Our first holiday in Hawaii.  This Thanksgiving week flew by.  Classes ran Monday and Tuesday then off throughout the rest of the week.  Gave us time to catch up on a few things.  I have been busy getting things ready for next semester.  I had to write new syllabi for the second half of the D&C and a one for Missionary Prep, a course that I have never taught.  But I am excited about both of the courses and anxious to apply what I have learned about teaching at BYUH in the next semester.  The courses will be much more structured and specific because that is what the students here expect and depend on.  So more projects, outside assignments, in class quizzes and exams and fewer writing assignments.  These are especially difficult and frustrating for students and for their instructor.

We thought it would be our last Branch meeting in the BYUH theater but there was a mix up and we will not move to the Sunset Beach Community center until 8 December.  We'll have pictures of our new home next week.  We are even going to do a group photo as a historic moment of the first YSA branch to be organized on the north shore.   Here are some photos of our most recent activity, a YSA beach bonfire (hot dogs, smores and a talk by elderwright)

A huge beach bonfire made of drift wood

Kaye and Ku'ulei at the bonfire

 The activity was a success with more new people who are less active and hopefully will start participating.  Some are even returned missionaries who are lost in the surf community.  It is a life style with no responsibilities and mind numbing sameness. They just sit around and wait for waves.  Hardly the stuff of eternal progression.  But most tire of it and hopefully the Branch will be there to help them come home.





This young sister is very sharp, a photographer who is one of the key branch members.  She is in the RS presidency and works hard to help others feel welcome.  It seems like every ward or branch has such people which is a good thing.

We still don't have computer lists of the member who live on the north shore.  Apparently we just have to discover them and then tell the Church where they are that week.  At least if we can identify them we may have a chance of following them.  It is interesting.

We went to the Triple Crown of Surfing which is right across from the community center where we will go to Church.  The crowds are really something.  They have huge temporary buildings full of judges, commentators, cameras, etc.  Good thing there is a huge jumbo tron or we could not see anything because the big waves are off shore making the surfers had to see.  They have cameras on jet skis that take the best pictures for the screen.  I have never seen such big waves.  Here we are at the Vans sponsored championship event.

Dennis at the world cup main "building"

Kaye in front of the jumbo tron

Kaye has been very active at the Library.  They have given her the responsibility of updating the children's collection and ordering almost $10,000 worth of books.  She has been almost heady with so much power and responsibility.  Each day boxes of books arrive.  She and her student aides catalog and enter the books into the library system before they go on the shelf.  The big thing was allowing her to leave the covers on the new books.  The past policy had been to remove them.  But Kaye taught them how to protect the covers and thus made the book more appealing to the community and faculty kids that use the library.  She is doing a great job.  Her education responsibilities are not as exciting but reorganizing of the department materials is sorely needed and will be a big help.  She is daily discovering materials and "stuff" that they did not even know they had.  

The paddle out Surfers are leaving with some already in water

On a sad note we went to a surfer memorial for our branch member who was killed.  Remember his name was Kirk.  The community has a native Hawaiian pastor who conducted a service for about 100 friends and family.  They call this a "paddle out"  It starts with a meeting where all hold hands and the pastor chants and prays in Hawaiian.  He forms an inner circle with the family and has another set of prayers.  Then the group all grabs their boards and paddles out to sea where they sit on their boards in another circle.  I don't know exactly what happens out there but from time to time they splash into the middle of the circle

Paddle Out Memorial for Kirk Passmore

After about a half an hour they all come to shore and have treats and beer.  This kid that died was an active member of the Church but was one of those people that everyone liked and he liked everyone.  He ran a surfboard and t-shirt shop and knew everyone.  So the memorial service had lots of support.  We were there in our nametags as he would have liked us to be.  He was very proud that he had become active in the Church and told everyone.  Good publicity for the Church.  But the Hawaiian native pastor did not think so much of us being there when he saw our tags.  I don't think he knew Kirk was an active Mormon.  But we were there, the branch leadership were there and paddled out along with a dozen or so members of the Branch.  A very unique experience.

We had Thanksgiving at the Sharp's home with their family and a group of students.  It was a traditional feast with all the fixins.  Kaye is now boiling the bones to make her famous turkey noodle soup with homemade noodles.  That will be good.

It was a nice week and we are grateful to be missionaries and having the opportunity for service, adventures and new learning.

