Business Moves (Week 22)

Aloha all of my amigos! Life is busy and mostly happy, haha. Some days are just rougher than others but everyone feels that way on the mission so I'm not special. But it's truth that some days are harder than others, but it's all about your attitude in responding to those sucky days that matters. Don't burn yourself out, it isn't good, because you'll lose joy. But everything is good and busy, hahaha. 

We planned a lot this week for both of our Wards. It was very long and we were trying to figure everything out for the Ward we just picked up and it was long and busy but it's a good problem to have. We just made some solid business moves, lol.

We had 5 of our friends attend a baptism so that was awesome and we had a lady and her 2 daughters finally come to church after 3 months! On Sunday we taught like 9 teenagers the Restoration and we taught them about baptism. And one of them was completely slapped in the face by the Spirit! It was awesome and he's interested and said that he would be baptized if he knew the things we taught him were true! They were vaping when we came over but It's exciting that we get to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people who need a change in their lives, especially when it's a teenager who's life can completely change and can save them from a world of drugs and Satan. 

Have the greatest Christmas ever and don't forget the reason for the season! Matthew 1: 21, "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins."

Love, 

Elder Alec Shockley

Transfers (Week 21)

 Welllll this week was an absolute blur! It was awesome though, haha. 

First off, I would just like to share that The Book of Mormon is insanely cool! It prophesies of so many things! In Ether 8 it talks about secret combinations and prophesies how they'll be built up in the latter days which are today. Moroni says in Ether 8:25 "For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning." The Book of Mormon is bottomless and is truly meant for our day. Read it, it's TRUE!

This week was good. We went to a Samoan family's home for dinner and it looked like a Utah home inside so that was a little weird but I liked it. We had another miracle with the Pohnpein/Kosraen family on Saturday. Elder Becker and I showed up and at first they rescheduled for 2 hours later. When it was time to go back we got caught up in other lessons so we showed up an hour late, and June (the husband) opened the door and we asked if we were still good to meet and at first it didn't seem like he was but then he let us in. We got in and it was only him at first but then his wife and sister-in-law came back from doing laundry right before we said the Opening prayer. We taught the Restoration and it went amazing! We extended a soft Baptismal invitation (which is asking "If you knew everything we taught today was true, would you be baptized?") and they said they would so we invited them to be baptized and at first they were a little overwhelmed but we told them that there were still things to be taught and church to go to and that helped a lot. But the Spirit definitely worked on them the whole time and the timing should not have worked out how it did but it did and it was truly amazing! This family is so golden and they're ready! The Lord's hand was very evident in all of it!! Miracles have definitely not ceased!

Also we met a guy who is super good friends with Kalani Sitake and they worked with each other and did football training camps so that was cool, and we decorated gingerbread cookies at his house and had dinner with him and his family haha.

We got transfer news and Elder Becker and I are staying together in the Honomu Ward and we're white washing another ward! So times will definitely be exciting with all the work to do! 

Love, 

Elder Alec Shockley

The IMU (Week 20)

Dang. I love the Christmas season. IT'S THE ABSOLUTE BEST. HANDS DOWN. This week was so exciting! 

Our Mission President's son told us about how on his mission he decided to be an agent and not an object. This means to not wait to be acted upon. If your day sucks be an agent and make it better. You choose your attitude. You choose whether your day is good or bad

(something Jackson told me). Don't wait for someone to make your day better or make you happier because you're the only one that can make the decision for it to be a good day and for you to be happy. I've really worked on this the past week and I testify that it works and that if we focus on being happy and making our day better and just being grateful for everything that we have, then life is so much better and we're able to enjoy it so much more.

On Wednesday morning, our mission president sent a message to the whole mission saying that we were having a mission wide zoom call with Elder Bragg of the Seventy who covers our mission. We got on and they told us the news that a new mission in Hawaii will be created. So on January 3rd there will be the Hawaii Honolulu Mission and the Hawaii Laie Mission. They'll take Elders from the Honolulu Mission and then they'll get to serve in the Laie Mission for 3-4 transfers, so I could potentially get reassigned for a couple of transfers to the Laie Mission.

The work was awesome the whole week. There was a super cool miracle on Saturday. We had a lesson with this couple, and at first the husband was going to leave but after he shut the door for about 10 seconds he turned around and came back and he asked how long it would take and we said 10 minutes. So he listened and then all of these family members just kept walking in and so we taught 6 of them and we thought they were Chuukese but turns out they're Pohnpein and Kosraen (just tiny island countries), and turns out we had a Book of Mormon in both of those languages in the car! It was a miracle!! I also wondered why I even had them in the car (and I put them in the car like 2 months ago and I always thought about taking them out of the car but I never did) it was all part of God's plan! So now we're teaching 6 of them so that's awesome!

On Friday night we went to one of our members house to help with the imu for the Ward Christmas party the next day. (The imu is the big hole in the ground that you get hot rocks and put whatever type of food in it and then cover it all up and let it cook overnight) and our member told us that we're going to be killing a pig to put in the imu. So not to go into too much detail but we killed a pig and that was absolutely crazy then we skinned and prepped it all. 

We threw salt on all the meat we had, then wrapped in banana leaves, then wrapped that in chicken wire, then we threw banana husks on the hot rocks, put all the pork on, put the banana leaves on top of that then threw all the other food in, put more banana leaves on top of that, then threw these wet bed cloths on top, then a big tarp and to finish it off put dirt around the tarp to keep the heat in. It was all wild and I'll definitely never forget that. The next morning we helped shred the pork up and the hot, fresh pork, just melted in my mouth. It was so good!

I hope everyone is doing awesome. Just enjoy the Christmas season and participate in Light The World because the world always needs more of the light of Jesus Christ!

Love,

Elder Alec Shockley