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!