Aloha

Howzit?

How is everyone doing? Things here a pretty much the same, we are staying really busy. We're trying really hard to find new people to teach. We may have found a couple of people who want to know more so that should be exciting. It's weird that we are already three weeks into the transfer! Only a few more weeks and we will be switched around again. Things are going well between the three of us we are always trying to keep things balanced.

We had a wonderful tram tour the other day. It was a man and his wife who were originally from Italy, they now live in Las Vegas.. They were so funny! The man- Dominic said that his daughter had only let him take pictures of the temple the last time he was here. He was so excited to go into the visitor center. After we show the 5 minute video he came out and gave me his business card and said here, this has my phone number, my address and my full name. I was confused I said so you want missionaries to come? I was a little shocked, we hadn't even asked them yet if they would like to learn more. He said yes yes. Ive never had that happen before. It was great! He told us that he worked or was some how involved with submarines. He has been around the world 3 times! When we asked how long it takes he said about 6 months depending on how fast they go. It's so fun to hear about peoples lives and meet people from all around the world.

Speaking of which I saw the Gibbs family, im sure they told you, it was great to see them. Sister Gibbs said that she has Izzy in her class and she's doing well. And there will probably be another person calling you to tell you that they saw me. haha. I know it's kind of random to get phone calls from strangers. It's weird for me when they ask for my number, haha it's nice of them though. I don't think I have ever thought about people contacting missionaries parents before.

Ohana

Aloha Ohana!

Sounds like the wedding was nice, tell that cousin and uncle of mine if they have any extra invites I would love to have one. I would also love some pictures of the event, I'm so glad it turned out well. I feel a little gypped though I'm not getting full account of what's going on :) How was St George mom, and your ride dad? and What did you do at the pre-reception?- you can't just say you went here and there, and it was good and not tell me details about it, ha ha especially when I can't ask questions it's such a killer. And you still haven't answered my question from the last few emails, when are you going to Disneyland?

This week has been a little rough, not bad but there has definitely been some adjustments. Companionship's are great but they can be hard especially when you really have to work to build a relationship, it takes a lot of work. So it's really hard when there's three. I feel like I can't connect as well for some reason. I think the communication is the hardest part, I love my companions they are so wonderful, but sometimes they keep things from me in order to spare feelings, this causes a rift and just doesn't work. I have to figure out a way to communicate where I don't rub either the wrong way but where we are able to have fun and teach in unity. We'll keep working on it, it's just different from my last comp where everything was out in the open and I knew she really cared. I'm trying to figure out how to duplicate that again. Anyway our area is a bit smaller than most and we only have 6 non members in our ward. And I bet you can imagine they have been tracted to death. ha ha. So we are praying and working hard to find new investigators. We had a couple miracles on Sunday as a result. We sat in front of a non member at church- she was visiting a friend, she's staying in a host family for 7 months- Sister Wada could here her friend translating from English to Japanese so Sister Wada ended up sitting next to her and translating the meeting for her! She came to the VC later that night and sister Wada gave a tour. We found out that she has met with missionaries before and want to be baptized but she is worried about her family. She might bring her mom and sister so we can show them the VC. The sad things is she isn't in our area so we can't continue to teach her. But it was a neat experience. Also on that Sunday we had a student call and ask if we could come to Church and teach her friend Carlo the Restoration. Of course we hurried over (sister Wada had became sick so it was just sister Largent and I) Carlo was so great! He has such a sincere desire to learn. He is also from Honolulu and his fellow shipper isn't in our ward so we might have to pass him off too. Once again sad but we were still glad for the experience. Hopefully this week we can find someone to teach who is in our area.

Im so grateful for good friends who share what they know is true with others. Without good friends missionary work wouldn't be very effective. I know that God puts people in our way that we can bless, and that if we put God first in our lives everything else will fall into place. We might not always know who needs our help but God does. If we pray to know who God needs us to help he will let us know through the Holy Ghost. We can really bless our fellow brothers and sisters but if we are only consumed with our own lives we miss out on opportunities God has for us to be a part of his great work. So try it out this week. Pray to know who could use a hand or even just an encouraging word. Our ohana is so important to God and it's up to us to strengthen it.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Aloha From Maui

Aloha from Maui!

