Transfer to Oahu

Elder Travis was just transferred to Oahu. We didn't know where he was from the time he boarded the plane on Wednesday until Monday when we finally got a letter. Here's an update in his own words.

"Oahu actually isn't Big Island, they call Big Island Hawaii, it's the biggest one and the most east. It's the one with the two big volcanoes on it. One active. Oahu is just east of Kauai, not too far away.Well the work here in Kailua is a little slower. Less people to teach. It's a little more tough, but it's starting to go. We found a lot of potential so far, and the Tongans, we rely heavily on members for Tongans to teach.

My first night here my comp was telling me about Blue centipedes and how if you get stung by one of those you have to go to the ER cuz the venom is so strong...haha.Guess what...first night there we were having dinner...and in walked a blue centipede!! It was a monster, haha but we finally killed it. We sprayed the place down pretty good. It was his first time actually seeing one haha."

Note from Elder Travis' mom: I measured my Book of Mormon and this blue centipede must have been 6" to 7" long! ICK!

Mama Cane

NOTE: This is a story Travis sent in an email.


"Another intereseting thing which EVERYONE will want to know about :) Thursday night we came into the pad for dinner. I started boiling water for Mac and Cheese...when Elder Major starts running away and saying HUGE SPIDER! I've seen a few spiders here that were big but not scary so I wasn't too scared...Elder Major is a pyro and grabbed his lighter and spray and went to torch it. So, I looked at where he was pointing and there was this HUGE FREAKIN MONGOOSE of a spider that was chilling by the fridge. He missed it when he went to torch it so we had to pull the fridge out and fish it out. Now when I say HUGE, I mean...HUUUUUGE!! It was SICK! haha. So anyways, she was living literally UNDER our fridge and we fished her out, SHE came out from under and ran after me so I screamed like a little girl. We cornered her and torched her. She was a monster to torch though, she kept moving after she was torched for a long time. So we finally got her dead, I took a few videos of it. Man it was HUGE. We later came to find out...it was a "Mama Cane" spider as the locals call it, but in mainland terms it is a WOLF SPIDER. It was disgusting!!!! I got plenty of pics. If you wanna know how big she was, put your hand stretched out,...ya about that big. Maybe the size of dad's.

Signs

I thought it would be fun to post some of the signs that Elder Travis has taken pictures of while he's been on his mission. You have to love the Pidgin language some of them speak!

Love this one!

I think every state and every store needs one of these.

Not sure what to think about this one.

I prefer our $5.00 price for a foot-long here but actually this is pretty cheap for Kauai compared to some other prices of food (milk about $7.00 a gallon, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese about $4.00 a box, etc.).

This is my most favorite sign to date!

Earthquake in Hawaii Yesterday, March 8, 2010

(CNN) -- A 4.4-magnitude earthquake struck Hawaii on Monday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.


The quake struck about 6:30 p.m. (11:30 p.m. ET) and was 19.3 miles (31.1 km) deep. The epicenter was 13 miles (20 km) southwest of the coastal region of Laupahoehoe and 189 miles (304 km) east of Honolulu, the USGS said.


There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

Missionary Moments and Miracles

We taught a lady named Cathy ***. At first I was very intimidated by her because she KNOWS the Bible back and front and needed a lot of biblical scriptures to back up everything we taught her. But she's a very sweet lady. When we first met her she was intrigued about the Book of Mormon and another testament, which went along with the Bible. She never really knew much about the LDS church so she invited us back to teach her. The first lesson went ok, which I thought meant we weren't going to get very far with her. But than on Thursday we taught her the Plan of Salvation, and she just loved it!! She loved the idea of premortal existence, and kept saying "I never thought of pre-existence of Humans!, that's so cool!" and we shared a lot of Bible and Book of Mormon scriptures. Usually teaching about Adam and Eve is the worst because a lot of people think it was a "big mistake" in Gods plan,and He didn't know it was coming. Anyways, everything we taught her she said, "ya I believe that" so it was perfect!! We than committed her to baptism and when we did it we mentioned being baptized by authority. She was like "oh I don't think I've done that yet, yes I'll do that!" So she is extremely solid and I've grown to love her sweet spirit she has! (Don't worry ma, she's 50!) But she called us Saturday to reschedule the appointment we set up with her because she had something come up, and she basically testified about Joseph Smith being a prophet to me.



