Skipped a Week

Sorry about the lost week.  We spent all of our spare time with our good friends Rick & Mary Ann Williams and Myra Bennett.  They served with us on our Samoan mission.  They were always game to jump in the car with us and go to the beach or to meet us at the Edge Restaurant for Taco Tuesday.  It was like the two-and-a-half-years had melted away and we were enjoying Island life once again with our dear friends.  We love them and are grateful that they came and spent some time with us.

We went to taco Tuesday, relaxed on the beach, ate at the buffett at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and just had a great time.  We saw glorious sunsets and talk, talk, talked!

Myra, Mary Ann & Janice

        We went to Haleiwa bay and watched the boats come into the harbor before dark and captured some of the most beautiful sky and water colors I have ever seen.

Outrigger Canoe Coming Into The Harbor

Just After The Sun Disappeared Into The Ocean

  On Sunday, we drove to the Honolulu tabernacle and lo and behold, we met up with the Wildes who also served in our mission albeit in American Samoa at the same time.  They are a kind and gentle couple and Elder Wilde's Samoan is good.  He served a mission there as a young man.  They are also serving a mission with us here in Laie! 

Outside of the Honolulu Tabernacle

The Inside of the Honolulu Tabernacle

The building is magnificent and sports a reflection pool and a giant Banyan tree.  We wonder if this valuable spot will someday house a temple. 

Elder Wilde and Rick Williams at the Banyan Tree

This past week, we have been catching up!  We prepared and taught our lesson on Wednesday, assisted with the adaptive needs seminary class on Thursday afternoon and helped set up the games and treats for 124 institute students on Thursday.  Friday, we prepared for the coming week, swam at the beach, and attended an evening session at the temple.

Today, we will host a dinner at our home for 3 of our institute students.  I will try to get a picture of them and post later.

We have a couple of possibilities for housing after we are released in January.  We finally got the word that it is not possible for us to extend even though our Institute Director tried to move heaven and earth to do so.  I have not heard back from BYU Hawaii yet about my faculty position other than an informal offer.  They said it will take time to go through human resources to get an official offer.  Life is busy and we are anxious to finish up but are looking forward to some cooler weather.  The heat in our house wears us down a bit.  The solution is to work in our office, drive in our car, or swim in the ocean for relief from the heat.  None of which is a bad alternative.  We would like to be a bit more comfortable in our home however.

Solid in September

 We are solidly back in the swing of things.  We get up early to observe early morning seminary classes.  Work on our lessons in the middle of the day and teach institute at night.  On Thursdays, we add in an afternoon adaptive needs seminary class.  We love our assignments!  The work energizes us while we are doing it but exhausts us when we get home at the end of the day.  

Janice is getting better on her new knee.  She is starting to walk around a little without her cane and definitely without her walker.  She is able to walk further and we are just about ready to start walking around the block.  At church today, one of the women in her Relief Society meeting snuck up behind her and gave her this beautiful lei.

Janice with one of her Tongan friends

We are still no closer to knowing our fate at the end of December.  Our institute director would really like to keep us as missionaries until April.  He is trying once again to get approval for that to happen.  We worry that our name will be put on the "This couple is a lot of trouble" list.  We really don't want a fuss to be made.  I have already applied for the BYU Hawaii faculty position and have that as a backup to stay here one more semester if we cannot stay as missionaries.  I would be teaching EDU 305 (Technology in the Classroom) and be supervising some student teachers.  I would be pretty excited to do that.  Janice could get her other knee replaced and we would be all fixed up and ready to go when we returned home in April.  We will just trust in the Lord and it will work out.  He has taken pretty good care of us so far.  

We made it a priority to spend some time on the beach this Saturday.  We just needed some relaxation time away from our responsibilities to recharge our batteries.  We found a small point out on Haleiwa Bay and enjoyed watching the turtles, kayakers, and snoozing while the palm trees swayed a lullaby around us.

Nice place to relax near Haleiwa

Kayakers near our beach Saturday

We spend most of our time on the North Shore of Oahu.  If we have to go shopping (Walmart, Costco, Goodwill) or get some Mall time in, we go to Pearl City.  This is also where Janice had her operation and physical therapy.

September Centipedes

 August was over before we knew it and now we are soaring through September.  This is the week of my birthday and two of my best birthday presents ever (my grandchildren Eliza's birthday is Sept. 5 and my grandson Isaac's birthday is Sept. 10).  We have been busy starting up institute and had our first day of class.  Our class had 30 students and Thursday night's class had 86 students.  That was pretty good for starters.  We will enjoy our group.  They are great young people!

We also held our Break the Fast potluck yesterday for the 120 or so senior missionaries.  It was good to rub shoulders with them and visit.  

We love teaching our Tongan Ward Sunday school class.  They are so respectful and have a wonderful sense of humor.  We have been here long enough that most of the time we are out and about, we will have someone we know give us a wave and shout a hello as they go by.  

Our house continues to be hot.  It does cool down to about 81 degrees at night inside but we keep our air conditioner going in our bedroom.  Apparently, a centipede thought he would also cool off and crawled into bed with Janice and gave her a bite on the arm last night.  I woke up with her searching her side of the bed with her ipad screen on so she wouldn't wake me up  - - wait a second, there is a centipede in our bed and she doesn't want to wake me up?  We

turned on the lights and found him.  Janice escorted him off of our bed on her pillow, shook him to the floor, and I dispatched him with my shoe.  Needless to say, we are thoroughly spraying the inside and outside of our bedroom.

We love the work here and feel sad that it is drawing to a close.  I have applied for an adjunct faculty position in the Education Department for Winter Semester so we can stay a little longer even if we are not missionaries.  Janice is getting stronger each day on her knee.  We hope to put that behind us soon so she doesn't have to worry about it so much.  For now, she will be worrying about centipedes. 😁

Flowers at our Apartment

Our garden of Eden with Pineapple, Papaya, etc.