WOW

We saw the most spectacular fireworks display last night.  Jace had given permission for an Asian mega company to shoot off fireworks at the end of the PCC show last night.  This corporation bought out the whole show that day.   So Jace drove us all to the fields where we would witness the display.  It was awesome.  He drove us through the weeds where the mosquitoes are plentiful, and we parked and waited.  The Fire trucks were parked across the gully, near PCC.  We were right under the blast.  There was a sea breeze that carried the sparks and smoke away from us, and we could only be in awe of the wondrous sight.  Wow!!

Seminary, Golf!!!Exercise?

After teaching and visiting seminaries this morning, we went out to the Kahuku Golf Course, I was the caddy.  I haven't golfed for 20 years.  I did get to put a bit, while waiting for the golfer in front of us.  We keep trying to get out there at different times to find the times that are least busy.

We are studying about Paul, beginning with his first Journey.  I love Paul.  He was my first hero.  I knew him and I memorized his words way before I knew Alma the Younger.  It's fun teaching Seminary.  I just don't get to visit the other classes, but Elder McQuivey does.  We had breakfast yesterday with our Area 1st Counselor who flew out from California.  We shared ideas.  He had lots of ideas to offer.  With the Seminaries now under the Stake responsibilities, we are going to take our Stake President out to lunch, to express our ideas to him.  He is a great supporter of the Seminary program, and he just called a 2nd counselor to his presidency who is also very supportive of the program. We love this work.  

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Yeah, it's the Chinese New Year,  We are from all kinds of animal signs.  I am a Rabbit, Jay is a Snake.  And this year is an OX.  Jarrod here, is an Ox.  We are going to have a celebration tonight.

Faith and other virtues

These talks are the most heartfelt and pure.  We hear talks from all the wards we visit and we are sooooo impressed with the caliber, intelligence and spirituality of the  speakers we are favored to hear.  I love Sundays.  We are in church almost all day and we are  blessed for the privilege of being here.  

A cute one today, Singles ward....."I love Ammnon, he's my hero, when offered the wife of King Lamoni for saving his animals, Ammon didn't want to get married,  he just wanted to serve.  I'm just like Ammon, I don't want to get married,  I just want to surf." 

We live in the country, out here in the boonies, but we love being here.  We don't have the hustle and bustle of Honolulu side, with the traffic and kukapaila people.  After spending two days in Honolulu the last two days, we drove through the tunnel and we knew we had left the rat race behind.  We also learned a lot about fishing from our convention, and on the way home on the bus.  A woman on our bus, who can't get around very well for physical reasons, is a crackerjack fisherwoman.  She told us some fabulous fish tales, spearing eel, octopus and large fish to feed her family.   Ooooooh we are richer for being here. 

Convention

Today was our mid-term convention held in town with all the Seminary teachers from all the Islands.  Over 100 teachers were there.  The workshops were fabulous.  A Saturday well spent. 

We love this work.  We love our Savior.

Our bus driver sent to pick up us country folk, was 1/2 hour late.  And he was weaving on the road all the way in to town, via the airport to pick up those who flew in early this morning.  He climbed every curb along the way, even smashed into a sign along the road in front of the tabernacle.  We were all glad to arrive "safely".  Jay and I talked to him afterward, and he was really ill.  He thinks he has the flu.  

View out the back

This is the jungle.  A pig or so.  Lots of birds.  Taran is trying to grow a Banana tree back here, but we think there is something wrong with it.  Maybe a bug in the tree.  We were so looking to having Bananas from our own tree.  We like the local Bananas, but guess what, it's more expensive.  It is small but sweet.  

A view out of our Apt window

That's the ocean beyond the trees just across the street.  

Love that Okinawa Sweet Potato

Dinner tonight was:  Breast of Chicken, boiled Okinawa Sweet Potato, and those footlong green beans.  Yum, perfect dinner.  

