The Magaoay's and Ryan Riddle!

You are probably wondering what Ryan and the Magaoays have in common. Well, I will tell you. The Magaoays just got back from Salt Lake City and their mission to the Family History Center. They spoke in church today and wanted more time to talk about Family History so we had a fire side at their house in Waimea. We have different fire sides every month and a pot luck dinner along with them. All the ward is invited and they are lots of fun. We have good food, lots of good chatting and a great fire side to boot. We were the first to arrive and I was helping to get everything ready. The tables were just set up and a young man came and sat down at the end from me. I looked up and he said "Do you know who I am?" Without skipping a beat I said "Yes, you're Ryan." He thought I wouldn't remember. He was my student at Legacy several years ago. He is living in Kalaheo and just bumming around when he should be on a mission! We had a great visit. Who would have ever thought I would meet a student out here!

Service...

This is a group of Elder's from the ward working on a carport for the Simola family. Hot water heaters are up on the roofs here and use solar power to heat the water. The Simola's hot water heater got a leak. It was 30 yrs old. It ruined their roof and the carport had to be taken down. The Elder's got together and built a new one. It was like a barn raising. Everyone is so handy here. They are all pretty self sustaining. What one can't do another can and they all help each other. Wally and I went down to help. The sisters of the ward provided lunch (I took cookies).
It was a wonderful way to spend the day.

The Guard!!

We finished early for the evening as our last appt. canceled. Wally said "let's go for a walk on the beach. You know me, I can't turn that one down. We decided to walk down to Barking Sands Military Base. You can go all the way down on the beach. It is quite a ways down there. It took us an hour to walk one way. We got almost to the No Trespassing sign and were met by a military guard! Oh, Oh. " The line is drawn here," he said. We asked what was going on and he told us the rifle range was open and they were practicing and didn't want stray bullits to hit anyone. I wish I had asked him to have his picture taken with me. It would have been fun. On the way back we stopped and sat on the sand to watch the whales. They were really active again. What fun it is to sit and watch. The ocean, the waves, the whales ahhhh!

Hello Simola's!

The Simolas and their daughter's Pili and Rachel invited us to dinner tonight. First, we had a great lesson on the Restoration. We told the girls if they would listen to the lesson and answer some questions afterwards we would give them a treat. The treat was M&M's if you can't guess. We had a fun time. We stacked paper cups to represent parts of the lesson as we taught it. When the apostles were killed, apostacy happened and Christ was crucified we took cups away one by one and soon the tower came crashing down . The girls loved the lesson and it helped Brother Simola too. He has only been a member a short time and needs the gospel lessons again to help him understand. We love teaching lessons and have learned so much in our studies. To see our investigators understand is a great blessing. We had a yummy dinner out side. The Simola's next door neighbors have their own Hawaiian Church. They meet outside in their yard under awnings. It is right next to the LDS Church, by the way. They worship through song. It was great being serenaded with beautiful Hawaiian music while we ate. Brother Simola has 2 jobs, one out at the military base and the other at the shrimp farm. What a great family. We are blessed to know them.

Surprise Visit!

We headed up to our District Meeting in Lihue today around 9:15 a.m. so we could be there by 10:30. You have to allow enough time to get there. It is 26 miles away and with only one 2 lane road to travel on around the island you have to plan for traffic, road construction etc. Our Zone Leader Elder Prina called and said President and Sister Dalton would be there to interview everyone. You are interviewed by both. Sister Dalton is the nurturing side of the interview (she gives treats) and the President is the making sure you are doing what you're supposed to be doing side of the interview. Wally and I were last to be interviewed. The President asked us if we would take them to the airport and he would interview us on the way. We said sure. Then he asked us to lunch. We took them to the Kauai Pasta Restaurant. It is just a little place in a strip mall but has the most amazing food. Yum! Well, it turned out to be a good thing and a great visit. Wally was able to OYM a waitress who remembered us from our last visit and send some missionaries to see her. President Dalton thought that was ok to see Wally in action. Whew, we passed the test!

Elder's, McDonald's and Wifi!

Monday is our P-day. We spend the morning with the Elders Schmerse and Grover (red shirt).

