02/22/10

Aloha!

Well, this morning has been an interesting morning. Elder Trujillo and I just came from a funeral of a member who worked with one of the members in our ward. It was a good service, but interesting as I had never met him. Also, I realized this morning that only at mormon funerals do you ever hear people laughing. There seemed to be a fair number of jokes, and I think everyone left with uplifted spirits. Also, I love that whenever a funeral is held at a church, they always have the Plan of Salvation. Isn't it great that we know these truths? And how much do we need to share them.

Other than that, it has been a good week. I went on two exchanges this last week, so it interesting to be away from my companion. He is a good kid, just not overly motivated. We did have a good conversation one morning where he told me that he is starting to get some of the desire back. I think the way I am working with him is helpful to him, and it keeps the work going.

We committed two girls to get baptized this last week: Megyn and Rachyl Miller. They are Mandy's sisters. After them, there is only one more sister, and then the whole family will be ready to be sealed in the temple. It is so awesome to be able to work with families and to see the blessings that the gospel brings into their lives.

Derrick continues to do well. He still has a few concerns that he has to work out (marriage and word of wisdom) but he knows he wants to get baptized, and wants to be with his family forever. We were able to teach him a few times this last week, and he is doing wonderfully. We just need to get a little more fan on the fire to get him to hurry as he needs to.

It is fun to hear of snow from everyone back home. I don't think there was any snow that actually stuck this last year in Hawaii. But I guess there is still time. I wake up a little chilly some mornings....

So, one thing I remembered this last week is that one of our recent converts is friends with the son of the guy that used to own JJ's Froststop in Hurricane (get all that?). What was fun is that he gave us $10 to go buy a snack right in the middle of a lesson we were teaching. That is a fun one to have to explain. He said his dad is over the missionaries, but he isn't a member. Too bad we only see him once every two months.

We also had a good lesson with Jonathan and his wife Ann last night. They have been taking the lessons for a while now, and at one point Jonathan wanted to be baptized, but pulled out. He committed himself last night to continue moving. Actually, he told us that he was moving slowly, and I told him that moving requires some progression. So, he acknowledged that, and is planning on comming to church regularily now. Hurray!!

Other than that, I think all is going well. Remember that if we have "aloha" or love, we may show it in different ways. It doesn't always have to be doing everything for someone, though they may expect it. As a couple members in our ward have learned, love sometimes comes in making them take responsibility. As we take responsibility for our lives, we learn, we grow, and we continue on the path to our Heavenly Father.

As always, thank you all for your continued love, support, and encouragement. I love you all.

Elder Kidd

02/16/10

Aloha

So, this may be the last week that I email from this account. The church has set up a new server with google, so I should be switching soon. You can continue to send emails to this account though. They will keep it in tact so that emails still come to it and get forwarded to the other.

This has definately been an interesting week. I am not entirely sure about my companion right now. Some days it feels like we can do wonderfully, and others I wonder if I am going to survive this time with him. His name is Elder Mathews. He's from Mesa Arizona. The problem I have is that he really doesn't care anymore about rules or the mission. So.... you can see my quandry. He has been out about 10.5 months.... so a ways to go. I was about ready to call our mission president yesterday and ask what I should do about a companion that doesn't really want to work, and has no problems breaking the rules. But, we had a good conversation this morning, and are working on things. He is one that doesn't like to be forced into anything, and will rebel if someone tries to. He also told me that he has done better with me than his last few companions. So, I may be onto something to be able to help him. I have told him that I won't join in on anything, but that I can't force him, and he seems to respect that. He is willing to follow me, just not necissarily(sp?) willing to take the lead. So, I am praying the Lord will help me help him, and also give me the strength to continue on. Also, I will learn all I can to improve myself as well.

But other than that.... last week was pretty good. We began teaching the sisters of the girl we baptized the week before. Megyn and Rachyl (yes, I spelled those right) are 14 and 9. They are the last two daughters of Noah and Kia to be taught. One other daughter was taught but stopped, but hopefully we can get her to start again soon. They are doing well.

