Week 68-Transfer 10

Aloooooha!

1/27/14

Hola familia!

Another great week here in Hawaii! Our new Visitor Center Directors are here now, the Pridays. We all love them already and it has been fun getting to know them. I know that they are going to do great things here! This week we had interviews with President Warner and I realized that it would be my last interview before my "dying" interview. So weird. People keep trying to make me trunky or something by reminding me how much time I have left, but really it doesn't seem like the end is near at all. I am having too much fun doing missionary work! Time is flying by though. 

This week I have been learning so much about doing your best and trusting in the Lord. He really does fulfill his promises. In the Visitor Center one really neat thing that happened was when I was back on the phones and I got an incoming call and when I answered the girl on the other end said, "Hi, my name is Sarah and I want to be baptized." Flash backs to Brandon much?! (Which by the way, it's now been a year since Brandon was baptized!). Anyways, I got her information and asked a few more questions about herself and what lead her to this point. She said that she is going to school at BYU Provo and she has been taking a Book of Mormon class and once she got past the culture of "mormonism" and got into the doctrine taught in the Book of Mormon (specifically in 2 Nephi 31), she knew that it was true and that she needed to be baptized. She said that her mom won’t be too happy with it so she is going to wait until her parents’ divorce is final and then talk to her about it. She said that no matter what though, she has already made her decision and she wants to meet with the missionaries and be baptized before the end of March! The people I tend to come in contact with just amaze me with their faith! It is such a strength to me to see how much the gospel means to them and how much they sacrifice for it!

In our area, we have been meeting mostly with Kalani, the 14 year old foster child. Previously, he has had a difficult time with the word of wisdom, but I think that his circumstances now have helped him to see that he really needs to decide how he wants his life to end up. Thankfully, he has decided for the better and he is ready to talk about baptism again!  He has had all the lessons previously but I don't think he remembers too much so we will be teaching them all again and he is praying about a date for baptism! We are also going to be going over every day to read with him in the Book of Mormon. The other day we went over and made authentic Korean food with them and I think that really helped him be a bit more comfortable with us as well. We have very high hopes for this one:) 

As far as Beth goes, after her last talk with us we haven't met with her again, but her friend in the ward has been really good at keeping tabs on her and we should be going out for a "girl’s night" with them sometime this week. I think that she needs a good talk away from some things at home so this will be really good for her. We have really been praying hard for her! 

We did have the miracle of finding a new non-member in our area! This is a big deal since our area consists of 2 blocks of houses. A lot of the houses are student housing and some go to the Samoan or Tonga wards so we don't usually go door to door. But since we have been determined to figure out every single person in our ward and where they live, we have been going door to door and checking back doors and side doors and upstairs doors and illegal back houses and everything:) (Hawaii housing is pretty interesting cause there can be like 5 different families living on one piece of property) Anyways, one day as we were walking along the side of one of these houses, we saw a door open with a lady we had never seen before sitting watching TV. So we went up and began to talk to her. Surprisingly, she didn't know much about missionaries and her knowledge of the church was very limited. She is a special ED teacher working at Sunset Elementary and although she has been given a few copies of the Book of Mormon she doesn't know much about it. This is very strange and quite a miracle here in Laie! We talked with her and prayed with her and almost made a return appointment. She wouldn't say anything specific but she said we could come back any time. We have learned that Heavenly Father certainly puts people here in Laie for a reason!

Nina and Alex are still doing great. Alex is determined to go on a mission and Nina's faith amazes me so much as she lives the gospel in so many ways through everything that she is going through. I feel so blessed to be a missionary here! I honestly cannot believe I was even considering not serving a mission! I have learned so much and met so many amazing people, and grown and been blessed so much! I am so excited to see what these next few months will bring! Life may be hard, but it is oh so simple. Keep the commandments and never give up! The rewards are oh so amazing and real! I love this gospel so much! I love my Savior and love this opportunity to get to know Him a bit better! I love you all so much and pray for you always! 

I'm so glad Alexa finally got my card. Congrats Tyson on making the honor's choir! I love you all so much, never forget that ok?! 

Les queiro muchisimo!

Hermana Rowley

One day here in Paradise, it was so windy and for us, freezing! There were some pretty awesome waves though so for our dinner break we spent a few minutes out on Laie Point watching them. It was so pretty! The other picture is us and our padmates waiting outside the doctors office because sister Gementiza has been pretty sick lately:( She still smiles though:)