Kona June 10 - 17

Kona June 10-17

Hau’oli La Makuakane, Happy Father’s Day, to all you Father’s on this special day honoring fathers.  I am reminded that of all the titles our Heavenly Father could have chosen He chose the title of “Father.”

This past week has been an extraordinary blurring of time, service and spirituality!  We have been blessed to have members of the Pi’ilani Ward from Maui in the temple this past week.  Their dedication to temple service is inspiring! Beginning very early in the morning until early evening they faithfully serve in all areas of the temple and bring their own Family File cards to do their work.  Most of their sessions are in Tongan and we have had several interesting experiences with this language as we had the opportunity to serve as Ordinance Workers for some sessions.  Needless to say, my limited knowledge of Hawaiian did not particularly translate into Tongan.

One other observation, you do not want to confront a group of Tongans or physically provoke them.  I was particularly impressed by the High Priest Group Leader of the ward that I worked with to meet their scheduling needs.  This giant, humble man, who could have crushed me like a grape, gave me a hug and said, “I love you Elder Elwood and thanks for your assistance!” This brother was as physically powerful as he was powerful in spirit.  We felt like vertically and horizontally challenged little white people as we mingled with these beautiful Saints!

On Saturday, we were invited to a 90th Birthday Celebration for Auntie Dorothy, one of the sweet sisters in our Ward.  She is so spry and happy, she made us welcome the very first time we met her and we have come to love her and her spirit of Aloha! Her family provided a great feast of rice, potato-mac salad, green salad, teriyaki beef, Kahlua pork, chicken, barbeque pork, watermelon and of course, birthday cake.  They insisted we take home bags of food and we now have enough to make several big meals.  We bought a scale so we can monitor our weight!

Today at Sacrament meeting we heard from the Second Counselor in the Temple Presidency and his wife.  Her talk was very inspiring about her genealogy experiences and being Chinese, she has traced some lines back 25 generations! His talk was one of the funniest deliveries we have ever heard in church but through his words,  great principles were taught.  We’re sure his delivery kept the attention of everyone, including youth, and the principles he taught will remain with us all.  As usual, the clock is only a suggestion in Hawaii (Hawaiian Time) and the meeting ran over time by half an hour!

After church, we met the Juetts, who are closely related to three of our nephews and niece on the mainland. They were delightful to talk to and learn more about them.  She is a member of the Tabernacle Choir and he is an educator.  We gave them directions to some great beaches and places to visit here on Ka Mokupuni Nui, the Big Island, and look forward to seeing them in the Temple this week. 

Also at church, we met President Dalton, President of the Honolulu Hawaii Mission.  Our service is within the Honolulu Hawaii Mission but our Mission President is our Temple President, President Mossman.  It was good to put a face with the name as the temple occasionally has dealings with the Mission office.

This evening we have been invited to the Nakamoto family’s farm for a potluck. Carolyn is making a Carmel, apple, macadamia nut, decadent cake with butter sugar glaze as our contribution.  Like I said about the scale!!!!

We express our love and Aloha to all and invite you all to come to Paradise for a visit. We even have a spare bedroom and bath!!