop this foolishness and dont do it again and everything turned out fine. on sunday was leadership changes. elder tueller is the new dl and elder fiso is a zl lol. another great devotional, this one from mtc pres martino. i forgot what it was about but it was good. after that we went and watched the testiments. it was really good but i dont like the guy that plays jesus in it he bothers me. hes just not the guy to me you know

monday was average. elder hansen got a burrito in the mail saturday but he couldnt pick it up until today. he asked all of us if we think its still ok to eat and i told him if it tastes good i think its fine dont even worry about it. he ate the whole thing and it was good he said. played some beast sand volleyball. we only do that when we have excersize time later though because it gets hot during the day. usually we go play 3 on 3 in the gym or indoor volleyball

tuesday there was a big rumor(that we started) that the prophet was going to speak to us today but he didnt, that was a bummer. there was decent evidence that it was going to be someone big though. we all sang in the choir though and it was really good. i didnt participate in the district discussion afterwards, im working on my listening skills. pres clark was with us and he had a ton of good insights. he told us stories and really showed us how beast the church of Jesus Christ is and it is because most of the members are truly converted and actively live the gospel voluntarily which really sets us apart from a lot of other churches. like our missionary efforts are so huge and all these 18 and 19 year olds pay to  just because we want to share the restored gospel. decent day, tuesdays kind of feel like a pday because we only have 3 hours of class i like it

wednesday we got to host new missionaries it was pretty lit. we just show them to their residence and get them started on stuff it was fun i met a bunch of new guys. it was sad though, taking missionaries from their families in the parking garage because its like i was there just a few weeks ago giving my last hugs to the fam too. it was good though i got to hang with elder mccarthur a bit and talk with him. i love seeing my school and track  friends in here. played some more sand volleyball later. did some good study and went over to r5 before bed to haze and greet the new missionaries in our zone haha if i can ill send a video it was a fun loud time. im up to at least 300 pushups a day.

yesterday was kind of sad. we got new new missionary in our district, a tongan guy from salt lake elder moleni hes serving in oakland, tongan speaking, and he got put in a triple with simmons and tueller. but that isnt the sad part. that meant me and anderson got kicked out of palangi town and they moved us down the hall with hansen and ikafaanga. it was kind of depressing moving out i really liked that room. but its lit in the new room with hansen and ikafaanga they are so funny.  we call the new room diversity town because there is equal poly and white. class was waay dope last night too. we taught the whole first lesson in english and then bro schaup had us do it in tongan. it is crazy to see how much we have progressed in just a few weeks. brother schaup also shared some good testimony about repentance and being worthy of the gifts that our father in heaven will give us. he shared a bit about his mission experience and it just really was good i felt the spirit very strong and related to everything he said. i have always done my best to repent of my sins but i feel like i just learned how to repent better here in the mtc. and its because of how much my relationship with my father in heaven has grown. because now when i repent it is with a truly broken heart because i know how much he loves me and how it makes him feel when we forget him. and also because of my respect and love for Christ and his atonement. we need to use it every day. bro schaup is a great teacher i really appreciate him

so yeah this week has been good. except today somebody stole my laundry bag while i was drying my clothes so that sucks i had to go buy a new one. whoever it is i hope they know they are going straight to hell unless they return it. the long lines here in the cafeteria used to really bother me but i figured out the trick is to start at the front instead of the back. another fun things we discovered is opening the doors in the elevator while its moving. i dont do this but every time someone does it stops the elevator and i swear one of these times its going to break. i dont encourage it. they make us do role-plays for class all the time and so me and elder anderson always choose someone from the office to be. so far creed is the hardest to teach. me and fiso and anderson have all seen the office multiple times so sometimes one of us will say a quote and nobody else gets it but we are all laughing our heads off. michael g scott is a legend. we try to lea fakatonga as much as we can and its crazy to see how much we have all improved in the few weeks weve been here. i kind of wish i could be speaking spanish because it seems so easy now but i think its fine tongan is dope as. it is a stuggle to email once a week because i feel like i leave alot out, but this email is sufficiently long i bet. sai, ofa atu katoa. nofo a e

