Week 31
Aloha Everyone!
It has been another quick week here on the beautiful but still very hot leeward side of Oahu. We are waiting for it to cool down here but haven’t had that blessing yet. We did however get some rain this week which is unheard of. We have had a pretty eventful week though.
Monday as mentioned before we hiked Ka’ena Point then played our usual basketball then had a wonderful dinner. Let’s just say I LOVE Hawaiian food!
Tuesday was a full day as well we had our district meeting and it went really well then after lunch we had to drive to Waipahu to get our tire changed and car checked. That took a huge chunk of our afternoon. Then had a wonderful mainland dinner of Lasagna and garlic bread!
Wednesday we had interviews with President Warner so we spent most of the day at the Chapel for those. Then made a few visits before the sunset. Here in Hawaii once the sunsets the day is over. People do NOT like unexpected visitors after dust. If we do not have set lessons in the evening after dinner we usually head back to the pad to lift or whatevs. It’s super nice having a bench and a field to run!
Thursday it rained almost the whole day!!!! New State Holiday! We were flabbergasted! We spent most of the day setting up for our cottage meeting that night and making sure everything was ready. It went really well and was a super good experience for everyone that was able to come.
Friday was a very busy day. We spent the morning at a service project that we have been asked to help on in the Makakilo ward for a man who had lung cancer and is confined to a wheel chair most of the time due to having half of one of his lungs removed. The Makakilo elders have been helping him for a while building steps and rock walls in terraced backyard and asked me with my construction background to come in and help them build a nice deck for him to look out over the ocean. It is the coolest old uncle and its SOOOO much fun getting my hands dirty again! We then ran around visiting various families and then had another wonderful mainland dinner! Lasagna! But this time with steak!
Another Beautiful Leeward Sunset; While i was driving! i know im pretty skilled;)
Saturday was a great day we had 3 baptisms! Ours, then Palehua ward, then Kapolei. It was a great day and super fun to see Sheryl get baptized!!! And yup, that was about the whole day! Running around for baptisms!
Sheryl's Baptism; Me, Elder Buckley, Sheryl, Jack, Bishop Kaawa
Sunday at Church Sheryl was confirmed and the spirit was so strong! It was really cool to see the joy of everyone as we officially welcomed her as a member of the church! Then after church Elder Buckley wasn't feeling well at all so I ended up cleaning the pad and such while he was in bed. That was the rest of our day!
This week has been a stressful week personally I have been pretty down on myself for various reasons but have learned a lot about what need to do and where I need to start. I have struggled with keeping a positive outlook on things and have struggled to not give up and just follow the flow, to just do the critical things and not care about the outcomes. But I have seen my wrong and have luckily caught myself and am doing a lot of soul searching and really working on my pride, and being willing to turn over everything to the Lord. I have turned to the Heavenly Father many times in prayer but am sometimes not willing to give up everything. I feel as if we can only progress so far in this life if we hold things back. We may be happy, we may have a strong testimony of Jesus Christ, we may think all is well and I am happy where I am at. But are we really happy where we are at. I believe that true conversion to the gospel comes through complete humility and sacrifice, being willing to give up or do anything our Heavenly Father asks of us (something I struggle with). Without this we will plateau. And only by being humble do we truly allow our heavenly father to work in our lives. It is much easier for a potter to mold soft clay than it is to mold hardened clay. Heavenly Father is the potter of our lives. Only by allowing him to work in our live, to be soft, can he sculpt us in to the magnificent sculpture he knows we can be.
I struggle with this every day. I struggle with allowing other people to help me grow; I am not allowing the craftsman to mold me. But I am working on it. But it takes time. I am far from perfect but I am working on it. We must remember to keep our clay soft. When I was in ceramics you always had to make sure you wrapped up your clay well because if it dried out you can’t just dump some water on it the next day and all is good. You have to add small amounts of water and work it into the clay. If you try to dump a large amount of water on it you will end up with a mess!
I challenge everyone as I have challenged myself to add small amounts of water each day and work it into your life so that you can be more easily molded by our craftsman. And to remember to wrap up tightly in the gospel so that we do not dry out.
In closing I just want to say I never once had a piece of clay, even if It was bone-dry, I couldn’t, with enough time, turn into a beautiful art form.
I hope everyone has a great week and I love and miss you all.
With love and Aloha,
Elder Shoaf
