Week 4- if you're gunna have a hard day why not have it in Hawaii !

Hey Everybody!

Okay so last week I had sooooo much to say and I forgot to say where I'm even serving! Mom guessed right, I'm on O'ahu! I am in the Honolulu-West zone. We are so busy! I love it though!

President and Sister D are leaving soon so they had their goodbye zone meeting this week. President D is always laughing about how sister M and I are companions. He jokingly asked us if we thought that the Lord took height into consideration when He sets up companionships. He also told us "Dynamite comes in small packages." He is super funny! His wife is barely over 5 feet tall too.

We have four new investigators this week. One of them has a mango tree and sent us home with a few fresh mangos. They were super good. Our ward keeps us fed also. We left church on Sunday with a plate of cinnamon rolls, a gallon of milk and a half gallon of orange juice! We looked ridiculous carrying it all out to the car. The people here are so sweet!

We played piano at another baptism this week. You know that there aren't very many pianists around when I have to play:) Sister M played the only hymn she knows for the opening song, then I played the only hymn I know for the closing. Same deal as last week...... We decided that we both need to learn another hymn this week:) It was neat too because it was a Samoan ward baptism, so they were all singing in Samoan!!

We are getting a mini missionary on thursday, and we'll be doing service in Pearl Harbor on Wednesday. Also, a guy in the ward wants to give us a tour of his submarine on one of our p-days. I hope that works out!

Okay, so friday was a super tough day! We tried to contact a bunch of less actives, but NOBODY was home! We drove to so many different houses! We started to just feel exhausted and unmotivated. We tried just working through it, we tried taking a snack break, we tried everything. We prayed for help and strength and to be able to find the miriacle in the day. We knew that something good would come. We tried tracting. The guy opened the door, and while I was trying to talk and the guy just closed the door with a dismissive "not interested". -First time I cried since I've been with sister M. Friday was SO HARD! but Looking back on it, we realized a few things: 1. Heavenly Father didn't just make the day easy. Sometimes He does that, but sometimes He expects us to work hard, and just trust Him. 2. We didn't understnad why the day was so tough, but we made it through, and in comparison the next day seemed so much better! 3. Heavenly Father does answer prayers. We got to meet with one of our investigators that we hadn't been able to get in touch with! That was one miracle from the day! Also, as we were getting out of the car in the area we tract in a lot, a guy asked us "Who are you? I see you around here a lot." We talked for a bit and set up an appointment with him:) Even on the hard days, Heavenly Father is still watching over us, and we can learn so much on harder days.

I love this poem, I can't remember who it is by, but there is a part that says:

"be still sad heart and cease repinning.

behind the clouds is the sun, still shining.

thy fate is the common fate of all- into each life some rain must fall.

Some days must be dark and dreary"

And I guess if you're gunna have a hard day, why not have it in Hawaii:)

Love you all!

-Sister Rachel Hodgson