Week 14-16 Hawaii

Whut, whot, what? Where am I? can this be.... Hawaii? I traveled back in time to...Honolulu! Mission president Bekker and sisters Elgueta and Topp (long time no see) where there to welcome me. Two days later I traveled further with other missionaries to the Big Island (Hawaii) because that is where I will begin my mission. It is one of the colder islands. I like that. It also has an active vulcano. I like that less. Missionary work sure is different here. We just drop by peoples houses (often without appointment) and we are welcome to come in. In general we don't need to explain who we are, because they often have family who are a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Just as in my other areas, the members are great and willing to help. Currently I am in Honoka'a with the lovely sister Barber. She is a great missionary and person and I am learning a lot from her. It is a very laid back culture here, also because we are not in an area with a big city. It is so relaxed that even the clouds are taking a rest ​on the mountains. See picture.

Even though it is relaxed and laid back, the people are extremely hardworking (as they have irregular working hours, setting fixed appointments can be tough for that reason as well).

Anyway, even tough the island has a laid back atmosphere, we do need to work hard. There are always people to visit. There is barely public transportation here (really a change compared to my previous areas) so we are driving around in a car to our various destinations (technically sister Barber is driving, but we are companions so..).

Some funny things I noticed so far: 

I have heard many times that I am from Neverland (I cant blame them, I almost need to use magnifying glasses in order to point the Netherlands on the map). I almost got a young boy at a point where he believed I was Wendy. Perhaps I shouldn't do that...

There are also cure little kokifrog here who don't sound like frogs at all. More like small birds tsjirping 'koki, koki'. Very deceiving.

Also, house numbers are very confusing: Oh, so you're driving past nr. 1612 and you want 1614? I don't think so. nr. 1644 will be next!.. Yep.

Even tough we are currently in the paradise, it comes at a high cost. It is difficult to come by, because, for example, housing and grocery shopping is very expensive. I might have cried a bit inside when we first went grocery shopping. And here I thought Norway was expensive...

There are two main things I got really exciting about again these last few weeks:

1) I was being reminded again of the importance of family history work. Especially from an eternal perspective. Also, it is just very interesting to connect all the puzzle pieces.

2) Keep on studying the scriptures and study the various layers it has. A sister in church had a good lesson and included a talk (Waddell - a pattern for peace)  which went more deeply into Lehi's vision (1 nephi 8). This makes you realize again that the Book of Mormon really is written for our times and can be applied to our lives, if we are willing to really study it.