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.

Culture Nights

 

Our Wednesday Institute Class

We have had a wonderful week.  The Institute program continues to grow and we have a lot of fun after the lesson as the young people play games, sing, and visit.  It does keep us up fairly late but it cheers our heart to rub shoulders with them.  Janice got a ukulele and so we bring both of them to Institute.  Not too many other places in the world where you can just put a couple of ukuleles and a guitar out and a sudden spontaneous concert pops up.

Friday and Saturday nights were Culture nights for the different BYU Hawaii national clubs.  We loved it!  It was especially sweet to see one of our friends from Samoa, Noel Fuamula.  We
were so excited to spot her during the performance.

Samoan Siva During Culture Night

We continue our routine of swimming every day in the ocean and bicycling around to the office.  It keeps us flexible and certainly gives us a chance to interact with the beauty around here.  The flowers, the animals, and the smiling people have really made us feel good.  

We certainly love our Tongan ward that we are assigned to.  We are teaching the youth Sunday school class and liked the look on their faces today when Janice pulled out several plates of homemade cookies.  

Heliconia in our yard

With Our Friend Noel!

Close the Fast, Taco Tuesday, Stake Conference Lunch, . . .

 It seems like everything here is driven by food.  Perhaps it is the universal language of love here.  We were in charge of the monthly pot luck called "Close the Fast" which was a great feast with many dishes of casseroles,

Our table at Close the Fast

meats, and rice, along with a variety of salads and desserts.  We ate at the staff dining area behind the Gateway Buffett in the Polynesian Cultural Center.  

Janice and I had the privilege this week of teaching both the Wednesday and the Thursday institute lessons because Brother Meyers was out of town attending a training.  We worked extra hard on the lesson to make sure that it was interesting.  Our self assessment was that it was pretty good but that is probably inflated somewhat.  We mainly wanted to make sure that the young people would come again in spite of us.  We did have a wonderful moment after our Wednesday night lesson when one of our soft-spoken and shy students had a chance to play the guitar and sing for us and a few students.  My oh my, what a surprise it was when he not only played well but entertained us almost professionally with several popular songs.  I know the young ladies in the group were suddenly a lot more interested in him!  He left that night with his head a little higher and a little more outgoing.

We continue to keep to our tradition of enjoying Taco Tuesday.  We found a taco truck in Hale'iwa that has a deal on Tuesdays of 5 street tacos for $8.00.  We took Elder and Sister Johnson (the ITEP Coordinators) with us and not only enjoyed the meal but witnessed a spectacular sunset.

We find ourselves surrounded by beauty everywhere we go.  We are trying hard not to take it for granted but to relish every stunning sunset and beautiful flower we see.  Most of all, we are immersed among an amazing amalgamation of people not only from the Islands but from India, Mongolia, Thailand, China and the Mainland.  They are warm, friendly, and most have a broad smile as you pass.

This Saturday, we actually had a little bit of down time.  We attended a gathering of Senior missionaries at Kokolilo Beach just south of Laie.  It was beautiful.  Janice and I swam for a little bit but mostly enjoyed visiting.  We came home and as Janice started a project cutting some vinyl wall art, I got out my oils and worked on a painting.  I had been

wanting to paint our temple here since we arrived.  It is just up the street from us and we see it every day.  My painting ended up a little stylized without buildings around it but capturing perhaps and earlier day here in Laie.

Janice and I spoke in our Sacrament meeting this morning.  Our Tongan ward is so kind and accepting of us.  We are so thankful to be assigned to them by our Mission President.  We also attended the Stake Conference lunch for Laie YSA 2nd Stake.  They had two sessions of conference with lunch in between.  We took advantage of the opportunity to mingle with them and passed out invitations to attend Institute. Of course, we could not escape without a clamshell full of food for each of us.

We are so happy here serving.  It makes a difference to us to make a difference here!

Called to Serve!

Isaac Receives His Call

The big news this week was that our oldest grandson, Isaac received his mission call to the Guatemala City East Mission.  He will start the MTC on May 16th.  We are rejoicing that he will be serving at the same time that we will be.  The cool fact is that he will be in the same mission that our youngest son, Adam served in.  He was the last Lloyd from our family to serve besides us.

We had a great week.  As usual, we start everyday with a swim in the ocean just down the street from us.  It is wonderful to swim around in the waves and move our joints in the cool ocean water.  We have made a goal this coming week to snorkel a little.

