Ni'ihau Thursday!

We went to Read the Book of Mormon with Andrew today and met his aunts. They were sweet.
Remember I told you about my Ni'ihau earrings? Well, here is a picture of 6 different types of Ni'ihau shells. These shells have been picked over, cleaned, and have holes put in them so they can be made into leis, bracelets or earrings. Can you see how small they are? The tools at the top are used to make the holes in the shells so they can be strung. It is very time consuming and lots of shells find their way to the ground because they broke when being punched or clipped. It took lots of time and several family members to collect these shells. The profits from their sale will be shared with the family.

Here is Lama. She is making a choker lei. It will be 9 inches long. She is using the Pikake patten for this lei. We saw some like this one at a trading post and they can cost upwards of $500. In the Lihue Museum there are pictures of Lama, her mother and her sister collecting shells on Ni'ihau years ago. A famous photographer took the pictures. Lama's son works at the museum and she told me he is a talented lei maker. His patterns are beautiful.

This is Caroline. Her task is punching the shells getting them ready for stringing. You have to have really steady hands she says! At the bottom in the left hand corner you can see she has strung a single strand of shells. She will string 2 more and hook them together. This lei will be a longer one probably 36 inches. We saw some of these that were priced upwards of $3000. These ladies said they would make me one if I wanted. I would have to pre order and they said it would be cheaper because there would be no middle man! What do you think? Should I go for it?

Missionary Apartment Checks.

This picture is for Jana. This is Elder Menlove her cousin. He has been the District Leader in the Kapaa District. He got transfer papers and is going to Honolulu. He is being made a Zone Leader there. He is the cutest guy. Lots of fun and a great leader. Anyway, we did our first time as missionary apartment inspectors. Wall told the Elders I was really strict and I said make sure your bathrooms are really clean. They all did a wonderful job! We were so proud of them. They must have been nervous. I gave them M&M's as treat for good work. This picture is taken in Anahola (farthest north) right in front of King Kong Mountain. It is absolutely beautiful up in that area.

After inspections we met with the Cox's who live in Kapaa. They are the directors of the Addiction Recovery Program on the island. They have recruited us for Kekaha and have become good friends. We told them we were coming up that way and they said let's go for lunch. Can't pass up something like that so here is a picture from our table at the Olympic Cafe over looking the main street in Kapaa. It was beautiful with the sky so blue and the clouds puffy and white. Of course, the weather was a perfect 82 with the breeze blowing. It reminds me of downtown Park City. That type of a tourist town. It was a great day, work and fun combined. It couldn't have been better.

Oh, My Slippah's!

We decided to take a walk down on the beach today. We hadn't been right down on the sand and putting our feet in the water for a long time so off we went. We love the beach and can't do it often enough for me. We walk along the beach for as long as we can and then if there is a spot to sit and watch the water and listen to the roar of the waves we do. The water is up really high this time of year so we took our chances. We finally found a little shelf of sand and sat down. We were out of the way of the waves or so we thought! It was mesmerizing! The ocean is amazing! I put my flip flops down and sat on them so I wouldn't get too sandy. All of a sudden the sand I was sitting and gave way. Up I jumped up, a wave came in and one of my flip flops was pulled out with the water. I yelled and Wally went running after it. My Hero! He had to give up though because the water got too deep and he didn't want to get wet. "Well", he said " Your flip flop is on it's way to Tahiti!" I was so sad, those were my favorite blue ones. We continued on with our walking on down the beach and talking about it when all of a sudden I looked up and there on the sand, not in Tahiti, was my flip flop! It had gotten caught in a little rip tide and then was spit up a few yards on down the beach! Yea! We couldn't believe it, we thought they were gone forever!!!

Wonderful Thursdays.

We had the most wonderful meetings today. We miss Brother C but know he will be back next week. We are anxious to hear about his trip to visit his family in Wyoming. Today we visited the Simola's and gave a great lesson on Tithing. I made a file folder activity game for the children, Rachel and Pili, we counted coins and filled out tithing envelopes. It turned out really well. Our next visit was with "Uncle Andy". We read Helaman 14 and 15. He told us he is reading what we read in Hawaiian in English after we finish in the afternoon. Yea! We also had a great visit with Vince, Lois and Bonnie. We read Alma 32. The wonderful chapter on faith. When we were talking Vince made the wonderful analogy of comparing the Holy Ghost as member of our team. He said sometimes when we are in the "dugout" we put him on the bench and leave him there instead of taking him with us all the time. It really touched my heart and made me think. The Holy Ghost is the most important member of our team and we need make sure we "take" him with us always. After the lesson Wally and Vince jammed on the Ukuleles while we got dinner ready. It was yummy. My, they treat us so well. I know you are wondering why I put this rainbow shot on this post. We have lots or full rainbows here. They are so vibrant I wish I could have captured its beauty. It reminds me that Heavenly Father is aware of us and is always near. What a great day it was!

