Family Home Evening

Another hot, humid Sunday. It is weird to think that Halloween is this week and we are still wearing shorts when we are not at work. We bought a pumpkin at Wal-Mart and will carve it and take it over to the Sharps for Halloween. They have invited us to come for hot dogs and to watch the craziness from their front lawn.

This is a picture of a typical FHE at our Branch President's home. We usually have between 25 - 30 YAs who come. We have a spiritual thought and then an activity of some kind. Dennis and I provided the activities for the first six weeks, but now we have passed the torch to the kids and they are taking turns. There is no FHE tomorrow because the church leaders are encouraging everyone to go down to the state capitol for a big rally in support of family and marriage. The legislature is holding a special session to decide whether gay marriage should be legalized in the state of Hawaii.

The view from the golf course

On Thursday we drove down to Honolulu so Dennis could buy some second hand golf clubs. He found some for a great price and is now looking forward to spending some time hitting little balls into little holes. He golfed at Turtle Bay last Friday and this past Friday he tried out the local course at Kuhuku. The locals refer to it as the "Poor Man's Pebble Beach." The views are quite beautiful.

We also did our usual Tuesday night thing at the PCC and took a picture of part of the luau program when the chief arrives. Two of the luaus have short programs that accompany the meal. Then there is the longer night show. It really is a full day for visitors by the time they take in all the villages, the luau, and the night show. The PCC covers 42 acres and that is a lot of walking. It is very interesting to work there though. Last week we met people from Colorado, Indiana, Sweden, and Columbia, South America.

On Saturday we had a little outing with two of the other missionary couples who live in the same building as we do. We drove over to Haleiwa in search of green sea turtles. We went to the park right there in town and there were maybe 75 -80 kids out surfing on bigger waves than I had seen before. Most of them were pre-teen and younger. It was fun to watch them at their various levels of expertise - all better than ours would have been. We tried to get a picture of them but it didn't turn out too well. Maybe you can get the idea. We thought of Nick.

From there we walked down the beach just a little bit further and there were the turtles! There were five or six big ones, just resting on the sand, with a couple more swimming right next to the beach. We could see their heads poke out of the water. We met some other people there who noticed our badges and started talking to us. It turned out they were members of the Church visiting from Utah and Colorado. One of them has parents serving here as well. Their kids were going crazy over the turtles.

Dennis and Kaye and new investigator

After admiring the turtles, we went over to a Mexican restaurant in town called Choloes. I had delicious shrimp tacos and Dennis had Mahi enchiladas. It was very tasty. A girlfriend of one of our branch members works there and so we got to visit with Taylor for a little bit. She is from Mesa, Arizona. Her boyfriend, Kirk, works next door at a sushi place and he came in to say hi too. We will try out his place next time. We also ran into the Cardnos just as they were leaving. They had some other people with them from Canada. I didn't remember them but of course,Dennis did. Cardnos have a lot of company so it is fun to see their guests since we know most of them as well.
We enjoyed getting to know our missionary neighbors a little bit better. Going from left, around the table they are Eric and Sandra Stephans. They are from Orem and this is their second time here. They did the same thing about six years ago. The next couple is the Rowells - Peggy and Lynn. They are from Cedar Hills and this is their first time to Hawaii - ever- and so they are enjoying their weekends of exploring. They spent one year living in Israel twelve years ago. Both men teach religion classes with Dennis. Sister Stephan works in the student support center, helping kids who are flunking out. Sister Rowell works in the student office making sure the students from places other than the U.S. have all the proper documentation, visas, etc. There is one other couple in our building but they had family visiting and couldn't come with us. They are the Cochrans from Mesa. They are going home in six weeks. All lovely people. We are enjoying meeting the other missionaries through the PCC. We don't have too much contact otherwise because of our assignments on campus and in the branch.

Dinner at Choloes in Haleiwa

It is the end of a Sabbath day.  We just returned from dinner with one of my colleagues at BYUH.  They are a young family, Dan and Carrie Shar, reminded us of our own kids.  A great family with nice kids and a great roast beef dinner with real mashed potatoes an gravy.  It was a nice Sunday dinner and fun visit. 

We received a new branch assignment today.  We are now the branch mission prep discussion leaders.  This will be enjoyable because we have a number of YSA who are engaged and others who are planning for missions.  I will have to dust off my old temple prep lessons, but things have not really changed that much in this area. 
One of my branch assignments is to mentor the kids on probation.  We are having success and that is gratifying.  Now that we have the ward lists from SLC we will be doing more visits to less actives and maybe more mentoring.  It has taken awhile but our branch is now up and running. 

This is a photo of our temple...I will tell you some things about it. The temple is on the highest spot in the area, only a few hundred feet above sea level.  It is a small temple.  The rooms hold only 30 or so.  It has recently been remodeled because the outside cement had eroded and was looking gray.  It is now again sparkling white.  It is build just below an old LDS pioneer cemetery that is fun to walk through.  The cemetery is part of the temple grounds.  There is a distribution center, family history center and visitors center on the grounds.  If you look at the photo the distribution and FH centers are to the left of the temple and the visitors center is to the right.  Nothing is very large, just adequate.  Each hour or so a tram from the PCC drives to the front on the temple and people who want can walk around the grounds and go to the visitor center.  They generate more missionary referrals at this visitor's center than any other in the Church.  Behind the temple is Hawaiian jungle that runs up the mountain you can see in the photo.  To the left is BYUH and to the right a nice subdivision.  We go on Wednesday nights which is always interesting because that is when new folks and those who require more time because of their handicaps attend.  Hence we are often the witness couple. 

