He's Coming Home!!!

Mahalo!

Hi everyone! Sorry, not too much to email about today, it's quite a busy day for us! But this is probably going to be my last email to all of you from Australia, so I just wanted to take this time to say thank you!

To everyone back home, I want to say thanks for helping to get me out here on a mission, and for supporting me while I've been out here!

To those that I met in the MTC or on the mission, also want to thank you for helping me have an awesome 2 years, and for all that you've done for me! Whether it's helping me learn and grow as a missionary from what you've taught or your example, or the members who have fed us, taken care of us, and helped us to feel welcome when we were serving in your ward. 

And last but not least, thanks to my family for making this all possible for me, and for their constant support, encouragement, and example throughout this time. 

I'll be flying home this Tuesday, and for those that want to keep in contact, add me on facebook or email me at amho2015@gmail.com.

Love you all, thanks for everything!

Elder Ho

More Fire!

We got to see some cool miracles this past week. The first one was when the mission set a goal to set 44 baptismal dates this past Saturday! My companion and I were determined to be a part of it and set a baptismal date with some people! We had some great plans set for the day, and a lot of the people that we thought we'd probably have the most success with, we were seeing in the morning and right after lunch. So we went out and got to work on Saturday. One by one, each visit fell through. Many of the people were home, but were just ignoring us, which was pretty disappointing. Eventually it was the afternoon, we were behind schedule on our plans, and we hadn't even been let inside a single house yet. Even door knocking wasn't going as well as it usually did. Next on the list was an investigator that we hadn't seen in a while, but that my companion had felt inspired to visit that morning. So we went and visited him, and he ended up letting us in! We had a great conversion with him and baptism was brought up - he said that it was something that he wanted for his kids, and for himself! So we set a date with him, giving him about 2 months to prepare for it. At the end of the mission, as a mission, we set ... I think 54 baptismal dates!

Oh and we also mowed a lawn this past week. We had mowed it a couple months ago. Last time, this lawn was like a forest - it took two different visits to completely mow all the grass, and destroy all those weeds. Recently, we got a text saying that this person had an inspection coming up, and wanted us to mow her lawn again... and we had a feeling that now mowing had been done since we last came, which meant it probably all grew back. So this time, we got another set of elders to come, and a member. We had 2 lawn mowers, 2 whipper snippers/weed wackers, and 1 ... lawn mower/whipper snipper combination, I like to call it the weed destroyer. All 5 of us went to work and absolutely destroyed that lawn! What took probably around 5 hours last time took 45 minutes this time! We weren't taking any chances and under-estimating the project again. Afterwards, hit up McDonalds and rejoiced in our success. D&C 4: "Now behold, the field is ... overgrown ... past to harvest. And harvest we did."

Sorry, door knocking was more bland than usual, so no cool experiences to share this time around.

So in last week's email I think I mentioned that we went to a fireside, where some motivation speakers just spit fire - it was pretty cool. Well, this past week, we had a zone conference, and Brother Hymas, who spoke at the fireside, came and spoke to us! Once again, more fire! It was awesome. Made us feel chastised at times I guess, which was good, because it made us want to improve! At least that's how I felt. Elder Holland said in one of his talks that sometimes he likes to speak with a bit of heat, "just enough to singe the eyebrows", and that's kinda what 's needed at times. Well, this past conference, our eyebrows were singed by brother Hymas. It was awesome, I wish I could have recorded his speech/talk! The main message was being a proactive missionary vs a reactive missionary. What does that mean? Sometimes missionaries wait for things to happen. They wait to be approached by the golden investigator, they wait for great opportunities to come to them. Yet a proactive missionary seeks them out, works for them, finds them. They're putting themselves out there, getting out of their comfort zones, to find success. And I guess that applies to all of us, missionaries or not!

Well, thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

So usually I write down what I plan on emailing about in my planner, so I know what I'm going to email about and have a bunch of great ideas and experiences to share, but this time I forgot my planner, so this email might be a bit short.

So on Sunday I met this guy named brother Williams, who's real cool, and turns out he served his mission in Hawaii! Talked to him a bit more and found out he served in my ward and remembered my dad and some of the other families! So that was fun being able to talk to him, small world. 

Interesting door knocking experiences? Just yesterday we were door knocking and the first door we knock on the street, this guy opens the door. Kinda a taller skinny looking guy, long hair, looked like he hadn't slept in 2 or 3 days, and kinda acted a bit strange. Asked him what he believes his purpose in life is (you know, trying to throw out those inspired soul searching questions), and his answer is, "you wouldn't believe me if I told you". Then I was like, "well, I'm curious". Responded with something like, "serious, you wouldn't believe me". So I was just like, "well, that's ok, but I still want to know..." - eventually he told us. First thing he said was, "you have no idea what I've been through" - yep I knew we were going to be at the door for a while. For the next, maybe 20 minutes, he talked about black wholes, aliens 3, self sustainability, money and corruptions, the Bible, love, evolution... just nod and smile and pretend you're following him. Anyways later on the street we ran into this drunk guy who introduced himself as Kai, really happy guy. Talked about Hawaii being on fire, how he got named after a plumber, and yeah... 

