Happy Independence Day Everyone! We Have Freedom!

Elder Segundo last night modeling his clothes

July 4, 2016

WEEK 35

Dear Mi Familia & Mi Amigos,

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH! I cannot even declare that enough times. My words literally can’t describe how much. Seeing your emails makes me so happy, Mom. And seeing you smile is all I need! So KEEP SMILING and having fun.

TODAY’S INDEPENDENCE DAY! I had no idea! I totally forgot. I wasn’t even thinking about that. WELL.... HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY, EVERYONE! WE HAVE FREEDOM!

Jamison is growing up so fast.... Every time I receive an email from you guys, he is more different!!!! I CAN’T BELIEVE IT! Time is going by so fast. Today I have just completed 8 months... I still feel like I just arrived!!!! It’s so crazy how fast the time has gone by. When people told me before the mission that I needed to enjoy the mission because time will go by so fast, THEY WEREN’T KIDDING!  It’s so crazy!

But guess what!!! I HAVE CHANGES! ELDER SEGUNDO, my companion, will be leaving!!!!!! 😭

God always has a greater plan, but it just stinks because we are having success!!!!! The life of the mission, what it does to you! But I’m going to be getting another companion, Elder Perez. He’s about to die (which means he’s about to finish his mission). He’s from Peru....that’s about all I know about him, so I will let you guys know more later.

This week was literally so cool. We have seen many of the blessings that Heavenly Father has given us. As I work more and more in the mission, I realize as missionaries, we do so much but actually we really do nothing. God literally has his hand in every moment. For example, this week we found a woman we started talking to after I spotted a cool tie. We started talking to her about the church and everything and well, we found out that she was going to baptized in the ocean Saturday with another church. We talked with her like Tuesday... Well, we bore our testimonies and everything and we taught her what is the truth. And well, she came to church yesterday.... She did get baptized on Saturday but she came to our church to find out what did we mean when we told her that she needed to be baptized by someone who has authority. Well... I’ll keep you guys informed of what happens. But she’s just one of many people and we literally did nothing. Oh, how merciful God is!

Well, a lot of things happened this week but I can’t really remember because my brain hurts speaking in English!

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!

- Elder Pukahi

P.S.  Okay, one last story.... Last night we started packing my companion’s clothes and everything. My companion has a little addiction, too, and that is clothing! He loves to buy clothes. So we found out that he has a TON of clothes that he NEVER even uses, so.... you guys already know that I had to try on every piece of clothing he had, and of course, I was modeling. It’s who I am! ENJOY!

Party Time With Mission President and Wife

Elder Pukahi with Mission President Morales and Sister Morales

June 27, 2016

WEEK 34

Dear Mi Familia & Friends,

MOMMY, I love your emails!

YOU GUYS ARE DOING A WHOLE BUNCH OF THINGS without me but I’m so happy for you!!!! KEEP IT UP! Keep doing stuff because that means you are having fun and enjoying life—which you need to do after everything we’ve been through. And I know when I get back, we’ll do a lot of things together. But you guys already know that I’m going to go and have some fun for myself and I will be making you jealous so don’t worry! LOL.

But this last week we were able to do a huge amount of things. We found a great number of people that seem to want to progress, and we are seeing the blessings that God has given us.

Lunch in Reynosa with
CCM companion Elder McGary

Also, on Friday we had A PARTY! It was for our Mission President because him and his wife are leaving this week and because we achieved our goal for baptisms this last month. So we went to REYNOSA and I SAW EVERYONE! That was the best! Seeing every missionary is the best. I didn’t realize how much I missed everyone. I got a great amount of pictures.

Elder Mullins and Elder Pukahi

It’s been weird. God has just suddenly PUT people in our way. This week we found a woman who works in the Cyber where we write. She’s actually here right now, but after writing this last week, we started a conversation with her like it was nothing. We weren’t even trying to teach her the Gospel. We just wanted to get to know her and well, she’s now reading the Book of Mormon. She’s half way through 1st Nephi. She has some challenges, for instance, her husband… We don’t know if he’s going to cause trouble and even allow her to be baptized but we’ll find out soon enough. And she’s not the only one. This week was amazing. Even when I feel inadequate to do this work, somehow God trusts me to do it, and he puts people in our path.

