11/18/2011 SC Village part 2

Oh to be out on a paintball field again! It's very exciting! We love to watch our team!

11/18/2011 SC Village--If you know Jordan, you know he loves paintball--this is a clip from one of his teammates, Ethan, who is serving his mission in CA. Their team played several times on this field, long before their missions! Jordan is going to be sooooo jealous of Ethan! haahaha!

Some weird clips pop up after this one is played. Just close out of them!  I don't know how to stop them from coming up at the end.  I'm sure there's a way!

ALOHA!!! November 29, 2011

This week has been a good week, a lot of preparation
for the upcoming zone conferences and a lot of eating!

So for Zone Conferences (the first one was today and we have more all
this week and next) we developed a new personal study program for the
missionaries to guide their studies, it's friggin sweet! It was
actually developed a year ago and Elder Stelter and I have put the
finishing touches on it. It has us read all the standard works, PMG,
and all the missionary library. It's been very time consuming for us
tho because we have had to cut and bind them all. Also we made a
baptism DVD for this year and it is sweet! It has so many good
pictures and is very spiritual. So needless to say that is what we
have been doing this week, it's been a great learning process and
pretty fun actually, learning a lot of different skills!

Thanksgiving was solid! First off we had the Turkey Bowl with our ward
and Hawaii Kai ward (my second area) so it was fun playing with all of
them. Little did they know Elder G can play a little QB! Ha it was
super fun, President came out and just had a good morning. Than we had
2 dinners and it was outrageous how much food there was. The first
house we ate at had a ham, 2 turkeys and a pig! Unreal it was so good.
We get taken care of so well out here. I love these members and people
in Hawaii. Nicest people in the World.

So other than we just geared up for zone conference. Had the first on
Kauai today and it was the best one I have ever been a part of.
Goodnight, I was crying the whole time. Focused completely on the
Savior, there were so many good talks and trainings. We watched that
new movie, The17 Miracles, about the pioneer handcart company, that is one
I want to give out to people and say this is why I am out here because
of what they went through. If you haven't seen it, you better watch it,
unreal! But anywho, I am just rambling.

 All is well in Zion, life is
good, I am loving the mission and everything about it. Love you guys!

Elder G

Aloha!! November 21, 2011

So, I think I am behind a week!  That would be life right now.  It was meant to be because I do believe Jordan is in the middle of zone conferences. or something!--we did not hear from him today, so I will post last week's letter and a little clip I found from a few months ago!  I just love to hear him talking! This was a time he was on Molokai with Elder Street and the elders serving on Molokai.  

Well another week down and it has flown by as usual! We are doing a
lot of preparing for the upcoming Christmas Zone Conference, which is
going to be awesome. We are super excited for it. President and Sister
Dalton are coming out with a new study program for this mission which
is sweet! It's called Mana and it will get you through basically all
the Standard Works and the entire missionary library, PMG, and an
Atonement Packet that our mission puts out each year. It will be nice
and give a lot of direction in study. Very inspired decision by them!
We will be watching the movie "17 Miracles" as well which should be a
good one. I can't wait, Christmas Zone Conference is the best!

So this Saturday was super cool! We went to a couple baptisms and one
was for a girl whose family are not members but she had a lot of
friends that are members. She went away to college and realized how
blessed she was living around friends in the Gospel. She started
getting taught by the missionaries and was baptized super quick! She
bore a really powerful testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and
how she knew it was true. Her entire family was there and I think they
really enjoyed it. It was one of the biggest baptisms I have ever
seen, so many people there!

Right after that was the baptism of a young 12 year old boy. I don't
know his story too much but I know that his family aren't members
either. He met a couple friends at school and they started inviting
him to scouting activities, mutual, etc. He was welcomed with tons of
love and started coming to church. He wanted to be baptized and his
family felt okay with it. He had some family there and the coolest
part was when he actually got baptized. When he came up out of the
water I have never seen a bigger smile on a kid's face! He just looked
at everyone with a huge smile and just sat there for a little bit. You
couldn't help but smiling as you looked at him! That was the highlight
of my week, everything bad was gone after I watched that kid
get baptized. Very cool Saturday, I love going to baptisms!

We are teaching a man right now that is working his way to the temple.
He is the best guy in the world and since we have started teaching him
you can see a distinct change in him. He is a lot happier and just has
hope in his eyes. It's so cool to see that, it is something that you
can immediately recognize! He set goals with the Bishop and is well on
his way to going through the temple and being sealed with his wife!
Awesome guy, I love him so much! The mission has the best experiences
ever.

So as far as the mission is concerned it is doing well! We have
unfortunately lost quite of few elders the past couple weeks due to a
number of circumstances. That naturally hurts and kind of hinders the
work but as in the words of our President "I will never let Satan
win." We had 17 baptisms this last weekend which is pretty good, a
little above average. We are probably going to be around 60 for this
month and then we will head in "White Christmas" December and shoot
for Vision 100 once again. The work is really progressing out here!
Thanks for everything, I love you all! Have a great week!


Love to you all!
Elder G. 

November 14, 2011

Well this week has been a good week for us! All the craziness finally
ended on Wednesday with all the missionaries going home and what not.
It has been a wild transfer, Satan was trying to work us hard core!
But it is all good now. It was nice to be able to get
back into our area and do some work. I love missionary work, there is
always something new that you never expect!

Glad to hear everyone back home is doing well.  Man I wish I was going to the UH game, I
asked President but Hawaii fans are pretty nuts and he said it would be a really bad environment for us, he didn't even consider it.


