A Bleak Hawaii Mission

Sunday October 30, 2022.    Email #56.    HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMMA!   Aloha Everyone!   There is not much to report this week.  Generally speaking, work was slow most of the week.  The good news is that it allowed me to mingle and talk with the students more than I sometimes have time for.  I began learning a song on the ukulele from a few of them who were all excited to teach me. It was a great treat to have the Hodges from our Bountiful ward visit the PCC.  I got to visit with Heather for a little while and loved that.    Our stake president spoke in our sacrament meeting today.  He said that he has never received as strong a prompting in the middle of the night as he did recently to have the members of his stake get prepared spiritually and physically (disasters).  This is a quote from him about the stake goal:  “Every member will make an honest assessment of their daily spiritual habits and make at least...

Sunday October 23, 2022.    Email #55.     Aloha Everyone!   We were able to spend Sunday evening through most of Tuesday with the Close family.  We loved spending time with them.  Snorkeling together and seeing two turtles was a highlight for me.  And boy was it was nice to sleep in AC and on a King-sized bed.  And using a garbage disposal and dish washer brought a smile to my face.  When it was time to go “home”, I was really struggling.  I didn’t want to go back to “real life” with no AC, no comfortable furniture, and back to doing inventory the next day. For two days I hadn’t had swollen feet and ankles, and I hadn’t sweated hardly at all.  But “vacation” was over, and it was time to go back.  I had been through this before and knew that once I got back into my routine, I would be fine.  It took a little longer this time and more prayer than before, but I got there.  It also helped to begin mentally list...

Sunday October 16, 2022.    Email #54.   Happy Birthday Andrew!    Aloha Everyone!   We always love when family comes to visit.  It is very special to us to be with loved ones.  We have had the blessing of Kellie and Cade and family arrive on Thursday. What a blessing to have had all six of our children come and visit while we have been serving our mission.  We are leaving this afternoon to go with them for a couple of days to the other side of the Island.  So—I am sending this email earlier than is typical.    Our mission president before the splitting of the mission last January—was President Rob Walker from our stake in Bountiful.  He and his wife Joni presented a FHE for the empty nester group in our Bountiful ward Monday evening. Ken Aird worked on making it possible for Scott and me to “attend” remotely.  (Thank you Ken).  It was a wonderful experience to hear their testimonies and stories about b...

Sunday October 9, 2022.    Email #53.   Happy Birthday Elsie and Stephanie!    Aloha Everyone!   We had a very nice Sunday today.  Our ward now has two apartment buildings of married students instead of one, so the ward is much bigger than it used to be.  The students getting up to bear their testimony was constant.  That had never happened before.  I love hearing from the students.  They express faith with lots of excitement for the Gospel.    On my way to work Tuesday, I prayed in the car that I might be able to see the Lord’s hand in my life—in a bigger way than “normal”.  My prayer was definitely answered!  But, I’m not sure I will pray for that again—it ended up being a stressful situation.  I rang up a customer at work.  The total bill was almost $200.00.  The wife put her card in the machine and then took it out when it beeped at her—just like normal.  What I didn’t realize (u...

Sunday October 2, 2022.    Email #52.   Happy Birthday Noah!    Aloha Everyone!   Oh, how I love general conference weekend!  Scott and I made the mistake of believing that we could access the Saturday morning session later that day, so we decided to not get up and watch it at 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning.  We were wrong. It wasn’t available until much later, and I was upset at myself all day for not making the effort to get up a little earlier.  I awoke at 6:30 but decided that I wanted to watch it with Scott, so I didn’t turn it on.  We are very blessed to be able to have access to it relatively soon after the live sessions.  It is a great time to live.  There are so many talks that I loved, and I can’t wait to go back and listen to again and study.  BTW—we did get up and watch it live on Sunday morning (and then took naps afterwards).  We missed being with you this weekend with the traditional food of apple...

Sunday September 25, 2022.    Email #51.   Happy Birthday Jaxon!    Aloha Everyone!   Last night when I went to bed, I had determined that I wouldn’t send an email this week.  I had nothing to write about. This week felt like “Groundhog Day” every day.  Just the same thing every day with slight variations.  I tried to think of some things I could possibly write about. These ideas came to mind:  *Getting my hair trimmed after going nine months without a haircut. *Attending the senior missionary devotional Tuesday night.  President and Sister Bassett’s talk were wonderful.  They asked us to come prepared having read President Nelson’s talk on the Power of Spiritual Momentum. They shared examples of ending conflict in their lives that had made a great difference to them. The ukulele class accompanied the group for the closing song singing, “The Cause of Christ”.  It was humorous that many people came to me afterward...