Kona February 11 - 17

 Floral Arrangement at Church

Kona February 11 – 17

Aloha ‘Ohana a Hoaaloha,

Another week has flown by and we have been blessed with another week in the second smallest Temple in the world but with the biggest heart!!  It has also been a very interesting week for us, with several new experiences that continue to teach us and strengthen our testimony of Temple service.  This week also brought a sobering moment when we learned the names of the senior Missionary couple that will be replacing us in April.

We had a great phone visit with the newly called couple who now live in Manti and currently serve in the Manti Temple.  After our 50 minute phone visit, we are very comfortable with leaving our post in their hands at the end of April.  The emotional impact of the change has not yet had its full impact on us.  Every time the subject of our leaving comes up in our visits with patrons and ordinance workers, everyone, including ourselves, can’t believe how fast these past moths have flown by.  We guess when the Missionary Department contacts us to arrange our transportation back home, the reality of a release will really hit us hard.

Orange Hibiscus

This week, we received an Email from a couple living in Salt Lake who wanted to visit with us about serving a Temple mission.  I was just replying to their Email when they called my cell phone.  We had a great visit and they related how a week or so ago they had felt prompted that they should prepare and serve a mission.  This prompting kept them awake for most of the night!  In doing some research, he had discovered our Blog through a Google search, and had read all the posts.  Our experiences, it appears, focused their desire to serve a Temple mission.  We encourage them to move forward and follow the promptings of the spirit while preparing to serve the Lord.

Our friend, who lived in the same apartment building, moved this week to her ‘homestead’ down in Ocean View.  As we noted earlier, she had purchased a lot in the Ocean View subdivision as a place to continue her desire to be self-supporting.  She has been a good friend and we have shared a number of meals together.  On Tuesday, she loaded all her worldly possessions and her dog into her car and headed south.  She had loaded her mattress and surf board on the top of her car and I helped lash it down tight so it wouldn’t blow off during her trip.  A little more than an hour later, she called and reported she had arrived without incident, although she had given up trying to untie all the knots on the mattress and was going to sleep under an umbrella and put up her tent and untie the mattress the next day.

The sun has finally settled into the ocean and the late evening is descending into night.  Our love and prayers are with you all from Paradise!

Me ke Aloha pumehana!

Blue Iris at the Temple