Week 41-Transfer 6

Aloooooha!

7/23/13

Wow, I really wish I could have gone camping with you all! I miss that so much! I'll be there next year for sure though! Tyson, don't you know that only one person is allowed to be sick at a time? You all just need to get better ok? I am still praying every day for you all and I know that there is a reason for everything. 

I love my new companion. Sister Gleason is 20 years old and from Mapleton Utah. She has been going to BYU for the past year studying construction management. Funny enough she reminds me a lot of Hermana Dunn from the MTC. She is so fun though and we just clicked right from the start. It's interesting to see the different companions and how hard or easy it is to teach with them. Not that any are bad teachers or anything everyone is just so different and some just are easier right from the start. Sister Gleason is one of those. She has been on the Big Island, Kona side for 6 months and this is her second area and I am her third companion. That is so strange to me since I have never had a companion more than one transfer. She really misses Kona and is having a hard time going from the country with very humble homes and people and lots of natives, to the middle of the rich city of Honolulu. She is an amazing teacher though and we have already seen miracles. 

One of those miracles was when we went to go visit Raven. Raven has been taught all the lessons, came to church for like 5 strait years, loves church, has faith that it is all true, but has not been baptized because his girlfriend, whom he has 2 beautiful kids with, won't marry him. He stopped going to church after a while and it is impossible to catch him at home because he is always out paddle boarding or something. He was one of the first people that Sister Gleason and I decided to go and visit, and by a miracle he was home! We asked if we could visit with him for a while and he said that would be fine so we sat down and had a great conversation. He said that a lot of things have been happening in his life to where he has been thinking about the church a lot more lately. He said the only reason he didn't join before was because his girl wouldn't marry him cause she didn't want to marry him just so he could be a member of some church. I asked him how he thinks she would feel about it now since that was years ago and he said she would probably go for it. He knows he needs to go back to church but he wants to wait till life "calms down a bit." ugh! If only people could see how much easier their hectic life would be with the gospel! We really got him thinking though and got him to promise to open up his Book of Mormon again so we will see. We are still praying for him. 

Our closest investigator to baptism right now is Marie. She is so sweet! I don't know if I have said anything about her yet, but we found Marie while we were looking for one of our less actives and we invited her to come to the fourth of July picnic and she came! Anyways, we have been teaching her ever since and just love her! She is having a really hard time right now trying to find a job but she knows that if she can gain a testimony of what we have been teaching her of the Book of Mormon, than she will be able to have that extra strength she needs. She has been coming to church though and fits right in! There are ladies in the ward who have just been so friendly to her. I have been praying so hard for her and we focused so much on helping her gain a testimony. She already believes in "karma" so she is living all the commandments already just because she likes to do what's right. She is even living all of the Word of Wisdom. Heavenly Father really is blessing us so much with people who have been prepared. It's a long hard road sometimes but they are getting there. 

It was really neat when we went to our dinner appointment Sunday and we find out that this girl who we have been wanting to talk to for some time now but were told not to, was there. She is the nonmember girlfriend of one of the boys in the family and we were told not to talk to her because he didn't want her pushed into anything (He is not very strong in the church either). Anyways, we had a wonderful dinner and lesson like always:) and after I was talking to the parents asking if I could just go ask her if she is interested and they seemed hesitant but said I could try. So I just went up and said, "Bailey, are you interested in learning more?" Even before I was done she started nodding her head and said, "Yeah, what do I do?" haha, the Lord has definitely been preparing her! We get to start teaching her on Thursday. 

So sorry this letter is so late by the way. We had our Pdays switched up this week because we got to go to the Temple today! It was so good being back in Laie! I didn't realized how much I missed it! I loved the temple too! I don't know how some people go their whole missions without it cause it is such a relief to be able to go! Every time I get to go to the Laie temple I think a lot about you mom and dad, and the stained glass windows;). You sure did a great job putting them in! I love that temple so much though! So instead of PDay, yesterday started out with a funeral for Grandpa Tsuya (our landlord). I kinda don't like funerals. It was a good one though as far as funerals go. They have a very musically talented family and they are all so very close. It was fun to hear all the musical numbers and all the different memories the grand kids and kids had with Grandpa T. He was such a funny, sweet old man who everyone just loved. I knew that just from the short time I knew him. They have had a lot of family over the past few weeks and they are all getting ready to leave soon. Many of the kids have come up to ask us to just kind of check in on Grandma Tsuya every once in a while and give her a hug. I certainly have no problem with that. I love them so much. 

Well I'm sorry I don't have pictures for you. Sister Gleason and I have not been very good at that yet...I have started the Spanish BOM again. Sister Gleason said that she wanted to serve a Spanish mission so bad so she is so excited to have Language Study with me:) No mom, our bishop is not divorced, she was just the one doing the fellow shipping with us so that's why I said it like that, silly:) I love you all so much though and pray for you always! I know this church is true and I know that Heavenly Father loves each one of us so much! I know that there is a reason for everything! 

Les Quiero Mucho!

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)