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.