Long overdue update...

  Thursday, October 25, 2012

Mission update:

On conference weekend we worked at an Indian Pow Wow. We were referred by the Mission President to help with a family history booth.  Sister Keys had done this last year and was just overwhelmed with people wanting to know how to start family history.  We assisted by giving out four generation sheets along with a card that gave the familysearch.org  information and a list of all of the family history centers on the island. We explained to people how to get started recording information and what the family history center volunteers could do to help.  Most were surprised that it did not cost anything.  We visited with over 100 people over the weekend.  We were able to watch the first session of conference (6:00 AM here) before heading to Honolulu for the start of the Pow Wow at 10:00 AM.  Marsha got a sore throat from the talking and the “VOG” which is fog combined with volcanic ash blowing in from the big island.

A fast two weeks has come and gone already.  Denise, Danny and the kids came on October 9, we were excited to see them.  We met them at the airport with flower leis for Danny and Denise and candy leis which we made for the kids. The triplets rode with us back to our side of the island and we met Danny, Denise, Tyler and Steven at their villa at turtle bay where the kids went directly to the beach. 

On Wednesday,  Danny, Denise and the Grandchildren came to Kahana Valley to learn about the history and culture of Kahana Valley with us.  Auntie May a member of our 2^nd Ward and a resident of Kahana Valley gave a presentation about the history and had them make Poi from Taro.  It is not very tasty but is a common Polynesian staple.  It is supposed to be very healthy.  She also had some bread fruit and mango for them to taste.

After that the kids that come to our Wednesday class came over & played soccer and went swimming in the river. The swung from a rope and dropped into the water, dove off the highway bridge next to the sign that says “No Jumping From Bridge”, the best place to jump from.  Our grandchildren fell in love with the Kahana kids and visa-versa.   

Three of the children came to sacrament meeting with us on Sunday and the boys wanted to sit with Tyler and Steven.

On Thursday, Danny spoke to the BYUH Entrepreneur Class. There were about 50 students in attendance.  He did a great job, as you would expect.  We met the missionary couple that assists in finding people who have been successful in starting businesses, to speak, to students.  We gave them Paul & Danny’s names as possible speakers.  We are hoping Paul will be able to come after the elections.

I(Dennis) missed Danny’s speech because I had to go to the airport to pick Sarah, Cam and Miles at the airport.  Miles has really grown, he has the cutest flirty smile.  He likes to flirt with all the ladies.

Friday morning we all went to the Laie Temple to do baptisms.  It was a special time to be in the Temple with two of our children their spouses and two of our grandchildren.  

Danny and Denise left on Monday October 15, it was hard to see them go, it was fun to have them here.

Sarah, Cam and Miles left on Thursday October 18, When we arrived back at our apartment after dropping them off at the airport, Marsha said, “I’m not going in the apartment, it’s too quiet and miles isn’t there to smile for me”

It was sad but so happy they all came, we have been here almost five months it has gone very quickly.

We are certainly where the Lord wants to be.  The mission has been a great experience to date!!!!

It's a MIRACLE....Elder Anderson in the ocean!!!

BYU Blackout...Hawaiian Style :)

Making banana pancakes for our BYU tailgate party.

Since the game was on at 9:30 AM tailgate is pancakes and bacon :)

Update

We have spent another week in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission.  I (Marsha) go for my walk most mornings, look at the ocean, beautiful trees, flowers and green foliage and think--- “I can’t believe I’m in Hawaii what a beautiful part of the vineyard to labor in.

Sunday we are sitting in the Tongan ward.  A cute 14 month old boy was sitting next to us.  He kept looking at my lilly white legs then at me & back to my legs he finally came up to touch my leg then smile & tough again.  He started to gently push on them.  So cute – I really think he thought my legs were like marsh mellows & he wanted to see if they would puff back.  With all the walking that’s probably the only part of my body that can bounce back.

Our Wednesday class at Kahana went well, we only had three in attendance this time.  The other four were all from one family and they were gone somewhere.