Tell Grandma Hampton and Grandma and Grandpa Harding hi for me and that I love them. I wish I
could write people but there is just no time. I haven't written anyone
for over a year. Once I got into leadership time just ran out, and
especially as an assistant I just can't do it. I hope people don't
take it personally, I really wish I could but if I wrote letters
that's all my P days would be.  Just whenever
you see friends tell them I love them and am thinking about them even
if I don't write them! 


I am so happy for Christi! That is so crazy!
Did she say if she will be in the visitors center or not? I am not
sure how that works with VC sisters. Because most our sisters are VC
but we have like 12 that are strictly full proselyting like the
elders. She is going to do so well.  She will fit in perfect here,
that is so cool I am so proud of her. A lot of my friends that are girls
are going on missions! Marci, Christi, Daisha is planning on going
too! Really cool stuff. If you ever talk to Daisha tell her I say hi,
I haven't talked to her forever either and I feel bad. Send everyone
my love!

So here is the crazy story of the week for you guys! We get a text
referral saying this guy wants a bible. So we call him on Friday and
he says oh yeah come over tomorrow morning at 1030, we will drink soda
and you guys can share what you have. So we are like shoots! We go
over there and right when we walk in it just doesn't feel right. I
mean the house is nice and everything, but you could just tell. Well
we sit down and Elder Stelter and I are across from one another and he
is on the side of us. He said yeah I know that it's either the Latter
Day Saints are right or its the Catholics, so I am just trying to make
my decision. Just acting all golden. But you can't say
anything just in case he is being serious so we teach him and it was a
good lesson, just bore powerful testimony. He kept asking stupid
questions and what not and then when we got done he is like "you guys
hungry?", and orders a pizza. So now we are stuck! He said okay, now I
want to share. He goes and grabs an easel and he has a whiteboard and then like 6
tri fold poster boards with all this stuff about the Catholic Church
and how it's true! It was comical really, he was bringing up the
dumbest things. He was way smart though. He went on for like 2 hours and
then at the end he gave us all these pieces of paper and he wrote our names on them and then says"so are you guys coming back, or do ya gotta kinda "strategize" what you are going to do next time?" We
just shook our head and said probably not. And he said "well I just
hope that you'll pray and ask God if what I said is true", and I just
said and you do likewise. It was a joke, he has
to order a bible, and then act all interested and try to prove us
wrong. It was just a testimony of the importance of the spirit to me,
because there was no spirit and even though he was super smart, it meant
nothing. He didn't promise us one blessing whatsoever, just a waste of our time.


 Needless to say, I won't be joining the Catholic Church
anytime soon! Haha the stories of the mission!!!

I love you guys! Thanks so much for everything!

November 14, 2011

So, I found some clips on Jordan's SD card that he sent home, and I just like to hear his voice.  So I am putting one on here--he and Elder Condiff were driving past a military airport"Barber's Point", but it was fun to hear him!  There were also some pics of he and Elder Condiff when they served in Makakilo, just prior to this transfer as assistant.  Random pictures!!!

ALOHA!! November 7, 2011

Boy well time sure does fly by! Sounds like everyone back home is

doing very well. The young men that were just barely priests when I
was there are now getting ready or have already left on their
missions. That's good. Sad to hear about Sister Pehrson in the ward
but it's good to know that the ward can fast like that for someone. We
have a really good ward back home. I still remember like yesterday
when we fasted for Dale Hull and all the miracles that proceeded from
the fast and faith of everyone. That's what the church is all about.

Snow back home huh? That's too bad really. The weather out here is
perfect, it's not too hot and definitely not too cold. The trade winds
are picking up and so we get a nice little breeze every single day. A
nice little sprinkle here and there, it's nothing really to complain
about. However, I sure do miss the seasons. I miss seeing snow and
believe it or not I kind of miss being cold. I probably won't be
saying that when I come home!

The mission is doing really well at this time. Last month we hit 103
total baptisms for the month of October which was stellar. The mission
is reaching new heights that it has never reached. If you remember
back to May the push to get "vision 100", 100 baptisms in that month
was a huge start to a good year for us. We were able to hit 100 right
on the money that month and it just proceeded on from there. In July
we once again hit a phenomenal number of 105 total baptisms, and then
here again in October we hit 103. Vision 100 three times in the past
six months is something that has never been done before in this
mission so we are pleased! It's awesome and we will finish these last
2 months very strong and see many miracles!

On Saturday Mele got baptized! She is amazing! Mele was a referral we
received from a member about 3 weeks ago. She has been living with her
Aunty who is in our ward. Mele started taking the lessons and was
loving it. She loves learning about Christ and what we taught just
added more on to her faith. Every lesson she would always thank us so
many times for teaching her things she never knew about Jesus Christ.
She thanked us for helping her testimony grow. She basically committed
herself to baptism and was ready to be baptized from day one! I love
Mele, she has made a lasting impact in my life and will be someone I never
forget. Sincere, humble, loving personality. She is from American
Samoa and is Tongan. The Polynesian people are the best, so blessed to
be serving here around them!

Transfers were good this week, everyone got to where they needed to be
and for the most part it all went smoothly. We are stoked for this
upcoming transfer, Christmas Zone Conference and a lot of good things
planned. Elder Stelter and I are together again and are super happy
about that! He is the man and has taught me a lot. We will do work
these next 2 months. Hope all is well back home, don't die in the
snow!

Love you all!
Elder G.