Week 18

Aloha Ohana and haoaloha,



Lanai has 2 of the most beautiful golf courses

Well, another week has flown by! I feel like it was just yesterday Sister Duke and I were starting another transfer together and talking about how this transfer would seem long because it would take us all the way to June. Um... June is almost here. Oh my why does time have to fly by so quick! 

 

We were able to have a few lessons this week which was good because it is graduation week and graduating from high school is a big deal here.  Not many people go to college here. Everyone has parties and so much food- there are parties happening every single night until the middle of July. It also doesn't help that it is a small town so everyone is invited to everyone else's parties and if you have more than 2 at a time then no one would go to the third. Anyways, back to the lessons: We taught Alberta! It took some compromising. We helped her address a bunch of letters for her newspaper and then after we were able to teach her a lesson. We read 2 Nephi 31 with her and she really liked it. At the end she said that she wanted to do this every week! Finally! That is what we have been trying to do this whole time :) I just love her though she is always doing something and adding things to her plate even though she really doesn't have the time to do them all. I like teaching Alberta because she always asks questions and really wants to understand. Like always she loves coming to church but hasn't quite understood that what we are trying to tell her is that she can have those same feelings that she feels at church all the time if she would read the Book of Mormon, pray, and be baptized.

 

Tracking deer

The 2nd lesson was with Lucky. We saw him throughout the week and asked when we could come over and he said Friday at 1. So we went over and read 2 Nephi 32 from the Book of Mormon and it was really good. We watched a video about a family that starts to learn about the gospel and then they get baptized and go through the temple and are sealed as a family and it is really good. We talked about our purpose here on Earth: to prepare ourselves to live with Heavenly Father again. How we need to become spiritual sons and daughters of God. Jesus Christ is the center to this plan because we make mistakes or face trials that we cant get over ourselves; Jesus Christ is there to make us whole and forgive us of our mistakes and He is the one that lifts us up and strengthens us to be able to make it through the hard times. The lesson was really good and the Spirit was there! We invited him to be baptized and he said that he wasn't ready but that he would think about it. We also asked him to continue to pray every morning and night and then asked him to ask for Sundays off so he could come to church. He said he would and I handed him a Book of Mormon and he said that he would read it, I didn't even have to ask him if he would. Wow, it continues to amaze me how the Spirit does so much and I do so little. 

 

We continue to see Elaine and Kealohi and we had a really cool experience with the Book of Mormon. We have started to play this game where one person comes up with a question and then another person opens up to a random place in the Book of Mormon and then we start reading that chapter and keep reading until we find the answer to the question. Well Kealohi thought she had an unanswerable question, "Will Elaine serve a mission?" Elaine opened the Book of Mormon to 2 Nephi 11 and we started to read. Then in chapter 16:8 we found our answer, "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said: Here am I; send me." Kealohi's head shot up (she had kinda gotten bored of the game) and said that's it we found the answer! I learned that any and every question we have can and will be found in the scriptures; sometimes it wont be in the first verse we read but we will have to keep reading until we find it. We have to put in effort to find what we are searching for. 

 

Sister Duke and I are trying really hard to find new people to teach but it is always really hard to find people at home because everyone works so much in order to live here. It is so important to both find and teach so that we always have a teaching pool; but it is a lot harder said than done. 

 

Hawaiian Word of the week: apulekako means pray

 

Success of the Week: walking away from a pot luck without any food! Key to this miracle is hiding when they start dividing up the food. 

 

So beautiful- this is where we stopped to study

Adventure of the Week: Sister Duke and I went hiking this morning to Koloiki Ridge and it was beautiful! We had companionship study and wow I wish we could study there everyday because it was so peaceful. You could hear the stream down in the gulch and occasional birds chirping. Everything is so green then you look out on the ocean and can see Maui and Molokai. God is Good Always! 

 

I love this work, and that is what it is work. It is hard but worth it. Lives change, hope is found, and a better tomorrow is made. Aloha uwao ia oe! 

 

Love Always, 

     Sister Cassidy Lang