Hawaii Temple P-day

Aloha Ohana,

Ok so I'm hopping right into this, I thought I had like an hour more on here but it turns out it might just be a few minutes. Sorry!

Temple was awesome today, it was cool being in one of the first temples that was ever built, very simple interior but still just so spiritual. So great! Being in the celestial room is just such a beautiful experience, it really is the closest we can get to being in the presence of God. I will send pics!

So I had an awesome lesson with Malia this week, we taught about Tithes and Fast offerings and she was so much more receptive and conversational with us this week (she is really shy). I think it was because she consistently prayed every day this week, it is amazing seeing how something so simple that we often take for granted can have such a positive change in a person. We have decided on a date of November 26th (tried to get it for my birthday on the 25th but it didn't quite work out) so I'm really hoping I don't get transferred on the 22nd, that would be poor timing, but odds are I'll stay here and get a new comp.

Hey so I forgot to mention but I Elder Z and I made chili for our ward Halloween party a couple weeks ago and turned out hecka bomb. Especially considering we had nothing to measure the ingredients with or a crock pot to keep it warm. An Elder makes due.

So yesterday we found out that the dryer at our pad doesn't work anymore, we're getting it fixed but in the meantime let's just say that all of our rotating fans were temporarily dedicated to drying off all of our white clothes which were in turn strung up all around the interior of the pad. Good times.

I went on several exchanges this week so it was awesome getting to see other parts of the Kaneohe Zone. I got to know Elder Villanueva really well on our exchange. He's from the Philippines and was only converted like two years ago. Also he's 23, it's weird how when we're all on a mission we seem like we're the same age and yet in reality he's 5 years older than me. He's awesome though.

Some quick facts before I gotta book it that I keep meaning to tell you but forget every P-day.
1. The organ player in our ward is 8 years old. That is not an exaggeration, he acts just like an 8 year old, he just plays the organ like a champ
2. In Hawaii high school football is bigger than NFL (Hawaii has the most high schools that go pro per captita so they see a lot of people here go big). It's the same type of fan bases as professional sports, plus all the high school games are so on tv. I think it's great that so many people support the high schoolers here.
3. Hawaiian slang of the week: Howzit = How is it going. Been using that one from time to time, basically everyone says it. And it isn't so complex to the point where I look overly haole when I say it.

Anyway I'm so sorry it's another rushed week but we'll be back to normal p-days next week.

Love you all so much!

Elder Smith

(Kaneohe Zone at the Hawaii Temple - Elder Smith 2nd from right)