08/18/2008

Aloha one and all. I am now in Hawaii!!!
First of all, the preconceived notions of Hawaii (rich, tropical, lush, perfect) are far from true. Actually, there is quite a bit of poverty, or atleast the housing seems that way. But the people are great. They have what they need, are extremely comfortable, and just love life.
So, I am with Elder Stewart, who is from Bountiful. We are serving in two wards. A phillipenoe(sp?) ward, and a Tongan ward. The philli ward isn't so hot at the moment, but we have three people with baptisimal dates in the Tongan ward, and quite a few others we are working with. And I am learning Tongan! Right now it isn't much fun because my companion is fluent, so the people all speak tongan to him, and I have no idea what is being said. It is a little
discouraging, but it also gives me more of a desire to learn so that I can communicate myself as well.
So, like I said, the people are amazing. Just very laid back, and they simply love life. Eating a lot of food isn't a big thing though. Eat a good amount, yes, but always try the food. But apparently not over eating is not too bad. I have made good friends with the ward mission leader and his wife because I always eat everything, but now they joke with me to eat ABSOLUTELY everything. I ate watermelon seeds last night because they told me to.
Actually, they told me (or rather said in tongan and my companion interpretted) that I needed to "eat the bones" meaning the chicken bones from the three drumsticks I had just eaten. We both laughed, but then noticed that none of them had any bones on their plates. It freaked my companion out, and he thought for a moment they were serious. I remembered that no one but us had grabbed chicken, so I laughed.
This has been a really long week. In fact, I have kinda forgotten what happened the last little bit at the MTC. I do remember that I got one call in the Referal Center (call center) that lasted for almost 40 minutes as I bore my testimony over and over to this lady who admitted that she had had a drug problem, thought the Heavenly Father spoke to her directly as I would speak to
someone right next to me, and that for her to believe the Book of Mormon that she wanted her skin turned white since she was a Native American (that was a long sentance). It was interesting.
My companion and I also taught a lesson to a teacher who went to Hawaii on his mission, and commited him to do something nice for his wife that night. So we asked her (she is also a teacher at the MTC) if he did, and she kinda stopped for a second, said "Yeah... He did... Was that..... Thanks Elders!" It was hilarious, but cool at the same time.
So the work is progressing here. I had the opportunity this morning to not feel so useless as a guy came up and talked to me and the Elder I was with in a Wal-Mart parking lot. He started asking about the church, and I gave him a card, a pamphlet, and he said he was going to call so that the missionaries in his area could go talk to him. It was so cool!!
Well, we are headed bowling this afternoon. Apparently it is a big thing with my companion and our pad (housing). We also need to do some cleaning. So I am going to close. Thank you everyone for your support. Remember to stay strong and know that I appriciate your prayers. Thanks for all of your emails. I love you all!!
Elder Kidd