Week 48-Transfer 7

9/10/13

Aloooooha!

Aloha Familia!

This week has been a good one. The down side is that I have been sick all week! Lots of people have been sick around here so it's something going around, but I feel so bad because I am supposed to be training! I only stayed home for a few hours one day to sleep and the rest I have been pushing through. I'm really sick of being sick though! Yes mom, I drank pineapple juice and actually finished off my wheat-grass. Despite being sick though, this week has been one full of miracles:) It's so fun to be back here with all the sisters again and to relearn the way things run around here. I can't believe I’ve been here for a few weeks already! Time goes by so fast! 

This week was a busy one with the 50th anniversary of the Polynesian Cultural Center going on. This was a big ordeal here in the community of Laie. It was mostly for Alumni so it didn't really affect us much except for Saturday when we got to be in the parade! All 28 of us sisters dressed up in our tram mumus and rode our tram near the start of the big parade:) We waved and sang hymns throughout the community of Laie and seemed to be a big hit with everyone trying to find "their" missionaries:) The best part was at the end when we were headed towards BUYH and on the corner there were a bunch of chairs set up and we saw Elder Nelson and his wife! We just happened to be singing "We thank thee oh God for a Prophet" at the time and we all sang and waved with much more gusto:) He was here for a few days and got to see many of the PCC activities and even went to the temple but we were never able to meet him because he had such a busy schedule. We did get to go to a fireside with Sister Nelson though that was just for the Relief Society. It was amazing and one of our investigators even came which I think was really good for her! 

So the investigator that came to the fireside, Beth, has been investigating the church for about 22 years now. She is a wonderful Filipino lady who just has a few unknown concerns as to why she won't agree to baptism. She does have a testimony though and her son is an active 15 year old member who goes to early morning seminary each day and is planning on going on a mission. She comes to church, watches General Conference, fully supports her son, and even held a calling for a few years. We will for sure continue to work with her and answer her questions so that she can be baptized, cause she does want to! It's interesting to see how the Lord works to prepare people. This is truly His work and I just feel happy being a part of it:) 

So both of the investigators that we have right now really are former investigators who have been meeting with the missionaries for a while. So while we will for sure work with them to help strengthen their faith and resolve their concerns, we are working on finding more people to teach. It's an interesting process when the ward boundaries consist of two blocks of houses, which we share with another set of missionaries. We will definitely need to get a little creative:) 

As far as the Visitor Center goes, I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. We have found some really great new investigators and seen some great miracles. One day a girl came in with her two friends. They just barely got to Hawaii for their first semester of BUYH. They all looked like members so I was telling them about how they could come in to the VC any time and watch movies or anything and that they could bring their non-member friends there as well. That is when one of them, Ellie, was like, "I'm not a member." "oh!" I said, "cool!" haha, kinda awkward, but it ended well don't worry:) I asked her if she knew anything about the church and she said no. She hadn't even realized she was going to a "Mormon" school:) She just came cause it was in Hawaii:). I asked if she was interested in learning more from the missionaries and she said she was. So I got her information and then said that we could show them around. We showed them the original copy of the Book of Mormon in Hawaiian and explained the importance of the Book and the power of conversion that it has. We offered her a copy and she said that she wanted one and would read and pray about it. After that, we told her there were many other displays such as the temple corner, prophets corner and the 15 min presentation of "God's Plan for the Family." We asked her what she would like to do and she said everything! So we showed her everything and were able to invite her to be baptized. She had never been baptized in her own church because she never felt ready so she said if she found out that this was true she would be baptized! So cool! Sister Peterson and I will be teaching her and we will get to keep tabs so we are pretty excited:) She is so awesome! 

Well Familia, I love you all so much! I will for sure be praying extra hard this week for you. I am so grateful for this gospel and for how my testimony grows each day. His hand is in this work and in all our lives. I love the gospel and I love you all so much and pray for you always!

Les Quiero Mucho!

Hermana Rowley (Shayla)

 here is Sister Flores, Cavalcante and I:)

Pictures of us at the parade etc.:) The three of us are me and the two spanish sisters, The one with captain America...haha, all the super heros were at the parade and they saw that we wanted to get pictures but had to get on our tram so they all jumped on the tram so we could get pics:) Sometimes I love being a missionary:) the one with the horse was Sister Marks first time ever touching a horse:) Apparently they don't have horses in the part of Micronesia where she lives.