Zone Conference.

It seems like Zone Conference comes around very quickly but actually it is every 12 weeks or so. This time Wally was one of the lucky ones and we all sang Happy Birthday to him. It was fun and he got lots of high 5's. He also got to pick a prize from the birthday basket. He chose a tooth brush and a bag of M&M's that he said were for me. Guess what? He had those babies open and gone before I even got one! That's alright he is the birthday boy.
We were in Kapaa this conference and the Relief Society chose a Memorial Day theme for our lunch. We had hot dogs and relish, chips, and dill pickles, with apple crisp and vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was a fun luncheon. The wards always treat us so well whenever we have a conference and they provide lunch. They love the missionaries and are so sweet to us. The meeting was wonderful. So uplifting. The AP's always do such a fine job. They showed a video on car safety featuring Grandma. It was hillarious. Sister Dalton gave us a lesson on how to lead music instead of a health tip this time. President Dalton gave the closing message and talked about his love for us and appreciation for all we do as missionaries. He also talked about his mission in Germany. He went about the same time as Wally and they both remember tracting about 60 hours a week. Things are a bit different now and we are so glad. It was very tender and very moving. He is a great mission President and Sister Dalton is an outstanding mission mother.

Happy 66th Wally!!!

Happy, Happy Birthday Wally. Here he is playing the ukulele I bought him for his special day. He is learning to tune it and Bro C. is so excited that Wally is trying everything Hawaiian he can.
Everyone called or faced Wally and sang to him. It was great! " This is the most unusual birthday I have ever had." he said. "Why?" "Because usually we aren't alone. At home everyone would be there and we would be having a Bar-B-Que." That's true. We do miss everyone around us.

5th Sunday Missionary Meeting.

Today was a wonderful Sunday. The day started out in Sacrament meeting as a tribute to the Seminary students in our ward. They presented the whole program along with their teacher. It was all about the Doctrine and Covenants and church history. We certainly have some wonderful youth who will be great church leaders someday. They have such strong testimonies of the gospel. No one was here for our Gospel Principles class so we were able to attend the Gospel Doctrine class. It was the parables of Jesus. I learned a lot. Wally and I had just read the parable of the grape vineyard and the husbandmen. I didn't understand it at the time I read it and so when it was explained in class that it represented Christ being forsaken by his own people it made perfect sense to me. I love it when the light comes on in my head. I love the scriptures. For our combined meeting we chose a missionary theme and the missionary committee including Wally and I went and spoke to the Primary, YM and YW. We finished up in the chapel with everyone. We talked about the Power of One and how we can all help in the missionary process by referring friends and neighbors. Some new members bore their testimonies and that made it a perfect day! We hope this will inspire our ward members to start referring friends to us.

Kauai's Polynesian Festival.

Bro. C invited us to the Kauai Polynesian Festival this weekend. He wants us to really absorb the Hawaiian culture. We really are trying to do that so this was the perfect activity.

There was lots of dancing, singing, ukuleles and guitars. There were craft booths with lots of native handy work: fabric, jewelry, flowers for hair, knives with shark teeth, natural leis, fish hook necklaces. It was kind of like a county fair polynesian style.

Oh, did I mention food booths too. Lots of yummy food to eat. Wally and I can't seem to get away from food here. We both are going to have to seriously do Weight Watchers when we get home. When we found Sister C she was doing lomi lomi (special kind of Hawaiian) massage. Both Wally and I had one. It made a great finish to a nice afternoon. What do you think of Wally playing the uke and me doing the hula for our homecoming? LOL.

"Kalaheo's Got Talent!"

Tonight was a talent show and pupu's (appetizers) at the Kalaheo ward. It was such a fun evening. All kinds of talents were displayed including art, photography, jewelry making, scrap booking, flower arranging. One gentleman even displayed a huge sand castle he built on the spot. Cooking was included so there were lots of pupu's to eat. It was supposed to be all finger food but it ended up being almost a banquet (yum). We always eat too much at these events because we want to try a little of everything.

