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Devotionals

Missions Bless Lives

Brothers and Sisters, Aloha!

We are blessed to be serving in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. President Hinckley said that the spirit of aloha means the Spirit of God. We are so blessed to serve in this mission here in this beautiful paradise.

The Hawaii Honolulu Mission currently has 168 young missionaries, of which 40 are young sisters, serving all the Hawaiian Islands. We also have 23 senior missionaries who are vital to the work on each island. They are assigned as MLS, military relations, Church employment and CES missionaries. We always need more seniors willing to serve full-time.

We love serving here in paradise. The saints are full of love, and we know why people all over the world enjoy vacationing in this beautiful state, which has perfect weather year-round.

President Sloat and I arrived in Honolulu last July, from Suffolk, Virginia. We have five children. The oldest is a girl and she has four brothers. We have 20 grandchildren ages 14 years to our youngest, who was born in American Fork, Utah the same week we entered the MTC.

We have lived in California three times, North Carolina four times, Massachusetts once, Quantico Virginia three times, and Utah once—where President Sloat was commissioned an officer after he graduated from the University of Utah. Our last two duty stations were in Norfolk, Virginia, and we stayed in Virginia, since I was tired of moving. We had 18 moves across the states, ocean to ocean, coast to coast where you’ll find U.S. Navy ships. We can’t tell you how much we love our fellow veterans, both in and out of the Church. My children managed to find good friends, wherever we lived. We especially enjoyed living on military bases, that had Department of Defense schools that provided great educations for our children.

I’ve been a member of the Church all my life. I grew up in Kokomo, Indiana and always knew about Jesus Christ, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, a prophet today, and the Church as a congregated branch.

Serving the Lord full-time in this capacity, has brought us so many blessings, as well as a love for the full-time missionaries. We will be forever grateful to Heavenly Father for this opportunity to serve as mission leaders. President Sloat and I started our covenant path together 42 years ago. The Marine Corps treated us well. We always had a roof over our heads, food to eat, and clothes on our backs. We have calculated that Colonel Sloat was deployed and away from our family eight plus years, including tours back-to-back during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, after 9/11.

The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. We are blessed to know our Heavenly Father’s great plan of happiness, and to know our Savior, Jesus Christ executed His Father’s plan perfectly. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.