Transfers

Two missionaries finished their service and left for home this week.  Sister Saito from Japan was one of the sister trainers and Sister Ieremia from Kitibus was another excellent missionary.  We'll miss them both.

Two new missionaries arrived: Sister Stringer from Utah and Sister Slade from Samoa.  Both will be excellent.

Christmas with Missionaries

Christmas eve we enjoyed being with the sister missionaries and zone leaders, and the other senior couples.  The "younger set" had purchased $5.00 gifts and did the gift exchange game.  It was fun as they "stole" from each other.  Afterwards we sang carols and watched the movie, Johnny Lingo, and had fabulous desserts.  We went home to bed and they went to the stake center and played games until 11:30 pm.

Here's sisters: Fung, Cutler, Clark, Watanabe and Smith.

Here's the rest of them, after playing the game: Aguda, Mango, Ochiai, Hu, Kafusi, Latu, Ganouchkina, Ieremia, Bridge and Saito.

Can you match the Country or State of their birth: Idaho, Tonga (2), Kiribati, Japan (2), Utah (3) Russia, Phillipines (2), Scotland, Taiwan.

This morning began with the senior couples cooking breakfast for everyone - 25 all together.  Great food.  Then we gave them a gift from the "seniors."  We bought Chad Hawkins drawings of the Laie Temple and framed them, and also got them temple recommend holders with the same drawing.  Here's a picture of our two great zone leaders opening their gifts, Elder Hatch (6'5") and Elder Wooten.

The other picture shows some of the sisters with blankets made by Sister Eubank.  Donna got a lavender one.

The VC was open from 12 noon until 6:00 pm.  Donna and I opened and worked two hours.  We were busy! and three visitors I helped were from Poland.  One asked, "can I buy a Book of Mormon in Polish?"  I said, No, but I will give you one and have it delivered to your home in Poland by two missionaries who will share a message of the gospel.  She thought that would be great, and her sister, who now lives in Pennsylvania asked if we do the same for her.  So we got two referrals and they left with a new information of the gospel and a greater appreciation for Christmas.  Nice gift don't you think?

A little later a man from Turkey asked Donna (at the counter) who the statue represented.  She told him "Jesus Christ" and shared as much as she could before he had to leave to catch his tour, including referring him to mormon.org.

This evening we had dinner with the other three senior couples, another missionary couple living across the drive from us, and two artists from Rumania who are here for three months restoring the murals in the temple.  The senior artist escaped from Rumania in the 80's and ended up in Utah.  She found the gospel and the Church found her and she has since worked on art restoration in 15 to 20 temples.  Her cousin still lives in Rumania, is not a member of the Church (yet) and is retired from heading up the art department of a University.

All in all, while we missed our family!!!! we also enjoyed Christmas in a special way today.

Our 2009 Christmas

We have an awesome family!  And enjoyed talking to many of them today!  At Ron's suggestion we hooked up our Skype camera and were able to talk to, and see his family via our computer.  Here's a picture of some of our Christmas gifts we opened Christmas eve.  (We understand two more packages are on the way.)

Donna and I bought each other a BBQ and here's Don grilling the first steak (a little tough).

The next pictures show our "pad" decorations.  This set was a gift from a sister in our ward who made it, and does so each year for the missionaries in her ward.

California VC visitor

Today I had the privilege of hosting Amy Mi and her daughter, Katlyn, as they visited the Visitors' Center.  Originally from China, she now lives in Dublin, California.  While her husband went horseback riding, she decided to sight-see and saw the Temple from the highway.  We talked about the Book of Mormon, another Testament of Christ, then walked over to the "prophets" section and talked about modern revelation.  Next we stopped at the touch panel and listened to little children answer the question "Who is Jesus Christ."  She also visited "God's Plan for Families" and our temple corner.  As she left I asked her if she  would like our missionaries to visit her and her family in California, bring her a Book of Mormon and share the gospel.  I was so happy when she said yes.  As she left she indicated she wanted to come back to the VC and bring her husband.  Usually the Sister Missionaries would give her the tour but, lucky for me they were all busy with other visitors.

82-year-old Korean Sister Joins Church

Tonight we accompanied three of our sister missionaries to the baptism of one of their investigators, Sister Keum Rae Ham, an 82-year-old who has been here just a few months from Korea.  Her daughter and her family live in Kuhuku, about five miles north of Laie, and are members of the church.  It was an incredible baptism.  A fellowshipper from BYUH, who had helped our sister missionaries with translation, gave a talk on baptism (in Korean) and a group of Korean students from BYUH sang a medley of hymns (beautiful)!  Afterwards, this sweet sister bore her testimony, bringing tears to everyone's eyes.  Notice the lei's given to her after the service was over.  The three missionaries: Sisters Ochiai, Magno and Fung.  The other three standing in the picture with Sister Ham are her daughter, her husband, and her grandson who baptized her.

