June 22, 2015, Update from paradise :)

Brothers and Sisters, ALOOOOHA! 

Well it's been another lovely week in Laie. :) There were lots of small and simple miracles, and I came to see once again how much Heavenly Father is really preparing something for those who are prepared!

So on Saturday, we had morning shift at the Visitors' Center. It was kind of slow, but there was a little trickle of people coming in. Among these people were some wonderful ladies from Delaware, Norma and Jone (those are some nice names yeah?) probably in their 60's. They had just stopped by because they got lost looking for the Polynesian Cultural Center (classic). But alas, they were happy to stop by and see the beautiful temple and Visitors Center! As we got talking with them, they mentioned that they wanted to find a church to go to on Sunday. That doesn't really happen very often because people are usually on "vacation mode" when they come and don't even really want to think about waking up for church. So we invited them to come with us! Thankfully our church is at 10am so they were pretty willing. They mentioned that they were pretty active in their own churches, but they still seemed really interested. Sunday morning 10am comes around, they're not there. We waited for a while and then went inside assuming they wouldn't come. But a couple of minutes later, a member came to us and said "Sisters! I think there's some investigators in the parking lot...??" (Haha the member was really surprised because it's a miracle if there's an investigator the whole ward doesn't already know about). So Norma and Jone came to Sacrament meeting, and they loved it! Our ward has a million little kids and I have never been more aware of how much noise they make until Sunday..let me just tell you it was crazy. Sister Penales and I were both praying so hard the whole time that they'd be more quite. Then at the end Norma was telling me how much she LOVED that there were so many children! She said that's one thing her church is missing, is families. Aparently at her church everyone is between 50 and 80 years old and not always in a family unit. So yeah, even though it wasn't perfect, Heavenly Father knew what they needed and what would help them be more open to this gospel. The seed has been planted!! (story of my mission/life!!!) We got their emails so hopefully we can continue to talk with them and invite them to meet with missionaries in the future. :) 

On Thursday, were spending some time trying to contact our online investigators. I have had this investigator named Robert on my contact list for literally my whole mission, and I had never been able to contact him. He was transferred to me by another sister who went home my first transfer. Even though I never got a hold of him, for some reason I still never dropped him. I knew the missionaries in his local area had been in contact with him, but I didn't know if he was progressing. I decided to give one last call this Thursday, and after that I would drop him if I didn't hear anything. Amazingly he finally answered! When he heard we were the sisters, he said "It's so funny that you're calling right now... I've really been thinking about all this lately. I've been going to my old church, and I have felt that something is obviously missing. There's a difference in my life when I'm not going to the LDS church and reading the Book of Mormon." He started to cry as we testified that it's not too late for him to come back, and that God was aware of Him and prompted us to call him at that specific time. He committed to go again this Sunday, and to talk to the missionaries about having the lessons again. He asked if we could give him a specific chapter to read in the Book of Mormon and if we'd follow-up with him on Monday. Haha, he knows how missionaries do business :) So that was a sweet miracle. 

The best feeling is knowing that we were the answer to someone else's prayer because we followed a prompting! I invite each of you to be the answer to someone else's prayer this week! There are so many people in need all around us, and if you pray to know what Heavenly Father would have you do, He will guide you. Ask for opportunities, look for them, and then ACT upon them. It's the best! This is really God's church and God's work! I love being a missionary, this is truly the most fulfilling work! 

<3<3<3 Aloha Nui Loa!!!

<3, Sister Sabey

Pictures

1- Hike this morning! It got kind of intense... haha 

2- Family Photo!!!! (Sister Castaneda came for her temple trip. I <3 them:)

June 15 - Of Such is the Kingdom of Heaven...

Aloha my loves!!!

I hope everyone is doing well and had a great week! 

So the VC is doing Story Time again! We haven't done it since last fall, but since it's summer there are a lot of people who would love to come. If you don't remember it's just a 30 minute story/lesson thing where kids 2-5 come and sing primary songs, listen to stories, etc. Last week the theme was "Faith in God." The part we were in charge of was telling the story of David and Goliath. So to make it more interesting Sister Jensen (senior sister at the VC) made it into a little play! Sister Penales is 4'9", so naturally she played David, and there's an Elder in our zone that's 6'6", so he played Goliath. :) The kids loved it! (except one little boy who started crying when Goliath came out.. haha too realistic!). It was nice because we did it in front of the Christus statue. The Spirit was so strong, and just having the image of the children surrounding the statue made me think of how much Christ loves children. It makes sense because they are so pure and humble and sensitive to the Spirit :) It also made me realize how simple and beautiful the principles are. They are simple enough for small children to understand and apply. We can find joy in the most simple gospel truths, like faith and repentance! 

