Ward Christmas Luau....

I found out something interesting today when I was making posters to advertise the Ward Christmas Party. I was at the Bishop's house using Maxine's art supplies and I was going to put dinner down and the Bishop told me it was a luau not a dinner. "What?" I said. "Yes, whenever there is Hawaiian food it is a luau." he said. Hmmm, that means we have been to about 15 luaus since we have been here and we never even knew it. We thought there had to be hula girls, ukuleles, fire dancers and Hawaiian singing to be a luau. Not so. Just food, fun and great company and there you go you have a luau!

Elders Cart and Smith are dying!

Elder Cart, District Leader and Elder Smith, Zone Leader both gave their dying testimonies in Zone Conference today. They will go home Dec. 14th. They are the most wonderful young men. We have so enjoyed working with them. Elder Cart has been here for 6 months. He serves in Kapa'a. Elder Smith was here in Kalaheo as a greenie 2 years ago. He was here for 3 months that time around. In May he was transferred back here to Lihue as our Zone Leader. He loves Kauai and has wanted to finish his mission here. He got his wish! That makes a total of 10 1/2 months on this island. He says Kauai is the best place to be. You can see the blankets they are holding. They have the Hawaii Honolulu Mission motto embroidered on them and was a Christmas gift to each of us from President and Sister Dalton. Love you Elders! Come see us sometime when we get home....

Happy Thankgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a very nice day. We were invited to the Barber's. He is a member of the Stake High Council. They also invited the Zone leaders and the sisters from Kalaheo. We had a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings. Can I tell you how thankful I am for mashed potatoes? Mmmmm. We laughed and had a fun time with the youngsters. They each had 2 more dinners to go to. They were groaning when they left here. Can you imagine? One was great for us. We came home full and happy and watched a Halmark Christmas movie before we went to bed. Perfect ending to a wonderful day.

Visiting Teaching and Dinner at the Base!

Not much is going on for the next 2 or 3 days because it is Thanksgiving. I did go out and do some Visiting Teaching today to 3 sisters. We had a great time. It is so much fun getting to know every one in the ward a little more personally. We have been invited by Bev and Bud to dinner tonight because we couldn't come tomorrow. We had dinner out on the berm right by the ocean. We had fillet mignon, baked potatoes with broccoli salad. It was yummy. Dessert was the best. Fresh berry pie with ice cream. We had such a good visit. We sat and watched the sunset until it was dark and we couldn't see anymore. We were hoping to see a whale. One has been spotted at Ele ele. They really like it out here by Ni'ihau. No such luck, maybe soon.

Full Day!

Of course, we had to go out to Salt Pond Beach to listen to the waves and eat our ice cream today. We just got our 10th stamp so that means next Monday one of us gets a free one. Yummm. It was a busy day though. We read to the 4th graders at 9:00 this morning and then came home and cleaned the house. Brother Karratti called and said he had two requests for lessons later in the afternoon. How did we feel about that? And could one of them be at our house. We were so happy to be able to do that. We taught our first lesson to Ane and Audry and it was good then we came straight home and taught a less active young man who has been feeling the spirit in his life. He has been praying and reading the Book of Mormon. We asked him how he wanted us to help him. He said he wanted to read about faith. Of course, we chose to read Alma 32 the great faith chapter and invited him to come to church on Sunday. He said he would. He is a great young man. We taught his sister-in-law for a while. We are praying mightly for him. He is a returned missionary and he knows where his happiness lies.

His Lessons are Moving Right Along.

What a great blessing it is for us to be teaching Evan! We are learning so much about faith and testimony. Evan is so lucky to have his family in our ward. Such support and love. Uncle Tom is the family patriarch and Auntie K is his daughter and Evan's great aunt. He is doing really well with the Word of Wisdom and accepts everything we teach. He told us today he goes home and teaches our lessons word for word to his fiance. WoW. Does that make us make sure we teach everything we need to and make sure he understands everything we say. We are so thankful for Dusa and Uncle Tom who speak fluent Hawaiian to translate and make sure we are getting it right. Oh, how we love the gospel and can see how it influences lives for good.

What a Beautiful Day!

