A Hui Hou

Brother and sisters aloooha.

Well this is it, my two years as a full time missionary have come to a close. Sometimes it feels like it was an eternity and other times it feels like its only been a few days. I have had plenty of hard days but so so many good days.

Whether it was in the jungles of Kaneohe, the sketchy alleys of Honolulu, the suburbs of Waipio, the beach houses of Kealakekua, the countryside of Ka'u or the desert hill of Makakilo the Lord had lessons for me to learn and lives that he needed me to bless. Despite my mission being to help and serve others I know that the biggest change has been in myself. I am nowhere near perfect and I know that I made mistakes every day, but at the same time I know that I have become more like the man that Heavenly Father expects me to be.

I have made so many lifelong friends in the people I have taught alongside and those I have had the privilege to bare witness to. My companions have each changed my life and taught me valuable lessons. I have been blessed to see miracles and be a part of thus great work.

One such miracle I was able to be a part of this week was one that will have a lasting impact on me. As I mentioned a few weeks ago I recently ran into Leslie Niumata and her family that I taught in Honolulu over a year ago. As it happens my companion at the time (Elder Lewis) had been transferred back into that same area around the same time I saw them again. Leslie told us that she didn't think it was a coincidence that she ran into both of us in such a short amount of time. She started taking the lessons more seriously after that and just this Saturday was baptized. Because of the special circumstance and it being my last week in the field I was given permission to go back to Honolulu and perform the baptism. Her son John and neice Palagi were also baptized. I have felt joy many times on my mission but I can't think of a more perfect way to end my two years on these islands than seeing my good friends follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. It is a moment I will never forget.

To all of you that have seen me through this journey, thank you for your support me and praying for me, it has helped me through so much. I know I still have a long way to go, but I know that the journey is possible through Christ. I love you all and look forward to serving alongside all of you as we keep the missionary work alive, wherever it is that we may be. So for the last time...

Aloha!!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1. Aloha Oe from the Makakilo and Palehua Wards
2. Me with Leslie, John, and Palagi
3. The baptism 

End of the Beginning

Aloha! This was a week of lasts for me and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Honestly this was probably the fastest week of my mission so I'm really trying to remember what even happened.

The big things were my last interview with President Bekker and my last zone conference. Interviews were pretty crazy as President Bekker and I went over some of the highlights of my mission and lessons that I learned. He gave me advice about school, work, and dating but more than anything he focused on the basic principles of staying active after the mission: Praying daily, studying the scriptures, serving others, and going to the temple. He also told me that the full time mission isn't even the real mission, it's more like boot camp and setting you on the right path. The real mission is going to be about moving forward in the gospel after real life starts. Should be fun.

Zone Conference was also pretty crazy, the focus was on finding new people and we all threw around different things we could do to help build our teaching pools. Since it was my last ZC I was able to go up in front of everyone and bare my testimony of the gospel. It was pretty surreal but it gave me the spiritual boost I needed to get through this last little bit. After all of us that are going home got up front and everyone else sang us Aloha 'Oe which was rough to be sure haha. I was able to be there with my MTC companion Elder Johnson who I haven't seen in over a year so that was pretty awesome.

Aside from that we were able to use some of the training at zone conference to help find new people, we think we have some real potential with some families we met and hopefully we will see the work in these wards continue to move forward.

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone that has been through this journey with me, I know I have been pretty trash at responding to some of your emails or letters but they really do me the world to me. You guys have been amazing and I can't thank you enough. One week left to go and I'm gonna make it count! Love you all.

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1500 S. Beretania St. ste. 416
Honolulu, HI 96826

3. Me with Elders Cowden, Blackmore, Pututau, Anderson, and Gunderson.
4-6. Some zone conference pics

The updated Wall of Legends now includes Elder Cowden


The birthday boy Elder Cowden


Me with Elders Cowden, Blackmore, Pututau, Anderson, and Gunderson.


