February 24, 2014 {Cara}

"He will leave the 99...." 

Ohana-

Wow, sounds like theres a lot... a lot of new and exciting things going on over in Oklahoma! Want to know something? I tell everyone I'm from Oklahoma. Because everyone else is from Utah and Idaho, and I don't get rolled eyes when I say I'm from Oklahoma. Haha so I say it proudly!

Hilo is great. Hilo is wonderful. Hilo is green. Hilo rains every single day. When it gets to 75 degrees we turn our heater on. Hilo is slow paced. Hilo has a lot of locals. Hilo is beautiful. Hilo has the bluest, biggest ocean I've ever seen, and I get to look at it everyday. The missionaries here in Hilo have trucks because you have to go off roading in some areas. Our apartment is a lot smaller then the previous... and its across the street from a Japanese graveyard, and the other sisters apartment, so we see them a lot. Our neighbors blast the radio every morning so I have to plug my ears during studies usually. Temptation. Ah.

 Hilo has big huge whales and dolphins and turtles in the ocean that we get to watch everyday as well. It's illegal to have street lights in Hilo, so night times its suuuuper spooky. Hilo has lots of yummy food. Hilo has lots of hills. The ward in Hilo is small, but super duper close. Everyone is literally like family. It's like the ward I was in, in Maui. Everyone gives everyone a big Aloha hug and kiss and shows SO much love! In Oahu it was a very palangi ward.... so it was awkward transitioning. Funny story- we had tourists from the mainland come into the ward the other day and I go up to greet them... it was probably the most awkward greet of my life. The husband watch me give the most awkward hug and kiss to his wife, and then when I turned to him to say hello- his arm was already stretched far out ready for a hand shake. Lol. I'm warning you when I get home everyones gunna be getting an Aloha hug and kiss!! I'm bringing the Hawaiian love over to Oklahoma;)

I love my new companion, Cara Ann Buckner. Haha tall, skinny, blonde hair blue eyed. She just got done training, so she's only been out a few transfers. I love it! She reminds me of myself when I just finished training. She has that fire and mindset of "everyone is going to be baptized!" She's super positive and strives to be better in every aspect of missionary work! She's awesome.

Ok so you know how a pretty big reason why people join the church is because of the fact that, YOU can be with you OHANA together FOREVER!!?? Yeah- well one of the hardest things/biggest bummers here is- it's Hawaii. Everybody is family. One big ohana. So whenever we say or bring up the fact that theres a way your family can be together forever. We just get confused blank stares and a reply saying," I know. I already know."

Gavin congrats on starting your papers:) I hope that's all going well!! I'm excited to find out where you go! When do you get to turn your papers in? Thanks for the package too mom! Those vitamin C things are great! And pumpkin kisses:)

Alright, well I'm still getting to know the area and people, but we're kinda cleaning things up around here, getting rid of investigators who aren't interested and focusing on those that are progressing. I've definitely turned one of my weakeness into a strength over the months- working smart. One of our investigators name is Mark. He has a ranch FULL of sheep and goats. We help hm twice a week from 7-9 a.m and after wards we give him a lesson. HE LOVES the gospel. Its incredible. His ranch is wonderful, up in the hills- looking down on the ocean and all of Hilo. Dad you would love it! You'd love the sheep too! We feed them, cut their hair, build fences, give them medicine. Lots of service in Hilo!

I'm just going to share with you a story of Mark. One morning when we went to go do service, the sheep were very sick, so we had to give them all medicine very quickly. Well as soon as we arrived Mark and the missionaries (we go with the Zone leaders) run out and gather in all the sheep. As soon as they were all gathered in the shed, Mark walks in and take ONE quick glance at them and says, "Were missing one. Cashmere is gone. We need to find her." and he walks back out in the field calling after Cashmere and looking for her. All of us missionaries looked at each other shocked that he took ONE glance at 60 plus sheep and knew that there was one missing. And he know exactly which one it was- by name! And he knew that the other sheep needed medicine, but he didn't hesitate or second guess, he just went back out to find Cashmere.

So we followed Mark out to find the missing sheep, and then 3 wild pigs were chasing us in the field. Mark was yelling at us to run away from them because they bite. In the meantime, its Hilo- ( so theres spider webs EVERYWHERE) Yeah we're running away from pigs, getting wrapped up in spider webs, trying to find the missing sheep.

Anyway- we found her. Moral of the story.

4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine ^ain the wilderness, and go after that which is ^blost, until he find it?

