May 21 - 27

Monday we spent the day driving around the island.  First we met John and Lydia Aki for lunch in Kaneohe.  The First restaurant, Haleiwa Joe's,  we were going to meet at was closed until 4 pm.  We were looking for lunch at 11 am.  We then met them at Windward City Shopping Mall where we went to a Sushi Japanese restaurant.  It was great.  I love the tempura vegetables and shrimp.  It was wonderful visiting with the Akis again.  They are doing well.  Keeping very busy with their family.  President Aki is a sealer at the Laie Temple so we see him every Saturday morning.

Thee are called "Monkey Pod" trees and I just love them.  They are like a canopy.

At Waimei Falls at the entrance.  Another Monkey Pod tree

From there we did our usual shopping at Walmart and Costco and got gas.  For FHE Elder Hopkinson spoke about his experiences in business and the many people who had influenced his life and career and how that brought him to Laie to be CFO of the Polynesian Center for eight years and then to Moscow Russia to work for the Church and now back in Hawaii as PCC missionaries.  They come to the temple every Thursday on our 4 pm session.  Peggy is doing some of my family names and she is also the lei teacher where I have learned to make several leis.  Great people. 

We went early to FHE to have our first ukulele lesson.  Paul has really taken to it.  On the way home we stopped at the Hughes to see if they had a ukulele we could borrow for a time until we decide if we are really going to do this and buy our own.   He has been practicing.  We also sang Alohe Oe to the Dees who are going home early because an illness he has been fighting.  We are doing "Just Serve" with them.  They were in charge of all the BYU Hawaii missionaries.  They will be missed and hopefully he recovers.  Parasites are in his intestines. 

Elder & Sister Dee

It was a good week at the temple.  We got to help with a wedding in the middle of the week and Saturday I helped with two living endowments and a sealing to deceased parents.  Always wonderful to work with our Presidency and local workers.  They are wonderful dedicated people.

Good day at Church today.  Elder & Sister Woods spoke.  They have similar lives to us.  He is a convert but joined at BYU Provo but battled unresponsive family.  This is their second time here in Hawaii PCC as missionaries and they are going home in July and coming back as volunteers.  She is in the sewing center at the Mission Home (PCC) and he is with facilities and building.

Saturday after the temple we walked around the PCC and checked out the PCC Mission Home and their fabrics.  We also stayed to watch the "Hawaiian movie."

fabric at the PCC Mission Home

aprons I want to make

Our lesson in RS today was on ministering and will be our topic for the next six months on the 4th Sunday.  We began by finishing our discussion on the Sabbath day.  Some great ideas I gleaned today.  One family listens to one conference talk each Sunday and then discusses it.  Everyone has to share something they learned.  Great idea.  Someone else always holds a family council to plan out the weeks activities, others stay in their Sunday clothes to remind them of the day and others have helped their children do indexing and their own life histories.  

Wrote to Connie this morning so am including the body since it gives an overview of what we are doing here.

The volcano is on the big Island Hawaii and is at the end of the chain of islands so so far it has not bothered us at all.  It is quite a spectical however.  We watch it on the news.  It is only affecting about 5% of the island and the gases are going out over the ocean for the most part.  Sad for those who lived so close and lost homes.  Makes you wonder what people are thinking when they build in certain places.  I can say that because I'm not one of them.  We use to say that about the people who continued to build down the canyons to the ocean in CA when every few year fire would rage down them. 

It has been pretty overcast and rainy since we have been here.  We are in the temple most of the time so doesn't bother us much.  It is very beautiful and green.  We have no bugs because Paul ordered Orkin the first day we arrived.  The previous missionaries told us about the small ants.  Now we heard about the cockroaches.  One of the couples took the University van to the airport to drop someone off and were eating sunflower seeds.  They left the van and when they came back the cup of empty sunflower seeds was swarming with cockroaches.  

We are the only couple here.  The other couple went home sick just before we arrived with pancreatic cancer.  So very sad.  So we are working every day from 10:30 - 6.  Tues. we go in at 6 am for prayer meeting, then stay for the 7 session, come home until 10:15 and then go back and officiate and follow the 11 session.  We then fill in wherever they need us until 3:30 when we prepare for the mobility impaired session at 4.  When that is finished we can go home.  Home is right across the field about 420 steps so that doesn't take long. 

