October 28, 2013

"Transfers?  Killeen it is!!"

Howdy Yall!!!!

Yes the subject is right! We got our calls this morning and I will be in Killeen for another 6 weeks!! Elder Vaoga is going up to Arlington and it was a bitter sweet moment for him. My new companion will be Elder Hyde. I don't know anything about him and neither do any of the missionaries in our District. So this will be a new adventure for me. Me and Vaoga are going to be visiting almost all our investigators tonight and tomorrow so he can say good bye. I don't think we are going to make it to all of them though.

This past week was really slow for us. We really focused on visiting a lot of the Less Active families this week. We were able to go to the farthest part of our area which is 45 minutes away from our appartment. Getting there is all down hill, so going back takes a little bit longer. We had a dinner out there with a member and we thought it would be a great idea to ride our bikes down and to see a couple families down there. After dinner, we went to those houses and they weren't home. We then tracted a street and still couldn't find any luck. So it was a long bike ride home.

Thursday was an awesome day for us though! After planning, we went off for our day and stopped at the Maunakea's house. They are less active and are in their upper 80's. They are from Hawaii and were brought out to Texas because of the Military. Brother Maunakea is awesome! He showed us his instruments and he has like 10 guitars and 10 ukulele's  (however you spell that.) After we taught them a short lesson, he gave each of us one of them and he taught us how to play a short song! It was sweet! I am still working on how to say the words because they are in Hawaiian.

We were also able to visit a Recent Convert family that are doing great. They are the Gaballos and they are also from Hawaii. Brother Gaballo was a Roman Catholic before he became a member in May. Last week, he was ordained and Elder in the Elders quorum. That was really cool to see that happen. He is so funny because he loves joking around and being social. He has 3 kids and is a single dad.

One last family that I we visited this week was the Garcia family. Brother Garcia reminds me so much about my dad and Casey. He grew up Mormon and he got in trouble by his parents a lot for doing a lot of things around the house that he shouldn't have done. Haha! His wife was Roman Catholic though for the longest time. He never really went to church though and then this past year, his daughter and his wife were able to make the decision to be baptized this year. They are an awesome family and are really strong in the church.

So the reason why we have been visiting Less Active and some Recent Converts is because the Stake here has more Less Actives than actives. Which is really sad. Our ward came up with this idea that in a couple weeks, we are going to get the whole ward together on a Saturday morning and get into groups of 4-5 and go to their houses and talk with them, check and see how they are doing, and also invite them back to church. I thought that that's a great idea for not only that, but getting the members more involved with missionary work. So me and Vaoga have been visiting them to not only know who they are, but to also know where they live to help out the ward as well.

So this week was mainly focused on those people. Our baptism dates are still all good to go. Ken is in Floriday until the beginning of December so we are going to keep in touch with him while he is gone. Keva has been gone all week and Yvonne hasn't been answering her door lately....But that doesn't mean we are going to stop going over there!! I hope yall have a fantastic week! Thanks for the emails and I will look forward to next week!!

Elder O'Brien