Monday, May 30, 2011

Hey everyone,
Yeah im doing good how is everything there? Has the craziness settled a bit since the wedding? It sounded like fun. My mouth is good. It will be better any day now. Dont worry about it im fine.
Flying to big island was so fun. The airport is outside so you get off and walk down stairs on the run way just like the old days. The whole thing is outside just like 8 tiki huts so its weird and very small but its so cool. Thats the island with the active volcano on it so you can see it smoking and there are the rocks that are dried lava everywhere. You can see right where it ran down the huge mountain. Its a super cool place. So ya i already told you we missed our plane so we got on the next one and had to be picked up by the AP's at the airport which was nerve racking but i became way good friends with two of them and actually they flew to maui on wednesday to go on splits with me because we became good enough friends. That was way cool and im glad i got to do that. So anyway after the aps got us we drove to the Kona Temple which is right next to the stake center there. Its a really small temple but beautiful. Unlike any temple i have ever seen. I have pics but ill send them next week. We took pictures in front and then went in to hear elder pearson talk to us. That was good, it was one of the most like motivating influetial talks i have ever been given. It was way good, It also went all day so we didnt even get home until like 9 that night but president bought the entire maui zone burgers at burger king so it was worth it. He is a way cool guy. So ya we didnt go in the temple but i was at it. Very awesome experience.
Everyone were teaching is going good. They wont come to church ever but they are progressing with building testimonies. Were going to try some new approaches this week with Ian and ryan and if they are butt heads about it then were dropping them. Last week was a rough lesson so ya were not sure what to do with them. We will figure it out though. That lady patricia i told you about fell and broke her arm so she couldnt come to church but she will be baptized in june. Same with that family i told you about so there is 4 baptisms that will be done this month. Thats good.
We hit vision 100 today actually. President called and we got it so thanks for all the praying and everything you guys did to help us achieve that. We couldnt have done it with out all of your help. Now were going on to june so we gotta keep the faith that we will reach it again.
I miss home less and less each day. I mean i still miss it but its not constantly on my mind anymore. Im not sure if thats good or bad but i think its good.....
Today were going to a tongan memmorial day party at the lahaina beach park. That will be way fun because were all going, including foley. He is just like a huge fijian older missionary who i love haha.
Well have fun in colorado this next week. Drive and fly safe and hopefully you can email me from there. Let me know how everything is. Thanks for all you guys do and ill send pics next week. Love you tons

Monday, May 23, 2011

 
Making real flower leis for Maui high school graduation


Kole in a lava lava

Hey,
 
Yeah im doing good. My mouth is getting better and this week was pretty good. Elder Tiakia had a baptism and so we went to that on saturday. THose are always fun. It was graduation week for all the highschools on Maui so it was crazy. The excitement in the place can be felt even when your not part of it. Its kinda weird. But we went to foleys house and made Lei's for one of there friends kids forever. It was so fun. I sent pictures of it. Probably one of the funnest nights i have had on my mission. We made a ton of them out of like real flowers so yes i know how to do that now. Ill teach you when i get home. The pictures are cool.
 
We actually started teaching all of those fijians so im way excited about that. I love hanging out with them. I cant wait to bring you guys back here to go to there house. No that lady didnt commit to baptism i asked her three times and she just kept like studdering so we dropped her and her son as investagators. They were not progressing at all. Ian and Ryan are actually really starting to progress towards a testimony, so im way excited. They dont try to bash we just answer questions now and they try and learn. Its a good experience to teach them because of how differerent it is from the normal lessons. Tough but good. We have a new investagator named tom. We recited the joseph smith first vision and he was crying so im pretty sure he is solid. We will see though. Yeah the package was awesome, Everyone thought it was so funny so thanks. I wrote a letter about more so i wont go into detail here. The oreos were amazing though. THanks a ton. Thats good about BKATT and Lando. Ill pray hard for him. Nothin else really exciting happend This week though.
 
I do have a cool story though. So we have a ward list and we go through it to see who we need to go visit blah blah you know just a tool for us to use. Well from like week 3 i saw this guy on there named John Kanahuna. I kept thinking we need to go see that guy but he lived in a hospital and he is 92 years old so i just kept putting it off. On like thursday though we were by the hospital and i thought of his name so i just drove there and my comp was like irritated saying he doesnt need us to see him but i just ignored him and kept going. SO anyway the hospital was built in like 1935 and its way old. WW2 guys came there if they were injured in japan and its really scary looking. BUt we walked in and found the guy. He just started balling saying he had been praying for years that the Elders would come visit him in the hospital and all he needed was a blessing so i blessed him, talked with him for a while and we left. IT was one of the coolest experiences ever. IM glad we went to visit him though.
 
