Off to Oahu.

We have waited so long for this trip to Laie to go to the temple. We were originally going in June with the ward but got sick and had to postpone. We were up early, 5:00 a.m. to make sure we could make our 7:00 o'clock flight. We met the Cox's and only had a little trouble with our carry on. It seems Dad thinks he can smuggle a huge can of deodorant on board and not get caught. Last time it was a knife! It always looks so good especially when we are wearing our missionary tags. Anyway, we made it none the worse for wear. We had breakfast at McDonald's then on to them temple. We had been in 2008 just before it was renovated. It is absolutely beautiful. They also have added lots of new paintings. We had such a wonderful session and then ran into one of our favorite ZL's who was transferred over here. Perfect.

After our session we went over to the visitor's center to see one of the sisters from Kalaheo who had just been transferred. We visited with another senior couple who works their and then changed our clothes so we could head over to the PCC in comfort. We got a really good kama'aina (resident) rate $5o.oo. We misunderstood and thought it was for entrance to the PCC, dinner and the evening show. As it turned out it was just for dinner and the show. That was ok with us because we could shop at the gift shops in the front area and take our time. We only had a 2 hour wait until we could go into the new Garden Isle Buffet for dinner.

The Garden Isle Buffet has only been open about a week. We thought we were having the luau like we did the last time we had been here. We could get into the buffet starting at 4:30 p.m. We were walking around looking for it and met a man who knew several members of our ward. He even danced in the show with Bro. C. at the PCC when it first opened in 1963. He told us how great the buffet was and that it was excellent as far as food was concerned. My, oh my was he right! The food, the atmosphere, and the service were unbelievable. Ha: the breath of life was the evening show. It was amazing. The dancing, the music and the story made a perfect ending to a wonderful day.

Relief Society Meeting.

We had a really fun Relief Society meeting tonight. We learned to make lei's. I learned to make 2 different kinds. Both with yarn. It was fun and easy. One I used a straw to weave on and the other I used my fingers as a loom. I know the girls will really love to do this. I also learned to do some beading and made a key chain. It was a fun evening to work and talk story with the sisters of the ward. It was a small group so we could visit with everyone. Before we started on the classes we wrote letters to some sisters in our ward who are in nursing homes or are home bound to let them know we were thinking of them. It was a fun time. Oh, and did I mention a little "light" refreshment. Sandwiches, won tons, fruit salad and cupcakes. Take a plate home please! And we had POG (passion fruit, orange, guava) to drink. Yum.

Obedience.....

What an outstanding Zone! Here we are after Elder Cart's lesson displaying our Title of Liberty.
As you can see we are all ready to go and preach to the world. We are hoping for 115 baptisms this "Obedient October." That is for the whole Hawaii Honolulu Mission not just Kauai. Elder Cart (middle, kneeling) has just been made DL and he did a fine job with his lesson today. We really enjoyed it and learned a lot. He took over from Elder Austin, with the crutches. Elder Austin got side swiped during a flag football game on P-day. He was afraid he would have to go home early. He has just 5 weeks left. Luckily his leg was not broken. We had lunch at Costco and met a young family in the lunch line. I said to Wally, "I can tell they are LDS." So we struck up a conversation. They are from Cotton Wood Heights and got here 24 hours ago. We asked if they knew Eric and Holly. No. They and their 3 children are going to be living in Kalaheo. They have a year lease on their place and will see if they want to stay or not after that. He works from home and can do his job anywhere he said so they decided to try Hawaii. This is the 2nd couple now that we have met that has decided to try Hawaii out as a place to live. I would never have thought of that when I had a young family. How boring am I?

A Walk on the Beach.

We finished everything we had to do early today and so we decided to have lunch at home and then head down to our Kekaha beach. We usually spend 2 or so hours walking and sitting watching the water. We hadn't been down for an actual walk on the sand by the water for a long time. Wow! There is no beach anymore. Erosion has eaten away the sand. This is where the life guard station used to be and it has had to be moved down to MacArthur Park, right in front of our prayer rock, I might add. There used to be a gradual incline from the road on the sand down to the water and now the water comes right up to the road. Sometimes if the waves are rough enough they splash on the road. I hope everything gets back to normal so we can go down and sit on the sand and watch the whales in December. I wonder if it is just a seasonal and tidal thing and it will change again in the winter.

A Great Sunday.

