Daily Log

 Daily Log

One of our children asked us to share what we do each day with them. So, we are writing it here. This is basically our mission journal. That means it could be quite boring. We try to summarize and enlighten on the home page with our blog posts. You'll also want to read and look at our Photo Journey page.  If you are not bored with us after that, you might want to read this daily log. 

December 17, Sunday

We spoke in Sacrament Meeting. Paula spoke of the "peaceable walk we had with the Lord while serving as missionaries. Mark spoke of having the opportunity to participate in miracles.

December 11, Monday

President Dean from the American Fork Stake asked us if he could come and visit us this evening.  Of course we said yes. When he arrived, we reported briefly on our mission and he formally released us from being missionaries.

December 10, Sunday

We left for the airport at 4 a.m. so we could return the rental car, and wait in huge lines at the Delta terminal to board our plane home.
The flight home had a two-hour layover in Los Angeles. During the wait, I saw a former student of mine, Sam Penrod, walking down the corridor. I said, ”Sam?” He replied, “Mark Soderborg? What are you doing here?” I explained that we were returning home from a mission to Hawaii. He replied that he was just returning home from Hawaii as well. We were on the same flight. He had been to graduation to interview Elder Kearon. Sam is employed as the official media spokesperson for the church.
He asked if we were going to have a big group of people welcoming us home. I said, “I hope so,” and he volunteered to take some pictures for us at the airport. What a nice guy.
All our children, their spouses, and their children were there to welcome us home, and Sam was there with his camera.

December 9, Saturday

While putting together our mission journal/photo book, I realized that we did not have a picture of Turtle Bay resort and Kuilima Cove (which is what we call Turtle Bay). So, we drove to the resort to get pictures and to get breakfast. The breakfast was good and very expensive.
Next, we went for one last day of sightseeing. We stopped first at the Walgreens in Kaneohe. Then, we turned on and followed an audio Shaka tour of the southeast corner of the island. We followed the Pali Highway to Honolulu, then on to the Diamond Head crater just to turn around, since we did not have a reservation to enter the crater park, drove past Koko Head with the huge staircase up the side of the mountain, then to a blowhole on the beach and then to get a quick bite at McDonalds. On to Kaneohe, we stopped at Subway to buy sandwiches for dinner. We got on Kamehameha Highway and followed it to Kahana beach to dispose of the flower leis we were given and the ward pot luck last Sunday (there is a tradition to throw old flower leis into the ocean rather than to throw them in a garbage can, and then to our apartment.
We finished cleaning up the apartment and went to bed to sleep a few hours before we left Sunday morning.

December 8, Friday

Today was graduation. Paula found out that she could buy a gown and march in the graduation procession, so she did that. While the procession was waiting to march, Paula looked at Facebook and saw that Elder Kearon, the General Authority who was the Senior President of the Seventy, had just been called to be the new apostle after the death of Elder Ballard, just a day before he was scheduled to speak at graduation at BYUH. He spoke and all the graduates got to shake his hand as they received their diplomas.

December 7, Thursday

We took the Transfer of Title form to the DMV at the Windward City Shopping Center

December 6, Wednesday

Picked up a copy of our medical records/bloodwork from the Medical Center in Kahuku.

December 5, Tuesday

Today, we went to pick up a rental car. The Zundels drove us to the airport to pick up the car so we could return it to the airport the day we would be flying home. We didn’t know it until they picked us up, but Elder Zundel was having a kidney stone attack. We knew he was feeling nauseated because Sister Zundel called a few minutes before they arrived at our house and asked us if we would bring a container that Elder Zundel could throw up into. The Zundels were on their way to Honolulu for an appointment with his urologist, so it seemed oddly appropriate that he should be sick on that day.
We got the car, went back home and then took our car and the rental to our office in time for a farewell appointment with Josephine.
After work we took our car to Brother Fuluvaka who had purchased it. He lives In Laie just a couple of blocks from campus.
There was a Christmas concert that evening by the school’s music department. So, to take up some time before the concert, we walked to Temple Beach for some photos, and then back to campus for more pictures of the Christmas lights.

December 4, Monday

Today begins finals week for the students. The final for our classes is not a written exam, but rather a written paper or strategic plan that includes a mission statement, vision statement, and goals for the healthy choices section of the course. We told the students that we would be available to help with their final assignment up until the day it was due.

Ka’ala, Michael Aldrich’s secretary planned a farewell lunch for Katie, the student worker in the CAS who was graduating and for Sister Soderborg and I who were going home. She always orders too much food for such occasions, but it was delicious. We even had Michael thank us for our service and say good-bye.

We also had sent emails to past students inviting them to come to our office to get a ‘finals treat bag’ to help them while they were studying for finals. Kaela and Ben came to get their bags, say good-byes and get their pictures taken with us.In the late afternoon we had our final district meeting.

December 3, Sunday

Bright and early on Sunday morning at 6:45 we showed up at the Visitor’s Center for a mission photo. It had been raining for several days, so we had a contingency plan in case of bad weather, but it was not raining at the moment, so all the missionaries lined up on the terraced lawn in front of the temple. Just as we were being positioned so everyone could be seen, the rain started. Some of the missionaries had umbrellas with them, but most did not.  It was just a gentle rain, not a downpour like so often happened so we proceeded. The photographer, Elder Handley, took several shots while the missionaries got wetter and wetter. After the pictures were taken and the rain stopped and the missionaries were dismissed, a rainbow started to appear behind us looking as though it were coming up from the top of the temple. “Everyone back in place so we can get a shot with the rainbow.” Elder Handley climbed back up the ladder and said, “This is phenomenal.” He took some more shots and we all turned around and saw the bright beautiful rainbow. It made for an inspirational photo.
Next on our schedule was Fast and Testimony meeting at the Tongan ward at 8 a.m. As this was our last Sunday at the ward, our bishop had asked us to bear our testimonies. We did and told the members how much we had loved meeting and worshiping with them for the last 16 months. After the meeting Sister Mataele gave Sister Soderborg and beautiful straw had with flowers around the brim. Sister Mataele said Paula could wear it everywhere, so she did.

Right after Fast and Testimony Meeting, we had our exit interview with the mission president and his wife. They were very kind, loving, and complimentary about our service. He said how they were impressed with how well we worked together and that others had noticed it as well.  Sister Bassett asked us to tell them one of the most meaningful experiences from our mission, so Sister Soderborg read a letter we had received from one of our former students, Mira. The letter expressed how much Mira appreciated the time and effort we had shown to help her succeed.

At 3 p.m. the ward had planned a potluck dinner at the church to honor us as we prepared to leave and the new senior missionary couple who were taking our place in the ward. They again asked us to say a few words, and then, unexpectedly presented us with a large carved wooden turtle. Our names were engraved on the bottom of the turtle. We had seen turtles like this for sale at many places on the island, but the cost was prohibitive, so we bought a smaller one to send home.
The final event of the day was the monthly mission “Munch and Mingle” at 5:30. This is the time when the senior couple missionaries who would be leaving in the upcoming month lined up in front of the other missionaries where we were honored with beautiful orchid leis while the other missionaries sang Aloha Oe. Then many of the other couples came up and shook our hands, said good-bye, and gave us more leis.

Back at home we were exhausted, but it still wasn’t time to go to bed.

December 2, Saturday

In the morning we went to a PCC devotional for the Old Mission area.  We puttered around the house cleaning cupboard and planning our packing strategy. We also went for a walk around Temple Hill.

Looking out over Laie

December 1, Friday

We went to the temple in the evening. This time it was to express our gratitude that Adam pulled through his emergency.  They took him out of the ICU today. He called us again. This experience has had a profound effect on him.

November 30, Thursday

We taught the last lesson about goals. We told the students that we were finishing our mission and going home in 10 days. They all acted genuinely sad.

Mark woke up with a lot of concern for Adam’s welfare. His experience in the ICU has not been good. Apparently, they talked about inserting a feeding tube and it was overwhelmingly distressing for him. Finally, today, Dr. Cahill came in and with great wisdom solved his oxygen problem. He called us that night.  He was so grateful to her. It was so good to see him smiling.

November 29, Wednesday

BYUH Choirs Christmas concert. The choir director always has the choirs sing songs from different countries. This time there was a Japanese carol and the French carol “Il est ne.”

November 28, Tuesday

We attended the devotional live for the first time this semester. It was all of the musical groups preforming. 

We taught the class about personal mission statements and vision statements.

Adam is in the intensive care unit at the U of U Hospital. His oxygen is very low and is getting so much oxygen that the interns are not letting him eat of drink, for fear that the machine will cause him to aspirate food or water into his lungs.

November 27, Monday

We started the week by sending out emails to some of our favorite students. We told them we are leaving and that we have a treat bag for them. We gave them our personal emails and Facebook and said we want to take photos with them. The Seker Brothers came in right away.

We stopped at the Hauula gift shop to buy shell leis to take home for the Soderborg family Christmas party scheduled for the day after we get home.

Campus employee Christmas reception at the cafeteria.

We got a text from Christine that she was taking Adam to the ER because he was so sick.

November 26, Sunday

Checked out of the hotel, drove home the long way, around the north shore. Most of the time while we were at the resort, there were huge waves along the north shore and on the way home, there were still large front-loaders cleaning sand off the highway.

Back home we went to Sacrament Meeting at one of the married student wards on campus. It seemed to be a laid-back atmosphere in spite of the fact that there were lots of babies and little kids. 

November 25, Saturday

Paula went swimming while I slept in. We took a ride on a historic Hawaiian train. It took two hours and was a little bumpy. At the gift shop, Paula bought to engineer hats. One for her and one for Adam. It was just like the one he had when he was little. There was also a miniature train museum.

November 24, Friday

We ate breakfast at a restaurant at the hotel called “Off the Hook.” It was really good. We went for an innertube ride down the lazy river at the resort.

We went back to the Monkeypod Restaurant for a dinner of gnocchi. Delicious.

We did a second round of shopping at the nearby gift shops. We got cute little Santa and Mrs. Clause tree ornaments that look a lot like us, so we bought one for each of the kids.

November 23, Thursday

Spent the morning washing clothes and cleaning the apartment.

In the afternoon we left for our Thanksgiving holiday. First, we stopped at the Monkeypod Restaurant which is across the street from the Aulani Resort. The restaurant was offering a special Thanksgiving plate with all the traditional foods: turkey, potatoes, gravy, yams, dressing, cranberry sauce. We shared a plate because it was expensive, and it was a lot of food. 

There were several gift shops in the same shopping area, so we went looking for souvenirs. We found a cute little Hawaiian nativity scene. We had been looking for something like that ever since we arrived on our mission.

Next was check-in at the resort hotel.

In the evening, we watched the sun set over the man-made lagoons and the resort and took a long walk along the same lagoons.

November 22, Wednesday

After work we took pizza for the Delemose family’s dinner.

November 21, Tuesday

We finished up the Healthy Choices segment of our class with more student presentations.

Today was our monthly mission devotional at the Visitor’s Center.

November 20, Monday

Today we spent time figuring out the last two lessons of the semester – actually the last two lessons ever. We are that close to the end of the mission.

November 19, Sunday

We had been asked by the ward Sunday School President to teach the English Sunday School class, but when we got to the classroom, one of the Tongan sisters was already set up to teach the lesson, so we didn’t need to do it. 

In the evening, we went to Kahana Beach with one of Catherine’s suggestions to build a sand temple. Ours turned out to be a relief image rather that a free-standing sculpture, but that’s about all the time we had to work with anyway. It turned out to be a hybrid structure – part Salt Lake Temple, part Logan Temple.

November 18, Saturday

Today is Sister Soderborg’s birthday. We decided to go shopping at the Swap Meet and the Fabric Mart with the Zundels. We found all kinds of Christmas presents for the family – t-shirts, dresses, bags, an apron, and even a dancing hula girl (which we were convinced that we would never buy). We got a matching necklace and bracelet for Sister Soderborg.

We didn’t buy anything at the Fabric Mart, Sister Soderborg just wanted to show Sister Zundel where it was and what a selection of fabric was available. We have heard that the PCC gets fabric there frequently.

On the way home we got dessert at our favorite north shore food place, Ted’s Bakery. 

 November 17, Friday

We took a student to the drugstore to get him his meds. He has been trying to pay off some school debt through paycheck deduction. They are taking out so much that he doesn’t have enough left to buy food and medicine and the other things he thinks he needs, so he has been doing without his medicine and feeling the consequences.

November 16, Thursday

More students gave their oral presentations today.

November 16, Thursday

More students gave their oral presentations today. We went to Pounders to see the big waves.

November 15, Wednesday

November 14, Tuesday

Students gave their oral presentations in class today. After work we did proxy temple initiatory ordinance. 

We attended a Shaka Steel drum concert. The numbers are loud, fun, and entertaining, but with a very limited range of musical tones, the numbers start sounding all the same to me.

November 13, Monday

We were talked into doing one more session of Ask Me at the PCC. Sister Soderborg is a kind person.

November 12, Sunday

Sunday meetings at the Tongan ward.

The other missionary couple that works in our office, the Zundels, invited us to dinner at their home in Kahuku. We had a good time visiting with them and having home-made sourdough bread straight out of the oven.

That evening we had our monthly District meeting. We saw a presentation by a student who is using artificial intelligence to create artwork. He doesn’t use paint brushes or ink, rather, he programs a graphics program with words to create amazing pictures, typically depicting ideas from the scriptures.

November 11, Saturday

We stayed home most of the day doing a little cleaning and working on this blog. 

Went to Foodland grocery store to buy salad fixin’s for our dinner tomorrow with the Zundels.

November 10, Friday 

Met Mary Lou and her group on campus. Said goodbye to them. The ladies all bought Tahitian pearls at the campus farmer’s market. 

November 9, Thursday

Had a second day of student presentations in class. They do a good job. We bought some taro dinner rolls at the Pounder’s restaurant and then went to dinner with the Sperrys at their VRBO.

November 8, Wednesday

We went to the DMV in Kaneohe to try to resolve the odometer discrepancy on our car title. They said the only way we could fix it was to have the people we bought the car from (the Jorgensens in Sweden) fill out a notarized affidavit saying what the mileage should have been and to fill out a notarized affidavit ourselves telling what the mileage really was when we bought the car. The only alternative they could come up with is to sell the car to an individual (who wouldn’t care what the mileage says) instead of selling it to a dealership. Sounds like a plan.

On the way home we stopped at what was supposed to be a garden/art gallery. Apparently, it is in someone’s backyard, but no one responded when we rang the doorbell, so no visit from us.

 November 7, Tuesday

Today was our first day of student presentations in class. The first girl that presented did the best job of all of them. She followed the guidelines precisely. I did my small presentation about nutrition (including vegetable props).

We went to the temple with our friends from Nephi.

November 6, Monday

It was a normal ordinary day at the office except that I went to the grocery store to buy some vegetables as visual aids for my presentation about nutrition that I’ll be giving tomorrow in class.

In the evening, we decided to finish up one of the evening challenges Catherine made for us. We made a pinata/cardboard tiki, fire-knife, hula dancer. 

November 5, Sunday

We went to church as usual at the Tongan ward. To our surprise, the old bishopric was released, and a new bishopric sustained. I don’t think I have ever met the brother who was sustained as second counselor. We went to Sunday School and the newly called Sunday School President asked us if we could teach the lesson in the English class – today! We have been so busy lately, we barely even read the lesson, let alone prepared to teach it. We regretfully declined and he taught the lesson himself. He did a good job.

I had an interview with President Bassett at 11 a.m. 

In the afternoon we took a picnic and Paula’s friends to Kahana Beach. The wind was blowing so hard that we could hardly keep anything on the table. As soon as we were finished eating, the wind calmed down. 

In the evening there was another Monthly Missionary Munch and Mingle. At the next Munch and Mingle, it will be our turn to say goodbye. 

November 4, Saturday

Today we took the car to two dealerships to have the car appraised. At the first one, no one was there for our appointment. So, instead we went to a nearby fabric store where Paula bought some fabric to take home.

The second dealership told us that we had a “branded” title, meaning that the odometer reading was incorrect and that if we didn’t get that fixed, our car would only be worth about half as much as it would be otherwise. They never did tell us a dollar figure.

In the evening we did our last shift of Ask Me at the PCC. Then we had dinner at the buffet with Mary Lou and friends and then the night show, “Ha: Breath of Life.” One of our friends dances in the show, so we were able to go up on stage after the show and get pictures with her. 

November 3, Friday

November 2, Thursday

November 1, Wednesday

October 31, Tuesday

We taught class during the day and then went home to celebrate Halloween alone, in the quiet, which is a far cry from how it is celebrated in Laie – or least so we hear.

October 30, Monday

October 29, Sunday

Today was the Primary program in Sacrament Meeting. The little children always look so cute in their miniature versions of traditional Tongan formal wear and leis. The program was pretty typical of Primary Sacrament Meetings we have grown up with. There is a Primary worker crouched down by the podium whispering words to the kids who forgot what they were going to say when they looked out at the congregation. Some of the kids spoke loudly and clearly, while others mumbled softly or spoke unintelligibly. One child who was apparently developmentally disabled took a turn and just made grunting noises at varying pitches and volume. The “words” didn’t mean anything to the congregation, but he took his turn and seemed to be pleased that he was included. 

Later in the day we went for an evening walk at Kahana Bay. It is becoming something of a habit for us because the beach is close to our home, the sand is pretty sturdy and easy to walk on, and it’s late enough in the day to be a nice cool walk. 

October 28, Saturday

We went to Sea Life Park. We stopped at California Pizza Kitchen and Whole Foods in Kailua. Catherine sent a package with some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and suggestions on what we can do on slow evenings and/or weekends.

October 27, Friday

Paula went to the doctor to have her thyroid levels checked.

October 26, Thursday

October 25, Wednesday

October 24, Tuesday

Mark went to the podiatrist because he suspected diabetic neuropathy. In the evening, we did an endowment session at the temple.

October 23, Monday

October 22, Sunday

We went to the Tongan Ward and found out that there has been another senior couple assigned to attend the ward. There were also two new young missionaries who are waiting for visas to go to South   America. Eighteen years old seems to be so young.

October 21, Saturday

Today we went to Wahiawa to pick up a prescription at Walgreens and decided to see the botanical garden while we were there. It’s not a huge garden, but it is well-kept and shady. We got lots of pretty pictures. 

We also went to Costco and then stopped at Zippy’s diner for dinner. The whole outing only took about half a day. 

October 20, Friday

We had a relatively slow day at the office, but we had dinner at Pounders Restaurant with Saro and Saran Sekar, our friends from India.

October 19, Thursday

Taught the second class about writing. 

October 18, Wednesday

Mark had a doctor’s appointment with Dr. Henderson. Mark had a doctor’s appointment with Dr. Henderson. We then drove to Walgreens to pick up a prescription. We thought we were just getting one for Mark but they filled almost all of them. It was predicted to be a big wave day on the North Shore so we stopped at Sunset Beach on the way there and took some photos. There were big waves, alright. On the way back we stopped at Waimea beach park and took some photos. We actually found a parking place. Then we stopped at the hospital on the way back for Mark to get a blood draw. 

Big Wave Day at Sunset Beach - Paula

We had a good meeting with one of our students who is making up an incomplete class from Spring semester. She has three kids -- two of whom are handicapped. In the middle of Spring semester, she was diagnosed with epilepsy and was having seizures. She was able to take incomplete grades in three of her classes and has succeeded in resolving all three incomplete grades. That is extremely unusual, according to our supervisor, Michael.

That evening we had scheduled with the young elders from our ward to feed them dinner. They never showed up or responded to our texts until about 8 p.m. They apologized profusely and offered to give us another chance to feed them before the end of the month. We kindly told them that we would have another chance next month.

