A Pound A Baptism

Aloha and Happy New Year family!

Wow I can’t believe it’s 2013, no way! How did that happen?? Time sure flies when you’re having a blast all the time. Can I say that I love being a missionary? Someone told me if you’re having too much fun on your mission, then you’re not working hard enough. But I disagree! Really, even though it’s hard work, the life of a missionary is the life. Ya I’m pooped 24/7, but I’m happiest I’ve ever been, being out here and serving and loving the people of Hawaii. 

How was your New Year’s Eve?? Did you eat any Raclette? Play games? Watch Psych? Watch the ball drop? I sure hope so! Man I miss those things. HOWEVER! I had quite the New Year’s myself.  You see, Hawaii knows how to party let me tell you. On New Year’s Eve (and days before and after), Hawaii is on fiya... literally. Fireworks of the illegal variety are going off so often that you almost don’t notice after a while! You can honestly have a sit anywhere in Hawaii and have a sick fireworks show. Our whole Zone got to be together, so we all sat in the temple parking lot and watched fireworks. THEN, we started living the movie, “Tangled” because hundreds of lanterns covered Laie. So sweet!

Amidst all the holidays and parties, our missionary week was a wonderful one. No different from any other week here in beautiful Laie. First off, Sister J and I have been visiting the Kauvaka family whom we have decided is our beautiful adopted Polynesian family. They are from Tonga, and definitely one of my favorite families. Let me explain a little bit about them.

The first time we went over to their house they FED us. And when I say fed, I mean POLYNESIAN FED. It’s quite different from what us palangi think of as being fed. You don’t eat until you’re full… no, you eat until you’re tired and falling asleep right there on your plate! For example, I ate five huge pieces of French toast fried in butter and egg with choke amounts of syrup, who knows how many pieces of spam fried in butter (Hawaiians love their SPAM. It’s actually soo delicious! Never thought I’d say that), a three-egg omelet, and choke juice. It was delicious obviously, but I felt like I was going to barf. I haven’t eaten that much in a whole week! But it’s incredible how giving these people are. It’s amazing how if you eat the food a Polynesian family gives you, then they trust you. Eating shows your love for them and in return they love you even more. It’s so sweet because they don’t have very much here, and yet they are so happy to give you all that they have. I haven’t seen a more loving people. It makes gaining five pounds every meal an honor :D 

Shoots, I just realized I already have to go even though I have so much more I wanted to say! I’ll just save it for next week. It'll keep you in suspense for the next seven days. 

Know that I love you oodles and oodles! I love hearing from all of you and can’t wait to hear from you again. This gospel is so true it’s not even funny! I come to love it more and more every day and I invite you to do something every day that will help you love it more too. Heavenly Father loves you!

Loves and kisses,

Sister Annen

Up or Down

Mele Kalikimaka everyone! 

Merry Christmas Hawaiian Style!
These are our sweet muumuus we get to wear everyday.
Chihu!

It's a little late I know, but hey! At least I got to CALL YOU!!!!!! I can't believe I got to talk to you guys and hear your voices only a week ago! Did that really happen?? Did I really get to talk to the coolest people on earth? Oh man, BEST Christmas present ever. You sounded like you were having way too much fun... :D Stop it. ha You all sounded so good and I'm already totes stoked for five months from now! And what are your plans for New Years? Got something sweet planned? Don't have too much fun without me. For New Years guess what we as missionaries get to do... stay up til one baby!! Chihu! One AM! Usually I'm in bed by like 9:30 so let's see if I can actually stay up that late. 

So another choice week out on the mission. It was crazy with the Holidays with choke amounts of people at the VC. So sweet! Since there are so many people visiting for the holidays, the VC has been putting on musical firesides every Sunday night. We scheduled the Tongan choir to sing one of the nights and everyone was soups excited because...well... it's the TONGAN choir! Have any of you heard a Tongan sing before? Ya... angelic voicesI tell ya. So a couple days before, they called us up and cancelled. Yep. So you're wondering, now what right?? Tons of people come to these things; enough where speakers have to be put outside the VC and people have to listen from outside. PACKED. As we were thinking about what to do, someone suggests, "Hey! Maybe the missionaries can put on the fireside!"
ha I'm sorry, what?? Replace the Tongan choir? In two days? No, you don't understand, we have not called to sing in front of massive amounts of people! But as we talked about it, we totally knew it was the right thing to do. We practiced and practiced like crazy for the next two days and didn't sleep or eat. ha no we ate, of course we ate! Missionaries! Anyway, let's say it was stressful, but finally right before the fireside we kind of pulled it together. As a Laie Zone, we all prayed together, asking Heavenly Father to help us not totally bomb. After we all prayed, and throughout the fireside, we felt calm and happy. Even though we messed up sometimes, we knew it didn't matter because what was the point of the whole thing? Not to show off our performance skills, definitely not. The point was for all of us performing and listening, to feel the spirit of Christmas and the spirit of Christ. I know I could feel it. Plus it was so awesome singing Christmas songs and playing the ukelele at the same time. Can't beat that. 

