18 March 2019

Baptism

Alihi and his companion had a baptism this past week. Here name is Laticia (sp) and she is 10yrs old.

03 March 2019

Wihi forwarded an email he received from one of his investigators:

Queridos filhos, bom dia!

Esperamos que estejam bem e como sentimos essa transferência. A saudade é muito forte, mas sabemos que vocês estão nessa por um bem maior.

Seguem fotos e também um anexo com nosso convite de casamento e batismo. Oro e sonho com a presença de vocês nesses dias.

Agradecemos ao Pai Celestial ter colocado os únicos Elders que conseguiram mudar nossas vidas. Enviamos todo nosso amor para vocês!

Rafa, Ny e Samuca.  

Translation:

Dear children, good morning!

We hope you are well and feel this transference. Longing is very strong, but we know that you are in it for a greater good.

Following are photos and also an attachment with our wedding invitation and baptism. I pray and dream of your presence these days.

We thank Heavenly Father for placing the only Elders who have managed to change our lives. We send all our love to you !

Rafa, Ny, and Samuca

Wedding Rings

At the Visitor's Center

At the Temple

Elder Bartschi, Ny, Rafa, Elder Keliiliki

(L to R) Rafa, Samuca, Ny, Elder Keliiliki, Elder Bartschi

Playing Basketball

24 Feb 2019

Hi Keliiliki family!

We were able to have your son over for dinner tonight and we are all a little sad that he might be transferred tomorrow along with Elder Bartschi.  I wanted to tell you though that your son is such an enthusiastic and dedicated missionary and he has been such a blessing to our ward and also such a great example to our children.  We are really going to miss him! Thank you for raising such a great, hard working son who loves the Gospel! ️

Love,

Michelle and the Menden family

Wihi, Elder Bartschi, Menden Family

11 Feb 2019

Olá família,

I'm happy to hear that all is well over there and that everything is settling a little bit.  I definitely need new pants.  I am running on two pairs currently, and I honestly don't trust brazilian quality so I'm kinda in a dilemma.  I have made an account in the brazilian mail system and it was only 15 reais for processing so it looks like we could be ok.  Apparently it helps a lot to put pictures of mary on the box.  They don't seem to get taxed as much, or at least that's what my comp says.  Anyway, all fines and whatnot should be pretty chill now.

I am honestly not really into this whole Zone Leader thing.  I don't know, I kind of just want to worry about myself and work.  But oh well, I hear once you get the calling you kind of stay there sooooo it looks like I'll have to get used to it.

This week was pretty good to us.  We had baptism and his name is Kaike, who is 14 and not 7.  He was a reference from one of the other boys that was baptized a little while ago.  Not gonna lie, these boys that we have baptized really test your patience but at the same time they sometimes are very helpful.  Besides that, our high counselor who is responsible for missionary work in the stake, of which we are zone leaders, has thrown a lot on our plate to do for these upcoming transfers.  If all goes well the work will progress a lot but a lot of execution has to be done.  So pray for us so that we can get these ideas and goals accomplished.  Besides that, it's been a pretty standard week of working and grinding.  Luckily P-day comes around once a week to give us a basketball break and just have fun for a little bit.  Anyway, that's really I've got from this time around.  Love you guys!!

Elder Keliiliki

Wihi with the Shermans (Missionary Couple)

4 Feb 2019

Hey Family,

Well first things first I kind of really wish that I was there with everyone.  I'm glad everyone got to see each other again though and that everyone got home safely.  Thank you for the photos as well, it was nice to see everyone.

This week we unfortunately didn't get a baptism.  The "8 year old boy" that we were teaching ended up being 7.  He was going to be the last of the family to be baptized as well, but we'll just have to wait until October.  We almost witnessed a miracle as our baptism fell through though, we ran around all of Saturday to everyone we knew that could potentially be baptized.  We then found Alan who is 19 and also the last of his family to be baptized.  We all went to the visitor's center and we taught him and he accepted to be baptized, if...  God saved his brother.  We were super confused and he explained that his brother had depression.  We told him at least 20 different reasons why he needed to focus more on himself but that his heart was in the right place but he wouldn't budge.  He had his baptismal interview and passed and everything.  Just not the baptism.  But he'll be baptized soon enough.

