Does the Testimony of Jesus Christ Still Burn in Your Hearts?

My sistahs!

Aloooohaaaa!! 🤙🏽

      This week has been yet again, another busy & fast one. Where did week 65 even go? I have no idea. Last week Monday, we did the normal pday stuff. Clean, shop & prepare for the week. We spent most of the evening with the Hamilton family. Had an awesome dinner & got to continue teaching youth lessons to one of the youth. Tuesday, we had an amazing zone Conference. Guess what? Yah girl & her cool comp gave a training at zone Conference. Talk about nervous!!!  nevertheless, the Spirit was so very strong, thanks to those who gave training before us. A lot of what we talked about had to do with conversion & self reflection. Definitely felt edified & rejuvenated  We had dinner with the sweet Brinkerhoff family & guess who showed up? Mr. Wayne. One of our eternigators, I mean investigators  We had a really good talk with him about his concerns. We came to a conclusion that we can not help him unless he truly wants the help. We're gonna continue to wait patiently & pray even more fervently for him. After dinner, we went on exchanged with one of our ward mission leaders. We got to visit a less active sister who is so sweet & is slowly working on coming back. We felt like she was thankful for our visit & even more thankful for the priesthood blessing that she received. It was so awesome & we're hoping to start working with her & helping her get back on track. 

Some of our favorite youth!

      Wednesday, we had an awesome day. Went & taught one of the youth again. We did some service at the Wesley Mission Center. They are the cutest! They're so loving & are also so happy to see us. We got to have dinner with the Evan family & we had s'mores!!  our plans canceled for the rest of the evening to we spent it trying to contact. 

The Evans

Thursday, this girl right here got sick  again! Thank goodness I felt better later & we went on exchanges with one of our Sweet Ward missionaries. One of our appointments canceled but, we totally got to visit a less active family that is so sweet. We got to talk with them & share a Mormon message called "come what may & love it." It's mainly about our attitude & how we choose to be happy no matter what life throws at us. It was really good. After that, we went & got to see the Sanchez family. We had another great lesson with them & read from 2 Nephi 32. Where it's talking about what we like to call, our spiritual CPR. Which is, Church attendance, Praying & Reading the scriptures. We helped them understand the importance of each one & why it's necessary for our spiritual survival. It was a really good lesson! After that, we got to have a powerful lesson with the youth. We talked about the doctrine of Christ & basically regiving our training. This time around, we made it more applicable to them & where their at in life. At one point one of the youth gave a powerful comment about how they have the responsibility to open their months & share what they know with those around them. At that moment, I got just a small glimpse of how powerful this youth will be as a missionary in the gospel. It was so awesome!!!! 

The Squad

      Friday, we finished up our weekly planning & did more service later. That was fun, fun, fun  we had a super good lesson with Kenny later that evening. We taught him about CPR (church, pray & read) & it was so helpful to have the Jacob family there as well to bare testimony & add their own personal experiences. Member present lessons are so awesome!!! I suggested to all my missionary friends that you do it as much as possible  Saturday, oh boy! Saturday morning was the best!! We had the wonderful privilege of having Elder Rasband (from the quorum of the 12), Elder Hallstrom (presidency of the seventy), Bishop Causee (the presiding bishop), & Elder Willis (from the seventh). It was such a scared experience for me. We talked about so many amazing things. The main thing that I got out from the meeting was the importance of our personal commitment & conversion to the Lord. We talked about why it's important & how we can continue to build it & grow. A few other things that stood out to me was the fact that we as missionaries, hold the salvation of people in our hands. We have a big job & play a huge role in the conversion of those we come in contact with. We are prayed over more then anyone else in the church besides the prophet. We hold the keys & authority, through the 12, to make sacred promises to those we teach. We touched up on the atonement & Elder Hallstrom (who's from Hawaii), said that we will feel things that we did not hear, if we are willing to change. That was powerful. Elder Rasband talked about how we can better become more acquainted with or Savior Jesus Christ & Heavenly Father. One simple way is by asking them humbling, "Heavenly Father, what am I to learn from this experience?" That hit me in a different way. It helped me personally understand that yes, we fall short, but we also need to be changing & improving to truly become what we are meant to become. I could go on & on! Just know that it was edifying, powerful & uplifting for sure. 

Lunch with Sister Donovan

     Sunday was a great day! Sun was shining & the weather was nice ️ We had a great 6 hours of feeling the Spirit. Really cool because, most of the talks & lessons given were about personal commitments, desires & our conversion to the Lord & his gospel. Not a coincidence for sure. After church, we took some time to try & contact a few people then we headed to dinner. Guess what??? Yah girl ate some snail  & let me just say, it was DELICIOUS!!!!!  Tasted like pipipi or ʻopihi. Oh man!! Made me miss the island food for sure haha. I will admit, I was kind of nervous but like I said, buggah was action haha (yes, the pidigon hasn't left me ). 

ESCARGOT!!!

Well my dear family, I really do miss you all & I can't believe that my time is drawing near. Okay not really but kind of. I really want each of y'all to remember & know how special each of you are, not just to me but especially to our Savior, Jesus Christ & our Father in Heaven, who created us & who hold us so close to their hearts. Please don't ever forget the sacred experiences that you have had in your life or even on your missions. Yes, life gets hard & Satan is becoming ever more real, but guess what? We have access to divine help from on high. They don't want us on their side, but they need us on their side. Heavenly Father needs us to be his hands & needs us to help our brothers & sisters make it back to him. Here's a thought that we can all ponder, "does the testimony of Jesus Christ still burn in your bosom as it did when you were a young child, young missionary or even first converted?" Why did you join the church? Why are you still active in the church? What is your motivation to remain faithful? In the words of Elder Rasband, "if you need wood for your fire of your testimony, here it is, the more you know him, the more you will love him & the more you will be honored to serve him." Study his life. As you do so, it will come as an automatic. It will come naturally. We can all do it, we have a desire in us. Faith requires action. Let's put in the work so we can become more converted the the Lord & his gospel. I love each of y'all so much!!!! 114 days left to serve the Lord.....until next week my beauties!! 

Hurrah for Israel! 

Me ke aloha,

Sister Kawa'a 🤙🏽