Heleconia at Church
Kona November 26 – December 2
Aloha ‘Ohana a na Hoaaloha!
Another month has passed and we are looking towards our
first Christmas away from Idaho or Utah!
Although we will be in Hawai’i, we will still have some of our family
with us which is going to make the experience much less nostalgic! Rod, our oldest son (Mormon in the new 2013 Youth
Theme Song for the year), his beautiful wife and family will be joining us
on Christmas Eve and staying with us for a week.
We, as many of you, just watched the First Presidency
Christmas Devotional! It was, as it
usually is, a wonderful and beautiful spiritual beginning to a Christ-centered
Christmas season. What an incredible
blessing it is to be able to see and hear our Prophets, Seers and Revelators
teach us about the Savior and His incomparable gift to each one of us. His example to us and the touching personal stories
of “giving of one’s self” are an inspiration for us to do better, to serve more
faithfully and to love more freely.
Our choir practice this morning also added to our
appreciation for the Lord Jesus Christ and this Christmas season. Our numbers more than tripled from the four
of last at last week’s practice! We even
had a pianist to accompany the choir this week!
After generous praise from our sweet choir director, I wondered aloud, “and
Christmas is only how many weeks away?”
This week has once again been a joy to serve in the Kona
Hawaii Temple! The annual Crèche of
Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus was placed carefully on the makai (towards the sea)
side of the temple along with spotlights to illuminate the scene at night. Sister Elwood, always with the eye for
beautiful scenes, pulled out her cell phone as we walked up towards the
entrance to the Temple in the early light of dawn and took some pictures to
share.
Early Dawn view of the Temple Creche
The reason for the Season
It has also been a week with a little unexpected
excitement. Sister Elwood picked at
something on her leg that, while very small, began to bleed. I practiced some of my best Boy Scout
training in vain attempts to stem the bleeding, all to no avail. Compresses, ice, nothing would work. Finally, around 9:30 PM, we decided a journey
to the ER was in order. This was our
second trip to the Kona ER and we were again met with friendly service. To shorten a two hour visit…the doctor
diagnosed the injury as some kind of vascular??? and put in two stitches to
stem the flow. All is now well and I get
to practice medicine with only a marriage license and take the stitches out in
about 10 days!!
As promised last week, we took a few pictures of some of the
floral beauty of Ka Mokupuni Nui (The Big Island) that we get to look at every
day. This is not to say, that as much as
we enjoy the blessings of warm weather and beautiful scenery, we do miss the
cool fall days and colors of home. The
jury is still out on whether we miss snow!
Poinsetia behind the Apartment
Finally, next week will be highlighted by a visit to the Temple
by another Tongan Ward from Maui. Next Thursday,
Friday and Saturday, our days in the Temple will begin before 5 AM and will
extend throughout the day. This will be
a large group of saints with more than 50 coming to the Temple for joyous and reverent
service. Our previous experiences tell
us that while we will be tired physically, we will be blessed spiritually by
the opportunity to serve with our brothers and sisters in the Temple.
Love and Aloha from Paradise!
P.S.
This ship has been anchored in Kailua Bay for about two weeks. Warship? Nope, it's Paul Allen's
(co-founder of Microsoft) 414 foot yacht, "Octopus!"
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