 5 And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

 6 And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

It was amazing. And the pigs, and spiders represent satan I decided. Haha, but really. No matter how lost or far we are, Jesus Christ will find us. He never gives up us. Every single one of us are important to Him. He knows us by name. He knows where to find us. He will not let us get lost. I'm so grateful for the Atonement, it constantly allows me to repent and get back on the straight path. I'm so grateful for the love from Jesus Christ that is always available. I love opening my scriptures, kneeling in prayer, worshipping in His house and feeling abundant LOVE! Love it.

Ok. Well last thing I want to say is.................... We had 30 lessons this week. It was really cool to have that be Sister Buckners first time having more then 20 lessons. And my first time in a long, long time. Honestly though- it was the toughest week of my life. We are really really trying hard, as representatives of Jesus Christ, to find those lost sheep!!!! They can't hide!:)

Have a wonderful day:)

Read the Book of Mormon.

Pray in gratitude.

Aloha

Sister Olsen

March 10, 2014 {Kim}

Hola!

Hello. Well this week has been good! We had a baptism!! Victor was baptized on Wednesday and confirmed yesterday! It was awesome. President Crane (He interviewed Victor) Said he was the most prepared Person for baptism he has ever seen. Haha i gave a talk at his baptism and guess who decided to show up.... The Jeppsons! That made it even scarier. Goodness. I was so scared. But i did it. Thats all that matters right? And it was fine. Well our monthly focus this month is the book of mormon. Pretty good focus to have right? And what we are focusing on is contacting with the Book of mormon. Well our goal as a zone is for each companionship to get at least 10 contacts a day. We've been working really hard on this. Especially since i HATE contacting. It scares me because i dont know how to play of things people say to make it good. So ya i usually just let sister Garn take the lead until this week. But now. I just go for it. We have a competition to see who can get the most contacts this week and i want to win. Its not all about numbers but thats whats driving me. Something i realized about myself...well kind of already knew. Is that i am very competitive. haha. i like scoring goals. Im thankful for this competition for getting me going. For making me just do it. Now i just approach everyone and start talking. I still stink at it. but im getting better....well that fact that i actually do it now. Shows some improvement! haha. We got 63(!!!) contacts the other day! It was awesome. I just need to get better at relating things. Its a work in progress and its coming. aNd im starting to enjoy contacting. Its fun! Haha we meet some of the meanest and creepiest people.. and its kinda frustrating because most everyone in our area is polish or italian or macedonian. actually we have a little bit of everything. but around our main cities we have the most polish. and polish seem to be the meanest. haha. shout out to Elder Jake Fotu out there in Poland. Well i dont want to scare anyone but i have to tell this story cuz its kind of funny. on Saturday we were contacting and we rang this doorbell...an old guy opens the door with no shirt on. He has the biggest beer belly and hes super hairy. wellll... he didnt really speak english so we were trying our best to explain to him that we are missionaries but he wasnt getting it. He was just trying to get us to go in his house in broken english (while rubbing his belly and playing with his stomach hair) "sorry no shirt ....come in... please come in. please. No scary. no dungeon. No danger. please come in. no please. In the duration of about 10 minutes he was trying to get us to go in his house saying different things like this and we were like we are so sorry we have another appointment and we cant come in without another woman. "It ok. i a professional (at what? creeping) .. no danger i alone."  hahaha. ya that makes it worse man. we were creeped out but it was funny. and then we met some other weirdos that day. oh and other funny stories of the week.... we rang a doorbell  last night at an appartment complex and it was one of those one that they have to buzz us in. Well no one usually buzzes us in so i wasnt expecting it and a huge buzz noise went off and the door unlocked and i jumped so high and just sprinted sooo fast a few steps and then fell to the floor hahaha i was dyinng. I may or may not have peed a little. hahaha. And highlight of the month was when one of our members randomly decided to teach us how to say hello in chinese...hahaha you had to be there. but it was so funny. Here face was so funny when she did it her voice was hilarious. I was trying to keep all serious. but i loooooost it. full on laugh attack on the floor. and i couldnt breathe. almost had an asthma attack. I was scared i was going to offend our member by laughing. but she thought it was hilarious and she LOVES me now. hahaha. may or may not have peed a little in that as well. Ni ja ma. (thats hi in chinese...i think.). oh i love her so much. I came up with a way cool analogy last night for our investigator named China that doesnt think she is ready for baptism. I dont have time to explain it but its way cool. haha. it involves the wizard of oz. gotta go. Love you all so much! have a fantastic week!

 

love, Hermana Josse

1) Our District after the baptism Ha i love them

2) Victors baptism 

March 10, 2014 {Kaitlyn}

Buenas Tardes! We don´t have a ton of time to write today because we´re running a bit behind on everything. I have so much to write about though, so I´m going to try to do this quick. 

