Our Sprint to the End!

 We only have less than 2 months left of our mission.  That mean that we have 3 more institute lessons to teach, 4 more seminary classes to attend and monitor the lesson completions and roll, and 3 more Sunday school lessons to teach in our assigned ward.  

Sadly, we took Adam, Justyna, Hazel, and Ezra to the airport on Thursday and sent them home.  What a delight they were to have here and to love.  It helps us make it through our mission to have those little "doses" of love from our family now and then.  We will forever remember little Ezra reading the green sheep book and saying, "Where'd he go?"  We will remember the game of "I've got the girl" in the ocean that we played several times with Hazel.  We will also remember the pride we had as we introduced Adam and Justyna to our students and and friends here.  We played on the beach and the ocean almost everyday with them.  We watched sunrises and sunsets, and went on beautiful walks together.  Surely, heaven holds some of those same experiences for us.

Janice and I are amazed as we look back and see the things that we have been involved in here on our mission.  We have established a gathering place for the young single adults who are not BYU Hawaii students - a safe and pleasant place for them to come and enjoy one another's company.  We hope that the foundation we have laid will be built upon as time progresses here.  What a joy it has been to be involved in helping young men and women prepare for their missions, to adjust when they get home, and to socialize in a setting where perhaps they will find their eternal companions.

We have a meeting tonight with the stakes to discuss establishing an institute council.  We hope to see great things grow out of it!  Here is the link to the handbook about it: Establishing a Gathering Place for Young Single Adults

November Starts with a Visit from Heaven

Sometimes heavenly messengers come in the form of family.  On Wednesday, we picked up Adam, Justyna, Hazel, and Ezra from the airport and since that time, have had the time of our lives.  What a delight to be with our loved ones if even for a week.  We are so happy to have them here to share what we love in Hawaii.  Perhaps rather than describing what it is like, we will show you the pictures.

 

October is Finished! Hello November!

 One thing that they don't tell you is that time accelerates on your mission.  October has flown by and we have been very busy.  We are staying for Winter semester now so Joe can teach his class at BYUH.  We have bought a car so we have transportation and rented an apartment so we have a place to stay.  Here is a picture of the beach at the end of the street will be be living on.  The crooked palm tree is the landmark we use to know where to turn.

We are relishing each experience we have as we see the end of our mission zooming up.  Since we haven't posted in a couple of weeks, we will try to catch you up.  We attended the Fiji Devotional at the PCC. They put on a devotional that shared their spiritual as well as their cultural heritage just for the senior missionaries.  Here is a shot of their depiction and story of their journey to settle Fiji.

We love teaching our institute class.  They are such good young people and always respectful of us even if we get a little boring sometimes.  Here is a short video of what it looks like after our lessons.

One of the benefits of living close to BYUH is that we get to take part in the concerts and activities they offer.  The other night, we went to a music concert that had 2 excellent choirs and featured some solo music from different cultures that are represented here.  I have inserted a video of a Mongolian number and a picture of one of the choirs.

We know that we have included a large number of sunset pictures but it never ceases to amaze us how unique and beautiful each sunset is here.  

Rainbow in Haleiwa near a tsunami warning siren pole

Working at BYUH and Finishing Our Mission

 We have completed all of the preliminary and final interviews and it looks like Joe will be teaching an Education course winter semester and be a faculty supervisor for some student teachers.  The semester begins on January 4th so we will probably be released prior to that instead of our January 11th official release date.  We are working on buying a used car that we can then resell in April, renting an apartment, and making arrangements for the transition over to our replacement couple at the end of January.  Excitement in the wind down the road!

We are really looking forward to the visit of Adam, Justyna, Hazel, and Ezra!  It will be so fun to have them here for a week.  We can't wait to show them around but most of all we cannot wait to take our youngest grandchildren into our arms and love them.  Being away from our family is the greatest sacrifice we make.  We hope they will be patient as we serve.

We have been having a great time with our institute classes and our attendance has skyrocketed.  We have over 60 enrolled on Wednesday night when we teach and 220 on Thursday night.  We love it when we are walking around town or at the Polynesian Cultural Center and our students recognize us and say hello.

We Love Sunsets Here

Sometimes Geckos Hang Out in Weird Places

Hard to Believe these Colors are Real!

One of our favorite FHE treats.  Coconut icecream middle,
topped with shave ice, Mango, Coconut, and Pineapple flavors, 
covered in condensed milk, and topped with whipped cream.
They call it the Angel's Halo!

The Eve of Something Great!

 This has been a busy week and fraught with a little drama as we start to establish a gathering place.  As often happens, when something good begins to happen in the Church to establish Zion, Satan will use his favorite tools of misinformation, discouragement, and lies to try to stop the work.  We have been having the largest gatherings yet at institute since we arrived here with over 150 attending the Wednesday and Thursday sessions.  Unfortunately, we were the center of accusations of leaving the oven on in the Heber J Grant Building because we often have baked cookies there.  Although that is a remote possibility, we are conscientious in leaving the kitchen in better shape than we found it.  We think that a more probable explanation is that when the microwave oven in the vending area was broken, students found the kitchen open and used the oven to heat their lunch. It was as if a certain academic department and the physical facilities department were anxious to point out the inconvenience and outright disregard for following their policies focused on us so that we would be put in place.  That little event was discouraging to us and I quickly apologized to those who were concerned and asked what I could do to make sure that it not happen again.  At this point, we have been banned from using the ovens for baking cookies which is unfortunate because our apartment frequently is in the high 80's during the day.  Using our apartment oven is prohibitive.  Accordingly, Janice made no-bake cookies this past week.  We will quietly appeal that while Church buildings generally are not to be used for cooking, Institute buildings allow it. Since there is not an institute building here, and we are following the handbook to establish a gather place for the YSA population here, perhaps an exception can be made.  We shall humbly wait for the results of that appeal.  We have hope that we are laying the foundation of a good work here to bring the YSA's in Laie and surrounding area closer to the Savior, Jesus Christ.

We decided this Friday to make a quick reboot and reserved a nice air conditioned room at a hotel at Waikiki for the night.  Janice and I had a great time, we went to dinner on the beach, saw the colors of the sunset there, and shopped at the International Marketplace.

We anticipate that we will be released sometime in January.  Our hope for a mission extension did not work out.  We are pursuing my employment as an adjunct professor for the Education Department and teach a class and supervise some student teachers.  We would only do that for winter semester, then return to our home in April.  We have a couple of possibilities for renting an apartment for those three months.

A wild fire behind the temple this week

The Lloyds at Waikiki

The Japanese Marketplace (image is backward)

Sunset at Waikiki

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.