Nothing Like Ka'u

Well week 2 in Ka'u was also quite an interesting experience. Elder Moody was sick for a couple days so that put us a bit behind but we were still able to see a good amount of our investigators. We taught the recent converts Tahi and Tanoa a lesson on the sacrament while also teaching to their dad Josh who is an investigator. He is super solid and wants to be baptized we just need to work through a thing or two with him first. But anyway we taught them about the purpose of the sacrament and it went really well.

We were also able to drop by Doug, another investigator who likes what we have to say. He had a lot of questions on Mormon history and was pretty satisfied with our answers which is nice compared to most people who have a lot of questions on Mormon history.

On top of that we also had a brief meeting with another investigator named Darlene which went well and we committed her to pray about the Book of Mormon. So lots of good experiences this week.
Ka'u continues to be a weird place. We had many pests this week but mostly more centipedes. Also we got a scorpion, I didn't even know there were scorpions in Hawai'i so that was a rude awakening. Animal highlight of the week was passing by a house yesterday and seeing a cow on a leash in the front yard. Mind you this wasn't a farm, just a normal house. I love this place.

Anyway life is good in the middle of nowhere. Keep the faith and keep being example of Christ.
Aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1500 S. Beretania St. ste 416
Honolulu, HI 968268

What is This Place?

Aloha from Ka'u.

Man I don't even know where to start. This place is... interesting. Not bad at all, but interesting. First off even though I'm in the Hilo Zone I'm nowhere near Hilo, I'm about 2 hours south of it and Kona is just as far away in the other direction. On top of that my area is the largest one (geographically) in the mission as we basically cover the entire southern coast of the big island. Now don't get me wrong, this area is big but it is empty. We cover a series of small towns that mostly consists of Pahala, Naalehu, and Ocean View and its about 30 minutes to get from one to the other. There's no major stores here so we shop at local markets.

Also despite the fact that the ward boundaries are bigger than most Hawaiian stakes this can hardly be called a ward, there's only about 50 active members so sacrament meeting was pretty small. One cool thing is that for years this ward didnt have missionaries and so there was a bit of a standstill. This area was finally opened again about 4 months ago and there have been 3 baptisms since then with a couple more in the near future. I am super excited to be a part of this wards growth.

My comp is Elder Moody from Corona, California and he is super dope. He's a crazy outdoors guy and loves weapons which is nice when your pad gets kinda infested with centipedes. And for any mainlanders that don't know this, centipedes are very venomous at both their head and tail so its a little worse than being infested by roaches. But so far we are having a fun time.

All in all the work is going well here. We are pretty isolated and don't have a lot to work with, but we are using what we do have and I am loving it.

Hope you are all having a great new year and remember to always put Christ at the center of your life.

Aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission
1500 S. Beretania St. ste 416
Honolulu, HI 96826


Ocean pic is near the green sand beach. We did weekly planning at an abandoned church hidden in a mountain. That was the view from the church (first christian church in Hawaii actually)

Nuketown

Aloha from Kona!

Well we had a bit of an exciting week. As I'm sure most of you heard on the news there was a false ballistic missile threat that went out to all the Hawaiian islands this past week. The message was sent out through phones, tv's, and all sorts of public displays so there was a bit of a panic going on. Things weren't too bad here on this island but I hear that things were crazy on O'ahu. Elder Lee and I were cleaning the chapel when we got word, we didn't really know what to do so we just kept cleaning the chapel. No better place to be right? But everything is all good now and if nothing else I think this was a wake-up call to all who weren't prepared for these kinds of emergencies. Just remember there is a reason we have been told by a prophet of God to have these kind of things in place.

In missionary work news we had a pretty awesome week. I went on exchanges with the ZLs and took over this area for the first time. Even though I had no clue what I was doing we had a super productive and super fun day that included 1. Watching Pres Monson's funeral 2. Checking out the ghettos of my area that I hadn't been to before. 3. Getting schooled in basketball by some Marshallese kids (and getting a new investigator out of it). and 4. Accidentally setting off the security alarm at an old folks home. Seniors on the loose.

