Sunday, August 16, 2015

Update August 3, 2015: Molokai! Closer to Home Than I Thought

Weeks 76

Aloha Everyone!

What a week! I’m just going to dive into it and then pictures will come lots of pictures!  

Molokai is beautiful!!!! I love it here! I miss Hauula sooo much but I love it here. I am excited to work here and serve here and love the people.

Monday- I emailed, finished packing, said goodbye to a few more people then headed to Honolulu to the Mission office. Got to see a lot of faces due to MLC. Then I hung out with all of the Zone Leaders that were flying off island and we went to the Airport and chilled till our flights left. Elder Willis came to MLC with the Zone leaders since he didn’t have a companion. Our plane was a 30 passenger prop plane and our flight was a mere 18 minutes! My kind of flying! When we were flying in over the west coast it reminded me a lot of home. Then we landed loaded my bags into our Truck!!!! I’m so excited to have a truck again! Even if it’s a Chevy and not a diesel I won’t complain! Better than a Cruze! As we left the airport I had this overwhelming feeling of home. Idk how to describe it but as we drove to our dinner in the setting sun I felt as if I were home in my truck driving home from a day at the farm with my Grandmother. It’s good to be home. Home in the country!

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Oahu to Molokai!

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Our Truck!!
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From our back porch!

Then we got settled into our pad we live down stairs from the Nakayamas, our Ward Mission Leader in the Kaunakakai ward which is the east half of the island. The west half is the Hoolehua ward. The Nakayama’s are super cool and a lot of fun. We have an incredible view of Maui, Kahoolawe, and Lanai. It’s beautiful. Our pad is huge since it use to be 4 elders now it’s just us. So plenty space and we have chickens! So about 18 brown eggs a day!

Tuesday- we helped a lady in our ward paint some cubbies and set up for the first day of school. She’s a 4th grade teacher and super funny! She’s from Fiji. Fun fact about Molokai there are only 7,000 people on a good day that’s 1/4th the size of BYU… everyone knows everybody and news spreads real fast. We went to a Graduation Party Friday night and a good portion of the island was there!.

            There is like no shopping here on the island. 2 small mom and pop grocery stores, 2 gas stations and an Ace hardware and Napa auto parts. That’s it. And not a single chain restaurant. Just a few local places.  And everything is super uber expensive. The good news is that Milk came down from $10 dollars a gallon to $7!!! Gas is 4.89 a gallon currently with Diesel at 5.41.

            I would tell you about the work we are doing but I know no one’s name! Other things I do remember from this week are we went and stood over the 2,000 ft cliff and looked down over Kalaupapa. These cliffs are the highest sea-cliff in the world!

Hunting is a way of life here and guns are more plentiful than people. Thou we cannot shoot the gun while on our mission we can go hunting! Saturday morning we woke up and left at 4am and went out with a less active family we are working with as well as one of our investigators. We headed up into the mountain. We first place we stopped we saw 3 dozen deer and ridge took a shot but missed so we let the dogs out to hunt for pigs. They all have GPS collars and we would follow using our gps. Then we would load them back into the truck drive to another spot hunt for deer then let the dogs go. This continued till 3. We saw plenty deer shot at 2 but missed both and when we would track a deer then the rest of the group would see one but not have the rifle! Next time we will take two. Haha the found a sent trail twice but no pig. 11 hours in the mountains and left empty. Caulked it up as exercise for the dogs and getting ready for next time!

Sundays I thought couldn’t get longer but it just did! We are at church from 7am to 4pm! Long day then much needed rest.

I don’t really have a spiritual message this week. I guess just find prospective. There can be good found in all. It was really hard to leave Hauula but I try just to see the positive in all. Our Heavenly Father knows all things even when we do not. We must realize that and know everything that happens has a purpose. He is ever watchful. We must find the positive in all.

I love you all; I hope you have a fantastic week. I Love my mission. I love the highs and the lows. It is all for a purpose. I am to be here on Molokai at this time to serve this people.

With love,
Elder Shoaf

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