Don't worry, we did have some cool experiences with people wanting us to come back after door knocking into them! It's not all just weird things that happen at the doors. We went door knocking with the YSA again and met this one guy who seemed uninterested at first, but after talking to him for a bit and getting ready to leave, he asked if we had a pamphlet to give him, then asked where our church was located and what time we started, then asked if we could come back! So yeah there you go, a more spiritually orientated door knocking experience.

We also did more moving this past week! We helped move a lot of furniture. Another lesson I learned - Don't buy big beds and mattresses, especially if you live in an apartment complex with thin stairwells and multiple floors. It all worked out in the end though, well, kinda. Couldn't get the bed into the bedroom... but we weren't planning on taking that bed back down. So yeah.

And on Sunday, got to go to a fireside at my old stake center in Cleveland. Well, I've really only had 2 stake centers in my whole mission. But it was good! Got to see some old members and missionaries that I knew, but the highlight - the speakers! First we heard from President Nicholson, he's the ... 1st counsellor I think, in the Cleveland stake presidency. He's blind, and talked about how, to read the Book of Mormon, he had to order a large print version and read it with a huge magnifying glass, word by word. It took 7 years to finish... so yeah we have no excuses right? Talked about a lot of other awesome things too, but just trying to sum up some of the highlights. Second speaker was brother Chad Hymas, apparently one of the top 10 motivational speakers in the world. He had an accident that resulted in him being a quadriplegic. Both of their talks/speeches were super motivational, but some of the main lessons that I got from both of them is that sometimes "all I want to be" isn't what God has in store, but sometimes he has bigger and better plans for us, that the only person stopping me from achieving is me, and that we shouldn't be paralysing ourselves by not being willing to change our beliefs, habits, and behaviours.

Anyways, that's all for today, thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

Da Good Life 808

So it's been getting a bit colder now! We're kinda in winter here in Australia, but it's good! In fact, it's really nice, the mornings have been beautiful. Door knocking has never been more scenic and peaceful, it's pretty great. Don't worry, still finding more interesting experiences to talk about from door knocking, regardless of how beautiful the weather is.

First one is when we talked to this one lady at the door. Wow, she was the most loving, kind, basher ever. She just preached to us about how we're wrong and stuff, but there was a lot of emotion and love in it, and it wasn't too... aggressive, I guess. She was super nice, and I have a feeling she's some kinda motivational speaker or female pastor kinda thing in her church. She even said a prayer for us before we left, then said that her and her family would continue praying for us that night! Great, so some lady who wants to try convince us that we're wrong is probably going to be praying for us for a while, so I invite all who read this to pray for the missionaries in whatever ward you're in! Because it would be a shame if she prayed more for the missionaries than the members did. And don't forget to be specific, pray for your missionaries by name, because she is too!

More door knocking experiences - nothing too out of the ordinary. Mostly just want to say thanks to the YSA that came door knocking with us recently - we got to take two YSA out with us and split into two companionships to door knock. We got to see a lot of miracles and teach a bit at some of the doors, and we even found a lady who seems pretty interested in learning more, after we shared about the plan of salvation!

What's with the title? So for those not from Hawaii, 808 is the phone code thing for Hawaii. We got a new move-in to the ward, and so we went to follow up with who this family might be! When we got to the house, there was a truck in the driveway, and one of the stickers on it said, "Da Good Life 808" - so I had a pretty strong feeling that they were from Hawaii! Knocked on the door and... no answer! But I was determined, so we came back a few hours later and... no answer. Came by the next day and... we got an answer! And they welcomed us right in. The wife was raised in Australia, but the husband was born and raised in Hawaii! We reminisced about food, weather, more food, and the different lifestyle back home. Upon leaving, they gave us a box of vegetables and fruits, and spam! Who else gives missionaries spam - so excited to eat spam, eggs, and rice now for breakfast. Or maybe spam musubi? The options!

Well, not too much else happened, just the usual. Knocking doors, teaching appointments, dinner, and that's about it. Maybe I'll have more to talk about next week. Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

Oh, and had a trip to the temple today. 

Isaac the Bee Man

We had a bunch of random experiences this past week, so I have stuff to email about now! We'll start off with a referral that we got. We got this referral saying that someone had some questions and was hoping they could meet with the missionaries! So we went to the address which was given to us, #30 on one of the streets in our area. When we got there, we realised that there were 11 #30's on that street - it was a bunch of units. So we had to knock each one, asking if they knew the person we were looking for. Well, at #8/30 this lady answers the door, which kinda a crazed/angry look on her face, and angrily asks who we are. After trying to explain who we were, she started yelling at us to leave, and when we said we need help looking for someone, she started yelling "your not looking for anyone! You're trying to steal from me!" and other random statements. So we quickly walked away, and I told my companion, "well, we know for sure that our referral is not at #8/30". I thought to myself, "I'm never coming back to this house again". We couldn't find the person we were looking for, so we planned on coming back later to knock the rest of the doors that didn't answer. Later on in the week, we get a call from the sister missionaries, saying that our referral called them! She said she was really sorry, and wanted us to come back, and that her mother in law was the one that had yelled at us until we left... so just a few days later, there we were again, knocking on #8/30. Turned out much better this time, but she wanted sisters to visit her, so we referred her to the sisters.