They use our washer and dryer and eat breakfast and lunch with us. We clean our house while they are doing what they need to. I've taught them how to fold their shirts (so they won't wrinkle), sheets and how much soap they should use so they don't flood the machine. They return the favor and wash and vaccum out our car. Cute boys! So young! They leave about noon to meet up with the rest of the district in Lihue to play ball, fish or go hiking.

In the afternoon Wally and I head up to Port Allen (ten miles away) to McDonalds. They have free WiFi and it is great to use to update our blog so we don't suck our air card dry. I bought Wally an Itouch recently so he can have his own games, Hawaiian music and scriptures. We also use the Wifi to sync it.

Ta'ala's and Talks!

Meet Brother and Sister Ta'ala. They are so much fun. We really have enjoyed getting to know them. Brother Ta'ala is from Samoa. When we were talking to him about growing up we asked him if he knew Bob and Linda Lewis because they taught school in Samoa in the 70's. He got thinking about it and said "Did he teach P. E.?" We said, "yes." He said "I remember he used to make us lift weights using weights made out of plumbing supplies." Brother Ta'ala usually does construction but things have slowed down so he is working his 6 acres of Taro fields up Waimea Canyon for the time being.
Our talks went well today. The ward said they liked our messages. We hope things will progress now. We can relax now for the afternoon. You know how preparing and giving talks wears

you out.

Service, Prep. and Prepare.

To day we did service for the morning. We worked on the yard of the house we live in helping Bonnie the land lady. We mowed, weeded, edged, and watered. It was a good thing. Bonnie works out at the Base so she doesn't have much time to do her yard as well as ours. We feel like we need to do physical work sometimes as well as our teaching. You know how we love to work in the yard so it was a treat for us anyway.
We speak in church tomorrow and our topic is .... Missionary Work. Imagine that. We are spending the afternoon getting ready. We want to make sure we cover everything and make a good impression on the ward. To us one of the important parts of our calling is to be good supportive members of the ward. We love it here and hope they will come to our rescue and start taking us to meet their friends and family who are not members or less active. When friends and family take us to visit their loved ones it makes such a difference for us and for the investigators. I said in my talk that Wally and I are so scary so would they please help us and pave the way.

Whale Song!

We had a busy day teaching and visiting with members but no appointments this evening. We went down for a sunset walk on the beach. The tide had been high and left a little bank, shelf type, ledge we could sit on and watch the waves. The water was kind of choppy and the breeze was blowing. We didn't expect to see much from the whales but what a night!! They were spouting, dancing, jumping and slapping the water with their flukes. It was amazing. It made you want to stand up and clap for the show. Heavenly Father must have had so much fun creating these wonderful animals of the sea.

Surf's Up!

I'm not really a great photographer and have such a little camera but this is a picture to let you know there was Big Surf today. By the time we got to the beach, for our morning walk, at 7:15 there were surfers everywhere. The life guard was there early and even had red flags posted for the under tow and rip tide.
It is so amazing how everybody knows when the time is right for surfing and they all show up. We also heard a whale was seen caught in netting and plastic. Some guys tried to herd it in and went to get help to cut the stuff off. We didn't hear how it ended up but I hope all went well. Whales are such amazing creatures and I can bear to think we could have done something dumb like leaving plastic and old nets in the sea that could hurt them.

Tadd, Teresa, Henry and Barbara!

We knew there were some Canadians living in the neighborhood and were anxious to meet them! We kept an eye out for them but never were quite able to make contact. On Saturday, on our way home from an afternoon look at the beach we saw someone standing in their yard. Of course we went up to say "Hi". We found out Henry and his wife Barbara (front) were here visiting Tad and Teresa. When they saw us outside the rest of them came out to visit. They were headed to the beach to watch the sunset but invited us back at 6:30 for dinner and a visit. What a great time we had. Both couples emigrated to Canada through other countries, Sweden and Denmark. Henry and Barbara will be here for another week. Tadd and Teresa are snowbirds and live here from November through March. We laughed and talked about so many things. It seemed like we had been friends forever. Maybe we can get another evening before everyone leaves to go home.

George and Matilda.