Saturday we were able to take some investigators to the temple with the ward. It was an excellent experience that kind of turned into a disaster. We went with the ward and they said that we would be back at 12:30 and we didn´t end up returning until 4:30 because they decided to do 2 sessions. Keep in mind that we left at 7:30. Well, that´s great except for the fact that we couldn´t enter and we didn´t bring any lunch or anything. The kids of our investigators were crying because they were so hungry. On top of that our investigator Felisa had an infection in her tooth. By the end she was crying in pain. She got a phone call that her mom got put back into the hospital. Anddd ya, Satan was attacking in every single way. When we returned they went to the hospital and they said she needed to buy an antibiotic but they didn´t have the money for it. She asked if there was anything we could do, but we tried to see if the members had this antibiotic but had no luck. The kids still hadn´t had anything to eat all long, and all they had was tea and bread. 

Fast forward a bit to Sunday night when we stopped by to see how she was. She had asked us if somebody could come and give her a blessing, so the Elders had stopped by. In a summed up version all these down moments all ended up for the better. Regardless of all her pain she had seen some sort of light (she asked what this meant) and felt a moment of peace and the reassurance that everything was going to be alright. Then when the Elders put their hands upon her head she said she felt a peace in all of her body that she had never felt before. She shared a few other things that had happened, but overall she said that she knew that this was the right path. All this was through writing because she can´t talk because the infection is so bad. On top of that, she can´t write very well because she just recently learned how to write. Fua, it was so amazing to hear that through all these trials she had gained more than what she had lost. The Lord works in mysterious ways :) 

Good news of the week. Jose was baptized! :) He was telling everyone how if I could baptize he wanted me to baptize him. Anddd that I remind him of his wife. If it was anybody else I´d be a bit creeped out by now, but it´s just how he is. Haha he´s just Jose. He understands everything so well, but just doesn´t quite get the fact of why only the men can hold the priesthood. Ha but anyway, at the end of the baptism the daughter of the less active we have been working with informed us that she is going to accept the discussions. WHICH MEANS that she probably will be getting baptized in the next few weeks :) YIPEE! 

I wanted to share a story that one of the Elders shared in church yesterday. I´m going to try to write it quick so I hope it makes sense. He spoke about 2 angels (friends) who had received their callings for life. They were super excited to open their calls to see what their life would entail. The first friend opened his call and read that he would be born into the church with a wonderful family, he would have wonderful friends, and tons of other blessings from the gospel and such. The next friend opened his call to find that his parents were not going to support him. He would live with his grandparents or maybe nobody at all. He would have terrible influences of drugs and alcohol and live a life full of temptations. He would never have the opportunity to be invited to listen to the gospel. It was now their time to depart. The 2 friends hugged one another crying as friend number 2 said please please come and find me. Friend number one said I will do whatever it takes to find you and share with you the gospel. Wow, I probably didn´t describe the story super well, but it was sooo powerful. How important really is our job to share the gospel. We promised people before this life that we were going to find them and share this message with them. I´m not sure about you, but this put many things into perspective for me. One, I recognized really how important my calling of this mission is. Two I realized that we already have a calling for this life. The person who we are is what God wants us to be. Many times in the mission I fall into the trap of wanting to be other missionaries, or at least wanting their talents. It´s easy to desire the things that we don´t have. ESPECIALLY when I am new to a country and don´t quite know how to speak the language. I desire many things that I haven´t quite developed yet, but this story made me think differently. God knows which things I need to learn, what things I need to do in this life. All he requires of me is to try my best, and if my best isn´t the same as somebody elses, it doesn´t matter. Aww, I just love this story. It made me think a lot of Kim as well because she is so hard on herself. But really, this more than ever describes that God really does have control over all things. He knows best. Moral of the story= SHARE THE GOSPEL and BE WHO GOD DESIGNED YOU TO BE. :) 

Well, sorry for the rambling but this week was a week of MIRACLES! Mostly a Sunday of miracles! Haha Hope all is going well for you all. Love you all so much! Have an excellent week! 

Love you all so much,

Hermana Kaitlyn Elyse Wright :)

March 3, 2014 {Kaitlyn}

Wow, I just spent a good 35 minutes trying to copy yours and dads emails.  I am on the slowest computer ever. I was going to send some pictures, but I think I´ll hold off and send them next week. (Sorry dad, I know you love the pictures) 

Well, crazy news for this week. We were anticipating the call from President all week to hear more about what was going on with the Visa.Sunday the Zone leaders were still looking for a mini missionary for me. All day we were joking around saying that she wasn´t going anymore. Well, Sunday night we got a call from President saying that she´s not going anymore. Hahaha Crazy! She had already started packing and everything. How´s that for a last minute change?  For now she´s here until the end of this month. 

