April 10, 2012

ALOHA!! And Happy Easter!!! From your emails it sounds like you all had a great Easter!! Alright well: First I would like to thank BreAna for sending those cookies in the mail! Wow those were so beautiful! You really are so talented! That just made my day! Thanks so much!

Hmm... so this is going to be a really random and sporadic letter but I don't have a lot of time so I am just going to start spouting off information. So something really cool that happened this week was I met Sister Julie B. Beck! Sweet huh! She came into the VC and I took a picture with her haha. Also another bomb thing that happened this week was Sister Looney and I were planning one night about which members in our ward we could visit the next day to seek referrals from and S. Looney felt prompted to visit this guy  so the next day we were walking in Kahuku looking for his house and we walked past a group of about 5 guys all drinking and realized that that was his house so we turned around and started talking to them and it turns out they are all supposed to be in our ward but they are all inactive. And it was so cool because we were inviting them to come to church the next day especially because it was Easter Sunday and we were testifying of Christ and they all got really quiet and one of them even said "Wow I can feel the spirit so strong right now. I haven't felt this way in a long time." It was so cool and then when we asked if they knew any nonmembers in the area they gave us their friend’s name up the street! It was so great! And k here is the thing- Laie is 90% members so it’s so awesome when someone can actually think of a nonmember. We hardly ever get referrals so it was so exciting! We went to the house though and he wasn't home but we will go back again for sure!

Also another sweet story: on Monday we were working at the VC and I saw an 18 yr old guy sitting outside on the temple grounds by himself and I just really felt like we should go talk to him and so we went out there and it was so cool because he is here visiting his grandparents for two months and he is way lonely. He has no friends and his Uncle keeps tearing down his beliefs. None of the family members that he is staying with are members and so he has been coming to the temple grounds to think a lot about if what he has been taught about the church is really true and just to have a spiritual boost. So we had him come in and watch the Mormon Message by Elder Holland about Easter and it was so good! And then we invited him to come to the singles ward that we are over and he agreed to that, so that will really help him find friends. He even agreed to go to FHE that night.

Oh and we did have another awesome referral story! Seriously though this girl is going to be golden! I can't wait to meet her! She is 23 and single and she works with Sister Crout.

 (The member that gave us the referral.) One day S. Crout asked if she could cover her shift because she would be giving a talk on the Book of Mormon in church that Sunday and the young woman said yes and then started asking some questions about the Book of Mormon. So naturally S. Crout gave her a copy! And then the next day S. Crout found a note from her saying how grateful she was to have been given this book and that she had already started reading it and that it brought tears to her eyes because she has been going thru a really hard time and it was just what she needed!!! What a gem right! The coolest part is S. Looney and I were talking the other day about what kind of investigator we wanted and S. Looney described her to the T! I can't wait to meet her! When we visited S. Crout and she told us all this she also informed us that the young woman had agreed to attend Church with her on the 15th! So we are going to go to her ward and meet her!

 Hey there was another miracle this week too! So you remember our investigator with the little baby and the busy job? Well we haven't been able to get a hold of her for two weeks and all of a sudden she walks into the VC while we are on shift! She was waiting for her friend to get done taking wedding pictures and after we talked for a while she said “hey sorry I haven’t been able to meet with you guys - I have been so busy, but do you want to meet this week?!” YEA! So we are meeting with her tonight! I hope it goes well!

 Also the young woman we have been teaching  is back in the picture and we have met with her three times since the last time I wrote so that’s good! We had a lesson with her on Sunday night at President Hanamans (he is the Stake President, and her boss at Kahuku grill, and way way intimidating) and because it was Easter Sunday he had all his family there so at first we were scared that there would be to many people and it would be hard for her to focus but it turned out being amazing! President Hanaman asked all his RM sons (he has 7 boys) to bear their testimonies and it was so so so great! After the lesson we were able to sit down and plan the baptism with her too so that felt really good to just have some of that figured out. We have it all set up for this Sat!!!! I am so excited! We are meeting with her a couple times this week too so I hope everything goes as planned!

 Oh one last little story- so last Sat when we were tracting in Kahuku we decided to stop by my favorite Polynesian’s house. Well he wasn't home so we left him some Easter cupcakes and a note and the next day he came and sat with us in Church and in the middle of sacrament he nudged me and said “check it out” and pointed at his scriptures and he had stuck our little note in his scriptures. Haha He is the sweetest little guy ever. haha Well he's not really little at all but he seems like a little teddy bear. haha Speaking of church I love that ward so much! I was just looking around and all of my favorite people in all of Hawaii were all in that little room! I feel bad because we cover some BYU wards but we haven't really worked much with them because they haven’t given us any ward council names and they don't have any non members. But the YSA 2nd ward (the one I was at) is where all the people that we have been teaching and working with are and I just love them! We stayed and had break-the-fast too with them and it was just really nice I hope I serve in their ward for a long time!

Alright well I'm sorry for all the rambling. I hope some of that made sense? I just kinda typed away so sorry if that was confusing and scattered. It probably was because that’s how I feel like I am every day of my life here! I use to be kinda organized right? Ya I don't know what happened. I feel like I am always the little chicken woman running around with her head cut off. K sorry.

Anyways Logan I just wanted to say I am stoked for you to go to the temple!!! Woot Woot! SO SO SO awesome! You are awesome! I love you so much! You will be so blessed for deciding to do that! Also Lucia I don't know if you read these emails but I really hope you do? I want to know how you are doing and what’s going on in your life? I was telling my comp about you the other day and it just made me miss you and really want to hear from you! Feel free to just write and email if that’s easier for you? And Mom thanks so much for forwarding Jan's emails! Wow they are on fire in SL! I can't even imagine have 130 referals!!! WOW! So cool!

Last thing I wanted to mention really fast is that today for Pday we went with Bro. and Sis. Lillywhite (sr. couple) around the Island and into town for groceries and stuff and man is Hawaii beautiful!!!! I have never seen anything so beautiful! It was so cool too because each side of the Island is so different! I can't wait for you to see the pics! If you want to go ahead and send the SD card I'll send you this one. K Well I love you so so so much! You are the best family I could ever ask for! I am so grateful for all your prayers and all that you do for me! Mahalo for everything!

Love ya like crazy!

Sister C.