Feliz Navidad to everyone

First off Merry Christmas/ Feliz Navidad to all of you!

This week was awesome! Yesterdays special Christmas Sacrament meeting was seriously the best sacrament meeting since I have been out on my mission! We had the goal of getting 50+ people in the meeting and we hit it! I haven't seen that many people in a sacrament meeting since I have been out on my mission so it seriously was so cool! Reminded me of a normal sacrament meeting in Utah though haha! After the awesome sacrament meeting we had a Christmas program and the primary kids did some singing and dressed up as angles, shepherds, and Mary and Joseph and acted out the navidad! It was so nice to see the branch and the ward together too. Seeing everyone come together for Christmas was so nice... but now we just need everyone to keep coming during regular sacrament meetings... lol! Also me and Elder Cox got to sing in the Branch choir and you already know we killed it haha! The spirit was just so strong at church yesterday!

These past couple of days we have been getting fed so much! I have grown to love Mexican food so much haha tortas, quesadillas, salsas, chicharrones, flautas, etc haha they all so good! But yesterday we went over to our recent convert family and I prepared the famous teriyaki chicken for them because we will be eating with them on Christmas and Ill be firing up the grill for them!

On wed we had district council and the topic was about obedience! A quote that was brought up that I truly love is "you must pay the price for success or you will pay the price for failure". Its so interesting to me that we always have 2 choices, to work hard or to be lazy. Both of them are going to be hard in one way or the other. If we work hard in what we are doing, the journey will be hard but the result will be amazing. If we are lazy, the journey will be hard, and the result is going to suck because we all know we could of had something better! For example, Being broke is hard, and becoming rich is hard... Choose your hard. There's always 2 choices and there always 2 hards, you have to choose what hard you want!

On Friday we had the Branch Christmas party and that was lit! We had tamales, pan, potatoes, and this one drink I forgot what its called but it was like a hot chocolate haha.. it was bomb! We had 3 huge Pinatas too! It was such a good time! Oh and we had the Mexican Santa Claus show up too haha it was tight!

Yesterday me and My companion had a crazy experience of blessing a house. The people that told us what was happening in the house kind of freaked me out but I felt super comfortable going in the house and performing that blessing. When I was giving the prayer I could feel what they were talking about, when they said there were bad spirits in the house, I had the prompting not to open my eyes the whole time. When I was ending the prayer I could feel this super hot heat on my face and then I said "in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen" and an overwhelming peace came to me and everything felt ok in the house. I can't say enough how grateful I am for the priesthood power. It is something that is so real and true and that was a big testimony builder for me with the priesthood power!

This week was one to remember! I hope everyone has a good week and a good Christmas! During this time I hope we all realize the real meaning of Christmas and remember our Savior and the things he has done for us and try and become like him and do those things for others! Thank you to everyone that has sent me gifts and letters! I love you all and Feliz Navidad!

Con Amor,
Elder Ka'ili

Prepping for the Christmas feast

Branch party

GOT A TREADMILL CAUSE #IMGETTINGFAT BUT #NEWYEARSRESOLUTION HAHA

my comp, sometimes is just too hard in the mornings

Christmas program

guns on guns on guns...haha

Prepare at a young age to serve a mission.....

This week was so good!! To start we had a mission Christmas Party with the whole north part of our mission! It was seriously like a day off.. which was sort of weird but awesome! We played ping pong and you already know I gave everyone that work... until my mission president came down to the basement to play and beat me.... He literally came down played me, beat me and then walked back upstairs.. hahah reminds me of my grandpa Ka'ili playing ping pong haha. I think the older you get the better your spin gets or something! Haha But I definitely chocked under the pressure because I was up and then let him come back.. haha we will see a rematch is soon to happen between us lol! But yeah after hanging out for a while we all got to eat some super fancy brunch and then everyone piled into the living room and we watched Coco! Such a good movie for real! After the movie we did a zone talent show and i'm not gonna lie, our zone probably had the worst skit haha but it was fun. A CRAZY change also happened to close the party. In our mission we are not eating with members during the week, but we all received crock pots to make ourselves dinner now. We are doing this so we can have 5PM open to work and tract. They did this in another mission and the mission saw their baptisms double. I'm super pumped about this change because more tracting=more finding=more investigators=more baptisms=more people living the gospel of Jesus Christ=more people being happy! And I can't wait to make my moms meatballs lol! But yeah the Christmas party was lit and its always super fun to see the other missionaries from different parts of the missions that you don't normally see!

