July 24th

Hey partners!!!!

Wow!!! What a week and it still isn't finished yet! So a little rundown of what we did this week. We flew out to Kauaii last Saturday in the evening time. We went to church with the Elders serving in Kapaa and then we exchanged for most of Sunday night. I went in the evening with zone leaders to see how they are doing and they are tearing it up. They teach over thirty lessons a week and have like 8 investigators with a date. That is really good for here in Hawaii and especially on Kauaii. I spent the night with them and then we got up early and headed off to Hanalei for an amazing hike with the zone. It was probably the sickest hike I have ever done on my mission. It was so amazing!!! The waterfall was so beautiful and there was a secluded beach a few miles into the hike. I wanted to go hop on it and into the water so bad!!!!!
There were lots of people hiking it though and some people were passing out because it was a pretty good little hike, especially for some of the older people that were trying to make it. It is going to suck so bad when i get old and can't go hunting or go on hikes or do anything like that. Anyway the hike was amazing and I love some fo the missionaries over there. Sister Dearton is the red haired one and she is so awesome! Sister Brown is the same and she is from Arizona. Elder Smith is one of the funniest guys i have ever met. He and Elder Coffin from Idaho are awesome zone leaders. I love them to death. But we finished the hike and had to get back and shower and pack again for our flight that MOnday to Maui. We made it in time and i felt so sad knowing that a lot of those missionaries i would probably never see again in my life because they were off island at the time and i will never be to Kauaii in a long time. It was so depressing hugging them at the airport and saying good bye.
The plane ride over was awesome! We have been separting and selecting our seats for the middle so we can talk to as many people as we can on the flights between the islands. We have seen so much success with it. Almost everyone we have sat next to have been super nice and we are able to open our mouths about the gospel in every conversation we have with the. I talked with a super awesome girl on that flight. She started off really stand offish and shy. She was really pretty so i thought she was just being stuck up and whatever but i knew that i had specifically selected that seat when i scheduled the flight and i knew that she must be there for some reason. But she was a tough one to get to open up, she wouldn't talk at all and when i would ask her a question she would just give me a one liner and look away. She pulled out a magazine and started to read it, trying to ignore me I thought. But I said a little prayer and asked God if she needed to hear about the Gospel and that if she was one of His elect that He would somehow get her to open up and talk a little bit. I gave her a little time and then I started to ask a few more questions and finally she opened up and told me like her whole life story and how she was a kindergarten teacher now, but she wanted to stop and start doing surf lessons and that she knew friends awhile back that had gone on missions and that she had grown up on Kauaii and all sorts of stuff. She ended up being super cool and interested in missionaries and what they do, so i think she might have just been really shy or just scared of some fat looking mormon kid in a white shirt and tie, lol. But all the flights were like that, i got to talk to some really nice people and to share a little bit about he Gospel with all of them. Hopefully it opens doors for the future and them accepting the fulness.
So we flew to Maui and i started off in Kahului with Elder Lapena and Johnson. It was a bike area but they didnt' have a third bike so we ended up walking all day. I was so sore from the hike, so that didn't work out so good. I got sick and still haven't quite been able to get rid of it. I went with some Elders up in Makawao after that. They were so cool. Elder Pincock and Elder Workman. ELder Pincock is really good friends with Talysha Young's cousing, Jamile. He even had pictures of her posted up above his desk. When i saw them i was like hey, I know that girl!!!!! We had a good time. His greenie, Elder Workman is a stud! He is probably one of the funniest guys i hav ever met. We had a good time together. There is a kid named Elder Allen up there from Kaysville but he is serving in Pukalani. He is so chill! He reminds me of Skyler, he is just the friendliest guy and hilarious, and just a super good guy. He is hooking me up with some of his girlfriends from Kaysville so we can double date when he gets home, it is going to be sick!!!!!
