Surprise Visit!

We headed up to our District Meeting in Lihue today around 9:15 a.m. so we could be there by 10:30. You have to allow enough time to get there. It is 26 miles away and with only one 2 lane road to travel on around the island you have to plan for traffic, road construction etc. Our Zone Leader Elder Prina called and said President and Sister Dalton would be there to interview everyone. You are interviewed by both. Sister Dalton is the nurturing side of the interview (she gives treats) and the President is the making sure you are doing what you're supposed to be doing side of the interview. Wally and I were last to be interviewed. The President asked us if we would take them to the airport and he would interview us on the way. We said sure. Then he asked us to lunch. We took them to the Kauai Pasta Restaurant. It is just a little place in a strip mall but has the most amazing food. Yum! Well, it turned out to be a good thing and a great visit. Wally was able to OYM a waitress who remembered us from our last visit and send some missionaries to see her. President Dalton thought that was ok to see Wally in action. Whew, we passed the test!

Elder's, McDonald's and Wifi!

Monday is our P-day. We spend the morning with the Elders Schmerse and Grover (red shirt).

They use our washer and dryer and eat breakfast and lunch with us. We clean our house while they are doing what they need to. I've taught them how to fold their shirts (so they won't wrinkle), sheets and how much soap they should use so they don't flood the machine. They return the favor and wash and vaccum out our car. Cute boys! So young! They leave about noon to meet up with the rest of the district in Lihue to play ball, fish or go hiking.

In the afternoon Wally and I head up to Port Allen (ten miles away) to McDonalds. They have free WiFi and it is great to use to update our blog so we don't suck our air card dry. I bought Wally an Itouch recently so he can have his own games, Hawaiian music and scriptures. We also use the Wifi to sync it.

Ta'ala's and Talks!

Meet Brother and Sister Ta'ala. They are so much fun. We really have enjoyed getting to know them. Brother Ta'ala is from Samoa. When we were talking to him about growing up we asked him if he knew Bob and Linda Lewis because they taught school in Samoa in the 70's. He got thinking about it and said "Did he teach P. E.?" We said, "yes." He said "I remember he used to make us lift weights using weights made out of plumbing supplies." Brother Ta'ala usually does construction but things have slowed down so he is working his 6 acres of Taro fields up Waimea Canyon for the time being.
Our talks went well today. The ward said they liked our messages. We hope things will progress now. We can relax now for the afternoon. You know how preparing and giving talks wears

you out.

Service, Prep. and Prepare.

To day we did service for the morning. We worked on the yard of the house we live in helping Bonnie the land lady. We mowed, weeded, edged, and watered. It was a good thing. Bonnie works out at the Base so she doesn't have much time to do her yard as well as ours. We feel like we need to do physical work sometimes as well as our teaching. You know how we love to work in the yard so it was a treat for us anyway.
We speak in church tomorrow and our topic is .... Missionary Work. Imagine that. We are spending the afternoon getting ready. We want to make sure we cover everything and make a good impression on the ward. To us one of the important parts of our calling is to be good supportive members of the ward. We love it here and hope they will come to our rescue and start taking us to meet their friends and family who are not members or less active. When friends and family take us to visit their loved ones it makes such a difference for us and for the investigators. I said in my talk that Wally and I are so scary so would they please help us and pave the way.

Whale Song!

We had a busy day teaching and visiting with members but no appointments this evening. We went down for a sunset walk on the beach. The tide had been high and left a little bank, shelf type, ledge we could sit on and watch the waves. The water was kind of choppy and the breeze was blowing. We didn't expect to see much from the whales but what a night!! They were spouting, dancing, jumping and slapping the water with their flukes. It was amazing. It made you want to stand up and clap for the show. Heavenly Father must have had so much fun creating these wonderful animals of the sea.

Surf's Up!

I'm not really a great photographer and have such a little camera but this is a picture to let you know there was Big Surf today. By the time we got to the beach, for our morning walk, at 7:15 there were surfers everywhere. The life guard was there early and even had red flags posted for the under tow and rip tide.
It is so amazing how everybody knows when the time is right for surfing and they all show up. We also heard a whale was seen caught in netting and plastic. Some guys tried to herd it in and went to get help to cut the stuff off. We didn't hear how it ended up but I hope all went well. Whales are such amazing creatures and I can bear to think we could have done something dumb like leaving plastic and old nets in the sea that could hurt them.

Tadd, Teresa, Henry and Barbara!

We knew there were some Canadians living in the neighborhood and were anxious to meet them! We kept an eye out for them but never were quite able to make contact. On Saturday, on our way home from an afternoon look at the beach we saw someone standing in their yard. Of course we went up to say "Hi". We found out Henry and his wife Barbara (front) were here visiting Tad and Teresa. When they saw us outside the rest of them came out to visit. They were headed to the beach to watch the sunset but invited us back at 6:30 for dinner and a visit. What a great time we had. Both couples emigrated to Canada through other countries, Sweden and Denmark. Henry and Barbara will be here for another week. Tadd and Teresa are snowbirds and live here from November through March. We laughed and talked about so many things. It seemed like we had been friends forever. Maybe we can get another evening before everyone leaves to go home.