Kona January 21 - 27

Beautiful Orchids

Kona January 21 – 27

Aloha ‘Ohana a na Hoaaloha!

Warm greetings on a beautiful Sabbath Day here in Hawai’i.  It was good to attend our ‘home’ ward today without having to travel to the far side of the Island and speak in other wards.  If memory serves, we only have five more wards to visit before we leave.  While we enjoy visiting the other wards and since we basically use the same talk, speaking at Sacrament meetings is more of a blessing than it might seem.  We might, however, be in for some extra preparation if we had to return to one of the wards where we spoke earlier.

  L to R - us, President & Sister Mossman, Elder and Sister Walker, special guests

 

This was an extra special week to serve in the Kona Temple!  Our week began on Monday, with a luncheon with Elder William R. Walker of the First Quorum of the Seventy, the Temple President, Matron, and some other guests.  Elder Walker and his wife Vickie were very gracious and he related many experiences about the temples and with President Hinckley and President Monson (Elder Walker is the Executive Director of the Temple Department).

Wednesday began our Temple Review conducted by Elder Walker.  The Temple President, counselors Matron and her assistants were all involved at various points during the review.  We enjoyed another lunch with Elder Walker in our little Recorder’s office and again at a Devotional for temple workers, sealers and spouses.

After some opening greetings and remarks to the nearly 200 Ordinance Workers and spouses assembled at the Devotional, Elder Walker opened it up to questions.  The questions ranged from the temples in Rome and Paris to Brigham City.  He also told of experiences he has had with Presidents Hinckley and Monson and about the process for selecting temple sites.  He freely spoke about little known facts about the site selection process and how key the role is of the Prophet who makes the final decision.  It was interesting to hear that, on some occasions, the announcement of a new temple has been made at Conference by the Prophet and that no other General Authority was aware of the  decision to build a temple in that city. We all gained a testimony of revelation!

We were expecting Elder Walker to come into the office and review the recording procedures and sacred record controls we maintain.  It came as a surprise and relief to have that part of the review pass us by.  We are hopeful that it meant we were taking care of everything in a satisfactory manner.

Finally, on Thursday afternoon, Sister Elwood and I were invited into the President’s office for a personal interview with Elder Walker.  As in all of our other opportunities to be with Elder Walker, he was very kind and at ease with us while expressing appreciation for our service.  We are so grateful to be led by a living Prophet and to have brethren like Elder Walker who give faithful service and leadership to the building of the Kingdom of God here on the earth.

Our testimony of the Temple was strengthened by the experiences of this past week and we feel so blessed to be able to serve in a small way, in this marvelous work!

Love and Aloha from Paradise!

Birth of the Tree Fern Branch

 

Kona January 14 - 20

Kona January 14 – 20

A cool Aloha from Paradise!

Yes, I know our temperature is not even close to being like the cold most of you are experiencing in Idaho and Utah but it’s actually cool to us and I’m sitting here in my BSU windbreaker.  A strong cold front moved through Hawaii Saturday and Sunday with 30-40 MPH winds out of the north, resulting in night/morning temperatures at our elevation in the high 50 – low 60 range.  Our apartment has the old louvered glass windows that are impossible to close tight enough to keep out the winds, so we fell asleep last night listening to the howl of the wind while we burrowed under the comforter.  We slept well but getting up at 6:30 this morning was on the chilly side.  Our only source of heat would be the oven!

This week has been very busy in the Temple as we are making preparations for our Annual Temple Review to be conducted by Elder William R. Walker of the First Quorum of the Seventy.  The need to get the Review agenda completed and published finally rose to the top of the priority list and by Saturday afternoon, it was almost completed.

We are looking forward to meeting Elder and Sister Walker during their visit.  President Mossman invited us to join them for lunch tomorrow.  While we are not formally on the agenda for the Review, there is a time scheduled for interviews with Elder Walker and we suspect we will have the opportunity to visit with him one-on-one.

Today, we were assigned to speak at the Waimea 1^st and Waimea 2^nd Wards as the second week of our speaking tour continues.  It was another beautiful morning trip to Waimea and we actually arrived ahead of time.  Sister Elwood was very kind to me and only left me about 5 minutes to speak.  All those years on the High Council have proven valuable when it comes to adjusting my remarks to fit the time left.

We continue to be blessed to be with the Saints here in the wards on the Big Island.  The members are so kind and loving to us and we recognize many who come to the temple as ordinance workers and patrons.