October 17, Tuesday

We taught our first class on Writing. In the evening we had a temple appointment, followed by our monthly mission devotional. 

October 16, Monday

Back to work at the office. That evening we had an Ask Me assignment at the PCC.

October 15, Sunday

Elder Soderborg taught the English Sunday School lesson in the Tongan ward.

In the evening, we went to Kahana Beach for a walk along the water. Actually, the ocean is very shallow right there so walked out pretty far and only got wet up to our knees. We saw a man who had made his own watercraft by attaching a lawn chair to a paddle board. He could sit and paddle around the bay. He said it was quite comfortable. 

There were also three people with four horses walking through the water. The people acted like the horses were going wherever they wanted without control, so we should stay out of the way.

Hoses sneaking up on Sister Soderborg

October 14, Saturday

In the morning there was a devotional at the PCC put on by the Fiji Island staff. One of our former students was the featured singer.

We spent time cleaning the house and putting things back in order after the company.

October 13, Friday

We had a temple appointment in the evening. The sunset clouds were very pinkish orange and we got some good pictures.

October 12, Thursday

Today was return home day for Adam and his family. We stopped at Kua Loa beach on the way to the airport.

We got back to the office in time to give the mid-term exam in our 3 p.m. class. Elder Zundel took care of the test for us at the noon class. 

October 11, Wednesday

In anticipation of getting in the ocean, Elder and Sister Soderborg brought swimsuits to Laniakea Beach AKA Turtle Beach. The water was a bit rough, so we just stood on the beach and watched the turtles bobbing in the waves.

October 10, Tuesday

We taught class and worked in the office all day. Adam and family went to the zoo in Honolulu.

October 9, Monday

Adam and family went horseback riding at Gunstock Ranch north of Laie.

October 8, Sunday

Church at the Tongan ward with Adam’s family. Brother Lala Tuifua gave Adam a lei.

We drove to Pounder’s Beach for pictures.

We went to the temple grounds and Visitor’s Center for photos.

In the evening, we went back to Hau’ula Beach to watch Sadie. We thought that maybe in the evening she would go back into the ocean. We sat and waited and watched, and waited and watched until it was dark, but all Sadie did was lay there until we went home.

October 7, Saturday

We went to the Swap Meet, Pearl Harbor, Dole Plantation and Matsumoto’s Shave Ice in Hale’iwa – all in one day. This time at Pearl Harbor, we had tickets to go out to the Arizona Memorial – the little building straddling the sunken battleship out in the harbor. At the Dole Plantation, Mark found a nice shirt that he didn’t mind spending money on, and we got some nice garden pictures. We stopped for Shave Ice and discovered a lizard in our car.

October 6, Friday

We started the day with a snorkeling trip to Turtle Bay resort. This was the first time Elder and Sister Soderborg both put on our swim suits. At the bay, Sister Soderborg put on a snorkeling mask and put her face in the water. Elder Soderborg walked out in the water about up to his armpits. We were so brave.

 On our way there, we saw that Sadie, the monk seal, was back at Hau’ula Beach, so we stopped to take pictures. 

It was also day two at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We went to the office for a few minutes and found out that one of the other missionary couples in our office was going home, tomorrow.

October 5, Thursday

Went to the office for student appointments and to teach class. Adam’s family went to the PCC to visit the villages, eat at the buffet, and watch the Ha, Breath of Life show. 

Elder and Sister Soderborg we assigned to work as Ask Me greeters, so we were able to join the family at the buffet and the night show.

October 4, Wednesday

We went to the Kualoa ranch for the movie locations tour, a buffet lunch, and ocean voyage trip out near Chinaman’s Hat.

We went back to work for a student appointment. That student didn’t show up, but a different student did, so we had a good visit there.

October 3, Tuesday

We worked today meeting students and teaching class. Adam’s family spent some time at Kahana Beach. After they picked us up at work, we stopped at the Hukilau Market Place at the PCC.

October 2, Monday

Adams’ family arrived in Hawaii. We went to pick them up at the airport. The trip to the airport is becoming a bit less stressful every time we do it. We were in and out so quickly that it cost us only $1 to park! We were so surprised to see their shirts. Christine had shirts made with all our faces all over them. It was like looking in a mirror. So funny!

We stopped for a picnic at Kualoa beach on the way home, like we have done with the other kids.That evening we did another beach stop at Laie Point.

October 1, Sunday

Again, wonderful sessions of conference. President Nelson had pre-recorded a talk to be shown at the end of the conference. He announced plans for 20 new temples to be built. One of them was on the island of Maui in Hawaii and one of them was in Ullanbaatar Mongolia. Those two seemed to be especially significant to us.

September 30, Saturday

First day of General Conference. In the Hawaii time zone, the first session was at 6 a.m. President Nelson did not attend in person because he had fallen sometime needed to heal. There were wonderful messages. I only slept through a little bit of it.

In the evening session, Elder Gary B. Sabin talked about two of his children who had cystic fibrosis and had undergone many challenges like our son Adam.

There was a talk during the afternoon session by Elder Rasband about senior couple missionaries and how much they are needed.

September 29, Friday

We went to the temple to do sealings. We got some more pretty pictures of the temple at twilight.

September 28, Thursday

September 27, Wednesday

September 26, Tuesday

We saw Sadie the monk seal again on the beach at Hau’ula, so we got some more pictures. She still looks like a big slug on the sand.

September 25, Monday

September 24, Sunday

Today was our turn to organize and host a District meeting. We reserved the Asian theater at the Visitor’s Center. I don’t know where the name “Asian” came from, but it is the larger of two theaters and has a computer connected to the projection system. We invited each of the couples in the district to bring ten digital slides to share with the other couples. The intent was to get to know each other better. It turned out pretty well. We had pumpkin pie at the end of the meeting.

September 23, Saturday

Dolly and Steve’s sealing was scheduled for 8:45 a.m. Steve asked us if we would come early at 7:45 a.m. with him and Dolly because it was a new experience, and he likes having a familiar face around when he is experiencing new things. No one had really told him what to expect with a sealing, so we told him that they would be in a separate sealing room that he had not seen yet.  We explained that there would be an altar like the one in the terrestrial room and that the family would kneel around the altar.

There was quite a large group of people at the sealing. There were some of the Delemose’s friends from India, several senior missionary couples, their bishop, their stake president, their ministering brothers and others I didn’t know.

September 22, Friday

Took Steve with us to Costco Trip after work. He needed to buy some supplies for the wedding reception.

We watched them trim the palm trees on campus. The cattle egrets were there watching the action, as usual.

September 21, Thursday

Paula taught the class about Staying on Top of Things.

September 20, Wednesday

September 19, Tuesday

WE had a mission devotional. Elder and Sister Lee talked about their experience on Maui. They were there when the fire broke out. They had to sleep in their car for several nights.

Paula taught the lesson on study strategies.

September 18, Monday 

We did Ask Me.

September 17, Sunday

We went to choir practice for the PCC Anniversary choir. We decided that we didn’t really want to sing in it, so we didn’t go back. 

September 16, Saturday

Went to Walgreens to the drugstore. Then we went back to to Hale’iwai and visited the historic Old Waialu Sugar Mill. We bought some more souvenirs. 

Then we went to the sunken food truck area with all the dumpy food trucks. The food was good, though, We went shopping at the Hale’iwa town center. We went to Ted’s bakery to buy dessert. 

September 15, Friday 

The ward held a barbecue at the beach to honor those families who were moving out of the ward and to welcome some new families who had moved in. Kokololio Beach.

September 14, Thursday

September 13, Wednesday

September 12, Tuesday

September 11, Monday

September 10, Sunday

We went to Kahana Bay beach to take a walk in the evening cool weather. The sand is pretty firm, so it is easy to walk on. By the time we get there, most of the beach goers have gone and the beach is pretty empty. Very pretty.

September 9, Saturday

We went to Costco to buy some food and souvenirs that we could give to people when we go home. On the way there we stopped at Kahuku Farms and then Walgreens in Wahiawa to pick up a prescription.

It was pouring rain, so we thought we might see some rainbows, so we drove past the temple where we get good rainbow pictures sometimes. No rainbows this time.

Paula

September 8, Friday

We went to Ted’s Bakery to buy some pies to celebrate our office-mates’ birthdays. 

September 7, Thursday

Stopped at Hau’ula beach and took pictures of the three posing trees at sunset.

Mark

September 6, Wednesday

We stopped at the state recreational area/beach park, Malaekahana, where the sign says to beware of left-over WWII ordnances. 

September 5, Tuesday 

Day 2 of our lessons for Fall Semester.

September 4, Monday

Today is Labor Day. We decided to celebrate by driving up the west coast of the island (Oahu). It takes you to a dead-end road which is the trail head for the Ka’ena point hike. That is the same thing that happens if you drive to the of the northwest coast of the island. You come to the trailhead for the Ka’ena Point hike. Either hike takes you to Ka’ena Point. There is some very pretty scenery, but we have not been up to taking either of those hikes, yet. 

Mark

September 3, Sunday

We had a mission devotional with Elder Brent H. Nielson, one of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy. He shook the hands of all 150 or so of the missionaries in the mission, both senior and young single. He spoke about the growth of the church and missionary work.

September 2, Saturday

Today we went to Pearl City so Paula could get her hair permed. While we at the Pearlridge mall, the Royal Hawaiian Band played a concert in the center of the mall. They were very good. We also found a Ben Franklin’s so Paula could buy some embroidery floss.

September 1, Friday

Today we decided which day we wanted to go home from the mission. We attended an endowment session in the temple.

August 31, Thursday

This is the first day of our classes for Fall Semester. Things went pretty smoothly. There are some good students who seem willing to participate in class discussions.

Today we took a pizza to the Delemose family. They have cooked for us two or three times now, and we need to return the favor. We sat down to eat with them at their home when their ministering brothers showed up. We politely excused ourselves so they could visit. Later that night, Steve texted me saying, “Elder, thank you for the pizza. My family really enjoy it. The ministry brother also like it. We are so grateful to have you in our family.”

August 30, Wednesday

August 29, Tuesday

Ask me duty at the PCC.

August 28, Monday

Today Steve didn’t show up for his English tutoring session. At about 4:39 he texted me and apologized for missing the appointment. He said he fell asleep and didn’t wake up until 4:30. I told him that was okay and that I was just afraid I had scared him away. He replied, “Haha no no elder. You’re the best man I seen in my life I never had a dad but I see you as one.” 

What a sweet thing to say. It made all the difficult times seem worth the effort.

August 27, Sunday

August 26, Saturday

Today we decided to drive to the Kahuku farm north of Laie. We have been there once before. The farm features nicely manicured lawns, vegetable gardens and rows and rows of vines and trees. Everything is labeled so you know what kind of plant you are looking at. 

The vegetables are not the typical kind you would see in a Utah garden, and the fruits are like nothing we had ever seen before in Utah either – calamansi, unusual apples, oranges, cacao, breadfruit, soursop, dragon fruit, and more. 

August 25, Friday

We did a sealing session at the Laie Temple. Sister Soderborg was the only woman in the session, so she participated in every ordinance performed that session.

August 24, Thursday

After work, we drove to Hale’iwa to look for turtles and watch a sunset in the west, for a change. We found two turtles in the same spot we have seen turtles before. They just lay there on the sand looking exhausted. They probably are. These two turtles would lift their heads occasionally to look at us, but then they just closed their eyes and laid them down again. 

We sat on the beach for a while and watched a beautiful sunset behind some big clouds. We called and talked to Catherine on the phone while the darkness settled in. After a few minutes, we realized that we alone on the beach in the dark and decided that maybe we had better pack up and go home. The turtles were still laying there on the beach.

August 23, Wednesday

Paula was seriously considering not going into the office today because yesterday was so painful. I headed out to the car myself, but then Paula came out the door and said she was prompted to go to work anyway. It turned out to be the right decision. The others in the office expressed their thanks to her for all her efforts in preparing course materials to make their jobs a little easier.

Steve brought Indian food for all six of the missionaries in our office.

August 22, Tuesday

Today was a particularly bad day for Paula. It involved a drawer and an email.

Dolly called and said her friend had an emergency and needed a ride to the emergency room in the hospital in Kahuku. We took them to the hospital and then we drove back to Laie to help Steve pick up a food order at the bishop’s storehouse, and then drove back to Kahuku to pick up Dolly and her friend. 

Today was the one-year anniversary of us being in Hawaii.

August 21, Monday

Paula went to the beginner’s ukulele class instead of the beginner/beginner class. She’s getting better!

August 20, Sunday

We went to stake conference in Laie. The visiting authority was Elder Mark Bragg. He was very interesting. There were quite a few other speakers who seemed to go very long.

August 19, Saturday

In the morning we went to take a tour of Queen Emma’s Summer Home. It was definitely not a palace with only 8 rooms. It was not particularly impressive, but something we could cross off our to-do list.

While in Honolulu, we stopped at one of the Costco in town. It was $300 for less than a grocery cart full of food.

We got home in time for the evening adult session of stake conference which featured Elder Mark Bragg, an area seventy. There were also a bunch of stake leaders who were asked to answer questions that had been submitted by stake members.  It was very interesting. Elder Bragg mentioned that in one of his meetings with the other general authorities, someone mentioned that it should not be necessary to entice people to come to church meetings by offering refreshments every time. At the end of the conference session, they passed out ice cream cones.

August 18, Friday

August 17, Thursday

August 16, Wednesday

Wednesdays at the temple are reserved for special occasions or groups such a stake temple nights. We performed proxy endowments at our stake temple night.

August 15, Tuesday

We worked at the PCC as Ask Me volunteers.

Monthly missionary devotional

August 14, Monday

We got a phone call from Elder Sorensen asking us if we could go with a student to the DMV so he could take a driving test. That kind of threw me for a loop, because it didn’t seem like the type of thing we would do, but Elder Sorensen said he does it quite frequently, so we said yes. The DMV office in Kaneohe by the Valley of the Temples.

We were driving home after Paula’s ukulele lessons, and it was starting to get dark. We were on the Kam highway and could see that something up the road was making drivers sway out of the lane a bit. As we passed, we saw it was two people on a small electric bicycle. Paula looked closely and said, “I think that is Dolly.”

Steve and Dolly needed something at the drug store and decided to get a pizza because their son Roy had been asking for one. They don’t have a car, so they were both on their bicycle riding down the shoulder of the highway in the dark. They live Laie. The drugstore is in Hau’ula.

We turned around to check to see if it really was Steve and Dolly – it was – and then turned around again to follow them to the drug story. As soon as they saw us, they ran over to us to see if we could help. I asked Steve if he thought his bike would fit in our trunk and he said “Oh yes, Elder. It folds up.”

So, we folded up the bike, put it in the trunk and took them home.

Steve said he had told Dolly, “I think this is going to be our last day.”

August 13, Sunday

We went for a walk on the beach at Kahana Bay.

August 12, Saturday

Today we drove to Honolulu to see the Honolulu Museum of Art. We ate lunch at a little café in the museum.

While we were in Honolulu we decided to stop at The Punchbowl, which is a National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific for soldiers who died during WWII. The cemetery is in the crater of a big dormant volcano. You get a wide panoramic view of Honolulu from the top. 

August 11, Friday

August 10, Thursday

The new missionaries met with IT and we all meet with Michael Aldrich. Paula had some things prepared to share with them when there was time. 

August 9, Wednesday

August 8, Tuesday

Today was the one-year anniversary of the beginning of our mission, so we took a day off from work. We went to Pearlridge Mall so I could get a haircut and so Paula could buy some clothes at Ross.

August 7, Monday

The new missionaries arrived. We didn’t get to meet them until a few days later.

August 6, Sunday

Fast and Testimony at the Tongan Ward, as usual. Sometimes when we go to church we have these beautiful floral arrangements.

In the evening we had our senior missionary monthly munch and mingle. As we were singing Aloha Oe to the soon-to-be-departing missionaries, Sister Soderborg reminded me that we only had four more of these meetings, and that at the last meeting they would be singing to us.

August 5, Saturday

Today we went to the temple with Steve and Dolly Delemose to be with Steve as he received his own endowment. It was a wonderful experience. 

August 4, Friday

Paula did Ask Me at noon.

August 3, Thursday

We went to the Temple for an initiatory session. We got word that Drew had an emergency appendectomy. We hope it takes care of the pains he has been having.

August 2, Wednesday

Paula did Ask me at noon.  

We stayed in the office late to meet with student who had to work until 5 p.m. IWork students can work 40 hours a week during the summer between semesters.

August 1, Tuesday

We worked an Ask Me shift at the PCC. We were at the Aloha location which is just outside the Aloha Luau venue.

July 31, Monday

Paula helped with Ask Me in the Marketplace. 

July 30, Sunday

Dinner with Steve and Dolly and family. When we arrived at their home, Steve was busy cooking. He had prepared rice, noodles, pork ribs, a sauce he had created, all without the traditional spices because we had said that we did not like a lot of spice in our food. It was probably kind of bland for them, but it tasted delicious to us.

July 29, Saturday

We drove to Walgreens in Wahiawa to pick up a prescription. Then we drove to Kaneohe and watched The Barbie Movie at the mall. Then we bought malasadas because we were hungry.

On the way home, we stopped at Kua Loa beach to eat the malasadas.

July 28, Friday

We went for a morning temple sealing session. The we went to the office. Paula helped with Ask me at noon. 

Steve came in for an English Lesson. At the end of the lesson, he told us that he is going to go through the temple for his own personal endowment. He invited both of us to attend the session with him, and asked me if I would be his escort. What an honor!

July 27, Thursday

We spent the morning work. Paula helped at the PCC during the noon rush with Ask Me and we both worked the luau in the afternoon.

July 26, Wednesday

We were sad to leave our family, but anxious to get back to work. We got up and packed our bags. The family wanted us to see the beach by their house. Maku’u. Then we decided to visit historic downtown Hilo. We didn’t have a lot of time. Paula bought a T-shirt we visited a farmer’s marked. The actually had coconuts for only $5 instead of $12. So, Drew’s family shared two. They weren’t too impressed, but the experience was fun for them. Drew’s family watched Doogie Kamealoha on Disney+ before they came to Hawaii. The show talks a lot about the restaurant called Zippy’s, so the girls wanted to eat there. So, we had lunch at Zippy’s. The girls loved it. Paula had Saimin for the first time. After lunch, they dropped us off at the airport. As we flew out, we could see the two big volcanos that were so hard to see from island. We enjoyed visiting the Big Island.

July 25, Tuesday,

We drove to across the island from Hilo to Kona. It’s called a saddle road because it goes between two volcanos, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea. We drove up Mauna Kea as far as we could go. The trail to the top was closed to everything except four-wheel-drive vehicles. It was an amazing drive up the mountain. We could see cones along the way. 

Driving down Mauna Kea and looking south to Mauna Loa

After the volcano, we went to old town Kona. Also in Kona is the second temple in Hawaii. It is undergoing remodeling, so it is not open, but it is very pretty outside. We went to another beach, Kehaka Kai. The girls had so much fun swimming. Mark and I just watched.

July 24, Monday

We drove to Rainbow Waterfall for some pictures. It’s right in the middle of Hilo. Paula wanted to visit a chocolate farm, so we found one close by, Lavaloha. The drive to the farm was amazing. We went up a mountain on a narrow road. The tour was kind of short, but informative and we got to taste different kinds of chocolate made at the farm. 

