January 12, 2015

Way I figure it, when I get back it's not so much about what the fun thing is to do, but more of what the logical thing is to do. Gotta get a job and save up for school. Besides, what's more fun than staying somewhere where there's a massive shop full of dirt bikes and tools out back? Student scene? Bleh. The shop scene is where I'm at.

Not a whole lot changed this past week, and there's not much super exciting stuff that happens around here, but overall it was a decent week. There's one of our investigators that I'm hoping to commit to baptism this coming week though. How cool would it be to be able to have a baptism right before I go, finish off with a bang. He's the man too. Mostly I'm really excited because he's making changes on his own. Each time we go over to see him he talks about the reading that he's been doing with his daughter, or how he's cleaned up another part of his life. It's really nice to finally have been able to help somebody that not only wants to be helped, but puts in his share of the work. My companion and I are both pretty stoked about the progress that he's making, so we're hoping for a big week.

I continue to be amazed by the way the community is accepting us. On Saturday the boating club held a lunch for all those that had participated in the season, and we were invited to it. We showed up and had a kai, then ended up hanging around and chatting with all of the people there. Nobody treated us poorly or looked at us like some crazy religious nuts, they all felt comfortable around us and talked to us like normal people. It feels really good to be able to talk with the locals and feel like a part of the community, and I'm hoping that somewhere down the road, the effort that we have put in to being sociable people will pay off. If anything, at least people will know that those Mormon boys are good boys.

I'm sure that most of my emails sound about the same, but really, when you're doing the same things day in and day out, it's not like there can be all that much different stuff to talk about. Looking back on all of the places I've been, I've been able to see and do some pretty awesome stuff. Makes me happy that I made the decision to come out. A lot of the time I feel like I haven't done all that much, ya know, haven't baptized the whole universe or anything, but I'm hoping that my efforts have helped somebody. I've tried to avoid getting caught up in the whole numbers game, and instead focus on loving the people that I'm blessed enough to serve around.

That ought to about do it. Until next week,
 Ka Kite Ano