Week 58 - Aloha

Aloha everyone!

This week wasn't too eventful. One of my recent converts in this area, Bima, hasn't been to church in a while because their car has a really bad leak in the cooling system. We've been going up to his house once a week to work on the car, but haven't made much progress. The first week we went up, Bima's dad had told us he had tools so we didn't bring anything. We got up there, looked inside his bag of tools, and found half a socket set and a broken pair of needle-nose pliers. Needless to say, we didn't get much done. The second week, we brought a pair of pliers, succeeded in getting one of the hose clamps off that we needed to, but some motor genius put the second one on upside down in the most remote, inaccessible part of the engine imaginable. People driving by on the road probably get a kick out of missionaries laying spread eagle on an engine trying to reach down and get this clamp, then after a while, with a red face and scraped up arm, we finally give up and let another one try. But with enough faith anything is possible right? I definitely hope that the Lord said that in reference to auto-mechanics.

We also had a good lesson with Machat this past week. He said he talked to his girlfriend and they set a date to be married and baptized! The only problem is that date is 8 months away... I was wrestling with the question of whether we should try and push him to an earlier date, or if we should just let him do his thing and keep encouraging him until his date. I felt like he was ready now, so he should be baptized now. He's been investigating the church for about 4 years and is finally at the point where he wants to be baptized, so why wait. I took that question to the temple and I felt like that was the right thing to do after praying about it, but I wasn't sure how to bring it up. We were able to tour the Visitors' Center after and while we were looking at the temple I had the thought to invite Machat to go to the VC, and after he'd felt the spirit on the temple grounds, we could invite him to an earlier baptismal date, and have the date that he wants as his sealing date just over a year after they're married. I'm really hoping that it works out, because it's been a long road for him. He's at the point where he wants to be baptized, and realizes the importance of it, he just needs a friendly push:)

So that's just a little of what's going on here in Hawaii. Hope all is well back home.

Choke aloha,

Elder Merrill