Derrick is also doing well. We just had a lesson/lunch with him. He has some pretty big concerns, but is willing to change. He wants to give up his WoW concerns, and get married. He wants to Holy Ghost. Now we just have to set goals to do it soon.

JJ still hasn't come to church. We have some ideas to help him, but he knows he needs to. He has said that a lot of times it takes a lot to get him moving on things. But, like a freight train, I would imagine once he starts it will be hard to get him to stop.

Yesterday was a fun day. We woke up early and went on a very, very long hike. I will try to send pictures next week. We started at about 7 and got back around 1. It was awesome, but very tiring, and I am now sunburnt. But, that is what always seems to happen to me.

Some other news, Elder Simnitt (if you remember him from a few months ago) is in my district, and I am actually going on an exchange with him on Friday. It is going to be interesting to go on exchanges with a former companion again (I did it before with Elder Aldridge).

Also, we had district meeting this morning, and I want to share some things from that. Our bishop actually gave me the inspiration. In Ether 1, we read about the Brother of Jared, and Jared (ever notice Jared kinda bosses his brother around? :-) and the tower of Babel. When the people were doing this wickedness, the first thing the Lord did was to confound the language. How important was communication to them, and to us today? The Brother of Jared prayed for help to overcome that. We need to pray to the Lord for help with communicating, and do all we can to improve communication.

Well, I think that is all. Happy Birthday to all that have had a birthday. Keep smiling, keep strong, thanks for all you do, and I love you all.

Elder Kidd

02/08/10

loha, and G'day mate

So, I think Ben will be most excited about this. My companion, Elder Ka'ahanui and I were able to come down to his house yesterday so that he could open his mission call. And he is going to....... Australia, Adalaide mission! So, he is super excited about that. The only problem is that I have to get him to focus on this work for one more day. I don't think it will be too hard, but he is definately looking forward to going home on Wednesday.

As for the rest of our week. This seemed to be the week of canceled appointments. I think by the end of the week we had somewhere near 10 of our appointments cancel. So, that always makes things a little more difficult, but you endure through and do the best that you can.

JJ still seems to be struggling a lot with commitment. He "guarenteed" (sp?) us that he would be in church on Sunday... and he wasn't. One of our bishop's councilors knows him, and said that he just doesn't feel ready to make the commitment. So, hopefully one or two more bold lessons will help him with the commitment. Otherwise, some other missionaries may have to help him.

On Friday we had a wonderful baptism for Mandy. Everything seemed to go well, and we had a lot of people there. I forgot to grab my camera, or else I would include pictures. When I do, I promise that Mandy is a girl (though she doesn't look it: short hair and boy clothes). Her parents are going to work on that aspect thought. Then yesterday I was able to confirm her in sacrament meeting, which was a great blessing.

Saturday we had an open house at our chapel, which was awesome. It was supposed to be for the members to bring their friends to to introduce them to the gospel. Well, not many did that. But, most of the people that came were from Waianae ward, and most were either recent converts, or less-actives that are coming back to the church. Also, our bishop came and loved it, and told us we need to do it again, and next time he will bring people. Then, 7 of the 8 people that bore their testimonies yesterday had come to the openhouse, and said that it was a wonderful experience. I think next time we will have a lot more support.

I also got some fantastic news as I logged onto the computer to send this home. If everyone remembers the Taufa'asau's from Mililani that I wrote about around 6-10 weeks ago.... Mandy (the wife) and Jensen (the older son) got baptized this last Saturday. They emailed me and invited me to the baptism. Unfortunately I didn't find the email until today.... but I am still super excited that they got baptized.

Also, I got a phone call from President Peterson this morning, and I will be a district leader again next transfer. So, I get to serve more missionaries again. I am excited to be able to do these things once more.

Yesterday we gave a good lesson to the young men in our ward, and I wanted to share a little from it. We talked a little bit about the things they liked to do (all talked about the super bowl). Then, we told them about how they couldn't do any of that on their missions, and asked why would anyone want to serve? Then we went on about sacrifice, having a testimony, etc. But, for us, how many things in our lives does the Lord ask us to give up? What things do we have to sacrifice? Why do we do it? I think there may be a lot of answers, but doesn't it come down to a couple basic things: we love the Lord, and want to follow Him; we love the Savior for all that He has done, and want to be worthy of His sacrifice for us; we love our families and want to be with them forever. What wouldn't we give up for that?