We waited to go Hawai’i Volcanos National Park until the afternoon because we were told it would be better to see the lava in the dark. We drove to the Kilauea Visitor’s Center first and then we went to several look out points. There was no lava to see that day, but we saw lots of steam. The crater was immense. There was a lava tube that everyone walked through but Paula. 

July 23, Sunday

We found a ward close by that held sacrament meeting at 8:00. We wanted to get started early so we went to sacrament meeting then went home to pack a lunch. We drove south and visited the Black Sands Beach. We spent time there playing in the water and sand and taking photos. Then we drove to the southernmost point of the United States, South Point Cliff Drive. The ocean was spectacular. 

Black Sands 

South Point Cliff Drive

July 22, Saturday

We visited a botanical garden that Catherine had recommended. It is called the Hawai’i Tropical Bioreserve & Garden. It is built around a rather steep paved hiking trail that leads, eventually down to the beach. There were beautiful trees and flowers everywhere. The park was built by a man who was visiting Hawaii and saw this piece of land that had basically been trashed and used as a big dump. He worked on it for years, cleaning it up, removing weeds and planting exotic trees and flowers. There is a beautiful waterfall in one corner of the property. He donated the garden to the state of Hawaii.

July 21, Friday

In the morning, Drew’s family packed up and headed to the airport. We went to work for half a day. 

July 20, Thursday

Drew’s family went on a kayaking and snorkeling adventure. We went to work. Everyone but Afton had an appointment at the temple to do baptisms. Paula and Afton went to the PCC and did a few more activities. Then we tried to fit in everything we hadn’t done yet. We showed them our office and walked around campus. Then we drove to Laie Point to see the sunset and take photos.  We ended the day with ice cream at Angel’s. 

July 19, Wednesday

We worked in the office all day. Drew and his family did a zipline. We had dinner at North Shore Tacos. It was Karena’s birthday so Paula and girls made Rice Krispy treats instead of a birthday cake. 

July 18, Tuesday

We went to Pearl Harbor with Drew’s family. The main part of the Pearl Harbor experience, a free tour of the memorial built for the sunken battleship Arizona, was completely booked for the day. So, we bought tickets for a submarine museum and tour of an old submarine that was docked at the harbor. It was very interesting. The submarine had extremely tight quarters for the sailors; not for someone who is claustrophobic.

July 17, Monday

Today, Sister Soderborg and I went to our office at the university. In the afternoon Paula and Drew’s family went to the PCC. We had arranged to work at the Luau that evening so we could be there and eat with Drew’s family. We ate at the buffet and they really enjoyed it. Karena was able to get gluten-free food.

July 16, Sunday

We went to the Tongan ward for Sacrament Meeting and then later to the Visitor’s Center. There is a nice movie we watched about the history of the church in Hawaii and particularly in Laie. We also took photos at Pounders. Everyone was wearing their purchases from the swap meet. 

July 15, Saturday

Today we went to the swap meet at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu and bought souvenirs. 

After the swap meet we went to Hale’iwa while Drew’s family visited the Dole Plantation.

On the way home we stopped at Laniakea Beach, which some people call Turtle Beach because you frequently see turtles there. We did see turtles there, both on the edge of the beach and in the water. If you are snorkeling in the water, a turtle may swim right up toward you. That’s what happened to members of Drew’s family. Those turtles are big, so it can be a bit intimidating.

July 14, Friday

I had a doctor’s appointment in Kahuku in the morning. Then we spent the rest of the day at the office. Drew’s family hiked to the northwestern-most point of the island at Ka’ena point.

That evening we invited some students to eat with at the Food Town Mall, where there is a choice of several fast-food places. Drew and family got to meet them and talk with them.

July 13, Thursday

Drew and his family arrived at the airport in Honolulu on Thursday afternoon. Adelaide and Afton were so excited to be here, they were jumping up and down. (That is not unusual for them.) We gave them each a kukui nut lei, per Hawaiian tradition. 

Drew picked up a rental car and we headed for home. We stopped at Kua Loa beach to eat a lunch that Paula had prepared. Drew and his family were all impressed with the ocean and the drive there. It is a pretty place.

July 12, Wednesday

July 11, Tuesday

We helped some members with a food order. It was interesting to see how it is done here. The storehouse turned out to be the gymnasium of one of the student stake centers next to the visitor’s center. 

The order turned out to be quite a bit of food packed in 5 or 6 boxes. We filled up the car trunk and back seat. I asked Steve how he had picked up previous orders. He said he took one box at a time, balancing it on his bicycle, riding back and forth between his apartment and the stake center.

We helped with Ask Me at noon.

July 10, Monday

July 9, Sunday  

We have been getting texts from other missionary couples who have spotted a monk seal at the Hau’ula Beach Park, which is just a few minutes up the highway from us. So, after church, we went up to the beach and found it – our first sighting of a seal in the wild (so to speak). It really looked like a giant brown slug laying on the sand.

Sadie the Monk Seal

July 8, Saturday

We have been working on a jigsaw puzzle for more than a week now and felt the need to finish it and put it away so we could get the house ready for Drew’s family who are coming next week, so we had something of a puzzle marathon all day long.

July 7, Friday 

We helped with Ask Me at noon. ESL with Steve and Dolly.

July 6, Thursday

More ESL with Steve.

Today was our turn to work the gate at the Ohana luau. 

July 5, Wednesday

 Sister Soderborg is helping an ESL student, Deborah, with her English this summer. Both of us are providing ESL assistance for Steve and Dolly, a cute young couple from India. 

July 4, Tuesday

Independence Day turns out to be a big deal in Laie. The community uses half of the parking lot at the PCC for a community celebration that kind of resembles a carnival, only instead of carousels and ferris wheels they had bounce houses and inflatable climbing walls. 

Since the PCC was hosting the party, the management recruited senior missionaries to help staff the event. Sister Soderborg volunteered to help direct traffic instead of supervising a bounce house, and it was a good thing she did. We ended standing in the shade, directing people over a bridge to the festivities. Those who supervised bounce houses said it was a horrible experience trying to deal with children and parents who would not follow the rules.

The culmination of the party was to be a fireworks display. Sister Soderborg and I finished our shift well before dark, so we decided not to wait for the fireworks but to go home instead. The next day we heard from several sources that the fireworks display was kind of a bust. There was supposed to be 11 minutes or so of fireworks, but it seems that some kind of malfunction in the firing system set of all of the fireworks in about four or five minutes. So, we hear that it was a great show, as long as it lasted. 

July 3, Monday

The PCC started a new program of putting senior missionaries out in the Marketplace at 11:30 a.m. to help all the visitors who are disembarking from the tour busses find the restrooms, among other things. It’s an extension of the regular evening Ask Me program, so we wear the big yellow Ask Me buttons and stand around waiting to be helpful. Today we were trained as both evening Ask Me greeters and morning Ask Me greeters. That means we stand next to a big flag that says Ask Me and we wear a big badge that says ASK ME, then you stand there until someone asks you a question. Of course, it is also perfectly acceptable to approach people and ask them if they have any questions. That’s a little harder to do if you prefer that people just leave you alone. The training took 10 or 15 minutes, then we started our first shift as Ask Me greeters, standing in the sun for an hour and a half.

We are working with a young couple from India named Steve and Dolly Delemose. She is a BYUH student and he is working with Pathways until he can pass an entry exam to become a university student. They need help with English – writing, listening, speaking, etc. They are fun to work with and are very appreciative. They have two little children.

Sister Soderborg finished up the day with a beginner Ukulele lesson taught by another senior missionary.

July 2, Sunday

On the first Sunday of every month, the mission has an evening potluck meal (munch and mingle) for the senior missionaries combined with an ‘Aloha 'oe for those missionaries who will be leaving during the month. For those not aware, an Aloha 'oe is where the other missionaries sing the song by that name for their departing friends. The dinner used to be called a break-the-fast meal, but then, one-month, fast Sunday was not held on the first Sunday of the month and so calling it a “break-the-fast” was just more than a few of the missionaries could handle, so the mission president changed the name to “munch and mingle” rather than face an all-out revolt. I like to call it the “monthly missionary munch and mingle” just to get a few more ‘m’s and alliteration in there. 

 It was sad singing to the Kings. We will miss them.

July 1, Saturday 

Today we had an assignment to work at the PCC Luau taking tickets -- well, not actually taking anything, but checking to see if they had tickets and then letting them enter the venue. During the tourist season, some of the student actors from the luau show stand outside the gate and welcome people. Some of the lady tourists really enjoy getting their pictures taken with the scantily clad, muscular students who seem happy to oblige them. 

Elder Soderborg looks good in a lavalava

June 30, Friday 

Today is the day the Hanson fly home. They seem very excited to go. They have a cabin somewhere by Scofield near Price and have already planned a fourth of July party there for their whole family. 

Last week, we got an email at work telling us that the PCC needed some emergency help at one of the sewing/wardrobe facilities. They needed help inventorying uniforms used by the students and others who work at the PCC. A bunch of the senior missionaries who have been working there have gone home recently and have not yet been replaced. Sister Soderborg volunteered us to help. I’m not as kind and helpful as she is. 

June 29, Thursday

June 28, Wednesday

June 27, Tuesday 

Today we invited the other missionary couples we work with to have dinner at our home before they went home. It is traditional to give a lei to departing missionaries, so I made leis for them all using a process of weaving two ribbons together – something I must have learned many years ago as a youth, because I remembered how to do it. 
 

The Kings were here when we arrived and have been good friends and mentors to us, answering all our questions. We have spent a lot of time with them besides just in the office. They took us to the swap meet in Honolulu the first time we went there. They introduced us to the Seven Brothers fast food place in Kahuku, and we have been to their home in Laie for a game night. They also save seats for us when we go to campus events like concerts and arranged to get tickets for the whole office when we went to the world fire-knife competition. They are going home on July 14 after 23 months on their mission.

June 26, Monday

Today we had the young missionaries over for dinner. This was a new pair of missionaries – ones we had not met before. Ever since we have been in the ward, the two young missionaries have been the two assistants to the president. The first two were Elders Pugmire and Adams.  Then, Elder Pugmire was transferred back to Honolulu and Elder Hua took his place. After a few months they were transferred and Elders Schoklely and Kunz took their place. They were very ‘gung ho’ about making sure they left a message at the home and issuing us some kind of challenge.

 Just recently those two elders were transferred out and two other missionaries moved in. These two missionaries are not the APs. Oneis from Orem, Utah. This Elder is Tongan, so he understands what is going on in church. 

June 25, Sunday

Today was ward conference. Ward Conference is a big deal in the Tongan ward. When we got to church, as soon as we entered the building, before we entered the chapel, we could hear the ward choir singing. We have not had a ward choir in sacrament meeting since we got here last September. The Tongan saints love to sing – loudly. Sometimes it doesn’t matter what notes are written in the hymn book, they sing what they want to sing.

All the stake and ward leaders were wearing leis. They must have had a few left over because after the meeting started one of the sisters in the ward brought leis to us. They have a lot of respect for the missionaries. 

As an extension of ward conference, the ward had a potluck luau this afternoon. You wouldn’t think that potluck and luau would go together, but they do here. There were three roasted pigs on the head table where the ward and stake leaders sat. Down the sides of the gym, there were all kinds of meat and vegetables. The vegetables were actually just roasted sweet potatoes and taro. There was pork, oysters, something that looked like either ham or corned beef (because it was served with cabbage, and crabs – whole crabs. We have never seen a potluck like this before. We brought a green salad.

June 24, Saturday

We stopped at Pounders Beach and took more photos. We're trying to catch a photo of the perfect C wave.

June 23, Friday

Today we had a student, who was not assigned to any of the missionary couples, come into the office. He came up to Sister Soderborg and almost whispered, “I need to find out if I am on grade probation.” We were the only couple in the office, so it was probably not necessary for him to whisper, but we invited him to come into one of the interview rooms with us. When we asked him why he thought he might be on probation, he said that his grades were not that great this semester and he knew several students who were suspended and sent home last semester for bad grades. He had a history of stress and panic attacks in the past and had already visited with the counseling office.

We explained how the probation and suspension program works, looked at his grades, and told him that his cumulative grade point average was still in the safe range, and that we didn’t think that he would be sent home because his semester would likely be above a 2.0, which is usually the cut-off point. I think he left somewhat relieved. 

June 22, Thursday

June 21, Wednesday

June 20, Tuesday

June 19, Monday

We walked across the street to see the sunset.

June 18, Sunday

Today we went to another ward to listen to Elder and Sister Hanson talk in church. We started our missions together in the MTC, flew to Hawaii together and have worked together in the same office for the past 11 months, and now they are going home at the end of next week – without us.

Tonight, we went to a fireside for the two Laie stakes. The speaker was the director of the Book of Mormon videos. He told us that the participants in the episode about the 2000 stripling warriors in Helaman’s army were from Hawaii. Parts of the video were filmed at the Gunstock Ranch between Laie and Kahuku. He introduced the man who played Helaman in the video and one of the young men who played one of the warriors. They both told about their experience with the production and bore their testimonies. 

We were then treated to a preview of that army of Helaman episode that will be released sometime next year. The stories and testimonies and video were very powerful and brought tears to my eyes.

June 17, Saturday

This weekend’s adventure was a trip to Honolulu. Some time ago, Paula saw a quilted ukulele bag in a downtown shopping center. Since she now has an ukulele of her own, she wanted to get one of those bags. Amazingly, we found the store that had the bag, or I should say used to have the bag. The store clerk told us that there were no more such bags and that it had been a special order, so there would likely not be any more bags.

 Our next stop was Costco. We didn’t actually need much, except peppers, so we managed to get out of there spending less than $100. That hasn’t happened in years. 

We drove home along the north shore. When we were at about Sunset Beach, I heard a crash behind us and looked in the rearview mirror only to see a car skid over to the side of the road with its passenger-side doors all smashed in. A pickup truck followed behind it. It was a couple of cars behind us, so I didn’t see everything that happened, but I saw the drivers of the car and truck get out. 

Not too long after the crash we saw emergency vehicles headed not toward the crash site, but away from it, like we were.  The first was a yellow fire car (you know, like a firetruck, but not a truck). Soon we saw an actual firetruck that was pulling a fireboat (you know, like a firetruck, but not a truck). A few minutes later we saw a yellow helicopter circling above us. The helicopter landed on the lawn of an elementary school located along Kamehameha highway. All the other emergency vehicles had converged at the school’s parking lot. 

Once we were past all the emergency vehicles, the traffic cleared up and we had much smoother sailing, so to speak.

That evening there was a “musical extravaganza” at the university put on by the various music groups from campus. There was a Polynesian drum group, a jazz orchestra musical/comedy presentation, the combined choirs, and the steel drum band performance. It was all very entertaining. 

June 16, Friday

Student Presentations

June 15, Thursday

June 14, Wednesday

Student Presentations

June 13, Tuesday

Monthly Missionary Devotional

June 12, Monday

Student Presentations, 

June 11, Sunday

We drove to Kahana Beach Park and went for a walk.

There is a spot on the mountain a little bit north of the beach where parasailers can hike up to a clearing where there is enough wind to pull them into the sky. We saw this parasailer when he was just a tiny speck in the sky. He went way out over the ocean, and then back behind the mountain and back into view. When we saw that he was starting to descend, I started to take photos. This series shows him getting close to the ground and to the beach where we were standing. I talked to him after he landed, and he told me that the inflatable device that he is wearing is aerodynamic and designed to reduce the drag as he floats through the air.

June 10, Saturday

This morning we went to the Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden in Windward near Kaneohe. It is a beautiful place with 400 acres of exotic trees, flowers, and a freshwater lake. Entrance is free and there are nice, paved roads throughout the garden. The garden is divided into areas featuring plant life specific to one of the Pacific Islands, and Africa. There is a separate parking lot for each of the areas with a restroom at each parking lot. It is also full of biting bugs, but they are likely all native to Oahu.

After the park, we went to the Windward shopping mall to see the new Disney movie that is a live adaptation of Little Mermaid. But by time we got there, the only available seats were on the front row next to the screen. We decided to watch the movie some other time.

June 9, Friday

We had a guest speaker from the Counseling Office do a presentation for our class. The students are always interested and engaged for this presentation. Especially since the death by suicide.

June 8, Thursday

June 7, Wednesday

Paula started the unit on Healthy Choices.  

June 6, Tuesday

June 5, Monday

Mark taught the lesson on Presentations.

June 4, Sunday

I woke up Sunday morning thinking that I needed to bear my testimony in church today. That doesn’t happen very often. It’s the first time for me in 9 months. Paula bore her testimony several months ago. She is better than I. 

We had been studying about the Last Supper in Come Follow Me and Jesus’ exhortation to “Love one another as I have loved you.” Then the opening hymn at fast and testimony meeting was “Lord, I would follow thee.” The last verse says: 

Savior, may I love my brother
As I know thou lovest me,
Find in thee my strength, my beacon,
For thy servant I would be.
Savior, may I learn to love thee
Lord, I would follow thee. 

That was precisely what my testimony was about today. 

Sunday was our dinner with the missionaries. We had an Aloha ‘Oe for the missionaries who were leaving. Then Hansons were honored, but they don’t go home until the end of the month. So we didn’t say good-bye.

June 3, Saturday

We went looking for turtles again today. There is a little stretch of beach west of the Turtle Bay resort. It is not readily accessible by car, but you can park on the highway, walk around a big locked gate and then follow a dirt path that leads to the beach. People call it “Hidden Beach.” Its real name is Kawela Beach Park. We were early enough in the morning that there were only a few other cars by that gate and we couldn’t see anyone else. We walked along the beach looking for turtles but didn’t see any. We did see a turtle trail – a spot where a turtle had been laying and then dragged itself across the sand back to the ocean leaving a big impression in the sand.

A little bit later, we saw a lone scuba diver emerging from the ocean and walking across the beach. It was a kind of dramatic scene if you think about it.

Soon after that we saw a bunch of people on horseback walking down the trail. Apparently, a horseback tour of the area is one of the amenities offered by the Turtle Bay resort

At the end of our walk on the beach, there was a pillbox, or old bunker-type concrete building left over from World War II. It’s called the Turtle Bay pillbox because it is right there on the shore near the resort.

We kept looking for turtles along shore, not finding any, but we did see a bunch of kayakers in a little bay. It looked like another resort amenity – kayak instruction. The whole area between the beach and the ocean must belong to the resort because there were road signs posted at all the intersecting trails, directing you toward different things to look at, like a banyan tree. But no turtles today.

Across the street from the opening to the trail, there were some roadside fruit and vegetable stands advertising local sweet corn. We bought a bag of mixed tropical fruits that were delicious.

Next, we drove down the highway to another access to -- yes, Turtle Beach – at least that’s what our office mates call it. Apparently, everything between the Turtle Bay resort to Hale’iwa is called Turtle Beach. 

Mark at Kawela Beach

June 2, Friday

Mark taught the lesson on writing peer reviews.  We stayed late helping two students make up missed classes. One is going for an A the other is trying not to fail. 

We experienced some drama in the office with an engagement breakup. Elder Soderborg helped give a blessing. 

June 1, Thursday

We had a breakfast at work today celebrating Mark’s birthday and the other couples leaving. It was very good food. 

We stayed late with our 4:30 appointment. The student says talking to us helps. We are still trying to meet for the first time with some of our assigned students. They keep rescheduling. Paula felt like she spent the whole day emailing and changing appointment times. We did meet with a few more students.

May 31, Wednesday

Class on writing essays.

May 30, Tuesday

When we got to work this morning, I pulled out my wallet to get my door key, just like I do every morning. When we were heading home, I went to pull out my wallet, but it wasn’t there! My wallet has everything important in it. I started retracing my steps from the whole day, hoping to find it. 

