Aloha Elder and Sister Anderson

Teaching our Kahana Valley Class

Elder Anderson doing some clean-up service.

 April 28, 2013

One year from today is our mission end date and we will be on our way home where ever that may be.  Time has marched by quickly, eleven months already.  Missionary work is still somewhat new to us and we are still learning.  But we are becoming more brave in our approach and teaching lessons.

May 11, 2013 is the baptism date for Larry and Jill Mauck and three of their daughters.  Another daughter and son are too young to be baptized.  This is a family that we met on the beach where they had been living for over a month in a tent because the home they were renting had a fire.   The stake youth were doing a service project and the father Larry ask what they were doing.  The Youth Leaders explained about youth conference and Larry said he had two daughters that would like to participate and they helped with the beach cleanup.  We went down to the beach to meet them and invited the mom & girls to attend Young Woman General Broadcast.  They attended and enjoyed it very much.  Marsha invited them to take the missionary lessons and they said they would like to hear more about the Gospel. 

They found a temporary place to live and moved off the beach which was out of our ward boundaries.

The Stake President(Aaron Shumway) ask us to continue to meet with them along with the young Elders.  Dennis sat in on those lessons while I took the three youngest children for a lessons more geared for them.  They are a good family.

We went to a Tongan wedding reception Saturday afternoon.   The bride and groom are in their 40’s, first marriage for each of them.  It was from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM.  Different from our mainland receptions you stay for the WHOLE time.  Lots of Loud music, dancing and people speaking about the bride and groom, all in their native Tongan language.  The couple was sitting on a couch on risers with a table in front of them with a whole roasted pig. There were about 350 people in attendance in the stake center cultural hall.  They really know how to enjoy themselves.  On Sunday the couple came to church with their native Tongan dress and spoke in Sacrament Meeting.  They said the Bishop had called them at 7:00 AM that morning and ask them to speak.  What a way to start your honeymoon!!!

A few weeks ago we had a pleasant surprise from Mark & Rebecca Olson from Highland, UT.  They are good friends of Danny and Denise.  They were in Honolulu for a vacation an came over to visit and have lunch with us. It was so fun to see them.

Mark and Rebecca Olson

We get a new mission President in July so Dennis has been busy making a DVD for President and Sister Dalton.  We had all the Sister and Elder missionaries serving In the Laie Zone during April 2013 record a good-Bye message to the Dalton’s.  We also recorded them singing two songs.  We sent the video files to Denise to compile the DVD.

The Mauck family has finalized plans for their baptism.  It is set for May 11, 2013 at 9:00 AM.  Dennis is doing the opening prayer and I am doing the closing prayer.  It should be a good turn out because three wards have been involved in fellowshipping them.

Sunday May 5, 2013 at our Sacrament meeting today a couple was visiting from Provo, UT.  Turns out they are Sarah & Cams neighbors.  What a small world, cute couple Kevin and Mari, he just graduated from BYU and is planning to go to dental school in Kentucky.

Thursday May 9, 2013 Tim and Ruth Pineda from our ward in Las Vegas came to visit us.  They were here for a week and came to Laie to see us.  We were so happy to visit with them.  We were their Home and Visiting teachers for about 5 years.  Ruth is a member and Tim is not.  They are both from the Philippines and met in Las Vegas and married there.  We ask them to meet us at the Temple Visitors Center.  We walked in and who was there to greet us but Sister Gamba who is from the Philippines.  The three of them were from the same city and speak the same dialect; they had a wonderful time talking. We watched a couple of movies at the Visitors Center.  We don’t think this was a coincidence that Sister Gamba was there to greet us.  The Lord has his hand in missionary work.

Sarah, Cam and Miles arrived late May 9, 2013, they were here for 10 days.

Cameron helping out at the Kahana Valley class.

May 11, 2013 five members of the Mauck family were baptized today.  A great experience to see them baptized.  Many missionaries never have the opportunity to teach and baptize a family. There were people from three wards attending we didn’t count but there had to be more than 50 in attendance.

May 12, 2013 we attended the Hauula fourth ward to see the Mauck family confirmed.  Larry Mauck ask Dennis to confirm him.  He was also sustained to receive the Aaronic Priesthood and during priesthood meeting he again ask Dennis to Confer the Priesthood on him and ordain him a Priest.

Tami and Jake Fackrell (Danny's sister who was also Denise's friend before they married) also came by to visit.  Tami spoke at a workshop for our ward.  It was great and so fun to see them.