Working Hard

We had a decent week!! Got my new companion, Elder Branden Infanger from Salmon Idaho. He goes home in May, the same time as my trainer. So that'll be very interesting to see what happens there!! If I stay with him another transfer, I'll be in Kaneohe for quite a while. We'll find out in five weeks!!
We had the baptism of Taylor K***. She has been taught for four years, and wasn't able to be baptized because her parents didn't want to sign the form. She turned 18 on Friday, and was baptized Saturday. It was a very special event and something really cool to see. Elder Wise and Barraza tracted into her and started teaching her for the few weeks before I came in, and then we led her to her baptism this past Saturday.


We met with my favorite family in the ward, the Jackola's. We are still working on Taylor to get her with a baptismal date. We are mainly focusing on becoming good friends and helping her see that we truly do care about her. The family is awesome, they are considered part of my family. I love Brother Jackola and Sister Jackola, and Jagyr and Taylor like my own family. They are tremendous and it's so fun to be around them and than share more about the gospel with them. They are making a huge impact in my life in my short time in Kaneohe.


We are struggling in finding solid investigators but we are working hard. We are talking to everyone and knocking on a lot of doors. Despite how sometimes we may be shut away, yelled at, cursed at, chased off the property sometimes, we know the great blessings that come from living the gospel and want to give it to everyone, not just the nice ones.


We did start teaching a lady named Julia. She lives with Dawn and Carmen who were just baptized. She is praying about being baptized at the end of March, so that'll be really cool to see if that happens!!


Well, I miss Elder Barraza, but the work moves forth. My new companion is awesome, and we are working hard!!


Thanks for all you do and I keep all of you in my prayers!!

Another Amazing Week

Aloooha!!!


We had another awesome week!!! We had another baptism on Sunday!!! Jagyr ***. It was so awesome, his family was so excited to see him get baptized. Our baptism on Saturday didn't happen because she got super sick all week, so we'll re-set the date with her this week :). It was fun though!!


We were soo blessed this week to hear the words of Elder L. Whitney Clayton of the Presidency of the Seventy. He is an impressive speaker, and it was such a blessing to hear from him!! He spoke to all of us missionaries and was pretty bold. He told us that some of us in the room would be excommunicated, and we had to make sure it wasn't going to be yourself. That was crazy to hear, but the way of the world is crazy. I already know some RM's from the mission who
fell off the path. We got the tremendous blessing of having him speak at our Sacrament Meeting. It was a loaded meeting as we had Elder Clayton and his wife, President Dalton, Elder Scott Whiting of the area Seventy, and President Kaluhiokalani, the Stake President. They all spoke, and it was a solid 90 minutes of spiritual enlightenment. Afterwards, the ward was able to shake hands with him, and Taylor (Jagyr's sister) told him that she wasn't baptized yet. He spoke to her for a while, and we hope to set a date with her tonight!! We are excited because we feel
she is ready. After that, the ward sang Aloha Oe to Elder Clayton, and Elder Barraza. It was a very moving moment to see my companion, who was such a hard working missionary, and taught me so much, bid farewell to the ward that we have labored so hard in. We had five baptisms in six weeks, and saw a lot of miracles.


My new companion is Elder Infanger from Idaho, and he goes home in May with my trainer, Elder Major. So I might help him finish his mission as well!! We'll find out!!


I love all of you and thanks for your support!!!

An Excellent Week!

We had an excellent week. "Slower" in teaching, we didn't teach 30, but we did hit 20 haha. We got caught up in the two baptisms we had.


On Saturday was Tino M***'s baptism. He's been investigating the church for four years, and was finally baptized. It was awesome, the ward didn't expect him to be baptized, but he was!!! We were so stoked!!


Also, on Sunday, we had a baptism for Lamaya. That was really exciting and very spiritual. Her mother is a less active, but was definitely touched by the spirit at the baptism. We have potentially two this week with Kianna Kamahoahoa, and than Jagyr. Kianna is just depending on her dad's approval, and Jagyr is all set for Sunday!!It's an awesome way to end the mission for my companion!! We are definitely seeing miracles. Now we are running into the problem of "What next?" Since all of our investigators are being baptized. I'm sure we'll find some more, but we don't have them right now haha. It's a good problem though.


Other than that, we tried to do the hike Stairway to Heaven (Google it!!!) but we got turned around by the guard. We have a plan to scare him off in a gorilla suit next week...we'll see what happens haha.

Kaneohe

Aloha!!
Sounds like the internet is freaking out or something, cuz emails are weird this week!! I'm sure everyone noticed they got shorter emails too. ZLC was moved at last minute and threw off our whole PDay. I should be on with more time next week!


We had a terrific week again!! We taught 29 lessons, and had a baptism with Dawn ***. It was so awesome!! She was looking forward to it so much and was so excited on Saturday. We have a baptism again on Saturday with Tino ***. He is a Samoan and has been taught for a few years. We are praying he will get to Saturday and be baptized. He seems solid to us though, so we are excited. Than we have two next week, and two the following week, and than one to finish off February.
We are super super busy here in Kaneohe. The harvest truly is white and ready to harvest. We hope to continue to see this type of success, and I'm happy that Elder Barraza is seeing this to finish off his mission!
We had a meeting with Elder Whiting of the area Seventy on Sunday. He is a spiritual giant!! He said something that made me think. He said that our priorities should be the same as the prophets, because that's the Lord's priorities as well. I thought that was interesting. He was a super amazing man to meet with. We met with him and the stake presidency.


We saw a lot of great things this last and know we will continue to see those things happen this week as well!! We are so excited to see even more happen!! We are truly working hard and we don't stop our day until we know it's over!!


Love all of you and thanks for your support!!!

"It's So Awesome To Be A Missionary"

Aloha!!!

We had such an amazing week!! We taught 29 lessons, and had a baptism on Sunday. We have a baptism every weekend of February. We have a couple extras too...overall we should have about six baptisms this month for Kaneohe 3rd ward. We are very excited to see this all happen. I'm so happy that Elder Barraza is ending his mission this
way!!Ric's baptism was so amazing. It was so spiritual and so awesome!! He brought his friend's family who had a son who passed away, and at the end they were completely in tears. This was such an awesome experience to be a part of, and now we are excited to see him progress towards the temple and do the work for his friend!!


We tracted into this guy who told us we could come back the next day and teach him!! So we went back the following day and he was kind of surprised to see us. We started the "get to know you" part of the lesson, and he told us he looked online about our church, and read how we "believe" in physical intimacy of God and Mary, and how we can become God's. He couldn't process through his head, no matter how straight forward we told him, that we don't believe in that relationship between God and Mary, and all we knew about the conception of Jesus, was what was in the Bible. We tried to teach him part of the restoration, but he was convinced we believed that. We kinda laughed and told him that if he wants to learn more about the church to go to mormon.org and talk to the people themselves on what they believe, and not to someone else who doesn't know what we believe. He was an interesting guy!


Anyways, we should have Dawn's baptism this Saturday, and we are super excited for her as well. She came to church because of her friend who was just baptized a few months ago, and she just hit the ground running. She is all set for Saturday, and this will be another very spiritual experience!!


But we are seeing true miracles out here, and everyday is the question, "What miracles will we see today?" It is so awesome to be a missionary, and I'm loving it!!