On Tuesday mornings we have a campus devotional, so we went there to check the bleachers where we were sitting. The bleachers had already been folded back into the wall. Then, I spent half an hour wandering around the activity center looking for someone from the custodial crew or a lost and found place to see if someone had found it. No luck.

Then I traced my steps back to the office, passing through the restroom in the Science Building where I had stopped earlier in the day. It wasn’t in the restroom. I really didn’t go very many places that day, so I was searching grass and sidewalks as well. I also prayed a lot because it was stressing me out to lose my wallet.

We went home and fed the young missionaries who are assigned to our ward. They were about to give us a Facebook challenge to share the gospel, but we told them we were too stressed, and we just wanted a blessing. They obliged.

Apparently, the elders reported our stress to the mission president because the next morning we had an email from the mission president’s wife asking if they could do anything for us.

Overnight, I became more and more convinced that a janitor in the science building had found my wallet and turned it in to the Lost and Found. First thing in the morning after we got to work, I walked over to the Science Building, found the Lost and Found, and found my wallet!

It works. Prayer works.

In the office, we went through our list of students and tried to contact those we haven’t seen ever or in a while. 

May 29, Monday

Memorial Day. No classes.

Paula and I drove to Kaneohe to get haircuts. We had lunch and went shopping at Safeway for food for the Elders.

May 28, Sunday

Curtis and Emily and girls left for the airport this morning. They are on their way to Maui. We followed them for a ways then stopped at a beach. 

A couple of weeks ago, the Young Women’s advisor asked Paula to teach the Young Women’s class today. Paula decided that I should help, so I did. The lesson was taken from a talk President Nelson gave at the Relief Society session of conference in 2020.

Paula decided to incorporate her love for art into the lesson. She brought paper, colored pencils and colored pens for the girls to draw with during the lesson. She made them take notes about the lesson on the paper and doodle if they wanted. She also teaches lessons on taking notes in our university class.

May 27, Saturday

This morning Curtis and Emily drove to Ka’ena point to take the hike to the eastern most point of the island. Grandma and Grandpa watched the girls at the apartment.

May 26, Friday

We taught a lesson on “the writing process” to our class.

May 25, Thursday

Elder Soderborg’s birthday – 70 years old – ouch.

In the evening after work, we all went to the Foodland shopping center where there are a bunch of fast- food places to eat. We were all able to choose our favorite kind of fast food. My special birthday treat was an acai bowl, which is like a tropical fruit bowl filled with frozen acai palm fruit, banana slices, blue berries, some other berries that are pureed like sorbet and other fun stuff. It is all very cold and tends to give you a brain freeze. Paula got a hot fudge sundae, her first one in a year. Curtis’ girls were all able to get something they could eat. Kate especially like her chocolate ice cream. 

May 24, Wednesday

Another class day for us. The topic was “The Writing Process.” I taught writing for years, but not in the same way I am teaching it here. We have so many students for whom English is a second language, and for whom a university is a foreign place to be, we have to adjust our teaching to the abilities of our students. It’s not usually an ideal situation.

Curtis and Emily took their family to Pearl Harbor and a beach.

May 23, Tuesday

We spent the day with Curtis and family. We chose to go to Waimea Falls in Waimea valley. It’s a little resort-type area with a visitor center, gift shops, restaurant, botanical garden and hike to a waterfall where you can swim in the pond at the bottom of the falls. It was quite a busy day at the resort with several tour busses parked outside and people everywhere. It was still fun, though, with lots of pretty things to take pictures of. Curtis’ family loved swimming in the waterfall.

Swimming in the Falls

May 22, Monday

Monday is a class day for us, so we went to work while Curtis and his family went to the Polynesian Cultural Center in the afternoon. We had been able to purchase a discount package for them that includes tickets to the villages, a dinner at the buffet and the Ha Breath of Life show in the evening. The PCC doesn’t sell discounts tickets to the luau unless we go to the ticket booth on the day of the luau and check to see if there are any available spots that were not purchased at full price. We were lucky and were able to upgrade the tickets to a luau instead of the buffet. Sister Soderborg and I were taking tickets at the luau that night, so we were able to eat for free. 

May 21, Sunday

Elder Soderborg and I went to the Tongan Ward at 8 a.m. Curtis and his family waited to attend the local ward at 10:30. Rachel stayed with us, because she was still recovering. She spent the whole hour talking to us non-stop. She told us that babies get to earth by parachutes or with an astronaut. I told her I was talking with my sister Saundra. She tried saying her name but finally said. “I can’t say that. I’ll call her Sandrito”. 

Our landlady was the primary teacher for Kate’s class. The teacher had a floral crown left over from the elementary school’s May Day celebration that she decided to give to the visitor that day – Kate.

Later in the day, we drove to the Visitor’s Center at the temple and walked around the grounds for a while.

May 20, Saturday

Early the next morning, when blood started to show up in the vomit, Curtis and Emily packed Rachel up in the car and drove her to the emergency room at a hospital back in Honolulu.

They spent most of the day at the hospital doing tests, looking for whatever was making her sick. Paula and I spent the day at home entertaining Kate. We finally decided to get her out of the house and take her to a beach. We just let her play in the sand because Paula is a little paranoid. As we were leaving, Kate picked up a blue blob. Aaaa! Thank goodness it didn’t sting her.

May 19, Friday

We taught the first class and gave the second class an on-line assignment. Most of them didn’t do it. 

Curtis, Emily, Kate and Rachel arrived at the airport in Honolulu. We went to the airport to pick them up, or, I should say, get a car so they could drive to our apartment.

Unfortunately, Rachel started getting sick on the airplane and vomited on the way here. She continued to throw up through the night. 

May 18, Thursday

May 17, Wednesday

The whole state, well, at least the north shore, celebrated Iam Tongi, a guy from Kahuku, making the top three in the American Idol singing competition. There was a big parade starting at the PCC in Laie, going through Kahuku, and ending at a pasture near the Turtle Beach resort where there was a concert featuring Iam and some other local performers. We watched the parade and Sister Soderborg ended up on the news.

Photo by Mark

May 16, Tuesday

May 15, Monday

May 14, Sunday

A sister in the ward asked Paula to teach the Young Women’s class in two weeks.

Mother’s Day at the Tongan Ward. The brothers and sisters met together with Brother Fuluvaka teaching the lesson. He seems to be a very funny guy, if you can understand what he is saying. 

Mark gave me a lei for Mother’s Day. I taught him that he puts it over my head and touches my check with his. The women were wearing beautiful leis in church. I have been looking at leis and studying how they are made. I knew I could do it if I had the right materials.  I bought flowers from Costco and a plastic twine from Ben Franklins. I made my first attempt. It’s pretty easy to do. I just need to get real raffia and practice more. 

We had a wonderful district meeting where the Tams spoke. They talked about their experiences of escaping from Vietnam. 

We ordered a new tablet from Amazon to replace the I Pad that we had used for many years but finally gave up the ghost. We are calling it a Mother’s Day present, and birthday present for Mark and a Father’s Day gift – in case anyone asks.

May 13, Saturday

We went to Costco and on the way home, we stopped at Long’s and Mark got a lei for Paula for Mother’s Day. 

May 12, Friday

Our class was about taking notes from readings. After work we went to the Mother’s Day dance at the Tongan Ward. We actually got up and danced. A sweet sister in the ward gave me a lei. 

May 11, Thursday

We went to Kailua for a dentist appointment for Paula. The office was in a nice shopping center that reminded us of Salt Lake. We shopped at Whole Foods and got some specialty food for Curtis’ family. Then we went to Long’s and ate dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Paula had heard there was a Ben Franklins in Kailua where she could get raffia and other supplies for making leis. We found the store. It was just like Michaels in Utah.  

We stopped briefly at a beach for sunset pictures and then went home. Not too long after we got home our landlord texted us to ask that we turn off all outside lights because there was an infestation of swarming, flying termites in the area that were attracted to lights. He said that happens every once in a while, and was no big deal, just an inconvenience.

Lilies on the Beach

May 10, Wednesday

The World Fire Knife Competition at the PCC. We went to watch people twirl, twist, and throw long knives that were on fire. There were six women contestants and 30 men contestants. We left for home after about 3 hours and only got through the women and 9 of the men. All the contestants did basically the same moves in the same order with the only perceptible differences being how fast the twirled the knives, how high the threw them in the air, and how many, if any, times they dropped the knives.

We taught another class on study skills.

May 9, Tuesday

May 8, Monday

May 7, Sunday

Monthly Mission Mix and Mingle. We took cranberry walnut bread with cream cheese as our contribution.

While standing in line for the food, I met an Elder Hanks. He said to me, “I knew some Soderborgs when I was growing up. Do you know an Alvin Soderborg.” I said, “Yes, Alvin is my father.” He said, “So you grew up in the Rosecrest Ward?” I said, “Yes, what is your name again?” He said, “Elder Hanks.” I said, “I knew the Hanks family. Dennis Hanks was my Sunday School teacher.” I told him that one thing I remembered about the class was a bike ride that we all went on together. He said, “I took my class on a bike ride. Do you remember Tom Helme?” I told him that I do and that we were in the same class. I asked him what his first name was and he answered “Brent.” That is when I realized that he was my former Sunday School teacher, not his older brother Dennis. What are the chances that we would meet in line at a mission dinner in Hawaii fifty years after we knew each other? Tender Mercy.

May 6, Saturday

We stopped at the scenic lookout on Pali Highway. In Hawaii’s history, the highway was originally a trail across the mountain and the only way to get from Honolulu to Kaneohe. The lookout is a big cliff where King Kamehameha defeated the last of the tribal chiefs that were opposed to him ruling the kingdom. Apparently, the king’s men backed the enemy up to the cliff and then off the edge.

The lookout is notoriously windy, and it lived up to its reputation today.

Top of the World - Paula

After that, we went to Honolulu to see the Tabernacle. It was closed, so we could only walk around the outside. It was really beautiful.

Honolulu Historic Tabernacle

  Next, we went to Pearlridge Mall so Paula could shop at Ross. Then we went to Costco to buy food for Sunday.

We stopped at Hale'iwa on the way home to look for turtles. 

Mark found a turtle!

May 3, Wednesday

Paula went to Hula class. We ate dinner at Laie Shopping Mall so we wouldn’t have to drive all the way home and then an hour later drive all the way back to Laie. We also went to Laie Point hoping to watch the sunset but we were also treated to a full moon.

Moon at Laie Point

May 2, Tuesday

We did sealings at the temple.

May 1, Monday

May 1 was Lei Day. We walked over to the PCC to see the Lei competition.

April 29, Saturday

This morning was the Samoan village devotional at the PCC. The weather was very muggy – again.  Both of us are sick with colds and/or allergies -- coughing and sneezing. After the devotional we decided to stay home and try to get better rather than go anywhere. Just to get a little fresh air, we drove to Laie and walked around the campus.

Beautiful campus by the CAC

April 28, Friday

Second day of class. More students showed up, which we were expecting.  We had dinner with the Sekar brothers.  Knowing them has been a highlight of our mission. 

April 27, Thursday

We had a bunch of appointments to meet new probation students today. Some of them seem determined to succeed this semester.

April 26, Wednesday

Two of our probation students got emails from the registrar telling them that due to their grades from last semester they were being sent home. It was a shock to them and to us. The school policy does say that they will be suspended if they have three failing semesters, but we have never actually seen it happen before.  It rained all day. We taught our first two classes today. We are back at it.

April 25, Tuesday

Mark was feeling sick at work so he went home and took a nap for an hour or so. It actually helped, for a while. We worked on getting the class ready for next week. We finally got the names of some of the probation students and sent emails. We even met with one of them.

April 24, Monday

We worked on lessons for spring semester. Paula put together a report about the students we worked with for winter semester. About 13 out of 29 did okay. It was our turn to do help with the luau. This time we did the Ohana Luau with the Singletons. They are buyers for the PCC. 

April 23, Sunday

We attended a two-stake fireside.  The BYU football coaches were in town and so they spoke. We really enjoyed the music.

April 22, Saturday

We did the wash, cleaned the house and finished a puzzle. Then we packed a salad and went to Laie. We ate our salad at Pounder’s Beach. Then we went for a walk at the PCC and talked to some of our missionary friends. 

Waves - Paula

April 21, Friday

We started the day with a temple session. That evening we went to a spaghetti dinner at the Fuluvaka home in Laie. It was a fund raiser to help the young single adults in the ward go to conference in Utah.

April 20, Thursday

Drove to Kaneoka to get Paula a perm, Mark some new tires for the car, UPS store to return some shoes, and then fed the missionaries at home that evening.

April 19, Wednesday

We took Paula to the doctor for a blood draw and to have her thyroid levels checked. Then we drove to Wahiawa to Walgreens to pick up Mark’s prescriptions. We got dinner at Jack in the Box. That was on Paula’s Hawaiian bucket list.

April 18, Tuesday

We spent most of the day reworking class schedules, but Mark went to the doctor in Kahuku to get some prescriptions refilled.

April 17, Monday

We spent the day in the office preparing Canvas for our new classes. 

April 16, Sunday

Sunday school was interesting. In the evening we went for a walk behind the temple. We found out that the grounds are supposed to be closed on Sundays. 

April 15, Saturday

To start the day, we went to Pearlridge Mall to a vendor’s market – mostly just jewelry. While we were there was stopped at a Japanese pastry store. Yummy food.

Next, we went to the Ka’ena point, near the northwest corner of the island. Stopped in Hale’iwa to look for turtles. We saw a few turtle heads popping up for air at one location in the Ali’I beach park, and then saw a whole turtle bobbing around in the water near a bridge near the basketball courts. 

April 14, Friday

We worked in the office figuring out grades during the morning. That afternoon we went to Waiale’e Beach where we previously met artist Eva Timothy. We sat for a while; Paula water-colored a beach scene. Then we drove to Shark's Cove and got dinner at our favorite food truck park. After dinner we took photos of the sunset. 

Waiale'e Beach - Paula

Shark's Cove - Mark

April 13, Thursday

This was the last day that students could make up points. We had several students who took advantage of the help. 

April 12, Wednesday

Tonight was hula class for Paula. She insists that she is not cut out to do things like dance, but I think she is enjoying it.

April 11, Tuesday

We graded the finals. We were a little disappointed that the students didn’t understand all that we tried to teach them. 

April 10, Monday

Today was the scheduled day for the final exam in our class. The test started at 5 p.m., so we brought a big taco salad to feed the students after the exam. They seemed to enjoy the salad more than the exam.

April 9, Sunday

Today is Easter. We had a nice Easter program in Sacrament Meeting. There were musical numbers by the Primary and a Young Women’s group and by an adult quartet accompanied by a guitar. There were a few short talks about the final week of Christ’s life, his crucifixion and resurrection. Most of it was in English so we enjoyed the message even more.

That evening, we were invited to go to Elder and Sister King’s home to play a game. It was called the Ukulele Game. The only connection to ukuleles seemed to be one corner of the game board which had a hole in it and was shaped somewhat like a ukulele. 

We had a good time.

April 8, Saturday

We went to an artisan’s market in Honolulu. It featured people who made jewelry and sold plants. Then, went on a hunt for a UPS store. During our hunt we saw another craft fair, so we stopped to buy something to eat. To finish the day, we drove home along the north shore. We stopped for another bite to eat at Giovanni’s Shrimp truck in Kahuku.

April 7, Friday

On the way to the office we saw a beautiful rainbow. So, we followed it to the temple, where we found this rainbow connection between the temple and the visitors’ center. 

Back at the office, we worked on the final exam for our class.

A rainbow connection between the temple and the visitor's center

April 6, Thursday

Tonight, there was a choral concert featuring two university choirs – one is a choir that is open to anyone who wants to join, even senior missionaries. The other is a more professional choir open to those who audition, and which travels to perform on other islands. 

April 5, Wednesday

Paula taught our final class of the semester on goals and choices. That night we went to a concert.

April 4, Tuesday

The campus devotional today was given by Dr. David Glen Hatch. He is an internationally recognized pianist. He was familiar to me because he has arranged and performed many LDS songs. He still used the publicity photo that must have been shot many years ago, because he is no longer a young man. He is, however, still a very accomplished pianist. He spoke and played the piano. He brought four of his proteges with him to Hawaii to play in a concert with him on campus. It was beautiful and amazing music.

April 3, Monday

In class we had students give oral presentations on the topic they chose to research. They did a good job.

April 2, Sunday

General Conference and Monthly munch and mingle. We are feeling a little more comfortable and talked with a few people. 

April 1, Saturday

General Conference. The first session started at 6 a.m. our time. We actually woke up in time.

We went back to the farmers’ market in Hau’ula that we went to last week. This time there was lots of vendors, food, families, games for kids, almost like a carnival atmosphere, except no rides.

March 31, Friday

We found out about a student death. We came home early instead of going to a voice recital.

March 30, Thursday

We listened to student presentation on mental health issues among Samoan women. Then we went on a short tour of the campus sustainability facilities and efforts.

That evening we came back to Laie for the Shaka steel and drum concert. The drum concert always seems to include little girls doing Polynesian dances.

March 29, Wednesday 

Class on physical healthy choices. Student presentation on sleep.

March 28, Tuesday

We had the regular campus devotional with the Honolulu Mission president and his wife as the speakers. That evening, we had our monthly mission devotional with President Bassett and his wife as speakers

March 27, Monday

Holiday from work. (Prince Kuhio’s birthday?) we went to Hukilau beach to sit and watch the waves and people playing in the water. I got brave, put on my swimsuit and got up to my waist in waves until one knocked me over and I was up to my neck. 

March 26, Sunday

Church at the Tongan ward.

March 25, Saturday

We went to a farmer’s market in Hau’ula. It looked promising from a distance, but there were only about a half dozen vendors.

March 24, Friday

For our anniversary we went to a fancy restaurant in Kaneohe. It is called Haleiwa Joe’s Restaurant, which is a bit ironic because Haleiwa is another town on a different part of the island.

The restaurant is located in an upscale residential area of the city hidden back behind an apartment complex. It is built on the edge of a big gully which has been turned into a nice park with a pond, gazebos, etc. It is a nice place to sit and wait for an hour or so to get a table at the restaurant.

45 Year Anniversary

March 23, Thursday

We went to a proxy sealing session at the temple.

March 22, Wednesday

We have another student presentation in our class on diversity. I (Paula) taught the rest of the time and gave a presentation on being assertive. I had a good handout and it went well. I also attended hula and had a great time. 

March 21

Mark went for a follow-up visit with the dermatologist Dr. Cox. Got a couple more spots on my head frozen.

I went to the Relief Society birthday party at our Tongan ward. I love Relief Society and the Birthday party even though I feel awkward and uncomfortable most of the time. It was wonderful to participate in this setting and see such faithful sisters.

March 20, Monday

We worked the Luau with the Bates couple. They work in the PCC plant nursery..

March 19 Sunday

We had a good lesson in Sunday School and we were able to contribute a few comments. After dinner we drove to Laie to go for a walk. It was a beautiful evening and we ended up at the temple grounds. We waited to take photos of the sunset. The sky was pink for about 20 seconds.

Paula's Photo

March 18, Saturday

After the usual weekend cleaning of the apartment, we went on another sight-seeing adventure down the east side of the island. We stopped at a state park that didn’t have much to offer except for an exceptional view of Kaneohe Bay.

Then we went to Kalama Beach Park and sat on Kailua Beach. There really isn’t much access to the beach except through a narrow trail at this beach park and another Kailua Beach park a few miles down the road. There were quite a few people on the beach, but it was a calm day, partly overcast, and a pleasant temperature. We had a good time.

