Aloooooha!

May 28, 2018

Last week we were able to go to Sea Life Park for free thanks to one of our members! We went with our district. We had a great time with all the animals. This time in the touch pools we decided to touch these cushion star fish and they were really cool! If you just put your hand or finger on it lightly it will sink in and indent it. I had a great time feeding the birds. I also loved the dolphins!

That night we had an interesting lesson with one of our investigators. He seems to like to talk and whatnot but doesn't really want to change. We had a more intense lesson guided by the spirit about baptism. He's not sure if he wants to switch religions even though he isn't active. So we will see tonight if he was able to pray and ask if this is what Heavenly Father wants him to do.

Tuesday we went by someone who we've shared messages with but we haven't set a specific time to come back and teach. We were able to meet her husband and share a little about the Book of Mormon and he said we could come back so we are excited to teach both if them.

That night we were able to stop by a family's house who are only available in the late evenings and we've taught the husband once at the door. Well we met the wife this time which was great. She was really nice and said we set a time to come back.

We were able to meet with an inactive member and his non-member wife. It was a little awkward but good to get to know them and their daughter has a boyfriend on a mission!

Friday we brought one of our investigators an Açai bowl because he hasn't had one and is trying to eat healthier because of his condition. We were able to teach him about the restoration and invited him to be baptized. He wasn't so sure so we asked him to pray about it and try to read the BOM even though he is tired a lot.

Saturday we met this guy said he will believe God is real when he sees him and doesn't want to do anything now. He doesn't believe the scriptures because they are from man apparently. Even though he has had some really special experiences with people passing on. So I hope he is able to see it sooner or later... 

That's about it! 

Aloha, 

Sister Heath 

 feeding the birds!

view from Sea Life Park

Mural at Sea Life Park

Dole whip and it was 50% discount!

can you find the chicken?

one of the cute families we visit a lot

Ho'oulu (to inspire)

May 21, 2018

Last week started off great. On Tuesday we went up to Laie to hear from Elder Holland AND Elder Bednar came too! It was a special missionary meeting. They talked about conversion and how we are the most important convert on our mission. It was great to hear from them and very inspirational. We were all privileged to shake their hands and apparently that's when they interviewed us. We were told to introduce ourselves so I was so worried about that, that it happened too fast!

It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I feel blessed to have witnessed it!

On Wednesday we tried hard to be out earlier in the day and were blessed to talk to 7 people before noon! 

Well sorry for the super short email but I ran out of time! 

Transfer news is... I am staying with Sister Nichalson in our area! 

Aloha!

Sister Heath

Noni Fruit

Ups, Downs, All-Arounds

May 14, 2018

Aloha!

This week we had some ups and downs. 

We were able to have some good lessons with investigators. We had another lesson with the Sister Smith. We are slowly working with her to help her know and feels what is true. We shared the Restoration with her and her family. We shared the new video called ask of God. Apparently the Elders had shown it to them a few days before at their mom's house for dinner. (Its funny because last time we shared a scripture on faith and apparently the Elders shared the saw thing!) Maybe she needs to hear it twice?

Sadly we were dropped by our investigators that are Chuukese that were planning on getting baptized. Their grandma has become very bitter. Hopefully they can be baptized a little later on.

We met with Ashlie and she still wants to learn even though one of her friends is an inactive member and her husband is anti and they are telling her not to meet with us. It has been interesting to see her change. She used to not talk to us or seem to like us but she seems more happy now. We hope she wants to keep learning!

Thursday we moved into the apartment in Waimanalo. It went well with the Elder's help. There were so many mosquitos at the new house though! I sprayed myself with repellant and still got bit. We also had quite a few get inside the house! Elder Williams bought us all lunch at Pizza Hut which was so nice of him!

Friday we went on exchanges. Sister Hoffman came with me to Olomana and Waimanalo. She served in Waimanalo and was able to show me around a little which was good. We were able to set quite a few appointments. 

We had a really cool experience when we went to go visit our investigator Tess. She was still at work but there was a guy outside. We asked if we could share a scripture with him. He said sure. The scripture was about the Atonement. We explained it to him and then explained more about the Book of Mormon by showing him the introduction and pictures. We were able to give him one and he said he would read it. He said he really needs the help because he is going through a rough time right now. We were able to pray with him before we left. After the prayer he said wow, that felt good. I've never had anyone say that after I pray. That was really cool!

Also that night we prayed with this guy we found when we were street contacting. As I was praying I was being guided by the spirit and felt to say that God loves him. I felt God's love for this random person we just met. It was a really special experience.

Saturday we were able to help with the annual food drive at the post office where they sort through items that have been donated and box them up.

