*Hurricane Lane

                                                                    Aloha mi Ohana!

     I'm guessing all of you have seen the news, (It sounds like that from the letters I have received) there has been some concern about the hurricane hiring the Hawaiian islands. I can safely say that we have beaten Irma and are ready for the next two that are predicted to hit (Norman and Miriam). 

     Despite this hurricane, the work has gone well, very well in fact, me and my companion last week have started teaching a Sunday class at a reform school (a national guard youth camp). The kids in the class are very respectful. When they speak to us they address us using "yes sir" and "thank you sir" and they even raise their hands! For their age They are incredibly easy to teach! They have also been receptive to our lessons as well. They ask plenty of sincere questions, and the best part about this is half the class are not members who want to learn more!

     On top of this last week we invited the youth who attended the class to bring 1 other person in the camp to our next lesson. They totaled about 11 our first time,  and this week we had about 23!!!

We asked them to do the same for this week. So if they do this we will have 46 people to teach! That's an insane number for only 2 missionaries to handle (so we might require help). One of the biggest blessings that has come about because of this class is these kids have little to no religious knowledge. Even the members seem to be from inactive families. I would say only about 2 youth out of the 23 are active. One is a recent convert who was baptized right before coming to the camp and the other seems to be somewhat familiar with the doctrines of our church.

     These youth are an amazing example of maturity. All of them have come to this camp by choice. They stay there for a 5 month term. (In short this place is a youth boot camp). I enjoy our lessons we have going over to teach them. 

     There is a such a great potential here, to plant "seeds" at this school so when these youth get out and begin to figure life out, they will at least  know God cares about them and he has a plan even though it might seem otherwise.

     I am Sorry this is so short, we had our temple trip today so this is also our p-day. We did not get back until the mid afternoon I Love you guys! Stay strong.

With much Aloha

Elder Esplin

*Unique experience

Aloha Ohana! 

I have had a very unique experience this week. Last Thursday me and my companion went out tracting. On our way back to our car we saw a lady working in her garden. We talked with her for several minutes. She was the president of a Buddhist temple. We asked her if she needed service and she said she needed help setting up for an event the next day. The temple is above a restaurant called the water drop tea house (if you want to look it up. When we got there she took us upstairs to the temple. In the "dojo" we met their equivalent of a priest. Her title was "shi fu" she was a short Japanese lady with a shaved head.

Standing in a catholic Cathedral

 At first I was really nervous around her. I couldn't tell if she liked us helping. I was really worried about doing something offensive or touching something that was forbidden. But as we helped them (the temple president and the Shi Fu) move tables we became more comfortable around each other. At the end of our service they brewed us lychee tea. Then we left to do our interviews with president Bekker. (Me and my companion later found out it was black tea so we accidently broke the word of wisdom, oops.

Later we returned to the water drop tea house because the president invited us over for lunch. When we got there we got VIP treatment. We did not have to pay for our food and they gave us a little bit of everything. One thing Buddhists believe is that killing is evil so they are vegetarians and do not eat meat. So they had tofu imitation meat. It actually was really good. After that they introduced us to some of there members who had flew in for the event we had set up for. 

It was quite a peculiar experience being that close to another religion. It was comforting to me knowing that despite our different beliefs about religion we were not so different. They had a lot of similar morals and they were striving to be the best human beings as they could be. It helped remind me that we are all children of God and since we are all siblings from a loving God we should all be loving and helpful towards each other. 

I hope this experience will help. It has opened my eyes to the how people who are different can still get along. 

Love you all Elder Esplin

Zone Conference

Me, Buddhist Temple President, Lum,

next to her the Shi Fu, then Elder Lidang

pics

August Newsletter 2018

Greetings

 Greetings my Ohana, From the island where the sun always shines (and right now it shines a bit too much, it's darn hot hot here). First of all I guess you are wondering if I got transferred. Well I did. I got sent to the makakilo zone, the wards I was assigned to serve in are the kalailoa ward (which is a white ward) and the Mali Kai Samoan ward. So I got to attempt to learn Samoan real quick!!!
Coming here has been a long needed change of scenery. I loved my old area and the people in it, but I was getting pretty sick of tracting the only 4 neighborhoods in the area everyday. But here it will be a bit different. I have two wards and my area covers a huge chunk of the Southwest..? Part of the island, from the outskirts of Ewa (Eh-vah) beach to waianie (why-ah-nie). It is absolutely huge. We have more members than we could ever possibly visit! On the downside this area is hot. Which combined with the high humidity it is a formula for sweating like there is no tommorow!!!
Now time for an experience I had this week: one of the investigators I have met got baptized last Sunday. Her name is Kenzie. For the last 3 years Kenzie has been living with her boyfriend and his family. His parents are active in the ward. But her boyfriend (named Buba) and his siblings are not. Just a month and a half ago Kenzie or Buba had no interest attending church. They would go when asked, but they had no desire to be a part of the gospel or even get married. Then one day Buba's father felt prompted to invite them to a temple prep class. They went and when they came back home she asked to speak with the father in private. She told him she wanted to be with Buba and their daughter forever. Since then they have both been working to get their lives on track with the gospel. So this Saturday they were married, and Sunday she was baptized. It was a very cool experience watching Buba baptize his newly married wife. Now their goal is to be sealed in the temple as a family.
This was probably the biggest highlight of my week, I thought it was cool that all of took was an one hour lesson to totally change her families life. When Kenzie heard the message, she desired that for herself, and she accepted it! People like Kenzie and her family are the kinds of people that we as missionaries are here to find. They are out there. All our job is, is to make this message known to those that are around us. Then the spirit does the rest. It will speak to their hearts. Then if they will listen, they will unite themselves with this cause of truth. I can testify that this work is for more then set apart missionaries. It is for all of us that are members of the church of Jesus Christ. Is it not? I have seem so many mericles brought about through member missionary work. Just like Buba's dad we can be the conduit which God can use to bring another one of our spiritual brothers or sisters unto salvation.
This is my rant for the week. I unfortunately used up all of my email time writing this, my goal is to try to include a little more meat from the week in my letters home as well as a spiritual interpretation where applicable. Sorry this is the only thing I have to write home this week. I have read everyone's letters I just don't have time to reply. Love you mi Ohana!

From the Hawaii Honolulu Mission

Elder

Jared Packer Esplin