We also went on tradeoffs with the AP's this past week! We went to visit this excommunicated lady that we met a while ago on our last tradeoffs. One our way there though, we saw this old, skinny man, with kinda long white hair, and a white moustache and beard. We talked to him for a bit, and I could smell a bit of alcohol in his breath. He said some interesting things, and sang us some lines from some Christian songs that he wrote. Kinda whispered them, to a tune. It was kinda weird. But the whole time I couldn't help but stare at this bee that was sitting on the back of his head. As he sang. As he talked. It just chilled there. I was worried it would sting him, but I didn't want to interrupt his song, and maybe it was his pet or something. Or mistook his off white hair for some flower or pollen. Anyways, he left us with his blessing and we moved on.

Also met this guy while door knocking who's part of the Sikh religion. Had a good chat with him about our beliefs. Then, randomly, he said something like, "I'm not really religious", then lifted up his shirt and showed us a dagger that was tucked away in his pants. Not to sure what that meant. But we kept talking, and then left a few minutes later. So there's another random experience for you all.

Got to do a bit of service throughout the week, which included mowing lawns and helping people move. The usual! Few words of advice - don't let your lawns go unmowed for months - it makes the job a lot more difficult than it has to be.

Onto the food subject! A dinner fell through one night so we ended up going to this awesome Samoan family's house for dinner! They got us KFC - every missionaries delicacy, and also cooked us "kekepuaa". Not sure if I spelled that right. Back home, we call it manapua! Haven't had it in ages, and haven't ever had a homemade one before, and it tasted really good! For those who don't know what it is, it's like a special dumpling bread thing filled with, usually, pork in the middle! Sorry, not the best at explaining it, but it tasted good!

On the teaching side of things, went to follow up on someone we met a while ago, who was given a copy of the Book of Mormon by her neighbour! Unfortunately, the visit was mostly about her talking about all these videos she watches on youtube and facebook about everything from political conspiracy theories to the world being flat, and she tried to get our email or facebook so that she could send us this video that, well, would basically tell us "why our church is evil". Yeah, no thanks! Haven't used facebook in 2 years, and I'm not about to start using it again now just to watch some weird anti-mormon video she found. So yeah, don't think we'll be going back there again. But we can learn a valuable lesson from her! It's about the Book of Mormon. After asking her if she's read it, she said, "no", and that she'll never read it. Sometimes I tell people that I like to eat octopus back home, and they gross out, but when asking if they've had it, they say they never have! And so I always wonder, how can you judge something if you haven't tried it! If you aren't reading the Book of Mormon, your missing out! Doesn't matter if you've read it once already, or if you've read it heaps, my invitation - just keep reading.

Well, that's my email for today, sorry it was kinda all over. Thanks everyone for your love and support!

-Elder Ho

Hiking Pictures from last P-day

Disclaimer: No swimming was done, I promise. Socks may have gotten a little wet though.

Me and my comp

Transfers

Last pday was nonexistent! We spent pretty much all of it making a poster board for a stake family history event, but I think it turned out alright, so here's a picture of the display at the event! it was basically a poster board talking about what missionaries do, and how missionaries from all around the world have come together to serve in this area, and all their different backgrounds, ethnicity, and families.

What else did we do this past week? It was quite busy. Since it was the end of the transfer cycle, we had to do our "deep clean" - normally 4 hours of cleaning your flat and car. We were told we were going to have an inspection on Thursday, so we had to make sure we got that done. Thursday we also had a service opportunity - helping a family move! That turned out pretty good, it was fun, loaded heaps of boxes and furniture onto trucks and then unloaded it at the house... took a few trips. Unfortunately, it went a bit longer than expected and left us with 1 hour to clean our flat! So we made it home, at a bit of pizza, and got cleaning. Then the senior couple missionaries came to inspect our flat and... we passed! What confuses me is that they were so impressed by how clean it was, and told us that it was way better than the last time we inspected it! But last time we used the full 4 hours to clean... 

Looking for another door knocking experience? Well here's a few for the week. Met this guy from New Zealand with really cool dreads, and tattoos all over, as he was coming home from work. After talking to him for a bit, amongst the smoking and swear words, he also invited us to come back for a feed! He said we'll be getting KFC - missionary delicacy. Later in the week we also met a lady that we ended up talking to outside for at least 20 minutes as the sun set. She goes to a Pentecostal church that's right down the street from where we live. I think every Saturday we can hear music and some beats coming from there. Answered heaps of her questions, talked to her about our beliefs, and explained what missionaries do. It was a cool experience for us at least, helping someone understand who we are.