This week the weather has been somewhat cooler. It is about 75 degrees and we actually only have one fan going at the moment. I have been wearing longer pants and even wore a light jacket to the movie last night. It is pleasant not to be so hot and sticky. They have something here called "vog" which is really fog but if the winds are blowing from the Big Island, then it brings volcanic ash in the air and becomes "vog."

This is a picture of Dennis with two of his Chinese students. They are from China. The boy is from Hong Kong and the girl is from Mainland China. Dad says the Asian students are good thinkers, but have such a difficult time with the language that their written exams and papers are hard to understand. These two students are members of the Church. It is amazing how many members of the Church we meet who are Chinese. The Church is growing in their country one baptism at a time, many occurring
here in Laie.  One of our student helpers at the School of Education is from Hong Kong. Victoria is the only member in her family but says her parents are supportive. She has a Chinese boyfriend who lives in Hong Kong who is also a member and he was just hired to work for the Church to help the missionaries with the language.

This is a picture of Dennis out for his morning walk. He usually walks out to a place called the 'Point.' It is a narrow piece of land that juts out into the ocean. Sometimes when it is stormy the waves will crash over the rock formation in the background. There are some very nice homes up at the Point. This was the first time I had walked since we came. I like to blame it on my leg, but I think we can all agree that may not be entirely true. He leaves the apt. at 6:30 in the morning and it is still dark. We all know that is too early for his lazy wife.

Thursday night we went to the Women's volleyball game. It was their last game of the season and they were ranked #2 in their division. They played Pacific University, the only team to have beaten them. But fortunately, our lady Seasiders won. We were there with a group of other senior missionaries and it was fun to be there.This is their 'Marriott center.' These girls are not built like typical volleyball players but they are quite good.

Dennis has been enjoying golfing each week and has been to Turtle Bay, but this is not their clubhouse, but the one at the course in Kahuku. It is only $16.00 and no carts which lets me out, but I think he is enjoying going with different people and has even gone by himself.

OK - This is disgusting but I thought I should give a bug update. This is our first cockroach. The picture does not do it justice but it was as big as my thumb. While Dennis was out walking I went into the bathroom and there this creature was, crawling around the bathtub. I ran into the kitchen and grabbed our can of Roach and Ant spray and raced back into the bathroom where I let him have it. It sent chills up my body. We have been here 3 months and this is our first one, so that is pretty good. I think it crawled up the drain in the tub.
We also have a small gecko who lives with us. I don't mind him though because he eats sugar ants. I have only seen him once, but the other night when Dennis opened the cupboard door, he found him lounging on a can of soup. He tried to sell Dennis some car insurance.

We worked at the PCC the other night at the Prime Dining buffet. While we were waiting for the doors to open we took this picture of a couple of the girls who were working with us. They greet the guests and have their pictures taken with them. The girl on the far left is MaKayla and she is in our branch. The girl with the headress on, pretending to be  from Fiji or Tahiti is actually from Florida and is part Phillipino. I thought that was funny.
We are getting tired of the food at the luaus. It is basically cafeteria food, call it what you may. It is fun to meet people from all over but it has been very slow lately. Good thing we get all the Japanese tourists! Things are supposed to pick up at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Another week gone by; another link on our homemade chain taken off. It will be Thanksgiving this Thursday but hard to feel the holiday without family or snow but we are well taken care of and count many blessings as we ponder the holiday - family, friends, and the gospel.

It is Grandpa's turn to do the weekly blog.  We had an unusual week, sad in some ways.  Our YSA branch (Sunset Beach) lost one of its members this week who was killed in a surfing accident.  I will share his photo and CNN picture below and tell you more about him. He was raised in California near where Geoffrey's friend Joe lived.  They went to the same schools.  He moved to Hawaii with his dad and lived in Haleiwa where he worked in a restaurant and ran a small surf shop.  He had just received the priesthood and was
 preparing to marry Taylor, another member in our branch.  They were nice kids and we enjoyed them. Here is a part of the CNN article about him. They have given up searching for his body.

Kirk Passmore, a business owner and restaurant manager, was last seen late Wednesday morning at a surfing spot known as Alligator Rock in Haleiwa.

Witnesses told the station that the experienced big-wave surfer fell off his board on the 20-foot swell and was hit by another wave. His partially damaged surfboard was found down the beach.

He started coming to Hawaii when he was 14 and was an experienced and expert surfer. He was not new to big wave surfing, having surfed most of the well-known big wave locations. 

