05/25/09

Malo e lele

We'll try a little tongan this week...

Well, it seems the thing I learned most this week is that there are a a lot of crazy people in Hilo. And when I say crazy, I mean completley off their rockers. The problem is, as missionaries we listen to them because we want to help them, and then they love us because no one else in the world listenes to them. By the time we realize they are not accountable and that teaching them may not be the best course of action in the world, we are their best friends, and can't get away from them.

The greatest part was when my district leader told my companion and I that one ladies salvation was on our shoulders if we didn't teach her. Well, my comanion works out for 90 minutes every day, and his only complaint is that we don't have enough weight for him, and I weigh over 200 lbs (but barely! I'm going down). Lets just say we both just stared at him and pondered over whether it would be worth it to get transfered out of this area for hitting him. We decided against that action though.

But, we are working with some sane people as well, and we got a referal this morning of a girl that told her friend she is ready for the missionaries to come over (oh yeah, she has already read the Book of Mormon up to 4 Nephi), so super excited are we!

Last night we had an interesting night. Our zone decided to have a movie night at the chapel. We watched the Testiments. The funny thing was, my companion and I forgot to invite anyone, so we had it announced in our wards on sunday (only once). Well, we had two members from each of our wards, and two new investigators that were there (I think two other people that weren't missionaries showed up). So, we really enjoyed the movie.

Right after that, we got a message from a less active in our ward that we have been working with. She has a smoking and heart problem. Well, she was panicing (sp? nothing looks right on spelling that word), so we went over and gave her a blessing. It was amazing the change that happened during the blessing. It is a true testimony of the power of the priesthood.

I gave a talk yesterday in one of our wards, and decided to speak on Joseph Smith. On these thoughts, I tried to help our ward see the true need to have a testimony in Joseph Smith and what he was able to do for us. We need to follow his example and ask of God. Remember his words after the First Vision? "I had seen a vision. I knew it, and I knew God knew it, and I could not deny it." May we all strive to apply those words to our own testimony: I know it, and I know God knows it, and I cannot deny it.

Ofa'atu, and mahalos, and much aloha!

Elder Kidd