 March 17, Friday

This was the second half of Culture Night. The performances were still the high-energy and high-caliber performances as in the first night. Some of the traditional native costumes were stunning. 

March 16, Thursday

Nothing

March 15, Wednesday

We attended Culture Night, where students from different cultures present dances and music from their home countries. The students are organized into clubs like the Hawaiian club, Samoan club, Tongan club, Japanese club, Indonesian club, African world club, and professional accountants club. Yes, that is right, an accounting club did a binary dance with black and white flags.

Event organizers said there were something like 37 clubs representing different nations and cultures. The dances were very good and professional looking. Students practiced many, many hours; so many that some of them stopped doing homework and going to class. I guess that just assures that we will have some work to do next semester with the failing students.

March 14, Tuesday

Nothing

March 13, Monday

Today we taught a class on how to give an oral presentation. This semester we tried to coordinate the students’ efforts into a more complete experience. First, they picked a topic from a list of “Healthy Choices” that we gave them. Then the students practiced writing a thesis statement to focus their research. Next, they took that topic and researched and wrote a 5-paragraph essay about that healthy choice. The essay was submitted to us and graded. Next, they are taking that essay with our suggestions on how they might improve them and are creating an oral presentation that they will give to the class. That will also be graded and be part of their overall class grade. We wanted them to work to make a product they are proud of.

Tonight, we had a mission devotional with Elder Valeri Cordon, an Area Authority Seventy. As we walked into the Visitors’ Center, I thought to myself, I should make my self talk to some other missionaries instead of just sitting and being by myself. So, I did. I greeted a missionary couple who was sitting in front of us. It was no great accomplishment, we already knew them and had talked to them before, but it was an accomplishment for me. 

Elder Cordon’s talk was very interesting and moving. At one point he was bearing his testimony and said “I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior, my Redeemer, and . . . . At that point I was sure in my mind that he was going to say “my friend.” But he didn’t. He said something else. But I thought in my mind, “Jesus is my friend,” That is how I would have finished the sentence. I felt the spirit testify to me that Jesus is my friend, and I started crying. You have to know me to understand how significant that was to me because I don’t feel like I have many friends. I know it is my own fault because I am so reserved and don’t reach out to others very much. But Jesus will reach out to me if I let him. I am so grateful for that testimony that I have.

March 12, Sunday

Went to Sacrament Meeting, but Paula wasn’t feeling very well, so we came home afterward and took naps. Sometimes you just need to catch up on sleep.

March 11, Saturday

We spent the morning cleaning our apartment. In the afternoon we took our beach chairs and went to Hukilau Beach. It was more crowded than it usually is, but we found a nice spot to sit and watch the waves. Ever since we heard that it is whale season, we have been watching for whales and imagining every dark spot on the horizon to be one. 

Little Islands, Not Whales - Mark's Photo

March 10, Friday

We went to the beach and took whimsical photos of ourselves on a swing by the ocean. I’ll probably delete all the pictures of me before anyone sees them.

Fun on the beach - Paula's montage

March 9, Thursday

March 8, Wednesday

The power went out in the middle of the day, so we canceled class and went home early. We stopped at Kokololio Beach and went for a long walk on the beach.

Paula's photo

March 7, Tuesday

In our morning meeting, we had someone give us a presentation on suicide prevention. After a recent meeting with student, it appears that we need a training on how to handle addictions in students, as well. 

We went to a temple endowment session after work. It is a good thing to go often to become familiar with all the changes, so they don’t seem new every time we go. There was a beautiful full moon when we came out.

March 6, Monday

Lesson on writing. 

March 5, Sunday

Paula bore her testimony in Sacrament Meeting. She said a few words in Tongan, which impressed some of the members.

Today was Break-the-fast at the Gateway patio for senior missionaries.

March 4, Saturday

We visited the Valley of the Temples. That is a large cemetery that has a replica of a famous Japanese temple built on the grounds.

Byodo-In Buddist Temple - Paula

After the Valley of the Temples, we went into Kaneohe to the mall and to Safeway – shopping.

March 3, Friday

Dinner with the elders at our house. Paula made meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Yum!

March 2, Thursday

Kind of a slow day at work

March 1, Wednesday

Mark taught the Introduction to college life class on writing essays. There is a good chance that the students had already learned all that, but they never say anything or hardly even answer questions, so it’s hard to say if it was anything new to them. 

Paula went to Hula class.

The whole day was very windy and wet.

February 28, Tuesday

Elder and Sister King were both sick today.

This afternoon, we had an appointment to do Initiatory work at the temple. The appointment was at 5:30, so we decided to leave work a little early and have dinner before going to the temple. There is a little fast-food place called L & L barbeque that we decided to try out. The place was clean, and nearly empty when we went in. There is seating indoors. The food was good and not too expensive. All in all, it was a nice experience. 

The initiatory session went well. We were expecting more changes to the ordinance than there really were because we had heard people were saying it had changed, like the endowment session.

February 27, Monday

Class on writing.

February 26, Sunday

After church, we decided to drive up to the temple to take a walk around the temple grounds. When we got to the visitor’s center, it started to rain and blow like crazy. We went inside to wait, and before too long, the rain was gone, the sun was shining and even most of the sidewalk was dry. That is a fairly typical weather pattern in Hawaii.

February 26, Sunday

After church, we decided to drive up to the temple to take a walk around the temple grounds. When we got to the visitor’s center, it started to rain and blow like crazy. We went inside to wait, and before too long, the rain was gone, the sun was shining and even most of the sidewalk was dry. That is a fairly typical weather pattern in Hawaii.

February 25, Saturday

Along the west side of the north shore, there is a Pupukea Beach Park. Along most of the that beach, there is just lava rock that meets the ocean. In one spot, however, there is sand. That little bit of sandy beach is called Three Tables, named for three large flat rock formations not far off shore. We had heard that that area was a good spot to watch for whales, so we went Saturday morning, brought our chairs and sat down to wait for whales. We probably sat there for a couple of hours, but we saw no whales. Oh well, it took us a while before we saw turtles, so we will just keep looking.

By early afternoon, traffic on the north shore was ridiculous. There must have been some event or competition further north of where we were because the traffic was backed up for miles. We decided to take the southern route home, even though it was a longer distance it would probably be a shorter drive time.

We stopped in Hale’iwa to look for turtles again, but that city was just a packed with cars and people as the highway heading north, so we kept going south. We decided to eat lunch at Zippy’s restaurant in Wahiawa. It was a nice place where you can eat inside instead of on a dirty picnic table outside. The food was okay, similar to what you might find at a Village Inn back on the mainland. There was also a bakery, so we could buy some dessert definitely not on our diet.

We kept following the freeway toward Pearl City and then to Kaneohe where we picked up our now-favorite highway back to home. We stopped at Kualoa beach for a respite from the drive.

February 24, Friday

This afternoon, we worked at one of the luaus at the PCC. They use senior missionaries to manage the crowds of visitors and to try to “wow” them with the experience. During the luau, there are two sets of four scantily clad Polynesian men who carry the roast pig past the audience as part of the cultural show. 

February 23, Thursday

Nothing too interesting happens on Thursdays.

February 22, Wednesday

Students took the mid-term. 

Paula attended the hula class. 

February 21, Tuesday 

In the evening there was a mission conference/zone conference at the theater at the Visitors Center. President and Sister Bassett spoke.

We worked most of the day preparing the mid-term for class.

February 20, Monday 

President’s Day holiday from school. We stayed around the apartment and did the wash. Mark finished the puzzle.

February 19, Sunday

We almost had to teach Sunday School. 

February 18, Saturday

We decided to check out Waimea Beach since we hadn’t been there before. It is a beautiful beach where the surfing contests are held. We took lots of photos.  We also went to Costco and spent lots of money. We always drive past Dole Plantation on the way to Costco. It was a dramatic, stormy day and the pineapple fields looked so beautiful. 

These field look like they have just been planted - Paula

The iconic view of Waimea Beach - Mark

February 17, Friday

The weather has been windy and stormy. We were told to prepare in case we couldn’t get into Laie because of flash floods. We got some extra food and borrowed a puzzle from the Kings.  We got to see how the counseling center at BYUH works. 

February 16, Thursday

Employee appreciation banquet. There was a nice dinner for all the employees and full-time missionaries. Employees with service in the multiples of 5 years were recognized, then all the faculty in general, and then even the missionaries were recognized. 

The entertainment was the singing group The Jets from the 80’s. They are a group of Tongan siblings from Minnesota who started singing to keep them out of trouble, or something like that. It was a fun blast from the past.

February 15, Wednesday

Mark taught a class on test-taking

The weather service is predicting a big winter storm with lots of rain, possible power outages, and flooding. The mission office wrote to all the missionaries suggesting that we by some food storage items and stock up on water.    

February 14, Tuesday

Mark bought Paula a lei for Valentines Day. 

February 13, Monday

I taught a class on memory, I think. I can’t remember for sure.

 February 12, Sunday 

Our Stake held its conference at the Cannon Activities Center on campus. The meeting started with one of the counselors saying he was prompted to forget about the three talks he had already written, and instead tell the members of the stake that they are not trying hard enough to follow the Savior.

February 11, Saturday

Tonight was the adult session stake conference. There is a chapel in Hau’ula that is located on the side of the mountain. It is at the end of a private drive and high enough up from the ocean that it is designated as one of the evacuation areas we could go to if there were a tsunami.

The meeting was very nice. We enjoyed having a Sunday meeting in English.  Sister Bradshaw gave a very moving talk about how sometimes the wrong path is the right path. The stake president’s wife also gave a wonderful talk. 

February 10, Friday 

We took  break from work and drove to Laie Point to see the giant waves and take photos. We were going to go see a documentary called The Waterman but didn’t. It was showing at the PCC in the evening, and sometimes we just can’t talk ourselves into leaving the apartment and driving back to Laie.

February 9, Thursday

Today was my appointment for a cancer check with a dermatologist, Dr. Cox. I have these spots that grow scaley skin on my head. Dr. Cox found a few that needed removing, so he froze them with a stream of liquid nitrogen. Talk about a brain freeze!

We stopped at Kualoa beach on the way home. It was very windy. Paula got photos of a cattle egret and a mother hen and chicks being buffeted by the wind. 

February 8, Wednesday

 We have new young elders in our ward, now. The two that left went back to the Honolulu mission. They were just on loan to our mission. Anyway, when the ward posts a list to feed the elders, we usually sign up and meet them at a local eatery instead of cooking at home. The two new missionaries are the assistants to the president, like the last two were. 

I, Paula, have been looking for a way to tie together the classes on notetaking. I finally remembered about study guides and that was exactly what I had been looking for. I found a couple of good videos to show. Then I made a study guide for most of the information for the unit test. In class I taught about study guides, gave them the ones I made and had them do a guide for that day’s lesson. They need to do guides for Mark’s classes on memory and test taking. Then they will take the test. It all works together so nicely and that makes me happy. I have a hard time if what I’m teaching doesn’t flow together and make sense. 

February 7, Tuesday

The annual safety inspection for our car is due in February, so we took the car to the Organic Mechanic again.  I may have said this before, but that sounds like an oxymoron to me. They seem to do a good job and are not outrageously expensive. 

February 6, Monday

Paula taught the class on taking notes from textbooks. 

February 5, Sunday

Break the fast. For our monthly dinner with the other senior missionaries, Paula cooked cilantro-lime rice with pulled pork in salsa verde. Delicious. We ended up bringing home a lot of food, but that just meant that we didn’t have to cook as much during the week.

February 4, Saturday

Today was the annual devotional at the Hawaiian village at the PCC. There was rain and thunder most of the morning before the devotional, but it stopped for the devotional. The power went out for a half hour or more, so we couldn’t hear everything that was going on. We talked to two of the vice presidents of the PCC who said they spend a million dollars on a back-up power system and that power outages like that are not supposed to happen! 

We spent the rest of the day washing clothes, shopping, napping, and other such P-day activities. We also visited Pounder’s again. We love to go when it’s stormy.

February 3, Friday

Sometimes, at the end of a day, after talking to and teaching students for whom English is not their primary language, I am exhausted and feel like I am serving a foreign mission instead of an English- speaking mission in the states.

February 2, Thursday 

February 1, Wednesday

One of the extracurricular activities that the mission offers is a hula class. In the past, Paula has resisted going, but when our friend Sister Hanson was put in charge of the class, Paula relented and signed up.  The class is taught by Carolyn Purcell, the wife of one of the counselors in the mission presidency. To be honest, we didn’t know the mission president had counselors until recently. Anyway, Sister Purcell is Hawaiian, and the first dance is the old traditional style of hula dancing that doesn’t involve any smiling.  She adapts it to the senior sisters by not making them bend their knees too much or move their feet. 

Paula taught the class today on taking notes. We usually have students at various levels of proficiency, so we try to balance the lessons to accommodate everyone from EIL learners who don’t necessarily understand the terminology to those who are very proficient at the subject matter.

Today we succeeded in getting egg salad sandwiches at the deli in the Aloha Center. We really like those. We consider eating out a reward for surviving another class.

FEBRURARY 2023

January 31, Tuesday 

After work we wanted to buy dinner at a convenience store/deli in the Aloha Center. When we got there, the place was shut down because there was no water to the facility. I don’t remember ever finding a store that had no running water.  

Instead, we went to Pounders restaurant at the Hukilau Market at the PCC. We bought take-out french-fries and a pizza and some Taro rolls. Good food!

January 30, Monday

Feeling mostly better, we went back to work. Elder King texted me to remind me that it was my turn to give the department devotional – if I was feeling up to doing it. I told him that I would.

I, Paula, taught the class on studying in groups and had the students do a mock group study. I felt good about it because the students started to relate to each other and open up more. We have one male student and 7 females. Part of the assignment was to set ground rules for a group study session. Our male student said there should be a rule about giggling. I loved it, because we have a couple of students who are always smiling. 

January 24-29 Tuesday through Sunday 

I did almost nothing except sleep, rest, cough, and complain. Paula tested positive on Tuesday, so she stayed home with me but continued to work and take care of me. She is a trooper, I’m a pooper. It’s all kind of a blur.

Elder Soares visited the mission and had a picture taken with the missionaries. He then shook hands with everyone and spoke. We were sad that we didn’t get to go. Brother and Sister Phillips checked on us and the Bassets sent us an email saying they missed us and hope we recovered quickly. 

I did work on a puzzle and Paula painted a watercolor of the lighthouse on Diamondhead. Beautiful!

On Saturday we decided we needed to get out of the house, but we were still quarantined. So, we drove to Laie and parked at the PCC. We walked to Bikini Beach to fill my need for ocean breezes and waves. 

January 23, Monday

When I woke up, I felt a lot worse, so I decided to take another one of our home Covid tests. This time it tested positive, so I went back to bed.

Paula tested negative, so she went to work and I stayed in bed. Paula taught the class by herself. We talked about time management and I had them do a calendar. 

I, Paula, drove into Laie by myself. I don’t drive very often. I stopped at Pounder’s Beach all by myself. There are senior single sisters who drive all over the island by themselves. Part of me is jealous that I’m so afraid and the rest of me is very grateful for Mark who will take me wherever I want. 

January 22, Sunday

Church in the Tongan ward. In elders’ quorum meeting several visitors introduced themselves. Of course, none of the introductions meant anything to me because they were all in Tongan.

Part way through the lesson, a visitor came and sat next to me. He asked if I would like translation help. Of course, I said yes, and so he sat and quietly repeated everything in English. What a nice thing for him to do!

By bedtime, I was not feeling very well. I took one of our home covid tests, but it showed negative.

January 21, Saturday

On Saturday we decided to go to Hale’iwa to see a makers-market and see the other sights. The market was fun with lots of little booths filled with things local people had made, like clothing, jewelry, art, stickers, but no food. We saw lots of things we liked, much of which was too expensive, but we did buy a polo shirt with an original design by a local artist, a bright pink dress for Paula, some stickers, a magnet with a hibiscus and rooster on it, and some homemade bug spray and anti-itch liquid.

Our next stop was a local café for lunch. It was fun except for the huge cockroach under our table. That’s one way to ruin an appetite.

Next, we drove to the beach park where we expected to see some of the huge waves predicted for that weekend on the North Shore. We didn’t see too many huge waves, but we did see (drum roll) turtles! Not just one, but two turtles, the first for our time in Hawaii. One was just floating lazily in the little waves by the shore. The other was on the shore, just laying there in the sun.

I was excited so I hurried over with my camera to get a shot. An older man was sitting there watching over it. He asked me suspiciously if he could help me. I guess he was one of the guardians of the turtles. When I said I just wanted some pictures, he was more friendly and told me that the turtle’s name was Bernard.

Our next stop was Matsumoto’s shave ice store. It has a reputation for delicious shave ice, so we had to try it. We stood in line for quite a while and decided to try the ichiban special – something that I guess the Japanese tourists like. It had shave ice, coconut flavoring, sweetened condensed milk, azuki beans, a scoop of ice cream, mochi balls, all served in an edible waffle bowl.

We decided that having this dessert one time was enough and that we wouldn’t have to do it again.

While we were eating our shave ice, a couple came up to us from behind and said, “Oh, you ARE missionaries. We were looking for someplace to sit and saw you here. We said, they look like nice people, I bet they are missionaries.” And sure enough, we are. 

We took the long way home by way of Walmart. The short way home looked like traffic was backed up from the Sunset Beach all the way to Hale’iwa.

January 20, Friday

Paula gave the department devotional this morning. She spoke about "divine signatures” which refers to sacred experiences that are too divinely appointed to be considered just a “coincidence.”

We had our second class with four students in attendance. Fridays are a busy day with lots of student appointments.  

Earlier in the week, Emily sent us Flat Stanley and his friend, another paper doll. We decided to call her Flat Stacy. It seems that in Kate’s Kindergarten class the teacher passed out Flat Stanleys to all the students. The students were supposed to send Stanley to people they know in different parts of the country/world. We learned on the Internet that Flat Stanley was the result of an unfortunate accident where a bulletin board fell on one of the students. I don’t know if the kindergarteners know that or not. We took Flat Stanley and Flat Stacy to the PCC where we got lots of fun photos including one with a Tongan warrior who also went to school in Springville. 

Flat Stanley and Flat Stacy Visit Hawaii

January 19, Thursday

Today was our turn to host our District meeting. One couple, the Rigbys, told us from the beginning that they would be out of town at a family funeral. On the day of the meeting, the district leader messaged us and said they would also be absent, so we met with just the three of us couples: Soderborg, Purles, and Brocks. With the new calendar year, the focus for Come Follow Me being on the New Testament, I thought it would be nice to talk about parables and stories of Jesus.

We had chips, dip, and cookies for refreshments.

January 18, Wednesday.

Mark gave the first lesson on time management. There are fewer and fewer students showing up for class. That’s not a good thing considering we told students that more than half of their grade depends on attendance. 

January 17, Tuesday

Campus devotional. The speaker was a member of the faculty, Aaron Curtis, dean and professor of math who gave a very nice talk about how students can become more actively engaged in student life. He started off saying that he recognized that some students may be disappointed with their experience at BYUH so far. That was definitely an unusual start, but he spent most of the talk explaining how they could make things better. He gave some very specific suggestions, especially for those whose native language may not be English. He finished his talk with the following suggestions:

1. Look up and notice those around you. 
2. Make eye contact and smile. 
3. Pray for help.  
4. Prepare and practice introductions. 
5. Connect briefly with others. 
6. Politely end the conversation. 

January 16, Monday

Martin Luther King Day. We cleaned in preparation for our district meeting. We also did the wash.