Petra and Roy got married today up at the golf course looking over the ocean. It was absolutely beautiful! She asked Wally and me to help decorate early this morning. It was raining to beat the band. We couldn't believe. I always rains in Kalaheo as the saying goes. We went ahead and decorated keeping in mind that she might have to be married under the pavilion but we were prepared for outside too. We finished in time to go home and quickly change our clothes and head back up there. When we arrived the sun came out and the wind stopped blowing hard and it was beautiful. Bishop performed the ceremony (he told us he would be remembered as the marrying bishop) and did a lovely job. We are so happy for them. We will be sad to see them leave in January for the mainland. They are dear friends. Oh, and there was a yummy luau afterward.

Tadd and Teresa are back!

Our Canadian friends are back. They come every year to stay in their little green house for 5 months from November 1st until March 31st. Then they go home for 7 months. I think it has to do with keeping their residency and medical insurance. I remember when Gertie had to do that. We walked over after teaching a lesson just to see if they were ready for company and were settled in. They were so glad to see us they invited us right in for soup and dessert. We had a great visit and were so glad to see them. We plan on walking on the beach with them one of these days. We are going all the way down to the base. It will take about 2 hours. We can't wait. Poor Teresa just cried when she saw how much of our beach has been eaten away. Let's hope is comes back soon.

Congrats Evan!

Today was a wonderful day of meetings with our Thursday favorites! We had a great visit with Brother C. this morning and then with Andrew this afternoon. We are almost finished with the Book of Mormon and Andrew wants to make sure we are going to start over again when we are finished. He really enjoys meeting with us. At 5:00 we went back over to Bro. C's for our lesson with Evan. He was very happy to tell us that he is getting married on Christmas Eve and Bishop Akita is going to marry him and Reenie. They are getting married at the Plantation Cottages under the Banyan tree and then having a dinner celebration at the neighborhood center. We were so excited to hear that. He also said he is planning to be baptized on December 31st. He will never forget these two anniversaries will he? We are so excited for him and to see him moving forward with his life.

The People We Meet...

This isn't a regular post. I wanted to keep track of all the town's people we have come to know because we walk in the morning at 6:15. Most of them start earlier.
Papaya Man - he shares papayas with us.
Filipino Ladies - they tried to teach us how to say Hi in Tagalog. Too hard. They laugh at us.
Smiley and Friend - happy morning person.
Japanese Couple - they live in elderly housing, so sweet and always smiling.
Red Truck - lady who meets friends at the track.
White Haired Jogger - our age and puts us to shame.
Haole's with the German Shepherd - they always walk on the beach.
Man with the fussy dog.
Cul-d-sac Lady.
Lihue Bus Driver - he always says hi and honks at us.
Park Keeper and his dog.
Grandma Shuffler - sweetest little lady, are so afraid she is going to fall.
Niihau Ladies - one always wears a BYU Hawaii shirt. We try to ask her about it but she can't understand us.
Whack the Dog Lady - she made Dad and me walking sticks to protect us from all the pit bulls around here.
Japanese Lady with the little white dog.
Haole Couple with 2 dogs.
Uncle Shorty - 84 a member of our ward. He asked his friend who are those haole's? Are they waving at you or me? Finally he realized it was us. I didn't recognize you in those clothes he told us. We laughed and laughed.

All these people are so sweet and always wave and say hi and good bye to us. If we are late or not there they wonder where we are. They all know where we live and some knew when we moved. We are not strangers here and we feel lucky to have such friends.

Merry Christmas!

Amazing isn't it? Here it is November 15th and it is time for our second Zone Christmas picture. We had just arrived for last years picture. This picture will go in the Christmas Zone letter with the pictures of all the Zones in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. It will be sent to the families of all the elders and sisters. The sun was shining and the trade winds were blowing and it was 80 degrees. Ahhh, remember this next November Wally reminds me. We had a wonderful Zone meeting today. Each of us had to give a 2 minute talk on one of the attributes of Christ. Wally had diligence and I had obedience. I took oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for our weekly treat. We hope to reach our "high water mark" this month. That means that we will have 10 baptisms on Kauai. What a great group!!

Evan's Testimony.

