A Few Pictures

k... one is of me in front of a decorated house and palm trees, the other is of our tree with lots of presents from the ward.

One is of Julio's baptism (his wife, daughter, us, and kid who baptized him). Another is of a big group of missionaries at Zone Conference, and the last is of me and my companions in front of a mountain in a parking lot...

alright, last one of our hike today. Love you!

12/28/19

Mele Kalikimaka and Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

(It's Merry Christmas and Happy New Year)

Alright, I'm going to try and fill in everything I lost last week with my email being deleted, and then add what I can from this last week. I will send a different email with pictures this week.

So, things have continued to go well with our investigators and others we are working with. Janet continues to progress and grow. We were able to commit her for baptism this last week, and are meeting with her tonight to make sure she knows everything she needs to do to prepare. She wants to be baptized, and is very eager to make all of the changes needed.

We have also been working with a less-active family(The Harrisons)... well, used to be less active that are having their kids baptized on Saturday. The oldest boy (Dillon) is ten, and his younger sister is 8. They are a little crazy, but we can truly see the change their parents have made.

I don't know how well I told the story of how we found the Taufa'asaus, so I am going to retell it so you can see the miracle. We had just stopped by an investigator's home, and were working our way to our next stop. We had two different roads we could have taken, but we backtracked our trail to the last road. While we were driving down, I saw a family in a garage. I didn't think much of it until I heard, "hey, elders!" So, we stopped, turned around, and started talking to them. We found out that Lance, the husband, got baptized around 10 years ago, just recently got back from Iraq or Afganistan, but had been less active longer than that. His wife and two sons were not members. We set up a time to come by and visit with him the next week. When we went over for that visit, our bishop came along as well. Well, we resolved Lance's concerns about coming to church though he didn't feel worthy, and committed him to come. He wanted to bring his whole family, but one son had a prior committment (a prior committment when you are only 9...). Anyway, Lance came and brought his younger son that Sunday, and has come ever since, but with his whole family. We have started reteaching him while teaching his family. He wants his boys to have the values that they will receive in primary. They also love primary. his wife also really enjoys everything as well. It has been so touching to me realizing how much the Lord led us to them.

John isn't progressing an incredible amount right now, but hopefully in the near future. He needs to get a new job so that he can come to church, but he currently is looking, so there is hope.

Christmas was amazing. It was so great to call home and talk to all those I was able to. Sorry to those that I was not able to talk to. It was a little worrisome to me because the night before I was feeling really homesick and almost didn't want to call for fear of being more homesick. Well, the opposite happened. When I got off the phone I felt great, and now I am motivated again. The only problem was that I wasn't able to get back to sleep, so I was pretty tired the next day. Oh, and also for those I mentioned hearing sirens to, it turns out it was a housefire, not a high speed chase.

The rest of the day was fun though. we were able to visit a few members and eat with them. The first dinner (second meal) we had was delicious. they had ham and ribs... and they were delicious. So, I didn't want to eat much at our last dinner... which was ok because I'm afraid it wasn't quite so good.

But, other big news, and this is kinda depressing news. I found out last night that I am being transfered. Yep, after only six weeks in these wards, I am moving onto a new location. It is really sad because it feels like everything was about to come to fruition here. But, like a member told me in my second area: "Some are planters, some are nourishers(sp?), and some are reapers. Some get to do all, some only get one, but each is essential." So, I guess I got to play nourisher in this area.

We had a good day today though. We woke up and actually had two lessons this morning. then we were able to go on a hike with a member of one of our wards and his very pregnant wife (she may give birth tonight). the hike was great, but unfortunately you can only get to it by way of the army base. I will try to include some other pictures.

So, all is going well. For this next year, and especially with New Year's resolutions, may we all set a goal to follow the Savior's example in everything that we do. And as we do that, He will bless us. I'm also going to forward an email I got from Elder Navarro (Philipe) about his thoughts on Christmas, which I add my testimony to.

I love you all. Thank you as always for your support and love!
Elder Kidd

12/21/09

Mele Kalikimaka

Well... i had a long email, and I lost it, and I'm out of time. Fortunaltely a nice lady here is letting me use the computer briefly. I'm alive, I'll talk to you on Friday at 7. I love you so much.

Elder Kidd

12/14/09

Aloha

Alright, so first things first (and hopefully this doesn't cause any stress). My companions and I have arranged a calling schedual for Christmas, and since I am not one to create contention, I will be making my phone call at approximately 7:00 A.M. mountain standard time. If I sound a little groggy when I call, its because i will be waking up at 4. And then one of my companions will be taking over at 5. The joy of free minutes before 7 A.M.

But this last week was crazy. By the end of the week we had taught 25 lessons, and had one baptism (Julio). Yet it still didn't seem to be enough for our DL.., but we felt it all went well.

So, first, Monday we had a chapel tour with the Kitiona family. At first it was choas, then we got to the chapel, and it continued to be choas. But, the Lord does work, and the nine year old came to me and wanted me to sing a song from the hymn book. Well, we started singing, and eventually everyone had gathered around, and we all sang. Then we bore testimony, and the spirit was very present. As soon as the time for the wards changes, they should come to church, then we can convince them that their other church is good, but ours has everything. They are a fantastic family, and we are really excited.