I guess they had some weird stuff happen in the pad that they live at though. They live right on the grounds of where the first Chapel in Hawaii was built and where the first baptisms occurred. So the place has a pretty big history. But anyway Elder Allen was telling me I better be careful tonight when I sleep at there place. I kept pushing him to tell me but Elder Davies, the zone leader who was one exchanges with him, kept telling him not to tell me until after i was packed and not spending the night there. He kept joking about it and finally i forced him to tell me, Gosh that kid is so funny! But i guess a few nights before something crazy had happend. They were all sitting in bed talking about like Voldemort, that guy off of Harry Potter i guess, don't ask me how they got on that subject, i swear us missionaries talk about the weiredest stuff all the time becuase i guess we dont' have anything better to do but talk with each other at night and all day and so we end up covering like every topic and every outcome and every conversation known to man. Anyway they were talking about that and all of the sudden the back door just slammed shut and it made a huge noise. They tripped out but didn't think too much of it. But here is the weird part.
One of the Elders, Elder Savage was on like the tope bunk of one of the bunk beds and in the middle of the night he started to raise up out of his bed and look around and then make like weird clicking noises. He would start to like go back and forth from laying down to sitting up and just going back and forth and back and forth. He would look at Elder Allen and just glare and then lay back down. I guess Elder Workman was watching the whole thing too. They were scared out of their mind so they didnt' say anything. They watched him do that for hours and finally he stopped. ELder Allen and Workman thought they were the only ones who watched it happen but when they both brought it up they were so happy that they weren't going crazy. They asked Elder Savage about it and he didnt' know anything, he had no idea that he was doing that all night. He was so scared and they called President on what to do. They were told to bless Elder Savage, bless the house, and to bless the chapel and that it should be good after that.
So you can imagine how freaked out I was to sleep in that fetching pad that night!!!!! Gosh i didn't sleep at all! I was so tired the next day and sick, I don't even know how i made it through. I ended up sleeping there again the next night but i was so tired and sick I didnt' even care about anything and i slept just fine. I hate stupid stuff like that. It is the only stuff that really scares me and so far i have been lucky and haven't had to deal with anything like that at all and I hope it stays like that until i die!!!!
I went with Elder Grover and Katanuma in Kihei after that. They are doing so good. They are one of the best companionships we have in the mission and they are not even out six months yet. They have had to sleep on the floor for a month and a half though becuase of bed bugs, so that has been a problem for them. But they finally got the house tented and it should be good after they are done. That was why I had to stay in that haunted pad one more night than i thought i would have to.
After Kihei, which was on Thursday night, we drove over to Lahaina. I had talked with Bishop Taukeiaho on the phone and asked if we could stay over for the night and get a ride to the ferry to Molokai in th morning. He was like ' No problem, i think the Marriot Hotel is calling your name. We can get you a jaccuzzi and a nice king sized bed and all kinds of stuff.' I laughed and was like 'yeah, that would be great.' He said we could stay over and i didn't think anything of it. I figured he would let us sleep in his living room or they had some cots outside that are way better than our airmattresses. SO i was excited to stay at his house and see all of the Tongan members again.
So i call him right before we get to Lahaina and i was asking him if it was still okay to come by. He said yes and that the Marriot was going to be so nice and how he had food for us there and all kinds of stuff.' I told him yeah, that wold be great and asked him if he even got a swimming pool for me too.' He laughed and i told him I would be there around nine or nine thirty. I was like man, he is really joking big time about this hotel thing. How cool would it be to stay there though?? I was like well, maybe when i come back he will hook me up for my honeymoon or something.
So I show up at his house and absolutley nobody is there. At first i thought I had forgotten where it was becuase it has been a year since i served in Lahaina, but then i saw some pictures inside and i knew that it was his house. I kept thinking where the heck is he and so i gave him a call. He said he would be out in a few minutes. So the zone leaders left and he called back and asked where i was a few minutes later. I told him outside and he was like 'I am on the other side of the waterfall.' I thought he was joking, so I was like oh yeah me too and i said something dumb. But then he was like 'No, Elder Street, I am really at the Marriot Hotel right now, i have a room rented for you and my boy and all his friends are down here for his birthday!!!! I am really right by the waterfall right now........." HA HA HA HA i almost died!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He works at the Mariott and he would always joke about us staying there when i was in his ward. So when he was saying that stuff about us staying there, i serioulsy thought he was joking! I kept going on like it was a joke and i kept making comments and stuff, but when he said he was really by the waterfall I almost had a heart attack! I was like what the heck you are serious??? And he kind of sounded a litte annoyed and said he would head up and pick us up. I felt like an idiot!!!!! I really still can't believe he got us a room at the nicest fetching hotel in Lahaina!!!!! GOSH!!!!!!! SO he came and picked us up, he was super chill about out and i told him how sorry i was and that i thought he was kidding and sorry for making him do this on his boys birthday and he was just really cool and said anytime for the ELders. But you could tell he really meant it. He is such a great guy, one of the greatest i have ever met. He had just flown in from Portland that day for his sons b- day. I guess he asked his son where he wanted to go and the kid was like, I want to go to Portland, Oregon for some random reason. So they took him there. Bishops wife works at Hawaian Airlines so she can fly for free with her family anywhere in the world. So the kid could have picked China, or Korea, or Tonga, or anywhere, but he picks Oregon. SO they all fly to oregon for the day. Then the kid somehow gets the idea that he wants to spend the night at the Mariott that night, so Bishop was like okay. He rented a few rooms for the family and his friends and then he rented us a room too. It was so sick!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The nicest bed i have ever slept on in my life!!! And the swimming pool was right outside our door. It was literally like 20-30 feet away.
