03/29/10

loha

So, this has been another intestesting week. First, Elder Trujillo began his journey back to Colorado early this week (to answer your question mom, I'm pretty sure he'll be around when I get home). So, it has definately been different to know that he is no longer around.

Things flowed fairly well this week, with a couple of big bumps. First, on Monday night we got a call from a tongan family that needed a blessing for their son. Well, he was in Honolulu, so we couldn't go ourselves, so we called the elders down there to go give a blessing, trusting they would do so. Big mistake. Wednesday morning I got a call and got chewed out royally by a tongan lady who didn't seem to understand my saying : "We can't go to Honolulu. We called the Elders there." So, I was feeling a little frustrated by the end of that conversation. So, we spent a good amount of time making sure that elders went by today, but it still took them forever. So, I got another call that night from our Ward Mission Leader asking about it. That wasn't much fun either. Luckily, our Ward Mission Leader trusts and respects both Elder Mathews and I, so he gave us the benefit of the doubt for the most part, and has been defending us to the ward leaders. We think everything got figured out, but we are hoping the family is not still mad at us.

On Friday my companion got sick, which wasn't much fun either. So, Friday and Saturday we spent quite a bit of time at our house so that he could sleep and get feeling better. I had to have some other missionaries come with me for a little bit so that I could go teach two lessons we had schedualed. In the end, he feels better, and we still had a fantastic week.

To follow up on last weeks email about JJ, we met with him twice this week, and he actually came to church. I nearly fainted, but it was awesome to see him there. He had to leave after sacrament (apparently he has some kidney problems) but he seemed to enjoy his time there. He knows he needs to get baptized, and he has taken some steps now.

Derrick continues to do well. In fact, this last week he got his mom to sit in on a lesson with us. Also, another one of our investigators is also encouraging her family to learn about the church. We made the comment that it is sad when investigators do more missionary work than the members.

But, the Lord has a sence of humor, since shortly after we said that, one of our members invited his non-member brother to dinner, and another called to let us know her friend wants and needs to learn about the Plan of Salvation... We tried saying that non-members were doing more missionary work to see if the phone would ring again, but it didn't. I am super pleased with those two though.

So, the Lord provides a way as we sacrifice in our lives, and put Him first. I had the thought this morning of how selfish this world has become, and how much more we ourselves need to analyze our lives to make sure that we don't fall into the same trap. Let us break away from the "me,me,me" attitude. What can I do for you? What can I do for the Savior? If we ask those, we ourselves will be happier, and be able to help others as well.

I love you all so much, and as always, and so grateful for all you do for me. Keep smiling, and know the Lord loves us all.

Elder Kidd

03/22/2010

Aloha

So, the big news: Transfers. So, Elder Mathews and I will be staying in Waianae for another six weeks. I am excited and worried about this at the same time. I hope that I can use this time to help him, but I am afraid of it dragging on me, so I am praying the Lord will help me with that.

Otherwise, one of our zone leaders is leaving, which is a good thing. I was/am about ready to give him a piece of my mind, but seem to have been able to hold my tongue so far, so another 2 days shouldn't be too bad.

The sad part is that my best bud out here, Elder Trujillo, is going home this week, so things are going to be quite a bit different after that.

Otherwise, our week was interesting this last bit. I don't think I have ever had so many appointments cancel in my life. On Tuesday, we were supposed to have 5 lessons, and every single one canceled. Derrick had gotten behind on some work at his ranch, so we actually went and helped him for about an hour and a half making pallets (thought i would do that). He was the only one that was actually home though. The rest simply weren't there, forgot about us, or were sick... One guy actually told us that no one lived at his house by the name of the lady that told us to come back.

Wednesday followed a fairly similar trend, but it all wokred out in the end. It really was a slow week. We were able to have a couple of really good lessons with Derrick, and he is doing well. His girlfriend is finally starting to realize that she needs to change her life too. Hopefully Derrick will be the dominoe that gets his family baptized, and Erica's family reactivated. There is a lot of work to do there. Unfortunately for Derrick and his family, the cops showed up at his house yesterday because his mom caught his dad on the phone with another woman... so we will see how all of that works out.