Back to work

This is Elder McQuivey.  Doesn't he look official?
Up at 4:30am to exercise, that's me.  Then shower, go to Seminary at 6:am, the two of us.  I taught a class where there is no teacher yet, since the holiday break!  Loved teaching it!  Home for Breakfast at 7:30, then drive 5 mins. to office to study.   A woman came to see about the Employment Resource Center.  Since we are doing both, we helped her a little.  She is not a member of the Church.  All I could see was potential there.  Anyway, it was a full morning for us.

And this is how we spent the Holiday

Hiking above Jace's house.  1.12 miles round trip. through the jungle and mud.  Ugh!

Sundays

This is how we spend our Sabbaths.  We like to visit the wards of our Seminary students, so we have 13 wards to visit.  The wards are 8, 10, and 12, and the singles wards are 2pm. We start at 8, and we visit three wards a day of the family wards.  The Single wards meet at the same time, so we have to take turns at the wards.  We love seeing the young people, we love hearing their testimonies, so Fast Sundays are our favorites.  We take the Sacrament each time, so we had better keep our covenants.

When someone leaves, they sing Aloha Oe to them after the closing prayer.  I said to Jay, I didn't get that when we left the 37th ward in Utah.  He reminded me that we will probably get the song sung to us when we leave.  I will bawl.  I've already sung it three times for the home ward Missionaries leaving here, in the 6 weeks, we've been here.  I have moist makas each time.  

North Shore Waves

This is but one of the many photos we caught on the beach.  There were huge waves out about a 1/2 mile from the beach.  Lots of surfers, and watchers like us.  

People take off work, and school to catch the "big ones".  Sounds like Utah when the snows come to the slopes.

Spared

Somehow or other, we over here on this side of the Island were spared the winds and the rains and downed trees.  We could see the high surf from out our window, and it was amazing to watch.

We had the flashlights out, the candles ready and the lighter at hand.  We even tied down the large items outside, moved the cars away from the portable basketball standard.  But luckily, we were spared.  We are grateful.

Now we have a northerly front coming down on the Island chain, and believe it or not, it's cold. Well, sweaters, instead of coats and gloves.  A light blanket on the single sheet to sleep at night. We can still walk on the beach in shorts and swimsuits.

Hunkering Down

How do you like my Utah expressions and my "Da Kine" expressions too.  Hawaii is expecting some high winds.  More Power outage expected.  So, we'll go to our Institute class tonight, and see what happens.  

Apostles

We had good fun naming the apostles this morning.  The ones in Jerusalem and today.  I'm told, "they keep changing".  Adding new ones.

Studying on the Beach?????

After being in the office from 8am to 11am this morning, we decided to take our scriptures and notebooks and go study at North Shore.  Yeah, Right!!!  Well, I did.  I prepared two lessons and even read the lesson for the RS class next Sunday.  

Elder McQuivey was studying something else.  And he has the beet red back to show for it.   I professed to have seen all the big waves I needed to see all while I was growing up, so I didn't need to go out in the hot sun and read, and get sand in everything.  I just stayed in the car, and listened to Hawaiian music on AM940.  Then I got under a tree with my beach chair, and my books and read and made notes.  I even did one Sudoku game for a diversion.  

North Shore Waves

Monstrous.....25 feet, and gutsy surfers.  We'll post some pictures, when we remember to take our camera with us.

This is our little apartment.  The kitchen and little table and chairs left by the former tenants, Jay sprayed and we covered the seats.  The futon is to the left.  I like the fresh flowers.  There is an orchid plant by the sink.  Out the back of the house there is a jungle, literally.  

Mahina

Did you see that moon last night??  We went walking on the beach at 7pm or thereabouts.  A full moon over the ocean.  What a beautiful sight.  And the tide was so low, we were astonished to see the rocky bottoms that we don't see normally.  We knew that the reef went out a ways for maybe a mile, because the surf breaks way out there, but we were  surprised to see how rocky the bottom is when the tide is so low.  The whole family went out there.  Jace took his telescope so we could look at the moon.  Orion was out there too.  Not where I normally see it in Utah.  Actually Orion comes later in the night, in the West Sky before I can observe it.  But the g'children recognized the three sisters in Orion's belt.  They couldn't imagine the dog though.  