week 2 1/2

8-24-18

fefe hake fam. im doing good. life at the mtc is alright. every day i get up at 543am, go work out with my comp, we go to class, learn some doctrine, learn some tongan, eat some good food, play basketball and some volleyball with the homies, more class, then probably study the word of god and language for a few hours, then hang out for a bit and lights out at 1030. its actually tight you know, i enjoy it. ive got good homies here

last weekend was pretty basic. sundays are really long it feels like, but good. we got really good seats along the back for the devotional so we all took a nice sleep on accident. one of our fav things to do is people watch from the 6th floor. honestly its such a fun time, we play imaginary football with the people walking below, laugh at people when they try to wave at us, lol the things that will entertain us.

monday was beast. we went outside for class and did a roleplay chillin on the grass. its just a scenario but the spirit was way strong and it was good. we have some good discussions. lol good story, that night elder palepoi's fam sent sweet rolls and cookies for everybody and we were all laughing and being loud as one of the elders told a story about getting beat as a child and the branch president walked in and we were like shoot cuz it was after quiet hour. but it was fine president clark is just a funny and chill old guy. we said a prayer with him and talked a bit then he left. we got to remember that he comes and checks in on mondays though lol.

 on tuesday night the Apostle D Todd Christoferson spoke to us. the message he shared with us was that we need to use the correct name of The Church. We are not the mormon church, we are not the lds church. We are The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We covenant each week to take upon us the name of Christ. The Lord is displeased in us that we have let other names take that place. The name of The Church was given to us by God and we have mislead thousands about who we are because we dont be calling it the right name sometimes. Mormon was a great man and prophet and we should honor and respect him, but i think he himself is probably offended when we call The Church after him. it is Jesus Christ's Church. and it is His gospel. i believe that He personally leads this his restored Church. He loves every one of us and invites all to come unto him. so yeah that is a bad mistake that we have fallen into but you know repent and improve thats name of the game and i do it every day. that was my first time seeing an apostle of God in person it was awesome.

wednesday one of my teachers sisita pinnock left for byu hawaii that was sad. she was a really good teacher and i will miss her. it rained hardcore and me and anderson, hansen and ikafaanga got absolutely soaked while we were going to study in t4. the views are great you can look over all of provo. byu campus is right there, we are just up the road from the track, you can see the stadium and stuff. we chilled with elder needham and erikson for a while they are bros. they like to look at my drivers license it really makes them laugh.

thursday was just a chill basic day. had alot of class and stuff, we dont really have free time ever except for pdays. for pday eve we all hugn out in our room and chilled and talked about the office and other funny shows. its good to have bros that are into the same stuff.

today went to the temple and did an endowment sesh with the boys. twas good. walking back a car honked at us and it was rachel prior and her mom and i waved it was really cool to see someone outside of the bubble of the mtc.

ight peace

elder hill

Provo MTC

Provo MTC

sup

8-17-18

what up famili. i miss you all but not really. provo is lit. actually the first couple days here sucked so bad but it is fun now. my teachers are way nice and chill i love them. my comp is chill. my district is super tight. there is one other tongan district here they are great guys. yeah we all just have a big loud fun time together and tell stories and joke around. haha its gonna be so fun when we all leave to tonga together.

this week has been good. elder peters and elder kauvaka left early monday morning for hawai'i. they are nice guys, elder peters really helped us out for the first while. and he was way fun to play basketball with. yeah so sunday night they came over to the residence and said goodbyes to everybody. im learning pretty good i think but its pretty hard. they make us pray and testify and teach in tongan already but its aight you just have to study a ton. the first thing elder peters told all the new guys in class was "the gift of tounges is real but it aint THat real you know what im saying. like the holy spirit can testify to people through you but it aint magic its hard work and holiness. he gave us lots of good advice. elder anderson and me work pretty good together for a couple palangi brothers. elder hansen and elder ikafanga are true homies. elder hansen is going to play football for usu when he gets back and elder ikafanga is so funny he sometimes just swears like in the middle of class because they just use d*mn as like darn it in australia lol. elder simmons worked as like a ball boy for the utah jazz so he like has all the free gear and got to hang around the players im jealous. elder tueller is so funny we make fun of him all the time, but in a loving way you know. the sisters in my district are nice and chill. it has been so nice to see some pv guys in here. me and elder miraglia and elder mcarthur got to hang out a bit on tuesday i love it, it feels a bit like im at home. or a community college. every day we just study and pray and ball. devoting all my time to learning doctrine and stuff has really brought me so much closer to Christ. 