Were getting close here with a few people to baptism actually. Hopefully this week we will get some commitments. Every day gets a little better. Espescially now that i know what a full transfer is like it makes it easier for some reason. Im actually starting to enjoy it. I miss home but its getting fun. So ya thats my week. have fun at the wedding it will all be fine im sure.Yeah everything is goin well. I wish you could come here with me for a week to. I was thinking that the last like 2 weeks of our missions they should allow the dads to be our companions and just do missionary work until we go home. How cool would that be. Glad everyone else is good as well. SO we fly to big island at 730 tomrrow. Land in Oahu at like 750 and then on the Kona. Were going to the Kona temple and someone from the general authorites is coming to talk to us. I gotta write a talk tonight on how im being an effective missionary. Its gonna be so cool i think IM way excited. We come back tomorrow night though at like 9 so its an all day event. Super cool though.
 
Well let me know how the wedding goes. Love you all

Monday, May 16, 2011

1st Baptism for CeCe!
Kole, Foley, CeCe, Elder Austin

Foley, CeCe, their mom
Kole picking coconuts in a members backyard.
"Fresh coconut water is nasty!" -kole
Hey,
Ya im doing pretty good. My mouth is sorta better and im hoping to never go to the dentist again. Saturday was a way good day. One of the best so far. We had 11 non members there including the crazy lady i told merc about and when investagators see baptisms it increases the percentage of them getting baptized by 80 percent so im excited. Yesterday was the confirmation. Foley was scared so he didnt do it and her friend in the ward did but i was in the circle and it was a good experience. Foley was crying like a baby and if you knew him like i know him you would never expect it. Way cool. He tried to cover it though and just left the room right after haha. There was a party after and hawaiian partys are the best i decided. Everyone just brings food so there was so much. You dont have to call people to bring anything its just like expected so its way less stress on the people having it at there house. Basically the whole ward was there so it was way fun.
Ryan and Ian are ok. Ian didnt show up but the lesson we had was one of the worst ones i have ever been in. They truly are not trying to argue. Ryan prayed about the book of mormon but didnt feel anything he said.... So we cant do much more except have him try it again. He has read the whole dang book and just has 6 million questions about it that i have no idea. He is hanging out with us today and i have become way good friends with him. 
Everyone else we are teaching is good. Remember Lori and Tyler? Well on like tuesday night we went to visit them. Tyler stepped out to take a phone call but came back like 5 minutes later and said "girls man" so i assumed it was his girlfriend. We hung out with them for like 30 minutes more and went back to our house. When we got back we got a call from him and he said that we must be praying really hard because his girlfriend just broke up with him so he could live the law of chastity now. We had been praying hard and told him we had prayed for him to find a way to live those things and it made sense to him so were making definite progress with him now. T and Cliff fell off the map for a while but we taught them on tuesday and thursday. They have a 16 year old son that just moved back in with them so were teaching him. He has had a rough life. T told us that if he got baptized she would for sure. She wants to right now but she said she wont leave any of her family behind so pray for Jaylin that he will be accepting to the gospel. That would be so cool if we could baptize the last 3 of there family. Thats about it for this week. I ran into the craziest man i have ever met but its to long to type so ill just do it another time. Remind me to tell you about Karate man down the road haha.
Last night were the transfer calls, i didnt realize that the people going to the airport possibly were not the only ones getting transferred so i was worried again. So the ZL's called and said i was getting transferred and hung up and i was shocked. Elder Davis called back like 3 minutes later just laughing his head off and said just kidding only elder call is going so it was a rough 3 minutes but a definite good prank. Im glad he knows i can handle those things haha. Today were going to the maui aquarium. We got free tickets so we might as well go use them. Next week were going golfing for free also. We have a part member family whose husband is the golf pro at the country club so i have been working on it for weeks and he finally invited us. My comp doesnt wanna go though so it will be me and elder davis. That will be so fun.
Thats sad about Aunt Lorriane. I didnt know she was dead until this morning. Tell uncle benny im sorry.
Well thanks for everything. Sorry about the dentist. Love you all.
Love elder allen

Monday, May 9, 2011

May 9, 2011

Elder Tiakia 6 month celebration with the burning of the tie tradition!