In the talent portion of the evening there was lots of ukulele, guitar and hula dancing. The hit of the night was a song sung by the bishop and his son. A change of words in the song about going on a mission. A magic act with the hat coming out of the rabbit also got a lot of laughs. Our new sister missionaries participated and did the skit with someone behind them being their hands and their hands as feet brought the house down. What a great evening.

Moving Day and the New Floor!!!

You are going to have a chuckle over this one! While they were fixing up the mission pad they replaced the kitchen and bathroom floors. They are 12 x 12 tiles. The tiles look good but the minute we step on them glue oozes up between them. We told the Young's who did the reno and they came and replaced a few tiles and then used a heavy roller to press them down. The problem was bad glue we were told. Yea, problem solved..... or so we thought. We spent all day working on putting things away in the kitchen and stuck to the floor all day. Yuk!! We were carrying a can of paint thinner and a rag around with us all day rubbing gook off our feet.

I got thinking about how we could solve the problem. You have heard the old saying "Necessity is the Mother of Invention." Well, I said to Wall, " What if we use the duck tape we got for a white elephant gift from the elders and cover all the cracks in the floor and make a pattern. Hmmm was his reply. As you can see in the first picture he was trying out the idea. The second picture is the finished project. Isn't it divine? By the way the duck tape has leopard spots. We are tackling the bathroom next! It seems to be acting up.

Thank You Mr. and Mrs. Fairbanks!!

I have mentioned before that Wally and I read with the 4th grade students in Mrs. Karratti's class at the Kekaha Elementary School Rm I-1o2. Today Enoka, Mrs. Karratti's husband brought us these thank you cards from the class. It was so much fun to read them and know that they enjoyed reading with us just as much as we enjoyed reading to them. They are so cute and it helps us survive being away from our granddies. We will start off right at the first of the year next year and will be able to read with them all year long. Mrs. Karrratti was so pleased with their progress in the short time we were with them.

P-Day #@%&*

Today was P-day because of our Monday conference off island. We will be moving into our finally finished "mission pad" on Thursday. We have been slowly working on things getting it ready to go. We have even moved a few things in. Here is Dad doing his favorite thing. He is putting furniture together! The directions weren't done very well for this piece and so I had to figure it out by reading them from the back to the front. That didn't go over big and Wally was ready to ...scream. He even thought one piece was missing but we ended up finding it in the box. Whew! Poor guy. We did eventually get the TV stand done though and it looks pretty good if I do say so myself. "My boys could have put this together in half the time." This reminds me of the good old times when we would put Christmas presents together. Sound familiar?

Mission Conference with a General Authority.

I know this is cheesy but here we are in a self portrait on the plane at 6:00 a. m. heading for Honolulu with 8 other elders and sisters from Kauai. There will be 4 other zones meeting with us today. Then the conference will be going to Maui and be given 2 more time to the rest of the mission.


Now here we are in the mission van. Mission AP Elder Street is driving us in from the airport. Our new ZL Elder Smith sitting in shot gun. The new sisters that were white washed in are Sister DeArton from Seattle, left and Sister Brown from Mesa, right. If you look closely you can see us right behind the sisters. The conference was great. Very intense, but very good. It was all about how to be a more effective missionary and how that will affect the rest of your life. Everyone was supposed to have a talk prepared on the subject of "How Can I be a More Effective Missionary?" Wall decided weeks ago what his talk would be about. He would use the scripture Ether 12:4 and he wrote an outline in his planner just in case. We were told to have 2 copies of our talk. One to use and one for Elder Pierson to read while we talked. "They will never call on me. This is for the young kids." Guess who got call on? That's right Elder Fairbanks! He was embarrassed that he had to tell them he didn't have a copy for them to read. What a rebel I'm married to. Oh, by the way, Mark Eubank, the weather caster, was there. He is the director of missionaries at the Laie Temple Visitor's Center. Wall thought he would be funny and asked him "how is the weather on Kauai?" "Don't be silly", I said. Elder Eubank was very nice. We had a good visit with him. He said he was at the St. Geo. visitor's center when they asked him to come over and be the director here for 2 years. It has now been 3 years. I asked if he and his wife had been home at all and he said for 2 weeks for their 50th wedding anniversary celebration. 5 years now that is service!

