Happy New Year

Hey Fam,

So I can't believe it is a new year already!!!! Holy cow I can't believe I have under nine months left! That is some scary stuff to think about!!! So maybe I just won't think about it ha ha.... So for new years we just went down to the church with all of the missionaries and played basketball. I sat out for most of it though because I really didn't feel good at all. I think staying up late on Christmas Eve got me sick. But i am starting to feel a little bit better now. The work was really slow this week becuase of the Holidays, the entire
zone is still struggling very bad.
President Dalton came down here to Mililani last week. He wanted to meet with Elder Biggs. We were really worried because usually when Presidents meet with Elders randomly like that it can only mean three things. Your mom died back home, somebody tattled on you and you're getting sent home, or you are becoming an AP. Well we were freaking out because Biggs hadn't done anything horrible on his mission, he knew he wouldn't ever be an AP, and that only left the option of a family member dying back home. He came out and sat down next to me. We were at a baptism and had to preside because a family had come over from Georgia and wanted to have thier son baptized here in Hawaii with the rest of the Wegesend family. So we couldn't talk for awhile about what had happend and I was worried that someone had died.
But then Elder Biggs whispered to me, "I am the next freaking AP man!!!! I am scared out of my mind!!!!" Ha ha, i laughed, i think just becuase i thought his family had all died of malaria back home or something and it turned out not to be so bad. But anyway, so he left last week and left me and the greenie alone. It has been different getting used to only being in a regular companionship, but it is going good. Elder Beatty likes to call himself the Greenie Zone Leader now since it is just him and I, haha i love it.
On New Years Eve we had a companionship get in a fight and I had to talk with both of them for about 5 hours.. They called President Dalton, but he told them to work it out with me and that he wouldn't do anything about it until they had went throught the District Leader and Zone Leaders. Gosh, somedays things just make me want to be a regular missionary and not have to deal with all of the crap. So that took up a lot of New Years. But i am not going to lie, the fireworks over here are insane!!! You will never see anything like it, they go completely nuts! It got so bad that the entire island of O'ahu is covered in smoke and you can't even see five feet in front of you because of it. The headlights won't even really cut through it all and its not just in one place, its the entire island. Its like a warzone, seriously! I have never seen so many fireworks or heard so many go off in my life. And they all of the illegal ones so it is pretty legit. It has gotten so bad that next year they are banning all of them next year. Next year you won't even be able to light a sparkler here on O'ahu. I can see why though, there had to be so many accidents with everything that was going off.
That is cool that Hayden went up and bore his testimony. It sounds like that Ekin guy is doing some good work with the boys. And I am happy for Bishop and everything he is doing. He is the answer to my prayers that I say every night for you guys back home. And i will never be able to thank everyone for all of the support that they have given me in money and love and time here on a mission. I hope to one day be able to somehow pay back all of these wonderful people in God's Kingdom.
So do i have any more stories to tell you??? I have way too many, but I think a good one would be to tell the story of brother Kevin Su'a's conversion. It is probably the coolest I have ever heard on my mission. Bro. Su'a is an awesome guy, he is one of the only cool members that loves having us over anytime and he always wants to kick it with us like everyday. He is in his early thirties and he is Samoan. His kids are the cutest kids, cute enough to make me want to have daughters, (imagine that!) and his family is just a perfect family. They were the family we spent Christmas Eve with. But a week or two before that, Bro. Sua shared me his conversion story. Here it goes...
"Bro. Sua was going through some hard times. He had felt like something was missing in his life. He didn't know what it was but he knew something was not complete with his life at that time. He and his wife (girlfriend at that time) were having some difficulties and he was a major partier. He smoked and drank and did all the worldy stuff you can imagine, and in a big way. That was his life. His family was like that and it was how he had grown up. He had been all over the world. Starting in Samoa, moving to New Zealand, to Idaho, and then to Hawaii, give or take a few or more places that he failed to bring up to us. He mentioned how a lot of his family were alcoholics and partiers 'to da max' as he would say in Hawaiin Pidgin. That is just a brief background of what he was like.