January 15, Sunday

A sister missionary from our Tongan ward gave her homecoming address. She served on Temple Square It seems that things have changed since Paula and I worked on Temple Square back in 1977. She gave a great opening anecdote with her talk – Some people were debating the nature of God, claiming that he must be Chinese, Western European or from other areas because of the wonderful achievements of people from those places. Suddenly, a light and a boom was heard from heaven. Everyone got quiet and they heard a deep penetrating voice say from the skies, “Alo-o-oha.”

January 14, Saturday

We planned a trip to town (Honolulu) which would include a stop at an art supply store, Disney resort and Costco.

On our way, Paula read an online review about the resort from a recent tourist. The tourist said there is really not very much Disney in the resort. You can get Disney themed souvenirs at the gift shops, but there is no Mickey Mouse to give you a lei as you arrive. It is mostly just a Hawaiian resort. We found that to be true. It is, though, a very nice Hawaiian resort. 

The art supply store was like many other art supply stores you would find at home, but with a smaller inventory. The Costco was pretty much just like the Costco in American Fork.

January 13, Friday

I usually have this routine I go through of things I do to get ready to go to work. It includes taking my morning medications, shaving, showering, brushing my teeth, getting dressed, putting on my missionary badge, putting my phone in my pocket, making sure the refrigerator is closed, turning of all the lights and the fans, and then walking out the door. So far, in the past month, I have, at one time or another, forgotten to shave at least twice, forgotten to put on my badge at least twice, forgotten to bring my phone at least twice, and forgotten to turn off the light and fan at least once. I read something about the difference between habits, routines, and rituals. Habits are things you do automatically without thinking about it.  Apparently, all my morning preparations are rituals or routines, not habits.

Contacted all of our students except 5 or 6. We feel a little more comfortable meeting with the students this semester. We have a little experience, now, on what to say, how we might be able to help them, and how they react.

January 12, Thursday

Walked along a new beach after work. Kokololio Beach Park.

January 10, Tuesday 

Devotional President Kauwe spoke about personal identity and labels. This excerpt from the Church News gives a good idea about the talk:

All are children of God, and members of His Church are children of the covenant and disciples of Christ, said President Kauwe, citing President Nelson’s devotional.

That doesn’t mean to disregard other personal labels that are personally important but to ensure they don’t replace the three enduring labels, President Kauwe said.

Upon hearing the Prophet’s counsel, President Kauwe said he was inspired to change his Instagram biography to read, “Child of God, member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, husband, father, president of the BYU–Hawaii, scientist, kānaka maoli (native Hawaiian), waterman.”

By aligning his spiritual labels with his other designations, President Kauwe said he has prospered and found joy in his personal and professional life.

January 9, Monday 

Paula gave the department devotional this morning. She spoke about Elder Bednar’s talk to CES people about revelation. We had our second class with four students in attendance. 

January 8, Sunday

Paula taught Relief Society

January 7, Saturday

Today was a day to clean and put the house back in order after our week of company. The Baileys got home safely. We drove to Laie to return the items we borrowed to the Kings. We went to the temple in hopes that we would see the full moon rise. We saw it for a few seconds before the clouds covered it and it was spectacular.

Paula is preparing to teach the English Relief Society lesson in church tomorrow.

January 6, Friday 

We all left early in the morning to take the Baileys to Kahuku for a zip line experience. Neither Catherine nor Alex had been feeling very well, but they wanted to pack in all the fun they could while they were here. 

Sister Soderborg and I ordered breakfast from McDonalds and ate it at Pounders Beach. We were all dressed for work, so we just stood and watched the ocean for a while until it was time to go to work.

I gave the department devotional this morning. It was based on a talk given by Relief Society General President Camille Johnson to missionaries at the MTC. She said that the missionaries were all stars in divinely appointed orbits and had a special work to do. 

She referenced the parable of the woman at the well, noting that Jesus recognized her divine potential even though she was involved in serious sin. I tried to tie it in to our job of recognizing the divine potential of our students, even though they had not been showing much promise as students.

We worked with two of our probation students.

We left for Honolulu in the afternoon, hoping to get there before dark. We ate dinner at the food court in the Ala Moana mall and wandered around window shopping until it was time to go to the airport. 

January 5, Thursday 

Worked until about 3 p.m. We met with several more students and then joined the Baileys at the PCC and ate dinner at Pounders restaurant in the Hukilau Market Place. 

January 4, Wednesday 

Paula taught the first class of the semester. Two students showed up, but it went well.  For some reason, we were particularly tired after work. The Baileys spent the morning at the swap meet in Honolulu at the Aloha Stadium and found some fun things to buy. 

January 3, Tuesday

This was our first day back to work. The Baileys planned to spend most of the afternoon at the PCC but didn’t really get there until afternoon when Sister Soderborg and I were scheduled to work the gates at the luau. 

After our shift, we all got together for dinner at the Gateway buffet. Good food. We attended the Night Show. We couldn’t sit with the Baileys. Our seats were on the top row. 

January 2, Monday

We started the day with a trip to Turtle Bay Beach. The waves beyond the reef were huge, but the reef tamed them down considerably so there were people out in the water. The Baileys wore their swimsuits and tried out the snorkel gear we borrowed from the Kings. I think that after the snorkeling, strolling and sitting on the beach, everyone decided that there was just too much sand in uncomfortable places. 

We went home and rested, then we went to 7 Brothers. We enjoyed the meal and music. Afterwards we walked around the temple grounds.

January 1, 2023, Sunday

We started out the day heading for Church at 9 a.m. It turns out, though, that church started at 8 a.m. So, we got there in time for part of the bishop’s closing remarks, closing song, and closing prayer. We assumed that someone announced the time change the previous week, but we don’t understand Tongan, so we missed the news. Since we missed the Sacrament, we decided to go home and come back in a couple of hours for the next ward’s Sacrament. 

When we arrived at the chapel the second time, we saw our mission president and his wife in the audience. They were there to listen to two of the young sister missionaries speak. 

That evening was the mission’s monthly break-the-fast potluck dinner. It always takes place on the first Sunday of the month whether it is Fast Sunday or not. We were able to introduce Catherine and Alex and Madeleine to our friends.

December 31, Saturday

The adventure for today is a tour of the Kualoa Ranch, the location where some of the Jurassic Park movies were shot. Actually, it is the location where parts of a lot of movies and tv shows, like Lost, were shot. There are some old bunkers from World War II scattered around the ranch, as well.

We started with a bus tour of the movie sites, then had a buffet lunch, and finished with a tour of a private lake and Kaneohe Bay in some catamarans. It was fun. At one point, the guide pointed to a shadow in the water and said, “that’s a turtle.” We need to do better than that for our goal.

New Year’s Eve is a big deal in Hawaii. We hear that it was crazy with fireworks in Laie. A couple of people told us that it was like a war zone, but we live far enough away that we didn’t see or hear much of anything.

December 30, Friday

To start the vacation off right, we took the Baileys to breakfast at Papa Ole’s. There is no in-door dining there, so we took the food and ate at Pounders Beach and took some photos.

We wanted to see how far we could sink in the sand.

That was enough effort for the jet-lagged Baileys, so we went home for a nap. We went to Kahuku for dinner and decided to get corndogs at a food truck just like one in Pleasant Grove. The owner of this food truck knows the owner of the one in Pleasant Grove, so the Baileys had a good talk with him. They gave us some free deep-fried pineapple slices, and then we went shopping in some nearby boutiques.

December 29, Thursday

Today the Bailey’s come, but their flight wasn’t scheduled to arrive until about 7:30 p.m. Their itinerary included two lay-overs and plane changes, which left plenty of opportunities for delays. But they arrived safely.

We started the day at work, but wanted to make sure we weren’t late, so we left for the airport with plenty of time to spare. We spent time waiting at Ala Moana, shopping at Ross and eating at the food court. We call it the largest food court in the world because it is in the largest outdoor mall in the world and it was very large. (I looked it up. It’s not the largest food court in the world or even in the United States)

 December 26 - 28

We spent several days working and getting ready for the Bailey's visit. 

December 25, Sunday

Christmas Day

The Sacrament Meeting program was a collection of music and readings from the Christmas story in the Gospel of Luke. The young missionaries sang a hymn with the bishop and one of his counselors -- one verse in English and one in Tongan.

That evening was the mission dinner. It was crowded and noisy with a finale of Christmas songs accompanied by at least a dozen ukuleles. We sang a diverse group of songs including “Up on the Housetop,” and “Silent Night.”

December 24, Saturday

Looking for turtles.

We are determined to find turtles while we are here on Oahu. All the missionaries have stories and pictures and we have only a very nice wood carving – so far.

After doing some laundry and cleaning, we headed for the North Shore, Turtle Bay to be precise. Our first stop was Waiale'e beach. While we were there, we met an LDS artist named Eva Koleva Timothy. She was delighted to see some missionaries because she had been contacted and taught by missionaries in Bulgaria. She and her family were en route to New Zealand to conduct some art workshops and decided that they should stop in Hawaii on the way there. Since Paula loves original art, she asked to see some of the Eva’s art. Eva has her own blog and a twitter site full of her art. Many of them are religious in nature, with her daughter as the model.

From that beach we drove down the road to Turtle Beach, where there are supposed to be lots of turtles. We looked all around but struck out again. However, Paula was able to go out into the water – up to her waist!

Back on the road we came across a rest stop, resort, food truck and stores called Kahuku farms. We had been past it before, but is usually not open, or we were in a hurry. But this time we stopped. It is actually a working farm with all these other attractions and amenities. I bought grilled banana bread with vanilla ice cream. Paula bought a chocolate candy bar. While we were there a tractor-pulled tourist wagon arrived. That’s one of the options at the farm – a tour. It takes about an hour and costs $100 per ticket. The trip does include free samples from the garden, though. We decided to save that for some other time when we are feeling rich. 

That evening we had a mission devotional consisting entirely of missionary groups singing relatively unknown Christmas songs and a reading of the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke. Paula: The music was beautiful and very touching. For the final number we sang Hark the Herald Angels Sing. We were accompanied by a very forceful young elder playing the piano and a senior sister playing the organ. It was very loud and joyful. We almost raised the roof. It was a wonderful experience spending Christmas eve as missionaries with such lovely people. 

December 23 Friday

It’s Christmas Eve break and so we decided to take an adventure to the southeast part of the island. Paula had seen an advertisement for an artisan’s market in downtown Honolulu near Waikiki beach, which is also near the southeast corner of the island, so we thought we could combine the two adventures.

We started out by heading toward Diamond Head. Our first stop was at Waimanalo Beach. We weren’t really equipped for wading or sitting, so we just walked along the shore and watched the waves. It was very calm compared to the other beaches we have been to recently. 

Our next stop was Sandy Beach Park. From that beach we could see a blow hole in the lava rock. It was pretty small and only showed an ocean mist occasionally, but we decided to drive down the road and explore. There was a small parking lot and a viewing area fenced off for sight-seers. Of course, there were quite a few people who ignored the fence and climbed down the rock to stand right in front of the blowhole, so no one could get a good photo of it without people in the way. I wanted to yell at them and say “Get out of the way,” but since I was wearing my missionary tag, I restrained myself.

Our next stop was a lookout over the beach in front of Diamond Head. There was a paved trail down the mountain to the beach, so no one had to climb over the wall and crawl down the rocks. On the side of the trail, we saw what is kind of an iconic site in Hawaii. A light blue bicycle, apparently abandoned, chained to a fence with the front wheel missing. The reason I say it is iconic, is because every bicycle we have seen on Oahu is light blue, and any vehicle that is left on the side of the road for more than a night ends up being vandalized and dismantled by road pirates. 

Near the trail to the beach we could see a picturesque little light house. To get a better picture, I followed a dirt trail for a bit and took a photo. After returning to the car and heading down the road, we saw that the lighthouse was right on the road, so my trek though the dust and weeds was not necessary.

We were driving basically on the side of Diamond Head, so we never had a good look at it far enough away to take a picture. We finally drove down off the mountain to a little park that had a view of the top if Diamond Head, so we pulled off to get a picture, in case anyone wanted proof that we had been there. 

By that time, we were nearly inside Honolulu where the artisan fair, our ultimate goal, was being held at the Royal Hawaiian Center. It sounds fancy and it was a fancy place. The fair wasn’t particularly fancy or elaborate, but we still found something to buy – a calendar in Hawaiian. 

We had parked at the Honolulu Zoo, our go-to parking spot, since it is the only place we have found that we can park. From there, we went to the storied Leonard’s Bakery where all the tourists say you can get the best doughnuts ever. It is an okay place, with good things to eat, but it didn’t really live up to the hype. First of all, they don’t sell doughnuts, they sell malasadas, which they say are Portuguese doughnuts. And they taste pretty much like every other malasada we have eaten elsewhere. The people at the bakery were nice and called both Sister Soderborg and me “Elders.” I guess they don’t really know what that means, exactly. 

In order to get to Leonard’s, we had to park at Safeway and walk. But since we were there, we decided to do a little shopping.  There, we found a collapsible insulated bag like the ones our co-workers had spoken so highly of. Now we can buy frozen foods without worrying about them spoiling on the way home. 

Our final stop of the day was Costco, not the one we usually go to, but just as crowded and busy. We bought a big pecan pie because we were assigned to bring a dessert to the mission dinner on Christmas day. 

December 22, Thursday

We spent a good part of the day working on lesson plans for the next semester.

December 21, Wednesday

Today we were able to pick up the car at about 1 p.m. It was expensive, but there was no way to avoid it. 

After the car was fixed, we drove to Wahiawa to Walgreens’s to pick up a puzzle Paula had printed for the neighbors upstairs. We stopped at a beach on the way home to see the big waves. We were able to find parking at Pupukea Beach.

Paula

That afternoon we were scheduled to staff a booth at a Christmas celebration for young families living at the Temple View apartments. There were stations set up in the flag circle where RAs were presenting parts of the Christmas story. The senior missionaries in our district had a table set up at the end of the circle where we had small toys, clothes, and new pillows with pillowcases. The problem turned out to be that there was supposed to be only one gift per family, but they were all sitting out on a table. We only had one mother and her child show up during our half-hour shift, but before we could do anything about it, the child had a toy in each hand and the mother was picking out the pillowcase she wanted. 

Later that evening, the other missionaries had all the wrinkles smoothed out and were able to give out lots of gifts to the students.

December 20, Tuesday

This morning we go out to get in the car and see that it is missing a hubcap on the front passenger-side wheel – no doubt a result of the huge pothole we hit the night before. But we have to go to work, so I pull out onto the highway. I notice that the car is not running well. It nearly stalls a couple of times, then it starts bucking and chugging along. Afraid that we would not make it to Laie, I turned around and headed to the Organic Mechanic. The mechanic was way behind in his work because of the rain and power outages the day before. They told me they could probably not look at it today, but I could leave it there and they would do their best. 

We ended up staying home that day because there was no way of getting to campus. At about three o’clock the mechanic called and said he had looked at the car and that it needed new coils, new sparkplugs and an overall tune up. He said they could get the parts that day but would need to finish the work tomorrow. 

December 19, Monday

Monday was a day of heavy, almost constant, rain. Big sections of lawn at the campus turned into little lakes. Part of one of the parking lots also became a lake and was closed. We stopped at the drugstore on the way to work to buy rain ponchos because it was our day to work at the luau that afternoon and we didn’t want to get soaked in the rain. 

There are three different locations where we can work the luaus. One is the Aloha luau, another is the Ohana luau, and the third is the Gateway buffet. 

We were assigned to the Ohana luau. When we work the luau, there are four senior couples assigned to different posts. There is a line manager who stands out in front of the luau venue and is in charge of keeping people off to the side of the sidewalk in two lines – one to the left and one to the right -- so that other PCC patrons can pass by to get out of the villages. There are two missionaries checking tickets and marking off the names of people who have entered. There is one missionary who stands at the exit of the luau venue to make sure no one sneaks in the back way. 

I have noticed lately, when I see pictures of myself, that I look very grumpy and unapproachable, so I figured that I would be stationed at the exit. Sure enough, I was. But since this was our first time and a training opportunity, we rotated between posts so we could learn them all. 

While I was standing by the back entrance, I saw a whole family squeeze through an opening between the luau dining room and the restroom building. I immediately thought someone was to sneak into the luau. They didn’t go sit down, they just walked to the front of the restrooms. Then they sort of stood around where I was stationed. I asked them if they were looking for the entrance so I could direct them around the corner to where they could show their tickets, get a lei, and be admitted to the luau. They said no, they were just looking for the restroom. Just then Sister Soderborg showed up to trade places with me. I tried to explain what was happening when she asked them if they were looking for the luau. They said no, they were looking for the Gateway buffet. The problem was solved, and we directed them on their way. 

Meanwhile, back at the main gate, the missionaries did not get the list of guests before people started showing up for dinner. One of the missionaries just started writing the people’s names and how many in the party on a blank sheet of paper. Then the lists showed up and we could just cross off the names. The problem was that the missionary who was writing down names never crossed them off his list. 

One of the servers showed up, picked up the master list and went back into the luau. She came back a few minutes later looking a bit worried. She asked if she had the whole list, to which we said yes. She said it there were that many more people yet to come, there would not be enough seats for everyone. 

It was right about then that the missionary remembered he had not crossed off the 26 or so names that had already entered when the guest list showed up. The disaster was averted, and everyone could smile again. 

When all the guests were seated, the senior missionaries were dismissed to go and eat themselves. We went to the Gateway buffet instead of the luau. Everyone said that the Luaus and the Gateway have the same food except the Gateway has a wider variety. The luaus hold a two or three hundred guests while the Gateway holds close to a thousand. At the luau, the guests get a flower lei and a dramatic show. The buffet gets live music, but less drama.

On the way home from the PCC, the car hits a huge pothole, shakes the car, and scares me half to death.

December 18, Sunday

Church. The bishop conducted the meeting and gave a rather long introduction that appeared to be serious business, but we couldn’t understand any of it.

December 17, Saturday

Today we took a car trip to Honolulu. We parked close to Waikiki beach and walked to a farmers market a few blocks away. Paula thought it would be fun to experience the hustle bustle and the crowds. Ha! (Well, they do say that opposites attract.) There was some locally grown produce and crafts by local artisans. Paula likes to support local artists, so we bought a little bag, a puzzle, some art prints and some food. The food vendor said she runs a duck sanctuary on the island and that the young elders stop by and help once in a while.

We started to go home when much to our surprise, we drove right past Ala Moana, which just happens to be the largest outdoor shopping mall in the United States. We had considered going there earlier in the day, but we just didn’t feel up to the task of looking for it. So, we stopped and went shopping. We found a few more things to buy. Surprise.

That night, back at home, we went wading in the ocean at Hau'ula Beach.

December 16, Friday

In the morning I took the car to the Organic Mechanic for an oil change. Yes, organic mechanic sounds like an oxymoron, but they were very nice people.

In the evening, we had a ward party. Some Relief Society sisters told Paula that there would not be a dinner, but that we could bring some dessert. I guess it was the Elders Quorum who was in charge, because there was a dinner. There were chairs set up all around the perimeter of the parking lot – a huge square. The children had a large grassy area to play in. There is always a sound system at ward parties playing very loud music. When it was time to start eating, the elder’s quorum president stood up and shouted, very loudly, “Freeze.” It worked. All the children stopped where they were and were quiet. He then offered the blessing and then shouted, “Unfreeze.” That worked as well.

December 15, Thursday

December 14, Wednesday

We attended the temple with members of our ward. The evening was scheduled specifically for Tongan members from the island. We were asked to help because there were not enough Tongan members who signed up. We did a sealing session. There were only a few people there who were not Tongan, but the sessions were conducted in English.