What a beautiful Sunday today. All the meetings (we taught the Plan of Salvation to the Agemotu's) and lessons were wonderful. The Stake Presidency came down to visit our ward. The stake president makes me homesick for my kids. He reminds me of Jeffrey. In fact, they are even the same age. I've said before he is tall and dark etc. We were asked today by Tony Wong's family if Dad and I would give the prayers at his funeral. What an honor to be asked. We will be just coming back from the airport after going to the temple and don't know if we will be on time. We will be at the funeral though. We hadn't had a meeting with Lois this week and were wondering about that. Just as we were leaving the building she asked if we could come over that afternoon. It was my turn to cook and so we made the appointment for 4:30 so I could go home and get something ready. I decided on lasagna and was prepared a little bit, just in case. They loved the lasagna, salad, french bread and cookies. Everything turned out really well and we had a wonderful lesson on Tithing and Fast Offerings. Lois really is beginning to see the hand of the Lord in her life even though she hasn't been a member and it is really touching her heart. We all hope she will choose to be baptized soon. Pray for her will you?

Helping the Sisters.

Before I talk about our day. I thought you might like to see a Hawaiian snail. Yikes. They are all over the place. This one was waiting for us when we got home from our walk this morning. I put the quarter beside it so you could see just how big it is. After we got dressed and did our morning study we went over to help the sisters. Their towel rack had come off the wall and they needed a carbon monoxide detector put up. That was ordered by the Mission President. He wants every apartment to have one. Wally was glad he could help and just our luck it only included a screw driver and some of those expander things. The sister's were so happy to have it done they thanked us profusely. Wally said, " Well, as long as it just takes string, a screw driver, glue or duck tape I can do it." He is so humble.

Happy Birthday Diva!

Taylor is the hanai daughter of Howard and Blossom Young. She graduated and had her birthday at the same time. Like 1st year birthdays, graduations are another reason for BIG parties. This party had "Diva" theme that took 3 days to decorate for. Lots of family helped.

There was entertainment. Singing, music and slide show through out the evening. Of course, there was food. 26 different dishes were presented for us to feast on. The tables were set in a T shape so people could come down both sides and end up here where the bishop and his wife are finishing up. Oh, and the dessert table (4 in all) fills the corridor just outside the door you can see in the picture. Now you know why this party was from 5:00 until 9:00.

There wasn't enough room inside for everyone who came and so as we were leaving we found a group of ward members outside on the patio with there own tables set up. If we'd know we would have been out enjoying their company. We did a little hand shaking and introducing ourselves because some less active friends will come to family parties if not to church. Did I mention everyone, I mean everyone is related. Everyone is an uncle or an auntie. Oh, and just outside the fence line some tables were set up for the good old boys so they could have their "juice." Interesting. When we asked what the tables were for and if the party would continue outside people just laughed at us. We had no idea what was going on.....Would that happen in Utah?

Missionary Honor Night at Lydgate Park.

We went to a wonderful activity at Lydgate Park up in Kapa'a tonight. It was a Stake honor night for all the missionaries past and present from all the wards in the Kauai Stake. First, there was outstanding entertainment. Singing, dancing. guitar and ukulele playing. It is our favorite. The music is great and the running commentary is hilarious.

Of course, there is food. Always food! It is all so yummy. They even had mashed potatoes, ham and lasagna. Oh, the potatoes were to die for. I haven't had mashed potatoes in so long. By the way, there is always enough food so that you can take a plate home. Never, never will they run out of food or anyone go hungry at a Hawaiian party.

After the dinner they had a power point presentation from every ward. There was a picture of the missionary, map of their area and a picture of something from the country. It was so good. Wally and I want to do one of these for our ward when we get home. Or suggest it anyway. It was such and inspiring presentation and amazing to learn of all the service people have done.

Picking Up Sister Kamada.

