Update December 1, 2014: A Week of Thanksgiving and Change

Week 41

Aloha everyone!

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a great week! We have had a break in the weather and we have broken out the sweat shirts! Highs in the low 80s and lows of high 60s! Ha-ha and I’m freezing... ha-ha I’ve been hawaianized. Christmas trees and lights are now dotting the area. That’s weird. I saw a family with all of their yard stuff out fixing their sprinklers so they could water their yard… that’s not normal...

I also got BIG news Thursday Morning! IM A DAD!!!!! Well in the mission…J I am being transferred and will be training a new missionary as well as serving as a District leader! I don’t know much about my son yet expect I think his name is Elder Henderson and he is from Wyoming and Plays football! And is 5’11” 240 lbs.! A BIG kid! I am super excited but nervous. I will be serving in the Wahiawa 1^st ward and the district I will be watching over is my comp and 6 other Elders in the area. What I have heard about the area is it is colder and covers half of Schofield Army Base.

In Other News I am slowly progressing on the Ukulele and getting surprisingly good at a couple songs and starting to learn to read music as well.

This week!

Monday- normal P-day Basketball, hike, sleep, dinner, shop, sleep. The usual.

Tuesday- was a pretty good day. We had our district meeting at the Kapolei elder’s pad since the sister weren’t coming I much prefer learning on a couch! They we all went to Little Caesars for lunch a caught part of Frozen on the TV there I never saw it before I left and now I regret that… we then made a lot of visits and Brother Gomes even went out with us for a while. Then we exchanged with Kapolei elders for the evening to cover some of their appointments so Elder Kelly and I got a chance to work together.

Wednesday- we had Pearl Harbor Service most of the day it was AWESOME as always! We swept the upper decks of the USS Missouri and explored in the meantime. It’s super cool to do service there because we get to go where no one else does! Then at the end they took us on a tour of the bridge, Fire control/combat area! It was super cool! We then visited a referral we got and met Gabrielle who is a Super cool lady from Albany Georgia and BOY is she Southern! She was super fun to talk to! Then we had a great dinner appointment with the Latimers and some unexpected surprises along the way! Ha-ha you will have to ask me about that at another timeJ

Thursday- was Thanksgiving! We had Choke places to eat. I felt so fat by the end of the day! We started out the morning by trying to do a service project that fell through then we went to a family’s house for a HUGE Emu 105 turkeys and hams! It was crazy! We had breakfast there. We then explored Ko Olina a bit and walked down along the coast line and the lagoons enjoying the weather,view and climbing Palm Trees! and boy oh boy did it smell like Tourists! Lots of Sunscreen and White or Lobster skin depending on how long they had been there! We then showered and headed out to the Iokia’s for lunch and had Lau Lau! Which Is BY FAR my favorite local food.J Then Brother Iokia who is a LomiLomi masseuse. (Old Hawaiian massage) Worked on me for about an hour and my neck and back feel so much better but sore. It’s really cool because before he did anything on my shoulders he worked on my core and realigned all of my ribs which releases all of the other muscles and joints in the body it’s really cool but a dying art.

We then had dinner with the St. Johns then spent the rest of the evening at the Gomes playing Ukulele and cruising enjoying company! A Great Thanksgiving!

Friday- was my 20^th Birthday- Weird. But it was pretty good a pretty normal day we went to breakfast with a couple others then Finshed the deck at Brother Tilghman's it is soo cool!  then had a pretty normal day of work, visiting members and investigators.

Saturday- was a busy day we cleaned our pad for inspections then cleaned yard at the sister’s pad it hadn’t been cut in a while. We then met Jack and Sherl for a Birthday Brunch a day late then had a normal day of visits then a great dinner with one of the Part-member families in our ward!

Sunday- was a busy day of church then saying goodbyes to a lot of people I’ve gotten close to in this area then had a great mainland dinner of Pork Chops and mash potatoes!

Overall a Great week and I am stoked to go to Wahiawa but will miss it here! I am Nervous to Train a new missionary and to serve as a district leader but I know that the lord will guide me every step of the way if I follow his teachings and remain close to Christ each and every day. I know I can get though anything this life has to throw at me if I rely on the lord and listen to the Holy Ghost. Another super busy week of change ahead!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and in closing I challenge you to remember the reason for the season! We are so blessed every day and don’t show enough gratitude to our Heavenly Father for all he had given us. Also the church has Produced a beautiful short message about Christ titled #HeistheGift please if you have not seen it watch it, it is only a few minutes then share it with someone else!

The address is;

Christmas.mormon.org

I hope everyone has a fantastic week! And remembers that it is the Spirit of “CHIRST”mas

Miss you all,

Elder Shoaf

P.S. i will send Pictures tomorrow i forgot my Camera..

