Week 32-Transfer 4

Aloha familia! 

Wow what a week! Thank you soooo much for the pictures! I had everyone gather around to see them so I could brag about what an adorable little nephew I had! Of course in a visitor center with so many sisters around he was greatly appreciated:) Also, Isaac is getting sooo big! They are so adorable though and I wish I could be there to see them in real life but that will have to wait. How's Tonya doing with her baby coming up next? Tyson sounds like he had turned into quite the star singer:) I don't know why he didn't sing me a song over the phone...

So this week has been so crazy for me as well. Last Monday was when I went to pick up Sister Jones and we spent that whole day just unpacking, emailing you and trying to get things settled in. We were going to go visit some of the investigators in one of our wards that night after shift but unfortunately I got super sick towards the end of shift. I had a terrible cold and headache and was running a fever which I don't remember the last time I had one of those. So I was given strict orders to go home and sleep as long as it takes to get better. I was in that bed for the next two days!:( It was so frustrating because we had just been put in the ward and we had investigators that didn't even know about the change of sisters and we couldn't go visit any of them! In a way though I think it was a blessing. Sister Jones is going through a very difficult adjustment for her and I think Heavenly Father knew she needed a small break. And of course, He always blesses you with your good desires and the second night I was sick, Sister Hendersen, who was in our area before and is now companions with Sister Bonrostro, asked if it was ok to go visit one of the investigators in our area and he ended up committing to baptism! 

The next day, I was feeling much better so we went to work and began going after the people in our area book:) We got to meet a few more of our investigators and now two of them, Nella and Tom, are praying about a baptism date we tried to set with them. They do know the importance of baptism though and both of them are taking the Book of Mormon class at BYUH and both are very good at recognizing the spirit. We also got a new investigator as well who wants to learn more! Communication is a little slow since most of our investigators are Marshellese, but they are so sweet and fun and ready to hear the Gospel! It is interesting teaching them though. We went to Toms house one night and taught him a lesson out by the side of his house, but he didn't have any chairs so we just sat on the cement. By the time the lesson was over (It was a really good lesson by the way), my legs were hurting so bad I could hardly walk and about 2 or 3 times I saw a giant cockroach scurry by. The joys of teaching in Hawaii:) 

They also really love trying to teach us Marshellese words! Yackwei means something similar to Aloha and we learned a few others as well. I am of course terrible at remembering and so they would teach us and then I would try to say it later and say it completely wrong and then they would all laugh but then say, "No, so good!" haha, they even gave us a Marshellese/English dictionary so we can practice:) I told them that I was also learning Spanish and they said, "now you can know 3 languages!" "Yay" I said, "muchas gracias!" and one of them smiled and pointed at me and said "French!" haha, I didn't have the heart to tell him it was Spanish:). The biggest thing we are working on with the Marshellese is getting them to church. They all slept in on Sunday even though we had even arranged for rides for them! Well we are working on that, they are all praying about it:) 

It is a bit strange going from being stuck in a cubicle all day long to walking to go to everybody's houses. Even before being online we had a car so this is quite different:) Saturday was also a very sunny and windy day, the perfect day to go to the beach, or just get a really bad sunburn:) People keep joking that I went to the beach cause all of the sudden I got really red:) It is good to be out under the beautiful Hawaii sun though! Sister Jones and I are sure having a good time of it. We love our wards and have so much work to do! It really is such a blessing!

As far as Visitor Center goes, we got about five new investigators this week. One of them is this really sweet girl from Florida but originally from Cuba. I was taking ticket in between trams at the PCC and she read my name tag out loud and then said, "oh, that's the Mormons right?!" I told her it was and she smiled and said, "I have many friends who are Mormon!" I invited her to come back and join the tram tour going to the temple and she said she definitely would. Thankfully, she ended up coming with her family on the 6:20 tram which was the one my companion and I took! She was so sweet and talked to me the whole time. She was so excited to learn as much as she could and said that she goes to institute all the time and loves how our church makes everything so fun. She is Catholic and says that it has too many problems and is so boring. I ended up giving her a book of Mormon and told her to pray about it. I get to keep in contact as well so that will be fun:) She said that someday I should go and visit her in Miami and then I will be immersed in Spanish and learn it faster;) Guess I'll have to make a trip to Miami...jeje:) 

In other good news, CHRIS IS BAPTIZED!!!!!!! Finally! It has been so long and he has been ready the whole time! I am sad I wasn't able to go, but it is done! Him and his girlfriend, Rose, came and visited the VC yesterday to say hi and get a picture with me:) I'll see if I can attach it. He said that even this date was so hard to keep because the night before he found out that 9 people on His program could no longer be there! Thankfully the elders put it all together anyways. He said that no one he knew was there, including his family, but the elders had gotten some people from the ward to come and it was still a real good, spiritual experience. I am so happy it finally happened! Satan was sure working hard to keep him from being baptized! He is definitely going to do great things:)

Well I love you all so much! I am so happy for my new lil nephew and cant wait to finally meet him! I continue to pray for you always! 

Les Quiero,

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)