11/30/09

Aloha!

I am going to forward an email that our mission president sent out this week. I hope that you all will enjoy it. It tells a little bit about what we were able to do in November. (FYI, Vision 100 is the goal of getting 100 baptisms in a month, therefore doubling the average of 50 from before).

But we had an awesome week. It seems amazing to me that I have been here in Mililani (Mill-i-lawn-EE). Time is flying by. As we cover two separate wards, we have a lot of work to do. We found out in interviews this last week that our threesome is an accident. A mini-missionary (someone from out here that serves as a missionary for about six weeks) fell through about 12 hours before he was supposed to arrive... so it was a last minute thing. Anyway, we have a lot of work to do, and bikes as transportation to do it with (by the way, there was a bike here for me to use. it is nice. I just had to buy new disc brake pads for it, but everything else is good. does anyone know if the church has something to do with the manufacturing of Liahona bikes?)

Thanksgiving was enjoyable for us. That is the day we had our interviews and district meeting. After that we went and had dinner with an investigator family (super baptist, but we'll get to that later), and then to a less-active family with a son that is getting baptized in january. We visited a couple people, took some pictures (i am sending my memory card home in the Christmas package... so you can't see the pictures and video until then) and then went home. I also got sick this last week (a cold) but got over it fairly quickly using a lot of zinc and vitamin c.

Friday was an interesting day. We had 6 appointments schedualed, so of course only 1 went through. This was with the Fritts family, who we had dinner with on Thanksgiving. They are strong baptists, and honestly do not think we are going to make it to heaven. They believe that the book of Abraham was misinterpreted, and don't think the book of mormon is scripture, but they agreed to honestly pray about it. We had a good discussion with them (it never was a bash, so i was happy), and then we left. We all have to think, but it continues to strengthen my testimony.

Sunday was amazing. One of the wards we cover has a new bishop, and he is incredibly focused on "Rescueing the lost." He saw us riding our bikes late Wednesday night in the rain (probably how i got the cold), and then loved our progress record. He is willing to help us so much, and encouraged (well, kinda scolded) the members to do the same. So, we are now super motivated, excited, and eager to go.

We also had a lesson with a guy named John. John is a genius. I mean, really, this guy is amazing. Basically, he knows that catholocism is wrong through history, and he knows everything else. I want to just pick his brain for about 5 days straight. He is praying about the Book of Mormon, so he should get his answer soon.

On a slightly down note, I found out last night that there is still a lot of drama in my last wards over Trayleen. So much in fact that she isn't sure if she wants to get baptized. So, we see once again that the church is true, but the members aren't always. But we need to look and make sure that we are not the ones that are keeping one of God's children from returning to him. But evenmore, when someone does something to us, we can't let it affect us. Does anyone else ever notice how much more we have to "Rise Above" the influence and do what is right? Guess thats what we call the right thing.

Hopefully next week the computers at the library will be fixed so that each of us can check email at the same time. Right now there are only two working, but hopefully soon! I love you all. Thank you for your continued support, love, and laughs! Keep smiling!

Elder Kidd