Thursdays With Bro. C.

Say hello to our Cane Spider. I know is doesn't look too big but it was about 4-5 inches across. I was walking down the hall and just happened to look down and there he was. I yelled for Wally to come and rescue me and it turns out he's a wuss after all. He nearly had a heart attack when he saw him. I said, "quick, do something!" So he did. He threw his shoe at him! Well, the spider then jumped (yes, they are jumpers) clear in the other room about 6 feet away. Both of us were carrying on and finally Wall did do away with him with his shoe. I know you are wondering what this has to do with Thurs. with Bro. C. It gave us a good topic to discuss. We talked about how before hurricane Iniki all the islands had sugar cane plantations. Pineapple on the east side (windward) and cane always on the west side (leeward). With the cane plantations there were always mills that employed lots and lots of people. People worked there and lived there in plantation cottages. I just love the plantation cottages. They are all around Kekaha. They are small and just like something out of a forgotten era. Kauai had 7 plantations at one time; Koloa, Waimea, Kamakani, Lihue, McBride and Kekaha. What with Iniki destroying all the cane fields in 1992 and the rising cost of water and production cane is no longer a source of income and work here. Like a lot of other things it is cheaper to buy it from over seas.

Miss You Mom!

My heart is full. Both Elder Grover and Elder Moimoi called tonight to tell us they arrived safely at their new areas. One is on Maui the other in Laie. They have good companions and are happy. When they finished talking to Elder Fairbanks I put my ear up close to the phone and they said, "Bye, miss you Mom!" We will miss those boys!

Paco's Tacos and Goodbye.

Today we had our first experience with our new assignment as missionary pad inspectors. We started this morning at Anahola at 9:00 clear up north past Kapaa. We visited all the apartments. One in Anahola, one in Kapaa, one in Lihue and on down to Hanapepe. It took us until about 1:00. We called Elders Moimoi and Grover and asked if we could take them to a farewell lunch at Paco's Tacos. Of course, they said "Yes!" Paco is so nice. His little stand is doing really well and we are happy for him. He saw us and was excited we came but then we told him the missionaries were leaving. We ordered lunch and he said "From me to you." He also gave us a drink from Mexico called Tamarind. It tasted like plums. Goodbye sweet elders I wish I could have hugged you. Lucky Wally gave them two each, one for me. An extra long handshake will have to do. We are so glad we had time to sign journals and give addresses and phone numbers. Hope we see you again.

News Flash!!!

Elders Grover and Moimoi got white washed! Oh, we are sad. What will we do? We take care of them on P-Days, feed them breakfast and lunch. We always talk story and laugh. They always say Dad is their best friend and I'm Mom. In the week if they don't have a dinner appointment they call " Hey, Alooooha you cook dinna for us? We hungry!" I guess we will now have sisters in their place. The elders lived in Hanapepe just 10 minutes from here but now the sisters will live up farther in Kalaheo next to members, about 20 or so minutes away. I don't think they will need us like the elders did. We are really sad!!!

Ether 12:4 Sure and Steadfast!!

We had a wonderful Ward Conference today. Our "teme" came from Ether 12:4. " Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." All our meeting were taught by the stake leaders. It was outstanding. For some reason though we had very low attendance at meetings today. It seemed like the stake members out numbered the ward members. That made me sad. I invited "Uncle Andy" and he didn't come either. Have I mentioned that our Stake President, President Gonsalves reminds me of Jeffrey. Same age, same coloring, same build. It make me homesick for my kids!!!

Later in the day the doorbell rang. There on the step stood Bro. and Sis. Young. Bro. Young is in our bishopric. They brought some dishes and asked us if we could use them in the missionary pad. His aunt gets new things all the time and she wanted to give these to someone who could use them. We said we could always use things for the missionaries. We invited them in and had the most wonderful visit. We laughed and talked story. When it was time for them to go we looked at the clock and they had been here for two hours!! After 6 months it finally feels like we are beginning to be at home here in this ward. We must be building trust.

Huli, Huli Chicken and the Base.