This week was also choice because Sister J and I got to go to the sealing of the Tune family! So amazing! We had taught them a little bit before and they're such an adorable, solid family. After our lessons, Brother Tune would husk a coconut for us with a machete dude! A machete! Don't see those very often. We were looking forward to their sealing day for a full transfer and it finally came on Friday. Brother and Sister Tune with their cute daughter Emily were beaming and beautiful and happy, and now... eternal.  What a blessing Heavenly Father has given us right? To give us the opportunity and blessing of being with our best friends forever. He loves us so much. I could absolutely feel it as we sat in the sealing room. Temples truly are the house of the Lord. 

Well my dear ones, I better be off! Know that I love you <----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> this much!!! Remember that your Heavenly Father is only a prayer away. He is waiting to help us and bless us, if only we ask. I didn't realize how powerful prayer really can be until my mission. And I'm still learning everyday. Make this the best week ever! I heard a cute saying the other day that says, "your day goes the way the corners of your mouth turn." Cool huh? And even if they're pointing down, the Lord can help us! Through Him, they can always be turned up.

I love you all! But more importantly, Heavenly Father loves you. 

Love always,
Sister Annen

Michael Ballum came for a fireside at the Visitor's Center during Christmas!
He was incredible!
He told us he had a "devilish" of a time.....  :)

Stretched Out Still

Wow what a week! And I really mean it too. I feel like I say that every week, but it's so true being a missionary! Every week is either the craziest, or hardest, or happiest, or funniest, or shortest week. There's always an -est at the end of whatever it was. Don't know if that makes any sense, but hey!

First off, TRANSFERS! WHOO! I made it through my first one everybody! Can't say it didn't come up fast because it totally did. I'm staying in Laie and finishing up my 12-week training with my momma. aka Sister Johnston. We are changing wards that we're serving in though, and I was totally caught off guard at how sad I am to leave them! You totally come to love each of them. I'm going to miss them even though it's only been a few weeks; but I'm so excited to serve in a family ward now! We've mostly been serving in the BYU student wards and it's so funny because I totally feel like a student when I'm in those wards. I forget that I'm not like everyone else until I see the student's reactions when they see my badge after talking to them for a little bit :) It's all good. 

Sis. Johnston and I are moving from our beautiful beach pad so I'm going to miss living there! Not gonna lie though, I'm not gonna miss waking up to cockroaches or maggots sleeping over every morning, but living on the beach was kinda nice! But hey, living right next to Laie temple is better than any shore I know of so I'm really stoked about that. Really, it's the closest neighbor we have. 

Serving at the Visitor's Center was super awesome this week! It's starting to become more crowded with the holidays and such and so we meet so many people from all over the world. And even better than that, I'll meet people from places that are special to me whether they are places I've been before, or whether they are places my family and friends either are serving now or have served before. It's so cool! I get to take them on tours and get to know them a little bit. And every so often they will self-refer and I can't help but to think that I get to refer them to one of my friends serving in that area! It's the greatest feeling. 

Tons of Koreans come to Hawaii and since Elder Annen is just rocking it over there, I, the second I meet them, I already feel like we're homies! I get so excited, but can't express it to them them except through charades. So help me out here: How do you act out the phrase, "My brother is serving a mission in your home land and because of that, I love you!" It's been one of the tougher ones to act out. 

The VC is beautifully decorated for Christmas too. I can't help but to think that life is so good everyday when I walk in and see the beautiful Christus. I mean, how blessed can you get to see this big magnificent statue of the resurrected Jesus Christ every day? I love how His arms are stretched out and extended to me and to all of us. His arms never change position! It's so symbolic of how He actually is and how He actually expresses His love for us every minute of everyday. I've come to learn that as blessed as I am to see the statue everyday, I know that we can all see and feel Him everyday without physically seeing. Our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us so much don't they? What a gift to know that.