Then we got stuck in traffic on the way home for at least an hour. We aren't sure why. Someone was saying a tree fell down. The problem is that the lanes merge into 1 for the small highway through Waimanalo.

Mother's day was wonderful getting to call home and see everyone! \

Aloha, 

Sister Heath

 

baby gecko!

Sister Hoffman and I on exchanges...next to the beach in Waimanalo after visiting a recent convert

Parting of the sea of traffic for an ambulance

some more pictures of our apartment

They say 2 is better than 1...

May 7, 2018

Aloha!

Last week for P-day we played mini golf again to celebrate Elder Furner's birthday and it was really fun. I got the lowest score out of the 10 of us! 

That night we were able to visit a family where the wife is not a member. It was a really great lesson to get to know her specially because she is from Kazakhstan. They speak Russian there which is cool. It's an Asian country with Russian influence. We are trying to help her understand more about the gospel and that Heavenly Father is real. Her husband is a return missionary and has a strong testimony and we know that she will be able to learn the truth for herself. We invited her to pray to know if Heavenly Father is real and I promised that I would do the same thing and we would report back next week to share our experiences.

I had a spiritual experience when I prayed to know if Heavenly Father is there. I don't know if I've ever asked before because I've always known that He is there. After I asked in prayer, I pondered my question and a still small voice came into my mind and said, Yes, I am here. I questioned it a little at first wondering if it was my own thought but the same message came back, Yes, I am here. What a wonderful gift we have been given to receive personal revelation so that we can know things for ourselves. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who answers our prayers. I invite you to pray to know something this week whether it is something you want to know or might want a confirmation of. I know that if you listen and keep the faith, you will receive an answer.

On Wednesday we had a lesson with our new investigator Ashlie and we were able to have the lesson at her friend Victoria's house. We taught the restoration. It was awesome because Victoria used to be taught by the sisters but lost contact. The spirit was really strong and we are excited to teach them more.

That night we were able to have a lesson with Sai and his friend Chance they are both 8 years old. It was a little hard to keep their concentration on the lesson but we were able to teach the gospel Jesus Christ with some fun object lessons. We also got to see a cute parakeet that Chance's dad caught so that was fun!

Thursday night we got an unexpected call from the assistant to the president. We are now covering Waimanalo and Olomana Ward! One of the elders in another area had to go home for medical reasons. Less missionaries are coming to the Western Region of the United States(their going international) there weren't enough missionaries to come down to our area... so yep. A lot of areas have been combined lately so we are thinking this is going to be permanent.  Because of the unexpected transfer we didn't have very much information about the area. We had a few appointments but no phone numbers so it was difficult trying to contact people. Luckily we were able to get more information on Saturday about the area.

 Sunday we attended Waimanalo and Olomana ward. We had ward council for Waimanalo ward at 7am so it was a long day! Waimanalo ward is good. There are some super nice members. It is also a ward with many elderly people.

Aloha,

Sister Heath 

 Lightning lady bug

star leaf like in Land Before Time?!

Rapunzel hair with flowers or close to it

Fasting and mighty prayer brings about many miracles

April 30 , 2018

The work this week was a little crazy but good!

We stopped by this man's house named Don. Sister Nichalson and her companion went once before and he let them choose a Tahitian black pearl to make into a necklace. He texted us that it was ready so we headed over to pick it up. He was super nice. He invited us into his house and gave us a tour if his grown up tree house/bali mansion. He has outdoor rooms and a waterfall/pool right by the living space. He also has collections from his world travels. He also has an awesome collection of seashells and whatnot. We were able to talk to him and get to know his background. We shared the Prince of Peace Mormon message. And he really opened up to us. He used to go to church with his friends when he was young and he actually liked the Mormon church the best! He said recently he lost his way. So I hope we can help him. We also met his sister who is visiting from Idaho and was taught by the missionaries there before! So cool. He saw my sunrise shell necklace and wanted to give me another one. But I was like mine has a pineapple on it too to drop a hint that I don't really need another sunrise shell necklace. Then somehow I was talking about how I wear fake pearl studs always. Then he decided to let me choose 2 Tahitian black pearls to make earrings out of!!! I am excited to see if we can help him find his way.