We have been staying after Institute so the young people can socialize.  With the ping pong table, foosball table, and the board games it provides a great opportunity

Watching the sunset on North Shore

for them to be in small groups and laugh a little.  As we were leaving one night this week at about 10:00 pm, we were greeted by a young man from India that saw our nametags.  His name was Shan Arumugum.  He asked if we knew an Ammon Lloyd.  When we told him that he was our nephew, he waved his arms excitedly and told us that he served with Ammon on his mission to India.  He was so happy to think that perhaps he could reconnect with him again.  It is indeed a small world.

We also had our first experience taking tickets at the Luau in the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We dressed in our matching Samoan clothes and I checked off names as they came in.  Janice got to hand out leis.  It was pretty fun.  Janice and I got to eat at the luau when we were finished.  It was good to get to know the Grahams and the Kirtlands who also helped us.

 A funny thing happened on Thursday after Seminary.  We typically are in a rush because our weekly seminary class ends at 6:00 PM.  We usually hurry home to grab a quick bite to eat before scurrying off to institute class to help Brother Meyers.  When we got home at 6:15, our electronic door lock for our house would not work.  We could not get in.  So we took a quick drive to McDonalds to get a burger and then zipped over to start institute by 7:00.  After we got the rolls passed around, Janice leaned over to me and said, "So, what's your plan?  Are we going to sleep on the street tonight?"  I drove home immediately, took an air conditioner out of our window and asked the Samoan family across the street to lend us one of their little girls to pass through the window to open the door.  They were so kind and were glad to help us.  I think we owe them cookies!

We have been helping out a homeless man who has been sleeping on the sidewalk down the street.  We avoided him for a couple of weeks until I spotted a young lady marching over to him with a plate of food from their dinner.  I thought, "If she can do that, I must also."  Janice ordered him a camping chair from Walmart.  I gave him a pair of pants and a shirt.  We also put together a hygiene kit with soap, a razor, a washcloth, and some trash bags.  He is wearing my pants and sitting regularly in Janice's chair being much relieved from the hard sidewalk.  He is even waving at us once in a while.

We love our mission!  We love working with the young people in Laie Hawaii area.  Once in a while, a young person will take the opportunity to talk with us like they might with their parents if they could and tell us their ambitions and dreams.  We simply have to listen and tell them that God will bless them for the good choices they are making like attending institute.  It puts a spring in our step to think that we made a difference that day!

Fun in the Sun!

 We taught both Institute and Seminary this week.  Needless to say, it went by rapidly.  It was filled not only with lesson preparation but with assembling the Foosball Table.  One revelation that happened after assembly was the fact that with the bars in for the players, it no longer fit through our door.  After a little consultation and concentration, we settled on getting it into the classroom where we teach that has a double-door storage area in it.  That way, we can pull it out after the lesson.  It will have to remain in the classroom but it is much roomier than our office area.  Ping pong continues to be a success as well as the board and card games after the lesson on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  

Foosball

Uno

And Ping Pong

We love working with the young people here.  They are from all over the world and many of them have roots in Tonga and Samoa.  They are kind to us and accept our clumsy attempts to be friends with them.  We attended a ward activity for the YSA 16th ward at Hukilau Beach this Saturday.  They fed us hamburgers and we got to pass out our information for Institute and visit with several of them while we ate.  

Janice and I have been loving swimming every morning.  One of the deterrents however are the bluebottle jellyfish that can sting.  If we see any of these on the beach, we stay out of the water because when they touch you it can really burn like a bee sting.  We have missed a couple of days this week because of it.

Bluebottle Jellyfish on our Beach!

 We had a remarkable experience Friday morning.  No one else was at the beach.  It was just Janice and me swimming.  As we were there, we suddenly were surrounded by turtles.  One swam up to about 2 feet from us.  We just stood there as 4 or 5 turtles would pop their heads up and then swim around us.  We are wondering if they were eating some of the bluebottle jellyfish that were there.  It was magical!

 I found a Yamaha guitar at the Swap Meet for $10.00.  It looked great until I saw that the headpiece and neck had been broken.  I bought it anyway thinking that I might be able to glue and clamp it.  Sure enough, a little wood glue and a couple of C clamps later, it works!  It looks a little worse for wear but makes beautiful music.  We are going to bring this guitar and my ukulele to Institute.  I bet, we will have students who will be able to play and impress each other with music (the language of love).  We are encouraging that sort of thing!

The repaired guitar

The glued neck and headpiece

Pigs, Chickens, and Chicks - Oh My!

