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 🤙🏽

Are You About Your Fatherʻs Business?

Our weekly Sunday picture!

Hey y'all hey!  Ke aloha nui iā ʻoukou pakahi a pau. Aloha mai e kuʻu ʻohana i aloha nui ʻia. Pehea mai nei ʻoukou? Manaʻolana au, ke ola mau nei ʻoukou? Ua makemake au e hoʻomaka i kēia lekauila me ka ʻŌlelo hawaii. Ma mua o kaʻu hele ʻana ma ka mikiona, ua hele a pūʻiwa au no ka mea, ua manaʻo au, e poʻina paha ʻana au i ka ʻŌlelo makuahine. 'akā, me ke aloha o ka Haku, mau no ka ʻŌlelo hawaii me aʻu. For those of you who don't speak Hawaiian, I wanted to start off this week's email off with a little bit of Hawaiian. Before my mission, I was scared & thought that I was going to forget how to speak Hawaiian, but with the love of God, I didn't forget. Thankfully, I brought my Hawaiian Book of Mormon with me & it has strengthened both my Hawaiian language & also my knowledge of the gospel. It's just amazing! So, week 64 has been another great one. We are busier then ever in the Mansfield area. We are currently teaching 9 wonderful investigators & we have 2 possible new investigators & that we'll start teaching after Spring Break. It has been so fun & our days go by way too fast! "Working hard or hardly working?"  okay so, last week Monday, we had Zone pday at the Gallinis home & celebrated Elder Ainis birthday. That was fun! Later that evening, we got to meet with Rocky! Funny story, Sister Ellet, Rocky's mom, canceled the lesson about a hour before hand. We were at dinner & forget to tell our exchange (the bishops wife), that the lesson was canceled. Meanwhile, we finished dinner & saw that we got a text from Sister Ellet that says, "Never mind. Y'all can still come over tonight. Sorry about the confusion." So, we headed to their place & to our surprise, we saw our Bishops wife there, helping Rocky with his home work. Oh yeah I forgot to mention, she works at Rocky's school as a teacher. Anyways, the Lord made us forget to tell our exchange that the lesson was canceled cause he knows the desire of Rockys heart. We started the lesson by trying to see how much he was taught & guess what? This kiddo ended up teaching us not just the first lesson but the 2nd & 3rd lesson as well. That was a huge miracle. The Lord sure works in mysterious ways.     

Yes, I am a poser! LOL!

On Tuesday, we got to meet with the Sanchez family. We taught them lesson 3, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really great because, we got to help them understand way attending church is so important. Let me remind y'all, the whole idea of church is VERY new to them. They told us that they feel weird & out of place but they also just love the members & the feeling that he feel during sacrament. It's just a little odd & scary for them. We got them to committed to "maybe" attending church. That was better then a straight up no. Funny cuz, when I asked them, I told them to be honest & Maria (the mom) said no! Then she said something else in Spanish & the told us that she won't be here. Then she looks at her husband & her daughter & says, "you guys can still go." The desire is there! We just need to help them act on the desires that they have. We love them & we know that things will work out only on the Lords time. Thursday, was a busy one. We got to meet with a sweet lady name Melissa. She is the mother of a sweet girl who just left to go on her mission. Long story short, her daughter was introduced to the church by a friend & started taking the discussions & not long after, her little sisters joined the church as well. Last month, she left on her mission & she is currently serving in LA at the visitors center. Now her mom Melissa, told us that she wants to know what her girls know. She wants what her girls want. She also wants to do scripture study once a week. We were so happy when she reached out to us and it's great cuz, she lives in the apartment complex next to us. She is so sweet and we're excited to start teaching her more often. Later that evening, we met with another part member family. We started teaching these sweet sisters, Addison & McKayla. It was wonderful & their excited to be taught. They already know so much. 

A hui hou Elder Newey!