Some zone conference pics

The Grind, a Painted Ceiling and Drunk Australians

Well here we have had yet another week in the desert paradise of Makakilo. After taking a good hard look at our area book app Elder Cowden and I have discovered that the records in our two wards are pretty out of whack. So we spent a good amount of time drafting up some lists of people who had talked with missionaries before and knock on all their doors systematically. It took awhile to throw the list together (and sort through records that were incomplete) but now we have a basic plan for what we're going to be doing these next two weeks (so basically the rest of my mission). We have already seen some success come from this and look forward to seeing what happens next.

Honestly I think the real difference between a good and great missionary is whether or not they remember to put contact information in the area book.

Thursday was a bust of a day, we got all ready to go only to find out a guy was coming to paint our ceiling after some water damage last transfer. He said it would only take a little bit but a little bit to him apparently means 10 hours because thats how long it took. So yeah we basically lost an entire day. Not how I'd like to spend one of my last days but I guess that's part of the job.

Sunday was fun and were able to help teach again in some of the church classes, but let me tell you 7 hours of church is definitely not my cup of tea so I'm really glad I didn't end up in a mission where you cover a million different wards. Also that night we went to a musical fireside put on by the Tongan Branch. If you guys have never heard Tongans sing it's quite the experience, they just tell everything and somehow it still sounds good. Also ran into the Van Wagenen family from back home in Clovis visiting the Palehua ward. There were here on vacation and it was fun to see them. I went almost two years not running in to people back home and now in the last month all these people just start showing up, guess it's a sign my days are numbered.

Finally as a funny story the whole zone (there's only 10 of us) went bowling this morning and there were a bunch of Australian tourists there who were just straight hammered. One was dressed like a hula girl and challenged Elder Cowden to an arm wrestle. He accepted and lost but we all had a good laugh over it.

Anyway that's the summary of this week, looking forward to these last couple weeks and honestly can't believe that I am near the end of this journey. Thanks to everyone that got me this far. Love you all!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

candid pic visiting with some of the Van Wagenen family...

Hit the Streets

Well its been another week here in the hot hot streets of Makakilo. The week started off with exchanges where I spent the day in the Kapolei area with Elder Blackmore. We had a good time and were able to talk to lots of people. Later in the week we did exchanges with the Kalaeloa elders, I stayed in the area with Elder Furner and we both talked a lot about our desire to finish strong (he also goes home in three weeks). All together it was a fun couple of days.

We were able to help some of our friends paint their new house which was pretty fun. They were super glad and thankful for us. We also were able to do a service in Nanakuli where we helped move lots of trash and old tires from the side of the road. It was part of some community service thing so we were happy to help. Also we spent about 10 minutes trying to catch a mouse so that was pretty fun (it got away).

Aside from that we hit the streets HARD this week but saw minimal success. Honestly there just seems to be a lot of hard hearts around here lately but the goal is to not let that get us down. We still had some solid contacts and were able to find the silver linings here and there.

On Sunday a member in the Palehua ward brought her friend Tara to church and we found out that Tara's boyfriend is serving a mission in the mainland. She seemed a bit shy but I think she has honest questions about the gospel and will be solid once her boyfriend gets back (he gets back same time I do). On top of that a member in Makakilo brought a non member friend church and we had a solid discussion on the Book of Mormon. Sadly he lives in Florida so we won't be able to keep teaching him but it felt good to testify nonetheless.

These last weeks have been very enjoyable, they maybe haven't been the most successful weeks number wise, but I have chosen to look for the good in every situation, something I wish I had done more throughout my mission. I invite all you guys to do the same. Promise you guys it just makes life better. Love you all, aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1500 S. Beretania St. ste. 416
Honolulu, HI 96826

1. Me and Blackmore on exchanges
2. Me and Furner on exchanges
3. Nanakuli service

Sidenote: I know my hair is out of control, just got a haircut today

The Neat Life of Zack and Cody

So because we never call each other by our first names Elder Cowden and I just realized yesterday that we are Zack and Cody. Throwback to the Dsiney Channel days. Anyway this week was a bit of a long one, definitely had it's ups and downs but there lessons to be learned in all of it.

