Week 82 - Lakwe

Iakwe friends and family!

This week was an awesome week. We saw the Welle's, our Chuukese investigators, three times to make sure everything was set for their baptism. All three of the kids (Aki, Lani, and Lea) were baptized on sunday! They brought a bunch of their extended family to attend the baptism. In sacrament meeting they announced the baptism right as the family was walking in, and it was like a line of never-ending small brown people. There was like 15 or more non-members that they brought with them to church and to the baptism. Everything for the baptism went great! For his closing remarks, our bishop had all of their family stand up, and then challenged them all to meet with the missionaries and receive the ordinance of baptism for themselves! He said "I'm going to speak out of love, but be bold. This is the true church and gospel of Jesus Christ and you all need to be baptized by the authority of the restored priesthood of God". Hopefully their mom recognized the spirit that she felt and bishop's words will motivate her to prepare for her own baptism.

We also met with this super cool part-member family. The mom and daughter come to church every week, but the dad never comes and is a non-member. We talked to him before and he told us to come by on saturday for service. We showed up for service and are helping him restore a special edition '64 mustang! He knows literally everything about cars. He's a professional mechanic and has been working with cars since he was a little kid. He also knows a lot about how to make cars fast. He used to race cars and told us he's had over 250 tickets in his lifetime. He also joked about how he's trying to convince his wife and daughter to put nitrous in the car "just in case". I guess they're against it though because the car is going to be for his daughter when she turns 16.

Another cool experience we had was at dinner one night. We were eating with one of the single mothers in our ward and her family and she told us that he oldest daughter hadn't been baptized yet and wanted to take the lessons! So we talked to her and she said she wanted to start meeting with us every week so she can get baptized! I'll let ya know how that goes.

But overall a great week where the Lord truly blessed us.

Love you!

-Elder Merrill

Week 81 - Through Much Prayer and Fasting

Aloooha y'all!

Another great week has come and gone here in Kona. Last week was our first week of covering two wards. There was some shuffling of missionaries with this past transfer, and after all was said and done we found out we were covering two wards. It's been crazy trying to get everyone sorted out and find out who everyone is, but no complaints about having more work!

We also had a cool experience. We had just got out of an appointment and had about 30 minutes until our dinner. We were about to get into our car when this guy came and talked to us. He asked us to take a walk with him and we were both convinced he was going to bash with us. But instead he told us his life story of how he came to believe in God, which was a really cool experience. He told us a story of how he was going through a divorce, so he was on the way to the dealership to sell his car. He stopped at a gas station to fill up with gas and a homeless man walked up to him and asked for money. He gave him some change, but later realized that was the money he needed to pay for gas. He had no money left and didn't know what to do, so he prayed. Right after he said amen, a strange old man that he'd never met before walked up to him and told him he was sent from God and handed him a check with his name on it for $20. Then he went to the dealership and somehow sold his car and drove off with a nicer car having no money and terrible credit. On his way home the dealership called him and told him he'd overpayed $200 for his car and to come back and get a check for the money. He had a really strong testimony of prayer. I found it inspiring the level of faith he had. Basically just complete reliance and full trust in God.

Then we had a lesson with the Welle family. Up until now we were unsure if Leah, the 12 year old girl, was going to be baptized. She really wanted to, but was baptized in Catholic church when she was a baby so her mom didn't see why she needed to be baptized twice. We fasted for her mom's heart to be softened this past sunday and when we went to our lesson with them last night the mom had no problem with all 3 of her kids being baptized this coming week! Prayer and fasting works!

We had a great training in a meeting yesterday. We were trained on sacrifice, specifically the things we sacrifice to become better servants of the Lord. They shared a quote that talked about how the only thing you can sacrifice to God that's truly yours is your will. Everything else is just things he's given or loaned to you. The thought hit me that God really doesn't care about material possessions. He doesn't need money, land, or whatever else it might be. As is shown in the case of the widow's mite, he obviously doesn't care about the volume of material things we give, but rather the amount of sacrifice we are willing to personally commit ourselves to.

