3/10/15
Ohana!!
Aloha again from little
old Na'alehu! I'm glad to hear that everything is going well back in AZ (and in
Price) and just wish I could be even more a part of it (but not as much as I
want to be out here serving the Lord so don't worry about that! :) haha) Anyway,
that is too bad to hear about Tanya, I will never forget all the times we went
out back with her little rusted knifes and tools and dug out weeds for hours! I
also remember one time going to bring her this cookie we were told to share in
primary and she was not only very puzzled but very determined to pay us for it!
haha! But if my childhood memory serves me right we got away with no
compensation except for a sincere (yet still puzzled) wrinkly old smile. :)
Anyway, I am sorry to hear she passed and yet sure that she will be taken very
good care of by loving missionaries, members and even primary children on the
other side of the vail. :) As for Grandma she definitely does have all of my
love and prayers being sent her way and I will try and piece together something
special to send her physically but at the rate things have been getting done
around here I may end up giving it to her in person after my mission! :P haha!,
As for our side of the
Ocean we have been spending a lot of time quite literally high on the mountain
tops! haha! Our week here in Hawaii started with a trip up to the top of Mauna
Kea, the tallest mountain IN THE WORLD!!!! That's right! Take that Everest!!!
.......well ok so maybe Everest is a little higher elevation but Mauna Kea is
still the tallest!! .....it's just mostly underwater. haha! Anyway, while it
isn't the highest elevation in the world, it is definitely the highest here in
Hawaii and is in fact so high that if you go at the right time of year it bears
an awful lot of resemblance to the ice-planet of Hoth! So yeah, we went
sledding in Hawaii! :) haha
Anyway, we also got to go to a spiritual
mountain top this morning when we traveled to the Kona Hawaii temple! I've now
been to both Temples here in Hawaii and both of them are just amazing! This one
however is one of the MANY "cookie cutter" temples if you will, that
good old Gordon B. Hinckley pumped out while he was President of the church and
is therefore tied with dozens of other temples as the 5th smallest temple in
the world! And it is very noticeable! If you want another fun little google
earth experience just look up the Kona Hawaii temple from the top and then
scroll down a tiny bit and check out the stake center right next to it almost
double its size! haha! But never the less it was great to be able to go and do
some initiatories for those who can't do it for themselves (we didn't make it
to the session but the initiatories were great! :))
Anyway, as for the rest of the actual missionary work that was
happening in between all of that, it's still hard to say what exactly is going
on down here in Ka'u because... well I don't even know what's going on! haha! The
people here are just as unique as ever and I'm still just about as lost among
the deserts of lava rock as ever! But it's looking up! I'm slowly getting a
handle on the area and the culture and everything and trying what I can to get
to know and get along with my comp the members and everyone else here, but no
matter what it's still a bit of a culture shock going from a zone with 92%
membership to one where we have on a good week 30 people total at church! This
week was a special treat because we had a few stake members and one family
visiting from the main land that bumped our numbers all the way up to a
whopping 40 but all in all it is a good ward and I enjoyed being able to talk
as well as my companion and our stake high councilman on Faith! (if you are
interested I based most of my talk off of a story Bro. Hank Smith told in one
of his devotionals about a man walking a tight rope over Niagara Falls and how
being a believer involves not just saying it but doing it and so forth. It's a
really good and entertaining talk! I would highly recommend any of his talks!)
Well anyway, I should probably wrap up now, sorry it's so long
and probably mostly information you guys don't care about or things you could
have just looked up on Wikipedia but, well, that's about all my fried brain
could manage to get out today! haha! Sorry! But in all seriousness, I do love
you guys all very much and appreciate all that you do and are continuing to do!
I hope and pray that you have a great and blessed week and look forward to
hopefully being able to talk a little more next week about actual miracles and
missionary work and not just random facts about dormant volcano's I happen to
be living close to! haha! But until then, have a great week, keep on pressing
forward, stay strong, carry on, and as always, don't forget to be awesome! :)
Ofa atu!!
-Elder
Powell
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