The three that came arrived about 30 minutes early. Their mother was bringing them home from an after school activity and they saw our car so their mother dropped them off.  Their mother is not active and we are not sure she is a baptized member maybe only a member of record.  We are gradually getting to know where all the people live and their status as far as membership.  It was very encouraging to have their mother drop them off because sometimes we have to  hunt them in the area. 

Our lesson was about “Doing Good Each Day”.   We played a music video by Alex Boye'  “Have I Done any Good Today” 
(Here is the link to watch it yourself)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdoaHHDK_SA

It is very touching but a little more upbeat than the way we sing from the Hymn book.  We gave a short lesson and went to the community garden to  weed and pick up trash.  After we finished that we had them decorate sugar cookies.  When they finished and the two boys started leaving taking their cookie treasures with them Marsha said “See you next week” Areal the eleven year old girl said, “Sister Anderson you forgot something” .  Marsha said, “Oh what? Did you leave some cookies here”  “No, Prayer,  the Closing Prayer”   How neat that she would want a closing prayer.

We followed the suggestion of the stake president and told some of the members that we are helping with a records audit and need to get the names and birthdays of everyone that are living with them.  The response has been great.  Most still don’t have an interest in coming to church.  The most common excuse is that is the only day they get to visit with their family and since so many are now inactive or non-members.  We were invited to come to a baby blessing on Saturday at noon.  They are doing it in an area near the ocean in Kahana Valley.  It is nice to know they are willing to invite us to attend a family event like that.  They are having someone from the ward come to do the blessing.  Step by step we are getting to make friends with the adults in the valley.

A river runs...

They had so much rain today that this normally dry stream behind their apartment is now running like a river.

Senior couples picture

So all the Senior Couples got together at the PCC  They took this group photo.  Elder and Sister Anderson are the ONLY proselyting missionaries in the group.  All of the others work at the PCC or Temple visitors center.  I think they must have been sent there for a special purpose.


ALOHA---Denise

Friday August 31, 2012 

We picked Lisa and Kassi Hartle at the Honolulu International Airport. They stayed with us while Kassi got settled into the dorms at BYU Hawaii in Laie about 4 miles north of us.  Saturday we spent some time with them showing some of the sights and where to get the best coconut shrimp, the school, and the beach.  Sunday they went to the Samoan Ward with us then rented a car and spent Sunday together.  Monday (Labor Day) Brandon Reeves (his dad helps coach Steven's basketball team) came for dinner with us and Kassi & Lisa. After dinner we dropped Brandon off at school and Lisa  & Kassi went with us to the Senior Couples Family Home Evening.  Michael Ballam, his wife and son Ben presented the program.  Ben is serving a mission at the PCC.  He was born with spinal bifida and is in a wheel chair.  They talked about finding out about Ben’s condition before he was born and the priesthood blessings they both received from Neal A. Maxwell.  Their story is so compelling as to the truth that God does know who each of us is and what our needs and desires are.  There was an extremely strong spirit attending the evening.

The Ballam’s grandson Zachary is in the Triplet’s 4^th grade class in Highland and their son Chris & family are in Denise & Danny’s ward.

Tuesday, we all attended the Laie Temple to do baptisms for the dead.  We met the Hartle’s friends  (the Martins) from St. George.  Their daughter Marisa is attending BYU-H also.  Great experience we did a name for a relative of two of temple workers they were in tears knowing that finally their relatives work was getting done.

Wednesday evening we took Lisa to the airport, on the way the attend our Kahana Valley class.  We had seven children and Kassi talked to two of the older girls about the Young Woman’s program.  Our two young missionary Elders assigned to the second ward attended the class also.

Last Wednesday our lesson was on prayer.  This week one young seven year old boy told us that he had prayed, before his math test, to do well and recall what he had studied.  That touched our hearts that he remembered our lesson from last week.

We keep the lessons short, play a game and have treats.  Hoping to leave them wanting more so the come back next week.

Thursday evening we had an appointment with the Stake President Shumway.  He wanted to check and see how we were doing, make sure we were eating… silly question… just look at us. He was glad we were working with the children because most of the adults have no interest at this time to come to church or learn about the Gospel.