Well I sure love you guys and hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,

Elder Merrill

Week 80 - It's Laining

Hahahaloha,

This week we had the opportunity to go up and teach my recent convert from Honoka'a, Haunani. She started crying when she saw me and in my mind I was like "this is supposed to be a happy time". She's doing pretty well. She told us that she comes to church most weeks, whenever she can get a ride, and has read through the bible and Book of Mormon almost twice in the past year. She loves the gospel and told us about how she shares her beliefs to all of her friends! We committed her to prepare to go to the temple. Unfortunately she has some things to work through right now before she can get there, but she promised me that she'd do everything she can to get there!

We also had a flood (or as some of the fob asian missionaries say, floord) of one of the areas in our district. Basically everyone in our district went to this one ward area and just tracted to help find new investigators. I was with one of the missionaries in my zone who's still being trained. We found 3 people that seemed pretty interested in just an hour of knocking doors! So I guess you could say in our floord we made it lain! Awesome considering knocking doors in Hawaii usually has a pretty crappy turn out. I guess the Lord blesses us for our sacrifices. Our mission mom gave us a quote from President Hinckley that talked about what seems to be a sacrifice now, will indeed prove to be the greatest investment.

We also found these two new kids to teach. We were trying to see one of our recent converts, but they weren't home. So we talked to these kids who lived next door to them that were playing outside. One of them is 15 and the other is 10. We taught them about faith and they seemed decently interested. Their step mom is actually a less-active member that we've been trying to visit.

Also the Welle family came to church again this past week, and they brought one of their cousins who's also a non-member. They're looking solid for their baptismal date and hopefully we'll be able to teach their cousin as well.

Hope you all have a happy and blessed week! Sure love you guys!

-Elder Merrill

Week 79 - Birth for dayzzz

Aroha friends and fam!

We had a fan freaking tastic week here in Big Island. Definitely one of the best weeks on my mission as far as work goes. We taught an all-time high of lessons since I've been in Kona and set a whole family to a baptismal date! The family we set was the Chuukese family I talked about last week, the Welle family. We taught them the restoration and then committed the kids and the mom to a baptismal date and they accepted! Then all the kids showed up to church yesterday. The mom wouldn't come though, so we'll keep working with her and hopefully the Lord will soften her heart to baptism. The grandma told us that it was a huge step that she was letting her kids be baptized. We're excited for their date of March 8th and will continue to pray for all of them.

We also had a lesson with these former investigators in our area, their names are John and Jamboree. They're about our age and have two kids, which always trips us out b/c that could be us without the gospel. They're kind of stoners, but we try to catch them in the morning when they first wake up so they're in a state of mind to hear the gospel :) John seems to be pretty into the lessons and I think the spirit works on him when he listens to what we have to share. Jamboree on the other hand likes the lessons, but is kind of opposed to being baptized or coming to church. We enjoy teaching them though, really anyone that will hear our message.

I had probably one of the best birthdays of my life. Just another day of missionary work devoted to serving others. We saw several people, including a recent convert named Kekai. He's a 12 year old kid so we stopped by to teach him a lesson and invite him to church/scouts because he hasn't been in a while. He liked the lesson, but his dad who is a non-member sat in on the lesson and kind of discouraged him from coming to church. He likes the church, but thinks it's more important to study and spend time with his dad, than for him to go to church on sundays. At the end of the day we went to one of the senior couples' house and all the missionaries in the south district had a surprise birthday party for me. Pizza, cake, presents, the whole 9 yards. I'm so blessed to be where I am and with the missionaries I'm serving around. Thank you guys for all the birthday wishes and love!

Take care and aloha!

-Elder Merrill

Week 78 - Sticks and Stones

What's up good friends and family?!

This week we had a killer week with finding new investigators, especially through member effort! We taught a great lesson with Naahun, the guy from Honduras. We brought a member with us who served his mission in Panama, so he was able to teach in Spanish which really helped Naahun's understanding. He still wants to be baptized and believes that God placed us in his path to help him get there. He works some sundays which is really the only problem we have with him.

