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