On our way home from the Charity Walk we drove by the Kalaheo Chapel and saw a sign for Huli, Huli Chicken $9. We drove in to see what was going on because we could see Elder's Moimoi and Grover were there. Come to find out, it was a fund raiser so that the kids from the ward could go to EFY at BYU Hawaii this summer. Well, we had to support that and Huli, Huli chicken is the BEST! As we sat eating our chicken we talked to the Bishop. He told us "You know up until 2 days before you got here we thought you were going to be in our ward. We even had a place for you to live. Then they gave you to Kekaha." As we were talking the Bishop also told us it was open house day out at the base until 3:00 p.m. "Better hurry." we said and off we went.

We really enjoyed the open house out at Barking Sands Military Base. They had all kinds of displays, information, food, shave ice etc. Then out on the run ways were all the kinds of planes they use in operations on the base. This is the biggest one. You can see how big it is compared to Wally. All the planes on display could fit inside it. There were also some drones and missiles on display too, interesting. It turned out to be a very busy, interesting and fun day. But the best thing of all is we supported lots of people we know through out the day.

Put Your Best Slippah Forward!!!

We did a Charity Walk in Lihue today. We contributed $70 and felt good about that. The walk is in it's 33rd year and is put on by the hospitality organizations of the island to support all sorts of different charities. I walked for awhile next to the mayor of Kauai. People were cheering for him and he was waving and calling back. He is some kind of celebrity! I don't think he did the whole thing but he was there draped in lei's having a good time. It rained all night and we wondered how the walk would be. The sun came out though, and it was nice for the whole walk but it started again when we crossed the finish line. We picked up our breakfast from the Marriott Booth and headed to the car to eat it where it was dry. It was yummy. English muffin with egg, tomatoes, onions, Portuguese sausage and orange juice.

Furniture At Last!

Most of our furniture, for the mission pad, finally came today. The dining room table will come sometime in June. It is so nice! We had to wait for the arrival time between 1:00 and 3:00 so we decided to clean, organize and put in shelf paper. The cupboards are old and need help so don't laugh when I say I needed to put paper down. You think I am a fussy budget but I am not. I'm telling you, whoever gets this place after us will really feel spoiled. It looks so good I will have to get pictures to show on the blog. It is totally different from the first time we saw it and told the mission president we wouldn't live there. We are getting excited to move in and finally be settled permanently for the last year of our mission. We said "Hi" to the neighbor across the street and introduced ourselves. She said she knew we were coming because she has been watching us all along. "Welcome." she said.

Thursdays With Bro. C.

Kauai is a county so each town on Kauai has a representative that meets with the city and or county council. Towns do not have mayors. Just Kauai has a mayor. As we were talking today Bro. C. said that someone who does studies of geography put a pyramid on Molokai and it was dead center to Egypt. Does that mean Molokai is exactly half way around the world from Egypt? I really don't understand this pyramid stuff. I've heard of it before but don't understand it. Also, we are on the leeward side of the island. Leeward sides are always dry and desert without much rain. Every island has one. I think that is amazing. You'd think that islands out in the sea surrounded by water would all be nothing but lush and tropical. Not so. When we were on Maui we took an island tour that took us up the road to Hana and then down the other side. When were were on the downside you would have thought we were in Utah's west desert not on Hawaii!!!

Transfers On Wednesday!

It is transfer time again. We can't believe it! This has been a fast 6 weeks. The Elders came down today to have the last ever FPPA in Kekaha. We will be moving in 2 weeks and have no room to take the ping pong table with us. Too bad because the owners told us we could take any thing that is left that we wanted. We figure Elder Parker(next to Wally), Elder's Grover and Moimoi (front right) will be going. We have so loved these Elders. They come here on Monday, they do their washing here, they eat with us. We really feel like they are ours. This is another of the favorite parts of our mission, taking care of the Elders.

Happy Mother's Day!

