WEEK 25-Diet Coke and Stick bugs

Monday: We played volley ball and rugby. I so super love Rugby!!!!!!!!! that WAS Monday.

Tuesday: We went on exchanges again. I went down to Kohala with the sister trainer. She is so sweet. She’s almost done with her mission. I learned a lot from her and we did my first chapel tour!

Wednesday: Still on exchanges, and we got to go to her ward's bishopric meeting!? probably the first and last time I'll ever be invited to a bishopric meeting. We were just in the foyer, bishop opened the door and was like "oh hey sisters! Come in." and we were like "who? us?" we looked around and since there were no other sisters...or people for that matter.....we assumed that he was talking to us. SO we went to the bishopric meeting. And for dinner this night, the lady gave us diet cokes to drink. I was like "Oh no.... not soda....OH NO.....Not diet soda!!!" that's like spot on exactly what mom said to avoid! and it had caffeine......boy oh boy.......my body probably thinks that I hate it.....sorry tummy.

We exchanged back Wednesday night, and ALSO I slept without a night light on!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That hasn't happened in a while. I am finally getting to be okay when it's dark again. It’s been almost three months since the incident and I feel much better about it all. Blessings

Thursday: I also slept without a night light on this night! Fabulous!!!!!! Okay and I got to try LAU LAU for dinner this night  (Lau Lau - steamed boneless pork, chicken or beef salted and wrapped in taro or ti leaves, is a favorite at many Hawaiian luaus.

....me no likey.

Friday: it started to get super cold here.....well let's get real. ….Super cold here is like 60 degrees, but when you have clothes for 90 degree weather, you feel a little ill prepared.

Saturday: We cleaned the chapel and the ward members were playing what we missionaries like to call "world music"- aka anything unapproved for us to listen too.........so, Shout out to justin timberlake singing while we cleaned!

Sunday: the primary program was today! so cute! I love when all the little keiki ( Hawaiian for baby)  sing and share their testimonies! and this night we had a HUGE rainstorm!!! We got soaking wet but really really enjoyed it! It was the first rain we've had in a long time. We are so glad the drought is over. The farmers were starting to get a little worried about their animals not having enough grass to eat.

 

Okay extra stuff: Daddy! the oil that you sent with me has been used for like a bajillion blessings. There are a few elders who don't carry oil with them, and a few that had just left it in the car when the blessing was needed. SO thank you for getting me all prepared with the oil.

Oh and this morning, we woke up super early to drive up to mauna kea! but the road was closed because of the rain so we didn't get to drive up all the way to see the sunrise. SO we just waited in the parking lot til the sun came up….beautiful.  . It was pretty cold so we were all bundled up in our own blankets and stuff. at one point I was so cold that I climbed into our trunk to get warm, then and elder shut me in the trunk! I was like "hey don't shut me in the..." and BAM i got hit in the head by the little metal bar that attaches the trunk to the car. He later told me that he was like "hmmm that's weird that she stopped talking so abruptly...I hope I didn't knock her out or something" haha no...but close. I have a cute little welt on my forehead now. but it's tiny and not that noticeable

 

. oh, and the elders that we picked up to carpool with, brought their pet....wait "mascot" (because missionaries can't have pets) so we drove up to mauna kea with a stick bug in our car. yup. it totally climbed onto my head on the drive up. and i'm pretty sure it's still in the car right now...oops.

well that's about all for this week.

Ofa atu!   ( Tongan for I love you)

-Sister Hodgson

WEEK 24- Halloween a temple trip and getting lost...again

Yay holidays!!!! Halloween was fun. We went down to the Kona trunk or treat! It was at the Kona stake center right by the temple! it was neat. We handed out candy and pass along cards!! Thanks family for the streamers and pumpkin decorations- we decorated the trunks super cute! At the end this little tiny ninja kid came up and gave me a rock.....i guess he had seen everyone else giving him things and wanted to return the favor. SO CUTE! so I got a rock for halloween.

Any way, skipping back to earlier in the week: we went to the temple on Tuesday! That was wonderful!

 so then we went on exchanges, so sister p went down to Kona, and another sister came up here to Waimea. It was so great but pretty hard!!! She is a brand new FOB (fresh off the boat) from Tonga. Her English is pretty good though. She's been out for 3 weeks now, and I am not used to this area yet so it was pretty intense.... we were lost  part of the day, but we actually got a lot of work done! It was fun to hear about all of the cultural differences and I learned how to say "the church of Jesus.." in Tongan. I was trying to learn the whole thing but i didn't get very far.