One day, it was a Saturday I believe, about ten years ago, he was getting ready to go to the beach. He had just got in the shower, and he said how it was very rare for him to be home on Saturday. He usually dropped his wife off at work and headed off to the beach on Saturdays. For some reason he had ended up at his house in the shower on that day. He had a huge sound system bumping his Reggae music, that's Bob Marley type stuff, just FYI, and he could barely even hear anything but the music. As he was walking out of the shower, a towel wrapped around his body, he thought he heard a knock at the door. He rationlized with himself, saying how there is no way he could hear a knock at the door with the music as loud as it was. But as he pressed onward and walked through the living room he heard it agian. And this time he knew he had heard a knock at the door.
Surprised that anyone would be knocking and that he could even hear such an insignificant sound through his blaring music, he cracked open a door and the outlines of two Sister Missionaries caught his eye. They began to talk to him, in his towel, and with the music blasting through the walls, but Bro. Sua couldn't hear them because of the music. "Hold on, hold on," he yelled. He went back inside and put on some clothes and turned down the music. How in the world he had heard that knock at the door is truly a miracle, but he hear he did. He came back out and the Sisters began to talk with him and asked if there was a time where they could come back. Bro Sua said, in a non-chalant, " Well just come in right now and we can talk." The sisters quickly told him that another woman had to be present for them to talk with him inside and alone. He just looked at them and said, "Oh, no, no, no!!! I'm not like that! Here you can come in right now, its fine." But those Sisters informed him that they couldn't and they asked when a better day to come by would be. Bro. Sua threw out a random day that next week and a random time, just to do it and the sisters left. He later found out that those faithful sister missionaries had been tracting that day. They had finished and were heading back when one of the sisters felt an impression to go back and knock on a house. She thought about it and kept walking but she felt it again, "Go back to this house and knock on the door." So she turned around and they knocked on the door. Lo and behold, Bro. Sua, in a towel, answered the door.
Well, the week pressed on, and of course Bro Sua had forgotten all about what had happend the week before. So when the Sister's came back, he wasn't there, but his girlfriend was. The Sisters talked with her (her name is Sandy), and she set up a different time when they could come by. Sandy was shocked that the sisters had come by and was even more surprised that Bro Sua had invited them back. She had grown up a mormon, her mom was very active and such an awesome lady, but for fifteen or so years she had been inactive. Something stirred inside her when those sisters visited and she felt hope that had not been in her for nearly two decades. It gave her hope to think that her boyfriend might actually have a chance, as far fetched as it was, at taking the lessons. She had always had a strong testimony of the church. Bro Sua mentioned how it bothered him when he wanted to go to a church and check it out, but Sandy always told him that though she would go to different churches and check them out with him, she would never leave her church, the mormon church, and that nothing would get her to be baptized in another church. Well, that really bugged Bro. Sua. Why would she feel so strongly about a church she didn't even go to anymore? Why would she not even consider joining another church with him? What was so great about the mormon church, especially since she hadn't been active in it for years and years? That bugged him.
The weeks eventually passed by and Bro. Sua had made serious progression. When the sisters started to first come, he let them know straight up that he was not ever going to become a Mormon, and that although he would listen and invite them over, he would never, ever convert to their church. He was extremely defensive and closed off at the beginning of the lessons, and he continued to be his usual self until he realized that they were telling him the truth. He started to really like the sisters and they became very,very close. The sisters had done an excellent job and had shared with him the stop smoking program. Part of the program has the investigator take his or her last cigarette and crush them right there in front of the missionaries. Bro. Sua crushed his last cigarettes in front of the sisters and he said that he remembered wanting one last cigarette but when it was done, it was done, and he commited to stop smoking. Two weeks had passed and he had been free of any kind of alcohol or drugs. It was the first time he had made it that long without those substances. His wife was so excited and he was starting to believe that he could actually do it.