Pictures November 24, 2014: Mahaka Towers

Update November 24, 2014: The Big 20

Week 40

Aloha everyone!

Another week has FLOWN by!! It’s crazy! I guess it’s probably because it’s still in the high 80s! It’s crazy to think Thanksgiving is on Thursday and I turn 20 on Friday! Time is flying so fast! But I’m so ready for the holidays! Even if it won’t be a winter wonderland…

This week;

            Monday- on Monday after we emailed we headed out to Makaha to hike the rock outcrop again this time we took our cameras! I will include many :)

            Tuesday- we had a great district meeting then made a run to Honolulu to pick some things up from the mission office. Including a Birthday present from my parents! An Ukulele! For dinner we went to Panda Express with Bishop Kaawa. We always go there with him! I love that place! Then we had a couple good visits!

 

            Wednesday- was a long day Elder Speakman was getting over a cold and I was in the beginning phases… lots of tissues and Dayquil! But we made it! Haha we had service at Brother Tilghman’s as well.

Thursday-we did a lot of paper work in the morning then had a service project at a member’s house. They are an older couple and can’t weed wack the hill on the back of their property so jack went with us and we did it for them! I love weed wacking! And my skin feels great! I hit a patch of aloe… I mean a big one... So I was covered in aloe but the end of it!

Friday- was a pretty good day I was hit pretty hard by the cold but I sweated most of it out at service at Brother Tilghman’s we are getting close to being done with the deck!

Getting close!

Saturday- we cleaned our pad most for the morning. It was much needed! We then made some great visits with Brother Gomes and then went to a Baptism in the Kapolei ward. It was super great! Then met Jack and Sheryl for dinner! we also found a 4 inch centipede in our pad.. actually under Elder Speakman's desk about a foot from his foot!

we like our centipedes "well-done"

Sunday- was another good day of Church, visits, a grind of dinner then Family Home evening with the Gomes then we rocked out on the Ukuleles!

Overall a great week! I love the holiday season and what it stands for. Find the Thanks in Thanksgiving and Christ in Christmas. Because isn’t that what it is really, truly about?

I challenge everyone to find someone to thank, someone to serve, and someone who needs a friend. I can promise you this will bring you more happiness than any turkey or Black Friday deal can bring you.

I hope everyone has a Fantastic Thanksgiving weekend and don’t go too crazy on Black Friday! Love and miss you all!

Elder Shoaf

Pictures November 17, 2014: Fun in Primary!

Fun in Primary! (Joesph Smith, Noah, Stripling Warrior, Lehi and Sariah)

Update November 17, 2014: Go Forth with Faith!

Week 39

Aloha everyone!

I Hope everyone is have a fantastic Monday! And for all of my friends and family that are getting hit by the cold I’m jealous… haha it may be in the single digits back home but I miss it! The weather here is cooling off a tad though... it gets down to the 70s at nightJ  we had a great week here not much success but all is good we are loving every minute.

The huge shock this week was on Monday we found out that Elder Petter who I served with in Honolulu was diagnosed with Leukemia and returned home to start extensive Chemotherapy. I was in disbelieve but it all set in Tuesday at Zone Conference when President Warner filled us in. we are keeping him in our prayers and as a mission fasted for him on Saturday. It just goes to show how this can change so fast.

This week!

Monday- was full of Basketball, emailing, and then a really cool hike in Makaha that we all forgot our cameras for… we will get pics next time! Haha we then had a great dinner with the Cornelison’s, sister Cornelison is a recent convert from Arkansas! Finally someone from the mid-west!

Tuesday- we spent the whole day at the Waipahu Stake center for Zone Conference and it went really well! They told us we should get Ipads by January! Which would be awesome! And we also got new phones, the whole mission switched from Sprint which sucks here to AT&T which is a little bit better so we got new phone #s and so we had to text everyone our new number... that was annoying... haha.

Wednesday- we did service from Brother Tilghman then he took us to Denny’s for lunch and we ate WAY too much! I almost exploded! Haha then we had a couple of great visits including a great visit with the Baldomeros! We made so great progress with them!

the latest from Brother Tilghman's!

Thursday- we had a district flood in the Kapolei area but didn’t have much success. Most people though we were Jehovah Witness and didn’t even give us a chance to tell them otherwise! Haha it is always assuming seeing the reaction people have when we knock on their door!

Friday- we did service for Brother Tilghman again. Then had a bunch of great lessons! Then a great dinner at the Russell’s! We had German Night! And ate schnitzel….. yes it actually exists! And was amazing! We also had a red cabbage dish and some other things! It was all so good!