My friends are STUDS. Sara seems to be doing amazing!  I can just picture her saying every word that she wrote to me. Haha, oh how I love her. I didn´t hear from Kim this week but I´m excited to read her letter. AND Cara... un capo. Haven´t heard much from her, but no doubt she´s doing amazing. Jordan Clark sent a nice 9 month pic :) Mine will be coming next week. Wow... halfway??? What is this?! In one way it seems like it´s been a whole other life, but in the other way I can´t even believe that I´m halfway through! 

Anyway, this week went pretty well. Nothing too exciting happened, or at least that I remember. Haha Jose is getting baptized this upcomingSunday! We went to the capital which is out of our mission! I wasn´t ever going to see Buenos Aires... but we decided to just go for one morning. It´s only a few stations out of our area. ;) Haha nah we had permission don´t worry. Hermana Diaz needed her Yellow Fever shot. It´s SOO different there. I didn´t know that big buildings existed in Argentina. Haha I´m pretty sure I´m in the tiniest city in the mission, so it was a HUGE difference.   

The highlight of the week was a lesson we had with Felisa and Ramon. We brought a member with us and taught ¨Plan of Salvation.¨ Hna Diaz was supposively leaving so they shared a few of their thoughts about what they have learned. Seriously it was amazing. She talked about how her relationship with her family is so much better now. She explained how thanks to us she now knows how to pray and really uses it as a strength in her life. Everything that she was describing was exactly what the Lord promises us. I have gained the strongest testimony on one of the simplest principles of this gospel. The gospel blesses families. There is no doubt that the gospel really does seal the family together. The 9 principles: Faith, repentance, forgiveness, love, compassion, work, recreational activities, prayer, and respect are key. The gospel helps us apply these 9 principles in our homes. El hogar es como el cielo cuando hay amor! I LOVE THIS SONG! :) Nobody knows it hear, but we always sing it. ¨HOme can be a heaven on earth.¨ 

I´m continuing to see the fruits of this gospel working in the lives of many, including my own. I really am so grateful for the things I am learning each and everyday here. Hope that you all as well are recognizing the blesses of this gospel each and every day of your lives. It truly is amazing.

Ha sooo depressing moment of the week... I have officially lost every last bit of muscle I ever had. Uhh tried to do a few pull ups today when we were playing football at the park. Ya... I´ll just give a little thanks to the mission love. Depressing moment for a bit, but then I decided ahhhh it is what it is... I´ll stress about that after the mish! Just be expecting a warm welcome to the new and improved Pudgy Mana Wright ;) Haha 

Love you all so much! Have an amazing week!! 

March 3, 2014 {Kim}

Hola!!!

