Week 86: February 26, 2018

Hey everyone!

My new companion, Elder Klunker is super awesome! He's been serving in the Tongan program his whole mission and this is his first English ward/area. We joked together that something more and more Poly happened each day and that by the end of the transfer, we'd both be speaking Tongan.  First, we had dinner with the Burr family. They aren't from Hawaii but they told me that they had a love for the Hawaiian music. They knew a lot of the classics. I was thoroughly surprised. They said that their daughter had an ukulele that we could use should we ever need one for, say, a musical number. More on that later.  We had a great lesson with the Pisimata family. We got to have dinner with them. They fed us tons of Samoan food and it was so ONO. It's been so long since I'd had kalo. They are doing well. We are set to have family home evenings with them on a weekly basis to help their whole family to come closer to Christ. In the middle of that dinner, we got a text from our bishop. He asked if I could do a quick musical number for a funeral the next morning. 

Remember that ukulele I mentioned earlier? We gave them a quick call and they said we could come by and pick it up. I sang "He Will Carry You" by the Mana'o Company. It was a lot of fun. Plus, I got to teach my comp some ukulele before we return it.  Other than that, it's been a fantastic week. We have a lot of potentials that we are working with and hoping that we can get them to church and progressing.

Hope you guys are all having a great week!
Until next week,
-Elder Kaitoku

Week 85: February 12, 2018

This week, we really focused on our finding efforts. We had been going through our area book with our former investigators and one of them was part of a part member family. Later on, we asked our Ward Mission Leader about some PMFs that we could stop by and this family was on the list. We had been trying to make contact with them for a very long time and this past week, we were finally able to do so. The guy is a member and is originally from Hawai'i. We had a lot that we had in common and he mentioned that it's easier for him to really connect with someone from home because we had similar upbringings. Additionally, they both grew up dancing! He danced at the Polynesian Cultural Center for a while and she grew up in a halau. The kids all dance hula, Tahitian, Samoan, and others! We really got to connect well on that! We had a great lesson in which we were able to establish expectations with them and see what they wanted out of meeting with us. He wants his girlfriend to eventually be baptized. She had been meeting with missionaries for a very long time and hadn't found the answers that she was looking for when it came to the gospel. They have 3 children together, ages 9, 7, and 1. We are hoping to help him come back to church, help their children to have the gospel in their childhood, and help her to understand the gospel better. We want each of them to Come Unto Christ. This was a pretty exciting miracle for us because it had been a long time since we'd been able to find a new investigator that seemed very promising. We, and the WML are excited for this family as there is a lot of potential for the gospel to help them in their lives.

Additionally, if you can recall, a few months ago, Elder Kaitoku got into a car wreck whilst on exchanges with his zone leader, a missionary who will remain unnamed. Now, after being transferred to the Walnut Creek area, it has come to my attention that the member that we crashed into, lives somewhere here. I had somewhat forgot about that until dinner one night. I was talking to a member and we were talking about our respective mission experiences. The subject of cars and driving came up. I said, "I've only gotten into one crash" and at the same time, the member said, "I got rear ended by missionaries once" There was a slight pause and suddenly, it all came flooding back. I wondered why he looked familiar. I had finally met him! We had a good chuckle about that. 


Anyways, hope you guys are all doing well! Until next week!-Elder Kaitoku

Week 83: January 29, 2018

Hey Everybody!

It's been a super exciting week this week! Things have been pretty slow in this area for quite some time. We decided that one thing that we could do to get things going was to go through our former investigators list from our area book. We compiled a group of names and addresses of people we felt had a lot of potential to be willing to learn more about the gospel. On top of that, we were able to help organize a district blitz in order to visit all these people. All 8 elders in our district (4 companionships) worked in our area, revisiting these people. Several expressed interest. We found 2 new investigators through that. Additionally, we were able to find a new investigators through our tracting efforts. On top of that, we have several part-member families who said they were willing to take the lessons with us again. It has been a great week, full of opportunity and potential. Things have really started to pick up out here. We have been busier than ever. I am looking forward to this upcoming week to see how things go with all these new people. One of the part-member families is Polynesian and the kids all dance Tahitian, Hula, Samoan, and several other Polynesian cultural dances. We have a LOT to talk and bond about. The father used to dance at the Polynesian Cultural Center! I'm looking forward to meeting with them, getting to know them better, and helping them "Come Unto Christ". 

