Best Birthday Ever!‏

First of all, mahalo plenty for all the birthday wishes!! I feel so much love coming to Oahu via mainland right now. I'm so grateful for the many many cards, emails, and letters of encouragement and love. Many of you made my week so special, I can't describe the love I feel right now (:

This week has been absolutely amazing. It was an emotional beginning, over half of our zone left. 4 missionaries went home (pau with their missions, not SENT home), and others were transferred. Nearly pulled an all-nighter Tuesday into Wednesday, but that's okay! :P

Sister Mitchell has been off-island her entire mission, she went from Maui for 6 months to Big Island for 4 1/2 months. Her first time on the rock! Definitely a big change for her, and then there's me, been on island for 9 months. I'm showing her around for sure!

We've seen plenty of miracles these past few days. We have been able to work more closely with the ward in making visits to less-active members. On Thursday night, our Bishop offered to go out on visits with us, and then took us out to dinner afterwards. Making visits to semi-active families has become one of my favorite things. To help the members remember why they love the church, to show them how to get back on the path. We made a few return appointments, helped to bring the Spirit into a few different homes with Bishop, invite people to our 4th of July parade, and gain more trust from Bishop. Afterwards, we went to Pizza Hut to grind, and that is where I discovered that Bishop Aken loves Disney and Star Wars, so we basically nerd-ed out together. It was a beautiful thing!

After we parted ways with Bishop, it was about 8. I got a very distinct prompting to go and visit a very special family, the Scotts. They amaze me. The Mom and Dad are separated, and their 7 kids live with Mom. Right after the parents split up about 5 or 6 months ago, the Dad was diagnosed with throat cancer. He is in his early 30's, and he wasn't given much time to live. We've been working diligently to visit them, but hardly ever had luck. We decided to go, even though it was small-kine late. When we got there, almost all the kids were there again! They welcomed us in, and Sister Mitchell was able to meet their sweet spirits. Mitchell kept the kids entertained while I spoke with the Mom. The Mom was telling me that the kids father was in ICU, and that any day now he will pass. She told us how much she appreciated our visits, and that it hasn't gone unnoticed. We left her with a prayer, and the kids were sad to see us go. This Sunday, we saw Sister Scott at sacrament. We asked her how she was doing, and she said "Just a few hours after you sisters left, we all went to Laie. My husband passed away with all of us their. It was no mistake you girls came to us that night, thank you." Totes walked out of church crying. I'm grateful for the guidance of the Spirit in this work.

Friday was really fun for us! Our ward has been having a 4th of July parade for about 8 years now. All the primary kids decorate their bikes, scooters, dogs, whatever they have, and march around the parking lot. Then, as the Hawaiians do, we pound a bunch of food afterwards. It was super cute, and a great way to start our morning! We had a zone meeting right after that. More than half of our zone is new, so we wanted to get to know each other, and received great training on how to be more unified in our purpose here. 

On Saturday, we worked only until 4pm. With all the people drinking and such, as a safety precaution we weren't allowed to proselyte after then. Sooooo we worked hard, went to a little girls pink birthday party, and then chilled with our zone at the Stake Center til 9:30. Super lame though, we didn't see ANY fireworks. They were banned by authorities, and apparently Makakilo was left out of all the festivities. That's okay though, New Years Eve 7 months ago had this weekend covered :P

Sunday was amazing! It was fast and testimony meeting, and for my birthday I went up and bore my testimony of the gospel! It was awesome, the members were so sweet. Brother Willis (he's my bro), he bought me a fuzzy blue lei that I wore all day! The Holsteins also helped me celebrate, they bought me super cute cupcakes, and bought my a tiny Chewbacca key chain! We had dinner at Brother Springers, 1st counselor in the bishopric. His daughter is 13, and she made me a cake completely from scratch (icing and all). Afterwards, we had a lesson with our recent convert, Reyhania. We went over the Restoration. The Spirit was definitely working through me, I was talking about Joseph Smith, and relating how because of Joseph's diligence in scripture study, and his faith and prayer, the gospel was restored. How important and vital scripture study is to all of us as individuals, but I never had thought about it from that point of view. Because of a 14 year old following the advice of his elders, he studied diligently and received an answer. I love this gospel (:

Thank you, for all your love and support. Things are really looking up here, and I'm grateful Heavenly Father has heard and answered my prayers. On top of all of this, we have 2 new investigators, and 5 potential baptisms. Lots of miracles this month already, and we're less than a week in. I love my Savior, I love my mission. I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is Christ's true church upon the earth. I love you all (:

'Ofa atu,
Sister Nori

20 years old today!!