Then he got the news. The sisters that had taught him were getting transfered and Elders were going to replace them and white wash into the area. He was upset with the news because he had grown so close with the sisters and he didn't want them to leave. But the day came to where they were leaving and he had to accept the fact that nothing could change what was going to happen. During that week or so of the exchanges between the Elders and Sisters, and still upset with the sisters departing and other things that were happening, Bro. Sua decided that he had had enough. He couldn't keep clean any more. It was too much to take and he made up his mind that he was going to go and get some cigarettes and have a smoke. He and his girlfriend began to get in an argument. Sandy kept reminding him how far he had come and that he shouldn't give in now, especially after three weeks of being clean. She begged him to turn the vehicle around. Bro Sua just yelled at her and told her she was stupid and that nothing was going to stop him from doing what he was going to do. He said she was foolish for ever thinking that she could make him turn around. Sandy started crying, obviously devastated that all of her dreams and aspirations for a future in the temple with her boyfriend, were about to be destroyed. "Please, don't give up now Kevin!" She begged him and he just yelled back at her that she was stupid.
And so in this stress infused situation, Sandy Sua showed her true character and what was really in her heart.Remember that she had been inactive for years, yet somewhere in her life her mother had taught her right and she knew how much her Heavenly Father loved her. Right there in the car, during the argument, with her boyfriend freaking out, and on the way to the liquor store, she started to pray. And not just pray. She PRAYED... Bro Sua was so annoyed that she started doing that and he called her stupid and said she was so foolish to think that her prayer would even do something. He kept yelling at her and calling out insults to her, but Sandy Sua kept on praying. One can only imagine how painful it was for her to watch her future husband throw away what he had so valiently fought for. I wish we could know the kinds of things she was praying at this moment, but only her and the Lord will ever know. Bro. Sua was really mad and he kept driving. And then something happend while Sandy Sua was praying in the car. The phone rang. Bro. Sua answered. And who was on the other line??? THE ELDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was the new Elders that were taking over the area. They had seen the Sisters had set up a dinner for them with the Sua family and they were calling to confirm. "Now is not a good time Elder!" Bro Sua was very blunt with them. "Well we were just wondering if dinner was still good?" "NOW is NOT a good TIME!!! And you can forget about your stupid dinner, its cancelled!" Bro. Sua must have completely caught the poor Elder off guard to say the least. When I put myself in that Elder's shoes, I would've just hung the phone up and called it quits with that family. But the Elder must've been in tune with the spirit because as Bro. Sua drove angrily down the road with the phone up to his ear, he asked a question I never in a million years would've asked. "Bro. Sua can I say a prayer with you over the phone?" " Who in the heck would've asked that question in such a heated converstation over the phone with someone they had never met before??? Not me, that's for sure.
But bro Sua was like, "Sure, go ahead, say a prayer, whatever." And he just kept driving, intent and set in his way that nothing was going to stop him from going to get his cigarettes and alcohol. But as that Elder uttered the words of his inspired prayer, bro. Sua felt something. The words mentioned in that prayer over the phone touched him, and though he didn't admit it then, he does so now. He eventually became very good friends with that Elder. In fact he even had come over to Hawaii and visited the Suas with his family. Bro Sua did end up breaking the Word of Wisdom again in the future, but that prayer over the phone was a turning point in his conversion. He still had a very hard time getting baptized but eventually he was baptized. He mentioned that at his baptism there were "choke" (that means a lot in Pidgin) people at his baptism and that nobody could believe that Kevin Sua was going to get baptized. A Bishop mentioned later that he felt prompted to pray for Bro Sua every night when he had stopped by for something. And so for nearly a year, that faithful Bishop prayed for Bro. Sua every single night until the day of his baptism.
After his baptism, bro sua was committed to live the law of tithing. He couldn't believe it was 10% and thought that was way too much. But he decided to try it out and just give his tithing to bishop. He had tried for months and months and months to have kids, but Sis Sua for some reason was having some major difficulty in bearing children. Nothing was working. That very week in which Bro Sua had paid his tithing, Sandy came to him and told him she was pregnant.
Ten years later, Bro Sua has grown into one of the greatest men I have ever known. Married in the temple, active in church and his callings, loving and charitable in every way imaginable and with a perfect family. Two beautiful little girls, and a warm house. His oldest boy's name is Nephi. And what is the name of his youngest son of a couple months, who can be found rocking in his chair if you ever visit the Sua family? Mosiah.
Now tell me that the power of prayer is not real, and that God does not care about his children, member, non-member, less active, or whomever they may be. Tell me that he is not the God of heaven and tell me that he does not care for all of us. He is there, I know that with all of my heart. Happy New Year, Chan