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

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

Email From Elder Pukahi's Mission President

All the missionaries at our Mission Christmas party on December 18th.
Elder Pukahi is in the middle back on the right side.  Look for the big smile.

December 23, 2015

Dear Pukahi Family,

We express our sincere gratitude for the service that your son Elder Pukahi is offering as he helps the children of God return to him.

The continual love and contact from you and to your son will help that he accomplishes in developing a higher level of maturity and spirituality, and become a great teacher of the Plan of Salvation.

We desire that in these days and always, the Blessings of God are with you and your family.

Sincerely,

President and Sister Morales

P.S. Here are some pictures that were taken at our Mission Christmas Party for you to enjoy.

Elder Pukahi with Santa's helper.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Elder Mullins, Elder Pukahi and Elder Phelps
My new companions

December 21, 2015

Hola, mi familia y amigos!

HOW’S LIFE?!?!  So many things have happened since my last email, and I have no idea what to say. But I love my companions and I love Reynosa!

We golfed today!

Okay, time to let you know what’s been going on… So I have the best companions. COMPANIONS! YES, that is correct—I said companions. I AM IN A TRIO AGAIN! Lol… but that’s okay because I love them a lot. Their names are Elder Mullins and Elder Phelps. THEY ARE BOTH FROM UTAH. I think Elder Mullins is from West Valley and Elder Phelps is from South Jordan. They are pretty cool and both have tons and tons of experience. They are both District Leaders. Elder Phelps is actually going to be killed off soon [an Elder’s term for going home soon] and Elder Mullins has been in more than a year. They are AWESOME. I can’t even express how cool they are.

Dad, are you proud!!!

Okay, so now where we are staying. I’m in the city, so I can receive packages easily. It just depends on how fast is gets to the P.O. Box in Texas and then to the mission home. So send packages whenever. I’m in no hurry!! We are like 10 minutes away by bus from the mission home. It’s pretty nice. The city is called San Jose, Reynosa.

Man, we got a lot of work to do. I could keep listing and listing what needs to improve, but it doesn't matter because that’s going to change now. We just talked with our mission ward leader about getting the ward more involved, so hopefully more people will be wanting to go to church and become baptized. I feel like every single missionary is only thinking about baptisms, which we need very badly, but it’s not just about getting baptized. It’s about Enduring to the End -- to keep going to church every day and trying to become better every day. Hopefully I can get the members to understand that and the new upcoming investigators. We’ll see. Wish me luck. I am trying my best!

Elder Pukahi Skyping for a very long time
with his family on Christmas day.

SKYPE! Okay, so we are going over to a member’s house at 5:00 pm our time (4:00 pm your time). I am so excited to talk and see you guys.

How’s Yoanna?!! How’s that good old stomach of hers?! Hope the baby is doing good.

Okay, so are you ready for me to tell you about my week? MAN, BECAUSE IT WAS A GOOD WEEK!

My first week I got doors slammed in my face, met probably the best members in the world, on my first day got a cake in my face to welcome me into the mission field by members, got yelled at by a loca abuelita [crazy grandma] to come inside and watch the news, had the mission Christmas party, and taught some great lessons. It was lot of things!

My first day with the best members ever.
About four minutes after this picture, my
face was in this cake.

Okay -- first about the loca abuelita… so we went over to this home because we had a cita [appointment] with the daughter to teach her. So we went there and was let in by the brother (not sure because my Spanish isn’t that good yet) but the daughter wasn’t there yet. So we just chilled inside the house, watching the family walk in and out of the door and I had no idea what was going on. But ten minutes later, she walked in. She’s very kind and started talking with us, but before we could even start the lesson or anything, the abuelita came in and both of them literally were forcing us to eat with them. We rejected and rejected and actually tried to leave but they literally wouldn’t let us leave unless we ate their food. lol. But we had to wait for the food to even be cooked. (Side note: people here do not know time, when the say right now it means like 30 minutes later, so when they say to have food and it’s only going to take two seconds, it means an hour). 

Walmart got burnt down...who would do that!
I've never been so sad that
I don't have a Walmart.