During the passing of the Sacrament today, we witnessed a very special act of service.  There is a young man in the Waimea 1^st Ward who is blind but possesses the gift of playing the piano and organ.  He was featured in the Church News last summer for playing the Tabernacle Organ in a recital in Salt Lake.  Today, as he passed the Sacrament, he was carefully guided by another Aaronic Priesthood young man in order to serve in his Priesthood assignment.  It was a very touching scene and Sister Elwood mentioned it during her talk.  We were able to meet with him after the meeting for a few minutes.  He is a very special young man as is the member of his Quorum who helped him function in the Priesthood.

Today, we realized that we only have 100 days left to serve here in the Kona Hawaii Temple.  While we look forward to seeing family and friends in person again, we will greatly miss the wonderful people we associate with and the special opportunity to serve in the Temple.  In the meantime, our schedule and hearts are full so the time will continue to fly by quickly.

Much love and Aloha from Paradise

Kona January 7 - 13

                                    Sorry no Pictures  Blogspot has changed something!

Kona January 7 – 13

Aloha dear family and friends!

It’s almost Pau I ke La (at the end of the day) for most of you, at least if we get this posted soon.  We have been Skyping with some of our family and it’s so wonderful to be able to see and talk across the 3000 miles to Idaho.

This Sabbath Day began our Island-wide speaking tour with a visit to the Honomu Branch on the Northeast side of the Big Island (190 miles round-trip).  We were uncertain how long the trip would take but we thought 2 hours would give us a few minutes to rehearse our talks before the meeting began.

For those of you unfamiliar with driving on the Big Island, you can throw away your concept of driving on the mainland.  The maximum speed anywhere on this Island is 55 but there are few stretches of road that you can drive that speed and the limit is always changing from 55 to 45 to 35 to 50, etc.  We Arrived at Honomu in time but we got lost in the little town of about 500 residents.  Lost!!  After asking for directions, we arrived in the middle of the opening hymn!

We enjoyed the service in spite of being the only two speakers!  The members were so wonderful and gracious; the experience will be a fond memory for us.  Our subject was, of course, the Temple!  Sister Elwood used the Primary song, “I Love to See the Temple” as the basis for her talk and I chose Sections 127 and 128 from the Doctrine and Covenants.  I did take advantage of Hawaiian Time and talked about 10 minutes longer than the meeting is scheduled.  Everyone seemed OK with that, except for the Gospel Doctrine teacher who complained, a little, about her time being slighted by long-winded speakers.  She was alright though, she was from Idaho!

Our drive to Honomu was beautiful!  The sun was just rising when we left the apartment and the light traffic was a welcome relief from the sometimes heavy traffic in Kona.  The drive took us up along the highway near the major volcanoes Hualalai and Mauna Kea.  As the sun rose it turned the landscape into a misty collection of shadows, valleys and contrasts.  We passed wild turkeys and feral goats along the highway as the landscape changed for the rugged lava fields near Kona to the deep green, grass-covered gentle slopes of Waimea and the Hamakua coast. 

The rising sun also highlighted the towering height of the Mauna Kea volcano the top of which was visible in the morning mists and wisps of clouds near the summit of nearly 14,000 feet.  Crossing through the rangelands of the Parker Ranch (175,000 acres) dotted with cattle grazing in the deep grass, we followed the Hamakua coast line through groves and forests of Mahogany, Eucalyptus, and Koa trees.  Everywhere we looked the color was shades of green, lush foliage.  If you’ve not experienced this side of Paradise, it’s hard to overstate the beauty of Hawaii in the early morning!

The Temple has been busy this past week, which is a wonderful thing!  Trying to arrange all the schedules for baptisms, sessions, and speaking assignments for 18 church units has proved to be a daunting task.  Just as we get one stake scheduled, a Bishop will call with a change and we start all over again.  To add to the fun, the Temple President has a penchant for asking for some new report or statistic that has never been created before.  Anyone know of a cure for callouses on fingertips from using a keyboard to the extreme?

We look forward to another week serving in the House of the Lord!  The joy of serving in this special Mission continues to sustain us and we pray we are serving according to will of the Lord.  It will also be another time of preparation as we are assigned to speak next Sunday in two wards in Waimea.  We will be blessed with another opportunity to drive the same road as today, in the beauty of the early morning.  We will try to not be late!

Love and Aloha from Paradise!

Kona December 31 - January 6

Honeycomb Ginger

Kona December 31 – January 6, 2013

Aloha Auinala!  Good evening!

