Kona April 8 - 14

Kona April 8 – 14

The Apartment

 

This is the last Sabbath Day Post from the Kona Coffee Villas (KCV), our home for the last 11+ months.  There is much we will miss about living here, mostly the cooler weather!  It has been a nice apartment to live in, with everything we have needed to be comfortable and safe.  There have been noisy times and a few times when the police had to break up domestic disturbances in the complex late at night but we have been safe and secure.  I suppose it comes with living in a complex with about 120+ units built on the side of Hualalai volcano but we won’t miss the traffic noise and the steep driveways that kill the knees while walking.  We are just listening to one of our favorite Hawaiian albums by Keola Beamer and Raiatea Helm while keying this post and Keola just sang “Our Time for Letting Go.” I guess he’s right!

We have missed serving every day in the Temple this week.  As we noted earlier, this week and next week the Temple is closed for cleaning and maintenance. Our assigned week begins Monday but we had the opportunity to substitute for the other Missionary couple last Wednesday so they could take some visiting friends to Hilo to catch their flight.  It was good to be back in the Temple and dressed in white again even though the Temple was not as orderly as it usually is. 

Our expected duties were to answer phones and schedule appointments but things turned out to be more exciting than we anticipated.  Shortly after we arrived, the First Counselor in the Presidency asked me to assist him with a problem with the AV system.  Apparently on Tuesday, there was an upgrade performed remotely from Salt Lake to the system.  A problem arose after the update was completed and Salt Lake had lost the ability to communicate with the system. Between the two of us, we were able to diagnose the problems and with their assistance, restore the system.  Just another technology adventure to be solved with the help of the spirit!  I do have a greater appreciation for the skills of those folks on my former professional staff (in my working days) who routinely fixed networks, computers and complex communications problems without my limited knowledge or assistance.

Last Monday, we received a phone call from some of our friends in Boise who were visiting in Kona for the week.  They had been here last October and when they left, they gave us their beach chairs and umbrella due to the cost of shipping them back to the mainland.  They asked if we still had them and if they could borrow them for a few days while they were visiting.  We met them at our favorite beach, Honokohau with the chairs and had a nice visit.  They returned the chairs today at church and are heading back to Boise this evening.  It was great to see friends from our home stake again.

Last Car Wash

Monday begins the last two weeks of our mission.  We’ve been invited to a “hands on” Luau at a former Temple President’s home Monday afternoon.  On Tuesday, we have the two full-time missionaries into our home for dinner.  Thursday, we have been invited up to Auntie Dorothy’s for dinner and another dinner invitation for Friday at Auntie Arlene’s.  At this rate we will have to buy a new wardrobe before we leave for home.

The new Temple missionaries arrive Thursday evening and we will welcome them into the apartment on Friday when we move into our Time-share for the last 10 days.  It’s good that we will be busy moving, training, and saying Aloha to dear friends because it will help the time pass quickly and ease the sorrow of leaving this most beautiful Mission.

Today, the Ward sang Aloha ‘Oe to a family leaving the ward and it was even hard to join in this beautiful song of farewell.  While we will be speaking in our ward next Sunday, we hope they will wait for the following Sabbath to offer this honor to us.  We will be a basket case of Na Maka Wai, (tears)!

Love and Aloha from Paradise.

Packing for the First Move