From Matt

hoku familimalo e lelei,
The past week has been good. Miracles are happening in Kailua Hawaii. Our investigator Micholo who recently quit smoking was supposed to get baptized this Saturday but we thought it might present some difficulty landing on the same day as General Conference (we would use the stake center for the service). So yesterday we proposed to Micholo that perhaps we could do it the following Saturday (the tenth) so that more people could attend. He said he would be willing to do that but he really doesn’t care who comes as long as us and his uncle fala were there. He suggested we just move the baptism one day earlier (this Friday), he said he knew that receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost would help him to continue to overcome his temptation to smoke and he wanted that as soon as possible. It was a spiritual moment for me realizing how well he understood the importance of baptism and the urgency of receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. He understood that it’s the ORDINANCE not the EVENT that’s important. I wish we could get our members to understand that so they would shut up about not being able to baptize their kids in the ocean any more. So basically I told Micholo that despite the language barrier (he is still getting a grasp on the English language) he probably understands the gospel better than any other investigator I’ve ever had.
Rich is still scheduled to be baptized on Oct. 17th I think I told you guys about him last week. He is just waiting for our Branch President to get back from the mainland. I love fast Sundays, they seem to blossom with miracles. My zone leader called us on Saturday night and asked if we were having trouble finding new investigators in our Palongi ward, I admitted that there wasn't much going on as far as investigators despite our efforts. He suggested that we fast on Sunday for new investigators. So we did. Sunday morning while we were greeting for our Palongi ward one of the wives of a marine that lives on base said that she had a friend who wanted a Book of Mormon, she also wants to take the lessons from the missionaries, and that we were coming over for dinner and FHE on Monday night, I tried to tone down my excitement to fit the reverence of the chapel.
Then a guy who has been recently been reactivated (Greg Hansen), actually the first member I met when I came to Kailua 4 months ago, bore his testimony and that was also a touching experience for me. Then in the Tongan branch I bore my fakama'oni in Tongan for the first time with out looking at something I've written. Then Malia, our recent convert got up and bore her testimony as well. Then I walked out after church and saw this one Palongi kid sitting in the middle of a bunch of Tongans so I went up and talked to him. His name was Jordan Brown, a 23 year old, married marine who lives on base, who was looking for the bishop because he hadn't been to church for a couple years and he wanted to come back. I commended him for his decision and helped him get in touch with the bishopric, hopefully we can teach and baptize his wife, he was a way cool guy and said he wanted his wife to be baptized. Then last night we had an awesome dinner with a less active family and their home teachers and their visiting teacher, the first step to coming back to church. The Lord has blessed us so much in this area.
We find out this upcoming Sunday wither we're getting transferred or not, I'll keep you posted. Each transfer goes faster and faster. My companion and I are getting along well. We had an all you can eat pancake eating competition at Ihop this morning (Elder Labarre {my comp.}, Elder Aldridge {my old comp}, and Elder Houston {a kid that worked with rob at emergency essentials}, and I). I won at only 9 pancakes and I'm the only one who didn't try to throw up. Then we played a sweet game of dodge ball and then we came home and changed back into our pros. clothes.
Ok, enough about me. How are you guys doing? Dad, thanks for your emails they're always inspiring. Mom thank you for caring about all the little things, thank you for the letter with the pictures from strawberry reservoir. Its good to hear you guys have jobs, are Scoty and Mark going to help you with the new church?
Lisa, hows the fam? Thank you for your prayers in our behalf. The guy we had dinner with last night is a DEA (drug enforcement agent) and reminded me of a mix between Mike and Eric. He was really funny and told us some cool drug bust stories & finding stinky dead people.

How's Madison’s Tennis going? The only reason I ask is because I was looking thorough Elder Houstons Pictures that his girl friend sent him and was like "hey, this is my neice". He had a picture of Mattie with her tennis instructor Ashli (his future wife).
Andrea, how are the kids? Blake, sorry about your cougars. My comp wants to be an anesthesiologist so I talk about you all the time.
Val, did you guys make grape juice?
(sorry they're kicking us out)
Kris, I love you.

John, I saw the pic.s of your daughter. cute.

Rob I'm sending you a package.

Scoty, I miss you.

Mark, Please write me.

Wendy, thank you for the letter.

HAPPY GENERAL CONFRENCE!!!
Love Elder Prina