We are not sure about the weather where you are but it’s a very pleasant early evening here in Kona.  The weather this week has been somewhat chaotic here in Hawaii.  Our Kona weather has been very pleasant this week while the winds and rains have raised havoc on the islands of Oahu and Maui.  The weather service reported 6.48 inches of rain on the Ko’olau Mountains on Oahu in just 24 hours.  We have a drought here in Kona but that much rain in such a short time would overwhelm the island.

Our New Year’s Eve was spent at our Bishop’s family compound higher up the mountainside.  They invited all of our family to join in the food and festivities.  In true Hawaiian tradition, there was enough food for about three times the number of party-goers.  There were games for kids and adults alike which were particularly enjoyed by four of the young missionaries serving in our Stake.

Firecracker Strings being prepared for Midnight

Midnight was greeted by fireworks and a grand finale consisting of 6, 20-foot strings of firecrackers, strung up on a wire, sending out showers of sound and flashes for two full minutes.  I videoed the whole show with my smart phone but at 141MB, it’s too large to upload for your viewing.  You’ll just have to wait until we get home to enjoy this spectacle.  After the fireworks show we all enjoyed a Japanese tradition of a bowl of Saimin noodles, meat and vegetables as a toast for good health and prosperity in the New Year.

On New Year’s Day, the Temple President and his wife invited the rest of the Presidency, Missionaries and a couple of the Office Volunteers to their home for a Pot Luck dinner and an opportunity to enjoy the Aloha spirit.  Our son and his wife were included in the invitation and we all enjoyed a very special afternoon and early evening.  Because of my efforts in learning the Hawaiian language, Sister Mossman had prepared to teach us all a little Hawaiian chant or Oli, to further my training and give us all an insight into Hawaiian culture!

Chants have played a very important role in the Hawaiian culture.  Without a written language, the genealogy of Hawaiian na ‘Ohana (families) was kept in the form of a chant that was taught to a member of the family beginning at a very early age.  Considering that some Hawaiian genealogy preserved by these chants spans up to eighty generations, chanting was extremely important.

This Oli was a very short and simple chant that was often given for small ceremonies and even at the beginning of some event such as planting or building something.  I’ll give you the Hawaiian version and the English translation….

E HO MAI KA ‘IKE MAI LUNA MAE E

                       Grant us knowledge and insight from above

O NA MEA HUNA NO’EAU O KA OLELO E

The things of knowledge hidden in the language

 

E HO MAI, E HO MAI, E HO MAI A

Grant us these things

 

While we can say the words, the rhythm of the chant still escapes our English speaking tounges!

Our apartment is quiet again now that our son and his family left for Oahu adventures on Wednesday.  Reports from them indicate that in spite of the rain and strong winds, they had a great time.  Today, one part of the family leaves for the mainland in a few hours while our son and his youngest son leave for home tomorrow.

We had a wonderful time during their visit but made us miss all of our family.  During our P-Day, we all went to the City of Refuge to enjoy some Hawaiian cultural history and the scenery.  The one disappointment was that due to high surf along all west facing shores, a large part of the Park was closed for safety.  The waves cresting along the shoreline were in the 8-12 foot range in height.  They were dwarfed by waves in excess of 35 feet along the North Shore of Oahu.  It’s hard to underestimate the beauty and raw power of the ocean.  After being swept off our feet by a wave during a vacation in Kaua’i years ago, we take seriously the warning to “never turn you back on the sea.”

As with most of you, our Ward meeting times changed today from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM.  Along with the change in Sacrament meeting starting time, the time for choir practice changed to midafternoon.  We have enjoyed singing on the choir for the last eight months capped by the Christmas Program.  Since the Temple President has assigned us to join the Presidency in speaking in the Wards across the Big Island, we will be visiting and speaking at 10 different wards over the next three and a half months.  While we will miss the close friendships we have with our Ward members, we will enjoy meeting new people, many of which we have already met in the Temple.  This new speaking schedule will undoubtedly alter our Blog posting schedule on those Sundays we will be on the other side of the island.

This has been a very busy week in the Temple from the administrative perspective.  The end of the year brings not only the month-end reporting but also quarter-end and year-end reports.  On top of this, we are preparing for our annual Temple Review to be conducted by Elder Walker of the First Quorum of the Seventy and Executive Director of the Temple Department.  It is reassuring to know that we have been sent here to serve and this is all part of that service.  We are looking forward to meeting Elder Walker and enjoying his spirit and guidance.

We wish you all a very happy and healthy new year! We look forward to enjoying  the remaining few months of this wonderful Mission (well maybe all those ward talks????)!

Love and aloha from Paradise!