After our meeting we went to the BYU-H Woman’s Volley Ball game.  As Senior Missionaries we get a free pass to all the home sports games. 

Wednesday Sept 13 we Taught our class in Kahana Valley seven children came and the Elders came again also.  When it is time for opening prayer they stop what they are doing, fold their arms & are quiet.  I think we have made great progress since only two are members and are not active.  As we were getting ready to leave two girls ran back to our car to ask if we would pick them up for church on Sunday.  

Anna Rosa a cute seven year old ask us to come to her school on Thursday to have a family picnic lunch.  Her family could not come.  What a sweet invite for us, Marsha hugged her and said absolutely we will come.  We can understand why the Lord loves these little children so much.  We are so blessed to help these young ones learn about the Gospel.

Update from Dad...

Seluvais Atalina Napulou

On Thursday, August 23, 2012 about 10:00 A.M. Marsha & I went to help Aunti Selu weed her garden.  When we arrived she didn’t want to have us help weed but talk with her about her assignment by the Stake President.  President Shumway ask her to tell how she was able to introduce the Tongan family of Eight to the Gospel.

We talked for a while about what she thought she should say and in the conversation her mission came up.  Marsha said we have heard that you went on two missions can you tell us how that happened?

So she proceeded to tell us.  She was living in Tonga at the time and as she woke up one morning the spirit told her she should go on another mission.  She packed a bag and proceeded to the Stake Presidents home.  When she arrived his wife answered the door and she said she would like to see the President.  She was directed to a room where the President was with the lights out.  She knocked and the President ask her to turn on the light and come in.  He ask her why she was there, and she responded that she was there because of what he had been praying about.  He said and what would that be.  She said she was there to answer the call to go on another mission. The Stake President explained that he had been ask to find two returned sister missionaries who could accompany two sister medical missionaries to Tonga. He explained that he had not considered her because she was doing such a good job with the young single adults and did not want to give her up in that calling.

Arrangements were made and she went to the MTC but when it came time to go the medical missionaries could not go.  She was given the choice to go on a proselyting mission or go back home, she chose to go on the second mission. 

She told us a couple of experiences she had while on her second mission which I will add later.

A week in review...

Monday August 13, 2012

We went to an investigators house to help the Sister Missionaries with a service project.  We helped them sand and paint a picnic table that was in pretty bad shape.  We also raked the fallen vegetation from the front yard.  It is a daily chore here to pick up leaves etc. that fall from the trees.

Tuesday August 14, 2012

We went to help Auntie Selu, work in her garden.  She lives in Kahana Valley and takes care of a huge community garden with the help of a few family members.  Some of the family brought dinner, beef stew with taro instead of potatoes and some other native dishes that we did not try.  We visited a couple of other members also.

Wednesday August 15, 2012

We spent a lot of time today studying for our talks.

Sunday, August 19, 2012

 We were assigned the topic “Good Language” it was harder than we thought to say more than don’t swear.  Dennis took the general direction of bad language used today and also the language of prayer.  Marsha based her talk on using kind words to each other.  As we were sitting on the stand waiting for the meeting to start, in walks the whole stake presidency.  It made for just a little more pressure to do well.  If our talks were not good what could they after hearing a talk about speaking kind words.  Actually we received several nice compliments.  One sister told Marsha she “liked her sweater & hair but didn’t comment on the talk.

Sunday evening we attended a missionary fireside- our zone missionaries sang and bore testimonies of Jesus Christ.  The Mission President and his wife spoke also.

There was an interesting person in attendance also it was the “devil” Michael Ballam was there.

Photo Book

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I don't know why this posted here and not my blog but you can all enjoy :) HAHA!!

A "little" service project...