On Wednesday we were having a lesson with our Chuukese investigator named Aky. Then his wife Ashley came out who is local but can speak Chuukese. She said something about him not understanding so she would join us. Aky was trying to tell us something in Chuukese and I couldn't put the sentence together. So I asked Ashlie if she could translate but Aky just shut down. Finally he just said it in English, So interesting. Then Ashlie went on about how last time he was supposed to tell us that he wants to stop taking the lessons. Then she told us about all their struggles they are going through and asked if we can help. We told her we can talk to our Bishop and see what he can do. We also talked about how when we teach them and they live the gospel, it will really bless their family. Through the course of the next few days we helped them do all of their laundry which was a lot because they have 5 kids. We also stopped by with our ward mission leader Brother Recca so he could see what he could do to help. He shared how we need to have faith and do our part. We came back the next day and dropped some laundry off. They asked if there is something they can study. So we gave them a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. We came back the next day (sat) with Bishop so he could see what he could help with. And then after an hour of conversation I was expecting them to be done with us but Ashlie was like, so what about our lesson? So we ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation. It was a little crazy with the kids and they were cooking with their neighbors putting a potluck together. I also ended up teaching Aky on the side a little slower with he Chuukese pamphlet. Sister Nichalson taught Ashlie and her 11 year old daughter Shilyn. It went really well with Aky. He kept saying, okay I understand now, thank you. He asked good clarifying questions too. I told him about the Holy Ghost and praying to know if the plan is true and he said okay. We are excited for their family. Ashlie asked us if we have church and we said yes. And they wanted to come! So we told them the time and our member was able to take them! It was a crazy but good 3 hours of church! 

We had a great lesson with our investigator named Tess on Thursday. She invited us into her house and we taught the Restoration. It went really well. She was really interested and focused, especially during the first vision. She was so grateful for the new knowledge and thinks it is so cool that we have a prophet in these latter days who restored the church! We talked about the Book of Mormon and she was like I guess I need to start studying it more! We invited her to be baptized and she said yes. When we invited her for a specific date then I think she realized the weight of the question...she was like, wait, I am getting baptized again? She said she would think about it. We told her to pray about it too. 

I really saw the blessings from fasting last Sunday (we fasted as a zone for the missionary work). I know that when we make sacrifices and show our faith, the Lord will bless us.

Aloha, 

Sister Heath 

 

 Hawaiian grasshopper?

 cloudy Kaneohe 

Our investigator Ashlie and her son wearing his baby brothers clothes 

I'm counting my blessings this week despite mud, a dirty apartment, and mosquito bites

Devotional with the Prophet!

April 23, 2018

Last Monday we played Glow Putt with our district which was really fun. I love mini golf! Then we ate lunch together. I was able to go to my favorite place and get an Acai bowl (MJ cafe!)

Tuesday we moved out of our stinky pad and into where the Elders were living in Kaneohe 4th area (my first area!). They were able to move into their ward mission leader's place.

It was interesting packing with no boxes. We had quite a few bags so that was good. We also had to sort through all the junk that had accumulated. But we were able to find this ab worker machine which was cool!

We had some Elders come help us and Elder Williams of course with his truck. We packed everyone's cars with stuff and drove down. We took 2 trips. We thanked everyone for helping us. We wanted to put things away but didn't want to put it away where it was dirty so we had to clean first. We did the fridge and freezer for all the food. Then we had to take a brake for dinner and then went back to work putting our bedrooms together. It took a few days to get everything cleaned and put away. But we are grateful to be here. It is like twice as big as our apartment before...and it's a house to ourselves! (the 4 of us)

We were able to stop by a potential investigator's house Thursday night. She was home and came out to talk with us. She is really sweet and super open. We were able to share a video that briefly overviews the Plan of Salvation. It's called Our Eternal Life. Then we touched on the Atonement and repentance. It was great talking to her but I was constantly trying to sweep my legs so I wouldn't get bit by mosquitos. That technique didn't work very well...I got eaten alive. But the sacrifice was worth it! We are excited to keep meeting with her. Her name is Tess.

We had a great lesson with a girl named Abcdeon Saturday morning. She is 9. Sadly she moved to Kailua and isn't in our area anymore so we are working with the Elders to get her transitioned. But she is very smart. We didn't have to teach her much about the Word of Wisdom or the Law of Chastity because she knew most of it. Props to Sunday School class! She is the only one in her family that wants to be baptized but is very committed. 

We had a fun ward activity on Saturday night. They had dinner and everyone participated in live music. There were guitars, ukuleles, drums, a stand up bass, spoons, and maracas. We also saw one of our recent converts dance the hula. It was a great way to bring everyone together.

Sunday we had the privilege of driving up to Laie to hear from our Beloved Prophet. The spirit was very strong and I still am like, Did that really happen? It was great to hear from him, Elder Holland, and their wives. They are all so Christlike. I felt the spirit so strong when we sang "We Thank Thee Oh God For Our Prophet" and couldn't hold back the tears. 

I know that Russell M. Nelson is the Prophet that leads and guides our church today and that he is truly called of God. 

Aloha,

Sister Heath

Glow Putt (I was so happy thay my dress glowed!)