My companion and I are now really tight. Elder Segundo is chill. At first it was hard but as we’ve grown together, we now have this special bond. I cannot even describe it. When we are teaching, it’s like I know what he’s going to say and I am just waiting for him to say it, so I can then testify of his words. I’ve learned a lot with Him and I’m learning a lot more. I mean we haven’t had the success we wanted but maybe it wasn’t the things that we needed...

Well....you guys already know! I LOVE THE MISSION! I know with all my heart this church is the only true church upon the Earth. And the Gospel is the only way we can truly receive the pure happiness of life.

I love you with ALL my heart. I cannot even describe how much I love you guys.  STAY SAFE!

- Elder Pukahi

p.s. There’s a missionary here with me that knows Griffon Bodine, because Griffon is serving in his home…SMALL WORLD!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!!!

June 20, 2016

WEEK 33

HI, FAMILY & FRIENDS!

Elder Pukahi & Elder Sigundo

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY, DADDY!!

I’M GOING TO WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS BECAUSE TENGO FLOJERA. I DON’T REMEMBER WHAT THAT MEANS IN ENGLISH BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER.

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!!! I GOT THE PACKAGE AND I LOVED IT!! I LOVED IT WITH ALL MY HEART! MY COMPANIONS ALREADY ATE THE PEACH RINGS AND THEY KEEP TRYING TO BEG FOR MY FRUITY PEBBLES BUT PLEASE… THEY AREN’T GOING TO TOUCH MY FRUITY PEBBLES! DO THEY EVEN KNOW ME?!?!! WELL, THEY DONT KNOW ME LIKE YOU GUYS DO!

Okay, I’ll write regularly now. It’s because everyone who speaks Spanish speaks with caps. No se porque… I don’t know why but yeah.... Sorry, it’s really hard to write right now. I’m having a hard time switching from Spanish to English.

This week the president came again. We found a great load of people so that was really good because we’ve been praying and fasting for these people but how we found them was so funny! So I have an addiction… BOLIS which is the Spanish word for popsicles, but here in Mexico, they make BOMB popsicles! It’s not even funny. But I have an addiction and I got my companion addicted as well…lol!  That’s what happens when we are together for 24 hours each and every day. It happens!

So how we found these people was on the hottest day this week. We bought a huge amount of popsicles throughout the day, and so every time we found a popsicle place, we would start talking to the person. Then suddenly we would start teaching them and they accepted everything. It was such a weird and funny day/week but it was a good one!

Thank you guys so much for the books! I’ve been reading a lot lately. It’s one of my favorite things in the world. It’s weird how much the mission changes a lot of things. Knowledge literally is power.

But what I had the funnest time doing this week was testifying. This week like every week, we ran into a lot of people that are just chays. They don’t want anything to do with the Gospel but think they know everything, and so they tell us that we are wrong. And when we ask them a simple question like what is faith, they can’t even reply. I feel so sad for these people because they are literally lost and they have too much pride to even listen. It’s hard to watch that…

(Chay is a word that’s only used in my mission. We use it to describe a lot of things like when people are not going to progress and just make up a whole bunch of excuses and stuff like that. We use it in many different other cases.)

This one lady was telling us that we are false and everything because we believe in the Book of Mormon. I had a Book of Mormon in my hand and she told me if I had a Bible in my hand instead of the Book of Mormon she would listen to us. So we took out our Bibles and started talking to her. She had a very hard heart but as I put away my Bible in my bag, she said, “Don’t put it away. It’s the word of God.” And that’s when we just started testifying.

THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE WORD OF GOD!! I know it to be true. No other church compares to how true our church is. We have a witness that our church is true and that the Book of Mormon is true, and the saddest thing in the whole entire world is that the people could receive a whole bunch of blessings if only they would READ THE BOOK! I know the church is true with all my heart.

I love you guys!!!  Thanks for being my family.

- Elder Pukahi

I'm So Happy...

Here’s me and Elder Lovera.  He’s pretty sweet.  He was one of the 

missionaries that came out with me into the field from the Mexico MTC.