We offered to take Sister Brown to the airport today and then pick up Sister Kamada. Sister Parkin would need a companion 'til Sister Kamada arrived and I was the solution! We had to be up a 4:00 to get ready and pick up Sister Brown at 5:00 to make it to the airport for her 6:00 o'clock flight back to the Visitor's Center. It will be her last transfer until she goes home. We were perfect in timing for everything. Alas, when we got to the sister's apartment it was pitch black. Hmmm. We called them. " Help! Our alarm didn't go off. Give us 5 minutes." Can you just imagine what that did to Dad's blood pressure? Anyway, we did get off and in just under 10 minutes. We made it to the airport and Sister Brown made her flight. Ahhh. Now all we had to do was wait about 45 min. for Sister Kamada. Dad went over to cell phone waiting and we went into the baggage area. We waited. The plane came a little early. Guess what? No Sister Kamada. We looked everywhere. We even found out there was another baggage area in the airport and we looked there. No Sister Kamada. We got worried and called the ZL's. Then we called the mission office, then the AP's. No Sister Kamada and she did get dropped off at the airport and on the flight, they thought. By the time we got through checking everywhere there was another flight coming in from Oahu in 10 minutes. We decided to wait and see what would happen. Yea, Sister Kamada arrived. I guess she missed her flight once she got in the airport in Oahu and they put her on the next flight over here. They didn't tell anyone and it was a good thing we waited around. She is such a sweet lady. She is from Japan just outside Tokyo. After picking her up we took Sister Parkin to a Dr's apt. and then to the drug store for a prescription. I won't go into details but it took us until 1:30 in the afternoon because it was a walk in clinic and we had to wait at the drug store. We were bushed by then and had to go home to have a nap. What an exciting day.

Apartment Checks and Anini Beach.

Today was apartment inspection day again. Six weeks sure comes around quickly. We visited, checked toilets ( only had to get after one group of elders) fans, garbages, floors, fridges and microwaves etc. Wally mentioned that I was the mother of 5 boys and told them about the sign "Our aim is to keep this bathroom clean. Your aim would be appreciated!" They know I really stick it to them. Today I watched while one group cleaned some things so I made sure they did it. I didn't want to have to come back. Of course, I left each of the Elder's and Sister's a pack of M& M's so they know we love them. You know cleanliness is next to godliness right? How can you live in chaos and have the spirit?

After all inspections were complete we met up with the Cox's and went up to Princeville to have lunch at a little Mexican cafe and then to try and find Queen's Bath. The food was delicious and we had a Lappert's ice cream for dessert as we walked around a cute little shopping center. Then off the find Queen's Bath. We were sure we could find it. Not so! We even asked for directions and still missed it. We decided we will regroup and try again November 2nd after the next transfers. We walked down this great little path onto a beach. It was beautiful and kind of hidden. It turned out to be Anini Beach and we could have driven to it but we went in by the north end trail. There is a reef just off the shore so it is great for snorkeling and the water is smooth and not too rough. The water at the north end is so blue and beautiful.

Sticker Shock!

Just wanted you to see what we pay for our morning raisin toast.

Our glass of milk.

And our peppers for stir fry! As I was taking these pictures the produce man, the dairy man and the bread man laughed and asked if we were from the mainland. I said," yes and I was sending these pictures to my children."

Surprise.

What a surprise for us and the ward today. We had 10 or 12 less active and non members in attendance. Could it be because we had our Primary Program? It was wonderful to see one sister I invited last week when I was visiting teaching. It would be so great for this ward if we could have this happen all the time and just fill this building with happiness and joy. We know it can happen. We just need to be bold, invite, be patient and love everyone.

A Full Day of Service...

First thing today the ward met to put in a cement pad at Sister Kua's cottage. The cement pad had to be put down so the stairs could be put in and the house painted. That will be done later this month. Wally feels like he can really be a help with that. Poor Sister Kua wants to come home but she can't till all the renovations are complete. She is staying with her daughter on Oahu and has no clue what is going on. Will she be surprised when she finally comes!

After the cement work was finished Brother Louis went and got his little back hoe and started cleaning out the over grown lot in front of our house. Our ward has gotten permission to have a garden there. When they got to work they found all kinds of junk had been tossed on the lot. They were worried about rats and centipedes too. Yuk! I live next to rats. Help! It was a full day. Poor Wall he is tired. Let's hope the BYU game gives him something to cheer about tonight.

