One more week 'til conference

Serving the Lord is fun to do

Unfortunately people don't come at us in mobs, it's more like they avoid us in mobs. Almost everyone knows to turn and run when they see the white shirts coming. But I guess that's a good way to distinguish who's ready and who's not. Those who linger get exactly what they need haha! I was laughing last week when Quinn was bummed that he wasn't able to get ordained. I'm glad that he was so pumped to get the priesthood.

We are losing missionary numbers. When I first got here we were at 250, by the end of this year we are supposed to be down to 150. So president has been forced to shut more and more areas down. Don't know what the future holds right now but I love all of the lessons that I have learned here in Moanalua 2nd.

Hon-West Elders

My State of mind is so scrambled right now its not even funny. I can't grasp all that is really going on so I'm just trying to stick to the basics and get through the next three months. I swear every time I look at the calendar a week has just slipped right on by. It's all pretty crazy. But we are all doing good over here. Dad told me about the Loos (Big Island). They are an awesome family!

It is weird everything is starting to blur. I have also committed myself to writing in my journal every day from here on out. I have to confess that I have been horrible at writing. But every time I go back and read, I have so many flashbacks and great memories. I regret not listening to you more there. But it was so hard!

Can't wait for conference.


Anyways Love you choke!
Elder Kingston Matua

More service...and I guess my eyes are tired LOL

Baptisms and missionary moments

Another week in the books!

Our new young convert baptism and his family

This week was business as usual. We were invited to attend the baptism of a member boy. We have been visiting the family and were more than happy to attend when we were invited. They asked us to give two talks and then surprised us when they asked us to give a missionary moment that we usual do at convert baptisms. We had no problem with it, it was just last minute. We were able to step up and give the message and we found out that there were some less actives and non members there. hopefully we were able to make a difference.

They feed me plenty over here, I am just doing everything that I can to keep the weight off. I am still in pretty bad shape but I can fix all that when I get home.

With Elder Swenson from West Jordan

Looks like life is moving on for everyone back home. At church yesterday we ran into a father and son from Arizona. The son had just gotten back from his mission two weeks earlier. He said that when you come home it feels like you never left but you have all your memories of you mission. I feel like that's exactly how it's going to be for me. For the most part everyone is going to be right where they were and I will continue my life but I will have so much more knowledge and experience to work with. Plus my testimony is 100 times stronger.

Have a great week everyone. Love you all!!

Temple trip and the Lord's work

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We had a temple trip today so our P-Day is today instead of yesterday. The temple this morning was great as usual. I got to see the Selu family while I was there. It was great to see them in the session this morning.

Bro & Sis Selu
(photo: M. Selu)

This past week was kinda rough. None of our investigators came to church and that's never fun. But life goes on and the work continues. Elder Talatau and I are still doing good together. Both of us are still trying to grasp the fact that our time is so short. We just keep moving and forget about it.

Everything is great here as far as how me and Elder T. are doing. I just received a letter from Pres. Warner that there is a possibility that they might close our area, mostly due to the fact that we are going down in missionary numbers. There is a good amount of work in this ward but them members must be involved. But we will do what we can while we are here and see what happens.

Congratulations to the BYU Rugby boys on your big win last week [against St. Mary's]. A big Happy Birthday to Mica and Quinn! Sorry I'm still working on getting more post cards for birthdays so I'll try and send those out asap.

Love you all! The Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored and His work is moving forward!


Aloha
Elder Kingston Matua

Exploring Hawaii

Good to see the Selu boys
(photo: M. Selu)

P-Day fun

Finding success

Well another week in 2015 has come and gone.

I was getting my days all mixed up this week it went by so fast. We got to meet with all of our investigators this week. Some of them were short visits but every contact counts when you are fighting against peoples every day temptations.

All of our investigators are doing good. We still have a date set for our young friend Fasia.

Hope all will continue to go well there. Time is short, lets go live it my friends. No time to waste time, even Hawaiian time.

Love you all! The church is most definitely true and fully restored!


Elder Kingston Matua

Working hard on the aloha spirit

We had some new prospects but some new challenges as well. These people in this Samoan ward keep scaring everyone away! LOL We have really been struggling this week with the ward but all is well. If I have learned anything it is that the Lords work can never be stopped. It can be slowed by the people, but never stopped. We just keep doing our thing and pushing along knowing that the Lord has a plan and that everything will fit right in the end.

I'm so grateful for you dad and mom! You guys kept it together through thick and thin and showed us boys that no matter what we are going through their is a way to be happy and overcome our trails. I pray that we can all find our way no matter what the difficulties may be.

That's awesome that the [United Rugby] team is looking good this year. Sounds like there were a lot of teams at the spring warm up this year. Keep those boys on track.

Send my love to Dillon and the newest member of this crazy family! Wish I could be there but the work moves forward.


Alofa tele
Elder Kingston Matua

Aloha 'oe and still in Hon-West

We had a good last week of the transfer!

We had a good lesson with our friend Fasia and were able to set a [baptism] date with him in March. We hope everything goes well there. He has a lot of support from the YM in the ward and the leaders. We have a couple of other investigators that we will set dates for this week.

We had a new investigator come to our gospel principles class. She is an older lady. The lesson was kinda confusing with some different members in the class all on different wavelengths, but the spirit was there and it ended pretty well. She is what we call a 'dry Mormon'. She comes to church every Sunday and comes to every activity. She should be solid.

