The Aloha Elder: Update May 14, 2014

Week 12!

Aloooha! Everyone! I hope everyone is having a wonderful week! I heard that spring is starting to show its face on the mainland and hope everyone is enjoying it! This week has been all kinds of crazy and quite an emotional roller coaster with some of the steepest emotional drops I’ve face.

This week started out with some fun as on Monday we met as a zone at a beautiful beach park in

Kahala to sign signing journals for elders and sisters leaving to other parts of the islands to serve. We also were about to catch up with all the elders and sister we usually don’t see on a weekly basis. Overall it was a super good day except trashed my ankle pretty bad in the morning playing basketball so I was hobbled most of the day.

Tuesday we ran around like we were on fire! Taking care of last minute shopping and errands before Elder miller flew to Kauai Wednesday morning. We also had to go around so he could say goodbye to those members and investigators he had come close to. We then concluded Tuesday by having Tony cut our hair. Just because Tuesday ended didn’t mean our day did. We ended up staying up most of the night finalizing elder miller’s packing and he had a few signing journals he had to finish.

Wednesday started about 5:30am when we were picked up to head to the airport to drop off elder miller and the other missionaries flying to other islands. I then was assigned to drive a car full of missionaries who didn’t have licenses back to the mission office then go back to the airport to pick up missionaries arriving on O’ahu from Maui, and Kona side of big island. I then spent most of the morning helping with transfers and then got my new companion. Needless to say I was running on empty I had 1.5 hours of sleep and hadn't eaten in over 20 hours. When Elder Wilson and I returned to our pad for the first time about 4:30pm he started to settle in and everything caught up to me and I fell apart due to stress, fatigue, lack of sleep, and being just flat out overwhelmed. I am just out three months and I had just lost my trainer who I leaned on and now I was incharge of the area. And I just was overcome. I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted everything to be over. I wanted to be done. I really struggled for a few hours and was unable to move or even really speak. I didn’t know what to do. Eventually I turned to the Lord and prayed and asked him for help. Eventually I was able to eat and gather myself but struggled the rest of the evening.

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were a lot of the same things. I was just flat out overwhelmed and didn’t know where to turn. Elder Wilson has been out 18 months and has a lot of experience but knows nothing about the area. He did the best he could to help me and we started from the bottom by organizing and updating everything and setting a plan to follow the next couple weeks. We also were about to have lunch with Elder Kim and Shalvis and talk it out and that helped some.

Sunday was a pretty decent day because I was able to Skype home and talk with my family for a few hours. I really needed that and they were able to council and encourage me. But it also made my want to return home somewhat more over powering seeing my baby sister struggling with things and I could do nothing.

Monday was better. We hiked Diamond Head in morning and i was out off the trail on the Waikiki side of the rim and i climbed up on top of one of the old pill boxes and just stood there and the wind started blowing probably close to 40mph it was so nice and a beautiful view! Elder Uaisele and i then went off the path on the ocean side and sat on a pill box and just looked out over the ocean and thought for a while. The rest of the group didn't follow because it said it was off limits but Uaisele and i were over the railing and gone without even stopping to consider hahaha. So it was nice no tourists, no companions, no sisters nagging at us, no care in the world and i just tuned it out for a couple minutes and was able to be at peace for the first time in months. Even just for a few seconds.

We then headed back down and the overwhelmed feeling came back but not as bad. I was ok with what was happening and I know I just need to turn it the Lord. What I took away from this whole week was actually a few verses in the Book of Mormon I read this morning in 3 Nephi where Christ is administering to the People on the American continent after the resurrection. It says in Chapter 13:31-34,

“Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? Or, what shall we drink? Or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient is the day unto the evil thereof.”

That really hit home to me. If we will take no thought to the things of the world but rely on Christ and turn to him and “seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” that all will work out and if we “take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself” that he will bless us. And he promises us that if we do so he will do the rest. We are not perfect he doesn’t expect us to be. He expects us to do all we can and to focus on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and he will the rest. I know that this is what I need to do I need to fully invest myself in what I am doing each and every day while focusing on Jesus Christ and he will take care of the rest. Just as I was at peace for a few moments looking out over the ocean I can find that same peace but infinite in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That few seconds of peace on that pill box 800ft about the ocean was a message from Heavenly father that he is still there and Jesus Christ will always be at our side to carry us the rest of the way. I Hope everyone has a stellar week and can find that few seconds to escape the trials of the world and remember we are loved. In closing I have a short poem that means a lot to me.

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,

“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”

The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

I hope all is well and I love and miss you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Shoaf