The same member that helped us teach also gave us a referral to a family. Our member is the vice principal for the local elementary school and I guess he got a complaint that a girl was hitting kids with a stick on the bus, so he went over to talk to the mom. He said he talked to them and they said he could stop by with us. Talk about standing as a witness of Christ at all times. They're a Chuukese family. The grandma is a member and just moved from Magna, UT to here to stay with her daughter and grand children. Her daughter and her three children aren't members and our member that came with us committed them to take the missionary lessons and they showed up to church yesterday!

We also contacted this referral of a less-active member living with his girlfriend and their newborn son. They were super cool and really receptive. We taught them about eternal families and it really seemed to hit home with their new son sitting right there. They said we could come back and continue to see them on a weekly basis!

We've also been working with this guy named Gordon. His wife is a member and has been for her entire life. He comes to church almost every week with her and loves it. He prepares for the gospel doctrine lessons, had stake conference marked on his calendar for the past couple of months, told us he's trying to do a better job in finding us people to teach, is already looking forward to general conference, and even has a favorite general authority (President Uchtdorf). The only problem is he's suuuper Catholic. He loves our church, but is pretty set in his ways as a Catholic. We asked him if he's ever prayed about our church, and he said that would be hypocritical, because he already knows the Catholic church is the true church. I'm hoping his heart is softening right now because of their daughter's health situation. She has terminal cancer and has recently returned to Hawaii from the hospital. Gordon and his wife told us it's really just a matter of time until she passes and they're just waiting for the call which could come any day now. I really feel for them because you can tell how much it's paining them. They both had priesthood blessings to be able to bear up their burdens and seem to be dealing with it pretty well. 

We've got a lot of people we're working with, but not very many close to baptism, so that's our focus right now. I'm loving this ward and especially how helpful the members are with missionary work. We have some good things going and are looking forward to even better things to come!

Love,

Elder Merrill

Week 77 - Fightin' Fires

HI,

Had another killer week here in Kona. We taught this guy from Honduras named Nahuun. We met him one day while we were walking down the street. He was out by his truck, so we decided to go out and meet him. We didn't see him for a while, but were driving by this past week and saw his truck outside, so we decided to stop in and teach him. We found out his brother that is living with him is a less-active member. Then we taught him the Restoration. When we got to Christ's Earthly Ministry, he said "I need that, I haven't baptized yet". We told him we could help him with that, then invited him to church. He had to work this past sunday, but told us he'd be there for sure this next week!

On a sadder note, there was a family in our stake that had a fire in their house and lost two of their sons (6 and 11 I think). The whole stake has rallied together to support them. The mom and all of the extended family bore their testimony yesterday. She talked about how the gospel brings her peace in trying times like this. One of her sons that passed away gave a talk last week in church and after his death, the news published it all over Hawaii. His talk was about families and the plan of salvation. It's really cool to see how his young testimony is blessing so many.

We were talking about it in ward council, and the high priests' group leader, who has been a firefighter for 40 years, shared a really neat insight. He told us that 95% of firefighting is prevention. Or in other words, the best way to fight a fire is to never have one. He related that to the gospel and said the same thing about our spiritual safety. It's better to take precautionary measures to protect your spirit beforehand, rather than waiting for disaster to strike. It goes along perfectly with the saying "an ounce of prevention is better than a ton of cure". 

We've also been working with these less-active sisters in our ward. They didn't come to church for like 30 years. Then they started coming back last year, but fell away again. We've been meeting with them every sunday and they've come to church the past two sundays!

Please keep praying for missionary opportunities and the courage to recognize and act on them when they come! Love you guys.

-Elder Merrill

Week 76 - More Mur'cles

Aloooha y'all.

Another great week, with great experiences, great people, and in a great place has come and gone. On tuesday my comp and I trained our zone on miracles. We set high goals for with dates for our zone because we just had a lot of baptisms the past few weeks and our with dates were struggling. We read a scripture in Helaman 8 that kind of poses the question of "If God could work miracles like parting the Red Sea, why can't He work miracles in my life?". We talked about how with God all things are possible, and He only requires the faith necessary to perform miracles. If we truly believe and know that God works miracles today just as He did in times of old, we can see His hand so abundantly in our lives.

