Elder Cameron and I were invited to learn how to make flower leis, from "real" Polynesians. So off we went!

Kerri sent the kids out to pick Bougainvillea petals, Plumeria blossoms, Crown flowers and Ti leaves.

       Cutting off the stems and loading the petals on the thread with 8 inch needles.

Elder Cameron, acting like he doesn't know anything about flowers.

He did learn some new techniques.

Creating a pattern with two colors of the Plumeria.

    Stirling took over loading the petals, while I trimmed the stems.

As time went by, more of this lovely family came to help. Three of the women in dark shirts are sisters. The one in the center is a daughter. Kerri was surprised by the skills of the "white boy".

Four different types of Lei's being constructed.

Kerri working on the Ti leaves. They are picked and frozen overnight so they are pliable and don't break when twisted.

Elder Cameron's work. Check out how well it matches my dress.

Tranque and Jax doing the Ti leaf lei's

Sofia, learning from her, very patient, Auntie.

She was so pleased with her finished lei.

Some one "stole" my ipad and captured me cutting stems off the Crown flower. If you make the picture bigger, on the left, Tranque is stringing the Crown flowers. We were also served curry, for dinner. See it there to my left? It was delicious! Go ahead. Try to turn down food. It. Will. Not. Happen.

The cook and ipad snatcher, cutting his own hair. He is a dancer at the Polynesian Cultural center. The black markings on his back, arms and legs are Samoan Tattoos. We do family history on computers. Earlier Jews (Nephi) did theirs on brass. Samoans (and others) do their family history on their bodies.

The lei's were quickly whisked away, bagged, and put in the fridge before I got pictures. A family member was graduating from high school, the next day and all the lei's made were for him. 

Aloha

Random Acts and P-Day Fun

 Elder Cameron spoils the Sister missionaries and makes them cookies and invites them to our pad to make their own cookies, which they love to do. They always clean up. Yay!
Sisters, Yeung, Weygandt, Miao, Tausinga, Hamano, and Kim.

 Sister Leng (Cambodia) watching Elder Egbert (Utah) make ties.

 Elders Graham (Canada) and Cox (Utah) are the resident tie making experts. Elder Boyd (Arizona) who is seated, doesn't have a clue what he is about to learn. The sewing elders decided they wanted to make 8 ties to match the Visitor Center Sisters dresses. (We're all in the same Zone). They scrounged some matching fabric and cut out 9 ties. (Elder Cameron gets one, too.) Off we went to the sewing lab at BYUH.

 Elders Boyd and Egbert got some brief sewing lessons by these two and given some cut out ties and instructed to sew them. Even Elder Cameron made one, but, he has some experience. There was some ripping out that was needed and some creative ironing, stitch witchery and hand stitching.

I think their finished product turned our pretty darn well. They will wear them to our final Zone Conference with our mission president, this Friday. He goes home in two weeks, after three years service.

Busted! Sister Cameron, eating cotton candy at our branch party. There are two, four year old children having life threatening surgery, this month, that are in our family branch. The primary hosted a family dinner/party to wish them well and to support the  concerned parents. It was very well attended and for a few hours, only happiness and silliness, reigned. We hope for the best for our Grif and Tausa'afia. Add your prayers to ours, if you'd like to.

Beautiful sunset at Sunset Beach.

Aloha

Very Temporary Assignment

The Visitors Center in Laie, has twenty five sister missionaries and three senior couples that are assigned to serve there. Last Friday, they had the unique and exclusive opportunity to have Elder Renlund, an apostle, come and spend two hours with just them. Elder Cameron and I were asked to cover for them, as we had our own meeting with him the following day, in Honolulu. 

Sister Cameron, trying to look official and welcoming.

The Savior of our world watching over Elder Cameron.

 Elder Cameron, always ready to help and direct.

 This picture makes one think all was calm...and it was... until the phone rang, the mail was delivered and China arrived, all at the same time. Can't take pictures when you're busy. We had 179 visitors during our two hours. 

Elder and Sister Renlund with

 Elder and Sister Swinton ~Visitor Center Directors

Young Single Adult Activity-Hawaiian Style

  

This is the third annual 'YSA Island Wide - Slip and Slide'.

Yes, Island Wide. Our YSA Branch hosted this activity at Waimea Bay, and we had 750 people, of all ages, sign in and participate. It was some kind of fun! 

    

Waimea Bay before we showed up!

The sand is smoothed by dragging 2x4's over it, three layers of heavy plastic laid down, tucked in and secured by sand. 

Elder Cameron and President Fullmer, from the branch. He is the 
construction expert and supplier of the materials for this day. We never did figure out why he had this helmet on, but, when his wife showed up, she told him "you look like an idiot. Take it off". He did! He has the energy of ten men and the missionary spirit of a hundred men. He knows how to get things done!

Sign up table for the participants. They had to sign a liability waiver because someone got hurt, last year. We signed up people for seven hours.

This is Noah. Check out his spatula. It is made entirely from tin foil. There were 1000 hot dogs cooked. We could have used more. (And a real spatula).

Feeding the hungry sliders. Yup, 1000 hot dogs and buns and a boatload of condiments.

A few action shots!

A piece of carpet at the take-off. That white pipe has holes drilled along the length of it. It is connected to a tube that is is connected to a generator that continually pumps water which results in an island sized slide. Perfect! 

It was a memorable day.

Beautiful, Waimea Bay.

Aloha

A few beautiful flowers of the beautiful islands.

Hibiscus

Red Ginger

Pink Ginger

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

Hibiscus

Crown Flower

 Heliconia

Water Lily, Elder Cameron nurtured for the neighbor, while they were on the mainland.

 My favorite: Plumeria of any color

Beautiful!

Who thinks of strapping an orchid to a tree?

Orchid on a tree

 Another orchid

Spider Lily

Monsterra

 Fan Palm

Heliconia

Aloha

Bento Boxes and Friendship

Fred, is in our Sunset Family Branch Presidency. When he was much younger, his family (14 children) moved from the Philippines to Hawaii, so his family could work on the sugar plantations. There were also Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Polynesians and probably other nationalities, but these were what he remembered.                                                                      

Each day, the plantation workers would 

bring their lunches in a type of three

tiered Bento box. The hot soup in the bottom, so it could warm the rice above it, on the second level, and the cooler dessert, on the top. At lunchtime, the workers would gather and share whatever they had in their lunches with one another. Although they couldn't understand each other, very well, they became good friends. When World War II broke out, all of the plantations workers were sent home to their countries of origin.

Back in the Philippines, Fred and his siblings still attended school. He remembers the Japanese soldiers making the teachers dig pits and then cutting off their heads, in front of the children, to intimidate and control the kids and their parents.  

Philippine men would often be rounded up by soldiers, marched off and shot. He, well, remembers the day his dad was included in the "roundup". He was marched along in a group of men, headed somewhere. As they came upon a bridge, one of the Japanese soldiers pushed him down, under the side of the bridge. He stayed there awhile and then went home. Later, the soldier found him. He was one of his friends from the sugar plantation, in Hawaii, that he had shared lunchtime with. He also told the family what parts of the city to stay away from and how to be safe. His family survived the war.

The family tried to find the soldier after the war, but, were not successful.

There are good people, everywhere, even in wartime. 

Aloha