Friday was great! We had our Zone Training Meeting. That's the new name of our Zone Councils. Anyways, that was another awesome & fun one. We talked about planning. The blessings & the struggles, especially with the new change in our schedule. It was really good & we received super good insight & revelation. Oh & side note, when we did a role play, our Zone Leaders asked us to role play 4 of the 13 points that we need to go over during studies. Sister Eddington & I finished before everyone else & so our new Zone Leader, Elder Taylor goes, "If y'all finish all 13 before everyone else, I'll buy ice cream." Let's just say we got Braums after the meeting  thanks Elder Jefferies!! Haha. Oh yeah, his companion ended up paying for it. Good times!! Later that evening, we started Michaels new member lessons & taught Kenny another lesson. He is doing so wonderful and is on track for baptism on April 15th. We're super stoked for him. Saturday we spent the day trying to do some contacting. Then we had dinner with the Mills!! We've missed them so much  Sunday was an awesome Sunday. The Sanchez family didn't make it to church though...bummer. That's okay! We had an awesome lesson about the life of Jesus Christ. Love that topic! Later that evening, the Schmeisser fam brought Kenny to our mission presidents fireside. Oh man! Kenny loved it so much. When it finished, I asked him what he thought & he said, "that was short! I want more!" Oh man!! I love this guy oh & his birthday is on August 8th, 2 days before mine. Even more of a reason why we needed to be friends haha. Some of the missionaries there last night just went up to Kenny, introduced themselves & made Kenny feel so welcomed & loved. He was making friends with everyone! It was so great. Oh & shout to my Watauga & Azle peeps that I got to see last night. I LOVE ALL OF Y'ALL! That was so nice & so fun. 

Happy that the Elders are buying us ice cream!

Where are the Elders???

Okay so, cool story, Elder Rasband will be coming to our mission on Saturday so that will be wonderful. I'll tell y'all all about it next week!!! In my studies I've been really trying to understand more about Jesus Christ & Heavenly Father. I've been really trying to study what our Saviors mission was & what our Fathers plan means to me. Forgive me for the long insight that I am going to share, practice patients y'all haha. Anyways, here it goes. We already know that Christ taught by example. He expects us to do as he did & be as he once was & is. Jesus was always about his fathers business. We should like Jesus, always be about our Heavenly Fathers business. Wait, what is our Heavenly Fathers business? Let's not forget that his work & his glory is to bring to pass the immortality & eternal life of man. He wants all of his children to return to him some day. What can we do to make it back to our Father? It all goes back to the basics. The gospel is based on simple & basic teachings. Remember, it's the little things that will make the biggest difference or the biggest change. We can do it! We can all fulfill our fathers business & return & live with him again. We have a perfect example. Christ set the path for us to be able to return to our Father. I am reminded of the scripture that talks about how there are many who draw near unto him with there lips but are far from him. I don't know about you, but I wanna make sure that I not only draw near unto him with my lips, but that I draw near unto him with my heart. We can accomplish this through our actions. The way we treat people, the way we live, the way we love, the way we give. We can make! We are enough & we have access to divine, unconditional love & guidance. Christ said, "what kind of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." Don't get caught up in the ways of the world. Instead, get lost in the gospel. Get lost in service. Get lost in the scriptures. I wanna challenge y'all to make it more of a priority & realign our will, with the will of our Father. After all, he is the one who created us. He knows who we are & what we can become. We can always be about our fathers business. Don't give up!! Keep going!! & always, always, remember that Heaven is cheering you on. Today, tomorrow & forever! I love each of y'all so very much. Have a wonderful week!! Mahalo nui for the loves & prayers. Until next week fam! 

Alex made us haupia sweet potato pie!

Hurrah for Israel! 

P.S. Happy belated birthday to my Tūtū!! I love you so much!!! I know the family probably spoiled you & took you out. I hope you had the best day ever!!! 

With Love,

Sister Kawa'a 

Be a Pineapple! Stand Tall, Wear a Crown and Be Sweet on the Inside!

