Kona November 5 – 11
Aloha ‘Ohana a na Hoaaloha!
It’s a quiet Pule La I Auinala (Day of Prayer, Sunday, after
mid-day)! We are resting and preparing, physically, mentally and to some
degree, spiritually for the week to come in the Temple. This coming week we will enjoy a visit by
three wards of Maui Saints to the Temple.
While we anticipate the spiritual uplift of their visit, we know the
physical side will be tiring. Thursday
and Friday they will begin with prayer meeting at 5:30 AM which will
necessitate our arrival before 5:00 AM, and of course it takes us about an hour
to get ready and travel down the mountain to the Temple! We are thankful for the other Missionary
couple being in the Temple with us to allow a short break in what promises to
be eighteen hour days.
All last week has been a week of hectic preparations for the
Ordinance Worker training day next Saturday afternoon. I think we are getting callouses on our
finger tips from all the computer keying for scheduling and logistical
challenges of hosting over 130 Ordinance Workers which exceeds the capacity of
the temple. We are confident that the
Lord will provide a way and all will be successful! Oh yeah, I guess we better start preparing
for our part in the training program!!
This past week has also been another week of learning for both
of us. When we arrived early last
Tuesday morning, the Recommend Desk computer was not responding, necessitating
a reboot of the local area network connection to the church Intranet and a
corresponding reboot of the computer so we would be able to welcome workers and
patrons. Upon our arrival early Thursday
morning, the same symptoms greeted us. I
went through the same steps again in an attempt to restore the computer, all to
no avail. After further research, we
discovered that none of the computers would connect to the network, which was a
more extensive outage than we’ve encountered before.
After a call to Global Services support in Salt Lake, I
rebooted the Server and DSL network connection, again to no avail. We were not looking forward to a day without
our computers since nearly everything in the Recorders Office is computerized. We then received a call back from Global
Services that the entire Hawaiian Islands had experienced an International Internet
connection failure. We believe Divine
intervention took over because it wasn’t long before all the networks and
computers suddenly reconnected…Auwe and Mahalo!
On the spiritual and more gratifying side of serving in the Temple, Sister Elwood was able to schedule and assist a couple coming to the Temple for the first time on Saturday. We learned from some of their ward members, that this couple, in their mid-fifties in age, was very poor and had lived in a tent before the Ward members got together and built a tiny house for them, a little larger than the tent. The ward members also helped with the cost of some of the clothing they would need after attending the temple.
First, we need to give you some background before relating
the next part of this story. Before we
left on our Mission, some dear friends surprised us with a sum of money and the
instructions that the money was to be used as prompted by the spirit while
serving on our Mission. We have been
sensitive to that responsibility and trust placed upon us. In our blog, we have related in word and
pictures about the beautiful Orchid Aisle leading to the entrance of the Temple
that is maintained by local members at a cost of their own time and money. This is such a beautiful and peaceful pathway
leading to the Temple! We felt prompted
to use some of this money to purchase beautiful Orchids to contribute to this
beauty for all to enjoy.
The compassionate and sensitive half of this companionship and
you know who that is, felt inspired to make an anonymous donation to this
couple of the remainder of this money to help them purchase the ceremonial
clothing they will need to return to the Temple often. We composed a little note of congratulation
and encouragement, put it in one of our note cards with a picture of the Kona
Temple and gave it to the Temple President to give to them. The love of the saints on this Island for each
other is amazing and inspiring!
We will forgo any comments about the weather here versus the
weather there other than to say that we miss the change of seasons. The biggest change we have noted is that the
daily highs have dropped a couple of degrees on average! Enjoy your seasons!!
Much love and aloha from Paradise!Some pictures of our favorite P-Day beach, Honokohau Beach!
Sea Kyaker!
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