We did service on the USS Missouri once again which I have not been able to do in quite a while. This was my 10th time going on the ship so I was given one of the "USS Missouri Volunteer" shirts. It's been a long time coming, crazy to think that will be my last time on the ship.

We had some pretty cool moments early and late in the week. We had a meeting with Darren and Sandy (The Pohnepeian couple) and Sandy told us she wants to get baptized she just knows she has to get married first. So we are currently working out the details on that.

Saturday was quite the day, we decided to dedicate the whole day to finding new investigators and we felt pretty good about it. Problem is as the day went on it was just one rejection after another. People weren't home, people shot us down, we got dropped by a few investigators, it just wasn't a pretty sight. We started to get a little down but we kept trucking regardless. At the end of the day though as we were heading back to our car a Samoan man named Otto struck up a conversation with us, as we talked we found out he was a less active member who hadn't attended church in 10 years. He told us to come back this week to share a message with him and his family (all not members). After that me and Elder Cowden both felt a confirmation that the work we had put in was worth it. I've preached this before but I'll say it again, when you do God's work miracles happen daily, just rarely the ones you are expecting.

Sunday was a good day as well, my aunt and uncle and cousins from back in California were vacationing in Hawai'i and came to the Palehua ward to say hi to me after sacrament meeting! During the meeting though Elder Cowden and I noticed a man sitting by himself that neither of us knew. When the meeting ended I slipped right past my family and talked to him, turns out his name was Adam and when we asked him what brought him there he just said he saw a church and decided to check it out. We asked if he was down to learn more and he said he wouldn't mind it so we grabbed his info and are meeting with him this coming week. Kinda felt bad just brushing my family aside but duty calls. I talked to my family after of course, seeing how big my cousins are now made me realize just how long I've been away.

That night though we went to a stake activity at the chapel in Waianae where we conducted a chapel tour but decorated different rooms to look like different parts of the Plan of Salvation. Elder Cowden and I were able to teach the tour groups about the pre-mortal life and aside from a couple Seventh Day Adventists walking out because of what we said it went pretty well. Lots of people learned a lot and lots of investigators from the Waianae and Nanakuli areas came. All in all good times.

That's all to report from this week, all I can say is I'm glad the Lord still has lessons for me to learn in my last month out here. I can't wait to see what these next 4 weeks hold. Love you all. Aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1. I was inducted into the Pierce's wall of fame for eating a habanero
2. The mighty mo
3. Reppin' the home state

Beginning of the End

Aloha!

Well we are finally here in the last transfer of my mission, pretty nuts to think about to be honest, but I think it's going to be a good one. Like I said before I now cover the Makakilo and Palehua Wards which has been a bit of a shake up. Palehua Ward is pretty dope and seems like it has some really cool members in it, I'm sad that I won't have much time to get to know them. We have all three members of the Stake Presidency in our ward so that is pretty dope, they are all pretty great member missionaries so we are working on doing a lot of work through them.
We were able to meet a woman thus week named Sandy who is from Pohnpei (I think I'm spelling that right, it's a Micronesian island) and was being taught by missionaries before. We will be meeting with her (and hopefully her family) tonight so we'll see how that goes.

4th of July was pretty alright, Hawaiians don't really go too crazy when it comes to independence day so there wasn't much going on. We had a breakfast at the chapel in the morning then went to President Mafi's house (in the stake presidency) for a barbecue at night with the Nanakuli Elders. There weren't any fireworks but we did grab some sparklers. Gotta rep the mainland somehow.

We helped our investigator Aaron move from his house at the top of Makakilo Drive to a new house at the bottom and that was quite the experience. We moved every piece of furniture to a moving truck and just when we thought we were done he remembered we had to grab the washing machine. I'm no mathematician but I think it was about a million pounds and the fact that we were able to lift it into his truck was a miracle in itself. Thankfully we had the Kalaeloa Elders and Waianae Sisters helping us out with the move (Though they all dipped out when we had to move the washer).