Howdy my favorite people that I love!!! How are y'all?? I really hope everyone's doing good. Shoot me an email sometime & let me know what's up. You know I wanna hear from each of you. So guess what? Transfers are this week. I can't believe how fast another 6 weeks flew on by. My time here in the field is going by way to quick. It's crazy! Oh & I guess I should probably let y'all know that I will be staying here in Mansfield with my lovely companion Sister Eddington. We couldn't have been anymore excited. There's so much work to be done & so many good things are happening here. I'm very excited for another awesome 6 weeks here in the more elect part of the Lords vineyard. Like I say every week, this place is truly prepared & the members are very much engaged in missionary work. It has been such a huge blessings to be able to serve here & work closely with everyone. It's just been amazing! So, week 63 went by in a blink of an eye. Last Monday, we got to have a lesson with the awesome Sanchez family. Guess what? They kept their commitments that we left with them & read from the Book of Mormon. It was so amazing because it really prepared them for the lesson that we were going to teach them. They ended up teaching us about the Plan of Salvation. It was such a huge blessing because, remind you, the whole idea of "church" is very knew to them. Praying, reading, studying, etc. It's all new. Seeing the desire that they have & the willingness to act on things is so awesome. The Lord is slowly but surely preparing them to receive his gospel because, they're humble & they truly desire to know the truth. Please continue to keep them in y'all's prayers.

The dynamic duo is sticking together!

Tuesday, we had exchanges with our lovely sister training leaders. Sister Josephson came here with Sister Eddington, while I went to Euless with Sister Brohamer. Oh boy! We had way too much fun. It was awesome!!! It was super fun to be companions again for a day. We got to stop in at 'Ana's Island Grill (of course) & yes I had to get my poly food fix  man! That was bomb!!! Then we did lots of finding. Their main reason was, "well, your poly & maybe if they see any other poly they'll let us in haha". Well it worked! We got to see lots of people. It was great! We went & talked to this one unko, who ended up telling us his whole life story & we later figured out that he was just stalling so that the people that live there would eventually come home & have to talk to us haha. Man! That unko was my favorite. He was so crazy & funny, but also had a very strong testimony of the gospel & how it's blessed him & his family. It was fun! We got to have dinner with the Vakalahi family. The same family that we went & had a lesson with the last time I went on exchanges. It was fun to see familiar faces. So funny cuz, Sister Vakalahi said, "I call you Moana (from princess moana) cuz you remind me of her." She's so cute haha! Dinner ended up finishing late & so we stopped in at the church for a bit & I got to see sweet Sister Ahau (Aunty Nala) again! That was fun!!! I just love Euless! & I love my sweet sister training leaders as well. It was yet again another awesome exchange & learning experience. 

Aunty Ana!

Tracting with my old comp, Sis. Brohammer!

Sis. Ahau aka Aunty Nala!

Wednesday, we exchanged back. Then we found out that district Meeting was canceled due to a sick companionship in our district. It ended up working out great cuz I ended up getting really sick too. That wasn't fun at all! We got to go on exchanges again after dinner though with our bishops wife & that was great. We did a "sneak attack" on Rocky & his mom cuz they've been canceling appointments. We got to get in & set up a better time with him & so please pray that we'll be able to see him tonight & that they won't cancel. Rocky really wants to be taught but it's hard with his schedule & the health of his mother. We know it's just one of Satan's little obstacles that we just have to plow through. I know we can do it. Our Bishop's wife is the best. She also later, set up an appointment with another part member family so we can start teaching their girls who come to mutual. We're definitely looking forward to that. Thursday, we had our weekly planning session & those are always great. We got to teach the little activity day girls later that evening, about sharing their talents & I got to teach them some hula. Oh man! We had so much fun. They're just the cutest little future missionaries. After that, we had another powerful Preach My Gospel class with the youth. It was so Spirit driven. We taught out of chapter 2 specifically on how we learn by the Holy Ghost & on how we need to be living what we learn. After we did a role play with them, we had each person go around the room & tell us when was the last time that they've felt the closest to our Heavenly Father. It was such a powerful experience to be able to hear these youth bare testimony of specific times in their own lives, where they've felt the closest to the Lord. It was very touching & the Spirit was so strong. I love the youth so much!!! They truly are the rising generation & the elect! 