Anywho, that's all the time I have today, until next time! I love you!!!!!

Pictures:

2- It always seems like the temple is spotlighted 

3- David and Goliath :)

3-  <3 my favorites Hyuki and Aiden <3

June 8, 2015 - Happenings in Laie...

Aloha everyone!!

First of all can I just say I LOVE YOU ALL a loooooooot! :) 

That's mostly all I wanted to say. 

But in other news.... here's what's happening in Laie. 

I am always amazed that Heavenly Father cares enough about us to take care of the little things we need... I definitely can feel the tender mercies he sends daily! So every day we have visitors center shift for 5.5 hours as per usual, and every transfer we are on a different rotation schedule. We will either have morning shift from 9am to 2:30 or 2:30 to 8pm. This transfer, we just happened to have a lot of evening shifts, which means on those days all our visits in the area have to happen in the morning. That can be pretty tricky here, because everyone works during the day. So sometimes in the morning time I feel like we're just knocking on empty doors and looking for productive things to do. But, this week has been great, we have come across a lot of opportunities to serve in our area during those slower morning times! Our zone established "Footie-Friday" which means we don't use our cars on Friday. As we were walking down the street a couple of Fridays ago we came across an awesome member (Sister Soren) painting her house. Her husband passed away several years ago, her son is on a mission and her daughters were in school. So we offered to help her out! We were able to schedule a morning to help her paint. It was super fun painting with her, and we also found out that she is good friends with one of my investigators from 5th ward! She offered to have a dinner/FHE with us that she could invite the investigator to. That is a miracle in itself because she was usually really hard to meet with and find fellowship for! Even though I'm not in her area anymore, it's cool because I know she doesn't know the new missionaries in that area, but she definitely knows me so there will be a connection at least! I'm just so grateful Heavenly Father is aware of the details, and cares enough to send us small tender mercies. 

Anyway.. sorry this is kind of random and scattered! But I guess that's nothing different from what it usually is haha :) Aloha Nui Loa! I hope you all have a wonderful week!

<3, Sister Sabey

pictures:

1- HIGH SCORE on the temple geography quiz game! 

2-Hike this morning in Kaaawa! 

 3-Having a tramtastic day with Lance the tram driver :)

June 1, 2015 - The Grand Architect

"We each try to do our part, but He is the grand architect." 

I love this quote from Elder Andersen in the last General Conference! I read his talk this week called "Thy Kingdom Come" and really felt the truth in those words as I reflected on the events of our week!  Sister Penales and I have both been sick this week.. It's kind of just a cold/flu type thing. So we were at the Visitors' Center on the morning shift, both struggling with our voices being audible. We could still talk, it was just a little more croaky and raspy than normal. The senior couple on shift saw us and was like "you two can just go home and get some rest!" But we didn't want to, so we just decided to stay. And good thing we did!! There was a point where the VC was super busy, and all the other sisters were busy giving tours. At that time this couple walked in, so we went to talk with them. The lady (Chelsea) was a less-active member, and her husband (Patrick) was a non-member. They are stationed here in the military, but they had never seen the temple before. So, we start giving them a tour. Amazingly, our voices were not too bad. (Tender mercy...Thank you Heavenly Father!!!) We found out that Chelsea really wants to come back to church since she just had a baby a couple of months ago. After talking about the temple and eternal families, we took them through "God's Plan." I have seen that movie like 500 times, but the Spirit was so strong as we watched it with them! By the end of it, everyone was in tears. Chelsea and Patrick were so touched. Afterwards, they talked about one day being sealed and having an eternal family. They had a new goal in mind, more than just coming back to church. They had an eternal goal, to make it to the temple! 

We tried to do our part, our raspy, croaky part... and God did the rest. He is the grand architect, and He opened their hearts to the Spirit. I'm so excited to find out what else God creates in their lives as they continue on their spiritual journey towards the temple! 

So let's pay attention this week, and see what Heavenly Father does to multiply our tiny little part. He has the blueprint, and He knows what needs to happen. He will allow us to help in our small way, and we will enjoy getting a glimpse of that glorious plan! 

Well, I love yous soooo much!!! :) I hope you have a happy week! 

<3, 

Sister Sabey

PS. Don't worry we're better now!! :) 

Pictures:

1- Our motto this week: spread the gospel, not the disease! 

 2- Me and Blake MacDonald :) 

3- Dinner @ PCC with Lyna Gumba, former sister from the VC who's now going to school here :)