Tuesday morning we had a meeting with a less-active member that we stubbled upon. His name is Lance. We were just riding our bikes up his street when his two boys called out to us. So we went back. Turns out he just got back from being deployed, and hasn't been to church in five years. IN fact, we didn't have his records. Well, we went back on Tuesday with our bishop, and it went great. He knows he needs to come back, and next week his wife should come with him to sacrament meeting. He is fantastic.

Unfortunately Janet was sick all this last week, so we were unable to meet with her, but we should be able to meet with her this week, and we are hoping to commit her for baptism the day after Christmas. She has a few concerns, but mostly seems good.

Saturday we went by and saw John again, and had a really long conversation. We have another appointment this week, and are taking a member to help keep things on track. The member is scared, but excited at the same time.

Saturday we also had the baptism for Julio. It was a great experience. He had to be baptized three times, but finally it all got done. Unfortunatley Elder Beavers and I were in a meeting on Sunday and missed his confirmation though. But he and his family are doing great.

So, the work is moving forward. HOpefully the wards will be split with 2 missionaries each by new years day.

Sorry this is a bit short. we had some difficulty with the computer and the ornery library lady. I love you all. Thanks for the continued support, and talk to some of you soon! (I'll send pictures next week).

Elder Kidd

12/07/09

Aloha one and all!

So, a quick story from last Monday. We had finished P-day and were headed to a FHE with a member of the high council in our ward. Well, I was leading the way. On the way down there, my bike chain slipped as I was sprinting, and I took a plunge into the bushes on the side of the sidewalk. Then, not 3 minutes later, we tried to cross the street, and a truck that was trying to turn right at a red light bumped the back part of my bike. So, I crashed and then got hit by a car. It was a couple fun minutes. The greatest part was after we crossed (the bump didn't even knock me over, so we kept going) Elder Beavers tried to cross, and the guy almost hit him too, and then yelled at him out the window. Guess it just shows how much the world tries to blame everyone else. But I am much more careful when I cross the street now.

Anyway... This was a bit of a confused week last week. We are realizing more and more that these two wards each need their own missionaries. So, we have developed a system so that we can see everyone we need to in both wards since we failed last week at that.

We had another meeting with John on Saturday, and again he made all of our heads hurt with scientific knowledge, yet he knows that it all points to God. We watched a video about temples... I'm starting to think we need to go back to the very simple basics to avoid the intelectual part of our discussions with him. But he is doing well.

I found out this morning that Trayleen is doing better, and also that Josh and Isaiah from Olomana ward got baptized last night.

We should be having a baptism this Saturday with Julio Diaz. He is in the army, and his wife got baptized while he was in Iraq. We are excited about that.

Also, Janet, another of our investigators, is really close to being baptized. She has a few questions (she has heard a lot of rumors that she knows aren't true, but she wants us to answer them) and we should be able to commit her soon as well. And today in about an hour we are doing a chapel tour for a Samoan family. The Kitiona family mostly knows the church is true, but goes to a Samoan church out on the west shore mostly for social reasons. We have faith that the spirit will touch them today, and we can begin to bring them into Christ's true church.

So, I have been thinking a lot recently about Christmas, and what the world has made it. We truely see how Satan will use everything to his advantage. A day designated to celebrate Christ's birth, and it has turned into a crazed "buy everything you can" day. Let us try to put the true meaning of Christmas back in the holidays this season. Remember the Savior, His sacrifice, His life. Let us honor that, not the mighty dollar.

I love you all, thank you for the continued support, and stay strong!

Elder Kidd

12/01/09

Fw: Much For Which to Be Thankful

Oh, also, my companions names are Elder Beavers and Elder Winterton. Elder Beavers is from New York and has been out about 8 months, Elder Winterton from Georgia and about 14.5 months.

Elder Kidd

Aloha Beloved Elders & Sisters,

We are thrilled to tell you that 101 of Heavenly Father's children entered the waters of baptism in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission in the month of November. Through the tender mercies of the Lord and more miracles than we can count, we have been blessed to see Vision 100 come to pass.

We are grateful to each of you for your contributions. You have exercised your faith in wonderful ways. You have chosen to sanctify yourselves through repentance that in many cases required painful confession. You have engaged in mighty prayer and fasting and have seen those prayers answered in tangible ways. You have seen the light in the eyes of those who have made and kept commitments which led them to make sacred covenants in the waters of baptism. You have been instruments in the hands of God in helping 101 souls have a chance at salvation.

You have also come to know that with your consecrated effort and much help from the Lord, difficult, never-before-accomplished-things can be accomplished. We need to keep our sights set high for the months ahead--they can all be Vision 100 months where many of God's elect sons and daughters come into the light of the gospel.

Please think back to the scripture I read to you at zone conference. It is from 1st Nephi 17:13 "And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led." We have indeed had a light in our "wilderness." The way before us was "prepared." Many of you have done your very best to "keep the commandments." There is no doubt--we know that it is by the Lord that we have been "led."

We would ask that each of us offer a mighty prayer of Thanksgiving to the Lord for this wonderful Vison 100 month of November. We are deeply indebted to our Father in Heaven and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ for this great miracle. Then, offer another mighty prayer that each of you, every companionship, will be able to be a part of White December by helping at least one of God's children into the waters of baptism before December 27th.

We love you dearly and pray that you will feel a warm confirmation from the Lord--a confirmation that He is pleased with your consecrated service here in these islands. We, with you, look forward to a wonderful Christmas Season. We'll see you all soon at zone conferences.

Mahalo nui loa and much aloha,
President & Sister Peterson

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