The most amazing thing happened today! Evan bore his testimony in Fast and Testimony Meeting. He asked Sis. C. to go up with him for moral support. He told the ward he had been searching out different religions and now he has finally "come home." Here is home he told us, I like to be here. He spoke in English and in Hawaiian. I wish we could have understood all he said. We did feel his spirit. Sometimes I am a little hesitant about bearing my testimony but he wasn't nervous at all. We gave him the Plan of Salvation lesson in Sunday School and committed him to baptism. We gave him the date of around Christmastime. He said yes and is anxious to get on with things.When we asked about the Word of Wisdom he laughed and said he drinks hot cocoa now and is working hard on quitting smoking. He told us he has had some trying experiences this week but he is being strong and is doing ok. We told him that we are all praying for him everyday and he said he was too. He is so humble and sweet, we know great things are to come for him and through him. I know he is one of the reasons we came here. How thankful I am for another great blessing. We can see the hand of the Lord in our lives and know having patience and faith are so important.

Happy Birthday Kamalu!

Adelaide is Kamalu's grandmother and she is in our ward. She invited us to his 1st Birthday Party. It was a luau. We went with the Wrights. We had yummy pupu's (appetizers) at 5:30 while the keiki's (kids) played games. After eating those and visiting we had dinner. It was a full blown luau food. Shrimp, chicken long noodles, fish, lau lau, poi, salads, rice, taro greens with squid, calamari, Kahlua pork and then there was entertainment, singing and guitar playing, dancing ( little girls and big girls doing the hula), and a slide show of Kamalu's 1st year. Somehow, 1st birthday parties will never be the same for us.

Sweet Elizabeth.

We had another wonderful lesson with sweet Elizabeth, Vince's mom. She is an amazing lady. She told us today that she has been reading the Book of Mormon and the pamphlets we leave with her after we teach a lesson. "I just love it." She says. Vince wants her to be baptized so badly. She says she believes everything we teach her. She even said today that her family on her grandmother's side were all Mormons. She told us she was baptized when she was little and living in Honolulu. I checked it out and can't find any records of it anywhere. We sure hope all works out well for her. Her husband is an invalid and his health won't permit him to be baptized though. It is amazing the strength she has to do what she has to do. I think I mentioned before that she is 84 years old and is his sole care giver.

Dinner with Vince, Lois and Bonnie.

Here we are at Vince and Lois's for dinner and a lesson. Dad is doing his favorite thing playing ball with Dixie (left) and Summer (right). He throws a little blue ball and they fetch it and bring it back for more fun. The funny thing is, they throw it to him when they bring it back and get up close to him. All three of them will play forever if we let them. It is so funny if Wally just leaves the ball at his feet to see what they will do. They sit patiently for a while and then bark at him like " Hey buddy, throw the ball." The first time it happened we laughed so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks.

Aren't they cute?

Our new elders...

Meet Elders Turina, Hudson and Ence. They are the new transfers. Elder Turina is from Tahiti and speaks French. Dad is thrilled. He even said the opening prayer in French in District Meeting today. He was surprised that Dad could speak. Elder Hudson is from Utah and was a cheer leader at Snow before coming on his mission. Elder Ence our new Zone Leader is from Ivans, Utah and is a cowboy. He loves riding horses. Elder Hudson and Turina have both been out about 5 months. Elder Ence about 10 or so. We are so lucky to get such fine young men on Kauai. Did you know a transfer to this island is really hoped for by most missionaries. Dad and I are so lucky to be here for our whole 18 months!

Thanks from Sister Kua.

Whoee, whoee are you home? We answered the door and there were Brother and Sister Wright with this lovely turkey for us. Sister Wright is Sister Kua's daughter. If you remember we have been helping with Sister Kua's house. Well, this turkey is a great big thank you to us and all those who have been helping on the house. What a nice surprise. We will have a wonderful Christmas dinner with it. We are thankful for it but told them they didn't need to give us anything. We love doing all kinds of projects for the members in the ward.

Another wonderful surprise came from Kawehi today. She brought us 2 tangerines from her tree. Remember how I said I just can't get my head wrapped around the holidays because it is blue sky's, 80 degrees and there are wonderful trade winds blowing here. Well, just smelling this wonderful fruit gave me a little deja vu. It finally seemed a little bit like Christmas might be coming.

Regional Stake Conference.