Thanks to all my family for the great Mother's Day gifts and the cards, pictures and Top Ten List. The calls and face time and skype were wonderful too. I am so spoiled and I feel really blessed, loved and appreciated. I love my boys, my girls and all my granddies so much!! I hope you all know that. I came home from church and had a wonderful nap and then the Wright's called and asked us to dinner with their family; their brother and sis-in-law, mother-in-law and friends the Bouches (from Utah). We had such a good time. Yummy food made by Brother Wright (I hope). We ate till we were tired as by custom. Visited, laughed and had a good time.

Yummy Mango's!

Can You guess what I am doing? I am eating a mango fresh off the tree. Bro.Wright couldn't believe I didn't know what they were like. We had stopped by his mother-in-law's, Sis. Kua, house to say hello. There was Brother Wright with his handy dandy fruit picker getting some fresh ones for us to try. The picker is like a butter fly net with a little squeezed together part at the end. You reach up grab the fruit and slip the stem down in the squeezed end part and pull and the fruit comes off right in the bag and doesn't fall on the ground and you don't have to have a ladder or shake the tree.

Brother Wright told us that when they were kids they would play outside all day and just eat fruit from the trees. It is so juicy they would bite the end and peel it down then eat the fruit and wipe their hands on their clothes and just go on playing. As you can see I have bitten the end of my mango off and I am leaning over the garbage can to eat it. I didn't want to wipe my hands on my clothes so they let me use the hose to wash off.

These are the mango's growing on the tree. We see them different places when we walk but didn't know what kind of fruit it was. This is the time of year for them. As they ripen they turn golden yellow. Depends on your taste at which stage of ripeness you like them. Wally likes them more tart, a little green. I like them more yellow.

Mother's Day Dinner.

The High Priest Group decided to have a Mother's Day dinner. Brother Fuertes wanted to do the cooking. He is famous for his cooking, especially his huli,huli (turned) chicken. Well, he needed help and we knew it so Wally volunteered us. We love this part of our mission. We always do as much service as we can. He told us to be at the church at 12:00 to chop vegetables for the salads. We said,"Yes, sir!" He is the sweetest man. We just love him. He is also on our missionary correlation committee. We chopped and cut and mixed and made some wonderful salads, spagetti, potato, 2 kinds of green. That night we had turkey, pork, rice, dressing, and of course our salads and yummy desserts. There wasn't a program just lots of good food and visiting. What a great evening. If we would have had enough leftovers they were going to have a pot luck on Sunday after Sacrament Meeting. Too bad it didn't work out that way for those who missed the dinner.

Great Discussion...

We are still learning how to be director's our own ARP program. Tonight we went to Kalaheo to visit their meeting and participate so it will help us. After the meeting one of the sisters asked us a question. Wally said, "Here in 2nd Nephi is your answer." Wow! How exciting. It just so happened the question she asked lead right into the Restoration Discussion. We were prepared and we had a wonderful impromptu meeting. This is what we are hoping for in Kekaha. We really feel this is the doorway to open this area up because addiction doesn't just affect the person it affects the whole family.

Who Moved My Sand....

We walk down past the beach every morning. We haven't walked on the beach for a long time. We have started walking about 6:30 or 6:45 a.m. because it is getting so humid it is too hot to go any later. This particular morning I said "Let's go right down to the water and have a look." We were shocked. The sand has moved!!! Who would have thought? I guess with the high tides and the time of year the sand is swallowed up by the ocean. We wave to so many people as we walk. We don't usually stop and visit. This particular morning we did stop and ask "The couple with the big dog" what was with the sand? They explained this always happens and it is just the time of year. The wide sand and the long walking areas will come back. If you look in the background you can see Niihau the private island. You have to be pure Hawaiian to go there or have to be invited. I am working on that.

ARP Intro....

We had great Sunday meetings today. Brother and Sister Cox, the director's of the Addiction Recovery Program who recruited us, came to our Sacrament meeting today and bore their testimonies. We hope that this will help to get our ARP program started here in Kekaha. We feel so excited for the start of this program. We are hoping this will open some doors to members who need help with addiction recovery, that they will realize our Heavenly Father loves them and He wants to help them. We hope their feelings of guilt, because of their addiction, will be be replaced by knowledge and a feeling of love and it will help them to start down the road of recovery and full fellowship.