Aloha kakou! or Hello everyone!

This is my first weekly email of many to come during my 2 whole years as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I've been preparing for this my whole life and I'm so grateful to finally be in the service of the Lord. I will be serving in the Hawaii, Honolulu mission in the English language. I will officially head out to Hawaii on August 9th after learning 2 weeks in the Provo MTC.

This past week has been absolutely amazing! On Sunday I was set apart and it was at that very moment that I felt the gravity and blessing of my newly given responsibility. After I was set apart I couldn't stop smiling. I knew I was going to love this. Then online MTC started and oh boy was it amazing! I love my district so much! This week of lessons taught brother Brother Garrison and Sister Doezie have been phenomenal. During my MTC learning, for both online and in Provo, I have been assigned a companion. His name is Elder Owen. He is 6'4'', super athletic, and about the biggest testimony I've ever seen. We do companion study every day and it's always a blast. It just makes me more excited to see my entire district in person on Wednesday!

I have learned so much more than I ever thought I could online. Regardless the method of teaching, the work of a missionary is universal; no matter the time or place. Before classes there's a devotional for all the missionaries online where they explain an aspect of missionary work that we can relate to our own lives. It invites the spirit so strongly and makes the daily 6 hours of classes feel like 5 minutes. Even though my mission is in English, I have made the effort to learn Hawaiian and some Japanese through Duolingo. It makes me love the culture of Hawaii even more and who knows it might be helpful later on. On Wednesday I got to see my friend Nathan Stewart (Formerly Elder Stewart) after he returned from his mission. It was a cool experience to talk to a freshly returned missionary especially since he served 6 months in Fiji for good chunk of time before he was transferred in response to Corona.

I am so humbled to finally be missionary for many reasons, but my favorite is how closely I feel the Lord's presence around me every time I put on my nametag. To call myself an official representative of Jesus Christ is the greatest privilege I've ever had. The Holy Ghost has never left my side and has guided me along the entire way of journey that has only just begun. I am so excited to learn more and I could have only made it here from everyone's support. I love you all and I can't wait to email next week while in the Provo MTC!!! It's literally the most exciting thing ever and it only gets better from here.

I will see you all next week! Lesu pu!

1. My online setup(I got a haircut yesterday so forgive my ugly hair)