This Week Awesome, A Little Sad, But Still Great!

Our investigator drives this car

August 22, 2016

WEEK 42

Dear mi familia y amigos,

I miss you guys! BUT the mission is better! This week was awesome, a little sad but still great! Let me explain everything that happened.

We had 8 people in the house this past week up until Thursday. The reason is because we just had changes because a WHOLE bunch of missionaries went home on Friday. In these next two months, we are going to be down so many missionaries. There will only be about 100 missionaries in the mission. That is crazy. But this week was a little different since three missionaries arrived on Thursday and stayed in the house until two missionaries went home. The Mission President in just this last week alone has come to our house three times. He is little obsessed with our area and my companion, Elder Cox, because well... HE’S HUGE… so he’s always stopping by which is cool and he knows our converts.

But because all of these things were happening, we couldn’t work the way we wanted to but we still had some success. In the zone, we had three baptisms. We have a lot more planned for the next week, so I will let you know how that goes.

Guinea Pig

But what was sad this week is that two of our baptisms fell through this week. We’ve been teaching a lady whose name is Lorena and her son. SHE IS SO COOL!  She contacted us in the park, and we talked with her, shared a little message, and set up an appointment to meet with her. AND IN EVERY LESSON, WE FELT THE SPIRIT SO STRONG. She was a nun many years ago, and so every lesson she asked us sooooo many questions. But the last time that we taught her officially, she ended the lesson with the prayer and asked God if all of this was true. After the prayer, she looked at us in the eyes and told us it is true. That she KNOWS it is true.

Well, her baptism was supposed to have been yesterday but what happened is that her husband doesn’t want them to change AT ALL. So when we went in the morning to go talk with her and her husband about everything, he told us that the son would not be baptized but that Lorena has the choice. BUT she doesn’t want to. So then we came back later to talk with them some more so that we could really understand their reasons why. They gave us reasons, a little bit of excuses and everything. We answered all of their doubts with just using the Bible and Lorena was crying. I looked her in the eyes and asked her again, “Do you believe these things to be true”, and she told us “Yes”. Then we invited her to be baptized again, and then she told us that how could she leave all that she has learned and believed her whole life to be true.... She started crying, and she didn’t even have to speak. I knew. She wasn’t going to change even though she’s had a clear sign and a clear answer.

Some good old service and climbing roofs

After this, I’m not going to lie, my heart broke because I KNOW how many blessings she could receive and she denied them. But I know she will have the courage one day to change… Now, it’s time to go find the people who are ACTUALLY ready.

I’m learning a lot. I can tell you that!!  I LOVE YOU GUYS!!

- Elder Pukahi