When we showed up he was like you Elder need to come up and get some food... Can you come up really quick before you go to bed? It was like ten o clock, but i could tell he really wanted us to get some food so we went up to his room. I saw a lot of the tongan members that i was able to be with so long ago and it was great!!! I loved talking with them and it brought back a lot of good memories, but also a lot of bad ones too. That was a rough place with some of the companions I had. But it was amazing at the same time. They fed the crap out of us and we couldn't get out of the place without a huge plate full of food and a bag full of soda and water and all kinds of stuff. I really was surprised they didn't give us the entire trays full of food. Elder Garritson were tripping out of our minds. I really still can't believe that happend. It was such a nice place and i actually took a bath on my mission!!!! It was the greatest thing ever!!!!!!!!
We got up at around five twenty and met Bishop outside at six. He had already been up at 3 to take his wife to work and later in the day he had to find a house for a couple of families. Thier house had burned down and they had no where to stay. I couldn't believe that Bishop would give so much to me and to Elder Garritson with everything on his plate at that time. And to make things even crazier he stopped by Macdonalds and bought us breakfast. That man is such a great guy! I wish i could pay him back even a fourth of what he did for us. I miss having members like that in the Tongan ward just take care of you like that.
As Garritson and i were sitting at the dock waiting for the ferry, some tongan member came and gave us forty bucks!!!! I swear, these tongans give so much and i don't even know why, i had been there like a day and look at everything they had given us. It is so nuts!!!!!
The ferry ride over wasn't too bad. It wasn't hardly as bad as last time that is for sure. It was good to hear from Catmull and it was crazy you guys are hanging out again. You really are good friends with mama catmull huh? I am excited about Chase and going in for the interview. That is so awesome! And yes, that would be good for me to do my homecoming talk as soon as possible. See if Bishop will let me speak on Missionary work or on Serving a Mission or gettting young men on missions, something to that effect would be so awesome!!! But a friend once told me you can't always have your cake and eat it too, so whatever would work best for him. HOw is bishop by the way???
ANyway back to the week. I have to hurry and pack and get ready for a flight so i can't write much longer. Molokai was sick!!! There are some familes, the Apuna's and the Akaka's. They are so amazing!!! I haven't even served in thier wards and i love them so much. I have met with them all three times i have been on Molokai. We went and got some Molokai bread so that was good too. It was a good exchange. Elder Taylor and His greenie from New York, Elder Brooksby are doing solid!!! Elder Maybon and Elder Hanks are the other Elders there in Hoolehua ward and they are doing solid. They have had 6 baptisms in a month when there hadn't been a baptism in over 6 months before that. SO they are doing good. I love MOlokai. They always have the hugest family parties all the time. I have gone to a party every day i have been there. They feed the crap out of you!!!! And so many people hunt, and do rodeo, and fish, and do all kinds of that stuff. I loved it over there. I was so sad to leave and know that i probably wouldn't be back in awhile. Most likely years and years and years. I am getting so sad about leaving and saying goodbye. I am a nervous wreck and i am giong to be a little cry baby.
Well anyway, i gotta go. There was a very breif overview of what happend this week. I am headed off to Hilo today at three thirty and I will be there til Thursday and then we will exchange in Kaneohe and after that we will start transfer plan. I won't get to email tommorrow most likely so i hurried and sent this one. I hope you enjoyed the pics. LOVE YA< ELDA HALA>