When I say "little" I mean "little" for Dad.   This was a pretty big service project but of course no big deal for my dad....other than it took 12 hours.  He was at this home from 8:00am-6:00pm.  These people needed help putting in a door for their house.  They previously had been using a tarp so I'm sure the door is a BIG upgrade.  My mom said the night before they had to go buy my dad some work clothes since he didn't bring any to Hawaii with him.  He will probably use those work clothes several more times before their mission is over. I'm sure all the people involved appreciated my dad's expertise and knowledge on how to do almost anything. Here are a few pics of the project.

Here they are removing the tarp the family had been using for the door.

Next my dad is framing in for the door.

The finished product. 

I bet my dad is so thankful I asked him to put a door on our living room in Gunlock before he left so he could have practice for this project :)   

Dad's Temple pic...

Message from Marsha....

“A week in the life of a Senior Missionary”          

We held our “Scripture Class at Kahanna Valley on Wednesday.  The Children from the Valley did not come, however seven children 5 of whom were recently baptized in July.  They are from the Tongan family Dad & Mom and 4 of the 6 children who were part of the record 28 in the month of July.  They are really cute, just learning the gospel so our lesson on the creation and Adam & Eve turned out perfect for them.  They are so eager to learn and so excited when we talk about something they already know.  Marsha got bitten by a mosquito and it was itching so she started to scratch it.  She ask they why they didn’t get bitten and one of the young men said “Because we are Tongan” we laughed and told him I was going to become Tongan then.  We have a class scheduled for next Wednesday and invited them to come if they are there visiting.

Thursday evening we met with all of the Elder and Sister Missionaries in our zone and President and Sister Dalton took everyone to the Polynesian Culture Center.   For dinner and the program “Breath of Life” because the zone reached double their goal of 14.  Twenty eight baptisms in a month is going to be hard to beat. Most of the people in the area have been contacted many times by missionaries.  New people keep coming in though.

 Friday we visited a young lady 21 yrs. old, has an adorable baby boy, lives with her boyfriend & her dad and the boyfriends dad.  Pretty common here for several generations living in the same house to be able to afford rent.  She feels good about the gospel but can’t yet make a dicision to get married or ask her boyfriend to move out.  We showed her a video based on a talk by Jeffery R. Holland titled “Motherhood an eternal partnership with God”  We plan to visit her again on Monday.

Saturday after cleaning the apartment and car we went to the beach, being the water love Dennis is, he sat in the car and read, and I on the other hand went in the water and sat on the beach to watch the surfers.  It is a NICE place to serve.

Sunday we are at our three wards & a ward council meeting for the Hauula 2^nd. Ward.  Sundays we are in church all day attending meetings and visiting with the members Marsha does that very well that is “visiting”.  We are also fasting with the zone.  They have set a goal of 20 baptisms for August. They come up with a planner cover each month and August is “Money in the Bank”, Dennis made a planner cover for them.

The Spirit is strong here in Hawaii. The Elders and Sisters work so hard and have an amazing presents the local people have a reverence for the missionaries,  we are truly blessed to be here.

To our family in the Rainbow with ward – with your triple digit temperatures you would love this chapel “ice box” its set at 64 degrees even I freeze out and I can take a lot of cold .

Will update more news later my parting words now are “Good Choice Romney”

This is the 21 year old sister (the one with the new baby) and her boyfriend.  They did some service at her house.

This is the planner cover Dad made for August

Updates....

My parents went to a parade Saturday to celebrate the founding of Laie.  They got there close to the end of the parade route and were noticed by the announcer of the parade. He recognized them as the full time missionaries over the loud speaker.  My dad said the people have a great love and respect for the missionaries here, especially the senior couples.

My mom was picking up  candy at the parade like the children do(And how she picks up coins found on the ground ;-))They knew a few people in the parade. A few members in their Samoan ward had a float and the construction mission had a boom truck in the parade. Since they were missionaries they were thrown extra candy ;-) 

My dad said the last baptism they attended was number 28 for the month.  The most ever, the last recored for July was 13.  He said the young Elder and Senior missionaries are really motivated to teach and convert the non-members in Laie.

My dad was asked to be the witness for the baptism service of a family of 8 in which 6 were the age for baptism. They are in the Tongan ward and he said it was a neat experience to be the witness.  

