I've been in Hawaii for 4 days now and the experience is already absolutely incredible. Words can't even explain the beauty of Oahu and the love that comes from the people. Every time I look around whether we are driving, hiking, or sitting at home, the view puts me in complete awe. In this awe, I see all of God's creation and His love for us. In the beauty of creation, I just see that He created all of this in such love, just how much he LOVES us. This past semester, I really discovered the love of God in my heart and not just in my head. Through this I was able to see how He loves me, how much I love him, and see myself how He sees me. Sure I've known that all my life, I've been told He loves me every since preschool but to know it in my heart in so many different ways, brings out so much more love. Just seeing His creation and beauty he created here on Oahu, really just pulled the entire picture together of what I've experienced in the past year. The people of Hawaii are the most loving group of people I've ever met in my entire life. Everyone's door is open to their house, arms are open for a greet with a hug, and smiles surround the city. It makes my heart so incredibly happy to be serving such loving people.

The past 4 days have been filled with exploring the island and meeting the people of Hawaii Kia. I'm still adjusting to the 5 hour time difference. Waking up at 5am with a huge boost of energy is something quite crazy. But today we woke up at 6:30am so we are slowly getting there :) Layce (my sidekick missionary for the summer) and I are quite the Lewis and Clark. We have already climbed a volcano, hiked for 2.5 hours, and seen so many sites that Dani Beth has introduced us too. We heard about KoKo Crater, an inactive volcano that has a path to the top of it for hiking. On Saturday, we climbed a mile and half up the steepest, smallest trail I have every seen in my life. The trail was made of planks that created a staircase for climbing. The next day I felt like I had climbed a volcano, so much pain! But it was worth it and a great experience for a little bit of pain ;). So today, we decided we should go run to a trail that we would hike, not even thinking it would be 2.5 hours of exploring. It was absolute breath taking to see the island from so many views. We made a trip several trips to the beach and now look like two lobsters, but lots of sunscreen is being used along with aloevera! The beaches have the clearest water I have ever seen. Even in the deepest parts of the ocean, I can still see the sand at the bottom. We also got to experience the ocean on a jet ski today with one of the families at the church. They were SO generous to take us out and also let us drive it! Even way out in the ocean as we were going over huge waves, the water was so clear and beautiful!

On Friday, we were able to get to know the girls in the youth group we will be working with this summer over tea at a Vintage tea shop. So fun! They seem like such sweet girls that have a hunger for the Lord and I can't wait to get to know each of their hearts this summer!

After all the exciting adventuers we have experienced the past few days, we start work at the church tomorrow and then an orientation with NAMB. I'm exptremely excited to begin working with Hawaii Kia and serve them this summer. I can already tell it's going to a great experienced and I can't wait to tell you all about it :)

Well, those are just a short bit of the adventures so far but I'll be updating much more often from here on out!