We had a wonderful Regional Stake Conference today. It included all 15 of the stakes in Hawaii. It was broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City. Elder Halstrom, Elder Ballard, a sister from the Primary Pres. and Pres. Eyring spoke. It was a wonderful meeting and we learned that Elder Halstrom grew up here in Honolulu. He was friends with Bro. C and they hung around together and were in the same ward. It is interesting how many general authorities have lived here or have a special love and a connections to the Polynesian people. Bro. C remembers Bro. Halstom's dad and said what a great man he was. He also remembers his brother Jimmy that he talked about in his talk. President Joseph F. Smith spent sometime here translating the Book of Mormon into Hawaiian and Elder George Q. Cannon finished it up. If I remember correctly, Auntie Ulu said they did some of the translating in a home way up in the Waimea Valley. The home is not there anymore but she showed me the general area of where it was. So many wonderful things have happened here. It really is paradise.

Congratulations Vince and Lois!

Just a short post tonight. We had the most wonderful news. Vince asked Lois to marry him and she said YES!! We are so excited for them. We have had the most incredible time teaching Lois and we have grown to love her and Vince so much. We study and pray for the right things to teach and say and we have always been blessed as we are obedient and faithful in our study and planning. Heavenly Father has touched her heart and she told us she wants to be baptized soon. She knows the gospel is true! What a thrill for us. I can't express how full our hearts are to hear her say that. Is is alright to say 3 cheers for Lois? Yahoo, Yahoo, Yahoo.

Another Great Lesson.

We had another great lesson with Evan last night. We met over at The C's. It was wonderful. We gave an English Book of Mormon to him. It had a testimony from one of the girls from the Suncrest Stake in it. He was very pleased. He already has a Ka Buke A Moramona - Kekahi Hoike Olelo No Iesu Kristo. We also gave him a lesson on The Restoration. He asked again what he has to do to be baptized. He is already working on the Word of Wisdom. His pockets are sticky from all the Jolly Ranchers. Sunday we are having a Regional Stake Conference broadcast from Salt Lake. We will be meeting in Lihue and he has already made arrangements to come. Oh, there is nothing like teaching the gospel to someone who has been waiting for it and knows what you are teaching is true! We are so blessed to be able to share our testimonies and love of the gospel with him. We are going to challenge him with a December date on Thursday.

Good Bye Bacon!

Poor Andrew! --- We always give him the pods off of our Mesquite tree to feed to Bacon. Today when we went to give him the pods he told us that Bacon was no more. Someone complained and the Dept. Of Health came and did away with him. They didn't even give Andrew time to take him somewhere else. He has raised Bacon from a piglet. Bacon was about a year old and followed Andrew around like a puppy. Andrew's heart is broken. He had big tears in his eyes when he told us. We are sad for him. Bacon was just waiting to meet all our grandchildren when they come over to see us in Hawaii.

Transfers.

I was right. Three elders did leave today. Elder Austin went home. Elder Coffin one of the ZL's and Elder Tenney. Elder Smith our other ZL got lucky and will die here. He really wanted to. That means he will have spent 10 months of his 2 years on Kauai. He started out here and spent 3 months in Kalaheo as a greenie. He has spent the last 6 months in Lihue. He really is a great elder. He will go home just in time for Christmas. We will meet the new elders on Friday. We had a great lesson with Lois tonight. We have just about taught all the lessons now. We are going over concerns she has and reading the Book of Mormon. She surprised us tonight and said she is close to being baptized. I said, "Now Lois remember we go home in May." She took it with good humor and laughed. We just love our lessons with Vince, Lois and Bonnie. What great friends they are. It was my night to cook so we had baked potatoes (no rice), meatloaf, salad and yummy pumpkin crunch with real whipped cream for dessert.

Oueen's Bath..

It had been raining all morning and as we started down the path to Queen's Bath I was lucky enough to find a walking stick someone was kind enough to leave at the head of the trail. Because it is kind of a forest path the sun didn't shine through and dry out the ground. There was all kinds of foliage on the ground. I had on flip flops and slipped and slid down most of the muddy way. The red dirt on my feet and under my toe nails will take days to wear off. The trail has lots of roots to use as foot holds so I didn't do to badly. It drove Dad nuts though.

The sea was kind of rough today. It was just beautiful as it broke over these rocks.

Here is Queen's Bath. I took this when the waves were kind of quiet and still. It is really beautiful but very treacherous. Someone dies here every year because they won't believe what the signs say. Danger! Unexpected waves will drag you out to sea. These beautiful outings are what we take after we inspect the missionary apartments and cars. We have seen lots of beautiful scenery up on the north end of the island because that is where we finish up so we do some sight seeing and then head home.