Elder Travis' Mom's Inbox

Elder Travis' mom here: I found this email in my inbox an hour or so ago. It's from Elder Hatch's mom.

"I saw Elder Smith Today. He looks great. I gave him a hug for you. He is really in the mission spirit. He is doing well and loves the mission. It was a treat to see him since we have shared online."

I knew her son was being released soon after serving an honorable mission. I never expected to see this though, or that she'd actually meet my son out there! I guess if I can't give him a hug this is the next best thing!

Oh, and aren't these trees the craziest thing ever?!

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Are Signs

I just got Elder Travis' memory card and had fun looking at all the signs he sent pictures of. I've very intrigued by this "Kiss and Ride" sign with "Drop-off and Pick-up!" Now that's the "Aloha Spirit," lol!

In high school one of Elder Trav's friends, who was a girl, used to call him "manimal" so this decal really must have made him smile!

Dog the Bounty Hunter....
but I prefer the young man on the left!
The danger signs are all along a trail for a hike they took up Kuliouou. More pictures of this hike will be posted with his email next week.
A warning sign for a hazardous cliff.

Transfers are this week so I'm really excited to see where the Lord calls him to next. One things for sure, if there's a unique sign in that area Elder Travis will find it!

Letters And Laughs

This is part of a letter we just received from Elder Travis yesterday and the conversation below gave us a good laugh!

"Brother J*** turned to me randomly and patted my stomach and said, "are you gaining weight? Do you need your pants fixed?" Haha, he's so funny. So Sister J*** is fixing them!"

Ironically I had just asked Travis if he'd been losing weight bz his face was looking thinner or if his swollen glands were finally gone! In my letter he says, "I'm glad it looks like I lost weight cuz I lost 5 lbs, lol! I'm still swollen though. Ugh."

I'm pretty sure this comment came from Brother J*** bz I'd just spoken with his good friend, who lives in our valley, a couple of weeks ago and had casually mentioned Travis would be sending home his suit pants for me to attempt to alter. I've already rehemmed all of his everyday pants, lol! She had told me to have him ask Sister J*** bz she was a professional seamstress. Travis had never asked her for this favor. I'll have to think of something special to send for Travis to give them before transfers happen again (just in case he's transferred off Oahu).

October Conference And An Upcoming Baptism

Aloha!!!

So this week was slower cuz of the 10 hours of conference that we were edified in, which was perfectly ok. I loved this conference. I loved the counsel given to all of us!! My favorite talk was by Elder Holland obviously, that talk was amazing. It was awesome to stand when Elder Nelson had missionaries stand in Priesthood. It was cool to know I was standing with 52,000 other missionaries with a tag on. I loved the great messages :). I'm excited to listen to them again and to study them through again!! President Uchtdorf makes me laugh, he is so hilarious. It was weird when he lost his voice, but he made me laugh so hard....haha he is so funny!

I feel Elder Hollands talk was very timely and very good :) It was exactly what I was thinking about!!

Two more weeks till transfers!! That is crazy. I wouldn't mind being with Elder Garritson for 6 more weeks, he's an awesome Elder. We've had fun as well!!

Anyways, it was a fun week and we had a lot of fun listening to conference. Back to a full week of work. Oh, and President Dalton didn't really say anything about the temple, so I'm not sure if we will be involved in the open house (which President Monson made mention of :).)
We have a baptism Saturday for that 8 year old girl :) So we're really excited for that!!!

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland October Conference 2010

Note: This post is being written by Elder Travis' mother.

Elder Holland has a way with words and public speaking that touches Elder Travis' heart. He's had me print out every talk I could find by him and he uses many of them in teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ while on his mission.

As I listened to Elder Holland's talk in conference today I could picture my son's face as he heard the words that were spoken from the pulpit. I was overcome with emotion and my own heart was filled to overflowing. It was almost like I was there, sitting by Travis in the chapel in Hawaii as he feasted on the words and basked in the spirit. If you are, or have ever been, the parent of an LDS missionary Elder Holland's words and the spirit in which they were delivered will speak to your heart. May God bless all the missionaries serving world-wide and keep them in the hollow of his hand.

Awesome Week And A Hike!

My oh my we had an awesome week. So a while ago we tracted into a guy who we did service for. We cut down bamboo trees!! Well anyway, he invited us to a dinner and we accepted!! Well we went over and he asked us if we wanted beer or wine...I was like uhh water?....so we got water and was like oh my heck we gotta go, everyone is drinking, we probably shouldn't be here! So we ate dinner and my comp was like alright let's get out of here. Right as we were about to leave we were blocked by a dancing Japanese lady, so we had to stick around and wait a while.

The cool part was there was this lady who took the Book of Mormon I had with me, out of my hands. I was going to give her our number so she could call us if she was interested, but she approached us and asked us about the "last days". So we talked about the POS (Plan Of Salvation) and families being together forever, as well as prophets. She soaked it all up. She loved it!! She wanted us to go to her house and teach her so we grabbed her address. We haven't been able to meet with her yet, but it's amazing how the Lord will place in our paths, people who are ready to receive the gospel. It's prayers from members that make these things happen!! It's awesome to see these types of things happen!I sure do love being a missionary!
The hikes we've been doing have been the valleys by Kahala and Kuliouou. When we get up we can look right down on Waimanalo and Kailua so it's really cool!!Love you!!! Bolyoke!! Love you again!! Enjoy Conference!!

Grampa Would Have Loved This

Travis' grandpa hated cats. He would have loved to have had this sign on his fence!

More Signs

In looking over Elder Travis' blog I realized I hadn't posted these two funny Burger King pictures.
This is so unusual from what Elder Travis sees back in Utah and it's been fun to post these for him!

Because Kindness Matters

Note: This post is being done by Elder Travis' mother.

While out tracting Elder Travis and Elder Garritson knocked on the door of this gentleman above. He thought they were crazy palangi (white people) when they asked if he had any service they could do after he told them he wasn't interested in hearing about our church. After he felt comfortable that they were just nice young men he allowed them to come back and cut bamboo for a couple of hours.
Today we received these pictures in an email (I noticed copies were sent to Elder Garritson too). This just goes to prove that there are kind people in the world of many different faiths. These pictures mean so much to us bz we can see Elder Travis through someone else's eyes. It's reassuring to know how much kindness really does matter.

Signs Of Oahu

Elder Travis' dad received this picture in his email from someone that we don't know at all. We assume it's someone Travis knows on his mission and gave his dad's email address to. It was nice to see him looking so good!
Travis sent us a picture of this blue stop sign...
and two more funny Burger King signs.

Burger King in other cities or states may have similar signs but not in our little town. I find them incredibly funny so he keeps taking more pictures of them for me!