Ni'ihau Earings.

These are my Ni'ihau shell earrings! Aren't they beautiful? Ni'ihau shells are very precious and expensive. They are very tiny and it takes forever to collect just a few. Uncle Andy told us that when he was a little boy his mother would take him out to the beach to collect shells and she would give him a baby food jar to collect them in. He would work for hours and just fill the bottom of the jar. Ni'ihau shell leis can cost thousands of dollars. The shells wash up on the same beaches at the same times of the year. That's why sometimes it takes years to make a lei. They come in certain colors and luster's. The reason I was so lucky to get a pair of earrings is because we went to teach a lesson and got dissed. I was feeling bad so Wally said lets stop at the Hawaiian Trading Post. He knew I wanted some earrings rather than a lei and we found these. I just love them. Besides being beautiful they didn't cost us thousands. Wally wanted me to get a bracelet too but the sales lady talked us out of it because they are so fragile if I wasn't very careful the shells would break easily.

Our Group Shot Before Transfers.

What a bunch of crazies! We have the best group elders and sisters. We have lots of fun together and also work very hard. The zone leaders and the district leaders trade off doing our Tuesday meetings and training. They are such a remarkable group of young men. We learn so much. Elder Watson (bottom right), Elder Berry (next to me), and Elder Menlove (middle left) will be leaving. We get so attached to them it is hard to see them go. The sisters are sad Elder Menlove is going because he is such a funny kid. Cute too. Jana, that is 2 of your cousins we have worked with. Can't believe what a small world it is.

Salt Pond Beach and Lapperts Ice Cream.

I love P-days! After we get our studying, house cleaning and laundry done we usually eat lunch and then go for a drive. Wally surprises me. It's always fun. This Monday we went to Salt Pond Beach. It is in Hanapepe out past the thrift store, dump and Veteran's Cemetery. You have to take a long road that you think is going nowhere and then you come out on this wonderful family beach area. It has a reef that makes it's own lagoons and the waves are are gentle and just right for families to swim in. The water isn't too deep and kids and adults love it.
It is so perfect to sit here and just listen to the waves roll in and watch the beautiful blue sky just touch down on the water. This is heaven. Ok kids, are you convinced? Don't you want to come on over and spend some time with us? We'll do missionary work first then go to the beach alright?

After all that magic sitting at the beach we head for home. But first, we stop by Lappert's for a scoop of Chocolate Macadamia Nut ice cream (our favorite). Ymmm. It is so good. It is worth the $2.95. It is twice as much if you add a chocolate dipped waffle cone. I know I tried it once. The little dive where we get our scoop is actually the factory that makes all the ice cream they sell. It is a little tin shack and it is hard to believe it is the place that makes all those delicious flavors.

Happy Father's Day to All...

What a wonderful Father's Day we had. Or should I say Wally had. First of all, he was given a hand made Plumeria lei complete with a kiss from Sister Fuertes. It was so cute. She whispered to him," Your kids asked me to give this to you." Her husband is the one who gave me my lei for Mother's Day. The meetings were great and full of wonderful, funny and touching stories of father's both from "the olden days" and now. I taught Relief Society. It turned out pretty well. Everyone listened and commented so it must have made sense. Then came the best activity of the day. The thing we love the most about Hawaii. That's right you guessed it. During announcements in sacrament meeting everyone including visitors was invited to our ward Father's Day lunch buffet right after the block.

Here we all are in the cultural hall getting ready to get in line to fill our plates. It was a yummy full on Hawaiian food buffet. The food was absolutely wonderful. Of course we ate too much. But is was soooo delicious. I couldn't eat the raw opihi or the octopus but everything else was the BEST. We are so wishing we could bring home this wonderful tradition with us. The gospel that binds us together along with good friends, good food and lots of love.

Not One But Two...

We have been so lucky this weekend! There have been 2 baptisms in Lihue. We were able to attend both of them. Last night Kathryne Ann Tapia was baptized by Elder Watson. Her sister Sandy has been a member only about 2 months. She gave the closing prayer at Lisa's baptism last week. Kat as she is affectionately called, started taking lessons just 3 weeks ago and decided the time was right. It was a beautiful meeting and the spirit was so strong. Sandy told us they have now sent the names of their mother, sister and daughter-in-laws to missionaries. What great missionaries they are becoming themselves. The joy, peace and happiness they have found is contagious. Joey (Speedy) Camelo was baptized this afternoon. It was also a great meeting. The thing we found out, last minute, was he didn't tell his mother-in-law he was being baptized. He wanted to surprise her. She came to the Relief Society room thinking she was being honored for something. In came Joey dressed in white and she just cried and cried. It was so touching. President Stennett (1st coun. St. Pres.) spoke for a minute and said Joey has been a member in spirit for a long time and just needed to make it official. It was wonderful. And guess what? True to Hawaiian practice we had a full on lunch buffet afterward. Yumm! Full heart, full tummy what an outstanding day.