It's a lovely temple, wonderful Presidency and great workers.  Still difficulty to say these names and can't seem to keep in my head the names of the towns around here.  It was the 5th temple built after the SL.  Next year is the 100 anniversary.  I've read the Joseph  F. Smith and George Q. Cannon biographies and learned a lot.  We attend the Laie 1st Ward just across the street and on Fast Sundays we have started to visit some of the other wards.  Our first one was the Tonga Ward.  

The sister missionaries and Visitor Center Director live on our street.  They all serve at the Visitor Center and they bring a tram from the Polynesian Cultural Center PCC over to the VC every half hour.  Brother Gay, 7 Presidents of the Seventy, was here and told us the story of how a prophet called, maybe it was his dad, and said find a way to start teaching the gospel at the PCC.  He said we can't do that, it is a public place, etc.  then he said he looked out over the area and said, lets build a road from the PCC to the Temple and take people over to see the beautiful white building on the hill.  That started the tram rides between the PCC and VC.  These sisters also do skyp teaching every day and evening and have many referrals and baptisms.  In fact Elder Allen said they generate the majority of the baptisms in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission.  We have many Chinese, Japanese and Korean sisters here. (tourists from those countries).  Some sisters stand at the entrance and invite tourists to come for a 30 min tour of the Temple area.  Pretty neat. 

We have been around the island every couple of week to get to Costco and Walmart.  We get gas at Costco $3.05 but $3.65 at local stations.  We are  also participating in Just Serve by picking up food from a local ranch (where they filmed Juristic Park) and take it to a Pastor who distributes it to the homeless.We do that twice a month on Sunday.  Mondays all the missionaries PCC and BYUH meet for FHE.  I took some baby receiving blankets to sew.  Sister Lunnen left her machine for me.  It's computerized so is taking some getting use to. 

May 14 - 20

Traveling along the kamehameha Highway

Taking ukulele lessons from Elder & Sister Ferrari at the PCC

More lessons from Elder Baker at the Mission home

which one do you want?  

New Zealand Village doing the Haka dance

One of the beautiful waterfalls at the PCC

Elder Gay from the Seventy and Area President Auna at our FHE 

D&C 88:73  "I will hasten my work through you." Sanctify yourself.  Joshua 3:t  tomorrow I will work wonders.  Turning hearts to be submissive to what we were called to do.  Invite people to act.  How can I minister today?  D&C 112  effectual door.  Live your life by keeping your covenants and promises.  Magnify your calling and you will be blessed.  "The power of Everyday missionaries".  D&C 3 "behold you have many gifts, He will bless you and your family.  When you do His priorities the windows of heaven will open.  This is a gospel of deliverance.  If you magnify He will bless you.  

Great week in the temple.  We have many patrons who come every week to our 11 and 4 o'clock sessions and we are getting to know and love each of them.  They are so faithful, even when their lives are difficult.  We also helped with several weddings again this week.  It is such a blessing to see these young people come and start their lives together the right way.  

May 7 - 13 2018

A good week at the temple.  Tuesday we arrive at the temple dressed and ready for prayer meeting by 6:15.  We stay for the 7 o'clock session, mobility impaired session, then come home until 10:15 when we go back and officiate and follow the 11 and 4 pm sessions.  In between we serve in other capacities in the temple.  On other days we sometimes go early and go on the 8 o'clock session and stay until after our 4 o'clock session, around 6 pm.  Saturdays are a treat.  We are assigned to escort weddings, usually two of them.

This last Saturday we helped with a couple from the Hawaii and one from California.  The first couple were students here.  The second story was that as a young woman they had a lesson on temples and were given pictures of different temples.  Laie is the one she got and she has always wanted to be married here.  His grandfather is a sealer in the Bountiful Temple so he and many family and friends came with them to be married here.

China Man's Hat

We had a lovely  mother's day with Church at 8 am.  We received a beautiful rose and a Hershey bar.  Great classes and Sacrament meeting and RS and then a huge picture of the RS.  We drove out to "Just Serve" and pick up food to be dropped off at Pastor Virgil's for him to distribute the food from Kualoa Ranch.

