A Baptism and Turtles

We attended our first baptism on our mission yesterday as one of our Institute students (Kala) got

baptized.  We visited the prayer meeting for the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) guides one morning before they started work and told them about Institute.  Kala started attending and this week announced
that she was getting baptized and invited us to attend.  What a wonderful event that was!  Unbeknownst to her, the other guides (about 60 of them) prepared a special musical number and sang for her in her baptismal program.  The love they had for her was palpable!   Her Tongan name is Vaikakala which means water blossom.  She was absolutely radiant yesterday and felt fortunate to have been there.

We taught Seminary again this week for Sister Daniel.  She was at a doctor's appointment with her daughter who had to return early from her mission in Louisiana.  She has Lyme disease and some autoimmune issues that have really been terrifying for them.  We

enjoy this after school seminary group of students.  Here is a picture of C.E. and Jay doing a project in class.  

We enjoyed teaching our institute lesson on Wednesday and Janice really impressed the students by cooking fresh Norwegian Waffles for them complete with sour cream and raspberry jam.  We even had students come into the room who were not students - drawn to the room by the aroma of cardamon.  We are looking at only a couple more weeks of lessons before the semester break.  We have enjoyed teaching the Principles, Doctrines, and Teachings of the Book of Mormon.  We do not know what we will be teaching next semester.  I guess we will be surprised!

Almost every morning (barring jellyfish) we swim at the beach just down the street from our apartment.  More often than not we see a friendly sea turtle swimming around us munching on seaweed.  They have even come within two feet of us before swimming away.  They average about 2 or 3 feet in diameter and seem to adopt a "we won't bother you if you don't bother us" attitude.  It always makes our day when we see one surface and give us a once

over before moving on.  Not surprisingly, our craft time this week has been focused on turtles.  Janice is doing a fantastic wall mural in our living room with her vinyl cutter.  She still has some waves to add but here is a sneak preview.  By the way, Malama i Na Honu means "Save the turtles."

I finished my first-ever underwater painting of a sea turtle.  I think I will title the picture "Righteous Dude!"

While obtaining a set of Church keys for seminary, I noticed a fellow with climbing gear scaling the coconut trees in the parking lot in the Sugar Mill in Kahuku.  He was cutting off the growing coconuts and dead fronds so they would not fall on people.  He looked quite comfortable 40 feet up a tree although I would have been somewhat frightened with the sway of the tree in the wind.