Wanting more service stories? One more quick one, we helped some Chinese Pizza delivery boy try to find "house 103" in the dark. Tried to make it quick because we were hungry and had a dinner appointment to get to. I think he found it in the end, after knocking a few wrong doors.

Other good experiences throughout the week? This guy requested the missionaries to come over - he hadn't been to church in over 20 years. Not sure if he's even baptised to be honest. But he's got 2 sons, and has been going through a few struggles in life, and told us that he decided that now it's time to get his life in order. Super humble guy, and we're excited to work with him. Just one small obstacle is that he's only home 1 out of every 5 weeks, the other 4 he's working away in the mines. Also had family home evening with aboriginal recent converts - it was fun! Talked about temples, drew pictures, said prayers - it's the small moments like that which are always the highlights of the mission.

And - the title. So 6 weeks came to an end, and we got the call last Saturday saying who's staying and who's going to get transferred. Our third companion, Elder Waqa, is transferred, and I'll be staying with Elder Karina! I'll be finishing in this area now (Helensvale & Pimpama ward), and I cant complain - it's been my favourite area so far. I've already spent nearly 8 months in the area, so I'm considering this a miracle!

Anyways, thanks everyone for your love and support! 

Elder Ho

Door Knock Miracle

There wasn't too much that happened this past week, but the things that did happen were pretty cool. So first off, the door knocking experience that lead to the title. Just doing our typical door knocking routine, and at one door we meet a 20-ish year old who tells us that one of his friends is on a mission in New Zealand. After finding out that I knew his friend (we had taken him out with us to teaching appointments before he left, and he always bought KFC for us - true legend), he invited us in! The whole family (grandparents, mom, siblings) were all chatting to us and talking to us as if they had known us for ages, then proceeded to cook us dinner and feed us! So yeah, probably the first time on my mission that someone fed me right after I knocked their door. Possibly the last time something cool like that happens too, but I'm still hopeful.

After that cook experience, we went to our ward activity, which was a Trivia night with free pizza! We sat next to some people we had invited, and had a bit of fun, but after being on a mission for nearly two years you realize you can't really help answer a lot of the questions because you've been disconnected from the world for so long. So didn't feel like the mvp that night, but that's ok, still fun.

Highlight of the week? Well, two Sundays ago, we got a call at night from a family that had a nonmember living with them, who we had been teaching. There's a bit of a back-story, but basically they had taken her in as one of their own kids (probably one of the strongest, most active families in the ward to be honest), and she had been going to church every Sunday and every ward activity, even attending Seminary and going to a miniMTC activity - all by her own choice too! So during the phone call they said that she had decided she wanted to be baptised the following Sunday (this Sunday past)! With that, though, came a few obstacles and things we had to sort out and take care of to make sure that everything would go through as planned, but after a crazy week and many appointments and phone calls, the baptism went through! It happened after church, and the family she was living with planned it out and pretty much ran it, and it ended up being a beautiful baptism!

Well, spiritual thought for today? I'll just take it from a recent talk I prepared for the baptism. The Holy Ghost! Don't take it for granted. Remember, you've literally got a member of the Godhead with you! I like sharing part of one of my favourite scriptures that goes with it, psalms 23:4 "yeah, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me". Life is great, but we all go through rough and tough times, but don't forget, because of the Holy Ghost, God is literally with you always.

Thanks everyone for your love and support,

Elder Ho

Fun little object lesson activity thing we did...

Pday at a lake! no we didn't enter the water.

Gday Mates

Thought these were kinda cool... so yeah. Here's our pictures from our last temple trip! And Star Wars :)

Miracles

Got two weeks of things to email about! Unfortunately, I didn't get heaps of interesting door knocking experiences to talk about this past week. Well, I guess I got one that was kinda cool. We went to help out another companionship's area find new investigators, and some members came along to help too. So one of the members came with us and we went door knocking on one of the streets they gave us, and the third person that answered invited us in right away! I was slightly in shock because, well, here in Australia, that doesn't really happen while door knocking. As I recovered, I realised that this lady just lived by herself, so I was a bit ssad because, the one time we're invited in, we can't go in because of our missionary rules. Then I realised -  we have a member with us! So we went right in and ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation! She even said she wanted to learn more! So that's a cool door knocking miracle. Also got to pet her cool dog, who apparently only understands commands in the Maori language, which I think is pretty cool.

Some other small miracles that we've had thes past few weeks is being able to teach some part member families, and seeing them come to church, one of them being a family that hasn't been to church ever since I've been in this area (and I've been here for a while now). Another awesome experience happened one day, as we finished door knocking since it started to get a bit dark. We still had 20 minutes until dinner, so we went to visit a family (another part member family, with only one of the adults living at home being active). For the first time since I've been serving here, we got let in, and with our limited time we got to know them and shared a quick magic trick, that may have included a bit of fire, that just blew away the kids' minds - it was great! And of course, the trick was gospel related. It was probably one of the funner and more spiritual lessons that I've had with kids on my mission. As we were leaving, one of the adults (who's active) took us outside and said that she'd been praying just this morning that someone who could help bring her family back to church would come today... just another massive faith building experience for us! It's those types of moments that we live for on the mission.

