Whale watching off of Honolulu

The missionaries that serve in the Kahana Valley. Elder Allen and Elder Armstrong

Sunday February 3^rd.

Danny & Denise came to visit, they had dinner with us and Kassi Hartle came over from BYUH also.  They stayed at Ko’olina which is on the other of the island several miles west of Honolulu.

Tuesday February 5^th.

We all went to a BYUH Basketball game that was played in Honolulu. Danny treated us to a great steak dinner after the game.

Thursday February 7^th. Kassi Hartle received her mission call.  Danny & Denise came to our apartment and Kassi and three of her friends came over also to open her call.  We set up “face time” with her family in Lehi, Utah. It was exciting to see where she will be going. She was called to the Little Rock, Arkansas Mission.  We are sure she will be a great missionary.

Our Wednesday class in Kahana Valley is going well.  We had seven Children attend with two non-member neighbor children.  One of them gave the closing prayer and did a beautiful job. He had been taught by the full time elders some time ago.

Celebrating Kassi's mission call at Angels shaved ice :)

Tuesday February 12^th.

We attended the BYUH devotional, the speaker was May Shumway the wife of our stake president.  After the devotional we were walking out of the BYUH book store, President Shumway stopped us and invited us to attend the luncheon for his wife the devotional speaker along with President and Sister Wheelwright the president of BYUH.  During the luncheon we were ask to share our experiences at Kahana Valley.  In Attendance was a couple who knows several of the families in Kahana Valley and their history.  They said they would to go visiting with us.  The members here are very missionary minded and are always willing to help.

We have a new Senior Couple here now they will be serving in the Tongan Ward.  They are Elder & Sister Wishart from Orange County California.  They are friends of President and Sister Dalton and are from the same ward in California.  They have some health problems and will probably be here for 6 months.  They are very nice and it will be good to have them here he is part Tongan and will be a great blessing to that Ward.

Thursday February 14^th.

Valentine Day,  Dennis did not feel well so we stayed home for the day and got rested up.

Friday February 15^th.

Dennis is going to help our 2^nd. Ward unload a container of supplies for the Bishops store house in Honolulu it is about a 45 minute drive from our place here in Hau’ula.  He dropped me off a the mall so I can get a pedicure and pick up a few items, I can spend two hours easily at the mall.

Saturday February 16^th.

It is our Stake conference this weekend.  They have a service project on Saturday mornings this time it was a deep cleaning of the chapels inside and out.  We do a class on Kahana for the children that are  not there during the week so we went there after the service project.

Sunday February 17^th.

Dennis was ask to speak at the Priesthood Leadership meeting Sunday morning and then we went to Stake Conference.   The Stake Conference General session is held at the Cannon Center on the BYUH campus.  That is where they have Basketball and Volleyball games, it was nice sitting in seats with arm rests.

pictures....

We went to a free band concert and toured the kings palace
while in Honolulu with Dave and Janice. 

Outside the hotel in Kona

They made Turkeys for Thanksgiving
with the Kahana Valley kids and missionaries.

Outside hotel in Kona

Elder Allen performed the baptism.  We only had one jump suit so they had to share.  The girl on the left is Annarosa and she was not sure she wanted to be baptized because she did not think she could get to church all of the time.  But when she was listing to the District leader interview her half-sister she decided she wanted to be baptized also. So they shared jump suits one dry and the other wet.  It was a special occasion for us since we have been teaching them for over four months.

A few of the sister missionaries at the Visitors Center at Christmas

The non-member dad came to the baptism and the confirmation. He lives next to the other family in the picture they are inactive members but seem to come to baptisms and confirmations.

Update...1/10/13

Dave & Janice Campbell were here on business so we had thanksgiving dinner with them, Kassi Hartle and Brandon Reaves had dinner with us also, both students at BYU-H and from Highland Utah area where Denise and Danny live.  We were grateful they were here to fill the gap of family.  We are finding we are all family…  we spent two nights with Dave and Janice in Honolulu, very busy in Honolulu compared to Hauula. It was nice to get back to our rural Laie area. 

December 8^th. 2012 we flew to Kona on the big island to visit again with Dave and Janice.  Good thing they come on business so they can give us guided tours of areas they have been.  Also being a senior missionary couple we are able to take a break from the missionary work unlike the young elders and sisters.

While on the big island we drove to Hilo and Dave and Dennis took a- doors-off helicopter ride over the volcano, hoping to get some good photos.  Not much action.  We also got to see the Kona Temple it is right next to the stake center where we went to Sacrament Meeting on Sunday.  Our trip was too short to go to a session.  We also had the opportunity to visit with  Elder and Sister Raiper who were in the MTC with us.

Our classes in Kahana Valley are going well.  On November 28^th we challenged the girls to baptism. We are hoping they can be ready by the 29^th of December.  They have moved and are  not always at our classes.  It has been hard to track them down. Their mom and dad did give permission for them to be baptized, this is a huge step for them since the mother and father are not members and are not married or living together ( too common here).   We will update later.

Christmas in Hawaii 2012, never thought we would be in Hawaii for Christmas, have to admit it is a lot warmer than Utah.  Denise and Sarah sent pictures of their blizzard.  We felt grateful to be here.

Christmas eve we went to the mission home to have dinner with the senior missionaries that work in the mission office and the military missionaries and of course President Dalton and Sister Dalton.  They prepared a special filet mignon that was marinated for eight hours and baked, very good. 

Christmas day we were able to face time with all of our children and grandchildren. We missed being with them but it is a blessing to be here where the Lord has called us.

We had breakfast with the young Elders and Sisters in our Zone. They are very dedicated to their calling.  Most of them had called home and were happy to have talked to their families.  We had dinner with some of the young missionaries who did not get have dinner with the ward members and two other senior couples.  Later about 7:00 PM we attended a white elephant gift exchange with the young Elders and Sisters.  That was fun to be with them.

The Tongan ward had three Christmas activities, a ward dinner, a ward dance and of course the ward Christmas Sacrament program.

After the Samoan ward meeting a few weeks ago the bishop has a unique way of suggesting that he would like us to speak in Sacrament Meeting, he said “ Our ward would be so blessed to hear from you” how do you turn that speaking request down. 

With the help of the Young Elders that are in our district we were able to baptize two of the young girls that we have been teaching in our Kahana Valley class for several months.  Elder Allen performed the baptism on December 29^th and Dennis confirmed them on December 30^th.

So that ended our six months in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. It has been a great experience and blessing.

MERRY CHRISTMAS...

Sorry for the interruption of updates...

We had a few "technical difficulties" in memory issues...not memory for what has been happening with my parents mission but memory space for the blog.  We are still trying to figure it all out but here is a very brief update...almost as a test run for us :)

My parents had a good Christmas.  We were able to FaceTime with them twice that day and that was a lot of fun.  I will let them update more on Christmas but here is a picture of the Christmas dinner they were invited to.

LOOKS DELICIOUS!!! 

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 :)