This week I really wanted to up my study game and have better studies! I was talking to my comp about it and he said that an elder that served here a while back was a super smart dude and made an outline of how to get a good personal study in! Its called the Donakee Outline and holy habit it has changed my whole studies for the better! During my studies this week I really focused on obedience and time management! I have realized in my mission that OBEDIENCE makes the whole day. If you want to have a good day be obedient, if you want to have a crappy day don't be. Its as simple as that! Obedience ties in with time management as well, as we are obedient to the time schedule in the morning and throughout the day we will be able to have the spirit stronger because we are doing what we need to be doing! Being obedient also brings happiness! Obedient Missionaries are Happy Missionaries and I have noticed and seen that in my mission a ton.

Something else that we have been really focusing on this week is cleaning up the area book and cleaning up our teaching pool. Man it is so hard and sad to drop people... You know that this gospel can help them in their lives and can change their lives but they just have a hard time accepting it. It sucks but everyone has their time and as we have faith in the lords time table I believe that everything will work out! #CREEPYPHONECALLWAVERLY #BLESSINGS

Church yesterday was so good. Me and my companion felt like we needed to sit in on the teachers quorum class and I am so grateful we did. Their lesson was about preparing for a mission! As the class went on we were talking about things that could help them prepare and the teacher was asking us a lot of questions and to share experiences. One of the questions he asked us was what we did for the last 19-20 years of our lives to prepare to serve a mission? I answered him saying that getting that desire to go on a mission from a young age will make your decision when you turn 18 super easy. I shared that ever since I was a young kid I always wanted to serve a mission because my parents served one and my grandparents on both sides were always serving missions so to me serving a mission was something that looked super fun to me. I told the boys that, the desire of serving a mission that I had from a young age helped me during trials in my life and with temptation.. During middle school and high school there were a lot of temptations that I went thru, some that I fell into and some that I didn't and that was because I always had on my mind that I wanted to serve a mission! If it wasn't for that desire I don't know where I would be today probably not on a mission... So it told them that getting that desire is something super important and doing the things to strengthen that desire is going to make the decision even easier. I told them if you don't have that desire yet, pray about it and get that desire because every worthy able young men should serve a mission.. no questions about it. The teacher added on after a story about Jerry Rice and why he was the best WR ever because he practiced something over and over again until it became a reflex to his body... and then he related it to making a decision to go on a mission. We need to start doing things that will lead our minds to missions so that when the time comes to submit your papers, your body just reacts and sends them in. Super good class and a real testimony builder for me about preparing and serving a mission!

Ahh I love being a missionary and being able to serve in Washington Spanish Speaking is seriously the biggest blessing in my life right now! I didn't think serving a mission would bring this much happiness but it has and I am truly grateful for the opportunity to serve one! I love you all and hope you guys all have a good week! Christmas is next week too! Light The World is still going too! Life is so good right now! Living the gospel brings so many blessing, I can't say it enough! I love you all!

Con Amor,
Elder Ka'ili

Elder Guiterrez!

Sister Kalamafoni - reassigned from Fiji

Santa came!!!

Fresh apple juice

The most lit Zone Conference

New Companion, Made Panikeke, and It Snowed....

Man this week was crazy! I am finally out of training and I got a new companion his name is Elder Cox! Super good missionary and me and him teach well together so LETZZZ GOOO! I stayed in Mattawa and holy crap taking over a area is so STRESSFUL! The first couple days after transfers were super stressful not having my trainer here with me because I had to introduce my new companion to the area and plan and take lead on everything! My new companion is the complete opposite of my trainer but we are doing super well together so i'm hecka pumped for this transfer! I am gaining more and more confidence with the language everyday and understanding more and more. I'm just super pumped for this transfer because I feel like the transfer after your training is the do or die on how the rest of your mission will play out, so WE GOING HARD this transfer lol. But yeah the stress of the transfers and taking over my area is going down day by day as my comp gets to know more people here, so we chilling!

