A visit to Pounders, catching crabs and Nela Otuafi

This week was business as usual. Monday night we went to go visit a recent convert and they weren't home but earlier that day we had seen them by Pounders beach so we went to see if they were still there. We saw their car so we parked and walk down to look for them. They were sitting by the river just talking and playing games so we sat down to talk to them. They told us that they had been crabbing all day. They showed us how they were doing it with these nets and they caught some pretty big crabs. One of the crabs got stuck in the net so we took awhile to help them get it out.

That same family came with use to a fireside at the visitors center last night. It was a musical cottage meeting and our recent convert loved it. We also got to go to a fireside where the speaker was Nela Otuafi who is a song writer who wrote a song called "How Can I Be". He talked about how music can be used to hasten the work.

Yesterday after church we also had a training with Elder Auna and Pres. Warner. They trained our Stakes Bishops, Ward Mission Leaders and ward missionaries. Good training so hopefully our wards can catch a vision on how they would like to use us as missionaries.

We got to go to the temple on Friday. Brother Butler and his family were in our session so that was pretty cool. It has been nice to see him at church for the past couple of weeks.

Saturday night we had some crazy thunderstorm action. The whole house was shaking a couple of times. I fell asleep through it but Elder Choo didn't get to bed until late. Some families had some flooding in their homes but I don't think anything too bad.

This week we will be looking for place to serve to help clean up. They are anticipating more rain so people are going to get some sand bags up. I will try and send more pictures, I have been hearing from a lot of people that there is some crazy lady in Utah that is desperate for pictures. I guess I'm just not a picture guy. Sorry mom. But I will TRY and do better haha!

Love you all!
Elder King Matua

North Shore life

Picked up a good amount of lessons this week with a lot of good people. Most of them were less active or recent converts but it is nice to teach and do service where we can.

We had another car fast on Friday so Elder Choo and I did a lot of walking. Nothing too new or exciting just another good week here in good ole Hau'ula.

I've learned that I can be saved a lot of pain by listening to my companion. He had some Korean noodle packs and I asked him if I could have one. He said yes but I probably wasn't going to like it cause it was really spicy. Me thinking that I know spice tried to eat it anyways. Four bites in my tongue was on fire! It didn't help that I had burned my tongue earlier that week when I bit into some pizza that was fresh out of the oven. Yes my companion told me not to eat that too. haha! So lesson of the week, listen to what your companion says ... sometimes he knows what he is talking about.


Love,
Elder Matua

Independence Day - Hawaiian Style

Last week was pretty good. I was able to have a good 4th of July evening and watch some cool fireworks at Turtle Bay. Not to much noise here though, I don't think that people on Oahu are allowed to do any fireworks at home so its pretty quiet.

We also had interviews with president Warner which were good. We had to give a 2-3 min talk on obedience to sister Warner and she gave us a report card and gave us some pointers on public speaking.

Me and elder Choo are doing good.

Love you all!

Survived another transfer

Well we made it through the transfer! We had a difficult but we kept working through the challenges and finished another transfer. We got some good new elders and sisters in the zone and we are ready to work here in Laie in the next couple of weeks.

This past week we were just getting elders ready to transfer and preparing areas for the new elders coming in. But we were still able to teach some good lessons and do choke service. On Saturday we were helping at the temple weeding some of the spots on the temple grounds. Then we went over to Sunset to help with a Mormon Helping Hands project and clearing more weeds. Finally we were able to help an elderly couple in the Samoan ward paint part of their house. Other than all that it was just a normal week.

It sounds like Mica and I are going to have some good times playing rugby when I get home. I've been waiting and hoping for one of my brothers to fall in love with rugby so that we can go to work together. Can you believe that in a year I will be back and playing again? Time goes so fast! Every time someone asks me how long I've been out it takes me awhile to think about it and when I can come up with a number I feel like there is no way I've been out that long. Then I get scared because that means that I'm almost done. All of my really good mission friends who were my leadership and stuff at the beginning of my mission are starting to go home. I feel like it all goes so fast. I love it though.

I feel bad because I was going to put a postcard in the mail for auntie Lisha and I looked at her address and it said 830 W 720 W so I didn't know which was which LOL. Can you give me the correct one so that I can send it to her?


Love you all!
Elder Matua

We walked and walked and walked ...

We walked a lot this week!

Our car was in the shop and we are now covering four wards so our area doubled and with no car we were walking all day. We did really good this week though. We were challenged by our zone leaders to teach the most lessons and the winner would get a prize. So we tried extra hard even with no car. We were able to teach a 9-year-old girl who's grandma is a member and she now has a baptismal date set up for the end of June! She is a sweet little girl and really wants to be baptized. Her dad is also not a member so we sent the elders in town to go and see him.

We did tons of work and had a couple mile long walks and I was able to work on my tan. There were also a couple of times where we got caught in the rain for awhile. We were wet but it was still almost 80 degrees.

Overall it has been a fun week and we have been able to get a lot of work done. We had a chance to teach a workshop at a ward missionary night in Kahuku. Each set of elders talked about a different part of member missionary work. We got to talk about "follow up". Follow up is key as Elder M. Russell Ballard has said. He says it is taking the hands of the investigators and walking the path with them. I can tell you how much easier it is when it is not just the missionaries walking that path with the investigator. When that person has a whole ward walking along side them as they strive to change their lives it will be that much easier. I challenge all of you to not only reach out to someone but also to follow up and show them that you really care.

Love you all hope you have a great week.