June 13, 2016

WEEK 32

Dear mi familia y amigos,

I love you guys SO MUCH!!!

I’m so happy to hear all this great news of the Fam! Glad to see all these great blessings that have been stowed upon us! I’m speaking OLD ENGLISH! What is wrong with me? The truth...it’s so hard to speak English now – 1. Because it is pure Spanish in my house, and 2. I like speaking Spanish more than English. It’s so weird. I feel like I’m two different persons but the same. It’s weird.

Well, this week we grew as a companionship. Sometimes you just need to have patience and let God work in our lives. Sometimes you need to be humble enough to let God work in our lives. It’s surprising how much we can learn in one week. Always we are learning! It’s kind of exhausting.

We made Spam Musubi again.

But what I want to share is that we always need the Spirit. Because when we don’t, it’s when we fall. This week we had an awesome lesson. It was with one of our investigators. SHE HAD A LOT OF DOUBTS and well, through the Spirit, we realized what her doubts were without even asking her. IT WAS SO COOL! Her son is a member and she’s always listened to the missionaries. ALWAYS. And well, we tried our best. But as we were asking her questions, we felt very prompted to talk about a certain theme — THE RESTORATION OF THE GOSPEL and specifically just about Joseph Smith. And after we gave our lesson, she told us that she’s had this question FOR YEARS but was always afraid to ask. So she might be getting baptized this weekend. Depends if God has been preparing her enough!

I LOVE THE MISSION!! And I love you all so much!

- Elder Pukahi

P.S.  But tell Jess I am so jealous of all her traveling and fun times! It seems like you guys are playing hard without me which I love!!!!

So happy for Danielle. James is a blessing for our family. He’s going to make my dear old cute cousin so happy!! That’s so weird but I get so happy thinking about it!

This Week Was Crazy

June 6, 2016

WEEK 31

HI, FAMILY & FRIENDS!  

How are you guys?  I am doing awesome! This week was crazy—it rained A TON!! Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures when it flooded. I just have videos and I can’t really send them…

Moving Day

Well, this week was a little crazy because WE MOVED and we will have a baptism next Saturday so that’s nice! Our house was pretty disgusting and none of the things worked. We didn’t have any hot water or air conditioning, and washing our clothes by hand. (Yes, I know...I’m washing my clothes...you guys are proud...don’t worry I know...because I’m your favorite! I know I haven’t said that for a while but it’s nice to say it. Haha!)  Well, back to the real stuff… The changing of houses included in the morning that it rained a lot and flooded the streets, which caused us to find a huge amount of cockroaches, as well as us riding at 8.30 pm on the back of a truck while it started to rain again. The truth is:  I NEVER WANT TO MOVE AGAIN! But it’s so nice to have our new house because it is cooolllll!

Exchanges with my district leader, Elder Lundell.

But on a spiritual note, we worked really hard this week, considering we lost a day and a half when we were moving houses. We also had exchanges with one of my district leaders, Elder Lundell. We actually found a family that could be “chosen” but we don’t know right now because they didn’t come to church. Waah! But we’ll see. I’ve learned a lot this week about what kind of person I am and what God has planned for me. I mean I still don’t have a lot of answers but I’m searching. I’ve read a lot from my patriarchal blessing as well as the Book of Mormon. I know without a doubt from my heart that this Church is the true church and that in these days, we can receive personal revelation! Dad...Mom...Jess...family... are you guys reading your patriarchal blessings??? and JAMISON... PREPARE TO GET YOURS!

At times we think that we are doing good and get comfortable and think we don’t need to strengthen ourselves in the Gospel and that’s something from Satan. Because as Children of God, we have the ability to be like him and if we aren’t working, reading, trying everyday to be like him, WE WON’T! This week we’ve met a lot of inactives, just by knocking on doors, and the reason they are inactive is because they forgot their view, their end goal. So yeah.

Well, I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- Elder Pukahi

P.S. Cuidense mucho! y Jessica escribame!!!!! Cómo te vas?!?!!?

We Are Meshing More Every Day!