Jamie Sterling, a surfer who saw Passmore wipe out, told KHNL, "He was seen swimming down with his feet up above the surface, and we think he broke his eardrum because what happens when you break your eardrum is you have complete loss of balance and you have vertigo."

Coast Guard crews, Ocean Safety lifeguards, the Honolulu Fire Department and fellow surfers searched for Passmore on Wednesday to no avail. The Coast Guard continued searching through the night, while other rescuers suspended their search until sunrise.

A helicopter, jet skis and a Coast Guard cutter were used in the search, KHNL reported.

Oahu's North Shore was under a high-surf warning, with waves reaching 25 to 35 feet, and some surfers questioned why Passmore wasn't wearing a flotation vest in the perilous conditions.

Ironically our YSA stake had a "Helping hands" project scheduled for Sunset Beach the Saturday after his death.  The surfing community said very nice things about our effort and about losing one of our members.  Our service was to clean and do work at the beach and at the Sunset Beach rec center where we will start holding Church on 1 December.  Amazing what a few hundred university students can do in a morning.  It was hard keeping up with them.  Here are Kaye and I in our "Helping Hands" vests.  You will note that it is winter here, which means rain and wind.  and then wind and rain.  Every day...but that makes for big waves and some are HUGE.   I am glad that Nick is not here, we would be worried sick. 

  While we were helping hands I learned more about surfing.  I saw this relatively normal person waxing his surfboard. So I asked him about it.  He learned that I was a skier and said they wax for the exact opposite reason than a skier does.  The wax they use is sticky and is put on the top of the board.  It gives their feet grip on the wet board.  He said some use pads, but he was a purest who preferred the wax.  He was waxing a short board because he does the smaller waves where you can do tricks and have "more fun."  He said that the big waves are not really fun, just scary.  I thought I am happy just to boogie board once in awhile.  Skiing is dangerous enough for me and I have a lift to carry me and don't have to paddle up the mountain. 

I am now finishing up the semester.  Just a few classes left.  I have learned so much about teaching a diverse student body.  I am busy with next semester's curriculum and will be better prepared for the diversity and need for increased structure.  Oh...of course, I have learned why so many teachers have "no phone zone" classrooms.  They are a real distraction.  I have learned you cannot just ask students to turn off their phones, it has to be a commandment.  I can do that.  

Mom has spent thousands of dollars this week ordering new kids books for the library.  She is being trusted more and more to be turned loose in the library.  She is so good at what she does that the full time people have given her a vote of full confidence.  That was a while in coming because they didn't know about this missionary sister who seemed to know so much about kids books. 

I had an infection at the back of my mouth at the gum line.  I had to take antibiotics for two weeks and that cleared it up.  The dentist said that it was possibly a problem that would need a gum specialist but he wanted to try and clear it up and if that worked then I would not worry about it.  It cleared up and I am fine.   

It seems like I always start with a weather report when it is my turn to post something on our blog, so today I can finally report a definite change in the weather. It poured buckets all day yesterday. I have never seen so much water. The wind was blowing like crazy and two power lines were blown over in Hau'ula (the town just south of Laie) and the people down there couldn't get back home for six hours. There were flash flood alerts on TV all day, telling people to go to higher ground. Since we live on the second floor we didn't worry too much. I think this is winter weather here. It is much cooler today and I even wore a cardigan to church. It was nice to be able to wear something different.

Here is a picture of Dennis at a beach park on our way home from Kaneohe on Friday. That is Chinaman's Hat in the background. We have been to this beach before and it is nice, but didn't stay this time as the weather was cool and rainy.
We went to Kaneohe to see a dentist because Dennis had a sore tooth and we were afraid he might need another root canal, but the dentist said he didn't need one so that was a relief. He is taking an antibiotic to clear up the infection so hopefully, that will take care of the problem until we get home.
After doing a little shopping at the mall, we had lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Elise says I talk about food all the time, so just so you know, Dad had a bowl of udon soup and I had tempura vegetables and shrimp. haha. When we got home we went to see Thor at our local movie house. We thought it was a waste of money.

This is on the same trip but looking the other way with the beautiful mountains in the background. I am standing in front of our faithful little Dodge neon. Dennis secretly wishes he had a cool car to drive, but this one seems to be working just fine. So far we have put about 900 miles on it.
I thought I would list a few of the prices of groceries to give you an idea of the cost of living here: A gallon of milk is $7.00, small jar of pickles - $5.00, most cereal - $7.00 (but we try to buy what is on sale), can of olives - $2.50, kettle chips (not the large size)- $2.50 (on sale), one avocado - $2.00, 1 can of Pringles - $2.50, 1 carton of strawberries - $6.00, pineapple - $.99/lb. carton of 18 eggs - $4.29, bananas - $1.29/lb. Things are pricey, but we aren't buying that much. We found the meat has a weird taste so we have started buying it at Costco and then dividing it into smaller portions and throwing it in the freezer. Oh, and gas is currently $3.99 a gallon.

