June Institute Activity

 We wrapped up this block of Institute with an activity on Thursday night.  BYUH would not let us schedule the building because of finals this week.  Instead, we scheduled the Laie North Stake Center and held a dinner with an evening of games.  Janice baked hundreds of cookies. In addition, she made about 5 gallons of macarroni salad and 3 gallons of rice.  We were able to get some kalua pork from the

Polynesian Cultural Center along with 6 gallons of macadamia nut ice cream.  We have never seen young people eat so much.  Most came back for seconds and many for thirds.  One skinny young man came back five times.  We could not turn him away.  It was a miracle of the loaves and fishes.  We know for a fact that we served much more than the 40 pounds of pork we had purchased.  There was plenty and some left over.  

We typically have the junior missionaries attend

Institute students playing nine square

Everlasting, rice, pork, salad, & cookies

We will not teach an Institute class this coming week because Janice is scheduled for knee replacement surgery on Wednesday.  

Busy Week!

 We had a busy week again.  We are preparing for our June activity this coming week.  We have reserved a church cultural hall for it this coming Thursday since BYU H will not schedule any space during finals week.  

Student Art Work

Clay sculptures (Student Work)

Pottery waiting to be fired for glazing

More Student Work

We are fortunate to work just across the way from the University's Art Studio complete with potter's wheels and kilns.  Janice his waiting to have her bowl fired for glazing.  I frequently take my painting over to work on while she does pottery.  

Pizza Party after Institute on Thursday

We have a lot of fun with the Institute groups each week.  It really energizes us to be with them.  We are getting to know quite a few of them and are impressed with how good they each are.  We have students from all over the world who have made big sacrifices to be here.

Sunsets here are fantastic!  One of our favorite activities

Feels so good to have our feet in the warm sand.

Wrapping Up the Summer Term

 This coming week is the last week of Institute before finals and the summer break.  BYU Hawaii does not teach any classes in July or August.  We are going ahead and holding Institute however.  We will take a couple of weeks off for finals and for Janice to have her surgery.  We have one last lesson this month on Wednesday.  

We are trying to organize a end of term party during the week of finals.  We hope to have BBQ sandwiches and play some games.  

We got to attend the temple on Friday and do some initiatory work.  It was a great way to start the day.  We usually start our day with a swim in the ocean at the beach just down from our house.  It makes the rest of our day so much more pleasant when we do that.

Janice got a cortisone shot in one of her knees a couple of weeks ago and it has made a huge difference.  Until then, some days she would almost be crying from the pain.  It has been a relief to not have it bother her so much.  She could not get a shot in the knee that is going to be replaced in a couple of weeks but it has really seemed to help.  It is a blessing to get her up to the surgery.  

We just got updated lists of potential students who could come to Institute.  We have sent out mass emails to everyone on the list and have already gotten pretty good responses.  The nice thing is that none of the students here will have classes so they can also attend Institute to help feed their souls. 

We continue to miss our family but are thankful that they keep in touch with us by phone and video.  We received wonderful news that three of our granddaughters, Eliza, Kaitlin, and Samantha get to come visit us in August before school starts.  We are excited to have them take some time to be with us. 

We thank God every day for the chance to be here.  We love the people here and associating with the young people here is energizing.  We frequently stay after 10:00 PM on Institute nights visiting with them.  It is rewarding to be the grandparents on the scene here when they need someone to talk to.  They are a good bunch!

Our little garden

We love to drive a few miles up to the point and watch the sun set!

It's a New Car!!!!

 We found out that we inherited the car from the Maui Institute couple because they got a new car.  So we were able to turn in our older bucket of bolts car back to the Honolulu mission so they could send it to the auction and we got a 2019 Toyota Camry.  It is so nice to be able to drive down the road and carry on a conversation.  While we were in Honolulu, Kathy, the Institute administrative assistant took us up above the institute to an overlook of Honolulu.  It was breathtaking!  

We are having fun with the Young Adults and Institute.  Our lesson went well.  We taught on the trial of your faith and miracles.  They got pretty excited when they realized that we are surrounded by miracles everyday and that we just need to increase our faith to perceive them.  We have learned in our old age that you can only have so many coincidences in a row before you have to admit that it is a miracle.  Our call to this mission is a miracle.  Of all of the places in the world, we were assigned to serve here.  This is a place that is covered by our insurance to the extent that Janice can get her knees replaced fairly conveniently (well it is not convenient for her).  In addition, our mission president did not even hesitate when he learned that Janice needed her knees replaced in encouraging us to do it immediately.  Hence, Janice is scheduled to have her right knee replaced the end of this month.  She got a cortisone shot in her left knee to get her through the month and has been practically pain-free for a week.  Another coincidence?  We think not.

I took a little time Saturday to finish a painting we want to give to our last mission president and his wife.  The HoChings just live about 3 blocks from us.  Here it is without a frame.