Merry Christmas

"I wish for each of you a time, perhaps only an hour, spent in silent meditation and quiet reflection on the wonder and the majesty of this, the Son of God. Our joy at this season is because He came into the world. The peace that comes from Him, His infinite love which each of us may feel, and an overwhelming sense of gratitude for that which he freely gave us at so great a cost to Himself-these are of the true essence of Christmas."

                                                              Gordon B. Hinckley

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people that they might have everlasting life.

3 Nephi 5:13

We send our love to all at this Christmas Season. There is much to be grateful for. Somehow, we have remained mostly healthy, happy and effective in our mission labors. We love our Savior, Jesus Christ, and feel his presence and mercy in our lives as we help others come to know him. The people we love most are close in spirit and through technology, but we miss them! We look forward to the new year and all the adventures it will bring.

Warmest Aloha's from Hawaii.

 Hayride, Hawaiian Style

These terrible pictures are of our very fun, YSA caroling hayride.

When the sun goes down on the North Shore, the surfers head for home and the traffic becomes sparse,very quickly. We drove that wagon, full of carolers, through Kahuku, and then up and down  Kamehameha Highway, singing to everyone. We could see little heads popping up from their beds to look out the windows to see what the noise was. We finally quit at ten o'clock so the North Shore could get some rest. 

We had a great wagon with benches 

instead of hay bales. 

First "hayride" in Elder Cameron's life 

that was enjoyable, for him. He was 

actually smiling at the end, instead of sneezing.


Aloha

Some Events

Official Photo

We were asked to cover some shifts at the 

Visitors' Center, while a senior couple attended 

to family matters in North Carolina.

Sisters Furikawa and Otani visiting

 with tourists from Japan.

Elder Cameron visiting with a darling girl from Australia.

Explaining the mysteries of the universe.

Talking about Jesus Christ. 

As she walked away, she turned, and blew him a kiss.

This rainbow greeted us on our service day 

at Pearl Harbor. The battleship, Arizona, 

is just to the left of photo center.

Elder Palmer with "Wanda, the bus driver".

 Wanda worked for Elder Palmer's father, many years, and was at Pearl Harbor for the 75th Anniversary. They were both pleasantly surprised to see one another.

International work detail for the day.

This rice paddy is in the heart of Honolulu. 

Don't miss the farmer in the hat, irrigating.

The juxtaposition of the paddy against the electric wires

 and high rises. It is surrounded, on every side, by commerce. 

Creasepaul Tofa

His family history are the tattoos on his legs and body.

He is in our Sunset Branch and has become a good friend. 

With Crease and Kap. They work at the 

Polynesian Cultural Center in the Samoan Village. 

Aloha

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJmAV0gTp_Q     

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ouu6LGGIWsc
(Thank you, Amazon)

These videos and the wreaths (they smell sooooo good) at Costco started the Christmas season



We attended a Christmas Fireside at the Visitors' Center. The Sister Missionaries sang many Christmas songs and played violins, flutes, guitars and the piano.  It was wonderful.

Aloha
. 

Second wedding and Freedom!

So, the second daughter of President and Sister Pitt, got married.

 Can you tell she had a pineapple theme? Elder Cameron and I

 sanded over one hundred wooden pineapples when we had time. 

He helped cut out these and the big ones.

The day of the wedding/reception, Elder Cameron is putting a 

string in each pineapple so he can hang them. Everywhere!

President Pitt with one of the giant pineapple lights that he made to

line both sides of the driveway. There were twelve of these. It turned out to be a 

very beautiful tropical reception with flowers and lights everywhere.

The strength behind Pres. Pitt. The gracious, kind and beautiful, Sister Pitt. 

Now, the fun begins. President Pitt decided that after marrying

 two daughters, he needed a man party with a lot of meat to celebrate

his freedom. He decorated the tables with man tools. 

Neighbors of Pitts, Christine and Mark, came dressed as Brave Heart to the
 man/freedom party. We had chicken, shrimp, prime rib and some random greens.
 In the end, the party was a thank you for all of those
who had helped with both receptions.

Elder Jipus (Philippines) and Smothers (Arkansas) were a

 great pair of Elders we worked with. Elder Smothers just

went home.  I love this picture of them. 

I have no idea who these two adorable women are. The Chinese love to 

get their pictures taken with Americans. I just happened to be the closest one available.

Our "Hawaiian" Supermoon.

Aloha

http://ldsmag.com/the-sweeping-missionary-power-of-laie-

Their Mission Accomplished!

