Week 4.... Holy cow I can't believe it! As of this coming Wednesday I have been out a month already! How far I have come it's crazy! This week has had its up and downs, but overall a great week!
On Thursday we met up with a family that had talked with the missionaries before but for whatever reason had stopped. It was such a great lesson!!! Her name in Lucy. She is Brazilian and speaks Portuguese, but her English is pretty good. She lives with her daughter and granddaughter. They are such an amazing family! Such strong spirits! We talked with them for almost 2 hours!!! But it seemed like 20 mins. The spirit was so strong! It was amazing! I have more details in my daily journal. Hopefully it will get posted soon!
Another amazing thing is that the Hawaii 5-O studios are 5 blocks from my pad!!!!!! And they were filming at the park right next to my house on Tuesday! Keep a look out for a grass/dirt baseball diamond next to a busy road! All the main characters were there. I was so excited!!! It made my day!!
As I said before we play a lot of basketball here! I love it. Almost our whole P-day and every Friday night we open the church and we invite kids from the community, the other missionaries in the area, and our investigators. It's a great time! Also I got my basketball shoes shipped from home in time for Friday night. What a difference they make rather than just tennis shoes!
One thing I have learned is how blessed we are to have AC in Indiana. For those from Indiana, imagine the middle of summer in Indiana terrible humidity. Well that's how it is here just 365 days a year and we don't have AC... We have two small fans that we use and a window AC unit that barely works. That's it. And on top of it we have to ride bikes so we are always sweating like crazy. I shower at least 3 times a day just to cool down and stay on top of sweat haha. We love dinner appointments at members houses who have AC. It's paradise. I have begun to learn to adapt though. I embrace the sweat and do what I can not to get my body temp up higher than is necessary.
People weren't kidding about the food! Between the Polynesians and the Hawaiian lifestyle everyone is so generous. We have terrible traffic here but everyone is such polite courteous drivers! It's a nice change of pace from Utah drivers haha. We had a few experiences this week of just how giving the people are. I worried a lot at the beginning of the week about money and food. We had dinners scheduled for every evening but lunch, breakfast and snacks were another story. I had spent my $160 dollars we are given a month already on stuff I needed to get set up when I arrived and didn't have money for groceries. I turned to the Lord and asked for comfort and help and boy did it come!
Saturday a random Poly family from the north shore flagged us down on the road. They were in town for a basketball tournament and stopped us and handed us $20 dollars. They didn't know us just saw the white shirt and name tag. That evening we had dinner with the Lung family they fed us greatly and sent us home with two meals worth of leftovers. Then Sunday a kid in our ward turned 8 so his baptism was after church and afterwards the Kuriharas (his family) invited us over for lunch with them and their extended family. It was my first time at their BEAUTIFUL multi-million dollar, open, air house with a billion dollar view of the ocean! We had a great time with them and entertaining all the little kids. They made us rubber band friendship bracelets, mine in Bulldog/Cougar Blue of course! And they sent us home with tons of food.
Then not three hours later we had dinner with the Mamea family. They are a returning less active family and took us to Zippy's which is a local restaurant chain. Apparently we need to teach them to keep the Sabbath Day holy! haha It was awkward walking in there with our name tags on haha. So none of us were hungry because of lunch. We showed up and he had already ordered 6 appetizers.... there were four of us missionaries and 4 of them... Then of course we had to order an actual drink. He wouldn't let us just have water. Then he made us order double dinners. and dessert. We forced down as much as we could possibly bear so as not to offend them. We then boxed up the rest of our meal as well as our entire second meal and half the appetizers. I was so full I could have rolled out. I then got a glimpse of the bill. 190 dollars! It was crazy. Then on top of that he handed me $60 cash to spend on groceries!!
The members here are so gracious. We have someone signed up for dinner every evening for the next and some families several times a month. They are so giving. They would give us the shirts off their backs if we needed them. I love these people so much already!!
The Lord really does answer prayers. From the past 2 days alone we have filled our fridge with enough leftovers for lunch for a week or two and have $100 to spend on groceries. I won't have to worry about food for at least 2 weeks. The Lord always provides a way.
I have spent a lot of late nights thinking of home, family, and friends and how much I miss Indiana. It's so hard to be away. I have to fight every day to stay positive and rely fully on the Lord. I know I am supposed to be here and I have work to do. I have done a lot of reading and studying and learn more and more my purpose and about the gospel everyday. Sometimes I don't understand but it always works out.
Mahalo
Love,
Elder Shoaf
P.S. Please Write Me!!!!!!! I love hearing from everyone! It helps my homesickness! Snail mail is preferred but email works too!!! And for more detailed updates see my blog! I mailed home this week's journal today so it should be posted by Thursday!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment