Training And Investigators

We saw great miracles this week. We had a huge training in Kalihi which is past Honolulu for 3 days from 8-3 which was good. it was helpful and I really learned a lot!!!

But on the other hand, there is a former investigator taught a while ago, H***, and her 10 year old A***, who we haven't been able to get a hold of for months!! I called her on Friday and we were able to finally make contact!! We ended up inviting her to the temple and did service for her on Saturday morning. We are going back this week to help her out!! So I hope we can get back to her.

We also were going to dinner one night (by ourselves) when I passed by a guy I remember tracting into. I felt like we should stop and see him but I didn't want to. But than I saw him outside and decided to pull over. We talked to him and he remembered us. It was cool to talk to him, and he actually fed us dinner last night. He is such a nice guy, and is kinda lonely. It was nice to talk and teach him a bit about the church!!

We got a referral from the temple open house today, we will see them sometime this week!!!

I also found out that C*** and C*** A***in Kalaheo were baptized!!! Officially, so that was really awesome to hear about!!!

Sean emailed me too and wants to go to lunch, so I will go with him this week as well!!!

Also on Wednesday, we will be going back to Pearl Harbor to do service. I'm pretty excited about it!! Hopefully we can do more of a tour this time, but we'll see!!!

Anyway, today is the 11 month mark to when I was set apart as a missionary. In a month, it'll be a year. That is pretty weird. It's been so fast, and hard to really fathom it all. Crazy.

Anyway this was a miracle week and I'm sure we'll keep seeing more as we work hard and are diligent!!!

MTC Flashback

Note: This is being posted by Elder Travis' mother.
With all the news coverage in Utah about the upcoming trial of Brian David Mitchell and his abduction of Elizabeth Smart from her home I decided to mention an experience that Elder Travis had in the MTC.

He was sitting down at lunch and/or dinner talking to a very sweet Sister Missionary when he happened to glance down at her name tag and it said "Sister Smart." He didn't even realize that he'd been talking to Elizabeth Smart since she had cut her hair and grown into a very poised beautiful young woman. All he knew was that he was talking to a Sister Missionary who had been called to serve in France. I posted the picture above first bz it makes me smile to think of the great, and I'm sure, indescribable joy her family felt when she was found alive and returned to their arms again. What a miracle and beautiful tender mercy from the Lord this family received. I'm sure all of heaven rejoiced with them that day.This picture above is more of how Elizabeth looked in December of 2009 as she was in the MTC preparing to leave on an LDS mission for 18 months. It's unfortunate that she has to return from her mission to testify in his trial but I admire her courage for doing so and I know Travis does too.

New Elder And An Oahu Update

Aloha!!

We had a great week. I have my new companion, who is Elder Davis, from Las Vegas. (Davis from Vegas). He is...5 days in the mission field haha. He's a great elder, has a great outlook on the work, and is a hard worker. We will see great things in Kahala the next 6 weeks.

Being a district leader is interesting, we are more busy, but it's fun working with the other elders and seeing how they do work. I'm over McCully, and Manoa. So we have 6 elders in our district, but we are going to really see miraculous things happen!!!

Our 13 year old investigator went to the Laie temple open house and LOVED it. He said he wants to live there, so we will invite him to be baptized this lesson and hope to see something come about :) We need a baptism in Kahala, and I'm praying we'll see one soon for Elder Davis :).

I heard about the Aggies loss to Hawaii. A lot of UH fans are here, and they know I'm all for USU, so they let me know haha. There was a visitor from Centerville who I sat in front of. He showed me his tie, which conveniently was ...Utah State!! After church he gave it to me, I was very surprised and felt bad I had nothing to give him in return. But it's hanging in my room :) And my plan is to walk off the plane with this tie on :)

A Surprising Transfer Twist

Aloha!!

Well transfer calls came in.
Sunday night we were informed Elder Garritson was being transferred. We were both pretty sad we wouldn't be staying together in Kahala and Hawaii Kai. But for the past week, I've had a gut feeling that I was going to train or be a district leader.
Well Monday morning, President Dalton called Elder G. and they had a long talk, than he pawned the phone off to me. I knew it was coming. "Elder Smith, the Lord needs you to train a missionary, can you do it?" Of course I told him I'd try my best. "Good to hear Elder Smith, with you being a district leader for a transfer, you already have experience we are excited for you!" "Wait...what?? I'm not district leader President!" I replied. "Oh, that's right. Elder, the Lord has another calling for you, you are going to be a district leader, can you handle it?" haha, it was hilarious but it wasn't at all surprising (meaning he'd had a feeling that this would happen to him). Let me tell you what WAS surprising. Elder Garritson was informed he was going to train, be a district leader, and white wash into a new area...Hawaii Kai!!! (In a later email he explained what "white wash" was....."white wash - he will be going into a new area, and his companion will be, meaning he doesn't know anyone or anything and neither one have been in the area, so they have to start at square one. But it's not a real white wash cuz we covered Hawaii Kai last transfer"). I was sad to lose Hawaii Kai cuz things were picking up, but they deserve full time missionaries, and great missionaries such as Elder Garritson.
So we found out that he will be moving into the room RIGHT next door to us. So we have a four man pad, and will be around each other still.
So now, I'm strictly Kahala missionaries, and will train, and now provide trainings for another set of missionaries, and be more involved in leadership. I'm nervous, scared, and excited. It will be exciting to see what happens.

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!!