Farmer Don

Don added another plant to his plantation.  This time it's a coconut palm growing right out of a coconut.  (Notice the roots under the "nut.")  It joins his pineapple plant, which has doubled in size over the past two months, and a plumeria tree which has another 6 to 8 weeks to go before showing signs of life.  He started the pineapple by slicing off the top of a ripe pineapple, letting it dry for 5 days, and then planting it in the pot.  The plumeria is a cutting from one of the trees at the Visitors' Center.

February 22, 2011 update.
Sadly my pineapple plant got run over by a car backing up from across the driveway.  And it was looking soooo good.

The plumeria plant outgrew the pot and so I "donated" it to Sister Eubank and planted it in front of their apartment since they will be here for another eleven months to nuture it.

The next picture speaks for itself.  The palm tree is doing great.

South Jordan visitor Delivers!

Today we received a surprise visit by Elaine Tschaggeny, a friend from our former ward in South Jordan, who delivered a few Christmas presents from Ron's family.  We had a great afternoon, including a picnic lunch on a North Shore beach, and a Shave Ice at Matsumoto's in Hali'iwa.

Sister Henilieta Kolo

One of our favorite missionaries, Sister Kolo, left early this morning for New Zealand to attend her father's funeral.  Her parents were in New Zealand, on a vacation from Tonga, when he had a heart attack and ended up in the hospital.  On the same day, Sister Ieremia's father in Kiribati had a stroke and was admitted to the hospital also.  Needless to say, all the missionaries have been concerned and held a special fast for the two fathers.  Brother Kolo didn't make it but Sister Ieremia's father seems to be recovering.  Sister Kolo had served eighteen months and a few weeks, and was scheduled to be released in two weeks, having opted to extend and serve as long as she could.  Her home is in Nuku'alofa, Tonga.

Bananas galore!

Here's a picture of Donna holding our box of bananas that were left on our porch.  As we went around  the neighborhood to share we found that every apartment got a box.  Apparently 10,000 boxes of bananas were delayed in shipping and got too ripe on the boat so they went around the island giving them away.  Donna made five loaves of banana bread, gave a few bunches to some sisters at the PCC, and took the rest to the "free box" at BYUH.  Others weren't so lucky and had to throw many away.  Needless to say the entire town smelled like bananas for a few days.

Surf's Up!

Today we drove to Honolulu, by way of the Liki Liki Highway, to have two pair of pants altered and then to Costco for groceries.  On the return trip we decided to go around the North Shore to see the waves.  The weather reports had predicted 30' and higher waves today and had advised residents to evacuate to higher ground and for tourists to stay off the beaches.   It took us an hour to drive seven miles along the coast - a two-way crawling parking lot.

Mission President and Wife

Our Mission President is Stephen Peterson from Draper, Utah.  We first met him in 1992 at the Utah Salt Lake City Mission office where his parents, Richard and Ramona Peterson, were serving with us, working in the office and living in their own home in Midvale.  President Peterson came by the office to see his parents and we had a chance to meet him.  He and his wife are on the downward side of their mission, finishing next June.

Sister Missionaries escorted to Polynesian Cultural Center

Last night Donna and I escorted three new sister missionaries to the Polynesian Cultural Center for dinner and then "comp" tickets to the evening performance of "HA - the Breath of Life."  The three sisters, shown in the picture, are Sister Clark from Orem, Utah; Sister Watanabe, Japan; and Sister Magno from the Phillipines.

The next picture shows Donna, the sisters, and our former missionary from SLC (1989) Elder Tuimaseve who works at the PCC.  (see our posting dated October 19, 2009)

Chinese visitors

A Chinese family visited the VC today, Tom Hou, his wife, his 5-year-old daughter and his wife's sister.  Tom and his wife live in Virginia and her sister is visiting from mainland China and did not understand a word of English.  They were very inquisitive, loved the technology of the VC displays, etc.  The sister from China left holding a Chinese Book of Mormon, and several pamphlets in Chinese, including the Joseph Smith story.  Tom and his wife expressed interest in learning more about the Church and filled out a referral card asking to have missionaries visit them in Virginia and bring them a Book of Mormon.  It was an hour well spent!