As it turns out, last Sunday was our last week to serve in the Sunset Beach YSA branch. We have been transferred to the Laie Park YSA ward. Today was our first Sunday in our new ward. I understand the need for change, but I felt sad about leaving our little branch. I grew to love those Young Adults and admired how hard the branch presidency worked to make good things happen. They will soon be starting a family branch at Sunset Beach as well and the people who live in that area are very excited. I hope that area continues to grow and prosper.

Our new ward is about three times larger than the branch and we were surprised to see a few people that we already know. Some students had taken Dennis' class last semester and some are in his class' this semester. Everyone seemed happy to see him. I know it will take a little time to get acquainted but I hope we can be a help to the Bishop.

We were able to go through the temple on Wednesday evening with Marisa Santeco, one of the girls taking our mission prep class in the branch. Her parents came with her and they are a nice family. Marisa is leaving in a couple of weeks for the Provo MTC and then on to South America. It was a nice way to end our time in the branch.

 Friday we took a little driving trip and went down to the Pali Lookout. It has an amazing view of Kaneohe Bay, all the way from Chinaman's Hat and Coconut Island down to the Naval Base where the Obamas recently spent their Christmas vacation . It is usually cold and windy but we enjoyed perfect weather and no wind. This is the place where King Kamehameha fought the final battle with a king from Maui and eventually drove the warriors off the cliffs and united the islands into one kingdom.
This first picture is the trail that was the original

 road. It was the only route connecting the eastern or windward side of the island to Honolulu and the other side of the island. It was quite steep, narrow, and slippery in olden days. Imagine driving a wagon down the side of a cliff. Our little camera does not do it justice.

After visiting the lookout we drove down to Chinatown and wandered about. It is definitely not like San Francisco or Vancouver's Chinatown. It is a lot like China. Surprise. The markets are full of fresh produce and bins of chicken feet and other delicious looking meats. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called the Golden Palace. We had the salt and pepper crab which was delicious and also several portions of dim sum. It was all tasty and a fun visit.



This week we signed up to be 'mentors' for one of the clubs on campus. There are clubs for each country and we thought it would be fun to mentor the Canadian club, but they already had mentors and so we were assigned to the Indonesian club. I was a little apprehensive since my Indonesian is a little sparse,ok - non-existant, but it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable evenings we have spent. There are about 25 students from Indonesia on campus and they could not have been more friendly, welcoming and appreciative. We enjoyed meeting the kids as well as their advisor, Sister Mills who runs the Seasider on campus. Here are a few pictures of our new friends.

This is a picture of me with Adit. He is the president of the club. We are looking forward to getting to know the other kids in the group. Five newly arrived students introduced themselves and each expressed gratitude for the opportunity to come here and receive a higher education. It is something they do not take lightly. They all work at the PCC to help pay for their education.

Not a very busy week but some interesting things happened.  The normal beginning of school "stuff" with class introductions and the like.  We will settle in this coming week.  Mom has been busy getting things going at the library and school of education.  She has several big library projects including the updating of the curriculum collection.  But her biggest project is one jointly sponsored by the college of education involving helping TESOL (teaching english as a second language) students how to tell stories to kids.  Here is the poster that will go all around campus. 

The poster Dad made for Mom to put up around campus

 She will start next week training the TESOL students and helping them work with children from the married students and the community.  She is looking forward to this assignment. 
The school of education was pleased with the inventory report of their material collection.  No one had ever done this and it is now so organized.  Next they are going to have her create a professional library for the education majors so that they can have access to materials that will help them with their classes.  Mom is a star in both the library and the school of education.  I am very proud of her. 
With me it is business as usual but better than last semester, because I know the ropes this time and am ready for this diverse student body.