Palaccio's Senior and Shenanigan's

Vince called us and asked us if we would like to teach his parents the missionary discussions. He is loving our scripture reading and missionary lessons as we are teaching Lois and wants his family to have this great blessing in their lives. We went over to visit Elizabeth and Frederico today. Frederico is bed ridden and can't speak. He hears and understands though. Elizabeth is his care giver and they live in a grandparent's apartment attached to their daughter's house. They are both in their late 70's. I gave the lesson all by myself this time. Wally was praying for me the whole time! It was lesson 1 The Restoration and Wally usually gives this one. He wanted me to have the experience and didn't tell me until we got their and then said "Sister Fairbanks will give the lesson today." Help! I think I did pretty well and Elizabeth really enjoyed all I talked about and answered any questions I asked. She is so sweet. We pray for them because I know Elizabeth's family is so important to her ( 11 children in all). Vince was the only one of a set of quints that survived when he was born (55 years ago). Being sealed together as a family is so important to him. Elizabeth could be baptized, I know, because her health would allow it but Frederico would have to have his work done at a later date. I think we will meet again next week! Brother Karratti came by this evening and asked what we were doing for dinner. Not so much we said. Maybe pbj's. Yum! "Why don't you come out to the base for dinner with us?" "It's prime rib buffet tonight." You don't have to ask us twice with an offer like that. We had heard it was delicious and hoped someone would ask us ( you have to be affiliated with the base) to go sometime. It lived up to everything we have heard. It was wonderful. We sat on the lanai out by the ocean and had a wonderful evening. We sat and visited and ate until it was too dark to see anymore. And the double fudge chocolate brownie with whipped cream was a perfect ending to a perfect day! Mmmmm.

Thursdays With Bro. C.

Today for our Thursday discussion with Bro. C we talked about the sugar plantations and sugar camps. There are 2 reasons these old sugar camps came to mind. Wally went visiting with the bishopric and they went to visit Sis. Nakahiki (Sister C's mom). Her husband worked at the McBryde Mill and they lived in a camp. Camp 7 I think. A camp consisted of 20 - 30 plantation cottages owned by the plantation. Usually the camps were ethnically (Filipino, Portuguese, Hawaiian) grouped. Camp 7 was Filipino. Sister Nakahiki remembers Vince Palaccio (we are teaching him and Lois) running around the camp when he was a little kid. He never new that and it was fun to hear her talk story about him when he was little. Europeans were brought over as managers of the mills and Germans were usually luna's or crew "boss". After the the sugar mills went out of business the plantation cottages were sold to people who worked for the plantation, if they could afford it, and moved to where ever they could find land to put it. Some are still in groups and are on dirt roads. There were 7 mills on Kauai; Manna, Kekaha, Waimea, McBryde, Koloa, Picala and Lihue. Slowly these mills are being taken apart and are disappearing. I have been trying to take pictures of them all but some places such as Picala are on private land owned by the Robinson's and I can't get down to them. I need to take some pictures of the plantation cottages too. They are little more than walls and tin roofs. I love the looks of them and the history they represent.

Watering, Palm Trees and Visiting Teaching.

Here are 2 pictures I thought everyone would enjoy. The first is a coconut palm I am growing from a coconut that fell off of a tree. It is really taller that it looks because I took the picture looking down.

Here is Wall hand watering the lawn because the water is set to go only every third day and he can't stand how dry it looks. That's our church in front of him. Our little house is right behind it. Well, I guess we just have to garden a little bit. You can't take it out of us because it comes naturally, it is our love and we have been doing it so long. It kind of gives us thinking time when we do it. I wanted a pot of geraniums for the porch but Wally put his foot down at that. Wall had time to himself today too. I have been made a visiting teacher and went today with my partner Uui Wright. It took us 4 hours and we had a great time visiting with our sisters. We have much bigger assignments here. I put in little missionary thoughts and commitments at each house and we felt like it was very successful.

Last Tuesday Before Transfers.

Yes, that's our group! The BEST Kauai has to offer. It looks like the 2 elders back left will be going. They are actually choking each other not kissing. Sister Brown (brown hair) goes back to the Visitor's Center for her last transfer. Elder Tiakia (see-a-key-a) front and center will go because he has been in a 3 some. He was told it would only be one transfer. They are an interesting group. It will be fun to see who will come and if we are right about who will go.

Monday, Monday.

We love Monday's when we get everything done and then head over to Salt Pond Beach to eat our Lappert's ice cream in a waffle cone and watch the waves. Lots of wind surfers and para sailors out today.

The same girl serves us at Lappert's every Monday. She is cute and friendly. This time she waved us off and said," see you next week." Later that evening the ZL's called to tell us they had a contact for us. It seems they came down to Lappert's later in the afternoon, to have a cone because the President bought everyone cones when the zone reached their "high water mark" baptisms. Hmmm. Anyway, they gave our girl the 5 minute Restoration lesson and she is interested. We have her number and will call tomorrow. These elders are so cute and there are not many who can resist them. It will be wonderful if this works out. I should be more Bold!

