Michelle + Hawaii: February 2016

Love = time

This week has been a week of miracles. But I guess there's a miracle in every day if you look closely. :)

There were a few times where it was so easy for us to just go to another area or go for lunch, but we decided to visit that one extra person, or stay a little longer at an appointment. And that was when we were able to have the Spirit confirm to us that's where we're needed. Yesterday after church, I wanted to go home and eat because I was hungry and we didn't have much time before our next appointment, but we did have Sister O'Connor planned after church. Sister Blackner said we had time so we went and visited her, and turns out she's in hospice and was desperately wanting someone from the church to visit. We were able to contact the ZLs and they gave her a priesthood blessing. Her only child, her daughter is taking care of her (she has liver cancer), and the whole situation just humbled me. First because I learned that there's a reason we've planned for the people we visit, and Heavenly Father needed us to be there; this mission sure isn't about what I want to do with my time, it's about what Heavenly Father needs us to do with His time. And second because I could relate so much to her daughter, because I'm an only child and that could easily be me one day in the future. I told her that I know a little bit of how she feels (she wasn't a member of our church) and that she's doing a great job of being the rock for her mom. It was such a great testimony builder for me because the Spirit directs our work, and Satan so easily tempts us to not go the extra mile. I'm so glad Sister Blackner could remind me of that and we could be companions that strengthen each other, rather than give into the small temptations. When we go the extra mile to visit someone, it can make all the difference. I know that the priesthood power which the men hold in our church is from God and it gives people strength to endure through times of trial. I'm grateful that the elders live worthy of that priesthood authority to give blessings for the sick and afflicted.

Sometimes it's so easy for me to think that because I'm a missionary, I have to share something spiritual like a scripture or teach a lesson about the gospel in order to fulfill my purpose, but I'm learning that loving the people here with the love Jesus Christ has for each of us is essential too. That the most important thing we can do here is to help others feel His love, and then they can feel the Spirit too if we do share a spiritual thought. Because everything relates back to Heavenly Father's love for all of His children. I get paranoid sometimes when we're running behind schedule or we stay at an appointment far too long in my opinion(more than an hour), but I've learned that when we show how much we care for the people we visit, it's so much easier to have them feel the Spirit when we do share something. And that we are here not just to preach the gospel, but to be brothers and sisters. Sister Thompson had to surrender one of her dogs to the Humane Society, Bella, because Bella was biting on the baby dog Alice, and wouldn't let go. In the process of tearing Bella off, Bella bit Sister Thompson too. Since it wasn't the first time this happened and Bella just was getting violent randomly (they say it's because of anxiety), Sister Thompson had to surrender her. And her neighbors helped out so she wouldn't have to watch them take Bella. At first I was thinking, "maybe we should leave...not sure if we're supposed to be here watching this," but we stayed to talk to Sister Thompson in another room and distracted her from the situation. I can't imagine how hard it must've been for her to let go of Bella, who she's taken care of since she was a baby (now she's 8 years old). I know that even when we're not specifically sharing the gospel, but when we live it and comfort those in need of comfort, we are still fulfilling our purpose. I feel so privileged to know that Heavenly Father trusts us to be that rock of support for His children, to uplift them spiritually and in other ways.

Usually at church on Sunday, we don't have any investigators coming because we're still so new to the area, we don't have a solid committed investigator. But we got a referral this week from the Zone Leaders and his name is Bryan. His brother is a member and lives in California, and suggested to Bryan to learn more about our church. We invited him to come, but he actually showed up early half an hour! (here in Hawaii, that is so rare, everything is "Hawaii time" aka.on time or late) We were also able to pick up Sister Thompson (who's less-active), and see two other less active families we've been visiting! We were so happy, because they've made the decision to get ready and come to church. It's hard sometimes to make church a priority, but we know it's because this commandment helps us be strengthened spiritually and we can partake of the sacrament to remember Christ's sacrifice and renew our baptism covenants.

For Gospel Principles class, we learned about the Fall of Adam and Eve. In many other Christian religions, they believe that the Fall was NOT a necessary step in God's plan. We believe that once they partook of the fruit from the tree of knowledge/good/evil, they were given agency and knowledge. And Satan wanted everyone to follow his plan, which was to force us to follow him, rather than giving us a choice. And once the Fall did occur, Adam and Eve were able to multiply and experience joy and pain. The Fall is a blessing, not a curse. Because of agency, we gain experience to learn from it, and feel opposition in all things so we know what happiness is. Sister Blackner and I also taught the Sunbeams, or 4-5 year old kids about the Holy Spirit and it was so much fun haha. I don't know if I'm very good at getting their attention, thank goodness Sister Blackner is good with kids.

Another fun thing this week: Travis, our potential investigator, invited us to a gospel music concert on Friday evening and we went and listened to a bunch of high school teens sing gospel music with piano as accompaniment. Definitely different, but it was pretty great music. Travis helped put the performance together, and it was good experience to see how other churches sing haha.

And we went out running twice this week! We're trying to be better at exercise, but running is not my forte.

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 2:24-25
"But behold, all things have been done in the wisdom of him who knoweth all things.
Adam fell that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy."

The Adams took us out to a Chinese restaurant...I realized why I didn't recognize so many Chinese names was because they were Cantonese pronunciation, not Mandarin! Oh how I miss Chinese vegetables...

Kalua pig and cabbage: Kalua pig is prepared in an underground oven called an "imu", covered in foil and banana leaves, and hot rocks (fire in it), and it cooks overnight!

Brother Kapele(now really old) used to play for the Eagles (football team)!

Ocean pictures from last hike

Ripples in the ocean. Love it.

Love,

Sister Wu

9:18:00 PM
0 Comments

Standing as a witness of Christ at all times

5:22:00 PM
0 Comments

Heart to Home

Happy Chinese New Year! :)

...maybe we'll eat some Chinese food today haha. I can't believe that it's February what!

This week we've been trying to visit members of the ward to meet them, as well as part-member families to introduce ourselves. The funny thing is how everyone is surprised to see us because they're used to seeing elders from the ward. On Wed we were able to go out with the Relief Society President, Sister Meyer, to pretty much do visiting teaching, but seeing less active sisters. She called it "Heart to Home", which is pretty cute haha. I've realized that it's so important to just listen, even if they talk for more than an hour long(it's hard to take control of the conversation sometimes without being abrupt), and these sisters have opened up their lives to us. By the end of that afternoon, I just felt overloaded a bit, but have been strengthened by their experiences. Sister Meyer is so awesome because she knows all of these sisters so well and built a trust and friendship that developed over time I'm sure. Some of them have gone through experiences that I think would be SO difficult to handle, but the knowledge of the gospel and the plan of salvation really helps us have peace. It's so sad to see families that have stopped going to church for many years just for no particular reason besides being "busy." Slowly we get comfortable and the Spirit just doesn't dwell with us anymore. And we forget the importance of taking the sacrament and going to church :(

Yesterday was our first Sunday in the ward since last week was Stake Conference (several wards gather). In Gospel Principles we learned about the Creation and how this beautiful world we live in was created by our Savior, Jesus Christ, and it's the physical manifestation of His love for each and every one of us. How it takes a more special meaning because He was both the Creator and the Savior of the world. He could have just given us the bare minimum to survive and live here, but He gave us so much more to appreciate and marvel at. That never really dawned on me until now, but I have a new sense of understanding. Brother Hirokawa also mentioned (not really a part of the lesson) how the symbolism of the person baptizing represents the members of the church lifting and supporting the person being baptized. That's how important fellowshipping is when we invite investigators to church. Bishop Chun is really awesome because he's always thinking of how we can fellowship less-active families or investigators with active families that they would relate to. At the end of the day, church should feel like a family and place to be uplifted and remember the Savior's Atonement.