We have become real fans of the BYUH b-ball program and hardly miss their games.  They are a very scrappy team without any real stars.  We watch them win one in the last seconds and then next time they lost in the last seconds.  They are much more fun to watch than BYU because they know they are not stars and really work on their game.  So much passion in their play makes it fun to watch.  Here is a picture of Mom with Elder and Sister Rowell 

Kaye with Elder and Sister Rowell from Cedar Hills UT

During the week we had an assignment to visit less-actives.  This is a challenge because of the dogs the Hawaiian's love to keep and the way they decorate their front yards.  Hard sometimes to find the front door.  But we were well received when the addresses were correct and someone was at home.  Two young fellows promised to come to church, but then that is easy to do and seems to get the missionaries moving on.  We will have to go back to see if they intend to come...they are no different than less active members anywhere. Little time for the church or interest in changing. 

Today we had the elders over for Sunday dinner.  We had asked them what their favorite meal was and they said roast, carrots, potatoes, etc.  When they eat at members homes it is mostly rice and either chicken or pork.  So Kaye fixed them a good old Wright family Sunday dinner (a huge roast from Costco)  They ate everything.  Kaye had forgotten how much YSA young men eat.  They were in heaven with all those potatoes, roast and gravy.  And no rice.  Then they had chocolate cake and ice cream.  Here is a photo of the happy elders. 

Elder Wright with Elder Morgan and Peterson

One elder is from Springville and was a friend of our neighbors son, Nathan Hawks.  He is in Mexico on his mission.  The other elder, Elder Morgan, is likely a distant cousin of mom's.  They figured that out after telling about their ancestors.  We enjoyed visiting with them and learning about how their mission is unique.  Hawaii is not a "paradise" for missionaries and they have to be very focused and determined to be successful.  We are grateful for their good example. 

Well that is enough for today.  I want to have another piece of that chocolate cake and maybe some ice cream if there is any left before calling it a day. 
Dad

Happy 2014! We rang in the new year by working at the PCC and then came home to a semi-quiet evening. At least Dennis was quiet. People outside were all having big parties with yummy smelling barbeque and loud music and illegal fireworks. It went on all evening and into the new year. Everything was very quiet in the morning. I thought I should take some pots and pans and go bang on them under their bedroom windows! Here is a picture of Dennis beating the drums to announce the opening of the Island Buffet.

The rest of the week was quiet. We are ready to get back to work. Although the break was nice, it was a little long when you don't have anything to do. We went on a picnic on New Year's Day over to the state park on the beach. Sister Stephens went to sit down and she missed the bench and fell backward, striking her head on the edge of the table. She and her husband left and he took her to the university clinic and she received four stitches. I felt bad for her. She is a nice lady and seems to be fine now. We have a new senior couple in our building. They replaced the Cochrans who went home in December. They are the Frogleys from Draper, Utah. They have been assigned to our little branch at Sunset Beach.

This is a picture of Sister Natalie Prawitt who is from the Hobble Creek 6th Ward and whose dad is our home ward Bishop. What a small world it turns out to be. I am constantly amazed. She is serving in Kaneohe and Dennis and I had to go down there the other day. We were walking through the mall there and all of a sudden, this cute girl was hugging me! It was fun to see her. She is happy and doing well. I wish I could run into Kayla like that!

 On Friday Dennis and I went over to Pupekea to help our Branch President and his family move. The owner of their house is going to try and sell it and they decided to be pro-active and were able to find another place. When we finished there, we took a short drive down to Waialua to see what was there. There is a ward building and people who live in Haleiwa drive there to go to church. There isn't that much of a town, but there is an old sugar mill with a few shops. One of the shops there belonged to Kirk, our branch member who passed away. They built custom surfboards and designed T-shirts. This is a picture of their shop. If you look carefully, you can see that it says "Aloha Kirk" above the door. The other partner had it put there. It made me feel sad to see that and be reminded of his loss.

Today we started teaching our temple prep class again and four of my favorite girls are in the class. They are: (from left to right) Hana Akina, who recently graduated with her Master's from UH in LIBRARY SCIENCE! We talk the same language! Standing next to her is Taylor Moyes, who is from Arizona and just returned today from Christmas vacation. She was Kirk's girlfriend and is just starting her last year at the university majoring in education. The little short cutie is Marissa Santeco who will be leaving on her mission to Bolivia in February. I hope we can go through the temple with her by the end of this month. On the end is Kuulei Akina (Hana's sister). She runs her own photography business and took our branch picture a few weeks ago. These are the nicest girls. I feel blessed to have met them and hang out with them!