So Tuesday me and Elder Carrasco were doing a ton of goodbyes to the members for him because he was leaving and he's been in our area for 6 months. But yeah that day we decided we were going to make each other food from our cultures for our last memories together haha. You already know I made some BOMB PANIKEKE for breakfast and a night snack with our recent converts Arturo and Vanessa! I was super surprised that I was able to make it and make them good because usually all the girl cousins and the aunties in the fam make it(SHOUTOUT TO THEM) but shoot mine came out hecka good! Elder Carrasco made some Arepas, and they so bomb. They eat them a ton in Venezuela! It's basically like a tuna sandwich but 20x better. He taught me how to make them and so you already know Chef Montonz gonna be making them all the time! But yeah Tuesday was lit!

Nothing really big happened this week besides transfers and just teaching the AWESOME people of Mattawa! Also it SNOWED, made me hecka miss Utah! But yeah our whole zone basically got switched out but everyone that came in is tight! Other than that I hope everyone is finding ways to LIGHT THE WORLD! I know as we share our testimonies to as many people and share our light with everyone we know, not only they will be blessed but we will be blessed and our testimonies will be strengthened! I love you all and shoutout to everyone that sent me letters and packages this past week! I love you all and I hope you guys are all getting super pumped for Christmas like I am!

Con amor,
Elder Ka'ili

Ties from home...

Panikeke i made

crumbl from aunty nica

Last dinner with Elder Carrasco and Jack

The best panikeke in your life

Posterity tie, passed down

Nick Perry who went to school with Saione

Sweater Hermano Hansen gave me that he got from Ecuador!

My new comp, Elder Cox

Light of the World begins....Book of Mormon finished...again!!!

LIGHT THE WORLD HAS OFFICIALLY STARTED! I HOPE EVERYONE IS PUMPED LIKE I AM! Haha but seriously this December is going to be awesome! December on the mission I heard is lit, so I'm way pumped!

This week was good! It was the last week in my training too so letsssgooo! It was kind of a weird week though because we had the baptism last week and so this week it was kind of like what do we do now? Lol We have been putting so much of our efforts on The Garfias so we were like who do we visit now? But we were able to go with the girls to the temple so that was so nice too!

This past Saturday for Light the World we did a service day and did service literally all day! It was so nice! Me and my comp carried a 5 gallon cooler filled with Hot Chocolate, cups and flavoring and then walked around in our service clothes and did service and gave away free hot chocolate! oh and I had my speaker that was playing Christmas music! Seriously it was way fun! seeing the smiles of the people as they opened up the doors and saw us with the hot chocolate made carrying around a heavy cooler all day worth it haha!

We also had transfer calls this past Saturday and I will be staying in my same area and my comp is leaving! I am actually super excited to take over the area with a new comp and super excited that I am staying in Mattawa! My language is definitively going to benefit from it! I actually hated Mattawa right when I got here but I have grown to love it and especially grown to love the people and members! So it was a really good transfer for me!

This past week I was also able to finish the Book Of Mormon again on my mission! THE BOOK OF MORMON IS SO TRUE! I seriously can't express my love for the Book of Mormon! It changes lives and brings so much peace! My testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much since I have been out here on my mission. The cool thing about the promise from the Book of Mormon is that every time that you read the Book of Mormon you are able to receive another confirmation of its truthfulness! I watched a talk by Elder Hollands called "Safety For The Soul" and I recommend that talk to everyone. Such a strong testimony of the Book Of Mormon! I invite everybody that hasn't read the Book of Mormon yet fully, to read the Book of Mormon and get a confirmation for themselves because I promise if you do and ask our heavenly father in the name of Jesus Christ if the Book of Mormon is true, YOU WILL GET AN ANSWER!

I love you all and hope you all have a good week! This week give and our savior gives and LIGHT THE WORLD!

Con Amor,
Elder Ka'ili

package from mi padres

Tony Finau beanie from Uncle Rich

always eating..

Making Arepas

Service Day...

Touring the Fire Station

temple trip with Roselyn and Jillian