Other than that, it's been a pretty great week. Our entire district has been doing super well and have gotten to know one another a lot since the last time we talked.  We are planning on doing the district 3 and doing it in "The Office" style which should be pretty fun! If we finish it sometime soon, I'll send it off to you guys and you can let me know what you think. 

Until next week! Love y'all!

-Elder Kaitoku

Week 81: January 15, 2018

Hey everybody,

Elder Kaitoku is now in the North Gate 1st and 2nd wards in the Walnut Creek Stake/Zone. It's been really great so far. I moved just a few minutes north of my last area so if I hike to the top of the mountain, I can peek over and see Danville. I will definitely miss those guys!

The new area has been really great so far. The members are all very great and I've been getting along really well with my new companion Elder Vindich who is from Mayberry, North Carolina. One of the highlights of the area is the new apartment! Huge thing. Two bedrooms, and most importantly: TWO BATHROOMS. YES.

Looking forward to working here and loving and serving the people like all those that I've been able to in my previous areas. Not much to report on this week but until next week! Peace

-Elder Kaitoku

Week 80: January 8, 2018

Well, we received our transfer calls and *drumroll* Elder Kaitoku will be transferred to the Walnut Creek zone. I will be serving in the North Gate 1st and 2nd wards. I am looking forward to getting to know these people and serving them. My companion will be Elder Vindich. 

I've truly grown to love the Danville community and am sad that I will be leaving but I know that I will cross paths with these people again sometime in the near future (hopefully). As for the events of this past week:

We had a meeting at the chapel as a district. Normally, we park through the lines so that we don't have to reverse. For those of you who don't know, the driver's companion has to get out and instruct the reversing of the cars. So instead we simply pull through and park perpendicular to the lines. On this occasion, my comp and I decided we had some time so I reversed him into the stall so we could just drive out. Well, some other elders decided to park directly in front of us so that we would be blocked. During the meeting, one of the other elders peeked out the window and exclaimed, "There's a police car outside!" The other missionaries (who parked in front of us) ran outside while my companion and I walked calmly. After some explanation, we realized that the officer was a member and thought it was funny. But the whole experience reminded me of a scripture I had studied just that morning: Proverbs 28:1 "The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion."

We also experienced an earthquake this past week! At approximately 2:39am, we felt a 4.4 or 4.5 magnitude earthquake. It woke up me and my companion. My companion said that he thought I had gone over and just started shaking his bed for no reason and was really confused. Yeah, like I'm going to wake up at 2:39am to crawl over and start shaking your bed...on a Thursday?? Naw that's more of a Tuesday thing.

Anyways, our district is having our farewell lunch soon so I'd better get going! Hope to hear from you all and hope you all have a great year!

-Elder Kaitoku

Week 77: December 18, 2017

​Hey Everybody,

This week has been pretty great. We got to go to some of the fanciest parties that I've ever been to. I've decided that one can determine the fanciness of a party based on how much variety of cheese and crackers there are. Ah the perks of Danville.

The family that we've been working with up to this point will continue to be worked with. Due to the holiday season being super hectic and being really busy, we've decided that it would be best to give them more time before baptizing them. The members have been a really great support for them and us in this entire process. The members help to support and love and answer any questions or concerns that they may be faced with. They've also helped us to better understand how we can best work with them. The members here are truly great.

Every new years, our mission is allowed to watch two movies from a selected list of approved movies. This year, Moana and Rogue One top that list. I am super excited because I've heard a lot of great things about these two movies.

We will also be singing for the Christmas program at the Visitor's Center, which we are super excited about.  Love you all and am looking forward to this holiday season! Talk to you later!

-Elder Kaitoku