Nolan and Sharon Taggart, our friends from Homedale,
 having recently returned from a mission to Alabama,
 came for a week to visit and relax. 

We went to the Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe. The name means 'peaceful refuge' and is 400 acres in size. Elder Cameron and Taggarts walked around and enjoyed the lake, flowers, plants, and trees from different regions of the world.

Since I am still recovering from turning sixty, (lung infection) I opted to stay at the main buildings and conserve my energy. I was innocently wandering around and look what I found...a room full of sewing machines and women. They are a quilting guild and the leader is from Boise. They meet once a month at the gardens and make quilts for many who need them. Hospitals, cancer patients, nursing homes, homeless, etc.. We shared humanitarian ideas and had a wonderful time visiting.

 Three Tables, at sunset. Our favorite snorkeling spot.

Since Nolan and Sharon have served a mission,
 our busy Sunday was no surprise to them. 

YSA Branch Council, after our other meetings. 

Look how good they look taking a nap during the meeting. 

Nolan, entertaining our kids, after his snooze. 

Laie Point

Yes, that is Sherri Dew in the middle. She came to the Visitors Center for a special fireside to meet with the missionaries who serve there. Her message was: "Don't worry about perfection. Perfection will be a gift from God. Worry about progress. Our spirits want to progress. As we have questions about gospel principles and become seekers of truth, our testimonies will increase."

Beautiful, North Shore, sunset.

Aloha

Miracles Still Happen

We learned of these miracles in our Stake Conference.

There is a senior couple from Hawaii that was assigned to the
Family History Center, in Salt Lake City, Utah, for their mission. Their family is originally from India. 

They were assigned to the the records department, where they take old paper records, from all over the world, and make them digital. They weren't exactly thrilled with this assignment. They wanted to be in the Family History Center, and meet with new people every day and help them find their ancestors, plus, work on their own family history.

The very first day they went to work, they picked up the top bundle of papers and opened it. It was the family history of the Sister missionaries mother, from India. 
The next bundle they untied was her fathers history from India. 

Seamus, father of a currently serving missionary, related that when his oldest son received his mission call, their family met together to figure out how to pay for it. Two of the other sons wanted to help. One son is autistic. However, he found a job washing dishes. The other son is now a dancer at the Polynesian Culture Center.
Their efforts are paying for the entire mission of their brother.

Random Fun

 Sister missionaries didn't have umbrellas during a quick downpour, so a resourceful tourist helped them out.

It happened. I have influenced the haole girls to wear aloha dresses.
Our Sunset Beach YSA Branch presidency were released after three years. Their wives (without any prompting from me) bought matching dresses and wore them to church on their last Sunday. Their comment was "why haven't we been wearing these all along? They are so much cooler". (We meet in a very hot building from noon to three.) I'm telling you...go with the locals or the crazy Senior Sister from Idaho!

Cool Aloha

"The Other Side of Heaven"

Remember this movie about Elder Grobergs mission to the islands of Tonga? We attended a fireside where he was the speaker . It was two hours long and it still wasn't enough time. He is delightful and still so in love with the Tongan people and their culture. He has had many other occasions to serve with them, the past sixty years. I think he is an inside out coconut, like me; brown on the inside and white on the outside.

(These really awesome pictures are from my phone)

His wife, Jennie. They have eleven children.

 Among many things, he spoke about the time he woke up and rats had chewed on the soles of his feet. A woman came and immediately made him go outside and she staked his feet so they pointed at the sun, until they turned black. He said the only thing that hurt worse than the sun were the rats chewing on his feet. Several years later he developed cancer on the bottom of his feet. The doctor was befuddled by that until he told him this story. The doctor then told him the woman had saved his life. Had she not done what she did, he would have been dead by the end of that day.

Our darling, friend, Tasi, who came from the MTC, with us. We don't get to see her very often, so, we were happy she attended, too. Isn't she pretty.

Aloha

Service Project

These two little boys, from South Korea, aren't part of the service project, but they are so dang cute, that I wanted to share.

Our Zone was asked to clear out this mess that was causing flooding, upstream.

  Elder Jipus (Philippines) is actually smiling.

 I don't know what kind of critters lurk in this water, but they said there were no leeches or piranhas. Whew! Good to know!

However, they did say there were cane spiders, cockroaches and "other beasts". I think they were just so excited to get in any water that they were willing to face the "pond scum". They got the job done and water is once again, flowing freely.

These are some of our sweet Visitor Center Sisters.

 Not so sweet smelling this day!

They all survived.

Not sure about their socks and shoes, though.

Muddy, Aloha