President & Sister Hafoka 

The Faetta Sisters sang some beautiful number

That evening we attended a fireside at the Temple Visitors Center.  President and Sister Hafoka, recently released as 2nd Counselor in Hawaii Honolulu Mission were the speakers with the Fella sisters singing.  It was a real treat.  They have been called as Mission President of the Papua New Guinea Port Moresby Mission in July.  They are wonderful missionaries.  He related several stories of his life and missionary experiences.  His theme was "we will go and we will do whatever my priesthood leaders ask me to do".  He came from a very poor family but was able to get an education.  He joined the Church at 21.  He was in the military and had a good career.  A few years later he was called to be a counselor in the Bishopric.  He told his leader, "I am very busy right now".  He was given good council which has stayed with him all his life.  The Lord knows you and what you are doing.  Putting the Lord first will bless your life in all ways.  He accepted.  A few years later the Ward was divided and he had left the military and was starting his first year in Grad School.  He was called to be Bishop.  Again he said, this is not really a great time.  Again "The Lord knows"  Go and do and you will be blessed, which he was.  He and his wife have always followed the hymn I will do and do whatever my priesthood leaders as of me. 

He is also a great missionary.  Help me be the missionary you want me to be.  None of this matters without the Savior and recognize promptings of the Spirit to invite others.  Have faith and courage--I will go and do. The New Guinea mission has 100 elders, all natives from the island, no sisters and how hallies.  Two stakes and 15 Districts and a population of 8 million. 

Saturday night we attended the Wor

The Deckers are going home to Iowa.  They live in front of us

We all sing Aloha Oe when missionaries leave and this is the ukulele accompaniment 

 

These white birds are everywhere

Dan from temple FM is putting in a new window for us.

The roofers are working on the roof 

Dan moving a window

 Fire/knife Championships.  What fun.  We watched the junior division 6-11 and 12 - 18.  These young boys were amazing.  As an exhibition in between they had a 5 year old perform.  He was amazing.  They have been doing this for 26 years. 

The drummers at the Fire/Knife championships

one of the young competitors 

We went to visit an assisted living facility and ran into Brother    from our Ward who goes every Sunday and sings to them.

 It has been raining all week on and off.  The volcano is still spitting out lava and rock and gases.  It is becoming more dangerous and more homes have been lost and there are now 20 fissures in the earth.  The smoke has been going out to sea so far. 

Our challenge this week.  Have Faith and courage to invite others to come unto Christ. Be a good missionary and do some ministering. 

April 30 - May 6

These last two weeks have been busy in the temple.  BYU Hawaii is out and between semesters so we have had lots of weddings.  We have been blessed to be escorts for several of them.  Yesterday we had a lovely couple from the Philippines being sealed.  She served in Vancouver Canada Chinese and he served in the Philippines.  He is now here in school, she has already graduated.  Really a great privilege to serve them.

We also met a few old friends this week.  We were both in the baptistery serving when a young man came in to baptize.    It turned out he is the son of Jade and Debbie Morris from Camarillo.  He with his wife and two boys, works here on the island.  Yesterday at Costco someone else recognized Paul.  He served in the SLC South Mission with us and was an assistant to the President.  Elder Eastman.  He was just sealed two weeks ago in the Laie Temple.

Paul has one of those recognizable faces and we are always meeting someone who remembers him.  Great blessing for us.

The island of Hawaii has been erupting this week.  Many people have had to evacuate and several (9) homes have been lost.  It is a very active volcano and they have also had a 6.5 earthquake and now at least three fissures have opened up spewing lava.  They are also very worried about the dangerous gases being released.  Sulfur dioxide.

Today is Sr. Couples Break the Fast dinner.  today we take a main course, Lasagna for us.  It has been rather raining this week but we are inside so hardly notice it.  

News from home.  Katie and Tyler went to  LA to visit the Goldens, Staci graduated from ISU with a doctorate in Pharmacy.  Mallorie is doing pole vvolt.  Sounds like all is doing well.  