Sounds like the work is moving along and they are doing great things.

ALOHA---Denise

thanks for updating while I was gone Sarah :) 

This is the Samoan ward campout.

the beach where the ward picnic was held.

Here is a picture of my mom and the RS president at the ward picnic.  

Their view-

This is a photo of Kahana Bay,  to the left is Kahana Valley where they are serving most of the time.

Temple

Elder and Sister Anderson went to a session last Friday at the Temple.  My dad is going to work on taking some photos from his tripod.  He says, "The temple is so beautiful at night, especially when there are clouds in the sky."

They were the only couple that day, so they got to be the witness couple.  The officiator talked to them after in the celestial room. He had just come from Las Vegas to visit his mother who is not in good health.  He was telling them that he went with his brother, who is not a member. While they were in town, the brother went to the strip and he went to the temple.  What a contrast!

My parents went to the visitors center and took the tram ride and saw a couple of the videos at the visitors center.  The one called God’s Plan for Families it was fantastic.  It shows a family at the red rocks near Ivens and their son falls of a rock and gets them thinking- what if we lost him?  Then it goes through several scenes where they are remembering when he was born and how important family is and how they deal with the grandfather passing and then their daughter getting married in the temple.

My Dad took this picture of the Laie Temple. Beautiful.

Transfers

ALOHA! This is Sarah. I am updating the blog while Denise is out of town. My dad has sent me a few pictures so I'll upload those and give you all a little update!

This photo was taken with my Dad's iPad the day before July transfers.  They go out to Leia before every transfer and take photos,  a couple from Idaho was out there at 7:00 A.M. and took this photo for my parents so they could be in it as well. They did not get transferred.

This is the actual day of transfers. My dad took this picture of the sunrise the morning they took the missionaries photos on transfer day.

What was lost is now found...

So my mom decided after calling all the missionaries several times asking them to search their apartments for her cell phone that she better go get a new one.  So they went to the store and had everything arranged for a new phone to be sent to their apartment.  Well...as they were driving home they got a call from some Elders saying they found her phone in their apartment.  So my mom called the store and asked if they could cancel her new phone which they told her "no" so she spoke with a supervisor and they were able to cancel the new phone "just this once"  and now she will be refunded for the money she spent for a new phone.

So....if you want to talk to my mom you can call her on her phone again :)


ALOHA---Denise

lost phone...

So if you have been trying to call or text my mom and she isn't responding, she isn't ignoring you...she lost her phone :(
They went to do apartment cleaning checks for the Elders (yes, they put my mom in charge of making sure the Elders keep their apartments clean) and she must have misplaced it in one of the apartments.  They have tried calling it to locate it but can't find it...I'm sure one of the missionaries she made re-clean the toilet because it wasn't up to her specifications thru it in the toilet..HAHAHA Just kidding!!!

ANYWAY...if you want to get a hold of my mom you will have to call my dad's cell number
1-702-340-1804

ALOHA---Denise

Teaching in Kahana Valley...

Kahana Valley is the area my parents have been assigned to serve and help baptize and reactivate.  They went to teach some young girls a lesson from "The Friend" and make some book marks for their Book of Mormon.  They said the lesson went well and they were sweet girls.  

Sister Anderson giving a lesson to some of the Kahana Valley girls, and making book marks, the young Elders stopped by while we were there so they let them make book marks too.

The building in the background is one of the girls' house.  They live in very humble conditions but my mom said they could "love you to death"  

This little girl working on her bookmark was babysitting this little 8 month old so my mom held the baby while she worked on her project.

ALOHA---Denise

Visitors...

One of my parents good friends George and JoEllen were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in Hawaii and took the time to stop by and visit my parents on their way to Maui.  My parents were so excited to see some familiar faces from home.  My mom has known George and JoEllen since high school...I think that's been about 20 years ;)

(give or take a few)

Pictures of their surroundings...

across the street

7-11 :)

This is their apartment and car.

kitchen

The street they live on.

Around the corner from their apartment

Living room...this is the hide-a-bed they are currently
taking reservations for :)