Transfer came and me and Elder Talatau will be staying together for one more transfer. Looking forward to the next couple of weeks. Seeing that I only have a few more transfers left is kinda freaking me out. Time flies way to fast!

Other than occasional fatigue I am doing great here. Like I said it is just scary thinking that I am so close to the end and soon my life is going to take another step up and change again. I think that is the hardest part about coming on a mission was the adjustment, now I am finally adjusted and its almost done. Then I have to come home and adjust all over again. But I know that doing it the Lord's way will make it easy as pie.

Love you all!
Elder Kingston Matua

Short note...as usual

Another week in the books and things are still going great!

We are still just working with our same group of investigators and still working with some less-actives and recent converts. Elder T's ankle is back to normal so there is no more limping.

Hope every one has a great week and good Luck to all the boys going down to Vegas to play rugby. Hope you all do you best and have fun!

Elder King Matua

Aloha everyone

This was a great week for us.

We are finally back on track with all of our investigators. We also had Stake Conference so we heard some great talks from local leaders and Elder Johnson of the Seventy. The main topics were family history and successful ward councils. That is one thing that I have been blessed with on my mission, seeing how different ward councils work. Some are great while others could use some work.

This week we had our first lesson with a 16-year-old boy. It took us a while to find him because all they gave us was an apartment number. When we got there we realized they didn't give us a building number, there were 11 in the complex. But after some walking and spiritual GPS we found a cooler by one of the doors that had their last name on it.

It was a good lesson and we are scheduled for another one this Thursday. He is a really good kid and reminds me a lot of Courtney Taito, like these two could be twins - kinda funny.

All is well here in the 808 and time is flying on by.


Love you all!
Elder Kingston Matua

Just working

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. day everyone.

That is why emails are today and not yesterday. All the libraries in America were probably closed haha! Anyways, nothing too new here in the 808. We are just doing what we do and working.

We have been introduced to some new people to teach this past week so hopefully we will have some good contact and lessons with them throughout this week.

Sorry I don't send many pictures. I will get some for next week. I have probably taken about 40 pictures my whole mission. Everything else is from other missionaries. It's just not my thing I guess.

But I am doing cherry and the work is hastening.

Love you all!
Elder Kingston Matua

Aloha Lehi

This week was really good.

We had a baptism and it was awesome. I'm not going to write to everyone this week due to time but I'll tell you about it. His name is Tony. He has been married to a member for the last 10 years and has been meeting with missionaries pretty much ever since then. He finally made the steps to clean up with the word of wisdom and got baptized. There was great support from the ward there and the spirit was very strong. Pres and sis Warner came too.

Afterwards they did some Samoan stuff and gave us food. It was the first time Pres and sis Warner had ever had Samoan food - 18 months in Hawaii and this is the first time. haha!

Sunday the confirmation was great I only understood a little bit of it, but the new member was crying and we were all feeling the spirit. It was a great weekend. It was my first baptism since last May so it has been a long time coming. Now we are still pushing for a couple of others to get closer to having that special day too.

Aloha
Elder Kingston Matua

Happy New Year!

Had a really good finish to 2014 and start to 2015.

Lots of partying with the ward. They were almost non-stop at the chapel with volleyball and basketball, which was good because all of our investigators were there at one point or another.

Yesterday was a really good day as well, even though church starts at 3 p.m. now. I really don't like that. But that's how they do it over here. Yesterday we were able to pick up two new potential investigators and confirm the plans for a baptism this Saturday. We think that we have also picked up an old investigator who lost interest a while ago.

We are off to a great start here in 2015, now we just gotta keep the ball rolling. Best of luck to everyone with their new goals for 2015. Remember, goals need to be realistic...haha that is something that I have learned on my mission. You may not be this years biggest loser, but being fit enough to take care of yourself and those around you is all that really matters right?

Also remember that it is the small and simple things that count on a daily basis, make small course corrections every morning when you wake up and before you know it you will be right were the Lord needs you to be to make a difference in someone else's life.

Love you all!
Elder Kingston Matua

Birthday and Christmas cheer

These wonderful people (Finau's) from home brought a
special delivery from Lehi. Awesome!

Thank you to all who sent birthday wishes my way this past week. It was a great week and I can't believe that it was my last birthday and Christmas on the mission.

As usual it was a great holiday and we were able to enjoy the Christmas spirit with fellow missionaries, members, and investigators. We had a great ward Christmas party that almost all of our investigators were able to attend. They almost all came to church yesterday too, huge plus to the week. But the greatest plus of all was being able to see mom, dad, and the three yahoos that are at home. Always great to see them through Skype. Very grateful for the technology that we have and are able to use these days.

I hope all of you had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year this week. I have all of my resolutions ready to go and can't wait for what the new year has in store.

Love you all CHOKE!!
Elder Kingston Matua

Almost Christmas!

Just a quick note on my week.

Yesterday we were asked to share a lesson with the young men. They are a good group of kids, but sadly I see a lot of our Poly boys in them. Something about the Poly boys is just different. When I ask who is planning on serving a mission there is a lot of hesitation and even some who refuse to put their hands up. But it felt amazing to be able to stand in front of them and tell them what a great thing a mission is.

I hope that I will be able to play a role in the lives of our young men back home as well. That is probably one of the things that I am looking forward to the most when I return home. Now that I have witnessed first hand what a mission is I can't wait to share that with those boys and help them to see how great it is and how it is an opportunity that can't be missed.

Alofa atu,
Elder K. Matua