Other things that happened this week... we went to the hospital to give a blessing, we helped someone move houses, and done the usual door knocking and teaching. We also had zone conference, where we learned a lot about the Book of Mormon!

Oh and I also got to have dinner with a family, whos parents went to BYU Hawaii! So we reminisced about local food, the funny types of people back home, the beaches, and the "haole's" that we sometimes come accross in Hawaii. Then we tried to share a cool object lesson/magic trick - but the kids were to smart and caught on to the trick - guess we have to bring a better one next time.

Anyways, thanks everyone for your love and support! Have an awesome week,

Elder Ho

Getting Spiritual?

First off, due to it being mother's day and us being able to skype home this sunday, apparently we're not allowed to email so don't expect any emails next week!

So one highlight of the week - dinner with a Tongan family that used to live in Hawaii for a while! That meant a few things... 1) a massive feed! We barely scratched the surface of all the food they had. 2) Him sharing his experiences of what the Hawaii life was like, and talking about all the food that you can't really get anywhere else but back in Hawaii! So yeah, it was all about food that night.

Also followed up on someone we found door knocking. He's Christian and a really nice guy, although throughout our conversation he was subtly trying to convince us that Joseph Smith isn't a prophet. One cool thing though, aside from the super nice prayer he said for us, was his table in the living room - it was a massive lego model of the Millennium Falcon from star wars! Said that, in total, I think it took him about 24 hours to complete? Gotta admit it was a pretty impressive model.

As for teaching, we had some cool experiences. First off, we've finally re-established contact with an investigator that we hadn't seen in a while, who's from Brazil. No later than maybe around 24 hours later, we talked to a missionary who just got back from Brazil that week! So we ended up meeting our investigator, Izabel, with the returned missionary, and got to go past the language barrier that was previously there! After a lot of nodding and trying to figure out what they were saying, we were told that throughout her life, including now, missionaries had always come when she needed help and was struggling a bit in life, even though they didn't know what was going on. So that was an awesome testimony building experience for us!

Another cool teaching experience was when we followed up with a different investigator, who, after many teaching appointments, said that she's received and answer to her prayers and wants to be baptised! Now we're just working out what date works best for her, but another testimony building experience about prayer!

Also had stake conference this week, majority of it was about ministering and temple and family history work. Some really awesome speakers!

And I'll close my email with a door knocking experience, which was my inspiration for the title. Met this guy one morning while knocking on his door, who we were able to have a bit of a chat with. Really nice guy, we shared the Plan of Salvation with him and he agreed to pretty much all of it! He said he was spiritual during the beginning of our conversation, so, in an effort to discern who he was and get to know him more I asked something along the lines of, "so, have you always been a spiritual person?" to which he responded no. Then he explains that, in fact, he only recently became spiritual... when he started smoking weed and seeing things. Then he said that, because of that, he knew there was something out there! I tried to just kinda forget what he said as we continued talking. I know God works in mysterious way, but I don't think substances like weed are one of those ways... if you're seeking to strengthen your spirituality, I invite you to keep the word of wisdom, not break it! Just another day in the mission.

Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

ANZAC

Another good week! Not too much to talk about. I got another fruit to try from one of the members (the one that's been giving us dragon fruit, panama berries, jack fruit, etc). This one was a custard apple - it looked pretty cool, and tasted pretty awesome. Sorry, that's about as exotic as most of the foods I try here are.

One Wednesday, at 3:30 am, we woke up to go to ANZAC day, where they commemorate the soldiers that fought from New Zealand and Australia in the war. It was a good experience, and quite an early start to the day, but worth it. Got back home in time to sleep for another 15 minutes before our morning alarm went off! The rest of the day was a bit of a struggle, it even included us helping a recent convert move houses! We got to life piano's, dump toys, destroy parts of a tree house, and clean windows! You can imagine how tired we were for the rest of the day - fell asleep pretty quick when we went to bed that night.

Another great service opportunity was when we got a call saying that a nonmember needed our help, due to her physical conditions, mowing her lawn and pulling weeds. Her son was a member so that's how she found out about us. We were able to help her out, and tried to teach her a bit. She's not too interested in having the discussions but we've been sneaking in little points of doctrine here and there, and we're hoping to go back again later to help her out!

Also found a new investigator, through a neighbour. She's a single mom from Poland and has had a tough life, but has turned her life around and is now seeking God. She talked a lot though about some conspiracy theories and her opinion on what the Book of Revelations, in the bible, means. Taught her about Priesthood authority though, and how Christ established His church on the earth.

