The Work (Week 15)

Howdy everybody! This past week was pretty eventful! 

Think about what you covenanted to do at Baptism and how we renew that covenant each week by partaking of the sacrament. This picture says it all. 

Funny story, so on Tuesday I went on exchanges down to Ka'u again with Elder Lee. As soon as we got there after the 1 1/2 hour drive I went to get my suitcase out of the trunk but I didn't see it. I realized that I never got it out of my car and put it into the car that we took down, so after talking about it we just decided that after dinner that night we would drive back up and me and Elder Lee would stay at my pad. So we did some solid finding and this one guy talked to us for an hour about all sorts of conspiracy theories and mob families running the USA. It was very interesting stuff to say the least, lol.

 

On Wednesday, I was on exchanges again and we went to go finding at the green apartments and as soon as we got there, I saw Jocinto hiding behind a car and a girl said, "He's hiding from you because he just crashed on his skateboard." He was hill bombing on his skateboard and then his skateboard started to speed wobble and he ate it hard; he wasn't wearing any pads or a helmet. We told him last week on Saturday that the devil would try as hard as he could to stop him from getting baptized the whole week. He told us that before he went down something was telling him to not do it (the Spirit) and another voice was telling him to do it (the devil), and we helped him recognize that it was the spirit and the devil. Jocinto went inside and showered and asked if we had band-aids because they didn't have any in their apartment. So we drove to our pad and I grabbed all of our first aid stuff then drove back and I threw on some blue latex gloves.  I got to be the doctor and clean up Jocinto. He called me Doctor Shockley at one point, and at the point I enjoyed what I was doing and thought "Hmmmm maybe I'll just full send the 10 years of schooling and 2 years of residency and be an MD." Probably not, but maybe, but it was a fun thought, haha. The next day, we came back and Jocinto said that his mom and dad wondered if he could still be baptized even though he had those wounds, so once again the devil trying everything to stop him from getting baptized. We told him it wouldn't matter and the water doesn't have chlorine in it. 

On Friday, we had a fun time and went and chopped trees down in the jungle, and the mosquitos are insane but of course we didn't have any big spray and neither did the people we were helping but instead they just throw baby powder on and it works lol! So I was looking like a ghost with baby powder all over me, haha.

 

Saturday was an awesome day. We started with Jocinto's Baptism and it was awesome! The spirit was so strong and and his whole family who aren't members came so there is definitely potential there. It was a such a special day for him as he made his first covenant with God. 

Jocinto's baptism

Later on Saturday I get a call from Sister Walker who's the Mission President's wife and she asked me if I would like to train this next transfer so, starting on Tuesday I'll be training a new missionary! It's quite exciting and a little bit terrifying as we'll haha. The next day on Sunday, Jocinto was confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost and he is such a bright shining son of God! I'm so grateful that I was able to introduce him to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! The rest of sacrament meeting was very special as our Branch was turned into Ward, and me and Elder Buka totally called who the first Bishop of the Honomu Ward is, his name is Bishop Younger and he's absolutely amazing!

This morning on Monday I said goodbye to Elder Buka and wow such crazy, fun, spiritual and amazing memories that I'll never forget that I had with him!

Alec and Elder Buka

Love you all, keep up the good work and follow Jesus Christ to the end!

-Elder Alec Shockley