9/11 Rememberance

Today at 7:00 a.m. our ward participated in the nation wide remembrance of 9/11 by ringing our church bell for one minute. This bell is the original bell from the 1st chapel in Kekaha. We had such a nice meeting. It was all about Family History. The talks all made us stop and think about how lucky we are for all the blessing we have. Bro. Magaoway told a story about writing our own history's. He worked in the History Library in Salt Lake and was talking to another missionary there who was from Japan. The missionary served in the US Air Force. After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima he was sent into the city to see what needed to be done and what help could be given. He told of a Japanese General and his company all dressed in white carrying a samurai sword coming up to him and surrendering. Can you imagine that? The missionary told Bro. Magaoway he told the man he didn't want his sword and he and all his men could go home to their families. That he would have medicine, food, water and what ever else they needed brought to them right away. This story was never told to anyone or recorded anywhere. Bro. Magaoway was able to write it down and give it to the man so that he could have it to give his family and for generations to come. What an experience! The meeting was amazing. I really don't have anything like that in my life but I guess I had better start on my own history so my family will know a little bit more about me. Is anyone interested? Do you think I can talk Wally into doing it too?

Cub-O-Ree !!

We had so much fun today. We were volunteers for the Cub-O-Ree out at the Barking Sands Missile Base. It was put on by the Navy and was an obstacle course. We were part of the volunteers helping with 85 boys between the ages of 8-11. Our ward Primary was in charge and I must say it went off without a hitch. The Primary Pres. is relieved she won't have to do it again for 11 years. Do you think she might be released by then? It was wonderful. There were groups of scouts from all over the island. Not all the groups were LDS. I had the chance in fact, to talk to a gentleman, who thought I was a Chaplin, and tell him a little about what we believe. He thought it was neat that the church used scouting as a program for young men. It teaches such good things he said and that is really important now days. Wally and I helped with the lunch for the volunteers. The best surprise of all came for the boys when the fire department at the base brought out their brand new trucks for the scouts to look inside and climb all over. I will tell you though that we were exhausted when the day was over!

Cleaning the Church and Christopher.

This afternoon we went to Lihue to do a little shopping. We needed a few things and didn't have an appointment until this evening. We had to be at the church at 5:00 p.m. because we helped the Mecham's clean the church this week. After we cleaned the church we had an appointment with a man the Elders from Kapaa have asked us to meet and teach the lessons to. He is a "colorful" character! He has met with the missionaries before but doesn't remember what he was taught. He has concerns with alcohol and I am afraid it has effected his thinking a little bit. He is taking the Addiction Recovery Lessons also. The first one was Wednesday and he will continue with those. The Cox's will teach him in Lihue because he can meet there on his way home from work. He seemed to enjoy our lesson tonight. He says he liked the way we taught. Very slowly and very distinctly. Dad repeated everything a few times to make sure he understood what he was saying. He says he will be back because he needs to make some changes in his life. We hope to see him next week. We have made an appointment, same time, same place. We'll see!!!

Bro. C, Andrew and Lois.

To day Wally and Bro. C worked on the ukulele and some new songs, Pearly Shells and an old Don Ho favorite Tiny Bubbles. Boy oh boy are we getting old because I am sure if you are reading this and your aren't 64 or older you don't even know what I am talking about. We always have such a good visit with him and enjoy ourselves so much. We have a true friendship with him. We went on home after our visit and had some lunch. As I was looking out the window I noticed Andrew slowly walking up the street carrying his Book of Mormon. We went out to meet him and he said, " We go church. Family make mess and I no clean up." He was upset and didn't want to clean up their mess but didn't want to miss our meeting. We felt so good about that and said it would be fine with us if we went over to the church for our reading time. He is so sweet. When we go to his house we always notice that he has raked up the yard around the table where we sit. He cleans off the table and tries to make it as nice for us in the yard as he can. He really shows us a lot of respect when he does that and this time it made him a little ticked and he didn't want us over in the mess they left. After our meeting with Andrew we went over to our lesson with Lois. For dinner we had chicken, oven fried potatoes (oh I haven't had them in so long) salad, sushimi (raw fish) asparagus and corn on the cob. The most Americanized food we have had in a long time. It was yummy. I gave the lesson on the Book of Mormon with "flip chart" pictures I have created. It really helps I find, that we have visuals and my teaching background doesn't let me down. Lois loved the lesson and then she said the prayer for the second time. We can see such a blossoming in her. She loves the lessons and seems to feel so at peace. We aren't rushing her and we told her she can let us know when she wants to be baptized. Cross your fingers. Vince asked us tonight if we will be willing to teach his parents the lessons. They are Catholic. They are older and his dad has had a stroke. What a compliment to ask us to do that. We meet with them next Friday.