This week we will start back to school and we are glad!

Christmas is over and so much has happened. First some things about Christmas.  Christmas eve started with our assignment at the PCC dressed in our wonderful costumes.  We had double the number of guests to greet...over 900!  It seemed like the line would never end.  Then we went home to crab legs from Costco.  They tasted so good.  I prepared a Christmas program that included a talk by Pres. Monson, the Nativity, Tabernacle Choir and our traditional sharing.  It worked but was certainly not the "real thing."  Then it was Christmas morning. We missed the huge Grandma Morgan stockings, but still had plenty of stuff from Santa. 

Kaye and Dennis on Christmas Morning opening Stockings

We opened presents and found lots of treasures.  Here are some photos.

Dad got a helicopter from the Boys

The best part of Christmas was having Facetime with all the family.  This is a great blessing of technology.

Santa left some pearl earrings for Mom

A Christmas Birdfeeder from the girls

After seeing what Santa left. We went with the other missionaries to the Turtle Bay resort for their annual Christmas buffet.  It had lots of food which was good, but not really Christmas dinner.  No green olives or baked yams.  But everything else you can imagine.

Wrights, Rowells, Frogleys Christmas 2013

Because we had the rest of the week off we went on a hike with the Cardnos up the side of the mountain south of Laie.  It was a two hour hike that went through real Hawaiian jungle vegetation of all different types.  We had cloud, sun, rain, fog during those two hours at different elevations.

Dad and Gary on the Hike

To celebrate our anniversary we decided to take a driving trip to Honolulu.  First we went to the International Market a Honolulu tourist stop for over 50 years.  We had seen it on our first trip to Hawaii and remembered how interesting it was.  It is being torn down to build a high rise and we wanted to visit it again before it disappeared on 31 December.  It was sad to see that it now looked much like the markets in China rather than what we remembered.  But I did have a famous Puka Dog.  It is made with a hogie that has a hole in the middle.  The hot dog is put in the hole with special sauce, relish, etc.  The bun is great as are the rest of the ingredients.  The shop is moving to Haleiwa so we can still get one. 

Dennis with a Puka Dog

Dennis  and Kaye at Tabernacle

After getting some deeply discounted trinkets we drove to the mission home.  It is an office building next to the 1950's famous David O McKay tabernacle downtown Honolulu.  Pictures are below.

Kaye at Mission Office

Dennis and Kaye at view point above Honolulu Diamond Head in background

 The week has flown by so we are grateful that we have one more week off.  Our branch president wants to go golfing at the Palmer course at Turtle Bay so we will have to do that.


Happy New Year to our followers...I think there are two or three.  I know- who wants to watch someones mission slides.  This is just the modern version.  I guess you would have had to be here to appreciate how great it is to be a missionary.  

Mele Kalilimaka! This week it will be Christmas and although I enjoy having new experiences and even new adventures, this is one time of the year when I am feeling a little homesick. Dennis and I spoke in church today and I was asked to share a favorite Christmas tradition. Of course, I told about our Christmas Family Home Evening. I explained how everyone gets to choose their favorite "pupu" (appetizer) and then we have our Christmas Eve program, complete with the acting out of the Nativity by the grandkids. I love seeing them in their bathrobes and towels. Most importantly, I told our branch members how we end the evening by giving each person the opportunity of sharing the feelings that are in their hearts. Love is expressed for one another and for being an eternal family, for having the gospel in our lives, and especially, for the gift of the Savior, His life and mission. The Spirit fills our home as well as our hearts and we go to sleep focused on the things that matter most in our lives. It is a sacred time of reflection and time for expressing gratitude for all that we have. So anyway, today has been a nice Sabbath but there have been a few moments too.

