Written by Ione Cussen

Pasi Haufano didn’t always want to serve a mission, it wasn’t until he was in his mid-twenties that he even starting to consider the idea. But when he’d made that choice, nothing was going to stop him. His perseverance became a beacon of faith, an example of determination that has quite simply become legendary.

Pasi was raised in a Polynesian (Tongan/Samoan) home in New Zealand and was Baptised in 2006, but he didn’t really understand the significance of what he was doing. “I knew I had to be baptised, but I never understood the doctrine behind it”, he said, “I couldn’t even remember the name of the church, I didn’t know that there was a Book of Mormon.”

Pasi at home in New Zealand with some friends.

Years later, a friend of Pasi’s, Jimmy, was also baptised, and he encouraged Pasi to come back to church. “He invited me every Sunday. He’d come and wake me up, I’d probably be hung over from the night before, but he’d say ‘Hey Brother, come to church today’, and I’d always make up excuses to why I couldn’t go.”

Jimmy wasn’t going to give up. He went every Sunday, despite refusal after refusal. He eventually found just the trick to getting Pasi out of bed: food.

“Hey Brother!” Jimmy said, “Come to church today, because after church we’re going to have a picnic!”, “When I heard that, I was like ‘Ok! I’m going!’” Pasi recalls, “He kind of tricked me!”

Pasi went to church that day, and afterwards went with Jimmy to visit some less active YSA. “I didn’t even know what I was doing, but it felt so good. Just being there, visiting these people, putting a smile on their faces, I had never felt this before and that feeling was the miracle.”

Pasi with his friend Jimmy

Pasi kept attending church and YSA activities, until one day he found himself going to mission prep with his friends. In one of these classes, a member held up the Book of Mormon and bore his testimony. It was here, astonishingly, that Pasi saw the Book of Mormon for the first time. Pasi was blown away, “he said his testimony with such conviction that I made another oath to myself, an oath to read that book and find out what he was talking about”.

Pasi was soon invited to a mission prep camp in Hamilton (just over an hour away), and he began reading the Book of Mormon. “It was here I learnt about Lehi and his family, and I read about Nephi and his struggles, and I thought, ‘this is my family right here, these are my struggles’”.

Pasi preparing for his mission

It was through the Book of Mormon that Pasi gained a testimony and knew he needed to serve a mission. Pasi filled out his mission papers and sent them off. Yet, he was completely unaware of the difficult decision he still had to make.

After “months and months” of waiting, and watching friends leave for their missions, Pasi started to wonder if he just wasn’t good enough. “Maybe I haven’t been forgiven, maybe I’m not trying hard enough,” he thought. “I just felt useless, abandoned”.

Pasi was finally called to meet with his Stake President, who told him that his mission application had been declined on the basis of his very visible tattoos. Pasi’s heart dropped.

Pasi’s neck tattoo

“I didn’t want to go on my mission with this tattoo, so I tried having it removed by laser treatment before, but it wasn’t working. It felt like someone was welding metal on my skin, and I even couldn’t afford the anaesthetic cream to make it numb”.

“What kept me going was thinking about the Saviour, and the pain he felt for us. Who was I to murmur about this pain, when the Saviour suffered more, and so I just clenched my fists and endured it.”

Even though the process was expensive and painful, Pasi didn’t see any improvement from the tattoo removal, despite all his efforts. And to make matters worse, he knew that in a year he would be too old to even make the mission application. Pasi’s goal of serving was quickly slipping through his fingers.

“All these factors were against me, and I was about to give up”.

Pasi returned devastated to his parents. They had watched him grow into a man who was passionate and dedicated to his faith, and when they saw that his dream had been shattered, they offered to send him to Australia – a generous chance for a fresh start and a better life. Pasi was grateful, but needed to time to think, so he went into his room, knelt on the floor, and prayed, asking God what to do.

“This feeling just came upon me to carry on, to not give up”, Pasi recalls, “So I kept going to mission prep, kept going with the laser tattoo removal, even though it wasn’t working and was terribly painful. I just kept the faith.”

All of Pasi’s perseverance paid off one day when his mission prep advisor, Brother Shaw, approached him with a solution – surgery – and he knew someone who could perform it.

Brother Shaw had been to this private dermatologist before, he insisted on supporting Pasi financially for his treatment.. The procedure was so expensive that Pasi couldn’t even afford the consultation. Brother Shaw was the miracle that Pasi could never have imagined

With faith in his heart and Brother Shaw’s support, the surgery was a “drive-thru compared to the laser treatment”, “I went in, they cut my skin, stitched it up”, and it was all over.

Before and after photos of the tattoo

“The other miracle”, remembers Pasi, “was that there was no pain when I was recovering, no pain whatsoever, it’s like God took it away from me”.

After Pasi had recovered, he resubmitted his mission papers and received his call to the Dallas Fort Worth Mission in Texas.

Receiving his mission call wasn’t only a dream come true for him though, Pasi’s Mum in particular had been hugely affected by the dramatic change in her son. She had watched as he persevered on this harrowing journey; he had endured immense physical and emotional pain in order to serve others and the Lord. Pasi’s dedication had inspired his Mum to be baptised, just before he set off on his mission. “My family has been on different parts of the spectrum, but it’s the Gospel that has brought us together”, Pasi said.

Pasi in Texas on his mission

On responding to the question “Was it worth it?” he answered:

“Looking back now, I’ve gained a whole lot more family on my mission, and I love them all. I’ve seen people turn their life around, going from almost wanting to commit suicide, to being sealed in the temple. If I hadn’t sacrificed who I was, for who I am, then I wouldn’t be able to help other people in the way I did, or be an answer to their prayers, or be an instrument in God’s hand in the way that I was.”

“Yeah, it was tough, my foundations were broken, but now they’re rebuilt on solid rock”

Pasi towards the end of his mission with minimal scaring

For more great stories about faithful saints read “Lion King Star Balances Faith and Fame” :Here

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