Honoring Mothers

This weekend was a special time to show appreciation to our mothers and honor them for all they do, and the positive influence they have on our lives and those around them. The Waimanalo ward hosted a breakfast for the sisters, and it was especially gratifying for us to see so many people show up that we've never met before who rarely if ever come to church. We made the effort to get the word out to as many people as possible, and it was nice to see everyone thoroughly enjoying themselves. We feel our purpose as senior missionaries is to encourage the spreading of the gospel from within by giving the ward members opportunities to love one another so that those who may feel distant or disconnected from their ward family will feel the desire to return into the warm embrace of the Savior's love for them. Sister Mundell spent most of the day on Saturday baking hundreds of chocolate chip cookies. It was a joyful experience for us to share these cookies with the sisters today at church and to see the smiles on the faces of the mothers in the congregation.

More than 300 Mother's Day cookies were wrapped in individual packages

Two weeks ago, Sister Mundell felt inspired to ask Aunt Blanche, the homeless shelter owner, if she could do manicures for the female residents and she got her enthusiastic approval. So we purchased all of the materials needed, and when we arrived on Monday it appeared no one was available for Cathy to provide the service. She was discouraged at first, but a shelter resident asked her to see Maria, who told her "I bet she will allow you to do her nails". Maria was happy with the manicure and personal attention, and Cathy was so excited ... she said it was literally the best experience that she'd had in a long time. Maria is an 86 year-old woman who'd just moved into the shelter - an absolutely delightful human being - and she was so appreciative and talked extensively about her life. When we left the shelter, Maria's nails looked amazing but Sister Mundell was the one that learned the best lesson ever. She now understood how Christ must have felt when he helped those around Him who needed him. In her own words, "I began to have tears in my eyes because of the love I had for her and the gratitude she had for me".

Elder Mundell had an interesting experience trying to share the gospel on Friday. As he was returning to the grocery store to pick up a box, a man in a car asked him if he was Mormon. The man then said he hailed from Saudi Arabia, one of his servants was an active member of our church but there weren't any missionaries for him to talk to in his country. Dan asked him if he wanted to learn more, and made an appointment to visit him on his yacht after we finished our community service at the Pantry. When he told him what we do at the Pantry he pulled out a wad of $100 bills and offered to give Elder Mundell thousands of dollars, even mentioning he had a million dollars he was looking to give away, but Dan said he wasn't interested in his money and should donate it to a worthy cause. The man said his Hawaiian name was David and gave him a local number he could be reached at while he was visiting. He also mentioned that he was going to Utah next, and had an appointment to meet one of the leaders of our church from Germany. Elder Mundell asked if it was Elder Uchtdorf and he said yes. When Dan returned to the car he excitedly told Sister Mundell about his chat with David, and even shared his experience with some of the other missionaries from our zone serving at the Pantry that day. BUT when he tried to contact him that afternoon, the local number showed up on his phone belonging to a member of the Kailua ward in our stake. So more than likely it was all a fantasy story, Elder Mundell showed how truly gullible he can be, and we learned to not trust everything people tell us, even if we really want to. We will still attempt to contact David and try to have a conversation with him about the gospel. Maybe this fantastic story can have a happy ending after all, and we can help him gain a stronger testimony. 

Two of the Service Missionaries who work at the Pantry with us every Friday.
It was Sister Evan's last week of her mission. To the right is Sister Green.