May 30, 2016

WEEK 30

Dear Family & Friends,

I’m glad to hear that you guys are having more fun without me! lol. jk jk. But I am really happy you guys are getting out and having some fun together!

Me and my companion are meshing more and more every day. Sometimes it is hard but that’s a relationship! jaja lol! It’s true. A companionship is definitely like a relationship—we eat together, live together, go everywhere together!! I am just getting ready for the future..... And I’m NOT ready!

So my week—The truth is that it was a little crappy but also really good! So Tuesday we went to send the offices the baptismal forms and I found out that I have a virus on my SD card... and well…I LOST ALL MY PICTURES! So that stinks—ALL 631 pictures....WAAAHH! But at least I have the pictures that I sent you guys and I can get some other pictures from my other companions. AND I learned a valuable lesson. SAVE EVERYTHING ON MULTIPLE MEMORY DEVICES! lol. So there’s nothing I can do...so why worry.

This week we had A LOT of people yelling at us and A LOT of people telling us that we are from the DEVIL. We also found a woman that is a pastor here from Illinois. That was fun. I’ve been learning a lot about finding the people that God has ready because there is a huge amount of people who just want to fight with us. I mean we can talk with them, fight with them, beat them to a pulp with just using scriptures from the Bible, but their hearts aren’t going to change. I learned this at the very beginning of my mission but God wanted to remind me this week. It is crazy. These people want to fight with us and call us names but I still find a way to love them. It kills me a little bit that I think this way but I guess it’s good.

But the brighter news is that I confirmed Angelica yesterday! SHE’S AWESOME! I wish I could share with you the many miracles that have happened this week, but I don’t have enough time. I will just like to share this little story about our convert, ANGELICA! I mean this week was crazy but we went and visited her. And when we did, we had a pretty spiritual lesson. Our lesson was about the Holy Ghost. When we started to talk about the attributes of the Holy Ghost and what the Spirit does, we could just feel the Spirit start to fill our hearts. She was really nervous about getting baptized, and she still is. But as we started to speak more and more, she ended up telling us everything about her fears. She knows that this GOSPEL IS TRUE. And she has been WAITING FOR US FOR YEARS. She’s scared about the future because her husband is in jail and when he gets out, she doesn’t know what’s going to happen. BUT she told us, with a firmness in her eyes, that she knows this is the true church and nobody is going to take that away from her. I have more stories but you guys are going to have to wait a little longer to hear them—LOL.

l love you guys!!! The gospel is true!

- Elder Pukahi

Three Baptisms This Past Week!

My Zone

May 23, 2016

WEEK 29

Dear Family & Friends,

I can’t believe how fast the time is going...it’s crazy!!! I swear the days are going by faster and faster every day, but I love it!

TELL JESSICA SHE NEEDS TO WRITE ME!!!  How’s Jamison doing?

So the big news about the mission is that in the mission we’ve never broken the record of two hundred baptisms in one month but THIS month, we are going to break it! It is awesome how much Heavenly Father is preparing the people.

Right now I am learning a lot about myself and of our Heavenly Father. I am learning and starting to find the people that God has already prepared because HE HAS PEOPLE READY AND WE CAN’T WASTE OUR TIME WITH THE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT READY. Sometimes the people don’t even realize that they are ready to accept the Gospel but through the Holy Spirit, we can know if they are these people. I love the mission!

But I have some good news—We baptized three people this week!! And we have planned more but I will keep you updated on that. And I will attach some photos.

The young woman who got baptized is AWESOME!! She actually has a phobia of water, but she knows with all her heart that the Gospel is true! It is actually pretty cool AND she is courageous. Her whole family is pure Catholics, and they hated that she was taking lessons from us. She actually lied to them about her not getting baptized. She told us, “I KNOW THIS GOSPEL IS TRUE. This little lie won’t matter after my baptism. I want to follow Christ and that’s what I am going to do.”  I am a sucker because I started to cry! I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!!!

[ So, I asked Jeremy (Elder Pukahi) the following… “Hey, I have a question... rewind back to when you were at the other area... so it sounded like when we were talking to you... when you lived close to the mission home in both of your areas, did you say you would go to the mission home pretty much every P-day?  I thought you said you would gather there with the other missionaries for sports and stuff...