Besides that it has been extraordinarily hot here.  It's been around low hundreds here and we were definitely feeling the heat.  Hopefully it cools down soon or someone's gonna pass out.  Also, still not a big fan of this whole zone leader life.

That's about it for me though.  Love you guys and hope things go well there.

Elder Keliiliki

Wihi and Elder Bartschi

28 Jan 2019

Hey Guys

I'm [saddened] to hear that Mama passed away.  Fortunately for her though the journey is over.  Based on what I know she had a rough past few years.  I'm also sad that I won't be able to be there with everyone, but that's ok I guess.  I hope all goes well or at least as well as it can go.

This week was another good one.  We always take our investigators to the Visitor's center that was built here and they always love it.  They have a really great video about families that talks a lot about temples and the plan of salvation, we'll be going again today so I look forward to the video.  The visitor's center is so helpful with the missionary work.  With the interactive lessons, explanations about everything and the Christus... it's great.

We baptized again this week but I still didn't manage to get the pictures of any of them yet but I'll keep working on it.  The package go here but I haven't been able to get it yet.  Because of another fee... We'll see how much it is this time.

Anyway, that's about it from me.  I love you guys and have a good week!

Elder Keliiliki

21 Jan 2019

Hey parents,

I wish we had the same weather right about now.  We've been running around in the high 90's low 100's this whole week.  I'm not really digging this whole Zone Leader thing though.  It's just a lot more than I ever wanted to do.  Also the visitors center here opened up and all the sisters are working there so we have to help our sisters get things all figured out and all that jazz.  So it's been a little crazy but luckily not too crazy.

We have had another baptism and have another ready to go for next week already.  Finally there is some fruit from the labor.  The leadership is all really pleased with Elder Bartschi and me so it looks like we'll be getting some back up from the church as well.  So in short, things are just swell.

So dad asked about my companion.  His name is Blake Bartschi and he pretty much [played] everything.  But he'll be going to Weber State on a [football] scholarship.  He lived in Idaho and also went to a school in Idaho.  I don't remember the name of the high school.  He reminds me a lot of Hekili, pretty intense and hard working.  He has a really good work ethic and we get a lot done.

But I hope all is well with you guys and that everything goes smoothly with everyone.  Love you guys, BYEE!!

Elder Keliiliki

Great day for a baptism

Baptism day

Baptism day

14 Jan 2019

Inverno Feliz

We baptized again this Sunday who was actually one of my first investigators on my mission.  So I'm glad I'm back!  Also I am now Zone leader, this time of 8 sisters and 6 elders.  So things are getting exciting now.  I also went to a sealing of members I baptized the first time around as well.   Besides that I don't really know what to say.  I'm doing well and we're working well together.  Hope you guys have a good week!

Elder Keliiliki

With Elder Bartschi and Grahl family

Out to lunch with the Grahls

07 Jan 2019

Heyo,

So, first off my companion.  His name is Elder Bartschi and he played sports in high school.  He has 3 transfers left on his mission and we seem to work well together.  We had a baptism today so next week I'll send photos.  He's a hard worker and I think we'll have a lot of success together and not a lot of drama.

WIhi with new companion Elder Bartschi and Brother Sherman

Our baptism today was actually with an investigator that I found over a year ago.  So I was pretty surprised to see her not baptized but also happy that I got to baptize her.

We have a visitor's center opening next to the temple on the 20th.  I think the work will really progress and we'll receive a lot of the benefits of having a visitors center because we're really close to the temple.

I think that's about it for me this time around.  Talk to you guys next week!

Elder Keliiliki