Funny story for the week was on Saturday when me and Elder Cowden, the Kapolei Elders, Nanakuli Elders, and Waianae Sisters were all at the stake center for a meeting and afterwards went to check out a graduation party (graduation is huuuge in Hawaii) that was happening in the cultural hall. About five minutes into being there President Bekker walks in. Turns out he was invited to the party and came, so naturally all of the Elders that were there pulled him into the photo booth and took a picture. It was legendary, I'll attach it.

But yeah it's been a pretty good week, I love my new comp Elder Cowden. He's from Riverside, California and has been out about 9 months. He's a great missionary but still knows how to have a good time, definitely one of my funnier companions.

Hope you guys are still always finding ways to make someone else's day better. Love you all, keep the faith!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1500 S. Beretania St. ste. 416
Honolulu, HI 96826

1. Murica tie
2. Picture of a picture of the Makakingdom with President Bekker

The Final Stretch

Aloha everyone!

Well we are now at the final stretch, my last transfer has begun. First off as far as transfer news I am staying in Makakilo Ward but will now also be covering the Palehua Ward as well. My new (and final) companion will be Elder Cowden from Riverside, California. I've already spent a good around him so I think this is going to be a good time.

As for what else went down thus week, we did a whole lot of service. We helped the Gilbert family move a piano, fixed up the yard of the Nunes family, cleaned the chapel, painted a fence for brother Tillman, and painted a house for our investigator named Aaron. All were very grateful and we were happy to do them. Sadly in terms of actual lesson teaching we are a little lacking, still talking to just about everyone we can but success is hit and miss. Attitudes are good and hope is high though, so can't complain too much.

In other news my favorite sole Elder Fanene was called this week to be the new AP, we are all super pumped for him, only thing is he had to be moved in the office mid way through the week so his companion Elder Blackmore came and was in a trio with us for the back end of the week. It was a little difficult getting everything done that needed to be done in both areas but we had a fun time all in all.

There isn't much else to report than that, sorry I'm a little rushed in writing this one. It's been an amazing ride so far, can't wait to see what the Lord has prepared for me these last 6 weeks.

Aloha! (Pics may or may not come later)

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

Well it's been quite the week. Here's the rundown.

So Monday I was able to check one thing off my mission bucket list and that was to eat balut. The Pierces (Same family that gave us habeñeros last week) heard of my "I'll eat anything once" philosophy so they got me some balut to try. For those who don't know its basically a hard boiled egg except the chicken embryo is already developed partially. Still basically tastes like a hard boiled egg just with little bones, veins, and feathers. No big deal. Elder Lambert didn't want to do it with me so Sister Pierce was a homie and we did it together. That's how you build member trust my friends.

On a more spiritual note we had a cool opportunity to go with our RS President to the Laie temple visitors center. She brought a bunch of less actives or people who were working towards the temple and it was an awesome experience. AlohaLyn, the aunty we live with who us a recent convert, came and she absolutely loved it. She is pretty excited to work towards getting to the temple. Also while we were there I ran into the Chandler Ohana from waaaaay back in my Kaneohe days almost 2 years ago, surprisingly they still remembered me so I grabbed some pics with them. Funny thing is their daughter is actually serving in this mission because of some medical issues she has and I've served with her a couple times.

Friday I had my second to last zone conference which was so weird. Seeing these missionaries that I have known for so long give their dying testimonies was so crazy. Hard to believe that will be me in another transfer, but I plan on making my remaining time out here count. The theme of the conference was recognizing the spirit, something that I have come to learn much more about in my time here in Hawai'i. I'm so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and the blessings that go along with it.

For the weekend we spent a good chunk of Saturday helping our investigator Aaron tear up tile in his new house with those big scrapers. It was pretty nuts, we got the Kapolei elders to help us out but by the end all of us were just dead. He was very grateful for the help though so it was all worth it.

Sunday was a good day at church, I was able to give a talk in sacrament about following the prompting of the Holy Ghost which fit in nicely with what we talked about at zone conference.

All in all it was a good week, we had some teaching opportunities and lots of chances to serve, can't ask for much more than that. Love you guys and hope you are all finding ways to spread the Gospel in your own lives.

Aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1500 S. Beretania St. ste. 416
Honolulu, HI 96826

Me and the Chandler Ohana



Me with Sister Chandler (their daughter) and Sister Hilton at ZC


Me and Elder Lewis



Me and Elder Moody



Me and Sister Thompson



Me and Elders Taka, Mawby, and Porter (from my batch)



Temple Squad



AlohaLyn at the VC



Balut pics








Me and Sister Pierce

Tender Mercies

Aloha!

Sorry for the late email, I actually have no excuse I just straight up forgot to send an email until now. Whoops.

Not a whole lot to report this week, no real sit down lessons just some doorway conversation and service. Still little successes here and there but a lot of people have been dropping us or just losing interest. All in all we are looking to reboot the area and just find a ton of different people, we have some fun ideas planed to get the ward involved because that really is the key here. Members don't always realize the power that they have in missionary work, we are aiming to show them that power.

We went on two exchanges this week and I took over the area both times. The first was with my favorite sole Elder Fanene where we ended up getting challenged by some members to eat a super spicy pepper. We have a pretty funny video of it that I'm trying to send but email is being difficult. The second exchange was with Elder Chandler and we were able to make a cool video about how to use Facebook effectively in missionary work. All in all both were fun and informative.

The highlight of the week came Sunday night, after a week of pretty much nothing I was getting a little down on myself. Slow weeks aren't fun to have when you only have 9 weeks left, so I had a heart to heart with God for some kind of confirmation that my time here is well spent. On our way home from street contacting at night a random kid ran up to me and said "Elder Smith is that you?" I looked at him and realized it was John and his mom Leslie, two people I taught while I was in Honolulu about a year ago. I ended up taking some time to catch up with them and found out that missionaries recently started going by again and they are going to be baptized next month. Apparently ever since me and Elder Lewis taught him about baptism all that time ago he has been wanting to do it like crazy but because that ward got whitewashed 4 times I about 8 months he and his mom sorta slipped through the cracks. But they are all in now and they started thanking us for what we taught them, a lesson I hadn't even thought about for months.
I want to testify to you guys that when you open your mouth about the gospel you are making a difference, even if we don't see it in the moment someone will be touched by it, I promise you. I'm so grateful that my heavenly father gave me this tender mercy.

But that's all for this week, love you all and hope that you all find a way to serve your neighbor this week. Be bold, God is with you!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1. The moment before the pain set in
2. Me with Leslie and John
(Not a lot of pics this week)

It's Not Even Summer Yet

Holy cow it's hot here. Just saying.

Anyway this week has been a fun one, lots and lots of biking and lots and lots of sweating. Honestly I don't know what I'm going to do when July and August roll around, I might just melt. Despite the heat we were still able to get some solid work done, we did a couple service projects for people in the ward and held a couple lessons.

We have been working with some of our investigators like Cody, Casey, and the Newhouse family who are all making progress it's just slow progress haha. We decided that we need to focus more of our energy on finding new people to teach so we will take one day a week to just walk and talk to everyone that we know, we did that this week and had a good time but we accidentally picked the hottest day of the week. Met some cool people, some less than cool people, and some bashers so all in all an average day in missionary land.

Today though we had the awesome opportunity to go as a zone to the temple in Laie. As usual it was an amazing experience and really made me appreciate how blessed we are to have the miracle of modern day temples. Never take them for granted.

Wish I could write more but we still have lots of P-day things to do and not a lot of time to do them so love you all and hope you have an awesome week, promise next week's email will be better. Aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

Makakiloooo!


 District Meeting selfie


The Laie Temple




Makakilo Zone: Elders Taka, me, Gunderson, Lambert, Fanene, Furner, Andrus, Blackmore, Cowden, and Chandler with Sisters Chappel and Fifita

It's Hot, I'm Always Tired, and I Love it

Early in the week someone asked me how I'm liking the Makakilo Ward so far and I responded with the above title. It's a pretty accurate sum up of this week.

We had a pretty fun Pday last Monday, we hiked to Kaena Point then after met up with the Kapolei, Kalaeloa, and Palehua elders to have a nerf war. Turned out to be really fun!

