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.