We actually had a few small miracles this past week. We got a new unbaptized members' list and were going through it this past sunday. We found a name that wasn't on the old one and felt like we should go to visit her. Right as we parked outside her house, a car drove into the driveway. We decided to talk to whoever was getting out of the car and it turned out to be her! She seemed happy to see us and invited us back for breakfast this week! Then she asked if we were just visiting random people, and we told her that we saw her name and felt like we should visit her. She was quiet for a little, then said "and on today of all days". We didn't really want to press the issue, but I guess we stopped by on some significant day that she really needed a visit from the missionaries!

Another miracle we saw was on the plane ride back from Oahu yesterday. I was sitting across the aisle from this guy who kept staring at me and my badge. After a few awkward times of me catching him staring, then him hurriedly looking away, I struck up a conversation with him. We talked for the rest of the plane ride and I found out that he was a less-active member who hadn't been to church in over 20 years. He is also cousins with some of our ward members. He has a wife and kids that are all non-members and he accepted my invitation to be taught! It was kind of an answer to our prayers in a way because my companion and I had been praying to find a family that we could teach. We're planning on setting up something with his cousins and hopefully they'll start coming to church and eventually be baptized!

Hope you all have a great week and continue to see miracles and the Lord's hand in your life!

Love,

Elder Merrill

Week 75 - Aloha

Shaloha friends and family!

Had another great week living it up on Big Island! The highlight of my week was Tema's baptism. She's been ready and waiting for this for a long time. She even said that she was already a member and just waiting to be baptized! Her husband, who wouldn't even step foot on church grounds (parking lot included) showed up to support Tema! I think it's the first time he's ever been inside of a church building. He was initially opposed to her being baptized and hinted at the fact that he wouldn't be there, but I think with prayer the Lord really softened his heart and he actually asked her and talked to her about her baptism. Everything went perfect for the baptism. No problems, not rushed, and stress free!

Transfers were this past week, so we had about half of the zone change. I was sad to see my companion leave because we got along and worked really well together, but my new companions good too. We were friends before, so it wasn't hard for us to get along as companions. 

We had a good week of service projects as well. We helped Tema's son cure a dutch oven and clean out a chicken coop. I think I could have a future in herding chickens because I killed it in getting those chickens back into their coop. We also helped out in a service project up in Honoka'a, one of my old areas. We helped this guy out on his farm chopping down trees and clearing out farm plots. 

We also had a really great lesson with Teki yesterday. We talked about still getting him to progress after his baptism by setting goals. He told us that he wanted to serve a mission! So we helped him set goals to get him there. He's been reading the Book of Mormon and is loving it.

We've also been working with these less-active sisters, the Kahanu's. They hadn't been to church for a long time, but started coming back at the beginning of last year. They kind of fell away, so we've been visiting them every sunday. We had a really good lesson with them about keeping the commandments. We shared a scripture in Mosiah 2 about how blessed the people are that keep the commandments. We then asked them if they loved the Lord, and if they did what they would be willing to do for Him. If we truly love the Lord we'll do anything for Him, including keeping the commandments. I hope you guys all ask yourselves that question, if you really love the Lord with all your heart, mind, and soul like you're supposed to, what are you willing to do for Him?

Love you guys and have a great week!

-Elder Merrill

Week 74 - All is Well, All is Well

Friends and family, Malo lelei!

Another great week topped off with a killer baptism! Teki was baptized and confirmed this past saturday and the service was awesome. We actually had a miracle in getting him to the waters of baptism. He had his baptismal interview the day before everything was planned out (kind of bad procrastination on our part) and had something that he needed to talk to the stake president about. It was threatening his baptism going through the next day which everyone was already planning on. We called our mission president and he said we'd probably have to push the baptism back because he had nobody to interview Teki and didn't know where the Stake President was. We begged him and he told us he'd call the Stake President to see if there was any way he could do an interview. He called us back almost immediately and told us that the Stake President had just pulled into the temple parking lot which was about 100 yards from where we were. It was honestly a miracle and testimony builder for me that the Lord is always aware of our situation. He placed our stake president in the right place at the right time. Teki was interviewed after and cleared for baptism!

