Mormon Helping Hands Northwestern Area..

Today was Northwestern Area Mormon Helping Hands Day. All of Hawaii and California did beautification and clean-up projects in their towns. We in Kekaha worked on and painted the pavilions and pic-nic tables at the park at the senior citizen center. It was a beautiful morning and we had a good turn out and because we had a ward member with a sprayer we were able to get the pavilion eaves done quite quickly. It is so much fun to work together on a project and have it turn out well. It feels so good to be of service and help others. We also painted 6 big pic-nic tables. Just after we went home Wally and I had to go to the post office and get our mail. On the way past the center we noticed a family already using one of the tables to have their lunch. "Should we have put a just painted sign on those?" I asked Wally. I sure hope they didn't go home with green stripes on their pants!

Thursdays With Bro. C.

When a yard is fenced here you don't open the gate and go in. You stand outside and yell "whooie, whooie, mai, mai." If it is alright to go in they will say, "come, come" or no I am busy and you will wait for another time. Wally goes on Wed. nights with the elders, bishopric or high priests and that is the way they always announce themselves. Wall loves it. He does a pretty good impression of it too. The members also like having someone there they know to introduce us. When they talk it is always in pigeon and Wall just loves it, "Hey, brudda I go church already,dakine" can't catch it all but loves it. Brother C. also told us that the Hawaiian people are a very trusting people and have been taken advantage of. In the early days Norwegians named Knudsen came here and built stores. The Hawaiian people would come to trade at the store and put items on credit. If they couldn't pay then the Knudsen's would take their land as payment. Pretty soon the Knudsen's owned and took control of a lot of land that should have been Hawaiian land. Now the people are slow to trust. Hawaiians believe everything has a spirit. They believe in kuliana - taking care of what is given to you (land) it is a stewardship you don't really own it. They took just what they needed from the land and plants, a few leaves, a few feathers, and would always say mahalo nui (thank you very much.) They respected the spirit of everything."

Lunch and a Lesson With Bonnie.

We had a lunch and a lesson on The Restoration with Bonnie today. Bonnie works in security out at the missile base. Because she works swing shift we had lunch, instead of dinner, and a lesson. It was great! We had a wonderful Chinese Chicken Salad and yummy Peach Cobbler for dessert. The lesson went well and we had a great discussion. We don't get to give The Restoration lesson very often and it was good practice for us and a great review for her. She really liked our visuals and said,"it really helps to see it as you talk about it." The only upset was Bonnie's dog, Summer, was so excited to see us she peed all over me. Yuk!!! You never know what's going to happen when you go to teach a lesson.

Elders and lunch at Costco.

I thought I would never say I would like having lunch at Costco! Well, I take that back. It is fun when we all meet there after District Meeting. The Elders love it because it is cheap and there is lots of it.

They all have their favorites, chicken or beef bake, huge slices of pizza, hot dogs, polish dogs with sour crout (Wall's meal of choice), chicken Caesar salad (my fav.) Dessert is out of this world. Berry Sundae, ice cream bars covered in chocolate and dipped in nuts, non fat yogurt swirl (yum). We can eat out for about $6.00. Wow! By out I mean out side under the umbrellas as you can see.
Good food, great weather, excellent company, what more could you ask for? By the way, we always meet lots of people who are interested in all of us with white shirts, ties, and name tags.

Chick Chat..

Don't laugh at how tired we look! This was taken when I set the timer on the camera and ran back to my chair. On Tues. or Wed. nights we have "Chick Chat." We have it at the Bishop's house when he is at Bishopric meeting. We ladies from the ward meet and discuss our lives, the gospel and how it affects our lives. This week I brought our "Hawaii Honolulu Mission Ka'ohilani: Atonement-Love-Obedience The Breath of Life" Easter season study manual. It is a whole month of study about the Atonement. One article a day starting March 29th. What a great experience it was. Anyway, I wanted to share it with the ladies and we had a wonderful time reading and discussing my favorite talk by Elder Neal A. Maxwell from Nov. 1997. Wally and I had already studied together and finished the readings and we're so glad to have all these wonderful readings in one place. We are also thankful that we can study and discuss together everyday. How grateful we are for our Savior Jesus Christ and the great love he has for us. Through the Atonement we can all be together one day with Him and our families for eternity if we will be obedient and endure to the end.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Happy Easter everyone! We had a wonderful day today. The only thing missing was our Annual Easter Egg Hunt with our grand children on Saturday. When we got to church there on our seats were these beautiful handmade lei's from Sister Inouye to us. Wow, they are beautiful. Mine was made with Plumeria flowers she picked and handmade just for me. They are so fragrant. We were so surprised and felt so loved by these wonderful friends. I said the opening prayer and 3 other sisters gave talks about the Savior and His Atonement. Kunane and Auntie Sharon played "He". It was and outstanding meeting! What a wonderful day.

Easter Musical Fireside.

We had the most beautiful musical fireside tonight. It was all instrumental. Piano, organ, guitar, violin and ukulele. All the pieces had a scriptural reference that went with them and Sister Young narrated. There are so many talented people in our ward and the surrounding areas. Kunane from our ward plays the piano by ear. He is a fantastic musician. Even arranging. Auntie Sharon plays the ukulele unbelievably. I asked her to give Wally lessons and she said she no longer teaches beginners. Too bad. Hope we can find someone else to teach him. Katherine Stennet (Pres. Stennet's daughter from the stake) played the violin. As usual, afterward we had wonderful refreshments and visiting. Utah is nothing compared to Hawaii for treats after a meeting.