Sunday we attended the Laie 4th Ward, Samoan Ward.  What a treat and a wonderful spirit.  Some of the testimonies were in English and most in Samoan but the spirit was strong and we got the jist of it.  Paul bore his testimony, which is always very powerful, and lets people know a little about us.  There are many members from this ward who serve in the temple so it was good to see them with their families.  One of the Sisters from the Temple had on a beautiful lei she had  made and gave it to me.  

 We also met Jerome Pollard's daughter, Martha and some of her family, at Church.  She has 9 children.

Martha and daughter 

We met Elder Eastwood at Costco on Saturday.  His new bride of two weeks.  We were sad we did not get to escort them on their wedding day.  He is from here and they are attending BYU Hawaii

That evening we attended the Senior Missionary first Sunday pot luck dinner.  Always delicious.  They have six rows of tables and before they begin the person sitting at the front of that table draws an UNO card and that determines which tables are served first.  Last month, our first attendance, we got six, this month we got five.  I guess we are working our way up the line.  A great variety and quantity of food.  

On our way in we saw Sister Rhodes, a senior sister missionary, who  attends our 4 pm ordinance session every week.  I asked her last week to do some of my names.  Last week she did one of my names, Anna Sahmkow.  She told me during that session she could feel and see several people in the back of the room and felt certain she and several others were there.  What a special experience for her. 

April 23 - 29

Monday I went with Tessa Sullivan to the Ioloni Palace in Honolulu.  It was a very interesting tour.  Got a good feel for Hawaii  Also saw comparisons to the early Mormons.  Seems the Hawaiians were treated like we were.  It took us forever to get home.  Two accidents on the highway which brought us to a stop.  Paul was watching the Jazz game. They won.  After it was over we went to FHE.

Tuesday we got up at 5 and attended the 6:15 prayer meeting.  We kept busy after that.  At 7:45 we helped with a wedding, then initiatories, the 11 am session, lunch, baptistery for me and veils for Paul until we met up again for the 4 pm session.  A very full and rewarding day.

Our wedding couple was from Japan and Fiji.  They met here at school.  He is in IT and she is engineering.  The girls have beautiful dresses.  On campus they have a place where you can go and try on wedding dresses people have donated and borrow them.  Such a great idea.
The rest of the week was a little slow.  We were all wondering if anyone heard what President Nelson said about making more time for the temple.

Friday and Saturday were busy with weddings.  We were able to help with four of the six weddings on Saturday.  What a wonderful day.  So happy to see these young couples start out their lives together in the right way, with Heavenly Father as part of their lives.

On one of our 11 o'clock sessions we had two couples from Arizona come through.  They were older and did not realize we move from room to room and have to go up 44 stairs.  The sister has bone cancer and just three weeks ago got so she could hardly walk.  She was able to make it and I was so touched by her dedication and love of the Lord that she would try something so strenuous for her and she was so grateful for the opportunity.  The sister with her, however, seemed very annoyed by it all.  It's interesting how differently we all see things.

Saturday night was Stake Conference adult session.  What a great spirit.  The meeting centered around ministering.  They started with a video of "I Stand All Amazed" sung by that group from BYU, 7 guys, with no accompaniment but them.  The Counselor conducting them spoke and introduced the topic.  Charity, love, no up or down in this church, only forward or backward.  Where can we look for ministering?  We have 313 HP, 5099 Elders 351 Prospective Elders, 658 no priesthood in the home, 114 no father, endowed members with no temple recommend 420.  He then quoted words from "If I Listen With My Hear, I'll Hear My Savior's Voice".  They then showed the video "Lift".

Ministering:  keep it SIMPLE, two things 1.  qualify or the gift of charity 2.  qualify for the Holy Ghost as your earthly constant companion.  EFFORT be united--commit to be prayerful and follow the spirit.  INVITE  invitation to act.  Read 3 Nephi and note the number of times you see "minister" and "One by One".  We will see a great change in our hearts and we will build up the kingdom by small things.  If we are UNITED we are unstoppable.  3 Ne 28:29.

President Ah You then concluded the meeting by reminding us that the Savior now calls us friends.  He no longer calls us servants but friends.  We are off to the Cannon Center today for the main session of Stake Conference.

We have had a little rain but we always miss it by being in the temple.  Our days are sometimes long but the work is so sweet we don't notice.  This is a beautiful place where the spirit of the Lord hovers.