December 13 Tuesday

We invited our co-workers, the Kings and the Hansons over to our house for dinner. We served Hawaiian Haystack (rice, chicken in gravy with many toppings to choose from – tomatoes, green peppers, slivered almonds, olives, onions, shredded coconut, crushed pineapple, etc. We had a good time, mostly listening to the others talk about life in Price, Utah.

December 12, Monday

 Paula got a perm. There is a hair salon at the PCC that is run by a member of the church. Many of the missionaries go there to get their hair cut.

December 11, Sunday

Church

December 10, Saturday

 We spent the morning cleaning the house. In the afternoon we drove to Kaneohe to go grocery shopping at Safeway.  We also bought more clothes at Ross.

December 9, Friday

Today was the graduation ceremony. Before the ceremony started Paula ran into Taylor and Shauna Anderson who were our neighbors in Cottonwood Heights. Their daughter Carissa was graduating from BYUH. There were a couple of other students we know who were also graduating. There were even a few students who walked in the ceremony but were not graduating.

In the evening we attended the temple with the Hansons and the Kings.

December 8, Thursday

All of our students’ final papers are in now – finally. 

Today was the final day for one of our office workers so we had breakfast. Paula and I learned how to make a Polynesian drink called ‘otai. It contains shredded watermelon, crushed pineapple, shredded coconut, half and half (milk and cream) a can of condensed milk, a little water, and a ton of sugar. That’s probably why I’m gaining weight again. It’s really good!

Our missionary district is donating pillows for Christmas to student families with little children. The district meeting was at the Rigbys. 

December 7, Wednesday

December 6, Tuesday

Today we were trained to work the luau at the PCC. I thought we were going to be trained to work at the Ask Me stations, but somewhere along the way things got changed. We can be either a line manager to keep the people moving in an orderly manner, or a name-checker-offer to prevent people from sneaking in with big groups, or a back door guard to keep people from sneaking in that way. We got loaner matching outfits so that we look authentic-ish. After our shift is over, we get to eat dinner. Yum. 

This evening it was our turn to feed the young missionaries. We went to the campus cafeteria again because is it convenient. We decided that the food isn’t all that great, so next time we might go to someplace less expensive like McDonalds or someplace like that.

Today is the last day for our students to complete their final. I was quite sure that someone would misunderstand the instructions and turn it in late, and sure enough, they did.

December 5, Monday

We started the day at work with a little yelp from Paula’s desk. “There’s a dead baby gecko on my desk . . . oh, wait, maybe it’s not dead.” Upon closer inspection we see that it is indeed a baby gecko just emerging from its egg. It is apparently not dead because it is still moving its tail a bit. We think there might be a gecko nest in the ceiling above Paula’s desk because we saw a gecko crawling into a hole in the ceiling right above her desk. Elder King, the animal biologist in the office came over and retrieved the gecko and deposited it safely outside.

Even though it is the final week of classes, a few students are still looking for a bit of help. We met two students while we were out talking walks.

December 4, Sunday

Yesterday we bought two packages of frosted pumpkin bread for today’s dessert. Unfortunately, we left them on the counter overnight and one of them was swarming with little sugar ants in the morning. Paula wiped the frosting off the end where the ants had gathered and put it in the fridge.

 For some reason, the counselor in the bishopric conducted Sacrament Meeting in English. He welcomed any visitors, so I guess that was the reason. In Sunday School class, the teacher called on us to tell a story of some time when we had to wait on the Lord to help us through a hard time. Fortunately for us, we have several of those kinds of stories in our past.  

That evening we went to the mission dinner. Apparently, someone in the mission doesn’t like the term break-the-fast and has started calling it close-the-fast and thinks the rest of us should do the same.

December 3 Saturday

We had received word earlier in the week that the PCC was going to let BYUH missionaries help staff an “Ask Me” station in the villages. At certain times of the afternoon, the PCC gets very crowded with tourists who have lots of questions. 

So, we decided it was time to go to the Swap Meet again, and get some matching clothes.  We got up early, well, early for a Saturday, hopped in the car and headed for Honolulu.   

The swap meet was busy as usual, but not nearly as hot as the first time we went there. All the vendors have their own little awning -covered area when they display their merchandise. Most of the clothing tents had very similar patterns and fabric for their merchandise, but we wanted something that was out of the ordinary so we kept looking. There were not a lot of choices of dresses that were modest and short enough for Paula, and not all the dresses had matching shirts, so our selection was limited. But we finally found some that we liked, and now we have two matching sets of clothes.

We also found a little toy surfer guy that I wanted to use to decorate my desk at the office.

We stopped at Costco on the way home to buy groceries and a dessert for the mission’s break-the-fast dinner the next day. We also stopped at a beach along the North Shore on the way home and took photos. Laniakea Beach.

December 2 Friday

December 1 Thursday

We spent our last class explaining to the students how we wanted them to complete their final paper. Paula put together a long, detailed PowerPoint presentation and handout that showed what a vision statement and a mission statement are and how to write personal ones for themselves. We wanted them to make a personal plan on how they were going to be a better student next semester. We gave them a format to use and even had them start writing things down while they were still in class. The final part of the paper was to come up with some kind of method to tack their progress during the next semester. I don’t know if it was an English barrier or an attention barrier, but when the students turned in the papers, only one of them got it all right. 

Even so, we grew to love those students and it was kind of sad to realize that we wouldn’t be meeting with them again.  

When we got home that afternoon, we decided that we needed a little adventure, so we set out on the ocean side of Kamehameha highway to find the way to the beach across from us. It seems like everyone who lived there either had a big fence around their property or a no trespassing sign to keep beach bums out of their yards. We walked north along the narrow highway with cars whizzing past us until we found a little patch of vacant land that was neither fenced nor had a private property sign on it. It was kind of overgrown with plants and made us wonder what we were actually stepping on, but it was just a few yards, and we were on the beach. Someone had hung a swing from one of the big trees along the ocean, so maybe someone thought it was part of their yard. 

The beach was beautiful and practically empty, so we walked in the water for quite a distance until it started to be dusky. So, we turned around and headed home, not wanting to be walking along the highway in the dark – it is scary enough in the light

Beach across the street from our apartment.

November 30, Wednesday

We stopped at Pounders Beach again. Paula got more photos of waves and froth. It was magnificent.

 November 29, Tuesday

Today we taught the last lesson with new course content. We talked about mindsets -- fixed and growth. Next class period will be a review and preparation for the final. 

The mission president held a meeting where he discussed some policy items for senior missionaries.

 November 28, Monday

This week, being the last week of classes, practically none of our students kept their appointments to meet with us.  It could be that they are just too busy with last-minute projects and homework, or it could be a realization that at this point there really isn't much we can do for them.

Monday night was the lighting ceremony for the campus Christmas lights. We were led to believe that it would be a big deal with hundreds of people filling the flag circle, and entertainment on a portable stage. 

We arrived early, anticipating a large crowd, and found only about a half a dozen people in front of the McKay building. They were trying to find someone who could open the building so they could get power for the PA system. 

As the hour approached, people slowly trickled into the area. By the starting time, there were probably a couple dozen spectators. The PA system did not work well, no stage, no entertainment, but there was a spiritual thought, a prayer and a countdown.

 November 27, Sunday

In Sacrament Meeting, the Primary children put on the program. They were all dressed in formal wear. The little boys had white shirts, ties and missionary tag. They also wore a ta'ovala, which is a woven mat that is wrapped around the waist and secured with some kind of rope, ribbon or belt. The little girls also had a Sunday dress, missionary tag, and most of them also wore a ta'ovala. Those who didn't have a ta'ovala wore a kind of ornamental girdle around their waist called a kiekie.

Many of the adults wear a ta'ovala or a kiekie to church every week.

All the children spoke their parts in Tongan, but sang the songs in English. Since we didn't understand what they were saying, we didn't know that the program was about missionary work, because the tags were too small to read from the audience. 

At the end of the second hour, our ward high councilman told me that we were invited to stay to a dinner the ward was having in the cultural hall as soon as tables were set up and the food arrived. 

A typical Tongan feast includes lots of meat -- pork, chicken, turkey, beef -- starches like baked cassava or yuka, baked bananas, breadfruit, fruit, dessert, and a drink that consists of pureed fruit. They also had faikakai, which is sweet dumplings in coconut milk. Sometimes they serve raw fish, but I didn't see any this time.

One older sister that was sitting at the same table as we were kept bringing us food - unsolicited. The members have a high respect for missionaries.

November 26, Saturday

We took two students from India to dinner and attended a Christmas concert. 

November 25, Friday

• Friday morning, we spent time working on the blog. By about 1 pm, I was tired of sitting around the apartment watching Paula work (that is usually fun to do, but she does not like me lurking), so I suggested that we go visit the Bishop’s Museum. We took advantage of the trip to Honolulu to return a package to the UPS store.
• The Bishop’s Museum was interesting, I guess. Sister Soderborg quite enjoyed it. I was quite bored. 
  
• We also took advantage of the daylight to find the Romano's Macaroni Grill that we missed last week.

November 24, Thursday

• Thanksgiving Day. The mission had scheduled a Thanksgiving devotional and dinner at the Gateway patio at the PCC. Each senior missionary district was assigned to bring, potatoes, stuffing, yams, and pie. Three of the five couples in our district had family on the island and would not be attending the dinner, so for our part of the assignment, Sister Soderborg chose to cook 10 pounds of mashed potatoes. We borrowed a slow cooker from the Hansens in our office to keep the potatoes warm from the time we left our house in Punalu’u to when we would eat in Laie after the devotional. (Recently, I have been telling people that we live in Punulu’u instead of Hau’ula because, well, we do, and because I like to emphasize the fact that we live far away from Laie.)
• When we got to the PCC some of the plans had changed. Instead of just the missionaries, there were three groups of people: missionaries, customers of the Laie Marriott who had nowhere else to go for Thanksgiving dinner, and some homeless people from the island who also did not have anywhere else to go for dinner. We did not have a mission devotional.
• The person announcing the event, likely someone from the PCC or a local stake president (or both) thanked everyone for coming and invited anyone who wanted to come and mingle with the missionaries was welcome to do so, but that we would not go bother them.
• There were separate serving lines for each group, and plenty of food. The mashed potatoes were pretty uniform from serving dish to serving dish, but the yams, stuffing, vegetables, gravy and pies were very different. We also had shredded turkey and ham, cooked by the PCC food services people. The announcer said something like, “Have any of you ever cooked 250 hams and turkeys underground before?” One missionary actually raised her hand. I’m not sure she understood the “underground” part of the question. The food was delicious.
• Besides the food, we also had some entertainment. There was a Hawaiian gentleman with an electric keyboard singing an interesting mix of Hawaiian and American oldies music. The announcer’s daughters did a hula for us, and two groups of young sister missionaries sang.
• After the dinner we stopped to see Elder and Sister Lee. I had told Elder that I would accompany him on the piano as he sang O Holy Night for the Christmas program and I needed to stop and pick up the music so I could practice. We had a very nice visit with the Lee’s. We’re glad we are their friends. They told us the that the Bishop’s Museum in Honolulu was quite interesting and worth a visit.
• In the evening we attended a devotional put on by a Tongan family about the history of the church in Polynesia. It featured music and dance of the different cultures.

November 23, Wednesday

• Paula speaking, I’ve been trying to think of what we want the final for our class to be like.  I wanted it to be something to help them evaluate their semester and make goals for the upcoming semester. I finally came up with a good outline on Wednesday, so we worked hard most of the day. We’re going to have the students do a strategic plan. They will write a mission statement, vision statement, five goals and how they will achieve them and finish with a paragraph on how they will evaluate their progress. I will use a PowerPoint hand-out with notes on have of the page and walk them through it. Plus I found a different PowerPoint templet that is bright and cheery. So much better than the dark one I’ve been using. I’m surprised how much a little color makes me happy.

November 22, Tuesday

• President Henry B. Eyring spoke at the campus devotional. The first part of the devotional was President Eyring, University President Kauwe, and Elder Gilbert, the church commissioner of education, answering a few questions submitted by students. Then President Eyring spoke.
  Here is a quote from his address: 
  "I have felt today, and in the many times I have come to this place, that people here have lived to qualify for [the gift of the Holy Ghost.] That is why it feels to me as if I am in a sacred time and in a sacred place. The feeling in this place must draw from us a deep gratitude for those who came before us. Many of you know far better than I what transpired in the past, and what you need to do to leave that gift for those who follow."
• In the afternoon, Sister Soderborg taught a lesson about Interpersonal communication and how to show a professor that you are listening. So, most of the students sat there, smiled, and gave thumbs up for the rest of the lesson.

November 21, Monday

• This is the day we met Saravanan. I had emailed him, and he came into our office. He is a friend of my brother-in-law’s brother.

November 20, Sunday

• We got word from Emily that today was the Primary Program for their ward, so we got up early, 6:30-ish, to watch Kate do her part on the program. She did a good job.
• Sacrament Meeting at the Tongan Ward. There was no English Sunday School class today, so instead of sitting through another meeting not understanding anything, we went home.

November 19, Saturday

• Today we went to the beach. Paula was tired of just walking on the edge, just getting our feet wet, so she put on her swim suit to get serious about getting wet. It was a blustery day and we went to a state park beach at Kahana Beach. We stepped into the water, and it was cold. We had never experienced cold water at a beach. So, no swimming today. Besides no one else was in the water and we thought it might be jellyfish season.
• We looked up and saw someone paragliding in the wind over the mountains.

If you look in the tiny circle there is an even tinier paraglider.

He circled around and around getting closer to us.

Until he landed on the beach not far from where we were.

•  We talked to him on our way out and he said he did all his stunts just for us.

November 18, Friday

• Paula’s Birthday! The students in our office decorated Paula’s desk with balloons, flowers and a card. We ate cake and talked a lot.
• In the afternoon, Paula and I went on a date (sort of). We hopped in the car and drove to Waikiki Beach in Honolulu.
• When I looked at the map I read that we were to head down Kamehameha Highway to Likelike Highway (that is pronounced “leaky leaky” or at least that’s the Americanization of the Hawaiian pronunciation). You follow leaky leaky to H1, until you come to a freeway exit by the Itchy Butt restaurant. Yes, I said Itchy Butt, and no we did not go there to eat.
• Traffic was ridiculous and we ended up taking a detour and didn’t see the restaurant. How disappointing!
  We made it to the beach and parked at the Honolulu zoo across the street, at the suggestion of one of our office helpers. We had fun seeing the beach, watching a little kid surfing on tiny waves and being appalled at some of the swimsuits we saw. We also got a few fun pictures.
• After the beach we decided to go eat dinner at Romano’s Macaroni Grill – at least that was the plan. Traffic was still outrageous, the streets winding and weaving around more street lights than we have ever seen before. When we thought we getting close to Macaroni Grill, the map showed a curved dotted line instead of a road. Just at that moment we saw a large sign saying Walmart. Since we needed to go to Walmart anyway, we said, forget Macaroni Grill, we will find something to eat in Walmart. It wasn't much of a birthday dinner, just a burger at L&L Barbeque.
• Walmart was on the ground floor of a huge building about the size of a whole city block. Sam’s Club was on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors of the same building. It was an interesting experience. Not particularly pleasant, but interesting.

November 17, Thursday

• Today we had to think of something to keep us busy between 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. when there was a free concert at the David O. McKay auditorium. It would be possible to just drive home and then come back to campus in a couple of hours, but experience has shown us that we are usually too tired to pull ourselves off the couch, get back in the car, and drive down the highway in the dark, so we decided to not go home this time.
• After work, we first bought some dinner at Taco Bell and then went to Pounder’s Beach to eat while we watched the waves. It’s very peaceful. We stayed there until it was nearly dark.
• After the beach we went to the grocery store to buy a birthday cake for Paula’s birthday celebration the next day.
• We went back to our office to put the cake in the refrigerator and still had a half hour before we could go to the concert, so we sat in the library and read.

• The concert was a shaka steel band performance. There is no way to accurately describe the sound of a steel band- or even adequately describe the instruments they use. It sounds a lot like the music to Under the Sea in The Little Mermaid, but there is no keyboard, just modified steel drums pounded into bowl-like shapes that are hit with rubber-tipped sticks. I know it sounds crazy, but I did say that it is very difficult to describe.  There was also a Polynesian drum group performing with dancers shaking their hips to the beat of the drums.

November 16, Wednesday

• Elder and Sister King needed some help with their addiction recovery class tonight, so we volunteered to help. I imagine I will just sit there and listen, but that’s what they need.

November 15, Tuesday

• We went to a hula and ukulele recital that one of our students was performing in. She was a dancer. They did a good job. We saw the student as we were leaving, so we stopped the car and Paula went to congratulate her. She got a hug.

November 13, Sunday

• Another “End the fast” dinner at the PCC. The Lee’s were off on the side sitting alone, so Paula and I went over to join them.

November 12, Saturday

• We had mission pictures taken at 6:30 a.m. They said that is when the lighting is best. It is before sunrise, so I’ll take their word for it. After the pictures we took a walk around the temple grounds.
• We saw Elder and Sister Lee at the photo shoot. He told me that he was going to sing a song at the mission Christmas devotional and asked if I would accompany him. He told me that he had thought that he wouldn’t be able to sing again because of some problem with his throat. But, coming to Hawaii had apparently had a therapeutic effect on him because he can sing again. Personally, I was thinking that I would not accompany any one again because of my performance anxiety. Coming to Hawaii did not prove to have the same therapeutic effect on me that it had on Elder Lee, but he is a nice man, so I said I would do it.
• The other couples we work with called and told us that they were going out to breakfast at Papa Ole’s and invited us to join them. I had banana pancakes, Paula had bacon, eggs and potatoes.

November 11, Friday

• We had a district meeting at the home of Elder and Sister Purles.

November 10, Thursday

• Taught a class on good financial management practices.

November 9, Wednesday

• There was a grand opening for the new Women’s Center on campus. We attended because the senior missionary directors are friends of ours and have already helped a couple of students we referred to them. They served walking tacos at the open house. Now, there is a blast from the past. 

November 8, Tuesday

• In class we had the students do a presentation on an aspect of their choosing related to Healthy Choices, such as Sleeping, Substance Abuse, Communicating With Your Instructor, etc.

November 6, Sunday

• After church we were just sitting at home playing spider solitaire when Catherine called us. She said that she had received a phone call from a friend from Denver. Her friend’s daughter had been one of the young women that Catherine had taught in church. The daughter’s boyfriend, who is not a member of the church, is in the army in Hawaii and stationed on Oahu. Catherine said that the boyfriend and another soldier were at the temple grounds looking for some peace after some sort of traumatic experience they had had during a training with the army. Catherine’s friend wanted to know if we would go to the temple and meet the boyfriend, show him around and befriend him. We did. The two soldiers were very nice and didn’t seem too troubled about anything, so we visited with them and took them into the visitors center. One of the senior elders in the center was an ex-navy man and spoke with them. He told them some history of Laie, how historically it had been a place of refuge and safety. That seemed to be just the right kind of message for them. 

November 5, Saturday

• This morning there was a monthly devotional at the PCC. This month, it was held at the Tongan village. There were a couple of people from our ward who were there as honored guests. It seems that they have been influential in keeping the Tongan village operating over the years.
• On the way home, we stopped at a roadside art gallery featuring wood carvings by a local man. He said all the carvings were his own original design, and that he learned the skill from his grandfather. He told us that he is LDS and that he has a son who served a mission and lives in the states now. The money from the carvings helped put two of his children through USU.
  We saw a carving that we really like, so we bought it. He took the time to describe the meaning of the design to us. He also signed the bottom of it for us. He asked if we wanted him to put something else on the bottom so Paula asked him to carve a turtle. This is a photo of the sculpture. He said the turtle is surfing.