welllll hey! This week has been crazyyyy. I'll first start off by saying....we have another baptism on Wednesday most likely! His name is Victor! We had him set for the 9th but it will just work out better if it is on a Weekday so he wants to do it on wednesday! Its not 100% set since his actual baptismal interview is on wednesday morning but it should be happening. and guess who is giving a talk at it? me. ya i kind of in a way volunteered myself. hahaha what was i thinking? panicking here. So This week i had a crazy/scary experience. Satan is working really really hard on me in so many different ways. This experience has kinda motivated me a bit more actually. So its all good. Well i have no time but i wanna share a few scriptures real quick that i found this week that are way cool. 1 Nephi 17:13 - change wilderness to world and change promised land to celestial kindgdom. READ IT. I have been getting better at applying scriptures. So ya this ones one of my favorites now. and also Yesterday i was able to find a scripture and apply it to one of our investigators named China so well! Sister Garn and i were planning on talking about something completely different for this lesson with China but about 30 minutes before we decided to change our plan. We decided to talk about the word of wisdom and find a scripture about faith that could help her overcome her addiction to coffe. I found 1 Nephi 7:17 - "But it came to pass that i prayed unto the Lord, saying: o Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt though deliver me from the hands of my brethren; yea, even give me strength that i may burst these bands with which i am bound." When i read this i immediately thought of China and how i could apply it. I changed it to "But it came to pass that i prayed unto the Lord, saying: o Lord, according to my faith which is in thee, wilt thou deliver me from my addiction to coffe; yea, even give me strength that i may burst this addiction to which i am bound." Haha... when i first read through this and thought about changing it to the coffe i said to myself. .."haha thats the dumbest thing ever" and i wasnt going to mention it to sister Garn but i did and we ended up sharing it. It was an awesome lesson! Our investigator and her husband (hes a member) thought it was the greatest lesson ever. And now we feel like her husband likes/trusts us a little more. To be honest...It was the first lesson that i have ever liked and felt even somewhat good about. Also this morning i was reading through Jacob 5 and i thought it was way cool. I may be completely off on what these scriptures mean haha but I got some cool insights out of it. Jacob 5:17-18 -"Now, if we had not grafted in these branches, the tree thereof would have perished" - If we are not given weaknesses/trials we would not progress/grow. we would remain the same. verse 20: "I nourished" - Nourished = tested/tried
verse 21-"How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree?" - Why are we given weaknesses and trials? To learn and grow and eventually bring forth better "fruit". verse 22 - "counsel me not: i knew that it was a poor spot of ground." - he knows our strenghths and weaknesses. verse 23 - "Behold i have planted another branch of the tree also" - We are given another weakness/trial so we can bring forth even Better "fruit" than before. verse 27 "let us prune it, and dig about it, and nourish it a little longer, that perhaps it may bring forth good fruit unto thee" -Sometimes he pushes us to the max for us to reach our potential. Because he knows our capabilities and strengths. verse 29 -"a long time had passed away" - sometimes our trials may last "a long time" but its for our benefit. He knows what we need. verse 34 "because thou didst graft in the branches of the wild olive-tree they have nourished the roots" - We come out stronger. verse 36- "I know that the roots are good, and for mine own purpose i have preserved them and because of their much strenghth they have hiterto brought forth, from the wild branches, good fruit" - God knows us better than we know ourselves. Verse 45 "and because i plucked not the branches thereof and cast them into the fire, behold, they have overcome the good branch that hath withered away" - We cant let our weaknesses overcome the strenghths we do have. and thennnn personal study ended. Haha. i'm not quite sure what these sciptures actually mean but thats what i got out of it. hahaha Its been really cool this week being able to apply scriptures better. It makes it easier to read and retain what i do read if i can think of it in a simpler more up to date way. This week i have also been able to be myself more and i have been happier because of it. Still lots of struggles but im seeing more of the positive. I also started taking two medications this week for depression/anxiety. I think they will be helpful. I guess it takes about 3 weeks to take full effect. And talking to Anne Broadband is actually helping. Hahaha never thought i would need a "councelor" buuuut its been helpful. Some of the main things im working on that i talked about with her are
2)Test my assumptions -dont just assume im going to fail/not know what to say.
3)use my love/concern for others to counteract my hate/negativity toward myself
4)separate feelings from thoughts

 

welpppp. this is awkward. haha

hope all is well for ya'll!

 

hasta luego

 

love you allllll!!!!!

 

ps. If you are not doing family scripture study... do it NOW. Why? well for 1 - so your children can know the true meaning of a concubine and that its not a pentagon shaped building! Hahahahahaha no idea why that is what i pictued everytime i read that but apparently i was wrong. Those verses make a little more sense now. family scipture study is important do it.

February 24, 2014 {Kim}

Hola everyone! Well this week has been Good! Ups and Downs.But big up = Martin was baptized yesterday!!! It was awesome! It all went so well and the spirit was so strong! And at the end he ASKED if he could bare his testimony! what. Way cool. We are so excited  for their family. I love them so much. shout out to Hermana Kaitlyn Wright because Martin is from Buenos Aires! whoo whoo. Well nothing else really that exciting this week. We've been trying really hard to find some new investigators & since our members arent the best at giving us referrals that means we have been knocking lots of doors! Well i dont really have much else to say and i have limited time so i'll leave it at that.

 

ps. i love children. Some of the children in our branch take a huge part in keeping me going. I ADORE them. *quote of the week* "Hermana Josse! I like you a lot!!" Sabrina Peralta (Martins Daughter)

 

and while knocking doors. "I am not a sheep...i will not be herded!" haha!

 

and we met the coolest African...too bad he doesnt speak spanish :(

 

well i love you all so much. thanks for everything. keep praying for me por favor. i neeeed yo lovvve. :) haha.

 

peace, love, and blessings

 

Love, Hermana Josse

February 19, 2014 {Sara}

ATTENTION!!!
The last of the Fab Five has left to serve the Lord! Which leaves yours truly the only one at home. My heart is torn between the pain of missing all of them and the happiness I feel for all of them for doing what the Lord wants them to be doing!
Hermana Burns is headed to the Provo MTC and then to Guadalajara, Mexico, where the people there will have the amazing opportunity to have Sara influence and be in their lives!
See you in 18 Hermana Burns!