Wild Thing.......

I know you are expecting some Thurs. with Brother C but he is in Wyoming visiting relatives for 2 weeks. Between Brother C. and Uncle Andy, Thursdays are our favorite day for visiting with friends. We learn so much about history and traditions of Hawaii with both men. Uncle Andy is pure Hawaiian and is from Ni'ihau a private island. There are only 200 people living there and it has no running water or indoor plumbing. It is primitive living. You also have to be invited to go there. Uncle Andy tells us all about his childhood there and about collecting Ni'ihau shells on the beach. That is another story I will have to tell sometime. Anyway, this is a picture of Bacon. Bacon is Uncle Andy's pet wild boar. He got Bacon when he was a piglet and will raise him until he is too big to keep. He will get big too. Andy feeds him only the best barley and corn. He isn't a year old yet. We asked him if his family would think of using Bacon for food. He said "No." He couldn't do that after having him for a pet. I will just give him away. You should see the picture I have of Bacon with his head on Andy's feet and letting Andy rub his belly. You would think he is a dog not a wild thing.

Help! I Have the Dread Gomboo...

Yep, this is me taking the day off in bed. I never get sick but this time I caught Wally's junk. I can't believe it! The cough is killing me. I am going to have to find a chiropractor too, because I have coughed so hard and stressed myself out it has pinched a nerve in my left leg. Ouch! If you look at the night stand you can see small bottles of essential oils, they are big over here, for curing just about anything. The Relief Society Pres. brought them over to try to help both of us get better. You rub them on your temples, chest, behind your ears and breathe them in. I must say they are very soothing. Some of the scents are lavender, eucalyptus, lemon, peppermint, On Guard (which is a blend).

Lisa's Baptism.

This is Lisa and her daughter Chelsea. Vince used to date Lisa and introduced her to the gospel. She has studied the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants on and off for years. She hasn't been interested in talking to the missionaries for some reason. Sister Brown and Sister De Arton are new to the area and decided to call her. That made all the difference in the world and Lisa started taking the lessons from them. Some how she related to the sisters and it only took 3 weeks and she was ready to be baptized. Chelsea is taking the lessons too and we hope she will be choose to be baptized soon. Giving lei's after baptism is a custom over here. Lisa had so many she could hardly turn her head. They were beautiful. President and Sister Dalton came over for the baptism and took us out to lunch for my birthday. They also gave us a new assignment. The sisters are so busy in Kalaheo we will now assist them in giving lessons up there. Our first priority will still be Kekaha but we will be able to help the sisters too.

This is the font Lisa was baptized in. Most fonts are outside in a courtyard over here. We are not used to that. It was so beautiful, the weather, the courtyard, the flowers. What a wonderful day. The spirit was so strong. It was a blessing to be there.

Sand Castle.

This sand castle was built and carved by a gentleman from the Kalaheo Ward. He works for Layton Construction (from Utah). He used beach sand from the other side of the island. It is more course and easier to pack and carve. Our sand on this side is too fine to do anything like this. This was carved during the "Kalaheo's Got Talent" night. I missed it then so I was glad it was outside the building when we went to ARP this evening.

Bronchitis...

Well, it was District Meeting today. Our Zone Leaders do such a fantastic job. We learn so much. Our theme today was REPRESENT. Who and what do we represent? It was wonderful. After the meeting we went over to Ele'ele to the Kauai Clinic to see Dr. Penner. Wally's lungs sounded like somebody crinkling cellophane every time he breathed last night. Neither one of us could sleep. Dr. says Wally has bronchitis. Wally told him his son, the general doctor, has prescribed a Z pac and that he had started taking it yesterday. The doctor said he would have done the same thing but he also gave Wally Prednisone and an inhaler. The Relief Society President in our ward sells essential oils and she gave some to Wally to try. Lots of people use them here. They are supposed to cure all kinds of things. Guess where their headquarters is? Orem. We sure hope something works!

Z Pak from Dr. J

Wally has a cold! Can you believe it? It is that time of year. Every 6 months or so he has to have a doozy. He started last Friday but has gotten steadily worse. We called Jon and he prescribed a Zpak for Wally. We may call the doctor if he doesn't do any better soon. Believe me it is not a fun way to spend our P-day!