Saturday night we had an interesting experience. I was talking on the phone with some Elders in my district, and Elder Mathews was carving a piece of mango tree our member gave him. He asked me how deep I thought he would get cut if he slipped. I responded, "Deep enough I'd have to take you to the hospital." Well, no more that 2 minutes later I see his knife drop, hear a gasp of pain, and see him grab his hand... Well, we didn't go to the hospital (the "hospital" here is a joke and the only real hospital is about 45 minutes away) we went to an investigators house. He stitched him up, and we returned home. What a fun night.

Some interesting news: This morning we got a call from an investigator (JJ) who we dropped for a bit. He went to church with his uncle on the big island, and is wanting us to come by again. I'll let you know how that goes next week.

I love you all. Thanks again for the continued support, love, and encouragement!

Elder Kidd

03/15/2010

Aloha

So, we had an amazing week this last week. Of course the highlight of that being the baptisms of Chelsey, Rachyl, and Megyn Miller. It almost because a cause of trouble, but in the end it all worked out.

The reason that it almost caused trouble was over a simple thing: food. I am amazed at how important food is for any situation out here. Noah and Kia Miller (the parents) had a pot-luck at their baptism, and wanted it for all of their children. Well, the pot-luck was because six got baptized on one day, and it was on Christmas. So, they didn't seem to understand that, and wanted to have one for every baptism, which begins to drag on the ward a little bit. We tried to encourage them not to, but they still wanted to. Our bishop didn't know about it, and we got a call when one of their neighbors told the bishop's wife that we were going to call all of the ward members and tell them that it was a pot-luck, which we never said. Then, another ward had a baptism as well, and they wanted food, so there was some miscommunication, and Noah thought he was going to have to cancel his food because of them. In the end (and after many prayers) everything went ok, no one got offeneded, and the baptism went fantastically. Then we had the confirmations yesterday as well, which went well. We stopped by early in the morning before church though, which turned out to be a good thing, because one of the daughters had bought a can of iced tea, not thinking about it, and we caught her and got her to not drink it.

Right after the confirmation on Sunday, Elder Mathews went back and sat by Derrick. He told him "You're next." to which Derrick replied "Yeah, maybe." but not disagreeing at all, so we will see how this week goes.

We also began teaching a lady named Charrise on Friday, who is very solid. She says she believes Joseph was a prophet and the book of Mormon is true, but when we got her to realize she would need to become a member, she decided she wanted to pray and come to church first, which we thought was good idea.

On Tuesday we had a fun experience. One of our members called us and wanted us to come give her daughter a blessing. So, she told us the story, and the daughter said she felt that she had done so much evil, and wanted to come to Christ but felt she couldn't. So, I wanted to share the experience of Alma the younger with her. But, the moment I pulled out the Book of Mormon, she asked if I could read from the bible. So, my companion and I were caught off-guard by that, but we were able to share the story of Paul instead, and I gave her the blessing because my companion wanted to tell her sorry and leave. But, I think it all went well in the end.

So, it has been an interesting week, and it looks like it will be another one, but this is the last of the transfer. I hope I get to spend one more transfer with Elder Mathews because I think I could help him a bit more, but we will see what happens. Oh, by the way, I am a district leader, and have been since the last transfer.

Thank you all for the continued support, love, and care. I love you all!

Elder Kidd

03/08/10

Aloha

Another week, and more fun stuff! Lets see, brief summary: party, killing a pig, 7th day adventist, arrogant leaders, baptism inverview... I think that is most everything.

Alright, so, the party and killing a pig go together. Derrick had a birthday party for his one-year-old son on Saturday. To let you know, 1st birthdays out here are no small matter. They are HUGE!. Most of the time you can see anywhere from 100-300 people. I think Derrick was planning on arnd 300. So, imagine having to feed that many people. Well, a 400 lb pig can help. Elder Mathews wanted to go help kill and kalua (cooking it in the ground) it. Well, if you don't know, I don't really do well with blood or killing anything that isn't considered a bug, spider, or something like that. So, we went on a split with some other elders, one of which is from Western Samoa (he wanted to kill the pig) and the two squemish companions (me included) went off to do normal missionary work.

