Sister Danielle Heath: 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!