I'd have to say though, that the highlight of the week was watching one of my companions, Elder Karina, receive his patriarchal blessing! I don't think I've ever been able to hear one besides my own, and so it was a wonderful experience! And no, I wont be sharing any details, but that's probably a moment on my mission that I'll never forget.

Before I close off, next week I'll probably be emailing on Thursday, but it's not confirmed yet. Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

Surprise

So surprise email! They recently told us that they'll be moving our pday to monday for this week, so yeah, surprise. I don't have much to email about. Last week we just did our deep cleaning because the transfer was coming to an end, sooo fun!

And we found out that all three of us are going to be staying together again for this upcoming transfer! Kind of a surprise.

And the last thing to email about, is that last week we had Elder Cardon come to visit our mission! He spoke a lot about knowing who we are. There are many valid answers to answer the question of who we are, but he focused on us knowing that we are the seed of Abraham, which, in many scriptures, says that we will bless nations and families. As members, whether converts or born into the church, we are all part of Abraham's seed. Elder Cardon tried to give us a new outlook on missionary work, a new perspective, which, if applied, while change the way we work.

Anyways, thanks everyone for your love and support, the next email should be next wednesday!

Elder Ho

PS - since the email is short I'll just send some pictures

Getting ready to door knock on tradeoffs:

Random Pday Picture:

Door knocking as a district with members:

Cremation?

More door knocking experiences! We met this one older lady, who told us her stories of her travels around the world. We shared a bit about the Plan of Salvation, and asked her what her beliefs are about afterlife. She said that she wants to be cremated, because that is how your soul is released from your body... something like that. I think I'd rather be cremated then buried in a box too, but still deciding...

Also met this guy named Dan while door knocking, and after chatting to him for a bit, he let us share the Plan of Salvation with him too! We plan on going back this week to teach him a bit more, it's just always great to have the opportunity to teach people at the door.

We've also started teaching a nonmember that has been living with a very active family, and she's doing awesome! She's even told us that one of her goals is to serve a mission in the future, and she's not even baptised yet... you don't hear that from nonmembers very often.

What else have we been doing this week... well I couldn't continue on without my fix of lawn mowing. We got to mow this lawn that hadn't been mowed in a few months, and that was one of those things that was oddly satisfying to do. It was a long project, and pretty big, but I always love seeing the lawn go from overgrown to neatly cut. So that was fun.

It's also been the Commonwealth games! Didn't get to watch any of it though, but got to hear a lot about it! For all my Americans out there, it's a pretty long event, over a week long, kinda like the Olympics, but for all the countries under the commonwealth. Apparently New Zealand and Australia smashed most of the competition. And now it's done, so finally all the roads that were closed off for 2 weeks are opening back up again!

And lastly, we had a culture night for the Pimpama ward! It was to celebrate the ... 175th? Birthday of the Relief society program! So they put together a dinner thing for the ward! There were around 6 to 8 different tables, each presenting different cultural decorations and objects, and then heaps of food, from all the different cultures that were presented. Amongst all of it was Tongan, Samoan, Maori, South American, Asian, and European... I may have missed one or two. You don't usually get to eat Taro and Mexican food all at the same time.

Anyways, thank you all for your love and support!

Elder Ho

Good Eats

So last week for PDay, we went to a Filipino shop with some other elders (one of them was Filipino), and then I saw something... a weirdly coloured egg - Balut! So a few of us bought one for each of us, then we went home, cooked some chicken adobo, then boiled the balut! We ate it, and it wasn't too bad to be honest... tasted like a really off or weird egg. It's kinda cool, you crack it open, drink the juices, then peel the shell off of the baby duck/chicken and then enjoy! Probably the most exotic food thing I've tried in Australia, and it's not even Australian. 

Also had some good teaching appointments this past week. One was with a Cook Islander, and we got to teach him the restoration! We also taught the restoration to this nonmember girl that's living with a very active family. She's really interested on finding out if the church really is true or not, so we're excited to work with her!

And I know, we're a week behind on General Conference so you've all seen it and talked about it for a while now, but we got to watch it and it was awesome! Cool changes, new temples, new Prophet, solemn assembly, and hearing Elder Holland spit fire once again... it was awesome!

Another highlight of the week... our investigator getting baptised! The best part about it was being able to see her husband baptise her, and participate in confirming her. My old companion, Elder Martin, also got to come see her get baptised, so it was fun being able to reunite for a bit.

Highlight number two... had dinner with a ... Samoan/Maori family? They've been to Hawaii though before, and they made Spam Musubi for dinner. SO GOOD! Brought back almost a little too much memories... but worth it though. I only devoured 4, I'm still a bit rusty on my musubi eating skills.

And for my little spiritual thought for this week, we met this random cool guy the other day who taught us about some of his beliefs. One thing he said was his interpretation of the word, "God". He said it stands for "Great Original Designer". So, just a reminder for this week, don't forget about your Great Original Designer, and the amount of detail he put into making this beautiful world we live in!

