Kona April 1 - 7

Kona Hawaii Temple - Second Smallest...Biggest Heart

Kona April 1 – 7

Aloha on this Conference Sunday!

I’m sitting here at our desk looking out at a passing rain shower.  Some of the Coffee trees are in bloom and I can see a Papaya tree loaded with green fruit on the hill side behind our apartment.  It is hard to realize that we will only be in this apartment for one more Sunday before we move down to our time-share on the edge of the ocean for the last 10 days of our Mission.

We have been experiencing a bunch of pending ‘lasts’  recently and the time keeps marching right along. For instance, Friday was the last day we will serve by ourselves in the Temple office.  Our replacements will arrive on April 18^th to begin their service in the Kona Hawaii Temple.  The temple is now closed for the next two weeks for the semi-annual cleaning and maintenance and when we reopen on the 23^rd, the new Missionaries will be joining us in the office as we will have the opportunity of teaching them everything we know over the next five days.

We also received our travel itinerary this last week and the reality of our leaving ranked pretty high on the emotional scale.  We are amazed by the mixture of emotions we are feeling…we’re looking forward to seeing all our family and friends at home and at the same time, sad to be leaving the temple and people we have grown to love so much.

Last Tuesday, we were invited to lunch by one of the temple Sealers, one of our Ordinance Workers, two of our wonderful office volunteers and some dear sisters from our ward.  We had a great time over lunch as we had the opportunity to learn more about each other, reminisce and to enjoy each other’s company. 

We will share a little story about our host, Brother D. (our policy of privacy).  Brother D is a Sealer in the Kona Temple, serving on the Tuesday morning shift.  When we first got to know him, we noticed that whenever we would provide materials for him, he would always respond with a “Thank you very much!”

Sister Elwood and one of the office volunteers soon decided that when he said “Thank you very much!” he sounded just like Elvis Presley, who had made that phrase of appreciation famous.  It soon became a big deal after they commented to him about how much he sounded just like Elvis.  From then on, everybody looked forward to the light comic relief whenever he came to the office and gave his best impression of the King of Rock ‘n Roll!  We got him to do that impression at the luncheon and we recorded it for posterity!

A Fond Rembrance from the Heinzen's

The President and Second Counselor are now off Island during the shutdown and the First Counselor remains in charge of the maintenance and cleaning for the next two weeks.  They will be leaving for the mainland to visit family during the last week of our mission so we will not see them when we reopen.  They surprised us with a parting homemade gifts of a plaque, noting our length of service in the Kona Temple and two ‘treasure’ bowls made from coconut halves mounted on Koa wood bases…one marked “Rich’s Stuff” and the other marked “Carolyn’s Stuff.” We will truly treasure their love, friendship, and the gifts.  They insisted we keep the key to their home in Hilo in case we ever needed a place to stay.  Auwe, the Aloha Spirit is real!

General Coference was uplifting and, as always, rewarding to be led by such men and women chosen by the Lord to lead His Church.  Viewing Conference live here means setting the alarm for 5:45 am, putting the laptop computer in the middle of the bed, and watching the proceedings in our pajamas.  Now we know what you’re thinking…we stayed awake for all of the Saturday morning sessions but we do seem to have missed a couple of speakers from the first session this morning.  Oh well, there is the Internet!

Speaking of the Internet, last October we both watched the Priesthood session live on the computer.  Expecting the same opportunity for the April Conference, we turned on the computer a few minutes before 2:00 pm (6:00 pm MDT) and were disappointed by a message that it was not being streamed live this time.  Guess we will spend some quality time later this evening attending Conference again.

Much love and Aloha from Paradise!

Plumeria...first comes the blossoms then come the leaves