Miracles and Blessings

August 27, 2018

What an unexpected week!

Last week we were able to get a keyboard from one if our members so Sister Lavaka has been learning so that's been fun. We also were able to go to the chaoel to join some sisters on Monday with their different sewing projects. We learned how to make some really nice looking bags. I finished mine the week before but started a little one with the scraps they had so I worked on that while Sister Lavaka finished hers.

We had a great lesson with Uncle Lawrence. We shared a video about the 10 commandments and how the world really only keeps 4 of them. We also talked about his prayers and scripture reading. He said he wants to start praying for lunch and reading more than 1 verse of scripture each day! (Mind you when he first started meeting with the sisters he didn't do either of those things and he voluntarily said these things!) He is also working on fixing some habits so he can live the Word of Wisdom! So great!

We met with Kimo on Tuesday and he was able to read! (He said he did it that morning but has never kept a commitment before so we were excited) We shared about Obedience, praying often, and studying the scriptures. After some hesitation he accepted the invitation to have daily prayer and scripture study so he can come to know the truth for himself. (But he didn't want us to come by or message him for a reminder.)

We visited some less active members which went well. We also went to visit someone and they said she didn't live there but there was a lady from the Philippines that was looking for a church and she said we could come back!

Wednesday we had some help from 2 other companionships to try and contact people in Waimanalo so that was great. 

Later, we were able to have a lesson with Lisa and it went really well. This time we were able to sit down and have a good lesson about the restoration. She seemed to grasp it pretty well. She said she has never been the type to pray and doesn't feel a deep need to know if certain things for herself but we taught her how to pray and she did! She also said she would read her Book of Mormon and pray about it! 

If you didn't hear Hurricane Lane was making its way to the islands so a lot of people were busy preparing for that. We were pretty much prepared because we already had 72 hour kits and water. We were able to get more water from members and fill some empty jugs. It was crazy hearing about people buying out the stores and seeing people lined up at the gas stations! It's interesting feeling prepared when everyone else is stressing out! Blessings of the gospel and our Prophet! Wednesday night our landlord was giving us updates and we offered our help. So Thursday she asked for our help to fill some sandbags. We were able to help prepare a few things. We thought it would be a good opportunity to talk to her and her husband but they were too preoccupied with everything that bad to be done. But it was still good and they really appreciated it.

Friday we were told to stay inside which was hard because we thought it would be great to visit people because everyone would be home. But it was okay. We did our studies and we took some time trying to figure a song to sing and post on Facebook...its still a work in progress...hopefully we can get it up soon. We also had our first lesson over Facebook messenger and it went pretty well. Although the person we are teaching got a little distracted with the filters it was good to have that contact. We were able to read the Book of Mormon with him.

We slept in the other sisters room since ours had a bunch of windows and is where the wind comes in.

We woke up in the morning and nothing happened. I found out that I could get somewhat of an update on Google maps and the hurricane was downgraded to a tropical storm and was delayed until the late afternoon so we decided to go our and visit people. It went really well. We were able to visit a family I've never met because they work so much so it was great to sit down with them and share a message. 

That night the storm was delayed even more. So we were able to stop by to see Luisa from earlier in the week. She is a super sweet lady. She said she was praying for us to come back! We taught a lesson and invited her to read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and come to church. She is willing so we are excited to see what happens! 

Church went really well.

We actually didn't see much of the storm the whole weekend except for it being overcast and then it didn't rain until late afternoon! Such a blessing! 

Attempting to record a song

 Sister Lavaka with her Hydroflask filled with a milkshake she made

 the bags we made (Sister Lavaka's is the big one and mine are the others)

Keepin on!

August 20, 2018

This week was pretty good. On Monday we went to the church because Sister Lavaka wants to learn how to play the piano. We found a cool piano book in the library that teaches you from the very beginning and it teaches hymns. So I helped her with that. Then the sisters serving in Kaneohe wanted to eat lunch together so we went to The Hawaiian Island Cafe which is Sister Lavaka and I's new favorite place. Their pizzas are super good! The sisters that we live with came too so that was fun. 

Tuesday we had a lesson with a less active member that we met recently. We had a very interesting lesson with him. He has had some interesting experiences with the spirit (not sure what spirit it is). So teaching the restoration he didn't seem to understand it all especially prophets and the priesthood. But we encouraged him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about the experiences he has had and if they are from God. On Friday night we stopped by again with Bishop but unfortunately didn't have very long because he had plans to go somewhere. So Bishop didn't get to hear his experiences. But hopefully we can help him come to the truth.

We've had a hard time finding people to teach so we are going to try and focus our visits on members to find people to teach through them and members of their family that aren't baptized. We were able to have some good conversations with some less-active members which was good.

Other than that, nothing too exciting happened this week.

Aloha!

Pictures are worth a thousand words!

August 13, 2018

Danielle's Birthday Week....23 years old! Try to guess what they did!

Adventures All Around!

August 6, 2018

Aloha all!

Last week for P-day we went and got district pedicures which was pretty fun! One of the elders thought a pedicure was too feminine so he got a manicure!

Things went pretty well this week, we were able to meet with a less-active member and her boyfriend who is preparing to be baptized. They actually called and asked if we could come over so that was great. We are hoping we can help them get married and baptized sooner than later. They want to meet with the elders so we are hoping the elders can be more bold with them...we will see!

We were able to do service on the USS Missouri again. We swept the gunnel on the deck. It was hot and a little windy but it was good. It is always fun to be with other missionaries.

So I have an embarrassing story that I thought would never happen to me. We had a busy night going from appointment to dinner to other appointments. The last appointment was with Uncle Lawrence and my bladder was super full but I thought I would be able to hold it because I have so many times before because I drink a lot of water and always seem to make it to the bathroom. Well, our lesson was going really well and we had to explain some things in detail so it lasted a lot longer than expected but it was a really good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I was dancing in my chair. Eventually it was time to go and we all stood up and I had my legs closed tightly and I couldn't move or else I knew it was going to come out. But we had to go and I knew Uncle Lawrence wouldn't go into the house because he makes sure we get to the car safely. So I tried switching my legs and that didn't help and eventually it just started coming down my legs! Luckily I had a long, dark flowy skirt on so I put it in between my legs. Uncle Lawrence started walking down the driveway and I was like thank goodness! I hope he didn't notice! Then we went home. Sorry if that was too gross but I thought I'd share. Hopefully you got a good laugh!

Thursday we had an appointment with Randy who hasn't really been progressing so we decided to get to know him again which really helped. We found out he has read the bible 6 times but hasn't read the Book of Mormon so after a good discussion he decided to start studying so we hope he has been able to do that!

We had a good lesson with Uncle Gideon who is less active. We taught him how to pray and it went really well because he has a very short attention span and he seems to be opening up more and his desires seem to be changing. He said he is going to come to church again this week! Which is super awesome because his goal at the beginning of the year was to go once a year but he has already been twice! 

Although we don't have a ton of investigators, we have quite a few returning members which is just as exciting! Oh and one of the couple's that are coming back fed us dinner last week which was super good (We had Lau Lau which I haven't really had too much and that was a treat...its meat cooked in ti leaves, super good) and the husband was a previous ward mission leader so he was able to share some cool experiences and give us good advice. We are excited to have them back!

Well that's about it!

Aloha!