Sister Danielle Heath: Mele Kalikimaka!

December 25, 2017

What a wonderful time of year to celebrate! I love that this season everyone is focused a little more on the Savior. He really is the reason for the season. Because of Him we can have peace and hope in our life! What a great time to remember his humble birth and upbringing to become the King of Kings. As we follow his example we can find true happiness. I love this time of year where we can give as He did. As we do this we can learn the joy that service brings.

Last week after running around trying to get gifts ready to send we ran out of time to do something fun. Sister Sicotte wanted to go to a museum. So we stopped by to check the hours for another week and took a picture in front of it!

We were able to meet this wonderful couple this week. They were referral from the Marshallese Elders who always go to this huge public housing. For short they call it KPT. There is building A and building B. There are 17 floors. On each floor there are 3 wings....there are a lot of Chuukese people here. There are only 2 huge elevators. So anyway there are always people to talk to. We went to visit this referral. His name is Ranicio. When they opened the door I was like no way, we just saw these people in the elevator...so funny. Anyway they were super nice and let us in. We got to know them and shared the first lesson, the Restoration. By the end we realized the other lady was listening too who we later found out is his wife! We invited them to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and Ranicio's wife read the whole thing right there! It was great. They seem really sincere. We are excited to start teaching them.

We were able to stop by the Answer family's house. They are related to the Kisin family that just got baptized. The mom is a member but some of the kids aren't baptized. They are super nice. We were able to share the Restoration with the daughter Jay Ann. She is about 11. She speaks english really well and is able to translate for her mom who doesn't speak as well. She understood well which was great! We were able to set Jay Ann with a date to be baptized in February!

On Wednesday we went on exchanges. My companion was Sister Wilson. She is super awesome! She is from Arizona and goes home in April. She has been through a lot of medical problems other mission but you would never know. She was even still getting over pneumonia when we were on exchanges but I couldn't even tell. She was super energetic and willing to work! We had a great day talking to people! We found some new investigators and set another person with a baptism date. His name is Jeff. He just got out of jail and is ready to turn his life around. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation because he wanted to know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going.

Friday night we had fun and went Caroling to a few people with the Elders. It was pretty fun because we had a keyboard and Elder Chiang played for the hymns sang. We practiced earlier on the day and I felt like I had to teach the Elders Jingle Bells. I also taught them Mele Kalikimaka. We had a great time Caroling and we were able to visit 2 of our investigators and they seemed to enjoy it!

We taught an interesting lesson on Saturday. We met the husband someone who used to be taught. He isn't sure if he believes in God. So we decided to teach Him about the Plan of Salvation. We were going to go into his house but he was the only one home so we stood at the door. And man it was not a wintery day. The sun was shining down on us. It was super hot. But it was a good lesson and he seemed to understand well.

We contacted another referral from a different group of Elders and it was pretty funny because he had no recollection of meeting them! haha But he let us in and we got to know him and shared the Light the World video. It was kind of funny because he said he already saw it...so we were like alright! We gave him Book of Mormon and set a time to come back in a few weeks when he and his wife can be there. Hopefully he doesn't forget about meeting us! Haha

On Sunday we were walking to meet March (one of our investigators) to walk her to church. As we were walking up the overpass we saw her and her boyfriend with the girls in the stroller already coming! It was great because her boyfriend said he wasn't going make it but he came!

We were happy to see the Kisin family make is to church and they were all so cute and dressed up. It's so precious to see because these families don't have much.

Sacrament meeting was cute hearing the Primary sing but also a little stressful because we were asked to perform a musical number. I accepted because I'm like it's just the loving, non-judgemental Micronesian people. But regardless I was still super nervous. Sister Sicotte played the piano minnyou that Away in the Manager is one of the few songs she can play and I sang a solo. So out mediocre talents came together. It wasn't too bad but my heart was pounding out of my chest for no reason so my voice was a little shaky at times but we survived without any disasters!

We were privileged to hear the Elders and two members sing Silent Night acapella and man are they a group to listen to! They are wonderful at harmonizing! I could listen to them all day and one of the Elders sounds like he could be a singer!

We had a fun linger longer after church to eat and talk. We had a good time and I was able to hand out a few gifts I wrapped. Just simple things because I know some families don't have much.

Afterwards we visited a few people and had a great time. We would sing Silent Night as I played on the Ukulele and then share the video A Savior is Born. It was great!

We were able to go over to a member's house for dinner. She gave us food to take home because she wasn't feeling well. But we prepared a fun Christmas message so we shared it with them. My parents did the 12 days of Christ for me. Each day talks about a different name of Christ and what he is. And there was a fun gift for each day. For example, Christ is the King of Kings and there would be a scripture reference and then the gift was a Crown from Burger King. We had fun with it!

It was great to feel the joy of giving this Christmas!

Love,

Sister Heath