Sister Kamalani Kawaʻa: Embracing Change

Texas cornfields!

Last Pday pics with Sister Eddington and the gang in Mansfield!

Aloha kakahiaka e kō Maui!

Happy Monday y'all. Thanks for sending me emails & updates of how everyone's doing. Y'all are the best! I love getting little emails, even if their short. It makes me feel loved so keep them coming haha.

So, my first week here in the Temple, Texas has been unique. That's for sure.Monday night was a bitter sweet night, said my "goodbyes" & my "see you laters" to my Mansfield fam & headed to Temple the next day with excitement & a little worry, I'm not gonna lie, I'm still trying to remember that change is good & I'm still trying to adjust to new things. The unknown can be scary sometimes, but it can also be absolutely rewarding. Tuesday was a long day. We got to transfers around 9:15am & had to wait their till about 12:30pm to head down to Temple which takes about 2 hours. I guess you can say I had my first road trip

(it probably wasn't even a road trip but hey, it was fun). Anyways, I was just happy to be with someone I knew, I found out that one of my old comps, Sister Brohamer, was going down to Temple with me. What a relief! The car ride was fun. We stopped to eat at Braums

& then we talked, slept & talked more. I got to experience Buc-ee's for the first time. That was a trip. It's got like 18 gas pumps & like a little grocery store thing in it. It was pretty cool if you ask me. We finally made it down to Temple at about 3:30ish. We had no time to unpack cuz next thing I knew, we were headed to the church to give some investigators a chapel tour. That was so fun.

Sister Brohamer and I

The two hour car ride down South!

Cowgirls in Temple, Texas!

Okay so cool story about these investigators, Josephine is the mom & Jomeo is the son & their from Jamaica. So one day, the Sisters we're trying to visit a less active member when a car stopped in the middle of the road & Jomeo asked them if they were Jehovah's Witnesses & if they could tell him where their church was. The Sisters then explained that they're missionaries & that they could tell him where a different church was located, so he gave them his info & they ended up teaching both him & his mom twice the follow week. They're golden & LOVE learning the gospel. The only hard thing is they work about an hour away on Saturday & Sundays. Good news is their trying to find a job closer so they can come to church with us. We're excited to start working closely with them.

We also have an investigator name Don that we went & visited with after dinner. He & his daughter-in-law, Rachel, are taking the discussions. Don has a current baptism date set for July 3rd. Please pray for him!!!! We helped him understand the word of wisdom a little bit more & thankfully, we had a recent convert & a member come with us & boy, it was powerful. They both shared heir own personally experiences & testimony of how they've overcome the Word of Wisdom with the help of the Lord & the gospel. It was awesome. When we went back to see Don again on Saturday, he said that he quite smoking. Miracle!!!! He's so happy & when he came to church yesterday, he told some of our members & they were so happy for him. We know he's on the right track now & that's only because he understands & is willing to change. So awesome!!!

Meeting our investigator, Olivia!

Trains!

Wednesday, we found 2 new investigators. Another guy from Jamaica that's really interested & has read the Book of Mormon & a little 8 years old girl who's family is from Asia. We also got to talk to the young women about missionary life & it was really fun. Thursday, we had our weekly planning. Friday, we did more finding & area Book cleaning. Saturday, we made our way down to a place called Holland & Roger. It's about a 35 minute drive & it's kind of in the middle of nowhere. Super country. We had a lesson with another one of our investigators with a baptism date forJune 3rd. Her pname is Payton & she's 12 years old. She's super excited for her baptism & we're excited to be helping her get there. We got to go & visit another potential investigator. His name is Dustin & he's really interested. The first time the Sisters met with him, he ended up reading the entire first chapter of the Book of Mormon with them. He's golden & we're excited to find people that are willing to listen. We ended the night on a fun note. We had a ward activity where we had homemade everything including homemade fireworks. We missed the fireworks though cuz of curfew, but we had lots of fun meeting people. Sunday was a good Sunday. Not having 2 wards to cover is kind of weird haha. I loved having 6 hours of church

Anyways, my first Sunday was great. Everyone was excited to see Princess Moana, I mean Sister Kawa'a

After church, we did more visits & finding. Week 70 in the field went by pretty quick. It was nice!

The BOMB food!

My beautiful new companion, Sister Johnson!

I just wanna give a shout out to my Brudders & my hālau ʻohana for a job well done & Merrie Monarch this past weekend. Congrats of winning 3rd place overall. Iāpana, here we come

I'm so proud of y'all. All the hard work paid off. Love y'all so much!!!! Well family & friends, this week has been a week of change. New area, new comp, new investigators & new members. With all this change that's happen, I will mention one thing that never changes & that is the gospel. Aren't we grateful that knowledge?! Sometimes we may never truly understand why things happen, but I've learned that when our faith starts to be tested, that's when need to rely on the Lord even more. It's sometimes hard to trust in the unknown or in the "uncomfortable", but as we rely on the one who knows the plan, he his comfort us, he will help us, he will guide us & he will lead us to familiar, safe & comfortable things. Family & friends, don't give up!!! As Elder Holland has said, "Heaven is cheering us on." Whenever I get down in the dumps, (cuz we do as humans), I remember & feel each of you & your prayers on my behalf. Thank you for thinking about me, praying for me & cheering me on. It gives me so much hope & faith to endure & continue on here in Texas. I love y'all so much & I miss y'all heaps. Let us all remember to stay close to the Lord so that he can bless us & mold us into something marvelous. Nā ke Akua e ʻalakaʻi a mālama iā kākou āpau. E paio mau no ka pono. Ke aloha hui iā ʻoukou pakahi!