Every day, visitors ask me if I would ever move back to Hawaii after my mission. Almost before they get the question out, I have already answered NO. Then I feel bad because so many people would love to be here right now....especially because its cold in Utah haha....So, I would like to share a little behind the scenes information about living in Hawaii.
There are creepy crawly things EVERYWHERE and these are my adventures just in the past week. A couple of days ago, we were deep cleaning our apartment. It's been sprayed, so there are dead ants and spiders everywhere. Occasionally we would find some live ones but we would just go ahead and vacuum them up with the dead ones, figuring that they will die when they get sucked into the vacuum. I used to do this all the time at home and I thought for sure it would work. We decided to empty the vacuum the next morning so that everything would be dead before we began vaccuuming again. The next morning I went to empty it and there were 4 live spiders and they had built their own series of webs inside of the other parts of the vacuum! So gross. These spiders are indestructible.
Almost as indestuctible as Hawaiian ants. They don't even die when you nuke them in the microwave for 2 minutes. They are breeding their own mutant ant colony in our microwave.
There are geckos everywhere, which I don't mind for the most part. They crawl around our walls and they are kind of cute so it's not a big deal. While I was sweeping the other day, I found a dead one :( There is one that hangs out on the gate that leads to our front door....he's jumped on me a couple of times. One night while I was writing in my journal, one landed in and got lost in my hair. That was awesome.
Cockroaches....yuck. We have them and I just hope and pray that they don't crawl around in our food. The only thing I'm going to say about roaches is that it's definitely not a good idea to try to suck them up in the vacuum. They get stuck! We had to use q-tips to pry one out of the vacuum hose and it was nasty.
I saved the best creepy crawly things for last. Centipedes. I'm not talking about the little ones. These ones are huge and they have pinchers and they bite. We found one in our bathroom the other day, well actually, it crawled over Sister Muller's foot while she was brushing her teeth. You can imagine 4 sister missionaries screaming and trying to figure out how to kill it. After much confusion and chaos, we got it outside and sprayed it with bleach. It jumped in the air and started curling up but it never fully died. Apparently the only way to really kill them is to cut them in half with scissors. Yeah right. We just left it outside in the bleach and came back a couple of hours later to find that it was gone. Is it still alive? I don't know. Probably.
I'm grateful to be in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission! I'm also grateful for the many adventures that I've had since I've been here. The next time you complain about the cold Utah weather, you can think of me over here with all of these nasty bugs and you can be grateful that you live in a cold climate so that there are not 6 inch long centipedes in your house! Mission life is awesome and I'm so grateful for all of the many wonderful experiences I've had.
I love you all,
Sister Stringer
Aloha wonderful family and friends!
It's been a very busy and wonderful week. I got to go inside the Temple for the first time on Thursday morning and it was ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!! It is such an amazing and special place and the spirit is so strong. Helping with the open house has been great and a wonderful experience. We have already seen miracles because of the temple reopening.
One such miracle happened with a 15 year old girl, Kamalani, that we taught my very first transfer. We invited her to be baptized but she said she wasn't ready at the time, although she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. For the temple rededication, all of the youth on Oahu and Kauai are having a cultural celebration for the prophet when he comes. The ward invited Kamalani to participate with them and she helped them with their dance for the celebration. Her heart was softened and about 3 weeks ago she came to the Visitors' Center and said she wanted to be baptized. She was baptized because of the events surrounding the temple! What a wonderful beginning to the many miracles we will continue to see.
I love you all so much! Make an effort to go to the temple - it is the best place to be!!!
Love,
Sister Stringer
PS- Happy Halloween!!!!
I'm so grateful that I get to learn so much in one week's time. I would like to share something that I've learned that has truly made a huge difference for me this week. I was thinking about Pres. Uchtdorf's talk in General Conference this weekend. I felt like he was speaking directly to me because I know that I'm always trying to do too much. The overall message that I got from that is that I'm not loved any more or any less based on the things I have accomplished. All He asks is that I do my best to work hard and be obedient.
Thinking about that has led me to think a lot about charity - the pure love of Christ. I have really come to feel what it means to have charity for others as I constantly pray to be able to see those I serve in the way that Christ sees and loves them. It's amazing how much love I can feel for people that I don't even know! I know that what I am feeling is the love of Christ. So, throughout the course of my mission, I have come to better understand what it means to have charity for others, which I'm very grateful for. However, this week it has taken on a whole new meaning. I realized that I haven't been feeling charity for myself. I need to see myself as Christ sees me, and love myself as He loves me. I need to pray to recognize the love He has for me more fully in my life and to take time to ponder who I am and what I can become. I need to be more patient, kind, and loving toward myself, just as I would to people that I meet here in the VC. I need to love myself...I know that the love Christ has for all of us is so real and it's time to make that a reality in my own life.
Pray to see yourself as Christ does. Learn to appreciate who you are and love yourself through and through. Make better decisions and choices to show gratitude for the perfect love that is bestowed upon you. Life is so much more pleasant and joyful!! I'll be working on that too. If Christ loves me so much, why shouldn't I love myself too? One of my favorite chapters of the Book of Mormon is Moroni 7. Take time to read and ponder how you can feel that charity more fully in your own life. I know that I am a daughter of God and that I am loved perfectly by my Redeemer. My eyes have been opened to my eternal possibilities and I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of who I really am. I'm so grateful for my Savior and for His gospel and I'm grateful to be His missionary :)
Aloha,
Sister Stringer