The funny thing is while the daughter was cooking, the abuelita told us straight up that she didn’t want nothing to do with our church, she didn’t want us to talk to her daughter, didn’t want anything to do with us really, and there she was cooking us food, making us EAT!  And even funnier was when the abuelita was in the other room, she then bursts in the room and starts screaming and screaming at her daughter. I am just fresh off the boat. I didn’t understand a single word that came out of their mouths when this was happening, so I just leaned over to my companion. He’s over there laughing so hard and what he translates for me is "don’t you dare talk to them like that! I like them! They are nice! They actually talk to me unlike you! They are nice to me unlike you!" and a lot more other words, but here I am, having no idea what is going on, peeing my pants. After that, I was utterly scared of that abuelita. I still am, but SHE LOVES US. And she’s scary lol. Oh, I love Reynosa!

Well, now for something spiritual… This week I invited people to baptism and tried talking to people as best as I could. My companions wanted me to start contacting and told me to pick a house. So I looked around, prayed in my heart, and saw this house next to us. With the little Spanish I know, I knocked on the gate. A guy came out and I talked with him, telling him who we are and stuff, but I couldn’t say much. All I did was smile because I didn’t know how to respond. But he told us we could come in and not knowing what to expect, we walked in and found a whole family of six. And the best part was that it wasn’t the complete family. When we went inside to visit, I tried my best talking with them.  We started with the lesson, talking to them about the restoration and how there was an apostasy where Christ’s church was no longer on the earth. And we explained how there was no light, no light of Christ at that time. And I don’t remember what we asked, but I remember the mom. The mom at first looked very, very hesitant about us when her son invited us in. But her answer was "we are all trying to find the light" and she said this with tears in her eyes. When I looked into her eyes, I could feel the SPIRIT so strongly. I taught and bore testimony and went by the Spirit but I know this is what she needs. And I think SHE knows that this gospel is what her family needs. We have a cita with her tomorrow, so I hope that they will progress.

I KNOW this church is true and I know this work is what I need to be doing. I love this so much and I thank you for allowing me to do this. I hope I can become like my companions and like my Savior. I try every day to be better and do more. So thank you for everything!

I love you guys with all my heart! I know this Gospel is true and brings Light into people's lives. I love everyone so much. Thank you for everything I have!

- Elder Pukahi

Leaving From The MTC Today!

My district on our last night together in the MTC.

December 14, 2015

Hola, Family & Friends!

Sorry but I don’t know how much time I have because I am just getting here…

So yesterday was awesome and sad but mainly awesome! Saying goodbye to my District was I think the saddest part. It’s crazy how close I got to people in only 6 weeks. Just think how much closer I could get to the people of Reynosa and other people in my mission. But it’s nice having Elder McGary with me and our good old Latino friend, Elder Lovano. And guess what?!?! I am literally running on an hour of sleep. Whew! Lol. But I am surviving. I think my p-day is from now on MONDAYS, and I’m not sure how much time I have, so this might be a short message or maybe not. We’ll see. I’m just waiting for them to tell me when to get off.

Anyways, it’s time for me to get telling you what I think so far…

Reynosa is definitely where I am suppose to be called. It feels like home! It’s weird but it’s the best! My mission president is way cool, and he is very nice. ALSO his son is serving in VINA DEL MAR, CHILE…Quinton!!! lol. BUT his son is coming home on Wednesday, so I don’t know if Quinton would have known him or not.

Anyway, it is weird, though, being at my mission and away from the MTC. I don’t know anything right now. When people talk to me, I can reply but with really bad Spanish…haha. I feel like a dog on a leash, just being led by people and following every direction they pull me. I really have no idea who my companion is, where I’m going, anything really…so sorry about that. It’s because it is only ten o’clock in the morning, and we just arrived to the mission home.

Okay, I have to talk about Reynosa, where the mission home is. It feels like I am in Utah, just very dirty and a little poorer Orem, Utah. So it’s nice. I like it. But I guess I will tell you next week where I’m going to be going because this is only where the mission home is at. And sorry that I don’t have much to say but it’s because I don’t know anything yet.

I’m happy to hear that you guys are having an awesome time at home, and doing spiritual things and everything. I guess I’m being spiritual, too. Man, we’re all being spiritual, who knew? We aren’t just talking about poop and farts…Oh, how I miss that. lol.

I love you guys so much. Sorry this email isn’t much but I will info you more next week.

- Elder Pukahi