Makawao, Maui

Week two in Makawao was pretty good. Not too many opportunities to teach but we were able to contact a good amount of people, set some appointments for this upcoming week, and get some of our records in order.

We have met almost all of the investigators in the area. There are just a few more that we haven't been able to contact. We got to do some service on Saturday with the ward. We helped clean up a truck full of trash from a members yard and take it to the dump.

While we were unloading at the dump, the guy next to us had a trailer that was twice the size of ours, three times as full, and he was unloading and sorting through it was an old tennis racket. While my comp and brother Adams finished off our load, I was able to hop on the other guys trailer with him and with some pitchforks we knocked out his trailer in about 15 minutes. He would have been there all day.

He asked me where we were from and and we told him a bit about the church we're serving in. It was just a great example of how Heavenly Father puts us exactly where he needs us to make a difference in the world. I guess this guy had just volunteered to take this truck load for a family in need but had no clue what he was getting himself into. I was grateful for the chance to be there and help.

Lesson for the week, always be in a position to help your fellow man.


Love you all!
Elder Kingston Matua

Week 29 ... I think

After a long day of finding

I hit my 200th day as a missionary on Saturday though which is pretty crazy to me.
Interesting week this one was.

Our investigator pool is still quite dry. My companion even mentioned to me, his whole time he's been in Taiwan, he has never been rejected this bad this often. It's seriously discouraging at times, but there's not much we can do but put our shoulders to the wheel and move along.

Lots and lots of finding this week. I'm actually calling it "looking" now, it seems a bit more applicable haha. Jokes! I love missionary work.

On Monday we went to a little ecology park up in Ba De. It was pretty cool. tons of fish, ducks, turtles, geese. Neat place.

Tuesday, Elder Wayment and I went on exchanges. I spent the night up in Ba De and had some good times with him. We did a lot of finding up there. We ran into a lot of interesting people. This world is full of a lot of interesting people. I love it.

On Wednesday we met with Martin again. He's still doing awesome. Hasn't yet received permission from his parents to be baptized, but
his brother actually showed up while we were meeting with Martin at the family-mart. We talked to him for a bit, and we hope it plays a positive role in getting permission from his parents (and maybe even meeting with the whole family!)

Sunrise in Long Tan

We had one of my favorite English classes so far on Wednesday night. During English class, we teach about an hour of English and then have 30 minutes for a spiritual share. The students were super into the English portion of the class, and as soon as we started our spiritual share, I've never seen them so interested before! I shared a video on how Families can be together Forever. It was a bunch of pictures of families with a little kid singing the song in the background. There were also some clips of President Eyring sharing the importance of families. The spirit was SO strong. I shared a picture of our family and they were all so amazed at our family. Whenever I show our family picture to people, they always say "Wow, 5 boys. all handsome. Your mother is beautiful." And I just say "Yes, yes she is." They also think it's pretty crazy how big our family is. But yeah, English class was great.

Xue hua bing - Snow flower ice...Yum!

On Thursday, we went up to Taipei for Elder McClellan's training. He's our new district leader. While he was in his meeting, I was talking with other missionaries outside. Got to catch up with some great friends I made in the MTC. I also had the chance to meet some great missionaries. We had 18 missionaries get their visa's and they all arrived last week, so I got to talk to some of the new ones. Sister Day saw me and said, "Elder Matua! There's another Samoan kid that just came on island!" Then she ran away... Then I heard her yell, "Elder Matua, In here, he's here!" hahaha It was so funny. But I met Elder Aiono, he's from Las Vegas and yes, he's afakasi! Super great! He's actually being trained by an Elder from PG that knew John Raass and Dallin Pili and those goofballs. They all live in a six-man apartment with, you guessed it, Elder Willes and Elder Tan. And another companionship. One of my favorite parts of my mission so far has been meeting so many great people. People on the street, but also brothers and sisters in the same cause of inviting others to come unto Christ. It's great, and I've made a lot of great friends.

On Saturday we did a lot more street contacting and door knocking. About seven or so hours. Quite unsuccessful for most of the day. After dinner, we knocked doors until we had to turn around and go home. We were being rejected a lot so I told my companion to follow me. We hopped on our bikes and started pedaling. I said a small prayer in my heart that the spirit would lead me to a person who would be willing to even listen to our message. We rode for about 5 minutes until I felt prompted to

There are wild dogs everywhere here

stop. Couldn't really explain why, but I felt prompted to stop at a home. We knocked and a very kind humble man opened and generously welcomed us in! It made me SO happy! We taught him some of the points in the first lesson. Explained what prayer was. He was really attentive and respectful to our message. We invited him to say the closing prayer for us at the close of our lesson. He prayed, and it was awesome! Unfortunately, He was hesitant to set up a return appointment. BUT he told us that we can come over whenever! so we're praying and hoping for some success for him!