-Elder Ho

Another good week down under! Last week for pday was played some volleyball and table tennis with a couple other Elders, and that was fun.

Also, random door knocking experience. Because there is three of us in this companionship, we only have 2 of us go to knock on a door and one stays back and watches us. As Elder Karina and I come back from a door, our third companion zooms towards us on some random kid's scooter he found lying in the yard. As we knock the next door, she asks him, "were you the random guy riding my son's scooter"? Turns out she saw him... in the end we taught her a lesson though, and had a good laugh. New door knocking approach found!

I also had a member from the Cook Islands sing me a song about how I need to learn how to sing and play the guitar on my mission... I don't think that's something that my mission President would want me to pursue on my mission.

Friday morning, we also got to play a bit of touch rugby with our Elder's quorum, and had a bit of a bbq after. Shortly after, we went and mowed someone's lawn and trimmed their hedges. We also got to play a bit with their dogs, two beautiful Siberian huskies. After the service, we got to have a little chat with the member we did service for, and got to hear stories of him out in the Australian bush as a kid, hunting buffalo with Helicopters and driving ute's through trees and bush. Pretty adventurous upbringing.

The rest of our week was filled with giving blessings, door knocking, and some teaching appoints! Nothing out of the ordinary. Oh, and a member gave us fish last night, so my companion cooked it up with some onions and coconut milk - yum!

Anyways, thanks for enduring through this unorganised random email, a lot of random things happened this week. Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

The Whipper Snipper

I don't have as much to email about this week. We'll start off with a new avoidance tactic for door knockers! If you have dogs and don't like door knockers, this is just for you! We were door knocking the other day, and just as I thought we were about to teach a lesson to this one guy at the door, he said, "One second, let me put my dogs inside", and then carried his dogs up some stairs in his house... and never came back down. We waited for a few minutes, then a few more minutes, and a few more minutes, then left a pamphlet at the door and left. As we passed by his house on the way back, we saw that the pamphlet was still there, but the door was closed... thought it was kinda funny, and definitely a new tactic we haven't seen before.

Another highlight is that we had dinner with a family from our ward who has four exchange students living with them - 3 from China and 1 from Japan. They cooked "hot pot" for us, which was really cool; there was a boiling pot of some soup stuff in the middle, and they'd put meat and vegetables inside, then you take it out when it's ready and dip it into some paste thing in a bowl in front of you then eat it. Different, but good!

We also got a call from a member on Saturday, saying that a random person from their community posted on the community facebook page that they needed some help mowing their lawn. The member saw, contacted us, and so we borrowed her "whipper snipper" (weed wacker) and got to work. That was no average lawn though. One part of it was more like a forest. As we were hacking away at that grass, it started pouring too, making the job even more fun! It was quite a project, and after two hours, we couldn't finish it. So We came back on monday, and had a member bring some machine that was part whipper snipper part lawn mower, and it was a monster. It just destroyed the rest of the grass - in a good way. So that was fun! 

And lastly, we got to meet a nonmember at church who came with his friend from Colorado. We ended up going over to give his friend a blessing before she left to go back home, and ended up teaching him a little and talking about his experience at church - we're going back to teach later!

Anyways, thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

Fiji!

I don't have too much to talk about this week, sorry. My new companions and I are doing good, we're having a lot of fun together and have been able to see some cool miracles and experiences! The first one is that one night, we returned home and still had a bit of extra time before the curfew, so we decided to do some "miracle walking". I think I mentioned what that is already, but basically it's the last of the last resort things to do. It's too late to door knock, and there is nobody else left to visit, so you walk around the streets at night, hoping to talk to at least one or two people, because just that in itself would be a miracle. So as we're walking, we pass this "car park" (american translation = parking lot), with a family eating fish 'n chips in the back of their "ute" (american translation = pickup truck). Your welcome for the aussie vocab lessons for today. Anyways, my companion recognizes the dad as someone who looks like a fellow fijian, and next thing you know, they're conversing in their native tongue! In the meantime, my other companion and I are talking to the mom and playing with one of their little kids. We ended up getting invited over for a bbq next week! Anything involving free food or return appointments is a miracle, so bam - double miracle.

We also had a few dinner appointments where my companions and I taught a missionary lesson to the family, and both us and the family felt the Spirit, which is always a good sign!

We also visited an elderly couple; the husband is turning 93 next month! He was filling a bit under the weather though, and asked for a blessing. He group up in Fiji, and so my companion got to give a blessing in Fijian. Although I have no clue what he said (besides Jesus Christ and Amen), it was a pretty powerful experience, and the smile on the husband's face after was awesome to see.

And just yesterday, we had a dinner and a family home evening with one of our recent convert families, which was fun! We passed the rugby ball around with the kids, had some nice chicken and salad, and taught about prophets with a game called "don't eat the prophet" - it involved yelling, laughing, m&m's, and trying to help them what it means to part a sea and where Moses got his power from, it was fun!

