Today is my 68th birthday.  It has been a great day.  Actually it started last night with all the missionaries going out for dinner at Grinds and Rides, a local surf fast food.  We had the best shrimp and chips ever.  They get their shrimp from the Kahuku ponds and they are fresh and very good. I am getting ahead of myself.  Because I did not write last week, I have to catch up.

Last week we had a terrific storm that was frightening.  It was a HUGE thunderstorm, the worst ever!  The lightening made it brighter than daylight and the thunder shook our bed and rattled the windows. We had to cover our ears it was So Loud.  Never in my life had I ever been afraid of thunder and lightening.  It seemed like 3 Nephi....and so much rain. Floods everywhere.  I am glad we live on the second floor. It lasted about 90 minutes and we were wide awake at 2:30 am.  This morning everything was ok except for all the water.  The ocean was brown yuck for days because of all the stuff washed into the ocean.
This photo shows the black barrier they put to keep the water from running down the sidewalks.  In the back you may also see sandbags in front of the main office door.  It was a serious storm, unlike anything we had ever experienced before. 

Mom started her storytelling class.  The students from elementary education are now her class.  She teaches them about storytelling and has them tell stories to the kids. 

These college students had to distribute 500 flyers.  They did this by posting multiple copies on the bulletin boards.  Ummm.  But it was effective and they had more children come than ever before.  Mom enjoys this part of her service.  She is a natural with the kids. 

Today was the Laie Days parade.  It is the local version of a pioneer day activity.  They had a carnival last night that had one ride and a bouncing castle.  The best part of the evening was the "open mike" hula show.  Rather funny. 
The parade was 30 minutes which is enough in the hot July sun.  Here are a couple of photos.

The first is of mom and other missionaries sitting beside the parade route.  The other is of the Kahuku (local high school) football team.  They call this area "red raider country" and they are serious about their football team.  They regularly win state championships and send players to BYU, UTAH and other mainland teams. They have a long list of fellows who have made it to the pros.  The boys in the photo stopped and did the Hauka for the crowd that loved it.  They fired the

Polynesian coach because of dismal academic standards and hired a new one from the mainland.  It has been the stuff of talk and everyone knows he better win or he will be out also.  Of course it is all a game, right?

Mom had a great time with her paddle board lesson.  With the branch president's wife, Lezlie and a YSA, Mariah who teaches this sport, they had a three hour lesson in the river by Haleiwa.  Mom was nervous but really wanted to learn how to do this.  I was not interested so I stayed home and did spiritual stuff.

 Here is the paddle board truck where Mariah works in Haleiwa.  Here is a photo of mom on her paddleboard.  They had to go not only on the river but also out of the boat harbor and into the ocean and then up the river.  Quite an adventure for sure.  But mom was a natural and had a lot of exhausting fun. She loved seeing all the turtles poking up from the water.

Today was also our Sunset Beach Branch Surfing BBQ.  All the kids brought their boards and had a huge lunch and then played all afternoon.  We were in charge of the watermelons. Watermelons here in our local store are $20.00 so these kids ate over $100 worth of watermelons. We miss the home grown melons that are 10 cents a pound. 

But the kids love to cook and to eat.  The Hawaiian way is not to eat until you are full but to eat until you hurt.  And do they eat!  No wonder they have all those big football players. 

This photo is of Tony our Sunday School president and Beau a member of the branch presidency cooking up a storm.  

Below that is a photo of mom and two of the YSA who came to the social.  The branch socials are always fun because kids from all over come and join us.  We feed so many...I wish we could bill other YSA wards for the budget we need to carry the branch.  But it all seems to work.  This Sunday the Stake President is bringing all his family reunion to our branch meetings.  We will go from 15 to 60 in our primary classes.  Mom will be helping the primary through this challenge.  We don't have enough chairs so some will have to sit on the floor.  Our meeting is a pioneer theme so I guess that will work right in.  The stake president is so proud of our branch and wants to show it off for his family.  Did you read about us in the Church News?  see this link
http://m.deseretnews.com/article/865606748/Building-the-kingdom-in-Hawaii.html

The last photo I have for any who read this blog, who does really?   Is a photo of my little garden of sanity that I keep by our front door.  At first I struggled to get things to grow, but I worked it out and so I have a garden that the housing people ignore because they are really not allowed.