Well we had transfers on Wednesday and I thought I was going to be called to served full Proselyting but it's not meant to be yet . Maybe next time :) Sorry for the trick but I couldn't resist. Something new and fun did happen though, I am now in a tri companionship. I really love my new companions. I'm with sister Largent who is from Oklahoma and is an ultra sound technician. This is her last transfer here so she's very experienced. Then there is sister Wada, she is from Japan. We were pad mates last transfer and had a lot of fun together. She also came out with me so I have been with two out of the four I came with :). The interesting thing is that even though I came out with 5 other sisters they will all go home before me. :) Being in a companionship with three should be interesting, were going to have to figure out how to give trams tours and other tours in the visitor center. I think that teaching will also be hard but with some extra practice we should be okay. It's weird being in three wards again and having dinner appointments. I'm really going to miss sister Sandstrom! I'm just glad my follow up comps are great.

The last week of online was pretty slow, we did hear from the Vietnamese family they said that they are just waiting for permission from their family and then they will be baptized! I am so excited for them and so glad that I was able to meet them. They are so Golden. :) Member missionaries will start sharing the lessons with them and helping them prepare for baptism.

We also had a celebration this week with President and Sister Dalton. We received 320 self referrals in the Visitor Center and we very excited since this is the second month that we have hit our goal of 300 referrals. We had homemade pizza and a enjoyable time.

This week in VC and District meeting we talked about the Book of Mormon. It truly is one of the most important tools that we have. We focused on reading the introduction and helping others understand what the Book of Mormon is and how it can help anyone in any part of their lives. These are some of the points that really stand out to me when I read the introduction to the Book of Mormon "It puts forth the doctrine of the gospel, outlines the plan of salvation, and tells men what they must do to gain peace in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come... We invite all men everywhere to read the Book of Mormon, to PONDER in their hearts the message it contains and then to ASK god, the eternal Father, in the name of Christ if the book is true. Those who pursue this course and ask in faith will gain a testimony of its truth and divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost." If you haven't recently read the introduction to the Book of Moron I challenge you to do so. It is through this Book that we can know God better. Once we have a testimony of it's truth it's like the introductions says "we invite" we should share more often what we learn in our studies and share the Book with others who are close to us. I know that this is God's Church and that he does still talk with his children today, it's by the Book of Mormon that we can know of a surety these things are true.

I love you and hope that you have a HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA,MOM, DAD, KACIE, JAMIE.

( I didn't hear from you mom and Dad you must be out playing, hope everything is good :) )

Aloha

Well the work presses forward, we get new questions every day I like it though because it really causes me to research and explore things I haven't thought about before. There was someone last night that was challenging the great flood of Noah. I read some articles online( one of them was by brother Perry I also saw him in a documentary on the Book of Mormon that was fun :) ) and in one there was a really good quote about how 'we don't' know everything and we aren't meant to. If we did it would eliminate the need for faith.' That really is so true. If there was concrete proof for everything people would worship science not God. We are here to figure out for ourselves our relationship with our Heavenly Father and to follow His example. If something like not having proof of an Ark or something that isn't essential to our salvation stops us from following the commandments of God we are never going to be able to learn the mysteries of God. He is willing to teach us and help us understand but if we expect the answers to fall into our laps with out effort or faith we are doing ourselves a disservice. So here's the challenge for the week- study something in the Gospel you haven't studied before, use the Bible Dictionary or a source your normally don't use, you will be amazed at what you learn. Study the basics like prayer, faith, the Holy Ghost there are so many things that we only have a surface understanding of. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to study and I'm so grateful for the Gospel!

Well family I will let you know what my fate is next week! Love you all.