I love my Savior with all my heart and know that we can come closer unto Him everyday and be one of His disciples. 

I love you so much my dear family! I'm just dying to talk to you on the phone next week!
Mele Kalikimaka!

Love always,
Sister Annen

Sister Annen's Hawaiian Address

Sister Ashley McCall Annen
Hawaii Honolulu Mission
1500 S Beretania St. Ste 416
Honolulu, HI 96826

Heyloha Family!

Heyloha  family!

So this week, Sister and Johnston and I went out on my first tracting excursion! Chihu! Oh man guys, I was sups nervous, but more excited than nervous. We were thinking about where to tract and we decided to tract in Sunset. Now let me tell you a little bit about Sunset, Hawaii. Sunset is beach bum town. Everyone surfs here. Everyone! Oh and a sidenote… I totally walked passed Jack Johnson’s house. Heard of him? Ya, we’re totally planning on baptizing him the next time we go. We’re thinking of bringing our ukes with us so that when he answers, we’ll start jamming “Banana Pancakes” and then ask him to be baptized. Good tactic? I’ll keep you updated on that one :D

While we were tracting, we saw this adorable old man sitting in a wheelchair in his driveway. Now you couldn’t miss him because he was wearing a bright neon green Yankees sweatshirt and shorts and was just rocking the bling bling (watches, rings, earrings, etc.) We walked up to him and just started talking, not knowing what he would say to us white sister missionaries. We told him we were representatives of Jesus Christ and told him our purpose in talking with him. It was then he told us his name was Joe. We asked Joe if we could pray with him and he was totally up for it. I prayed, and then afterward stood and waited for a moment. After a few seconds, I asked him how he felt during the prayer. We could see it in his face, but it was incredible to hear the words “I felt something different. I feel really good for some reason!” come out of his mouth. We explained what that feeling was and told him we could feel this way all the time by following the example of Jesus Christ. It was then, that we had the strongest impression to ask him to be baptized. Wait, hold up, what?? Ask him to be baptized?! Now Heavenly Father, remember that we met this guy only five minutes ago! But we felt it again, “ask him to be baptized”. So with that, we asked him if he would follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. Now normally, waiting for their response to that question is the longest few seconds of a missionary’s life. But in this case, Joe immediately answered “Yes!”! It was awesome. We set up another appointment with him and will teach him again soon. I can’t wait to tell you how it goes.

 There’s nothing better than walking away from something like that! Really, I have never felt such pure joy before. I’ve totally been happy, but nothing like this kind of joy. I understand what Elder Annen meant when he said that months ago! There’s nothing like it. I can’t think of a better work than helping others come unto their Savior Jesus Christ. Seeing them recognize the spirit is the greatest sight to see. I know I say it all the time, but the life of a missionary is the greatest! The hardest, but the greatest. And it’s incredible that we can all be missionaries. Just think about what Heavenly Father COULD say, versus what he allows US to say instead. What a blessing Heavenly Father has given us. I know this gospel is the way to live with our Heavenly Father again. It’s perfect evidence that His love for us is an eternal love. EVERYTHING we have is a blessing from Him. I love him so much.

And I love all of you! But more importantly, Heavenly Father loves you.

Have the greatest week my wonderful Family!

Aloha!

Sister Annen

Aloha Ohana!!

Aloha ohana!! (ohana means family) :D

Wow, the day came ohana! It came! I can't believe I'm in Hawaii! It's the most beautiful place on earth and I can't believe I get to serve here. It almost doesn't seem fair.

This week was so wonderful and crazy and full of miracles that's for sure. There were miracles of all kinds actually. First off, you probably heard that I got in a car accident my first day in the field......Welcome to Hawaii! haha we were driving to morning exercise when this huge truck turned in to the road we were turning out of and he totally t-boned us! He was going 30 mph and smacked us on the driver's side. We flew back 20 feet and the airbags went off. Luckily, my trainer Sister Johnston and I weren't hurt. We both had to get out on the passenger's side though because the driver's side was destroyed. You can imagine our week was nuts after that with all the paper work, doctor's appointments, phone calls, oh and missionary work since were missionaries over here :D At the doctor's, we were prescibed medication for whiplash AND we have to get massages twice a week for six weeks. Rough right? Can't say I'm complaining about the massages part. I feel bad for the man who hit us though, since he has to pay for it all. Oh! Which speaking of him, we learned that Heavenly Father has a sense of humor, because guess who is the Bishop of the ward we're serving in?.... Yep, the guy who hit us. Of course. Good one.