His whole family drove down from Hilo on the other side of the island to be there for his baptism. A couple of nights before the baptism, Teki and his uncle (a member of our ward) drove down to ask for his mom's blessing and invite her to the baptism. She kept asking him questions like "why do you want to be baptized? Do you feel pressured because you're living with uncle Oke right now?" But he just told her that no one was making him do this. It was his decision and he wanted to be baptized because he could feel that it was true. He told her that he knew that families could be together forever, and that that's what he wants for their family, especially with the recent passing of his dad. She gave him her blessing and he was baptized a few days later. His mom even came to church with him the next day, and after sacrament rather than going back to Hilo (which is what they had planned) she told him to stay for class. I think she really felt the spirit and we're hoping we can get the missionaries over in Hilo to stop by their house and start teaching them too! I'm so proud of Teki because he's already being a missionary. He doesn't really recognize it, but he shares the gospel with basically everyone he comes in contact with!

We also got some sad news. One of our investigators that we were working with just passed away. His name was Sumio. He was a 93 year old Japanese man and was very excited about the gospel. He couldn't wait to be baptized, but unfortunately his health started failing him. We went over to give him a blessing when we heard that he got moved to a care home. We basically gave him a blessing of comfort out of this life, rather than of healing. He passed away the next day, so I guess it was just his time to go. I'm really grateful for the temple in situations like that.

Love you guys and have a great week!

Aloha, Elder Merrill

Week 73 - Don't Look Back!

Aloha friends and family!

I hope you all had a great new years. I think New Year's Eve could be the biggest holiday in Hawaii. People spent thousands of dollars on fireworks so, it was crazy. We had a big bonfire on the rocks by the ocean with some of the missionaries, but had to be in our appartments by 9:30. We got back to our apartment to get some rest, but were woken up to the sounds of what sounded like a million firecrackers going off. Our neighbors had tied a ton of chinese firecrackers onto their wooden playset (Hawaiian ingenuity at its finest) and the things were super loud. Right after that started it turned 12 so all of our neighbors were popping off illegal fireworks. We just sat at our window and watched all the fireworks going off all around us.

Then the next day, we went to drive up to Mauna Kea to see the first sunrise of the year from the highest point in Hawaii, but apparently there were hurricane force winds up at the top up to 150 mph so it was closed. Instead we went to the chapel and had a water balloon fight, followed by a flour fight (sticky, crusty flour not a good idea) then we played capture the flag. Not too eventful compared to the crazy new years stories we heard from other people, but still had fun as a zone.

Yesterday Teki came to church and is super ready to be baptized this saturday! He got up and bore his testimony! He talked about the happiness and comfort that the gospel has brought him especially after his dad passed away just a few months ago. He also made the whole congregation laugh by saying he was enjoying the missionaries' "speeches" and also by telling everyone jokingly that they better come to his baptism. We're meeting with him every day this week and he's so ready for baptism. His whole non-member family is supposed to be attending his baptism, as well as his girlfriend. She's a non-member and he said he gave her a Book of Mormon and downloaded the Mormon Channel app on her phone. He told us "don't worry guys, it's just a matter of time before she comes around".

The message that we've been sharing with people with this new year comes from a Mormon Message about New Years. It shares the story of Lot and how his wife was turned into a pillar of salt for looking back. Personally, I feel that it wasn't the physical act of looking back that the Lord punished her for, rather that she wasn't fully committed to obeying with exactness the commandments of the Lord. Maybe she missed her house, her friends, or whatever it was that caused her to look back. But that really is perfect advice for this new year. So many people that we teach carry around these unnecessary burdens because they're so caught up on things that happened in the past. I heard a quote that said :the past is to be learned from, not lived in. That's really that attitude that we should have with this coming new year. Rather than focusing on our regrets, look forward to our opportunities. The Lord commanded Lot to "get to the mountain and not look back". Often times in the scriptures, the mountain symbolizes a temple or a holy place, so in addition to not looking back, we should make sure that our path looking forward will be one that brings us closer to God, knowing that where we're going will be better than where we've been as long as we put our full trust in Him.

Love you all!

-Elder Merrill