08/31/2009

Aloha

It's so funny that mom always talks about taking care of myself and not getting sick... because I got sick this last week. I woke up on Tuesday with a slightly upset stomach, a fever, and a severe sore throat. That night the fever broke and my stomach was ok, but I have been coughing and haven't been able to talk since then. Everyone kept saying go home, rest, but we had too many appointments. So, today, our only appointment was dinner with a family with a 1 month old baby, so we aren't going to that tonight, and I am going to get all rested up so that we can have a fantastic week.

Really quickly, it is funny to hear about Chelsi taking classes I took, and I will be interested to see her programming abilities when I get home!

But we had a really good week. Elder Call (my new companion) is great, but very green. It isn't too uncommon for a DL to train in our mission. There really aren't Sr. or Jr. companions out here either. It is just fun for me to have to balance the district and train a new missionary. He pays attention, wants to learn, is willing to learn, but is scared out of his mind. I have a lot of hope for him though, and I know that he will do great. He is from a little town by Tremonton, and you can kinda tell. He weirded me out the most when he told me that back home he would just grab a handful of grain and chew on it... but he's a great kid.

Right now, our biggest news is one of our investigators named Mike. We had taught him a couple times, but kinda lost touch with him. Well, Friday morning he calls to apologize for not talking to us for a while, and tells us that his wife just had a miscariage, his cousin just shot himself, and he was having a lot of trouble with lawyers. I felt so bad, but at the same time had the thought: "He is being prepared," floating across my mind. Well, we brought a fantastic fellowshipper who's wife (we found out at the lesson) had also had a miscariage at one time. So, after watching Together Forever, talking about families, and talking about our a car that our fellowshipper is going to sell to Mike, Mike really wants to come to church, learn more, and we are super excited. He has 5 kids, so there are 7 in the family. I really want to help them reach the temple, because I know that would mean so much to them.

We also keep working with David, and he is coming along. We spent a lot of time talking about eternal families, and he said that is what he wants for his family. Hopefully we will be able to commit him for baptism this week. We also are working with the husband of a recent convert, and we talked about eternal families with them too (isn't temple marriage amazing?). So, with them and a bunch of 9-year-olds we are going to start working with, it seems this is going to be the transfer of Temple and Keiki baptisms. I am super excited. There is so much to be done.

I also had fun this last week in distric meeting. I took Captain Moroni's example and created a "Title of Kailua" to try and get my missionaries motivated. I'm trying to instill a sense of love and respect for the people in them, or Aloha to be true. Too often people out here think we are strangers, but if we love them, they can see what we are sharing is for them. If God is love, then we ought to show love as well.

So, I hope all is going well for everyone. I love you all, and am continually grateful for all you do. Aloha!

Elder Kidd