Sunday was good, always is good. Just did a lot of finding. Talked to some great people, not too interested, but it was nice being able to talk to people who didn't treat us like we didn't even exist.

I'm absolutely loving my mission experience. Sure it gets  tough at times. That's how it's supposed to be right? I'm still struggling with the language. After six whole months, I'm still trying to adjust to the life of a missionary, but it's all about progression. I feel the Lord in the details of my life, and it's great. Sometimes I feel unworthy for His love. Sometimes I feel like there's no possible way He's watching over me right now. Sometimes, I even feel like giving up! I know He's there. He's my loving Father in Heaven. His love is always there for me, and for you. No matter what. And he's helping me every step of the way. Failing is NOT a part of the plan.
I love you all. Have a blessed week!

Love
Elder Chase Matua

Transfer week - In the Valley Isle

I have been transferred to the beautiful Valley Isle of Maui! Everything about Maui is just cherry. My new companion is Elder Mitchell. He has been out for a little over twelve weeks now and just finished his training. He is from Ohio and is a very solid missionary.

The area is on fire! All of our members are doing so much to help the work and everyone has a missionary mind.

This week was a little rough with seeing people. We didn't have too much luck. But I got to meet most of the investigators in the area. We are working with a couple of families, couples and a whole lot of less actives. We had a very interesting discussion with a JW the other day. He kinda snuck up on us. But Elder Mitchell handled it very well.

So far so good here in Makawao. We cover a pretty big area of up country. It is very country.

With Love and Aloha,
Elder Kingston Matua

Picture post from Taiwan

Elder Chase Matua is loving the work in Taiwan and sent these pictures from last week. No updates from him since we were out of town but he continues to love the work and the people of Taiwan:

A huge plate of fried rice

We prepare each week for the water shut down

Elder Miller snapped a photo of me studying

Painting Easter eggs in our English class

My ugly Easter egg

On the roof enjoying the lunar eclipse

Rusty bikes, smiling and working

My sweet new name tag

I have had a rough week. I was reading through some testimonies that you and the boys wrote to me before I left. You encouraged me to do something that I'm really struggling with. You said whenever you followed the spirit, it brought miracles; small and big. Dad, I'm still adjusting to this missionary life. I'm still learning how I personally receive those promptings. It's hard. One of my biggest problems is I hesitate. A lot of times I think, 'that's crazy, why would I do that?' Then I go on with my day with little success. My zone leader called me last night. Even he didn't know why he was calling me. I was confident he was following a prompting of the spirit. I felt the love of God for me SO strong last night. I know my leaders are called of God. I have a goal this week to NOT HESITATE. Heed every single prompting I receive.

Playing ping-pong by myself

Hard week this week. But It's not supposed to be easy right? if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Life would be pointless. Now more than ever, I'm struggling to adjust to this missionary life. It's hard. It's exhausting. It's discouraging. It's disappointing. It's rough. But it's the Lord's work. I couldn't imagine myself anywhere else, doing anything else right now. I can feel the atonement shaping me. It hurts, but it works. It really does.

Yesterday As part of my fast, I asked Heavenly Father if He could assist us in helping Martin receive permission from his parents to be baptized. He didn't show up to church. And what made matters worse is after sacrament meeting, we get a text from him. He told us his dad doesn't want him to come to church anymore. How does that work out? I have no idea. But it comes with this calling I guess. All we can do now is keep moving forward. We are at ground zero right now - no progressing investigators. We are grinding it out to find some golden ones this week. It's going to be great.

Besides that, Life is good. Sure there's bumps. But it's good. All we can do is move forward. That's

Fun dinner with funny kids

what God needs of us. Forward. Move forward. Get better. learn from it.

My bike is so rusty already! I've been soaking wet for the past two weeks. The first week because it rained non stop. This past week because I could not stop sweating! hahaha Just wet 24-7. Sleeping, eating, preaching, all day every day. I love it because I think it means I'm losing weight, but the rain and humidity makes the bike rusty really fast!

One saying you taught me A long, long time ago: "He never said it would be easy. He only said it would be worth it." I'm coming to understand that on a whole new level. I love it.

Biking through a community garden

Another goal I have for this week is, I am going to have a smile on my face 24-7 no matter what happens. I know that Christ bled and died for me so it could be possible for me to be happy. It is all about our agency. Trials don't decide our attitude - we do. So I will decide right now to just smile! I love you guys so much. I can't wait to give you both such huge hugs! thank you for your encouraging words.

Miss you now more than ever. Thank you for your loving words. Have a blessed week!

Love Elder Chase Matua