I love you all so much. Thank you continually for the support and love that you give to me.

Elder Kidd

02/01/10

First of all since I have forgotten to say it the last two weeks, Happy Birthday to Dad and Jeremy (and probably to add to foot-in-mouth) and anyone else in January!

So, it seemed this last week as though the Lord wished to bless us even more since Sunday was disappointing. We found six new people to teach this last week, one of those belonging to a family. Another part of a less-active family we hope will come back through our efforts. So, there is a lot of potential.

Derrick is doing great. He loves the things we are telling him, and the joy it is bringing into his life. The only problem we have is that his girlfriend used to go to another ward, and her family is there, so she still wants to go there. Hopefully when they are more comfortable they will start coming to ours. Until that day though, we will help them all that we can.

Thursday this last week was amazing. We had our zone conference, and as always it was motivational. The cool thing this time was a role play that I was able to do with Elder Trujillo. We were supposed to be listening to the spirit for guidance about how to resolve concerns (rather than going to the usual list we seem to carry in our heads). Well, I wanted to have the spirit inspire me to give a concern to him. And it did. I realized that the concern I gave was one that he had before he got baptized. So, by the end of the role play, I was in tears, and he was close. It was such an awesome experience, and a chance for him and I to grow closer together.

Sunday again turned into a little bit of a disappointing day. We found out one of our less actives that had been coming back might have fallen off the deep end again, and a few people didn't come to church that said they would. Anyway, means we have a lot of work to do this week, so we will be busy.

Elder Ka'ahanui acts like a regular missionary while he is with me, but hopefully he will be getting his call in the next day or two. Then, he goes back home next wednesday and I will get another companion. So, I will have had 14 companions. I'm half shooting to have 17 by the end of my mission.

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

Elder Kidd

01/25/10

Aloha

I am constantly amazed at how slow internet can be in libraries... hopefully I will have time to download the pictures mom sent me last week and look at them this week...

But, it has definately been an interesting week. I have my new companion now. His name is (Elder) Cy Ka'ahanui. He is from just down the road in Kapolei. He should be getting his mission call in the mail this week, so hopefully we will both be able to go down for that. I never thought I would be able to say that my companion is getting his mission call... never really goes in that order, does it? : )

But, some good things, and some bad things happened this week. We spent the whole week working up towards Sunday, and were really planning on having a great attendance at sacrament meeting. In fact, we had 7 people who told us they were going to come. Well, Sunday morning we got a phone call from one: He was sick. Then we stopped by anothers house: He had just gotten back from the hospital (so he and his wife couldn't make it). Then we got another phone call: Two more were sick. And the last just didn't come even though we stopped by his house after an earlier meeting. So, Mandy came, and had her baptisimal interview, which was good. But, even with all of the bad, the Lord provided a blessing.

While we were waiting for the one investigator that didn't show, a younger guy walked into the chapel and said he was looking for another guy. Well, no one had heard of his friend, but we told him that we could help him look for his friend. Instead, he asked if he could sit in today... (really think we would say no?). So, he sat next to us during sacrament meeting. Right afterwards, we helped him look for his friend, but we couldn't find him. Well, Derrick (the guy) told us that his daughter had been blessed, that his girlfriend was a member (less active) and that she wasn't happy. So, we told him that our message brings happiness, gave him a Book of Mormon with a couple of pamphlets, and we will be going over on Tuesday. The Lord really does provide blessing when you do all you can do. You just may not always expect those specific blessings.

So, remember that the Lord loves you. Do your best, and He will always take care of you. I love you all, thanks for all you do, and remain strong.

Elder Kidd

01/19/10

Aloha

So, yeah, it is a day late thanks to the wonderful holiday, and everything being closed yesterday. Also thanks to that, all the missionaries are trying to email at once, and about the only computer that I could actually get onto is the one that only gives you 15 minutes... so this may be short, and I may not respond to things (since I haven't really gotten to read anything...)