Some of the highlights of this week were our lessons, we taught a Samoan lady named Mona the plan of salvation while eating at a McDonald's, she was a little skeptical of it but loved the concept of family history and temple work so we will see what we can do about that. We taught the law of tithing to Sebastian and he thought it was awesome and said it totally made sense (honestly this guy is straight golden). My favorite lesson of the week was with the Newhouse family. All day leading up to the lesson we were texting members to see who would be able to come and no one answered, finally about 30 minutes before the lesson Sister Kaumaitotoya said she felt like she needed to go. We had dinner with the family and Sister Kaumaitotoya started talking to Ilisha (the mother of the family), turns out Ilisha is an online college professor who teaches through Louisiana State, the same college that Sister K (I can only type out her name so many times) is starting up online courses for soon. The coincidence was pretty nuts but I think everyone in the room knew that it wasn't a coincidence. One of our main focuses with the Newhouses has been to try to find them some friends in the ward and that was just too perfect, miracles can be simple and impactful. After the dinner we had a super solid lesson about listening to the prompting of the spirit and they revommitted to reading the Book of Mormon daily, I know that as long as they keep that commitment they will be baptized very soon, all we can do is pray and guide though.

With the good also comes the bad though Haha, we had a not so solid lesson with Mexican woman named MariElayna which was pretty comedic. She told us that she had a dream the night before that two well dressed young men had come to her covered in light and offered to help her. We thought that was pretty dope but apparently she severely misinterpreted the dream and was convinced that it meant she was supposed to teach us about God hahaha. We tried to have a conversation with her but she was a stubborn one, kinda hard to teach someone who believes in God but doesn't believe in scripture/doesn't believe in anything you preach out of scripture. Oh well, win some and lose some, we'll try her again in the distant future.

Aside from that we did a lot of service this week, chapel cleaning, weed wacking, rock moving, more weed wacking. It was a good time. That combined with all the hill biking we have had to do has pretty much wiped me out completely. I'm getting too old for this kind of stuff.

But yeah that's thus weeks summary, the ward is awesome, the work is good, my companion keeps me in line, and the church is still true (I know, crazy right?). Love you all and hope your week is awesome! Aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

Servin'

They wouldn't take our BoM but we took their magazine


Me and Lambchop
 

My leg five 60 seconds into weed wacking



Gnarly yard we got to clean up


Reunited with my old friend Sister Iino from back in my original district #DaKingdom


Waiting to get picked up for church (spoiler alert: our ride never came)


Us and Sebastian


Most of the zone at a baptism in Kapolei ft. guest appearances from Elder Orihuela and AP Porter

It's Like Riding a Bike

Aloha from the island of O'ahu!

Well this has been a fun first week in the new area. For those of you who don't know Makakilo is on the far west side of the island and is one of the driest places in the mission, it is sunny as heck to the point where I might actually have to invest in a pair of sunglasses, and it's about 90% hills. Throw in the fact that we are on bikes and you have the perfect recipe for a very long week. I guess I said I didn't want these last few months to crawl by so God delivered. Careful what you ask for folks!

In all seriousness though this is a pretty awesome area, there are lots of people we can talk to and many opportunities to help people daily. My new companion Elder Lambert has that greenie fire burning and we are excited to see what we can get done over here.

The week is all kinda a blur but we had some dope lessons. We met with the Newhouse ohana and taught them a lesson on the role of prophets in our lives. They had a solid understanding and totally agreed with what we said, I think all four of them have serious potential.

Another awesome lesson we had was with Sebastian Stanley, a 23 year old who has been investigating for awhile. He was super receptive to what we taught so we invited him to be baptized. He said he wanted to but he is moving to the mainland in a couple weeks and would prefer to do it then so his girlfriend can be there. Aside from that hiccup it was super solid and I don't doubt that he will get baptized soon.

The ward itself has some pretty awesome members that I am still trying to get straight, and everyone is making sure to let me know that I am almost done with my mission. Also they always ask what area I came from and when they hear Ka'u they act like I survived a war zone so it's pretty dang funny to see they're reaction (Pretty much did survive a war zone tbh). But so far my favorite person is AlohaLyn, a Filipino aunty who we live behind. She has already adopted me as one of her son's so this should be a fun time.

