Forever Beautiful Orchids
Aloha dear family, friends, and our Aloha ‘Ohana!
Well, we have now been home for almost a week; been formally
released from our Mission; reported to the High Council; and attended our Home
Ward this morning.
A wistful last evening
Monday had been a long trying day of travel from our beloved
Big Island through Seattle and on to our beloved home in Boise. The flight was bumpy nearly half way across
the Pacific and was crowded all the way to Seattle. We are thinking we will find a bigger
aircraft for the return trip to Hawaii within a year.
It has been a very busy week for us, beginning with a
wonderful Boise airport welcome by our family at midnight Monday evening. Thanks to SKYPE, the shock of being away from
home for a full year wasn’t as big a surprise as it would have been otherwise
as we hugged, laughed and enjoyed the homecoming!
The GXP
I had an extra surprise as we all walked into
the parking facility and there in the front row all polished and black sat my
GXP, full of power and anxious to be driven by the Kupuna again…Mahalo Brady!
Welcome Home Bouquet
Arriving at home began another round of emotions for
us. When we entered the house,
everything looked great and seemed to be exactly the way we left it. We are grateful to our youngest daughter and
her family for staying in our home while we were away and taking care of things…Mahalo
Aly! Our oldest daughter had made the
effort to make up our bed so that it looked so natural and welcoming we felt we
were truly home…Mahalo Jennifer!
After family greetings and homecoming, we were finally left
to begin the unpacking and resettling into our home again. By 3:00 am we were exhausted and turned in
for the night…our old bed really felt great!
This week has been full of unpacking and resettling! Maybe we will get everything back to normal in
a week or so! It also seemed like a good
time to get started on some planned upgrades to the house! A new washer and dryer have been ordered
while the planned new carpeting in the “sun” room appears to be leading to also
installing tile in the kitchen, entry foyer, and part of the dining area. We think we’re back!
Boise Temple Tulips
It has also been of week of some happy reunions with friends
and ward members. We took advantage of
an invitation on Friday to come to the Boise Temple (closed for cleaning and
maintenance) for a ‘tour’ of the spectacularly beautiful changes made during
the renovation. It is so beautiful
inside and out, even with lots of cleaning going on while we visited. Although it’s more than four times larger
than our beautiful Kona Temple, they are equal in our eyes for we love serving
in them both so much. We hope they have
a spot for us and we mentioned to our Bishop today that we would like to have
paper work started for serving once again in the Boise Temple.
Sweet Sisters
Today has been a time of reflection over the past year of
serving in the Kona Hawaii Temple. We
grew to love the Presidency and Matrons so much and will forever keep them in
our hearts and prayers. Relationships
such as these will last for all time. We
also miss the wonderful saints we served with in the Temple and their Aloha
spirit. It has been firmly established
in our minds that some of the choicest of Heavenly Father’s children are those
who faithfully serve in the Kona Temple.
If kindness, love and charity are key attributes of the ‘elect of God’,
we have been blessed to serve with and come to love them all.
Our hearts are full with gratitude and deep appreciation to
our Heavenly Father for the wonderful blessing of being called to serve in the
Kona Hawaii Temple for this past year.
While we anticipated a joyful experience before we began our service, it
has far exceeded all expectations. In
this light we offer our testimonies of the truthfulness and glory of our
Heavenly Father’s Plan of Happiness. The Temples represent the crowning summit of
this Plan through His Son Jesus Christ, so that every one of God’s children,
through their faithfulness, can attain their presence for all eternity. We express our love to each of you for your
love and support. We bear this solemn witness in the sacred name of Jesus
Christ, our Lord and Savior, amen!
E na Pomaika’i i pili
mau ke Akua ia ‘oe!
A time to go! We love you, we miss you!