Taught hula to these beautiful activity girls!

Friday, we spent the most of the day out & about trying to find people. It was a perfect day & weather was nice. We weren't able to catch anyone but the main thing is we tried  We also got to do some service at the Wesley Mission Center. We just absolutely love those volunteers who work there. They're always so happy to see us & always greet us with such warm, big hugs & beautiful smiling faces. We really do feel their love & they always tells us how much they appreciate our service & miss us when we don't come. It reminded me of the fact that, we truly can make a big difference or impact in the lives of those around us. It's easy for our "natural man" or Satan to say "ugh! I'm not good enough" or "I'm not making a difference" but, as we remember, the natural man is an enemy to God. We are good enough & we can make a difference. I know that y'all probably do it everyday & don't even realize it. It's easy to focus on the negative but when we focus on the positive, the Lord will humble us & help us see that we are doing good. Crazy right?! Something so simple yet so hard to do. We had another awesome lesson with Kenny!!! We love him so much.Saturday, after studies, we spent the day inside cuz my poor companion got very sick  This really is the season of sickness. She thankful got better later that evening. We got to have dinner with our favorite Francom family. One of the many 'ohana's who truly just feel like our own 'ohana. We're grateful for families like them who allow their home to be a "safe place" for the missionaries. I know I mentioned this before but it's really a blessing to be able to have a "safe place" to go. Anyways, after dinner & as we were waiting for dessert to be made  we played this really funny game called "watch ya mouth" (idk how you spell it) but let me just tell you, that is a HILARIOUS game!!!  Let's just say that I almost died from laughing so hard. That was fun! 

Sunday, was fast & testimony meeting! I love fast Sundays. It's truly a time to fast, pray & reflect on the week & for me, it's a time for me to strengthen my vision & my relationship with my Savior & Father in Heaven. During sacrament, we heard beautiful testimonies of the tender mercies of the Lord. It was so great to hear how people have taken time throughout their lives, to recognize the hand of the Lord in their own lives. We heard testimonies of the power & authority of the priesthood. About how the priesthood has blessed someone's life & how the power truly comes to those who remain worthy of it. Yes we fall short at times, but through the atonement & the power of repentance, we can & will be worthy of the blessings & miracles that come from living the gospel, exercising the priesthood (for priesthood holders), supporting the priesthood & remaining worthy of the love & guidance of our Savior & our Father. I can't even begin to tell you all of the miracles & blessings that I have been able to receive from being a member of this church. I do want y'all to know that it has been such a humbling experience to be able to take the time to be more appreciative of the little things both good & bad. I've learned & continue to learn that our attitude has a lot to do with this very thing. We have to make a decision to be more happier & more thankful for all of the little things that touch us in our lives. After all, all things truly come from a loving Heavenly Father who longs for us to be happy in this life & in the life to come. We need to be willing, patient, humble, submissive & ready to act & work. Kenny reminded me of this very thing when he brought up the scripture about how faith without works is dead. If we expect our faith to be strong, we need to put in that effort. Remember who's on our side & who's cheering us on today, tomorrow & forever! Gods love & power triumphs any of Satan's evil little tricks. Don't give in & don't give up! Christ said not observe my gospel, but to live my gospel. He needs us to be living what we preach. Take the time & recommit today to try a little harder & be a little bolder. You can do it! I testify that as we do it, we will be that much closer to reaching our goal of truly becoming what our Heavenly Father wants us to become. 

The Sister Training Leaders

I love y'all so very much!!! Let's all have a good week gang. Thanks for the love, support & prayers. Know that y'all are in my prayers. Until next week 'ohana. 

Nothin like a Texas sunset!

The things we find when weʻre contacting!

See the Hawaiian flag?

Hurrah for Israel! 

Me Ke Aloha Puʻole,

Sister Kawa'a