 Wow!  This week went by fast.  We are keeping very busy and time is "flying."  Our Institute now has a working ping pong table and the young adults have put a couple of hours playing time on it this week.  We are hoping everything gets approved and that soon, we can open things up on Monday night for the Institute students to come and gather and play.  We were fortunate to catch the last Foosball table at Costco and bought it yesterday.  lt will be a great addition to our post-lesson activities.

We have been spreading the news that there is institute available on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  Everywhere we go, we run into young people who are eligible to  come.  We had over 100 attend this week. Unfortunately, it was 90 in Brother Meyers class and 10 in ours.  We are hoping ours will keep growing.

We visited the family we have been assigned to minister to.  They are delightful.  Toni was off hunting a pig and his wife, Hele sent us this picture.

We hope to get to know them better.  We wish we would have had time to help dress the pig and get it ready for smoking. Perhaps next time we visit, we will get a taste.

Speaking of BBQ, Janice got me a portable BBQ grill for Valentines day and already, we have had hot dogs on the beach and hamburgers on the Lenai.  Janice knows that the way to my heart is good food.  I love her!!!!!

While we were at the beach cooking hot dogs, an older couple came by from Philadelphia.  They are both doctors of psychology and work only a couple of days a week online.  They travel a lot and work from wherever they are.  We invited them to have some hot dogs and they were most complimentary.  Janice had made a mango mustard sauce and pineapple/cilantro relish and it made the dogs really sing!  We had a great visit with them and talked a bit about the Church and what we do on our mission.  

While we were eating a flock of chickens congregated around us waiting for us to leave so they could clean up any crumbs that we dropped on the ground.  Apparently, it is illegal to kill the chickens in any of the islands here because they are a protected species of jungle fowl.  They are prolific!  We have several broods of chicks that roam our yard.  Indeed, some of the chickens look a little different.  We frequently see classified adds advertising for free chickens.  You can live trap them and relocate them.

)

  The environment here lends itself to beautiful flowers.  We delight in the beautiful hibiscus, plumeria, and bird-of-paradise flowers that are blooming around our yard and neighborhood.

View of the Temple just behind our house at about 6:30 PM tonight.

Smiles and Flowers!

 

This has been a productive week.  We got the list of potential Young Single Adults out to the Wards who might be interested in attending Institute (about 30 wards).  We have visited the meetings of 2 of those wards to personally invite them to come to institute.  And everywhere we go, we put out the word that we have institute classes in session for those who would like to attend on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  We had 10 attend our class on Wednesday and there were 70 who attended on Thursday night. 

The exciting news is that President Haverly (Laie YSA 1^st Stake) showed up with a ping pong table for us to use after institute classes.  This will be wonderful for those who want to stay and socialize.  I am in the process of putting it together.  I am thinking it would be wise to reinforce the bottom with a couple of 2X4’s on each side.  You never know when an enthusiastic player could accidentally land on the table.  Without the reinforcement, it would surely break.  We have started to settle in to our office.  I go there almost every day.  I ride my bike over and it is a pleasant journey!

Janice in our office

New Ping Pong table under construction

We had a delightful evening on Friday night when a couple of students who are seriously dating came to visit us at our apartment.  We fed them chocolate lava cake and chatted for a couple of hours much to our enjoyment! They are good for each other, and the young man is preparing himself to serve a mission.  He is hurrying because he is 24 years old and will not qualify much longer.

We have been swimming nearly every morning this week in the ocean just a couple of blocks away.  It is a wonderful way to start our day. 

Beach between Laie and Hau'ula

  It is also great physical therapy for my shoulder while I am recovering from surgery.  It is helping Janice’s knees also.  She got cortisone shots in her knees this week and she is greatly relieved of the pain for a little bit.  She really needs to have knee replacements in both legs.  For now, she is a trooper and does the best she can while hurting with every step.  Accordingly, I try to reduce the number of steps she takes each day (for those who know Janice – she is a difficult person to try to hold back). Even with that in mind, we went to the swap meet yesterday in Honolulu to shop and ran into a couple of Chinese dragons.  

Again, we are feeling blessed to be in this beautiful place with the wonderful people we work with.  Everyone is always so nice and considerate to us.  We would certainly entertain the notion of living here at least for part of the year once our mission is complete.  I spent a second after church and snapped a few shots of the flowers that are around us here in our yard.  They smell so good that we often pick a couple of blossoms and bring them into our apartment to make the house smell heavenly. 

We have a plumeria tree in our front yard!