May 9, 2011

Hey everyone,
Ya that phone call was way good. Its kind of deppressing that we wont talk again for 7 months though. Thats so far away. Oh well. I kind of got homesick after and am still kind of feeling it but it will go away. Sunday was good. We ate some pretty good food at the Manehas and just made it quick. We ended up in church teaching relief society, elders qurom, (we each taught a different one) and i taught that sunday school class of kids my age. I had about 7 minutes to prepare for them so you could say it went well. Not much else exciting happend though that day. The rest of the week was pretty good. We got like 4 appointments from tracting for this week were in now and so im excited for those. Our first one is tonight at 6 so we will see how they go. We started teaching Ryan and Ian who both know the bible very well so its difficult to teach them because they have scriptures for everything we have to say. There last question they had was why Jacob said adiue or however you spell it in the end of his book. They said that native americans didnt know french... I had no idea what to say, how am I supposed to know that. There wasnt a class at the MTC that covered why people say the things they say in the Book of Mormon so we will have to figure something out. Also I almost got attacked by a guy for the first time this week. I started walking up his driveway to say hi and he started yelling NOT INTERESTED and so i backed up saying ok... He than continued to yell that when he says that to hurry off his driveway, so me being me said back YES SIR! He didnt appreciate that form of sarcasm and came after me hahaha. Good thing he was like 73 though or i would have been done for. We baptized an 8 year old girl on Saturday from a less active family. It was good. Thats about all there was exciting this week. Im learning to really like tracting. We try out a bunch of new approaches to get in their houses. We have asked if we can help with their yard work if they are outside, complimented them, and have even asked if we could use their bathroom. haha We asked one man working in a yard if we could help him pull weeds. He said no, but set up an appointment for us to come back. When we went back the home owner said that was just their gardener who only comes once a month. The gardener was just playing us. haha oh well. Our baptism for Cece is still a go this next saturday at 430 so that will be good. Ill probably be a witness or something we will see. We are hoping to teach some other samoans we have met. They are way nice but very sarcastic. When its time to get serious they have a hard time being serious. The pictures i sent are of me that i took and of Elder Tiakia and I burning his 6 month tie last night which was kind of fun. So ya. It was good to talk to you all yesterday and i love you all a ton. Keep doing what your doing.
Love Elder Allen

Monday, May 2, 2011

MAY 2, 2011

Sounds like everything there is going awesome. Happy birthday merc. Everything is going good here. Its a nice 75 degrees today, partly cloudy with a slight breeze. Very good. Well this last week some good and bad happend. The car guy from the mission office called and im the new driver thank goodness. Its so fun being able to drive again, plus i dont feel like im always going to die now. Part of being alowed to drive though is you have to get sunglasses so the ZL's took me to the sunglass hut in the mall. So i was thinking when i got there ok ill buy some cool ones not to expensive, but no its a huge deal apparently. Yes tylers baptisimal date is off. We still teach him but he cant get baptized when he isnt willing to live the law of chastity and word of wisdom. They dont work like that. Cece is still on though and passed her baptisimal interview. She is getting baptized on the 14th. That will be fun. Mom ask grandma to email me those talks she gave about the holy ghost and baptism in case i have to give one. I will edit it but it would for sure help. Elder Davies the zl who is my way good friend now, wrote like 4 girls back home i know and it was so funny. Im anxious to see what happens and if they will write back. He hasnt gotten a letter for like 4 months so he is so excited. Today were going to Lahaina, Im not sure if thats how you spell it but it will be fun. Its a little town on the other side of the island. Look it up on google i hear its way cool. Yesterday i was supposed to teach in elders qorum ( dont know how to spell that either) but someone else stood up and taught a totally different lesson so i wasnt to bummed about that. It was weird though. The ward here is so much different than back home. Everyone is so much nicer and friendly and i dont know you just have to experience it for yourself to see what its like. On saturday we did a service project called  mormon helping hands. We went to Kula Elementary and just did tons of yard work and stuff. My comp just stood around though. Not wanting to get dirty. It felt good to do some manual labor though again. I got some gloves and stuff and just worked and it helped clear my mind and everything so i enjoyed it. This month we are going to  fly to the Big Island. Its called mission tour and its just the guys from maui going so it will be way fun. Chris Robbins is on that island and so is elder moritz so im stoked to see them again. I miss all the mtc guys. and ya its me elder tiakia and the zls. it will be way fun. Well there isnt much else exciting that happend this week. Sorry no cool stories. This is week 5 of the transfer so transfer calls are the sunday after mothers day and transfers are on that wednesday so we will see what happens. Well everything here is going good. One day at a time i guess. Some guy in our zone just went home. Just more motivation to do what needs to be done. I look at all the people that i have seen fail at missions or other things in life and honestly it drives me more than anything else.  Thanks for everything and if you want anything else let me know. The tongans make some way cool stuff. I cant believe this is already almost over. Thank goodness. Just kidding. Well write if you need anything else from here. Love you all
Elder Allen