Hawaii, Honolulu, Laie Temple, Spanish speaking Mission!: Week 40-Transfer 5

7/15/13

I am not even sure where to begin! What a week! So we did get transfer news last night. I am staying in Kahala and Sister Hoskins is going out of Zone! We don't know where yet or who will be our companions but we should find all that out during transfer meeting on Wednesday. This should be my last transfer out bound. Usually we only get 2 transfers out. I was secretly hoping to be transferred to Maui because there is rumor that there are a ton of Spanish people there. However, I know that this is the Lords work and if he wanted me to be around a bunch of Spanish people He would have sent me there. I did finish el Libro de Mormon!!!!!! I was so excited! I read the entire thing out loud and now I am starting it over again:) It is kinda cool to see how much I understand when I read compared to when I first started it 9 months ago. My goal is to finish it 2 more times before the end of my mission.

I am excited to be staying here in Kahala for many reasons. Our investigators have been progressing a lot more than ever before. Scott, the one who has been taking lessons since 2005 said that he has never been so open to our message as he is right now. They all still have different concerns but our planners are finally getting filled with appointments and we are getting more and more of them to church! I hope I can see some of them baptized this next transfer.

We did get a really awesome new investigator on Tuesday. His name is Anthony and he is a neighbor of our bishops wife. We have been trying something where we have a calender passed around during Relief Society so that people can sign up for an hour in a day to take the missionary's (that's us) to there friends. Of course the bishops wife, known as Auntie Fine, who is the top missionary minded person in the ward, was the first to sign up. She was going to just go with us to some less actives, but then the night of she saw her neighbor who hadn't been home for a while. She told us that she wanted to take us over there so we headed over. We learned that he had just been in the hospital for a triple bypass and that he has quit smoking because of it and that his family is more important to him than ever before. Can you say prepared much? His wife isn't really for it and she is very strong minded so we will see what happens. I loved telling him how he can be with his family forever and seeing his eyes light up. I just love this gospel so much! It is soooo true!

This week we had a nice surprise when we found out that we were getting a mini-missionary for the weekend. That is when youth or young adults thinking or preparing to go on a mission come and stay with the full time missionaries for a period of time, 3 days for us, and they are set apart as missionaries for that time period and they get to get a glimpse of what it is all like. Well Thursday evening we went and picked up our not so mini missionary:) We then spent the next 3 days with Sister Feiloaki, from the Tongan ward. She was really quiet so it took awhile to get to know her, but we ended up having so much fun with her and learning so much. Its amazing how much you can learn to love someone in such a short period of time. We were worried about her at first. We wanted to make it the best experience ever, but (not so unexpectedly), we had appointments cancelled and people not home. Saturday especially was one of those difficult days that Sister Hoskins and I have just learned to live with and smile through. Even though we did get some really good appointments in, we were worried that she was seeing too much of the hard side of the missionary and that she would be discouraged rather than encouraged to go on a mission. Fortunately though, she said in the testimony meeting we all had Sunday night that she was so thankful she followed the prompting to go on the mini mission. She said that she had learned so much about the spirit and about working hard, smiling and having fun even when it gets discouraging or difficult. Funny cause that's something I have been learning too this transfer:) We were so sad to say goodbye to her and our little apartment seemed so empty without her.

This morning we got another shock but this time not so pleasing, we found out this morning that our landlord, "Grampa Tsuya" had passed away early in the morning. It's something that we knew for a while had been coming because he had cancer and was slowly becoming unresponsive. He was always so sweet and would come out to talk to us every once in a while, always so chipper. They have been having their family over for the past few weeks and people flew over in the last few days to be here. Last night we were invited to their big family dinner that they had all together with bishop and his wife as well. We didn't get to see him cause he was in his room not talking or anything. This morning though we got the news and it was so sad. I wish there was something that we could do to help them but they have so much family over so all we can really do is pray. Be sure and keep them in your prayers.

Sounds like you had a great time on that trip! Thanks for all the pictures! I would love some prints of those if you can, I especially like the one with Aunt Athena and you with your "boyfriend" mom;) Congrats to Tonya and Kyle for selling their house! I'm so excited that they will be right there in Utah when I get back! I love you all soooo much! You know, when the mini-missionary went home, she was talking about how she had to go back to school and everything Monday morning and I was thinking, I really do love this life, I certainly am not ready to go back to school and all that quite yet:) One thing I do miss is being able to see my family though. I miss you so much but I know that the time is going to go by so quickly. Don't worry, I am making the best out of each moment here:) I love you all and pray for you always!

Les Quiero,

Hermana Rowley