This week we spent two evenings at the PCC taking tickets.  There are four luau's so we have worked at two of them so far.  This week we were at the Hawaiian and the Samoan luaus.  One is large and the other a smaller one.  Both have shows that we can watch.  We take tickets, chat people up, keep a running count for the kitchen and answer questions about the PCC, us and where the restrooms are.  Here is a photo of us in our new PCC costumes.

 They are handmade and not as bad as we thought they might be.  The shirt is fine, the dress...well judge for yourself.  I don't think it is as bad as mom imagines.  The custom is that husbands and wives have to match and there are several choices of cloth and patterns for the dresses.  Men can wear the Polynesian kilts if they want...mom wants me to...but...

This week is midterm exams so I will be busy correcting papers.  The students think I am a pretty tough instructor.  They say that the BYU professors are much harder than the seminary and institute teachers who are missionaries here.  Whatever, I say, knowing that harder is better when it comes to encouraging students to study and learn. 

We had no real adventures this week.  Oh, I went boogie boarding at castle beach.  It has bigger waves and I took my fins.  I caught one wave (about four feet) and was on top fearing that it would roll me, but I rode it out and had fun.  More work that it looks like, but fun.  Mom just floated on her board and watched.  I think she still remembers being driven into the sand on Maui's Big Beach.  

We are enjoying our service and are grateful for cooler weather, good health and the opportunity to be involved in so many interesting and challenging activities.  Thanks for your letters and facebooking.

It is a hot, humid Sunday afternoon and 79 degrees in Laie.  We have had a good week and continue to enjoy our individual assignments and our work in the Sunset Beach YA Branch.  This is a picture of our branch President. His name is Ethan Lee and he is a forensic accountant. He is a good BP - He knows all the kids and is willing to step in and help them in any way he can. We had a good Fast & Testimony meeting. Some of our YAs have amazing stories. It is interesting to hear how they ended up here in our branch. Heavenly Father is truly aware of all His children.

This is a picture of President Lee with his family. Sister Lee (Lezlie) is from the Tri-cities area and graduated in music from BYUH. She is a great support to the President.  They have three small boys. She comes to our Sacrament meeting each week and then drives back to Pupukea (by Sunset Beach) so her boys can go to Primary. She is our ward pianist since we do not have anyone who plays the piano in our branch. I have thought once again how much I wish I had some music background. What an asset a person with that talent is to a ward - or branch.

Even though I am opposed to swim suit shots, this one is far enough away that I thought it would be ok to post so you can see Waikiki with Honolulu in the background. We drove down on Friday.  We woke up to torrential rain. Dennis' phone sounded an emergency broadcast warning of flash flooding but we decided that we would go anyway since we had already made plans.  By the time we reached Honolulu the sky was blue and it was hot so we went to the beach for a bit before running our errands. We wanted to go to Haunauma Bay but the parking lot was full and the park closes after so many people get there.  Next time we will have to get there super early.  We had a fun day though. We discovered a TJMaxx, Rack, and Bed, Bath & Beyond all in the same area! Ah, civilization! We stopped at Costco on our way home and bought meat. Really.

This is a picture of the "Break the Fast" which all the senior missionaries have together over at the Hale Kaui at the PCC once a month. We met a few new couples and spent time with Cardnos and Woods who are visiting from Cardston. It is assigned potluck and I had to take a main dish, so I made taco soup. Cooking in this apt. is a bit of a challenge. I call it 'camping cooking.'

It is Conference Sunday.  A busy weekend.  Because we are four hours behind, the morning session of conference starts at 6:00 am.  It is a YSA tradition for the branch to gather at 5:30 am to start conference weekend.  We cook pancakes, they bring sausage and eggs and we all watch the Saturday morning session together.  We had an excellent turnout and decided it was a good tradition.  The afternoon sessions starts at noon and the Priesthood session at 2:00.  Seems strange as our internal clock is thrown off by years of conference at a certain time.  I missed attending conference with Geoffrey and Stephen, but I did have students to sit with at the session in the Stake Center.  We watched Sunday conference at home but the university's TV is so bad!  The dark side of the Aloha spirit is how things just don't get repaired.  We have been waiting for over a month for the university cable TV to be fixed, but not even conference motivated them to fix it. Good thing we had our laptops and IPads to watch conference.  They worked great.  Today wasFast Sunday for us and we have a "break the fast" private potluck at the PCC Hale Kale.  Should be lots of good food and good company.  Then later I will assist my new Branch President in two disciplinary councils. 

Here are some photos and comment from the week.  This is the beach that is a ten minute walk from our apartment.  This morning between conference sessions I walked the beach in the rain.  It was a great experience.  It is always warm, both the air and the water.  I am really going to miss this. 

Mom's exciting adventure this week was in Family History.  She found the grave of her mother's cousin who stayed in Hawaii after WWII.  His son is in the temple presidency and so she went to visit him.  He hugged her as a long lost relative.  Two old Maladites having a great reunion.  Mom was excited that this branch of the family was all active in the Church. 

In the Hawaiian tradition the family build the pad and rock fill over the grave.  Then the headstone is placed with a metal plaque that will withstand the weather.  Grandma Morgan's cousin's name was John Pierce, but everyone called him Jack.  









It seems like Laie really is a gathering place. We keep seeing old friends from Canada.  The Cardno's from Langley are serving as missionaries in the PCC.  Tom and Linda Walker visited and we talked, as I mentioned before.  This week Doug and Jolayne Wood visited and we remembered old times and caught up on their kids.  We all then went to the movie, Gravity. It is intense.

We continue to be healthy and actively involved in our assignments.  There are big boxes of books waiting outside the Education building for recycling so Mom is busy.  I just finished grading my first written assignment.  Took hours!  So many levels of ability and preparation.  Little tough to read a paper by these ESL Asian kids who are very bright but limited by their language skills.  While a challenge, it is exciting to get to know them and hear stories of their conversions.