Shopping!

This Friday we had to go into Lihue to do some shopping. We don't usually have a lot to do on Fridays because if people have a day off they need to do their errands and they also help their children by tending grandchildren. We haven't been shopping for a while and have no food so we decided to head out. We always wear out "pros clothes" and tags because we love to meet all kinds of people in Costco and Walmart. We always meet someone new to the island or members from other wards and it is great fun. It was Fall Break here and we met some young kids that we read with and that are in our ward. "Auntie, Uncle how are you? Guess what is happening today?" We just love it when they recognize us and talk to us. Little Hawaiian children steal our hearts and remind us of our own. At lunch we met another young couple who just moved to the island. It is amazing to us. We never would have thought of doing that when our boys were little. We are too predictable! We should have stretched just a little and maybe one of the boys would have turned out to be a world famous surfer. Who knows. LOL.

Thursdays With Bro. C.

I was telling Bro. C that I got a beautiful picture of Tapa (Kapa in Hawaii) cloth and wanted to write about its history. He was happy about that because we have been talking about it every so often for awhile now. Hawaiian tapa cloth is the best of the Polynesian tapa cloths because it is very soft and can be washed and used again. Making tapa is an ancient and painstaking art. The best bark for tapa cloth comes from the Wauke tree (paper mulberry). It is grown and harvested just for cloth making. I have used mulberry cloth in scrap booking and it is beautiful paper. The Wauke tree is grown, cultivated and watered for 2 years. It is then cut down and the outer dark bark, limbs and leaves are carefully scraped off. It will be about 2" in size. The inside layer of bark is cream colored and is called the 'ili. This layer of "skin" is carefully removed and beaten with a special mallet called a hohoa'. It might might with patience spread out to be about 6" wide. It will then be wrapped in Ti leaves lau lau style and kept in a bag to rest for 2 weeks. The second beating will take longer and requires more patience because to get the cloth to be as wide as wanted other strips of tapa need to be laid on top of each other and beat together until they blend so well there are no seams or sign where they have been joined together. The final beating is made with a l'ekuku mallet. It has a pattern or watermark carved into it and the tapa cloth will take up the design as it is pounded. After the design is embedded in the cloth it is painted. Hawaiians love bright colors and so they make dyes with leaves, flowers, barks, nuts and all manner of things from nature to make them. These wonderful cloths were used for clothing, bedding, and as wall hangings. The process , designs and tools used are very important to the people. It is a very reverent and humble process.

Working on Ward Lists.

Today we worked on updating our Area Book and ward lists. President has said we don't need to tract. But he wants us to visit every L.A. family on our ward list and make sure who they are and if they want to be visited and taught lessons etc. He told us we have 7 months and it needs to be completed. First, though, I need to make sure all the records are correct so we can get going on that project. I guess we will find out when we visit. It will be a lot of work but we can get it done. It would be so nice to have another couple out here with us so we could do it together. It would be fun to go on splits with them. Are there any takers out there? We have an extra bedroom.

Interviews!

We had interviews with President and Sister Dalton today. Guess what? We passed! LOL. We got a call early this morning and President asked us to pick him up from the airport. His flight was coming in at 8:40 so that meant we had to leave Kekaha at 7:40 to make sure we got there on time. Boy, it has been a lot of early mornings lately. When we picked them up they asked us to go with them to breakfast. "We'll have our interview while we eat. Ok?" Sounded good to us. Our district meeting didn't start until 10:30 so we had plenty of time. We had a great visit with plenty of time to just talk. Last time we saw them we were all rushing and were so busy we didn't really have time for anything. We all enjoyed our time together. When we got home our neighbor Kaveyhi called us over to say hi. She offered us a Jabong. It looks just like a great, huge grapefruit. The taste is sweet though. It was yummy and juicy. We are having all kinds of taste sensations over here. Love it.

Monday, Monday.

This is the cutest picture ever! We are at Salt Pond Beach. Where else would we be on a Monday afternoon. There are always parents with tiny, little children here because of the little sheltered beach area. It is still deep enough for a little one to drown though. I had to get this picture because this little boy could hardly walk and yet he wouldn't stay out of the water. His dad had to keep his head above water because he kept trying to get down in it. It was so funny to watch. He was the happiest little thing. These babies are like little fish.

Conference.

We got up at 5:00 a.m. so we could be at the church for the live sessions of conference this morning. We were there with 6 other people. We like going over to the church to be with other ward members. There might have been more but about 5 families, including the bishop's, are over in Utah seeing the conference live. We were invited to go to The Barber's house in Kalaheo for omelets between sessions but we didn't make it because we are having a mission wide fast.

As it turned out it was a good thing. The Agemotu's came not realizing about conference. They didn't understanding what we were saying about the meeting schedule. It was between sessions and so they asked us to teach them a lesson. We did the Plan of Salvation again because 3 extra family members were there. I think they are beginning to understand. It was a great lesson if I do say so myself. Dad and I work well together. By the time all meetings were over we had spent 6 hours straight at the church.

Nice Flight Home.

We had an easy flight home. It helped that the hotel was right next to the car rental and the car rental shuttled us right to the airport. We made it in plenty of time. No problems with our baggage either. I must say though that the Honolulu airport is ugly. You'd think coming to Hawaii it would be beautiful, wouldn't you? We were tired but had a wonderful afternoon streaming both sessions of conference and the priesthood session this evening. What wonderful messages and the announcement of 5 new temples. WoW!