Aloooooha!

We have had an amazing week!! I feel the dark cloud over our area has officially lifted. We had ZLC on O'ahu yesterday, and so we flew back to Kaua'i late into the night, and arrived just in time for a lesson we had!! We sat down with a wonderful mother of 2 children (She came to Chris' baptism) and we invited them to be baptized. They accepted and I was humbled that God has led us to a family to find and baptize. She readily accepted and had no concerns. Her date is the 22nd of October, and we are very excited to see what can happen!! I'm glad we have some solid solid potential now!!

Anyways, ZLC was really nice. I said goodbye to a lot of great friends. Some have met me when I was 3 months in the field, a year, or even 14 months. But I said goodbye, and hope to see them at my farewell!! I love them and am proud of the service they have given as a missionary!!Other than that, we're teaching a family tonight and maybe we can find even more potential. I'm excited to see what else Lihue can pull out. We have the potential we just have to try and capture it!!!
I'll take this time to express my gratitude for the prophets and apostles who lead this church. I love our leaders and am so thankful for the great counsel we were given this past week. Elder Holland never ceases to amaze me. Elder Andersen gave an amazing talk!!

Also a shout out to my wonderful Kaneohe Ohana. I miss all of you, and can't wait to visit again!! I love you all!! You have some excellent missionaries in your area and they are DEDICATED!!

I also had my almost final interview with President. Kinda weird having him talk to me about school and women and so on. I guess at some point the mission really does end.
I love you all, hope to hear from you soon!!!!


Aloha!

"Better and Better and Better!!!"

Edit By Elder Travis' Mom: I just got his memory card and it was filled with so many gorgeous pictures of Kauai that I decided to post some of them today instead of pictures of people.


Aloha!!!

My goodness, these weeks just get better, and better and better!!!
Yesterday was the wedding of one of my favorite families, the Keelers!! (Yes, and the Renaud!). They are a wonderful, wonderful family and so full of the spirit and they were radiating yesterday!! It was an exciting day for me!! Especially since August 21 was President Monson's birthday, and the year mark to the Jay's baptism in Kahala.Sister Keeler also brought her friend to church! Her name is Michelle, and she called her up telling her she was ready to go to church with her!! She's a nice lady, and we'll be meeting with her tonight. We're going to invite her to be baptized, so we are very excited to see what can happen!!!
Melissa came to church!!! She brought her daughter as well, and we are so excited for them. We had such an awesome lesson with Melissa on Saturday. She struggles with her belief in Christ as our Savior, but the lesson we had on Saturday, was very powerful!! I think that helped!! Before we left, she asked for a blessing before we left, so we did. Church was very good for her as well :) I am so excited. We're excited to see what can happen this week.

We also found a lot of solid potential!! Two unbaptized keiki's who their parents want them baptized so that will help us!! We are going to start teaching them. September is going to be a very very big month for us. It's going to be awesome!!!
We also had a meeting with Elder Whiting again over the phone, the Area Authority! He is a very inspiring man. He put it pretty bluntly that, "Jesus is coming again, we have to prepare the world for that big event!" It gave me a bigger sense of urgency for the work to work harder!!!

But we are having an awesome week and time in Lihue.


I wrote the mission president, President Dalton, and told him that I really really want to stay in Lihue and finish my mission here. I hope I do, pray for me!! haha.Well, I love you guys and hope all is well!! We're going to have a huge week to set up for September!! I'm really excited to see what can happen!!

Love you guys, and let me know if I can help you!!!!!

Kauai News

Well, another week in Kaua'i!!!

First off, we had our baptism for Teagan ***. We should have one this Saturday for Lisa ***, then Joey and Katherine. We are excited to see those go through!! I didn't do too much to help with Teagan, but it's awesome to always see baptisms.
We had a meeting with Elder Whiting on Sunday. It was just a conference call but it was still cool!! He's less intimidating in person and not so ...rebuking haha. Maybe it's cuz Kaua'i is doing better than Kaneohe baptisms wise, I'm not sure.

On the other hand, we figured out that Elder Rasband of the Presidency of the Seventy is coming to speak to the Kaua'i stake in July!! I'm stoked for that. I missed Elder Russel M. Nelson, but I can see Elder Rasband, whom I just love!!


We had a cool experience with Katherine. She told us that she was beginning to feel doubt about the church and didn't feel ready. She was ready to call it all off and stop meeting with us, but she decided to pray first (smart choice). She than prayed, and on her way to church, she said she felt an overwhelming feeling of peace, and felt the desire to be baptized. She now wants to be baptized really bad!! She will wait till the 25th cuz it's a special day for her, but it's a true testimony to me on how the Lord truly does work through our investigators. I believed it was Elder Pearson who told us that, "Thousands of legions of angels are preparing the hearts of investigators. More than you can possibly see or comprehend."