Oh, and a little spiritual thought for today - how do you view people? As they are? Think of Alma the younger, and what kind of person he was. I guess we'd see him as a pretty horrible person. But then think about how God viewed him - what he could become. And then look at what he became. Same goes for just about every other great scriptural hero, from Moses to Peter. So how do you view others? And how do you view yourself? If you've ever watched The Prince of Egypt, there's a song called, "Look through Heaven's Eyes". I think we all need to practice seeing people as God would see them.

Anyways, that's all for this week, thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

The Grandmaster

Another good week! We started it off last Wednesday with a zone pday! We met up at a chapel, played some "around the world" ping pong/table tennis, food, then heading over to a bowling alley where we played 3 games of 10-pin bowling!

Missionary work related news, we had quite a variety of things happening. First off, got to teach some English to members from Columbia. Then they tried to convince me that I need to learn Spanish too... not sure if I have the time for that at the moment. We also got to help another member set up a make-shift shed near his house. That took a while, there was a lot of putting screws through metal, hitting dents out, and trying to bend the walls into place... turned out good in the end though. The highlight of the week though was probably being able to set a baptismal date for the 24th of march with a part member family that we've been working with! They're a younger couple, and the wife isn't a member, and they're really awesome and we've had the opportunity to get to know them very well.

I think I mentioned a bit ago that there was a world champion chess player on the mission (he won the under 14s for chess at 12, and became a grandmaster at... 16?). Anyways, we had a stake event this past Saturday for him, where they invited a chess club to come compete against him. He played 20 people at once, twice. The first time was a bit of a warm up, and he played 20 kids, moving from board to board to play his move. He only lost to two of them. Then the second time around he played another 20, this time with the adults, and there were no chances - he beat all of them. One of the only ones close to beating him was another elder! It was cool being able to witness his chess skills, and also hear him talk about his mission and how he's not currently pursuing chess because of his mission, which surprised some of the people in attendance.

Also, this past Monday, Elder Martin got transferred out, and I got two new companions! One has been out on his mission just about as long as me, Elder Waqa from Fiji. The other has just started, Elder Karina from Kiribati! We've already been able to see some cool miracles with them, such as being able to teach a lot of people while door knocking! One miracle that we saw was with an investigator from Brazil - we just had a brief visit with her, and at first she started talking about how she tried to read the Book of Mormon, but that it's very different from her Bible, so we explained that it wasn't another version of the Bible but it's own book, taking place in a different area of the world. That's when she lit up and said that she believes that's true, and that she's always thought it was unfair that God would only talk to one group of people in the world!

Anyways, thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Ho

Aloha

​Another good week in Australia! We started it off last pday by going to lunch at a place called... Burrito Bar? I think that's what it was. Anyways it was a special Wednesday deal where you can a drink then any amount of chicken wings that you want for just 25 cents per wing... so we got over a 100 wings for the six of us. It was great!

We also got to participate in a funeral for a nonmember, which was different. Our ward mission leader was asked to conduct a funeral for a friends family member, and the entire family consisted of nonmembers. My companion and I had the opportunity to do the opening and closing prayer, and it was different experience, probably because many of them saw death as "the end". Our ward mission leader pretty much shared the plan of salvation with all of them, which was pretty awesome. We got to talk to all of the family after, and they were really nice!

One of the highlights for my week was one of our dinner appointments, it was with a family called the Appleby's. They're a young couple and had a cute son who was just under a year old. They took us out to one of their favourite Thai restuarants. What was awesome though was that this was one of the very first families that I met on my mission, and brother Appleby was my first ward mission leader! It was really awesome being able to talk about my first ward, Capalaba, and reminisce about our times there. 

Other interesting experiences for the week... while on tradeoffs I got to teach a lady who was coming back to church, and it was a good but interesting experience. The whole time though, I had to play fetch with this super hyper dog by tossing a sock across the room, and by the end of it the sock was quite wet. To make the situation more interesting, every 15 minutes the dog farted, leaving a really weird and awkward smell in the room. Silent but very deadly. She also had a kitten, which thought it was fun to pounce on the dog from around corners as it tried to play fetch. It also didn't understand that claws hurt, and proceeded to use my leg and arms as an escape from the dog, using it's sharp young claws as grip to climb around me as the dog tried to chase it. Just another great missionary visit!

And why the title of Aloha? I had the opportunity to go to a ward Hawaiian night for a bit, and got to see a bit of Hula, eat some food, and hear some music that I haven't heard in over a year, so that was fun! It was definitely interesting and cool though, being able to see their perspective and appreciation for the Hawaiian culture! Later on in the week, we had dinner with a family who had lived in Hawaii, and they talked about their favourite songs and even gave me a bit of the "local snacks" they had brought back with them!

Anyways, for my little spiritual thought for the day, just wanted to say to make the most of time! This life is a time for us to change, prepare to meet God, and become the best we can be, so make the most of it!

Thanks everyone for your love and support,

Elder Ho

Chicken Wings