Anyway, we were able to hike up to a beautiful waterfall this morning with some other missionaries and I was reminded of our lesson at church yesterday :) I'm really excited to teach with Sister Blackner because this ward is like a goldmine, with people to visit and less-active members to re-activate. And teach new investigators of course. Salvation isn't cheap and we have to continually strive to progress and show our obedience and love to Heavenly Father. The gospel is the greatest gift that we can share with others and I'm so privileged to be here to share it. It's funny how some people don't believe us when we share our beliefs just based on what they've heard...but their loss.

Scripture of the week: D&C 4:7

"Ask, and ye shall receive; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

So we took a wrong turn and ended up going on the highway for half an hour, so I looked at the ocean and the mountain range haha.

The Koffords balcony has this view of the ocean so we had to take a picture! They are the cutest (in their 80s)

Waterfall

Waterfall selfie (me and Sister Blackner in the middle)

Love,

Sister Wu

8:10:00 PM
0 Comments

Meeting Elder Holland!

Kaneohe is really pretty; it's super green, lush, and a lot of mountains haha. Our transfer day on Wednesday was super tiring and we were living with the Sister Training Leaders, Sister Carlsen and Sister Biggs for the last few days in their small home. Our new home is actually the upstairs of a sweet old woman and the elders have actually been renovating it for the last few months as service for her, and she really wanted LDS people to rent it out to because their last tenants didn't take care of it well. The mission office fortunately was looking for a new place for Sister Blackner and I and things worked out perfectly. When Grandma Martinsen, who was helping our landlord, told us how it all happened, she said we were the answers to Aunty Diana's prayers. Heavenly Father is always aware of His children's needs and He always answers our prayers (not guaranteed always what we want though, but what we need).

Changing new companions is always a little nerve-racking in the beginning because we have to get to know each other, but I already love Sister Blackner. She's been out for 6 months, and was serving in Eva all of that time, and now we're both new to Kaneohe. It's a little stressful driving around the area, but thankfully she has a GPS we use haha. The members we've met so far have all been so sweet and are so missionary-focused. We have several people we are planning to visit and invited a few less-active members to Stake Conference yesterday since Elder Holland, an apostle, was presiding and speaking.

All the missionaries on Oahu had a special meeting with him on Saturday and I learned how personable, loving, and hilarious he is. He shook all of our hands and we introduced ourselves and where we're from!!! We were also instructed from Elder Holstrom (Area Seventy) and Elder Auna (forgot his position). It's so amazing to hear from an apostle of the Lord right in front of us, and Elder Holland expressed just how sad it is for him to see returned missionaries that don't keep their covenants to the Lord and go inactive. We often think of how a mission is just one part of our lives, but it really lays the foundation of how we continue to live the gospel in our lives. So I will always be a returned missionary.

A few points that Elder Holland expressed that really stood out to me (from the missionary meeting and stake conference):

we can return, but we can't go back (referring to our lives before we began the mission, we need to move on and continue to grow)
we don't have any right to go home and betray and image and standard of this church (keep your covenants)
mercy is God's second name, God's mercy endureth forever, all He does is look for ways to bless us if we choose to follow Him
"Sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes you don't get what you want, but it will always be what is right"

We had the opportunity to hear from him again on Sunday for Stake Conference. I kid you not when I say although the meeting began at 10 am, members have arrived at 6 am just to get the front row seats. Seeing the apostle speak live doesn't happen often besides watching General Conference...

Elder Holland expressed his love for all of us and shared with us that apostles, prophet, and other general authorities are not exempt from the trials and challenges of life we face. His dear wife was near death a few months ago, but is okay now. It's easy to think other people's lives are easier and without challenges, but we all have them. But this gospel helps us overcome all that we face. I know that the prophet and all the general authorities are called of God to lead us in this day. Elder Holland ended his address with an apostolic blessing upon all of us, even extending it to those we love. I'm pretty sure this is a weekend I'll never forget!

I'm super excited to work in this area because it's also the first time Kaneohe 4th ward is having their own missionaries (usually they share with another ward), AND sister missionaries rather than elders. It's kind of funny how excited they are but pretty sweet too. We're pretty excited to move into our new home today, and not live out of our suitcases haha. I know the gospel is true and I love being a missionary here. :)

Scripture of the week:

"For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have."