Glow Putt as a district

Going through all the junk and found a cute ornament

After the Devotional

One for the books...

April 16, 2018

This week was crazy to say the least. I went to Waimanalo with Sister Nichalson on Tuesday. 

Our first visit was with an 8 yr old girl named Dania. She is super sweet. She was raised here in Hawaii but she is Chuukese! So funny... I thought I would never see any Chuukese again but my first lesson here was with one! She is super cute and wants to be baptized. We are just waiting for her Grandma's approval.

Afterward, we went to visit an investigator and met his friend. He claimed to be agnostic and I asked him how he came to that belief and he said he couldn't explain it which I thought was kind of funny. But I guess that's what agnostic means...maybe we can help him know and decide.

Later we visited a less-active member. He has a young family. We ended up sharing the Prince of Peace video after getting to know him. Him and his daughters watched. They really liked it. We talked a little about the Book of Mormon and testified of it. The girls were excited to read and he said they would read it that night!

Our zone got to help make some health and safety videos for missionaries that will come out in about a year. They will watch these videos that are made before they come out to help them be more healthy and safe. We demonstrated how to be safe when doing service. It was a cool experience. 

That night we were going to visit someone for a lesson and it started pouring rain. She ended up not being home but her grandpa was with his 2 biker friends. We actually ended up talking to them and they invited us into the garage. We had a good conversation about religion. The rain kept pouring so much that it was coming into the garage so they shut the door. They had some other friends over and were making some food. We ended up sharing the restoration and they all listened intently. It was really cool even though they might not have been all there. We hope we can share more with them. We were able to give them a copy of the Book of Mormon. They all seem to be open too... especially the grandpa, he said he is at the age now where he just wants to gain more knowledge. They offered us some food which was good. The grandpa went to the back to get all the water out of the back because it was flooding, he used a hose. One of the other guys went too to make sure his house was okay. After a while we decided to head home too before it got worse. As we were driving home there was so much water on the road! Cars were making waves! We also drove past a river type thing and it was splashing over onto the road! Then we get to our street and the water keeps getting deeper. Pretty soon we get to this group of guys standing out in the water saying we aren't going to make it. The water was super deep I could see it just below the window! We also saw a truck driving through and it was up to the doors! So we went around another way that is perpendicular to our road but it was still pretty deep from that direction. We ended up waiting a while because we didn't want to get caught in the current... Our street was literally a river of water. We even saw a garbage can float down. Eventually it went down so we decided to drive to our house. We made it but then the garage door wouldn't open so we had no way to get into our house! We were going to try and get in through our windows but there was no way to get to the doors because both sides of the house were a few inches of mud.

So thankfully the ladies from upstairs came to help us. One of them climbed on a garbage can and through a window into the garage so we could open it...we had to do it manually and a bunch of water came out from the garage. Once we got into the house we noticed our kitchen had flooded. We kind of checked the rooms and they didn't seem wet so we just focused on trying to get the water out. The fun part is what to use? Plus there wasn't any electricity. We don't have much as missionaries. So I found a mop in the garage and tried using that. We tried sweeping the water into a our small kitchen garbage but you could only get so much in until it comes back out. Let's just say it was a long process and took the sacrifice of some towels. Once the other sisters came home from their dinner appointment we realized water had gotten into the edges of the rooms too! The other sisters were super tired and went to bed. I cleaned a little more and put stuff back and showered off. 

The next morning we went to see the damage and some other houses got it pretty bad and there was mud everywhere. We found out it happened because some trees fell and blocked the drainage right above our street so that's what caused it. We helped a non-member who got flooded pretty bad for a while. The worst thing about the mud is the only way you can really clear it well is with more water... So we spent a few hours helping her. Then we cleaned a little at our house. It was a long weekend to say the least. When we got back the house stunk! Mud had even come up a little on the carpet where the rooms flooded. Definitely grateful that we had a tile kitchen though...it would've wrecked wood. So I was exhausted all Sunday. But it was really fun to get to know the ward and see some familiar faces from stake activities when I was in Kaneohe. It was exciting too because our Bishop is super missionary minded so much that he wants the members to find people for us to teach so we don't have to proselyte! 

This week started off so well. I had some greenie fire I guess or I have just grown a lot since I was in Kaneohe. I was excited to talk to everyone and share a message with them. We met some great people and I am excited to see what happens! I love this area already!

Aloha, 

Sister Heath

Our street we were waiting to drive on

Our kitchen

super mud how high the water got +

interesting tree in Honolulu

Bye to Sister Eberhard 

ister Tailleur and I (I gave her a gift since shes my mission mom and going home next transfer)

Sisters cleaning up the mess!

Dinner with Aunti Momi and Helen

goodbye to the Anser family