Saturday- we did some service out in Waianae for one of our members mother cleaning yard and trimming bushes! Then had a whole lot of empty houses we knocked on looking for less-active members! Then had a great home cooked meal at the Robinsons, Corn Chowder and cornbread! I was in HEAVEN!!! Then the sent choke groceries home with us! It was crazy!

Ridiculous! 

Sunday- we had great church meetings and got to dress up (kinda) as book of Mormon characters for primary! It was super fun! Then we had a couple of great lessons! Overall a great week!

This week I think of Humility and about faith and how god gives us weaknesses to humble us so that we will turn to him with faith and seek after his guidance. The scripture that comes to mind is Ether 12:27

            “27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

We have a loving heavenly father who wants the best for us and he has given us a great example to follow in his son Jesus Christ. I also thought of a great video to close.

Remember that as long as we follow Jesus Christ we will always know which way is up and will never have Vertigo!

It’s called “Spiritual Vertigo”

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/spiritual-vertigo?lang=eng

I love you all and hope you have a great week and don’t freeze!

With love,

Elder Shoaf

Update November 10, 2014: Tender Mercies

Week 38

Aloha Everyone!

This week has been a great one! the weather has had a break. the trade winds are bad and we are getting a lot of high 80s and 70s and less and less 90s. but the Highlight was for sure Jack got Baptized! it was really fun to see him be baptized. he was baptized on Wednesday then Confirmed in sacrament meeting on Sunday.

Alright so this week!

Monday- for P-day today we played basketball this morning with the guys then ate at Denny's then emailed then rounded out the day with a nice hike up to the pill boxes.

Tuesday- today we had a great district meeting then made a couple visits. it was kinda slow because of elections. here in Hawaii all schools and government buildings shut down so yeah.

Wednesday- today we did service at brother tilghman’s its coming along nicely and then we spent the afternoon preparing for jack’s Baptism.

Thursday- we spent the morning visiting people the did our weekly planning after lunch then had a great dinner at the fredricks.

Friday- we met this really cool family while tracting they are from Burkina Faso and have been here about 3 years. They are super cool and their first language is french! Never saw that one coming!

Saturday- was a long day of knocking on Empty houses then we saw a few less-active families with Brother Gomes then had a great dinner with Jack and Sherl.

Sunday- was also a great day at church Jack was Confirmed and we had the primary program it was super cute! we then had a couple of great lessons. overall a good week!

This week my thoughts turn to building our testimony and relying on the lord. we were listening to a few talks this week and they talked a lot about how the lord hears our prayers. i challenge everyone to rely on our Heavenly Father and go to him in prayer. he will get you through what ever challenges may come your way. He is the good shepherd and he knows his sheep.

I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! i cant believe that my birthday and Thanksgiving are around the corner!

Elder Shoaf

Update November 3, 2014: No Fall in Sight...Or Winter...

Week 37

Aloha everyone!

The weeks just seem to keep getting faster! I can’t believe it’s already November! But it’s not any November I’m use to! It has been in the 90s all week! And no sign of winter or fall…. It kind of sucks… haha I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween!

           

            This week:

           

            Monday- today was a pretty chill p-day we played basketball and the usual p-day activities we had a great dinner with the Burmingham’s and it ended up being at Chilis because a lot of the families In the ward were meeting there afterwards for Matt Jenkins Birthday so it was a blast to see everyone and chill for a bit!

The Crew at Chili's! almost all of the men except for one are return Missionaries! and half are converts! super solid! we love these guys! (Burmingham's are lower left with their new-born daughter Mable!)

           

Tuesday-was a busy day we had our district meeting and made a lot of visits

           

Wednesday- we went to Brother Tilghman’s for service then did quite a bit of tracting we had a lot of comical vents when people would see us standing on their porch. We then had our ward Halloween party and we had the best costumes! I dressed up as Elder Speakman and he dressed up as me!..... Haha we switched tags and called it good!

Latest pics from Brother Tilghman's!

Thursday- was along day of trying to contact a bunch of less-active members on our records. We found a lot that had moved and there was a wreck in the highway so we stuck in traffic FOREVER! A truck ran into the back of a stopped bus and the drive was killed so they had to investigate so they shut the road down.

Friday- was Halloween so we made visits then had to be off the streets by 4pm so we just went to the chapel to play basketball for the rest of the day and chill with the rest of the zone.

Saturday- was full of more visits trying to find less-active members then more tracting. It was a long day…

Sunday- went really well! We had several people bring friends to church that wanted to learn more about our church so we were able to answer questions then set up appointments.

Today- we played basketball with a bunch of the guys from our ward now we are headed to go hike the pill-boxes. We are looking forward to Jack’s Baptism on Wednesday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week and remember that there is always who is worse off than we are. What can we do to make their day?

Elder Shoaf