Kona September 17 -23
Aloha ko’u ‘Ohana a na hoaaloha!
Another week has quickly passed by and it’s the Sabbath once
again!
It has been a busy week for us in the temple as we welcomed some
of the Saints from Maui back to the temple.
I’ll share a couple of observations in addition to those we have shared
before. The Tongan people are some of the
most reverent we have observed serving in the temple. If you only saw them in the temple, it would
be easy to assume they were very sober and not given over to much of a sense of
humor, which is certainly not the case. A
choir comprised of Tongans almost always sings a cappella and are among the
most beautiful you will ever hear.
As the sun was rising in the early morning, they would
gather at the entrance deck to the temple quietly visiting among themselves,
many of them sitting on the concrete and carpet of the small entry area. As I watched them from the recommend desk,
one of the brothers would stand and offer a prayer in Tongan; then they were
prepared to enter the temple to serve.
Early Thursday morning, which was their first full day of
service, several of the men brought boxes of snacks and food along with an ice
chest filled with fruit drinks into the little break room in the office area.
This was about 5:30 AM! They then went
to dress and begin their temple service.
A few hours later, in small groups, they would come through the office
to the break room and enjoy a quiet visit and some snacks together then on to
the next session. This procession went
on for much of the day and we enjoyed their presence and spirit of service. The 7:30 PM session on Thursday night was
scheduled by one of the Kona Stake wards and they were joined by most of the
Maui Tongans and the session ended up about 20 more than the room was designed
to hold. Don’t tell the fire marshal!
Friday was much different because they all came to the
temple fasting and served all day without breaking. There was not much around for us to eat other
than the Orange Cranberry Macadamia nut muffins Carolyn baked which were pretty
great. They served all day and we added
an additional session for them in the late afternoon. At their request, we opened an additional
session at 6 AM Saturday morning so they could serve in one more session before
leaving for the airport and their flights back to Maui. We are so impressed with their selfless
example of faithful temple service!
The Temple Presidency also decided to add a session for
every Wednesday night at 6:30 PM to give the saints here on the Big Island more
opportunity to attend the temple. This starts this week and we are wondering
what we will do if they come in large numbers, because we don’t have assigned
workers for this session and the Presidency and the two missionary couples will
constitute all the ordinance workers!
We have always been disappointed in finding somewhere to get
some walking exercise when we are not in the temple. Walking around the parking lot of our apartment
complex is not the best since it’s built on the side of the mountain and there
isn’t a flat spot in the parking lot. My
old knees are starting to strongly object to the steep hills. Today, at church, our Family History instructor
told us about a 3-mile (one way) hiking trail only a few miles from our
apartment that is relatively flat! We
look forward to getting some exercise this week.
Speaking of the hiking trail and steep hills…we drove by the
entry point to the trail to make sure we had the directions right, then
proceeded on up the road to connect to the Old Mamalahoa Highway that leads to
our apartment. We normally take the
Queen’s Highway which is newer, wider and faster than the old road. The Mamalahoa Highway is narrow and winding,
having been built a long time ago, so it follows the contours of the Hualalai
Volcano. Hualalai has been dormant for
centuries so its slopes are covered with a dense “jungle” of trees, bushes,
coffee trees, flowers, grasses and homes perched above and below the road. All in all, this is a pretty spectacular
drive as the road tunnels through the foliage round and round and up and down
the slopes. It is important to keep my
eyes on the road since there are no guard rails or shoulders in most places and
some of the sheer drop offs next to the “makai” (towards the sea) side of the
road would be an exciting but short ride if you went off the road.
One final thought about how small the world is getting! Today in Sacrament meeting, one of the
speakers mentioned he had served in the Arcadia California Mission during
1982-84 which is where our oldest son served in 1984-85. This is the third time in the last month we
have visited with a former missionary who served in the Arcadia Mission during
that time period.
Tomorrow is P-Day and we are going to join Elder and Sister
W. on a trip up over the Saddle Road (over 7200 feet in elevation) between
Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa volcanos then up the Hamakua Coast to see one of our
favorite places, Akaka Falls. This will
be our first sightseeing trip since we arrived nearly five months ago plus,
since we’re riding with them, we will enjoy air conditioning. Pictures and details next week!
Love and aloha from Paradise!
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