This has been a wild week. So first off Elder Lewis and I are trying to wrap our heads around how this happened but we got a crazy amount of new investigators this week. Some are more solid than others but we just kept asking people if we could come back and share more about our beliefs and about Christ and people just kept saying yes (which I'm not really used to) hopefully this will all turn out but I am starting to see how the Lord prepares people for us out here in the work.
Probably the highlight of the week was a lesson we had with an investigator named Leslie. She has seemed really solid to me since I got here but we have never been able to set up a solid appointment with her but after 5 months in this area we were finally able to meet with her and her 10 year old son. We recapped what she had been taught years earlier when she had been taught by missionaries and then we bore our testimonies of the restoration and how it blesses our lives and unites our families. The spirit was really strong and so we asked them both to commit to a baptismal dater and they agreed so as of now they are set to be baptized on August 26th. Praying for them to make that date because there are still some things that she needs to get over but we all have confidence that through Christ's atonement she can make it through anything.
On the fun side the Hon-west zone got to travel up to Laie and go to the temple today. Always a beautiful experience, really builds my testimony of the importance of a temple. Also makes me realize how lucky we are to have so many on the earth today. Also going up to the North Shore gave me an excuse to drive through my old area in Kaneohe. Any excuse to see that place is a good excuse.
One funny story though, Elder Lewis and I were walking up this hill when a non member slows down his car and says "You boys are doing great work, God bless" and drives away. Its always great to hear stuff like that so I say "man some of the people around here are so nice" as soon as I say that another car slows down and this guy yells "hail Satan" and drives away. So if you want to know what people's opinion of us are its pretty 50/50. All in all I was just laughing at the whole thing.
Well thank you for all the prayers, they are definitely working and I am truly grateful for all your support. You are the best, love you all.
Aloha,
Elder Smith
Raam anim (Hello in Chuukese),
Hope things are going well for you all! Things are still going well here island side and the work is going on.
We were able to meet with the Marshall family and they came to church, the kids are totally crazy but they love coming and are having a good time in primary. We were able to teach the oldest (Tiani) and she is still set to be baptized this month. She totally grabbed on to everything we were saying and had a lot of good questions (she probably knows more than I did when I was 10).
Another crazy thing was that by some miracle we were able to get 6 new investigators for the 3rd week in a row. This week it was just by visiting potentials and formers that I have been trying to hit for months and they were all just kinda home this time. There is plenty of work to be done here in the Lanakila area. On top of all this I got to go on an exchange with my new Zone Leader Elder Porter and he is a boss of a street contacter. Definitely made me realize I need to up my game. Elder Lewis said the same thing about our other ZL Elder Klaassen and so we have been doing that more and that is where 3 of our new investigators came from. Its been a good week.
In the non-proselyting news we had the 4th of July this week which was a sad shadow of New Years. Honestly I easily saw 10x as many fireworks at new years than I did this week. People here are patriotic to an extent, but they are a lot more proud to be Hawaiian than American. Speaking of America we also went to Pearl Harbor again and Elder Lock and I swept and mopped a bunch of the senior officer quarters. In other words we got to go behind all the blocked off parts of the tour and snoop around. Always a good time.
But that has been my week. Crazy that it has already been 11 months on my mission, I still feel like I just got here. Just reminds me that I can't be wasting my time here. Need to make every day count.
Love you all and keep up the work of the Lord. Also if you know someone who isn't a member introduce them to the missionaries!
C pop 2 (no idea how to spell it but that's what it sounds like in Chuukese),
Elder Smith
Aloha!
So this week has flown by, lots of good, lots of bad. Typical week in the mission field.
On the good side Elder Lewis and I were able to get 6 new investigators again this week just by talking to people on the street, not really anything new there I guess we just talked to the right people. Elder Lewis is a wiz with cars so he talks story with anyone who is working on cars or trucks. That's nice because I don't know a thing in that field and lots of people in Honolulu like their cars. Another good thing this week was that we started teaching Sister Marshall's (less active member) kids and found out that the 11 year old Tiani is not baptized. So we talked with her and her mom about it and we will be getting her baptized later this month (if all goes well). Teaching these kids is a riot though, I've taught a lot of kids in my mission but these ones are 11, 7, 6, 4, and 3 so trying to keep them all paying attention is a circus act, but a fun one. Especially when the 7 year old claims to be a J-dub. So that was fun. On top of that we had a rather fun encounter with a roaring drunk Chuukese man and we were able to set a time to see his non-drunk family because of the incident so the lord works in mysterious ways I guess (and no worries there was a Samoan member right there when this happened making sure this guy didn't do anything dumb).