The big news for the week (and what we spent most of our time doing) is: That my companion has returned to the state of Arizona to try and figure out all of his medical issues at this time. Hopefully he will be back out soon, but he is currently undergoing quite a few tests. That pretty much took up all of Tuesday, most of Wednesday, and a good portion of Thursday and Friday...

So I have been without a companion, and have been with my district leader and his companion. The funniest part of this is that our entire district is now a companionship. The good news is that tomorrow morning I get a mini-missionary (somebody from here to be my companion for the next 3 weeks). So, I am excited about that.

Our investigators are doing well, and we hope to be able to continue to help them this next week. The big news from last week concerning investigators is a man named Bernie. We tracted into him, he asked us to come back, and he is looking for spirituality at this time. HE doesn't like the catholics, but what he has seen of our church he likes, and he wants to read the Book of Mormon. Golden!

Well, I am almost out of time, and i need to print something. So, there will be more next week. I love you all, thank you for the continued support, and remember that the Savior loves you. His love can keep you afloat through the roughest storms.

Elder Kidd

01/11/10

So, I again realized this morning that I am glad that I get to come home in the summer. I walked upstairs to get a bowl for my oatmeal (Mom never ever thought she would hear me say that), and it was cold. I'm on the warm side of the island, and it is cold... So, it was probably in the mid 60's this morning. Tough life out here, eh?

So, it has been a fun week. I have found out a few things about my companion, and mostly that he has quite a few medical issues. In fact, there is a very real chance he could be headed home soon, which would be sad. He has a cat-scan, or a ct scan (or something) tomorrow to look at his pancrease. If it turns out to be serious, or require a diet, or something like that, he very well may be headed back to Arizona... so, we'll see what happens.

We spent a lot of time this last week trying to find new investigators to teach. After having 6 baptisms in one day, the teaching pool was a little low. Well, at the end of the week, we had found 3 new people, and have quite a few more possibilities for this week. One guy, named Martin, just had a brain tumor removed. He talks to a lot of missionaries, and has a little bit of a hard time talking and remembering things right now, but he told us he would read the Book of Mormon. We'll let you know how that all turns out.

I don't remember if I told everyone last week or not, but Kia Miller's (one of our recent converts, and mother of our committed) father passed away last Sunday night. So, their week has been a bit chaotic. We decided to go see them on Wednesday or Thursday up at her father's house. Well, the only problem with that is that Elder Lauritzen wasn't exactly sure where it was. So, we went to the end of the street, and started back down looking for their house. We were going very slowly, and I'm pretty sure we scared a few people. Anyway, I started going a bit faster, and decided that we needed to look up the address of the members that lived right near by, and go from there. Well, when I pulled over so we could look in the area book, who should we see standing across the street but Noah (Kia's husband). The coolest part was as we were talking to them later, and Noah tells us about his side of the story. He was feeling stressed and wanted to talk to someone, so he had headed down the street to talk to the member (the same one we were trying to look up). Well, no one answered so he started back to the other house. Just as he got there, we pulled up. And to add, after we had been there a bit, the bishop called as well. So, Noah felt the spirit so strongly, that we had been sent there when he needed us, and the bishop knew to call as well. I love being a missionary.

We also were able to have a lessons with a group of people that live in group homes (we think they are all just a little slow) last night, and were able to commit them to come to a mini-stake conference we are having next week (Elder Cook is coming). So we are excited about that. They are starting to get really interested in temple marriage, so baptism is the first step.

Things are going well. And once again we see how the Lord blesses us as we do all that He has asked. I came to the realization this last week also of how He answers prayers. A lot of times when we ask for something such as humility, we receive it slowly. And we may not realize how our prayer has been answered unless we take a moment and look back and notice how much we have changed. I guess this way is better than the Lord sending a humble train to ram us. I prefer it that way.

As always, and always continued, thank you all for the support, love and care. I love you all, and wish you the best for this upcoming week.

Elder Kidd