Kura Ora!!!!

Kura Ora!!!!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! Hope everyone had a great week, we had a great week here on Hao learning, laughing and loving. We talked to a some old mamie and papies about the bombing the French did here and it took me back to Hawaii and the bombing the united states did on Kahoolawe. We talked about the effects these things had on our ecosystems and we even talked about Hawaiian and tahitian gods and practiced and the monarchies (the kings /queens and warriors) and it was insane to see how much of the culture is so similar and shared across the pacific. 

Highlights:

- One of our friends invited us to join his companies tour in showcasing people that do and make different things on Hao this past Tuesday. We went to a vanilla farm, saw how some people filled fish, make pareo's and hats as well as she'll necklaces and other things. They even had one person that made pork hash and spring rolls. Not only did we fortify our relation with our friend but we also found some people that were interested and it was kind of a branch trip as well because like half the branch came out.

- We had a fire family home evening with some kids we're teaching as well as their parents who are a little inactive and another girl who was recently baptized. The kids weren't too focused on the message rather they were concentrated on the game and food they knew would follow

- It has rained (more like a drizzle) almost everyday that has provided us with a little bit of water which has been nice

- It has also been a little bit chilly which is nice until we want to take showers because ice cold water and a cool breeze don't necessarily mix well together

- We had some pretty fire dinner appointments this past week and ate a lot of fish and pasta as well as some chicken

- We were wanting to change out our gas tank but some missionaries locked it so it wouldn't get stolen. No one knew the code and then Elder Masaniai went and pulled the lock and it broke. Funny, because I thought the locks the mission gives us for our bike work well and our bikes are protected... turns out it's all just one big facade

- We had a little branch activity were we talked about how we cn better minister to the members in the ward and Elder Masaniai and I had to do a little role play and he was the husband, I was his wife and there was another guy with us and we said he was our son. It was pretty funny especially because the guy is a whole lot bigger than us but we said he was our son

- Our members here are literally the best!!! They help us out whenever we have questions or need things and we are fed really well over here! We were able to have some important meeting and found out that the missionaries in the past weren't able to make a action plan for the branch so know we're going to try get that done in the next few weeks before the transfer ends

Lowlights:

- The birds have been going crazy, I'm pretty sure there's a few that don't like me. I had just finished washing my clothes and I hung them up to dry. Five hours later I come back only to see that some birds pooped on four of the shirts. The next day I did another load only to find that another bird got one of the shirts. I guess the third time's the charm because I hand washed the shirt, put it back up and no bird ended up getting it. 

- Went to the store and bought some batteries to put in our gas water heater to start the clicker then after I put it in I tried to open the box but the screws wouldn't come out. They were rusted out and stuck and striking it with a hammer only blew off chunks of rust

Spiritual Thought:

"If can, can. If no can, no can" one of my favorite sayings from Hawaii that I feel like we can use in all circumstances. In missionary work and at home and it also helps us to remember not to dwell on things for too long and to take things with a grain of salt

"Vents favorables et mer suivants"

"Mata'i haumaru e moana mania"

"Fair winds and following seas"

Vamos, Envoyons!!!

Elder Ellis

Link to my Google Photo's album. Go check um, go check um, go!:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/qErFS2eWV3pJGVEV7