Recognizing the Lord's Hand

Hi hi!!!!

Hey y'all! How y'all doin? Hope all of y'all are doin well & are liking my Texas twang haha. I'm trying! I just love how fast time is just flying by on the mission. It trips me out every time how quick my week ends. Last week Monday for Pday, we all met at the park (in the hot Texas sun), & played soccer, sand volleyball & ultimate frisbee. It was so much fun, even though I was baking & I think it was like 100 degrees outside or something like that. Never complaining about Maui heat again lol. After getting all sweaty we all decided to go to the Stake Center to cool off for the remainder of our Pday. Thank goodness for AC! 

Pday in the COOL Stake Center!!!

On Tuesday we had district meeting. It was awesome as always. Sister Brohamer gave her first training & she did so great. So proud of her for sure! After district meeting, we all went to a sonic that was right in the middle of a water park called NRH20. We all decided that after the mish we were going to come back & actually swim haha. Later that night, after dinner, we planned to go & visit a family who ended up not being home & so Sister Villareal (who came on exchanges with us), had suggested that we go & visit the Nunes family. It was totally inspired cuz both Sister Brohamer & I have been trying to get in contact & visit with them but they would always never be home & just busy. Well, they ended up being home & we got to finally meet them & visit with them for a bit. Found out that they're from Hawaii & Sister Nunes teaches hula. Such a small world. I know it may not seem like a big deal to y'all but it totally was a huge blessing for us. Heavenly Fathers timing is always so perfect. It's the little things 😊

Texas mums! Kind of like corsages, I guess! LOL!

Wednesday we went to the food pantry with the district leaders & did service again. Love the food pantry & the workers their too. We had a little lesson with one of the workers name Jacob. He's super cool & we got to share with him some of our beliefs & what we do as missionaries. Gonna try & give him a Book of Mormon next time we see him. Thursday we did our weekly planning. Nothing too exciting happened. Friday we had a zone service. We did service for a sweet lady name Paulette. Most of us painted her outside porch thing, while others mowed her lawn & did some yard work. It was super fun & she even was so kind enough to feed all 20 of us 😋 Grilled some burgers & hot dogs. It was bomb!! Oh & did I mention that she has like 5 lemurs, 2 big huge tortoises, 2 parrots, a big rabbit, a dog & I think 2 cats (maybe). It's a zoo!!! It was crazy but fun for sure. Later that night we met with Lynn & got to meet his brother Tim who's moving to Texas. We got to share with time what we do as missionaries & we also talked about the Book of Mormon & ended up giving him one to read. Hopefully he'll end up in our area so we can teach him more. It was super good!!!

Dinner with Sister Bobo!

Saturday we went to the animal shelter again not knowing that they were having a big huge event & so many volunteers showed up so there really wasn't much for us to do. Later that day, we went & did service for this potential investigator name Brandy. She's super cute! Love being able to serve others 😊 later that night, we went & visited the Blackburn family. Trying to get them to come to church but it's hard cuz mom works & the kids don't wanna come by themselves. Nonetheless, we're gonna get them there one way or another! :)

Sleeping shaka! Check out Bennie making shaka in his sleep! :)

Sunday was another good Sunday.We had regular church & then meeting after meeting. It was long but still good. After dinner, we went & visited one of our investigators, Christy Martinez. Just love her! She's going through a lot right now but it's amazing how her faith in God has kept her strong through it all. That was kind of the "theme" of this week. Almost everyone that we met with this week, really opened up & shared some really hard things that they each went through in their lives. It's amazing how each person recognized the Lords hand in their lives, especially when they were faced with some of the most toughest battles. Made me think back to the Savior & what he had to go through when he atoned for our sins. We read in Alma 7:11-12, "And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." It's amazing how much love he has for each of us. Only he could do such a remarkable thing. He took upon him the sins of the world so that he might know how to run to us & help us when we are faced with same difficulties. Makes me wanna live my life in total devotion to him. Makes me wanna become that much better.

Dinner with the Gromard bunch! So much fun!

I challenge y'all to ponder the atonement this week & see how you can devote your lives to the Savior. How can you make him happy & proud of you? Let me know what y'all think & how y'all feel after doing it 😊 I love all of y'all so very much!!!! Thanks for everything!!!!! Until next week my sweet 'ohana! Oh fun fact, just an interesting fact in case you guys were wondering, I did the math & it's actually now week 29 in the field & week 32 on the mish!!! I thought that was pretty cool & fun to know haha. Yay!! 🎉 have a great week everybody!!!!!! 💞

Love,
Sister Kamalani Kawa'a 😘