The two of us went out to visit a referal we got from provo. Apparently Alex is ready for baptism in Idaho, but his mom is a 7th day adventist. So, we went to see her to convince her to let him get baptized. Well, it seems he doesn't really want to get baptized, just wanted his mom to tell us that he couldn't... even though we have no connection to Alex. So we felt a little bad about that, but then she started to "lay out the law" on the 4th commandment. So, it turns out that she is only a SDA (seventh-day adventist) because they worship on Saturday. She didn't have any problem breaking the 3rd commandment while we were there. And she doesn't really follow any other SDA teachings. It was sad, but hopefully her heart will be softened by the spirit and the stuff we left, and she will realize that the Lord could change the sabbath (fyi, Mormon Doctrine quotes another book saying that after the Exodus, the children of Israel observed the sabbath on a rotating basis, i.e. Saturday one year, then Sunday, then Monday, etc.) My companion was not very happy with her, but it all worked out.

Early that day I had had some fun with our Zone Leaders during our District Leader Training Meeting (DLTM). Well, they spent a little too much time talking about other missionaries, and not really knowing the whole story. So, when they started into Elder Trujillo, I politely, but firmly gave them the rest of the story, and made sure they understood the situation. They quit discussing it after that. That meeting seems to be such a waste of time to me... oh well, I am sure I can learn from it.

Otherwise, our week was amazing. We found several new people to teach, and taught a lot of lessons. We have a few people that we are going to stop teaching because they won't keep any committements. It always seems strange, but it reminds us that the Lord requires us to do our part as well. Also, when those that bring the spirit leave, often people will notice (finally) the spirit and want it in their lives. Hopefully that happens with JJ in the next couple of weeks.

But, life in Hawaii continues on. Elder Mathews steadily improves, and I bought myself some sick board shorts today. They stretch, and are long, so I think I will use them to work out in, and then swim when I get back to USU (I will shower before I swim).

I love you all so much, and am so grateful for your continued support, encouragement, and prayers.

Elder Kidd

03/01/2010

So, first of all, the Tsunami did hit, but not enough to even get above the sand line on the beaches... and only on two of the other islands, so we were ok. It was a lot of fun to gt a call at 3:30 in the morning telling us to drive to the stake center. I was actually asleep when the Tsunami was supposed to happen. We ended up driving up this huge hill to the Makakilo stake center, and then we played "Crowd Control" for the rest of the day. I never thought it could be that tiring, or maybe it was simply being outside, or maybe just trying to avoid stupid immature missionaries, but I crashed after lunch for about half an hour. In the end, everyone was safe, and ok, and we had to reschedual our 7 appointments....

The rest of the week was fairly good. In fact, on Wednesday we saw a miracle. Megyn and Rachyl have one older sister who hasn't been baptized yet. She actually got scared away by a missionary who told her she should give up her baby and she couldn't be saved because she broke the Law of Chastity... or atleast that is what she heard. Anyway, after a bit of work from us, and her parents, she came up to us on Wednesday and wondered if she could get baptized with her two sisters... Of course we told her no and that if you don't decided to get baptized right when we start teaching you, you can't be saved.... Oh wait, no, of course not. We contained our enthusiasm as we told her of course, and double checked that she was ready. We have taught her every day since (even after the tsunami). She is solid. The Lord does provide miracles.

On Thursday we had interviews with our mission president, and Elder Mathews' and my companionship was called a "match made in heaven." He asked me to continue doing what I was, and that Elder Mathews has made some great strides. It is still slightly frustrating at times, but I know with the Lord's help that he will be able to become a great missionary. He loves the ward, but doesn't have much patience. I just worry when I go on exchanges and he isn't around me that he slips back a little bit.

But things are going well. The Tsunami really threw everything around last week, and afraid was the main focus on attention. But it did bring a lot of thoughts to mind. Any type of disaster makes you really think and ponder on what is really important. In that danger, no one worries about their card, their computer, their phone (though they still grab them). We worry about our families. We worry about those we care for. A missionary asked me if I was scared, and I told him no. I was more worried about everyone at home worrying about me, and those that were in danger, and all those in Chile. It was nice to hear from a member yesterday that all of the missionaries in Chile are ok, so I know that Kyle Rosenloft is ok. But, let us learn from this, and pray the Lord doesn't have to send something else to us. Appreciate our families. Take care of them. Tell them we love them. Provide service. Break out of the selfish atmosphere we have, and do something for someone else today.

As always, thank you all for the support, care, and love. I love you all so much.

Elder Kidd