This is where we go and get our mail. It is a highlight of our day when we actually have something fun. I have started ordering things online just so I get packages. So far I have ordered a library pendant, thanks to Kim's pintrest suggestion, my 2014 Franklin calendar (I know, old school), and Friday I bought two blouses which they are mailing to me since one is coming from Maui. If we have a little green slip in our box then we go inside and pick up our package. Dad is waiting for a new robe. Pretty exciting stuff.

This is one of two laundry facilities. They kind of work but some don't work at all. We have a little laundry basket on wheels which we pull over to the building. We take turns. When I do it then Dennis comes downstairs and hauls the cart upstairs for me. He has done it more than I have since we try to do our laundry when all the kids aren't trying to get in. That means Thursday afternoons when dad finishes early and I am still at work. Pretty smart on my part. . .


Everything is going well. Our branch will be changing locations in December and we will be driving over to Sunset Beach Community Center for our meetings. It is about a 20 minute drive from Laie. One of the girls just got her mission call and she is going to Bolivia and to the MTC in Columbia.  We are teaching the Temple Prep class on Sunday and Dennis is doing a good job. I was enjoying it until he told me I have to teach the next lesson on how doing temple work blesses our lives. Any suggestions?! There is always something going on, usually last minute information. I am pretty sure they have a secret underground information system since everyone seems to know what is happening except dad and me.
We are meeting with the mission president for the first time tomorrow evening and then he and his wife will be speaking at the senior missionary FHE. It will be nice to meet them. The following week Dennis has been asked to speak at FHE.  Since it falls on Veteran's Day, he is going to do a presentation on Saints at War. These old couples will enjoy it I'm sure.
The biggest news of the week is that I finally got my hair done!!!

It is another Sunday...this one cloudy and cooler.  Mom got up and worked on a salad for the Branch break the fast after church supper and guess what, they were not having it.  In a branch run by YSA planning and communication are not really that important.  We asked, is there a regular time for break the fast activities, "well maybe," was the answer.  Then we rearranged our PCC service so we could join them in doing baptisms for the dead at the temple.  We thought it would be a regular 2nd Tuesday activity..."well, maybe but then we may change it."  It is not a big deal, we just have to relax and go with the flow understanding that the important thing is that they are learning as they go.  We are like cheerleaders, when we can catch up with their parade. 

This past week was Halloween.  Here you see a town ward gathering for the "parade" that will soon come by.  The wards BBQ and pool their candy.  They then take turns handing out candy to those in the "parade."  I call it a parade because hundreds of kids and adults walk down this street (and others) parading their costumes.  They don't knock on doors, just walk by and get the candy curbside.  Halloween was fun and a new cultural experience.

This is Dan and Keri Sharp.  He is a member of our faculty and she is the daughter of Noel Rentz in our ward.  A really nice couple who have been teaching in the religion department for three years. 

Last night was club night at BYUH.  In the entrance area each club (mostly countries) set up a booth and served native food.  We ate at the China booth (noodle something), the Hispanic booth (Taco) the Philippine booth (pork on a stick and something)  They were all good.  The funds raised went to support club activities.  They had a Canadian booth but they only served Canada Dry ginger ale...not a big hit.  We thought why not perogies?  Or maybe Nanaimo bars?  

The rest of the week has been rather ordinary.  I did go golfing again at Kahuku city course and experienced playing in the wind.  I went with a colleague from work and we had a great time.  My $100 clubs are working great.  I play better here than at home. 

This week was midterms for my Book of Mormon classes.  That meant I spent several days correcting their written exams.  They did okay, but they are mostly freshmen so will get better with experience.  I have never had so many students and so much necessary class preparation time.  It is a type of work that I had not had at BYU in awhile.  So I have had to adjust or face falling behind in my lessons.  I enjoy it most days, but sometimes I get very tired.  I guess I don't have the energy I used to have when I taught 300 students years ago. 

We are now off to gathering with other missionaries at the PCC.  They meet each month to break the fast.  I hope that they will not change their plan.  They are all old people so they will be boringly dependable.