She bought a book from Borders about how the church was first established, and she kept saying "I can't believe they went through so much persecution!! Why?? That's so sad!!" So this Tuesday (tomorrow) I'm sharing the story of Enoch Bartlett Tripp and Elder Major is going to talk about his ancestors. This was a real testimony to me how perfectly hand in hand the Book of Mormon actually goes with the Bible. She kept saying about the scripture in Peter how she wondered how there had to be more about preaching the gospel to the spirits who were dead, and couldn't ever find an answer. So we talked about the scripture in Alma 34 and it worked perfect.We've also had some members from NY join us (they have a time share in Poi Pu) and they have been perfect fellowshippers for her! I've grown a testimony of how important having members at lessons are too. They've helped her understand things I probably couldn't have made her understand due to my lack of inexperience. Needless to say, this is nothing short of a miracle.

Tsunami - In His Own Words

Ok so here is my tsunami experience!!!

So I was on exchanges with an Elder from Kekaha. I was still in Hanapepe (where I live, and which is a flood zone). 4:30 I heard the phone go off and I'm like what the heck?? So I see the caller ID and it's Kekaha, I decide to ignore it because I was tired and wanted to sleep. It goes off with a voicemail, so I figure..ehhh I'll check it. So I listen to it and Elder Major says, "Hey Elders..umm, get up, pack your things, and get outta there, there's a tsunami warning!" I was like ohh snapple!! So I wake up Elder Winterton and we start packing. From the sounds of it, and the zone leader, I thought it was going to hit within an hour. So I threw a bunch of clothes in my suitcase, any valuables and toiletries to let me do service, and hold out the few days I'd need to. (I remembered my Ward Mission Leader saying Kauai is due for a huge tsunami sometime this year. At the time, I didn't know an earthquake hit Chile and Japan.) So we pack up.

We had to pick up Kekaha because they are biking elders, and Kekaha is right next to the beach. So we start driving and I'm trying to call everyone who would know if the church is a safe zone from the tsunami. Eventually, we're directed to go there because it's high enough up and Kalaheo is the safest place in our area. So we go there, and some people from Poi Pu come in. At 6 am some alarms sound off, and they start goin about every hour.

The Zone leaders called us and said President Peterson was really concerned for this tsunami as well, so we were a little scared of what was going to happen. And you know in those movies when something bad is coming their way, and some smart intelligent person starts going scientifically about it and talks about how it's going to get so much worse and this is only the beginning so it makes it more intense?? Well, that happened!!! A lady told us about how this is only a scratch of things to come. So we get a little freaked out like man whats going to happen?? They said Big Island was going to get the worst casualties from it (Cuz it was coming from the Chile earthquake) and Kauai wouldn't be TOO bad but this was a significant event, and something that could take the lives of many people.

We are than instructed to call home for 2 minutes and tell them whats going on and that we're safe, just to save many phone calls to the office. So I did that, called home, talked to Ma for 2 minutes and that was it.

Anyways, 11 a.m. comes and some members tell us that it hit big island, but the initial wave was a few cm high. But the beach was draining about 6 feet which would set it up to be a lot worse!! So we wait...and wait....and wait....and wait...apparently I guess the biggest wave was 3 feet high and barely went into Big Island. Oahu eventually got hit in small portions but nothing huge. And Kauai? Well...nothing. They kept us closed in for safety and at 3 p.m. we were cleared to go and try to work again.

So the Lord really answered many prayers and this "Devastating Tsunami" that was supposed to be as big as the one in 05, was just a small flood on big island. Needless to say, it was a gentle push from the Lord making sure we were all prepared to meet our maker, and if we were prepared to do what was right. So fast and testimony meeting was interesting (stake conf. is next week) and full of testimonies like that. But it was good for me as well, seeing as the only "huge" thing to happen in Logan is a severe thunderstorm warning..which is never that bad. So, my first tsunami, and I guess Kauai is still in line to get a big one sometime this year. Scientists are saying August is when it should come, which I should be off island for that. Anyways, always be prepared to meet your maker!! (I was thinking, at least I'd be on my mission if anything happened!!) haha.

***This is part of an email to his mom.....it was good to talk to you. Surprised me you knew it was me!! haha but yes it was good, I hope you can get to MDay now. What did the news say about it?? Any newspapers things at all?? .....No extra work came from this, in fact a lack of work. We had 7 appts. set up which is a big day for us, and none were taught because of this haha. That's ok, the Lord had in mind something else.