Last Sunday Dennis went Home Teaching to one of the boy's in our branch. He wasn't home but this is a picture of his family. The boy in the picture is Roman and he is the ward clerk in our branch. The mother in the family is from Tahiti and his father is a Howlie from Boise, Idaho. His younger brother, not pictured, just returned from his mission three weeks ago. When we went to Church today, we learned that his borther, Joseph, whom they went to visit had gotten married on Wednesday. Roman called it a "peanut butter and jelly" wedding. I interpret that to mean it was no muss-no fuss, just get 'er done.

On Thursday night we went through the temple with Jennifer. She was in our temple prep. class and was ready to take this step. She is such a nice girl, but today was her last Sunday in our branch as she is flying to Utah on Christmas day. She will live with some of her relatives, find work, and hopefully, be able to go to school there. She wants to go to UVU. I gave her my email so hopefully, she will stay in touch. It would be great to see her when we return home.

This is a goofy picture of Matsi with his girlfriend, Mel. They came to the temple on Thursday as well. I am hoping they get married as Mel is really a nice girl. She served her mission in Salt Lake City. Matsi also served a mission, but I can't remember where. I keep telling him he is so lucky to have her for his girlfriend. He is the new Elder's Quorum President as of today.

Dennis and I worked at the Christmas Lagoon last week. We directed guests where they should go to stand in line. One interesting observation we made is that nearly all the guests were local people with their families. It is a big local tradition to come through the Christmas Lagoon, but hardly any outside visitors went through. At the end of our time, we slipped in and took the canoe ride just to see what all the fuss was about. It was pretty much that: way over-hyped. Still it was ok. The first half tells the story of the Nativity and the second part is supposed to show how Christmas is celebrated in other lands. When we "visited" the North Pole to see Mr. and Mrs. Santa, there was a snow making machine. It malfunctioned and so we were pelted with a blizzard of sticky, soapy snowflakes. We were covered and drenched! And if once wasn't enough, they didn't have music playing and so they took us through a second time - more blizzard! More goo!
But we are having a great time, and enjoying many new and wonderful people and experiences!

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.  Even the weather is a bit wintery.  The temperature is 68 F which is chilly.  Mom had to leave her raincoat on in Church because it is held in a building with only three walls with the fourth being a glass panel that they slide open.It poured rain all during Church and the electricity went out.  Dark and rainy...not very Hawaiian. 

House Christmas lights are not big in Laie.  The PCC has a Christmas Lagoon canoe ride which takes the visitors along a decorated waterway.  We will work there on Tuesday so we'll tell you more about it next week.  The McKay main building is decorated.  Poor pictures

Part of the PCC Christmas Lagoon

below  I don't now how to take photos of Christmas lights.  I guess my I phone is not really designed for that. 

We have been receiving Christmas packages which is nice.  We are late getting out our Christmas cards, but I think all the packages are on their way. 

It is very hard to think of it being Christmas.  It seems odd to see frosty the snowman among the palm trees.  I guess it is just what one gets used to associating with Christmas

Campus Entry Christmas lights

We have been to Christmas concerts, parties and other activities.  All nice, but still it is not really like Christmas.  Maybe just one day of really cold and snow and then it can go back to 80 F and sunny.  But that is not really winter on the North Shore, more like 72 and sometimes sunny.

We did decorate the apartment with an old tree and some used ornaments.  Here are a couple of photos of what we were able to scrounge together to make it seem more like Christmas

Mom and her Christmas tree  Not bad?

Mom decorated our pressed wood entertainment center I think it helps with the Christmas decor.  We also have a door wreath from Walmart. 

I am finished with classes for the fall semester.  Whew, what a learning curve I have been through, glad is is over and I can look forward as a wiser teacher to the next semester.  I will be ready this time.  Mom is almost done with her library and education projects.  She will start new ones after Christmas: teaching storytelling and upgrading the curriculum section of the library.  But for now, we have some time off for Christmas.  One of the advantages of being an education missionary, it is not 24X7. 

Last in this edition is a photo of our YSA Branch (Sunset Beach) This photo is historic because it represents the first time that the Church has had a presence (i.e. a unit of the Church) on the North Shore.  Hopefully we will be able to look back at our life's end and see that it has become a ward or a stake.  