Missionary Work and the Young Women.

Here is another picture of our young women at camp. When I went to take this picture they were about ready to come home. Can you tell? Anyway, one of the leaders asked me if I would teach the lesson on missionary work on Sunday. We had a great lesson, if I do say so myself. As their camp theme had been Good Works I decided to talk about what Good Works it would be for them to share the gospel with their friends who weren't members and also some less active girls they might know. We all decided what better thing could we do than share the gospel with those we love. We could bring peace, joy and the love of the Savior to them. It sure brought back the old memories of being in Young Women at home and teaching 6th grade. I have been so blessed!

Kukui'ula Village.

On Saturdays Wally usually takes us to lunch at some place fun. We take little site seeing trips and he surprises me. This week we went to the Kukui'ula Village shopping center in Poipu. It has lots of little shops and we thought we would spend a little time there. We first went to Bubba's for a "world famous" hamburger and fries. I asked for lettuce and tomatoes on mine and they said we don't recommend that, just eat the burger the way we have been fixing them for 50 years. Hmmm. There was a bus boy who was about 90 and he asked me for my left over fries so he could feed the birds. Those birds were just waiting for their treat. It was fun to watch them. The picture above is outside the Lappert's Ice Cream Parlor. Lappert's is made here in Hanapepe. It is an island specialty. We stepped inside Lappert's for a cone and the RAIN started. Wow! Thunder and lightning you wouldn't believe. It poured buckets. Usually the rain stops after a few minutes but this time it kept on. We waited for about 1/2 an hour and then decided we better head for home. We were soaked by the time we got to our car. Guess what? The girl that was scooping ice cream told some people that it was probably island wide. We knew better. It hardly ever rains in Kekaha. And sure enough when we got home not a trace.

Brother and Sister Cox.

Meet Brother Ken and Sister Jan Cox. We have become good friends. They are the directors of the churches ARP or Addiction Recovery 12 Step Program here on Kauai. The program is very successful on other islands but is just getting started here. The Cox's have been here a year and are going to stay on at least another year to see that the program gets a good hold on Kauai. They teach 6 lessons a week, some of them in the prison and at outreach programs. Brother Cox met us one day at the Lihue chapel and said he had had a revelation that we should teach the program in Kekaha. We thought about it, then said we would. Sister Cox has been an addict most of her adult life but has been clean for about 7 years now. She is amazing. She is kind, loving and lots of fun. She has such a testimony of the program and is really a great facilitator. Because of their work at the prison we will be recommended by parole officers and will be able to sign off attendees paper work. The focus of the program is forgiveness through the atonement of Jesus Christ and we are able to teach and share the gospel if people ask us to. We had a gentleman from Star Valley, Wyoming attend last week because he was here on vacation and went to Sacrament Meeting and saw a posting for our meeting and he came on Thursday night. We hope we will be able to make a difference for people clear down here on the west end.

Thursdays With Bro. C.

We learned about the hula today. This is a picture of Ti leaves. Ti leaves were used to make grass skirts. They have long stems and so they were either stripped into fine pieces (grass) and then tied to a rope or "belt" and tied around the waist or they could have been left as a whole leaf and made into a skirt.


These girls are wearing grass skirts over their costumes. Costumes are very colorful and covered with flowers. Not a lot of grass skirts are worn now, mostly skirts or dresses. Dancers also always were flowers in their hair, leis and bands of flowers or leaves on their wrists and ankles. Did you know that originally the hula was performed by men? It was a temple rite. It was used to tell a history as well as the story of their exploits, fishing trips, battles etc. Later on, one of the Kings of Hawaii decided that women should do the hula because it would be more sensual! We love to watch the hula performances. The music is wonderful and the dances are so graceful. It is just beautiful.

Girls Camp.

Wally and Brother Inouye were priesthood security for girls camp today. The camp was at the Kekaha Boat House. It is a house with 2 bedrooms and a bathroom down by the boat harbor. It is set on a beautiful lot overlooking the ocean. You can't swim in the ocean though because it is at the mouth of the harbor and the water is murky there. Sharks love murky water. They had porta-potties brought in but they did have hot showers. Something Camp Shalom doesn't have. Camp was from Tuesday to Friday morning. It is a beautiful grassy area with palm trees all around. The ward camping areas are around the edges.

In the middle there is an awning area for crafts and this awning is the eating area. 3 wards get together at a time to provide the meal for the girls and leaders. On Thursday night it is skit night and the parents bring pot luck for everyone to share. The Bishops come too and they have testimonies after the skits. The camp theme this year was good works and our ward color was yellow (let your light so shine). Wally had a great time being security. They fed him and he could do his favorite thing and that is talk story with everyone.