Sunday, August 24, 2014

Update: August 4, 2014

Week 24

Aloha Everyone!

Wow! Another week gone here on the Beautiful Island of Oahu. 

It had been a crazy week here in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. Wednesday was transfers and I am not serving in the Kalaeloa (Ka-Lie-Low-uh) Ward and love it. My new Companion is Elder Buckley from Lindon, Utah and he has been out about 18 months. And we get along great! It’s nice to have a companion that I really just mesh with. And when he was trained at the beginning of his mission it was by Elder Boudousquie! And he reminds me so much of him! We live at the top of Makakilo Drive overlooking Pearl Harbor and Barber’s Point. The best news of all is I now have a car! My days in a biking area are done! Which is super nice! Our Pad is really nice and is in a Cottage style apartment area. With a wonderful view and nice cool Hawaiian breezes. I will send picture of our pad next week. Our pad is also a 4 man pad which means 2 sets of missionaries live there but the other set of elders is actually a tri-panionship this transfer so it’s a 5 man pad! Which is super fun but hard to get studies done in the morning and to bed at night! Haha
Other Transfer news is Elder miller left Kauai and is now on the Big Island and Elder Boudousquie left Laie and is also in Hilo. Which is crazy because Elder Miller has had 4 areas and all of them of different islands! First Maui then Oahu with me then Kauai now Big Island! Crazy!

My new area now covers like 6 times the area of Kaimuki. We cover about half of Kapolei (Cop-o-lay) as well as all of Kalaeloa and on around the west side of the island including Ko olina and Nanakuli (Na nuh Coo-lee). The work is strong in this area and all is going well. I am trying to get a grasp of the area, the names of members, all of our investigators, and so forth. It is coming along and I’m getting more familiar each and every day. We have a younger ward here with a lot of young military families as well as young families working for Vivint Solar.

Side bar is that this past Saturday Fred got baptized! It was sooo cool! I wasn’t able to attend since I had already been transferred but I was able to call him and he is so happy! It’s so cool to see someone change their lives but embracing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and seeing the joy it bring s them.

There was soo much that went on this week but now my mind is blank!

I guess I will wrap up here and close with my thoughts this week. My thoughts this week are actually begin with sad news. Thursday night I called Elder Wilson in Kaimuki to see how their lesson went with Fred to make sure all is still good for his baptism and all was then he told me that Sister Meli in our ward had passed away. And I was in shock. The Meli’s were one of the families I was closest to in Kaimuki and we actually were there Tuesday night for my last dinner in Kaimuki. And I told her I was going to try and come to Fred’s baptism on Saturday and I would see here then. On Thursday night she had gone upstairs to take a shower and collapsed on her bed and stopped breathing and pasted away. The Meli’s have two girls in high school which were in Atlanta visiting friends for a few weeks and got back were on their way back when Sister Meli pasted away. As well as 2 young boys. And the first thing I thought of was how the kids must be. Especially the girls. I can’t imagine how hard this must be. I was so shocked that I hardly slept that night.

But as I laid in bed that night it was about 1am and I was thinking about my family and what if my mom or dad were to pass away while I was on my mission or when I grow up if I were to pass away with young children. And I gave me awful feeling inside but then it was replaced but comfort when I thought about Heavenly Father’s Plan for us and how through his plan and ordinances we do in the temple we can be sealed together for time and all eternity. And how no matter what happens on this earth in this life I know that I will be with my family forever. I am grateful to be sealed to my family. I know that even though losing love ones is hard we can find peace in the Plan of Salvation. I know it’s true and see the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ each and every day in my life. I love my family sooo much as well as each and everyone in this email list. We are all brothers and sisters in our heavenly Father’s Kingdom. My Urge to you today it to tell your families that you love them and spent time with them. That is the number one thing I miss here on my mission. My Family. Take every opportunity you have with them I regret not spending more time with mine each and every day. And you never know when they may be called back to our Heavenly Father.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and all goes well. I will have more next week once I get settled. And hope to have some pictures to send. Love you all sooo much!

Elder Shoaf

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