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