So basically it was a dope day and we were able to keep that momentum going throughout the week. I was actually getting really excited for transfers because I was pumped to take over the area, which is what added to the bombshell that we got when Elder Lee and I found out we were both leaving. Honestly I'm pretty upset that I am leaving this place after only 6 weeks because I have really come to love this ward. I'll be staying on the big island but moving to the Ka'u ward in the Hilo Zone to be with Elder Moody. I have learned a lot in my brief time here and hope that I have been able to give to back to them as well. Since it was fast Sunday me and Lee bore our testimonies and thanked the ward for being awesome. A bunch of the youth got all sad because we were pretty tight with the YM and YW. Best part was though the ward didn't have us go up for Aloha 'Oe and they just ended the meeting but then as everyone was leaving Brother Lui (hardcore Hawaiian guy) started singing and those still in the room joined in. It was a lot more personal and both of us got a little misty eyed.

So with that said I am super sad to be leaving Kona but excited for the adventures awaiting me in Hilo. Let the good times roll.

Love you all!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

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

Big Island Blues

Aloha eveyone!

Hope everyone had a great week this week. It was a relatively boring week here in the Kealakekua, we had a hard time meeting all of our investigators and finding new ones is still in a bit of a slump. Also I was a little down this week because I got word that my favorite investigator from my last area just got dropped. He was all set to be baptized when I left but I guess his mom got into a disagreement with the bishop because the cousin that wanted to baptize Ikaika wasn't worthy so his mom asked the elders there now to never come back. Honestly its one of the hardest things I've heard on my mission because Ikaika was one of my favorite investigators, I felt really close to him and I legitimately saw the gospel make a change in his life. My prayer at this point is that with the missionaries not coming by he and his mom will notice a difference and know what it is that they need. He still loves the church but he is only 15 so the mother is really the only thing stopping him. It got me a little down in the dumps but I know the only way to pull myself out is to make every second out here count.

The week wasn't all bad though, we had stake conference and President Bekker came to that and talked on (you guessed it) missionary work. It was good to see him and Sister Bekker. Also today we had the awesome opportunity of going to the Kona temple (my first time at this temple). It was really cool because it was super similar to the Fresno temple, going inside gave me a ton of flashbacks. The spirit was strong there and I think it gave me the shot in the arm that I needed. We have one week left of this transfer and I am ready to make it count. I will hopefully be staying here in Kona for another go around, but I will let you all know next week.

Love you all and hope you are starting the new year off right.
Aloha!

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission

1. Gene the Chameleon
2. Gene when he got annoyed
3. Me daydreaming about golf while Elder Lee is on the phone during week plan.
4. Elda Lee
5. Sunset off Ali'i. This is basically a postcard shot
6. Me and Elder Lee at the Kona Temple

Exit Christmas, Enter New Year

Aloha!

So its been an interesting bit of time here in Hawai'i. Last week we had Christmas which was amazing. We got together with the zone and had a secret santa gift exchange. Some elder got me a Chewbacca hot wheels card and I got Elder Iverson (our ZL) a " Men of the Islands" 2018 calendar. So all in all everyone had a merry Christmas. Also the big treat was that we all got to watch the movie Moana which was amazing. Most of us in the zone are older in the mission so we have been waiting over a year to see this. We all thought it was great and was a cool combination of all the Polynesian cultures (there is actually very little Hawaiian there, it's mostly Samoan, Tongan, and Maori). Beat part was when Mau'i yelled "Cheehoo!" the first time and all the elders did it too. I flippin' love this mission.

Buuut on the work side of things we had to focus on finding some new investigators and we found a really solid one named Brittany through a member named Sister Frost. It resulted in probably the funniest lesson i have ever taught because sister frost is... interesting. She would take the lesson in the wrong direction constantly and her son Thunder (yes. His name is Thunder Frost. Dopest name ever) who just got home from his mission last week had to keep directing the lesson where it needs to go. Brittany was super receptive and in the end Elder Lee and I extended the baptismal commitment and she said yes... only for sister Frost to say its too soon for us to extend that and Thunder had to tell his mom to be quiet because this is how we are suppose to do things. Despite the craziness we set her with a date for mid February and we will hopefully see that through. The spirit was super strong and I gained a testimony that you can feel the spirit even in the craziest of circumstances.

Aside from that we had New Years last night and stayed up til midnight to see all the neighbors launch their illegals. Our apartment has a view of all of south Kona so we could see a lot of crazy stuff happening. Its been a very memorable week. Anyway I love you all and hope that you are all finding ways to keep the Christmas spirit into the new year.

Ofa atu

Elder Smith
Hawai'i Honolulu Mission