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