George and Matilda Inouye live in a little plantation house on Io Road. George worked for the sugar mill as a supervisor for 30 years. When the mills went out of business because of financial difficulties he and Matilda were able to buy the house. They are members of our ward and have been reactivated. We love going to visit them and teaching them the missionary lessons as a review. It helps them and we get good practice. George is a Vietnam war vet and suffers from the effect of Agent Orange. What a joy it is to know them. They are so kind to us. They are hoping to go to the temple and we hope they can make it soon.

Justin and Lauren.

One of our favorite things to do is teach the missionary lessons to Justin and Lauren. They are from the bay area in California and are here visiting in Kauai until April. They have been coming to church and asked us if we would teach them. They are delightful and we have had some wonderful discussions. Elder Fairbanks and I have to study hard and prepare well so we can answer questions and teach them everything they need to know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We love them and pray every night that their hearts will be touched and they will know the gospel is true. What a priviledge it has been to teach them!

Good Bye Elder Lawrence!

Sweet Elder Lawrence ( on the left ) went home today! He was so trunky he could hardly stand it. He tried to be cool about it and say he wasn't excited but we knew better. When he was here Monday doing his final laundry he was acting silly, laughing and having a good time. Elder Schmerse says he's been packed for a month. He is from Bluffdale and comes from a family of 10 children. He is number 4. He has a wonderful testimony and was great at expressing every thing he wanted to say. He helped us a lot and we appreciated it. We will surely miss him and are glad Elder Schmerse is still here to guide us along.

Our Daily Schedule.

We thought you might like to know our schedule. It isn't much different from the Elders. Though we do have a little more freedom talking to our family, walking on the beach, using the computer and watching a little TV and coming home to take a nap in the afternoon if we need one.

7:00:7:30 Wake up say prayers. Read scriptures.(Love doing this together)
7:30 - 8:30 Walk for an hour- usually around town and on the beach.
9:00-11:00 Get ready for the day and study together and plan lessons.
11:00-12:30 Visits
12:30 -1:30 Lunch
1:30 - 5:00 Visits and teaching lessons
6:00- 7:00 Dinner
7:00- 8:00 Evening visits (if there are any)
8:00 ...... Study and read together until bed.
Monday, of course, is our P-day and Tuesdays we have District or Zone meetings in Lihue. We are keeping busy but not overly. We hope to get busier as time goes on and we meet more members.

Wonderful Outdoor Markets!

Everyday of the week there are Farmer's Markets somewhere in Kauai. Ours is on Saturday at the Senior Citizens Center. We were out for a walk and came upon it by accident. People with wares back up their cars and open the trunks and sell right there. We bought some Hawaiian oranges, apple bananas and some yummy avacados. They were also selling papaya, ginger root, orchids,

squash, eggplant and other things (we didn't have enough cash). It was a fun experience and I think we will try one in Lihue by the Jr. College next time. They have a craft fair along with theirs and I just can't seem to resist things like that.

Knock, Knock Anybody Home?

We spent the afternoon knocking on doors trying to get to know people in the neighborhood and in our ward. We visited 6 houses. People were kind enough to visit with us outside on the step but told us they were busy and maybe they would come to church sometime. They also told us they knew who we were and where we lived and would call us if they needed us. I thought you might like to see what grows without much care outside here in Hawaii. Aren't these orchids beautiful?
Almost every yard has some!

Our poor car.

Today we had District Meeting. It was another great meeting by Elder Moala. I hope he doesn't get transfered next week. Elder Lawrence is really getting trunky. He is ready to go home. He is such a good, kind elder we will miss him. He and Elder Schmerse come over every P-Day to do laundry and eat breakfast and lunch. We take good care of them. I think they like it. Anyway back to our meeting day. When we got our car it only had 10,000 miles on it but it had been abused by previous owners. When it rained so hard here it flooded about 2 inches on the passenger side. We just got that fixed and found out the window washer reservoir had a big crack in it. We had to buy a new one $118. worth. We were lucky enough to find a member who could put it in for us. While we were in meeting he fixed it all up and now we are all set to go. We offered to pay him but he laughed and said no he was glad to help. "It's too bad they gave you a canoe with a hole in it."