But time is running short and I still have like 4,000 things to do before the day is out, hope you all had a great week and continue to be awesome examples of Christians. Love you all, Aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1500 S. Beretania St. ste. 416
Honolulu, HI 96826

1. Elder Lambert
2. Me, Owens, and Chau in the Hilo airport
3. Me, Elder Fanene and Elder Furner hanging out at Kaena Point on Pday, we have better pics I just don't have them yet

1 Week, 2 Apostles, 3 Ash Days, 4 Elders

You know I've been living on God's earth a little over two decades now but I don't think I have ever experienced a week that went by quite this slow. Buckle your seatbelts because this is probably the most unconventional missionary email you've read in awhile.

So Monday, a couple hours after sending last week's email, we get a call from our ZLs (Elders Collins and Fakahau) who say that President Bekker felt strongly that we needed to get out of Ka'u asap. We were in the middle of a hike to the Kawa black sand beach when it happened so we finished things up there and spent the rest of the day packing up everything we owned. That evening we took all of our stuff to the Kea'au Elder's (Elders Dorrough and Owens) pad and converted their place into a four man pad. We didn't know how long we would be there we just decided to roll with it.

Tuesday proves that the church is in fact true because that morning we found out that mere hours after leaving Ka'u a huge ash cloud hit Pahala (The northern most town in our area) and air quality was dropping like crazy. Vog and sulfur levels have only risen since then, it's still pretty bad.

Despite that we had an amazing opportunity to hear from two different apostles on Tuesday as well. Elder Holland and Bednar were in Laie giving a devotional to the students at BYU-H but wanted to do a special devotional for the missionaries. All the outer island missionaries were able to Skype in so we could hear too. Many great things were said but my favorite was Elder Holland talking about how serving a mission isn't just something we check off a list, it is what sets us on a trajectory for the rest of our lives. If nothing else the church can expect us each to have one convert, ourselves. It hit me pretty hard since I'm getting towards the end of the mission and gave me the kick in the pants I needed to finish strong.

Sadly the kick in the pants needed to wait a little longer because early Thursday morning we had another volcanic eruption only this one was slightly more explosive than the previous ones. LOTS of sulfur got kicked up from that one and President told the whole Hilo Zone to stay indoors for the day and to use best judgment from then on. The air in Kea'au was pretty bad so while the others were able to start working again after a day the four of us got stuck inside for three straight days. We messaged investigators, updates records, and cleaned everything we could think of and still had time to spare. We played every board game and card game imaginable but cabin fever started to hit us pretty hard. It's a good thing the four of us like each other or else we might have just gone crazy.

So Saturday eventually rolled around and transfer news came in. I got word that I am transferring back to the island of O'ahu and will now be serving in the Makakilo Ward on the west side of the island. My companion will be Elder Lambert who is only three months out and just so happens to be my grandson (he was trained by my "son" Elder Hayes). I am pretty excited to be going back to the rock and am looking forward to seeing what adventures my last area has in store for me.

We journeyed back Ka'u on Sunday so I could say goodbye to the ward. The volcano has really affected the air down there in the last week, it was pretty ugly. I am really going to miss this place though, I have really come to love the people here and see just how the spirit works on individuals. The ward is very loving and while they will probably all have forgotten my name in a matter of months I know that I made a difference here and that they have all changed my life.

Well that's the basic rundown of our rather odd week. Grateful for the experience but excited to get back to actual missionary work this next week. Adventure is out there!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1500 S. Beretania St. ste. 416
Honolulu, HI 96826

Me and the Makuakanes (One of my favorite families)


Me and Moki Simmons (EQ President)



Me and Ferrin with Ethan Kobzi, a hilarious kid we are teaching


This went on for 3 hours


When the air quality is junk but you still need a haircut

Me and Mandy (super fun investigator)

Me with Josh Viernes, our recent convert who is just an amazing person


Me with Gary and Candice Kaawa, a family we are teaching that I absolutely love


Me and the Sherlines