When we drove down to Kona to switch back companions it was super dark outside and  we somehow missed our turn I guess so I was like "I have no idea where we are....we might be in Kona, or we might be in Hilo (which is on the opposite side of the island)" and it was all country road so there was no place to pull over and ask. Finally we found a small store and pulled in and we were like "where are we?" the lady told us that we were in kona ---good!--- then she gave us directions to the airport. We were on a road parallel to the road that we needed to be on, so we just had to drive about 5 minutes down, then we were on the right road. After a few minutes, we were driving and beginning to wonder if we hadn't understood the directions well, then we looked up and saw the temple all bright and lit up off in the distance! We were so happy to see the temple! so we just drove towards the temple (because that's where the stake center is) and somehow we made it!

Yesterday we came home to find a HUGE box of yummy food on our porch!!! there were a ton of veggies and fruit and it was just so amazing!! and we have no idea who it is from! We feel so blessed and we have prayed many prayers for whoever our wonderful food angels are.

-okay so Church is different as  a Missionary…we invite a whole bunch of people, we greet everyone and remember things about them and host a ton of conversations! we want  to say good bye to everyone after words....we have to remember a bunch of names, We try to make sure that everyone is having a good time and that everything is running smoothly( people know where classes are etc)....it's pretty crazy. Also I am starting to pronounce and spell things weird, like how they would be spelled in Hawaii....It's pretty funny.

oh and one more thing. It is super weird to fast on a mission, because the rules or cordiality dictate that if someone offers you food- you eat it!! no exceptions! It doesn't matter - you eat it. or else you offend them. So one of our investigators brought out a cup of chocolate ice cream that she had prepared for us......hahaha and yes, we ate it.... I tried not to smile to much:)  must find balance

Also, the addresses in Hawaii are ridiculous! We have someone that we are going to visit, and their address is listed like "the 17th house on the left with a blue roof and a maroon truck"......no joke….that's pretty common.

well, I love you a bunch and seriously am so excited to chat at Christmas!!

Love, SIS H

Week 23- shaving cream and fast offerings

Aloha!

Monday: we played shaving cream capture the flag for pday! it was super fun!

Tuesday: We met with choke  people ( apparently an island word meaning a LOT or a bunch , she uses it a lot )  but  I think the most fun was the lesson with L and A. the last time that we met, we taught them the word of wisdom. They took it well. They understood all the benefits and blessings that come from living this commandment. That being said, they still would have to face their addictions to smoking. So this night, some elders and our ward mission leader came to give them priesthood blessings. It is so wonderful that that extra help from heaven is available. Also, I think it was today that I discovered the importance of kneeling during prayers. I was super tired and about to just lie down in my bed and say my prayer like that, but I decided that it was important to kneel. As I was praying, I opened my eyes to see a bug crawling across my bed towards me!! I killed it and finished my prayer.....so always kneel to pray so that you don't lie on a  bug.

Wednesday: our sweet little 10 year old, C, passed her baptismal interview!! yay! Also, we met with RB who is now a recent convert!! woohoo! We mentioned that we would be getting ipads soon, and then afterwards, he said the prayer and said "please bless that the ipads will get delivered to the sisters as soon as possible, because I know they are very excited about them". We learn a lot from RB about how to be sincere in our prayers and not just repeat phrases.

Also, we went to check the mail this night. Interestingly enough, we were going to check it last night but we decided that it would be better to get home on time. Then there was a part of Wednesday that was kinda tough. that's when we went to the post office, and I got 7 letters!!!!!!!!!!!! it was exactly what I needed.  it's fun here that all of the mail goes to the mission office first and missionaries in Honolulu can check and see if they have mail when they go to the office. well, apparently, my best friend in the mission is serving in Honolulu now because he went to the office and must have been looking to see if he had any letters. He saw that I had a ton of letters and he wrote on the outside of one of the envelopes "congrats! you got choke letters!" and signed his name it was super funny!

Thursday: we started teaching a new guy named S

Friday: There was a young single adult dance at the chapel tonight. It was weird to be sitting in our pad hearing worldly music. we turned on our efy songs and hymns, but in between our songs we caught snip-its of what was playing at the dance......Justin beiber still exists....I would have been fine without the reminder. ( one of the drawbacks of living so close to  the  church  J  )

Saturday: we went service tracting. That is where you go door to door, in regular work clothes and ask people if there is anything that you can help them with (yard work, dishes, washing windows, etc.) and before you leave you offer to leave them with a prayer! It is super fun!