Taken at the close of the first meeting of the Sunset Beach Branch held on the North Shore and we were there!

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Today was our first Sunday meeting at the Sunset Beach Recreation Center. We were worried that not many branch members would come because of the distance they now have to drive but we were happily surprised to see about 40 there. We had a group picture taken in front of the center to commemorate the historical significance of the event as it is the first time that there has been a meeting of the Church held on the North Shore.

The boy standing in back of us is named Fletcher. He is in the military and a good, happy member of our branch. We will be sad to see him leave when the military sends him someplace else. We are teaching the Temple Prep lessons and one of the girls taking the class is preparing to get her endowment this month. She is from Samoa and is one of the dancers at the PCC. She has already graduated and has decided to move to Utah to begin working on a Master's Degree. We will also miss her but she knows it is time to take the next step in her life. That is one thing about this branch - It is very fluid. The kids move in, move out, ward hop, always looking for someone new to date. I don't really blame them but it is hard to keep things going with so much constant change.

We were able to attend the Senior Missionary Home Evening this week. They rented out the Game Center on campus and everyone could bowl, play pool, ping pong, or dance. Our missionary neighbor, Elder Cochran loves 50's and 60's music and he was the deejay. We decided to bowl as dancing was not Dennis' first choice, or last. We bowled with Elder and Sister Rowell (our neighbors) and Gary and Laura Cardno. It was hilarious because we were all so terrible and the machines for setting the pins sometimes worked and sometimes didn't. I barely managed to break 100, but it was good enough to beat Dennis! HaHa. I think my mom would have been so proud. Dennis told everyone that I had a bowling trophy, but lest they expect too much, I had to confess that it was for "Most Improved."

 Below is a picture of me with President and Sister Wheelright. He is the president of BYU-Hawaii. They frequently attend functions with the Senior Couples. Maybe they miss 'hanging out' with their peers. Anyway, they seem quite nice and are highly visible on campus. We have seen them at Girls Volleyball Games, basketball games, our Senior 'Break-the-Fast' meal and we were once in a temple session with them. He was at BYU-I before he was asked to come here and tighten things up. No more good ol' boys club!

Dennis went golfing this week with several of the other Religious Ed. teachers. He has a student who can sometimes get deals on golfing the Arnold Palmer course over at Turtle Bay. They played 18 holes and Dennis was happy to report that he got 2 Birdies. He loves his new golf clubs. I guess he will have to stick with golf and give up bowling, While he was golfing I put up our little Christmas tree and decorated it. It is cute and makes our apt. feel more like Christmas.

On Thursday I went over to the PCC and helped decorate the Christmas trees for the Christmas Lagoon. Each village has a tree by the lagoon and over the last two weeks in December, people can ride in the canoes and they stop at each village and hear part of the Nativity. They are given snacks and sing Christmas music. It sounds quite nice and is something I am looking forward to doing. It was super hot when we were decorating, around 90 degrees - not too Christmas-y weatherwise.

Yesterday was a big day for us. I borrowed the School of Education staff car and we drove down to Wahiawa on our way down to Pearlridge to do some shopping. I think everyone knows that Dennis has this 'thing' about cars and he decided that we should sell the car we had and buy a new one. So, here he is with another new car. This one is a 2009 Chevy Cobalt. We hope it will prove reliable and get us around the island. We sold our car to a girl who needs one to get to Kaneoe to do her student teaching this next semester.

It is interesting that we went to this used car lot because the man in the picture, Ross, was a member of the Church until two years ago. He had been a convert and member for over 32 years. He worked in the Laie temple and has two children. Now he is divorced and inactive. He asked if we were from Utah. It turns out he has a son working for Adobe and living in Payson. His daughter lives in Haliewa but she is not active. I told him that the church wants to build a chapel there and maybe he could bring his daughter back. I told him about the Christmas Fireside tonight and invited him to come back. He was very nice and I was happy we had stopped at his car lot. I am trying to be a good missionary but I need people to cooperate with me!