On the sadder side our investigators that we thought were going to be really solid (Athena and her son Justin) moved away very suddenly. We are still trying to find out where they moved to so we can send the missionaries over there, but so far no luck. Keep praying for them though.
Well if there's one thing I learned this week its to never set your goals low and never give up on people. So even if you think someone isn't ready to hear the gospel it never hurts to invite them.
Love you all and have a great week.
Aloha,
Elder Smith
So this has been a pretty crazy week. I have been saying since I got here that this area has a lot of potential and I think after all this time it is starting to show. Elder Lewis and I got 6 new investigators this week (significantly more than I have ever gotten in this area) and a good chunk of them seemed pretty solid, too. One of the situations was pretty funny, I saw one of the less actives that we haven't been able to catch since Lewis and I became comps so we pulled over on the road and talked to her to try and set up a time to visit, only problem is a minute or so into the conversation I found out that this was NOT who I thought it was, but was instead her twin sister who was not a member, soooo we were able to set up an appointment with her and we will be seeing her this week. We also got two solid referrals from the Laie Visitors center and set return appointments with both. Honestly its the first media referrals I have gotten that are both 1. Interested and 2. actually in our area so that was a small miracle in itself.
On a "small world" note, we got a call from a companionship of sisters in the California, Los Angeles Mission who told us that one of their investigators was moving to our area. It will still be a few weeks and they don't have a house yet so it may end up being in another area but hopefully it works out. The crazy part is that one of the sisters that called us is from the same home town as Elder Lewis and they know each other. Pretty crazy how that works out.
Thanks for your support and prayers, always remember to live what you know and share what you treasure.
Love you all!
Elder Smith
Aloha!
What a week it has been.
So the highlight of this week was definitely the Marshall Ohana. They are a less active part member family that Bishop Saula introduced us to. We went over and introduced ourselves, found out her life story and played a bit with her three youngest kids (who are 7, 5, and 3). She really wants to get her kids more into church and she wants to start coming back as well. Her oldest is an unbaptized 11 year old but she is with the Grandma for the summer in Waipahu and the grandma is a J-dub so something tells me she won't really be open to Mormons coming by. Sister Marshall says that she does want her daughter to be taught once she comes back in August though. So after having a lesson with them they agreed to come to church and after coordinating with bishop we got them there which was really awesome to see. On top of that it was Levi Fuaga's farewell on Sunday so I said my goodbyes to him. He went out just about every week with me and Elder Campbell so it was pretty crazy seeing him go. He is going to be an awesome missionary though.
Another cool thing was yet another zone conference, so I got to see people from the Honolulu, Waipahu, and Makakilo zones. The theme of the zone conference was working with members and it made us realize that Elder Lewis and I need to get the point across to the members that we need help since nothing that we are doing to encourage member support has been working. So, in what is probably the most uncomfortable thing I have ever done on my mission, I basically told (In a nice way) a room full active members in leadership positions that they needed to help us out more. This rubbed one person the wrong way and our discussion got... colorful, but in a way I think that better emphasized our point that there is a disconnect between the members and the missionaries and there has been since before I got here. After the meeting we had several members call us and tell us that they were going to start helping us out more so maybe we will actually start seeing some progress in the Lanakila ward. (Just in time for me to leave probably :P).
So yes we will be getting transfer news this week and it honestly is 50/50 as to whether or not I will stay. Either way I will serve where ever the lord sees fit for me to serve.
Right now in my BoM reading I'm in the beginning of Alma (chapter 5, I believe) and in my New Testament reading I am in the back half of Acts (chapter 22 if I remember correctly). Its so crazy how much you miss in the scriptures, I think that this is the first time that I actually understood the time line of the book of Mosiah with the Mulekites and the people of Limhi and the People of Alma and Ammon and all that I could just never tell what was happening. But I finally got it on this read through, guess that is why repetition is so important. Reading Acts has made me realize that my struggles are nothing compared to these early missions, Paul, Peter, Stephen, Philip, they all had it bad, so I can keep working with a better attitude.
Bishop Saula quote of the week: "Unity is important. I know that most of this ward council is older men and women, but united we can take down the Kahuku Red Raiders"
Love you all so much, find someone this week to introduce to the missionaries
Aloha Oe
Elder Smith
Pics of Zone conference, with companion Elder Lewis and Levi's mission farewell.