Day after Institute

We fed them Pizza.  All thirteen students.  They came ready to learn and to study.  What faithful young people.  It was interesting that only the non-locals  came.  It's a great vehicle to socialize and to learn too.  But I guess the locals have their families. We hope the word gets around and the desire to join with us on Thursday nights becomes a must.  

The guys are golfing today.  Someone has to do the laundry and the cleaning, so guess who!  From the 23rd on, our Fridays will be spent teaching Institute in Honolulu, near the U of H.  

Institute

Our first class tonight.  I will report later.  We will just get acquainted tonight, and give an overview of the lessons about the apostles in the New Testament.  We keep hearing, "if you feed them, they will come."

Golf at Kahuku

Training

We went to be trained this morning in town(Honolulu) most of the day.  When we returned home, we saw how calm the ocean was, and the receding tide, so we changed clothes and walked across the street, along the sandy beach, at 4:30PM  and just enjoyed the walk.  We were the only ones on the beach, the water was nice and calm, and clear.  We picked more shells.  We loved walking hand in hand along the beach.  This is a mission???

Opala kapu

or, Trash Forbbiden.   I get the slightest kick out of little things like this.  Like seeing this sign on the side of the road.  Written in Hawaiian.  After all, this is Hawaii.  But very few Hawaiiana.

Fasting

We started a Fast last night, with Jace and Family.  The sister missionaries of the Hau'ula 3rd ward, came by to give a message, then we had 'ohana.  Our prayer to begin our Fast.  This ward will fast, one family each day, for 30 days, for a baptism in February, and referrals for the missionaries.  

Talofa lava

What a beautiful day.  We started off by attending the Samoan Ward.  As we sat down, I leaned over to Jay and said, "everything is in Samoan" and it was.  Even the hymns were sung from the Samoan Hymnal.  I loved it.  At the end of the day, I was trying to remember "love at home" in Samoan.  I am going to make that a goal of mine to memorize that hymn in Samoan.  I could understand some of the language, because many of the words are like Hawaiian.  For instance, "tatou"   is  kakou....  that is Hawaiian for inclusivity, or all of us, or our, we.  The Polynesian Culture is a community of people.  Not me, but we.  

I'm sorry for those who read this blog that I get so wordy, but this is my journal too.  And I like to write about my feelings, and observations of our mission.  

We then attended the Hau'ula third ward at 10am, all three hours, then at 2pm, we went to the Singles ward.  We teach Institute this Thursday, so we are really making our presence known.  We were told we might see 3-5 people there.  Oh well, we are here to teach, any and all. 

We love our Savior.  We feel his encircling love around us each and every day.  

Me Kealoha Pumehana.

Aha 'Aina

Yesterday, the 1st day of the year, Jace and family celebrated Aha 'Aina.  I did not know about this ceremony when I was growing up here.  I asked my sisters about this, and they said, grandma Nahale-a did this but it was not something she did all the time.  It's a ceremony where we have a taste of each item of food that the ancient ancestors took before they boarded their canoes for a long journey.  And Jace does this for his family before they embark on their journey for the next year, this 2009.  Salt, fish, taro, ulu, among some of the items.  Each item represents virtues that their family embraces through the light of Jesus Christ.  Like responsibility, humility, industry, honesty, courtesy, among a few.  Jace then gives each one of his children a blessing.  What a beautiful evening reminding us of our Savior and His example for us to follow.  WE also pay tribute to those of our ancestors who have died, by mentioning their names, and a Ti leaf of the same tastes of food is also placed at the table for them.  Today, the family will plant a tree, in this case, an avocado tree, and in the hole for this tree, will be placed all the remains of the feast we enjoyed last night...yes, we had a larger "taste" of the foods.  Yummy taste, and then some.  We are blessed, indeed!