I just love being a missionary, and this Thursday I hit my 18 month mark. I don't even know what's happened to my time. But I know that I will work my hardest the last 6 months, and when I walk off to that airplane in the Honolulu Hawaii airport, I want to know within my heart that I did ALL I could to bring souls to Christ. I want that sense of accomplishment and peace, instead of doubt and guilty thoughts. I love this gospel, more than I can say. I love my Savior who I know will one day stand before my face, and plead my cause before the Father. I hope and pray I may stand worthy in front of Him and say, "I did ALL I could do". I encourage everyone to look to Jesus, and let Him heal you.
Love you all and hope to hear from you soon!!

***Elder Travis pointing to the red dirt of Kauai but......this picture shows the color better, end of edit.

The Power Of One

Well we had an interesting week!! We finally found a new investigator. Her name is Lindsey!! She went to the temple and was interested so she wanted to learn more!! We stopped by and she told us that we could come right in and teach her! We shared with her the part of the restoration and set up a return appointment to teach the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. She is an extremely kind and extremely open-minded, so this will be an interesting process of teaching her, I think it's going to go very well!!!


Remember how last week I told you we came up with the power of one? President Dalton liked it so much he sent it to every zone in the mission and told them to apply it into their wards and areas. We have had a few calls from random missionaries telling us how cool it is. Ha, that was awesome to hear, cuz we spent so much time on it!! Our own Bishop in Ward Council talked about applying it into his ward. The basic gist, is having every member write down three names of people they want to work on this year. We collect those sheets and follow up throughout the year.


In sacrament meeting, since it was fast Sunday, bishop got up and bore his testimony on the power of member missionary work. It was awesome!! I followed shortly and talked about how their friends will only listen to them. I shared my experience of when I was back home during December and sharing the gospel with other friends. We got five referrals yesterday and the ward is pumped to do missionary work now. We are super stoked to see the outcome of this, cuz if every member in Kaneohe 3 (every active) invites one person, we'd baptize over 100 people in that ward alone. Solid!!We are going to the Laie temple on Thursday morning!! We are so stoked to go!! I miss the temple Soooo much. I miss going once a week and just being in the house of the Lord. I've been looking forward to this for the past 16 months!!!


I'm also stoked about General Conference this week!! I love sitting and listening to the words of our Prophet and Apostles and Seventies. They truly are inspired and have the counsel that we need to hear in this very day and time. I'm excited for Elder Holland's talk and what he will speak on!! I encourage all of you to go into conference with a question and I promise you will find it in one of those talks!!We also have transfer calls coming up Sunday!! This transfer is nearly over, and it's crazy. I only have six more transfers left and they get quicker every time. I have a feeling I'm either leaving or Elder Infanger is. We'll find out in a week!!! But it's been a fun, exhausting week, and time for more!!

Much Aloha

This has been a time of saying goodbye for Elder Travis. He said goodbye to President and Sister Peterson as their mission was now completed.
He said it was an emotional time and so hard to say goodbye....
as he had really grown to love both of them.
It was also a time of saying hello to President Dalton who will be his new mission president. He also said hello (or aloha) to Sister Dalton who is President Dalton's wife. They will serve for the rest of Elder Travis' mission so he'll have a chance to get to know them really well.

Oahu Update

This week was good, kinda. I've been sick the past few days so the work wasn't..really work..more rest. I was prescribed Penicillin from the doctor and it made me feel a little sick so I called up the office nurse to see if I could take Motrin with it...she called up the doctor..then me...and I got 3 meds on top of it. So I took those, and it made me miserable. Didn't help with the cough either so I might be going back to see the doctor. It's..tough to say!! haha but, however, on top of a bad physical week..we had a really good week of teaching.


We taught ***, a new Tongan investigator who has some real interest in the lessons, so we are working with him :) We did a zone car wash Saturday and met ***, a guy on the marine base who is determined to come to church Sunday and learn about us. We got his info and are pursuing him :). We have a few others that we need to get in contact with through members and hopefully teach them.


Elder Standiford and I have really noticed a change in this area the past two months. We've found lots to teach, and we are seeing some success. We might not have a baptism for him before he goes home in a few weeks, but it's not about that. We are working hard!

Here's an interesting Hawaiian fact...if someone doesn't want something, whether it be an AC unit..fridge..TV..anything..they put it on the sidewalk for people to take/dump. We almost took an AC unit.
We had Stake conference yesterday where Spencer J. Condie of the Seventy spoke to us, which was really interesting!! He's hilarious for an old timer, and gave a really good talk!! President Peterson spoke to us as well..I will miss him!! It makes me so sad to see them go, but President Dalton will be good I'm sure. He actually led Prop 8 so I can tell he will be a good bold mission president full of love! I look forward to him, but will deeply miss President Peterson.
Yes, our pad was one of those cruddy ones. It's good, but bad. haha we recruit geckos to live here to take care of roaches, it gets really hot! But oh well, it was nice to have President come to our Pad. (yes home haha) I will truly deeply miss that man.


Love you all!! Write to me :)