Have you heard anything yet about who the Apostle will be that will come?  I was looking at the Mexico map and it looks like you are actually closer to the temple now where you are. You are closer to the Monterrey Temple.”   And this was his response… ]

       

So when I was in the other areas close to Reynosa, I went to the Mission office every P-day in the morning for a training and in the afternoon to play soccer and stuff. But now I am very far away! And I know it looks like on the map that we are close to Monterrey and everything but it’s actually like four hours from us. So, yea, we are farther from Monterrey AND we haven’t heard anything about the temple. I think they are waiting until our president leaves because he leaves next month!

I love you guys so much! I am doing awesome! Have a great week!

- Elder Pukahi

This Week We Worked Hard

Elder Sigundo and Elder Pukahi painting a house with two other American Elders.

They are in another area close by and we just helped them paint.

May 16, 2016

Week 28

Dear Mi Familia and Friends,

So first I just want to say that one of my investigators from my past area got baptized—Yeah! I’m so happy! But our baptisms here that were planned for this last week fell through....Wahhhh... BUT we are planning to baptize them this week, and some others the week after. AND we are going to have a baptism tomorrow of a nine-year-old boy so next week I will have a lot of news for you. Wooaah!

My companion is from Mitchuacan, Mexico. I think that’s right. He’s very interesting. In some ways we are similar and in other ways, we are completely different. HE’S A DANCER! So this past week after working all day, he’s been teaching me how to dance. I’m learning how to move my hips. LOL! We’re also living with another set of missionaries—one is also from Mexico and the other is from Honduras, so it’s pure Spanish in the house. But yeah!

This week we worked hard. It’s crazy how things went this week and how very interesting it is to work in this area. People told me that each area has its own unique way to work and it’s true. Right now I’m trying to figure all that out! lol. But as well I’m learning so much with my companion. It’s crazy. I’ve learned more in just this week with my companion than all of my other companions combined. One of the things is patience. It’s funny. I think one of the biggest attributes that I’ve learned from the mission is patience—from the investigators, the members, my companions, as well as myself.

Sorry.... I don’t have any pictures of the baptisms because my old companion hasn’t sent them yet.

Oh...and books... Please send me books like Jesus the Christ, The Day of Defense, and other missionary books. I’ve already read most of them but I want to reread them and mark them up. I’m a nerd now! lol. I LOVE KNOWLEDGE!

Les quiero!  Talk to you next week…

- Elder Pukahi

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY - Skype Call

Skype calling with my family on Mother's Day

May 9, 2016

WEEK 27

Dear Mi Familia & Friends,

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY!!  I love you, Mom, and I love you, my family!!! We just Skyped and it was the BEST seeing all of your faces!

So this week, it was awesome to meet my new companion and talk and work with him. He’s from a good old small town in Mexico, knows very little English, and seems pretty cool. We are getting to know each other.

This week we found some really awesome people. AND they are going to get baptized soon. AND I heard from my old companion that our investigators did get baptized so when I get their photos, I will send them to you. We have some baptisms set up for this weekend so I will tell you how that goes.

I really don’t have much to write you this week since we just talked yesterday. It was so good to actually see and talk with you guys but I will just mention for the sake of my blog, a couple of things. I’ve been in my new area for a week in Matamoros. It is really humid. It is close to the Gulf of Mexico but I’m still like about an hour away. It seems like it will be a good area and I’m looking forward to getting to know the people and my way around.

My mission president is really cool and is not strict with us. Of course, he expects us to be missionaries and follow the rules but he’s not that strict with some stuff like he gives us some freedom or leeway. As long as we are having success and doing well, we can basically do what we need to do each day. Like on P-days if we need to spend 2 hours answering emails, we can. It’s not restricted to just one hour. Stuff like that. I think one of the reasons why we are the most successful mission in Mexico is because of our President. He helps us to feel confident in what we are doing.

IT’S BEEN AWESOME HERE and I am so happy to be serving my mission. I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!  Sorry that I don’t have a lot of pictures to send this time.

- Elder Pukahi

Elder Jeremy Pukahi happy to see his family