But know that I'm totally fine and spic and spam! If I didn't think the Lord was going to protect me on my mission before, He sure let me know this week. :D

Man, missionary work rocks! Have I mentioned that? It's even more awesome now that I'm in the field too. My area is Laie, which is on the North Shore. It's super tiny and adorable. The people here are the humblest, and nicest people I have ever met. We are fed everyday, or twice or three times a day. It's Hawaii :D I'm two seconds away from the temple which is gorgeous, the PCC, and BYU Hawaii. Want to know something about Laie that I didn't know before? 95% of the people are LDS here. 95%! It's awesome because eveyone says hi to us or gives us free stuff whenever we walk by, but when it comes to finding and baptizing... it's a little tough. There are also so many missionaries here so we're all just trying to find people to teach. Half the day, I'm at the Temple Visitor's Center too which is awesome! I get to wear this huge bright blue muumuu and everyone who walks in wants our pictuure. I'm still learning how to give tours, but the ones I have given have been incredible. Who knew giving tours could be such a powerful tool for bringing others unto Christ. Sister Johnston and I gave this tour that actually made me more converted to my Savior. We all felt the the spirit so strongly. Someone from the group asked if we could all just kneel and pray because they were feeling something they had never felt before. We prayed and committed them to be baptized and they accepted! They totally knew it was true from that one tour and I'll never forget it. The spirit truly does testify of Christ and truth. There's nothing like it.

Well ohana, I have to go because we're going the the PCC now! Whoo! (missionaries get to go there for free btw) I'll have to tell you all about it. Know that I love you, and more importantly, God loves you. Have the best week! You got this :D Aloha!

Love always,

Sister Annen

Good Morning Everyone!

Good morning everyone!

So I have P-Day again today since my schedule changed now that I am in Visitor Center training! Two P-Days in one week...mmm...not complaining over here :D All I've got to say about Visitor's Center training is that, well, it ROCKS!! After my last district had left, I was super sad because we had all become really close. I didn't want them to go on their mission to serve the Lord because I wanted them to stay here with us sisters and keep us happy and entertained! ha selfish and terrible I know, but that's how I felt! But when we got our new district, I didn't even feel sad anymore because all the sisters are amazing! They are from all over the world and they are sweethearts. And guess what?... they're going to Hawaii with Sister Mckeever and me! Ah! We were so so happy to finally meet them because we thought we were the only sisters going. Two sisters are from Japan (Sister Takatsu and Sister Kunishi) one if from Micronesia (Sister Mark), and one is from Hong Kong (Sister Koek). They are still learning English so charades is a favorite game of ours. 

Wednesday was our first day of training. We went to Temple Square, where on the way we passed 9109 South Mallard Circle, tons of Cafe Rio's, people and cars! ha it was bittersweet since I was so close yet so far. But it was mostly sweet so I held it together! We were taken on a tour of the Visitor's Center and then were introduced to how we will be giving more than feel-good tours. Feel-good tours are good; however, we learned how we want to give tours that will be a climate for conversion. I loved what my teacher said. She said, "Give a tour that the Savior would give." That was so beautiful and profound to me! I have been trying to remember that as I have been "giving tours" here at the MTC. It requires so much prayer and thought and preparation beforehand. But my it is so worth the extra effort. Think about this for a second. As tourguides, we have no idea whom we will be meeting and teaching that day. So we have to be able to prepare and listen to the spirit to know what their concerns will be BEFORE even meeting them! At first, I didn't think it was possible, because how can you be in tune so much to know that?? But let me tell you, if you only have faith that He will tell you and you ponder and pray intently, you know exactly what their needs are. It's incredible! And I wish I could explain exactly how I feel when it happens. But just know, that throughout this week, I have really come to have a testimony about the power of personal revelation. It can happen to all of us! If we only have the faith. 

Well, this is my last P-Day in the MTC! I never thought I would be saying this so soon! I keep forgetting that this is only the training part of my mission because I just figure I'll be in the MTC all 18 months :D We leave the MTC early Tuesday morning so before you know it I'll be eating pineapple and hangin with the polyies. Oh yeah. FIVE MORE DAYS!!! 

I get to call on Tuesday too! So keep your phones glued to yourselves because I'm dying to hear your cute little voices! Til then, I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!! 

Love always,

Sister Amen

p.s. this church is so true it's not even funny :)