Dist. Meeting, Bathroom Floor and Dinner!

What a great day! We found out Monday night that our bathroom floor is being replaced this morning. We had to get up at 5:45 a.m. so we could be dressed and ready to leave by 7:00 a.m. when Bro. Young would be here to start work. He would tear up everything in the bathroom so we needed to be ready to go to our Dist. Meeting by then. We decided we would do our studying over in Lihue. It takes about an hour to get there so we would have an hour to study before our meeting. As we were getting ready to leave we got a call from Sister Akita asking if we would come for a visit and dinner this evening. How nice of them. 7:00 it is. Our meeting turned out to be a fun one. We practiced one minute gospel principle lessons. Which means you have to be able to teach a whole gospel concept simply and in 1 minute. It sure helps us "old folks" to learn things like this. We did pretty well and enjoyed it. We had 2 traveling elders here. One of the was Elder Mouala who was Kapaa when we first came. We were so excited to see him and then all of us went to lunch at, good old, Costco. Just like old times. We love it when we go there and see people we would like to visit and can see them there and it doesn't seem so threatening to them. Dad and I are so scary, don't you know. We did a little bit of shopping and got gas and then headed back to Kekaha. It rained hard on the way home. But when we got to Kekaha no such luck. I never rains here. But! Our floor was finished. Yea!! We love it. It is beautiful and not sticky any more. Our dinner at Akita's was fun too. We had a great visit and feasted on fish their son the professional fisherman caught. Grey Snapper with a creamy hot sauce. Oh' my mmmmm. Wish you were here. Dessert was banana bread I made with coconut pineapple ice cream. What a perfect day!

The Sleeping Giant For Labor Day!

Here is the Sleeping Giant. It is like Timpanogos only it is the shape of the giants head. It is a famous hike done by everyone who comes here. Our missionaries do it at least every 2 transfers so they all get a chance to climb it at least once. We have never gone because we have seen pictures of them going up and all the craziness. When the Karratti's said "hey, you can do it" we thought we would give it a try. It was a great hike, about 5 miles at least and very beautiful when we got to the top and looked at the valley below. We met several people along the way who walk up every morning for their exercise. Hmmmm.

Here we are at the finish line. We made it! Coming down was hard because I forgot how slippery steep inclines are on the way down. Wall said I looked like an old lady shuffling along. How embarrassing. We had a great time though and tomorrow we will tell the elders that we are quite the hikers. LOL. Our walking every morning for an hour really helped I think because it wasn't that bad. It was worth it!! After the hike we had a B-B-Q and a fun visit with Denise's family. They live at the base of the mountain. What a beautiful place to live.

Great Lesson and Dinner with the Karratti's

We had a great lesson with Ane and Audry today. We taught part of the restoration and showed the Joseph Smith video. It was a great meeting. Ane knows a lot of scriptures by heart. He said he grew up reading the bible and memorizing scriptures. It was amazing that as the video went on and was quoting different scriptures from the bible Ane was saying them right out loud at the same time. We all felt the spirit and Ane even said the closing prayer. Ane and Audry love the young adult class taught by the bishop's wife, Sister Akita so they attend that every other week and they are being fellow shipped right along with the lessons. We think they feel at home already! Right after church the Karratti's (he is the former bishop and now mission leader) asked us over for a simple put together after church lunch. We were happy to say "sure we would love that!" They invited their son Enoka (E for short) and daughter-in-law Denise (we read to her 4th grade class on Mondays) over too. We had such a fun time cutting up veggies, mangoes and stuff for salad and then cooking ahi and ono to eat. Wally and Bro. K. played the ukulele and sang. Wally learned a new song " You'll never find another kanaka (native) like me." As we were leaving they asked us to hike the Sleeping Giant tomorrow. We are excited because missionaries do it all the time but we have never been with them. Now we can finally tell them we have done.

Sad!

We went for a walk on the beach for a little while this afternoon to ease our troubled hearts. We received a call from one of our dear investigators and they have decided to not have the lessons anymore. It is hard to have that happen when you grow to love someone and feel you are sharing those things you know to be true and that will bring happiness and joy through good times and bad. We all have our agency and maybe the seeds have been planted and when the time is right things will change. Someone once said "It won't be easy but it will be worth it."