honestly leaving for a mission was a bit harder than i thought. i have abandoned my fam, my friends, my home, my language, soon my country, i mean just everything. sometimes i would be getting like a feeling of unsureness about the mission so all the time i would pray that i would could have faith that im doing the right thing. but yesterday while i was doing personal study i was reading in alma 40 41 and 42 and alma was teaching his son helaman about the plan of salvation. it was really good and at the end of chapter 42 verse 31 my perspective switched out of nowhere and the spirit hit me before i even started to read it. as i read the last verses it was no longer alma speaking to helaman, i felt God speaking to me as his son. I felt the spirit so deep i was humbled straight away and it confirmed to me that it is right that i should be out here serving a mission. we pray to speak to God, but he speaks to us through his servants and his scripture. and i believe that he spoke to me. so yeah dont worry about me i am where i belong. but im not perfect so ill be really busy the next month or so. alu ngaue thats the motto. go to work. 

anyways love you guys. if you ever get the chance then get some in n out and throw it in some plastic wrap and send it to me lol. the mtc food is good but it aint THat good you know what im saying. its great here but im already excited to leave. oh and yeah i am only here for 6 weeks so i peace out of slc airport on september 18th i think. also one more thing, i would love to be sending everybody emails but i dont have them so if you write to me then i will write to you back. aight thats it

nofo a e

malo e lelei fam

8-10-2018

whats up family. p-day for me is on friday so that's when i'll be doing emailing. I already miss you guys a little its weird I feel like i have been here a week already. I didnt figure out how to use the alpha smart yet but i might try to use it next week. also dont be disappointed I havent taken any pictures its only my 3rd day out here I am just tryna survive. 

day one after yall dropped me off they sent me through a big assembly line of workers getting stuff to the new missionaries it was crazy. they said nearly 500 missionaries arrived wednesday. after that I went to class straight away and the teacher would only speak to me in tongan lol. i met my companion elder anderson hes cool he played basketball and ran track for davis. We went to a bunch of other meetings and orientation stuff. people think they are cool saying "welcome to the mtc" like 100 people said that to us it was kind of annoying so me and elder anderson took the orange dots off our tag so nobody knew that it was our first day.  took a quick tour and then we unpacked and went to bed. the other elders in my room are elder simmons and elder tueller they nice. also the other elders in my district are elder ikafanga and elder hansen, theyre both big poly guys. elder ikafanga is from melbourne he talks with a cool accent mate. elder hansen is from salt lake and he is our district leader. also there are some sisters in our district but i didnt learn their names.

yesterday was kind of like the first day just instead of starting at 1pm we were going at 630. lots of language class, 30 minute lines trying to pick up our materials, super crowded cafeteria, getting lost and being late to class you know the basics. the islanders classrooms are all on the 6th floor so we have beast views over utah lake and mt timpanogos and provo (except for all the smoke). I saw elder miraglia and elder Tudor, that was dope but only got to say hi briefly you already know I was running late. met the branch presidency and we all had a 3 hour meeting last night. 

so yeah im doing alright I hope you guys are doing well. I feel like a different person almost. my purpose here is changed. my only focus is to learn the language and serve the lord and be able to teach faith, repentance, and baptize some people eventually. it has been pretty crazy here but I can feel the spirit quite strong. anyway bye ima going play basketball with the samoa missionaries in a bit.

elder hill