Sunday: We got to watch the "hastening the work of salvation" broadcast again. it is so good!!!! Everyone help out your local missionaries!

We have seen so many people helping us, especially this last week. As a missionary, we are not expected to pay tithing (because we're not earning any money) but we are expected to pay fast offerings. I was behind on paying mine, because I had "been busy", or was like "i'll pay that as soon as we get more money on our cards" but I really felt like I needed to stop making excuses and just make the donation. I grabbed some cash and filled out the form and mailed it to bishop. And wow, talk about a tried and true formula: you pay your tithing/fast offerings and you get BLESSINGS! In Malachi 3:10 it says "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse...and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Well, I can testify to you that this is a true promise of the Lord. We have been given so much food this week, we can't even eat it all before it goes bad: salmon, rice, quinoa, sausage, pasta, salad, another salad, pumpkin, granola bars, pumpkin pie, and ice cream, the list goes on! We are truly seeing the blessings that the Lord promised to us in Malachi.

So never ever ever forget/postpone/neglect to pay tithing and fast offerings. the Lord keeps His promises and He will send blessings for trusting Him enough to pay it even when it looks like we won't have enough.

Love you all!!! Happy Monday!

-Sister Hodgson

WEEK 22- Cleaning at the temple and a wonderful baptisim

 We get onto the email on Mondays in the Family History center. It gets pretty crazy in there!!

We got to clean the temple this week! We drove down to Kona and spent the morning there. We checked all of the shirts, pants, dresses, etc. for loose buttons or rips and then did some mending. We wiped down some walls and then our last job was to clean the chandelier in the Celestial room. It was HUGE and it took 4 or 5 of us about an hour to clean it - crystal by crystal…. and we wiped every single one. They lowered the chandelier down to our height so it wasn't too hard though. It just took a while. And the strands of crystals were so loosely hung on that sometimes as we would clean them they would fall off but We just hung them back up after. When we finished, we were waiting in another room and sister p went to fix her hair (it was in a loose bun) she took her bun out and a small strand of crystal fell to the floor! Luckily she found it while we were still there! Then while everyone else ate, sister p and I got to just sit quietly in the celestial room. It was so beautiful! Then the temple matron came in and turned on all of the lights!!!!! It was amazing!

        Then the temple president took us all into the maintenance room, then up a spiral metal staircase, then up another ladder, then into the attic, down a couple hallways where you have to duck under, and step over pipes and ventilation, then up a few more ladders and then into the top of the temple! It’s all hollow and echo-ey. You can look up and see the very top of the steeple! It was cool!

The next day was the mission tour, where elder Schweitzer of the 70 came to see our mission. Our zone did the musical number: a compilation of Onward Christian Soldiers and Put your Shoulder to the Wheel. Sis p was the pianist and I was the conductor! it was really fun!

       Also, this week, RB was baptized! He is so sweet! When sis p and her old companion met him a few weeks ago, he told them he was an atheist. His mom told the sisters that she wanted him to believe in God. So they started meeting with him, then I came in and met with him also , and he has come to know for himself that he has a loving Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ. We had interviews with president earlier in the day before the baptism, so president, his wife and the assistants all stayed for the baptism! It was neat to have them there! Rb was pretty nervous before but afterwards he said that he felt so calm. 

Yesterday, President and his wife came to speak at a fireside in our chapel. Before the fireside, one of our members had president, his wife and us over for dinner. We met president at the church and then he and his wife drove us to the dinner! it was fun to get to spend some time with them!

TO answer the questions:

Right now I am studying in the book of Mormon in 1st Nephi and in the Old Testament in Genesis. I just started the book of Mormon over again and I started reading genesis recently. I am also studying Preach my Gospel and Our search for Happiness. I’m learning a lot about Charity, and about doing the things that Heavenly Father has asked us to do. Obedience can sometimes seem like a sacrifice, but we know that "Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of Heaven" so we end up being so blessed for our obedience that it isn’t really a sacrifice after all.

The most fun thing I have done to let people know that I am out here and love the gospel is.......... I don't know...... probably the craziest thing for me is just tracting. We knock on random people's doors and ask to pray with them. It is kinda crazy because you never know who'll be behind the door! one of the most fun things that we do is talk to people on our p-day. When we are at the park and all playing ultimate Frisbee or something fun, sometimes we will be able to talk to other people at the park. They often ask what group we are and we get to share a little about who we are and what we do.

I love you all,

Sister Rachel Hodgson