November 4, Friday

• It rained off-and-on all day – mostly on. At the office, one of our student workers forwarded a call to me from someone on the mainland (that’s Hawaiian for the states) who wanted to know what it was like to be an Academic Success Missionary. She had seen the listing on the church website and wondered if she and her husband should apply for it.
  When Sister Soderborg and I submitted our mission papers, we didn’t feel like we were “applying” for anything. We just looked at open mission opportunities and listed the ones we thought we could do and enjoy.
  Anyway, I told the sister what our responsibilities are. She said that it didn’t sound like a forty-hour-a-week job and was worried if it would keep them busy enough. She also wanted to know if they could go back home when the school was on break. I didn’t really know how to answer that question except to say, “No. You have to get permission from the mission president to leave the island, and sometimes permission from the area president.”
• In my mind, I’m thinking this is probably not the right mission for them.
• We stopped at Pounder’s Beach on the way home, again. The ocean was very wild – big waves pounding against the shore – hence the name, I imagine.

November 3, Thursday

• We taught a lesson on how to make a class oral presentation. Only one student showed up for the beginning of class. Two more showed up about 30 minutes into the class. They missed most of it.
• We needed to take up some time before going to a play, so we went to the visitors center by the temple. We told Janice Luker that we would go and see what the missionaries do at the visitor’s center since that is where she and Bill served a few years ago. We had the young sisters take us on a tour of the center and had our picture taken in front of the Christus.  Then we drove to the PCC for dinner. It was fun.
• Tonight we went to see a production of Mamma Mia by the university drama department. It turned out very much like the movie – a little more risqué than we expected at a church school. It was kind of like starting with a prayer and then celebrating immorality. But the music was great.

November 2, Wednesday

• Today we fed the missionaries from our ward. More specifically, we invited them to eat dinner at the BYUH cafeteria. They are very nice missionaries and we enjoy their company. One of them is from Pleasant Grove and the other is from Springville.

November 1, Tuesday

• It was a regular day at work, waiting for students to show up for their appointments and teaching class. We had guest lecturers from the counseling and disabilities center. Our students seemed to enjoy it.

October 31, Monday

• Halloween in Hawaii is a big deal. People in the university library love to dress up and decorate. Trick or treating in Laie is a huge deal. Everyone in the county, it seems, gather on Moana and Iosepa streets to pass out and pick up candy. We only saw videos of the event, but it appeared to be kind of like a big carnival crowd.
• We stayed home and watched a Disney Halloween movie.

October 30, Sunday

• On the fifth Sunday at the Tongan ward, we had a combined Sunday School class. All the comments and instruction were in Tongan, except for a few random comments. The bishop finished with a rousing speech which sounded very passionate and stern, but of course we couldn’t understand it, so I’m not sure if it was as stern as it sounded.

October 29, Saturday

• We spent the morning cleaning the apartment. In the afternoon we decided to go for an outing. On the northwestern part of the island, there is a place called the Waimea Vally. In the valley there is a botanical garden and a waterfall called Wimea Falls. The entrance gate said the admission was $25. At first, I was feeling cheap and didn’t want to pay that much, but we figured we may not come back so we decided to go in. There was a senior discount and the guy at the ticket counter asked us if we were local residents or military. It sounded like an either/or question, so I said local resident. I mean, we are residents of the island for a year and a half, not just tourists. Anyway, he only charged us $8 per person. That’s a whole lot less money and well worth the visit.

The garden had information tables, and culture/demonstration areas along the trail to the waterfall. There was a whole section that showed the history of hybridization of hibiscus flowers. We got lots of good pictures. We met a man at the healing hut that was demonstrating how medicinal plants were prepared. He was a member of the church and spent some time telling us about the similarities between ancient Hawaiian beliefs and LDS beliefs.

It was a beautiful place, and we figure it would be worth another visit someday.

 

October 28, Friday

• Today our ward had a Halloween party in the evening. It was advertised as something very similar to what we did in Cottonwood Heights – a chili cook-off. I didn’t actually see any chili there, but there was other good food. We brought taro rolls that we bought at the PCC. Taro rolls are purple, so it seemed appropriate for a Halloween party.
• We didn’t stay for the whole party because there was dancing and very loud music. One of the members posted a video of a native Tongan dance that the little boys performed after we left. The dance involved a lot of stomping and grunting. They train them young.

October 26, Wednesday 

• We went to Pounder's Beach again. It's becoming our favorite beach.

October 25, Tuesday

• Our campus-wide devotional today was Sister Sita Jasper. Sister Jasper has an amazing story about starting out with almost nothing until eventually creating a very successful distribution and logistics company in Salt Lake City.
• She described in detail her time at what was then the church college of Hawaii. When the Hawaiian and mainland students went home for the summer, she and most of the Polynesian and Pacific Rim students stayed in Laie and worked to pay off their student loans. This is how she described her time here:
  “Eating in the cafeteria was a luxury during the summer so in order to reduce spending, we opted to provide our own meals. There was no grocery store in Laie so this developed our talents to become very creative. I remember sharing a pack of hot dogs someone gave us and a roommate showing us how to grill each dog on a hot iron. Sometimes we went into the mountains looking for mangoes, papaya and bananas. One of our roommates found an old electric frying pan to cook with. It was the first time I learned to cut up and fry green papaya to make stir fry with a can of fish. Another roommate worked at the PCC diner. When tourists left uneaten food on their plates, she would bring it home for all of us to enjoy. Our dorm parent was Bella Stokoe. On occasion she would make a large pot of Koko rice and feed us when we arrived home from work. On the weekends, there was no food to eat. We became more creative. We walked down the streets of Laie and began knocking on doors. One of us would stand at the opened doors and say, ‘We are hungry. Do you have any food to spare?’ Sometimes the answer was ‘sorry we don't.’ ”
• Sister Jasper repeatedly used the phrase “for such a time as this,” when describing the opportunities she had growing up. She recounted the story of Esther in the Old Testament who was responsible for saving the lives of the entire Jewish population of Persia. Esther had become queen because the king was so enamored with her. Though risking her life to do so, Ester approached the queen unannounced, explained her situation and convinced the king to spare the lives of her people.
• When Mordecai, her cousin, learned of this, he sent a message to Esther suggesting the possibility that she had become queen, “for such a time as this?”
• Sister Jasper suggested to the students that:
• “Each of you is here at this institution for a purpose, at ‘such a time as this.’ You may be a student living in the dorm or off campus. Most of you have roommates. Please don’t be afraid to get to know them, befriend them and share with them your spiritual experiences that may help them along their path. Reaching out to others may be difficult, especially if it’s someone from a different country, from a different background or even different habits and beliefs. Learn to love them and be patient with them. Pray for them and invite them to attend sacrament meeting with you. Invite them to attend the temple with you. Your good example will have a positive effect on them forever . . . .”

October 23, Sunday

• After church, we had a district meeting that some call a family home evening at one of the senior couple’s (Elder and Sister Brock) apartment. It was a nice home. We talked about resilience and shared stories. I told the group about Adam’s journey through life to this point. None of the other eight missionaries seemed to be particularly interested in visited with us, so we just sat on the edge of the crowd eating dessert and gaining weight.

October 22, Saturday

• Today we went to “town.” That’s what everyone calls going to Honolulu. There we visited the Foster Botanical Garden. There were huge palm trees, breadfruit trees, a cinnamon tree, one called a Traveler’s tree on which the palm fronds grow in a big fan shape, some bottle palms, macadamia nut trees, a king sago, and an enormous Baobab tree. There was a greenhouse with orchids, but surprisingly few flowers anywhere else in the garden. Of course, there were lots of other trees as well, but these are the ones we took pictures of.
• The road to Honolulu was not nearly as busy as we expected it to be. We just followed the GPS system and found everything we were looking for.
• Paula had found a wholesale silk flower shop online, so we went there and to a fabric store that was nearby. Paula said she was surprisingly uninterested in making anything with flowers or fabric.
• We still had plenty of day left after Honolulu, so we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation on the way home. It has a bunch of attractions like a train ride around the plantation, a maze they labeled the largest in the world, and a large gift shop where you could also buy soft serve pineapple ice cream, which I suppose was Dole Whip, but it wasn’t labeled as such.
• The whole place was very touristy, but it was fun to see since it is such a huge industry on the island.
• We still had a lot of day left, so we stopped at the beach in Hale‘iwa again where there is plenty of parking and access to the beach.

October 20, Thursday

• When we are at work and there are no appointments, we frequently walk around campus to see new things. Today we were watching someone mowing the lawn. Every place he mowed he was followed by a large group of white egrets. I thought maybe they were finding something to eat in the newly mowed lawn, but they didn’t seem to be eating anything. I looked like they were just following the mower, like chicks following their mother. It was kind of weird, kind of intriguing.

October 19, Wednesday

• We had a couple of really intense days this week with students. One was having an anxiety attack about an essay she was supposed to take. She was basically immobilized -- could hardly talk, could hardly move, could hardly think. We ended up taking her to see one of the senior missionaries in the women’s center. The sister is a licensed mental health counselor and seemed to be able to help the student.
• The other was in a terrible situation without a place to live, nothing to eat, with a childhood background that would break your heart. Our supervisor helped us work with her. He has connections on campus and thinks he can do something about the housing situation.

October 18, Tuesday

• Every Tuesday morning the three senior missionary couples meet together with our supervisor (Michael Aldrich) to discuss any problems we may be having with our students. He is on several campus committees that deal with students who are on grade probation and decide who gets to stay and who has to go home. That’s not a job I would want to do.
• Today was campus devotional day. The guest speakers were a husband-and-wife team that founded the ChatBooks phone app. The speech was all about families and survival amid good times and difficult times. It was really quite interesting. They said that if you see someone’s beautifully staged family Christmas Card photo, don’t automatically assume that they have everything under control.
• I got a phone call from the doctor’s office with my blood test results. Everything is fine. No high blood sugar numbers, no high cholesterol, no high A1C numbers. Everything is fine.

October 17, Monday

• Spent the day at the office meeting with students, sending emails to students who have not been in to see us, and preparing the lesson for class tomorrow.

October 16, Sunday

• Sister Soderborg and I spoke in church today. We were asked to talk about President Oaks’ talk about giving, from Oct general conference. We prepared the talks, gave them in church, got little feedback from anyone and went to Sunday School, where there was no teacher. Since we had been working on our talks, we had not even read the lesson, so the alternate teacher just excused the class, and we went home. It was kind of an anticlimactic day at church.
• In the evening, though, we went to another beach. This time it was a state recreational park just outside of Laie. The sign said that the area had been used as a staging area during WWII for war games. The sign said if anyone spotted anything that looked like an old, unexploded ordnance, they should contact 911. We didn’t see any old ammunition, but we did see a couple of Portuguese Man o’ War (jellyfish) washed up on the beach. We didn’t call 911.

October 15, Saturday

• Today there was a devotional at the Fiji village at the PCC. It happened to coincide with a 50-year (or thereabouts) anniversary of the country’s independence from Great Britain. The student performers did a special presentation about the settlement of Fiji. They are very talented.

October 14, Friday

• Friday was a doctor’s appointment day for Elder Soderborg. We had to change Medicare providers to Humana when we came to Hawaii because, our agent said, United Health Care doesn’t work well in Hawaii. My doctor from American Fork is also contracted to work for Humana, so I thought there would be no problem getting my subscriptions refilled through the mail. When I go to the Humana web site, I am required to put in my primary care physician. I put in Dr. Mower, but his profile says he is not accepting new patients. I explain to the person on the phone that I am not a new patient. She says, that his profile says he is not accepting new patients. I tell her again that I am not a new patient, I am an existing patient. She says that she cannot put him as my primary care physician because his profile says he is not accepting new patients. I say, so can I call him and have him call you and make an exception for me? She says no, because he can’t change it for just one person, he would have to change his profile to say he is accepting new patients.
• Anyway, there is a medical clinic in Kahuku, north of Laie where I can get a new primary care physician. There is an LDS doctor who works there so, apparently, he sees lots of senior couples. My (Mark’s) appointment was with the physician’s assistant, Marcus. Everything went smoothly. I gave him a list of my medications and he sent them to the Humana mail order pharmacy.
• The next day I call Humana to make sure the order was processed. Only five of the seven medications had been ordered. This is becoming a complicated story.
• After our doctor’s appointment on Friday we continued around the island to Costco. We didn’t think we had much to buy, but we succeeded in spending a lot of money anyway.
• Since we were on the west side of the Island, we decided to go to the beach and get a picture of the sun setting on the ocean. We stopped at Hale’iwa. There is a nice large beach there and we got some great pictures.

October 13, Thursday

• We taught a class about the writing process. It was a rainy day, but we can walk from our office, through the library, underneath a long, covered walkway to the McKay building all the way to our classroom without getting wet. Pretty cool,
• Today was also a temple night because we had scheduled an endowment session online long before we knew about the missionary assignment on Wednesday.
  

October 12, Wednesday

• On Wednesday the Laie Temple is usually closed, but the mission arranged to have an all-missionary temple night. We were asked to do an endowment session at 6 p.m. and an initiatory session at 7:30   p.m. The Laie Temple is beautiful but quite small. Ordinance rooms only hold a maximum of about 42 people.

October 11, Tuesday

• The mission devotional was a relative success. I only missed a few notes and was able to camouflage most of them. The song was Have I Done Any Good In the World Today, which is interesting because an arrangement of that hymn combined with A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief had become one of my favorite hymns just before leaving for the mission.

October 10, Monday

• We met with some of our students again. Frequently only about half of the ones we have scheduled during the day actually make it to our appointments. But once in a while we have a student come who has had a success during the past week, got a good score on an exam, or got unexpected help from a professor. They are so happy that they make us happy, as well.

October 9, Sunday

• On Sunday we found out that there was a missionary reunion underway for people who served in Tonga. Many of those who came for the reunion came to our ward for church. Most of them were native Tongan, so they were right at home.
• I needed to practice the song I was going to play at our missionary devotional on Tuesday, so I went in the chapel after church to play the piano. I probably should not have drawn attention to myself because the counselor in the bishopric asked us to speak in church next week.
• But then, they also invited us to dinner with the Tongan missionaries at a big event at the beach. The food was interesting. They served breadfruit, which tasted sort of like potatoes, baked bananas, which tasted like potatoes, some sort of root or squash that we didn’t recognize, that tastes sort of like potatoes, a little bowl of diced raw fish, and some kind of ground up meat that was wrapped in what looked like seaweed. As tempting as it sounds, I couldn’t finish my plateful.
• We practiced again Sunday night for the musical number.
• Paula got some beautiful night shots of the moon reflecting on the ocean

October 8, Saturday

• Saturday was a clean the house and do the wash day. The washing machine is finicky and frequently takes 3 or 4 hours to complete a load. I’m not patient enough for that, so when it stalls in what it says is the spin cycle, but is in reality a very slow chug-chug-rinse pattern, I turn the washing machine off, reset the cycle to the delicate cycle (it is shorter) and set the machine to spin only. Sometimes that works so we can finish a load without having to wring out the clothes by hand before putting them in the dryer.
• We heard the surf was high on the North Shore so we spent the afternoon at the beach. We chose Pupukea. We sat on our low chairs and watched huge waves and people diving unafraid into them. Then we went to Ted’s and got dinner.
  

October 7, Friday

Fridays seem kind of slow at the office. I’m not sure why. We had three or four appointments with students, but, as usual, only about half of them show up.

We went to the distribution center next to the visitors center and bought some garments. Somehow, I got to Hawaii with more bottoms than tops.

On the way home from work, we stopped at a little gift shop on Kamehameha Highway that we had been noticing that had clothes hung outside swaying in the breeze. We walked into the store and heard someone say “Aloha.” We said it back, but couldn’t see anyone. Then the store owner stuck his head up and waved. We started perusing the merchandise and he walked over to us with two tiny-shell necklaces, kind of like the puka shell necklaces that were so popular when we were in high school. He handed one to each of us saying something like “this is for you, with all my heart.”

Wow, a free gift from a store owner. That was unexpected. We were wearing our missionary tags, but he didn’t give any indication that he knew what missionaries were. He had an accent that sounded Greek to me. (Adam should have a nice retort for that comment.) We asked him about himself and what he would recommend that we see while we were in Hawaii. He gave us quite a long list, then said “you probably won’t remember all of those.” Then he continued and gave another list. He was a very nice man. We felt so welcome we bought two Aloha shirts and another necklace. That may have been the store owner’s strategy all along.

October 6, Thursday

• We taught the class on test-taking. Paula is struggling with preparing the lessons and presenting to only 3 or 4 students. It’s hard for us to understand their accents and they talk very quietly. Also, things are very different than it was when we worked at Snow. I made the mistake of asking the students if they had textbooks in their backpacks. All the books are on-line, even though they have to pay for them. They can see their assignments and grades from all classes on an app on their phone. 

October 5, Wednesday

• Today was another DMV day. We got a bill of sale for the car from the Jorgensens that did not show them as a lien holder this time. We headed off down the highway in the car and suddenly realized that we did not have the envelope of papers that contains the old title, inspection certificate, and insurance cards. Of course, I sort of panic, slam on the brakes, turn the car around and head back home to look for those papers. As it was, we were going to arrive in Kaneohe only about 5 minutes before our appointment. Now I’m thinking we will be late, and I hate to be late for things.

Anyway, we search the house and cannot find the papers, so we head back to the DMV. We figure that we can at least get the car title transferred to our name. As we search through my folder, again, we find that we do also have the request for duplicate title. Paula says a prayer in the car, asking for help to get through this unfortunate ordeal. I continue to pray in my mind that we could get help from a guardian angel to find the papers and deliver them to the DMV office.

We arrive at the DMV about 15 or 20 minutes late and sit down to wait. When we are called to the window, the worker takes our papers, examines them carefully, silently, then pulls out her stamp that signifies that everything is in order. We didn’t really need those other papers, at least not to get the car registration taken care of.

So, I say to the clerk, “excuse me, we were here a couple of weeks ago and had a large plastic envelope that contained some papers like the safety inspection certificate and insurance cards. We didn’t happen to leave it here, did we?” (I resisted saying, Did some angelic stranger drop it off this morning?”

She said, “Well, let me look.” She walks over to the counter, rummages through some papers and brings back our envelope.” It’s a miracle, I think to myself. We got our guardian angel after all.” Of course, it could be that we just left it there and they didn’t throw it away, but I like to think there was a miracle involved.

We stop at Ross (clothing store) because it is across the sidewalk from the DMV and because we always stop at Ross. I buy another Aloha shirt because we don’t have an iron at home.

Back home, that evening, we go to the visitors center to practice the song that the missionary quartet is going to sing at the next zone conference next week. I go a half-hour early to practice because I have never seen the music before. I’m not a bad sight reader, but in my old age, I have developed a performance anxiety. When people are staring at me or listening to me, I get anxious and my eyes stop working so I can’t read the music – I can’t even see all the notes.

So, I sort of stumble through the rehearsal, messing up the hard parts, and feeling terribly inadequate. One sister comes up to me and points at the music and says, “this measure changes from 6/8 to 9/8. See -- 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. “When the practice is over, the other sister says to me, “There is a room in the campus activity center where you can practice . . .  if you want to.”

Well, that’s one way to ruin an otherwise good day.

October 4, Tuesday

• At least once a week, we will stop at a beach on the way home (they are everywhere) and watch the sun set. It is very relaxing.

October 3, Monday

Today is basically just a preparation day for us. We are preparing for tomorrow’s lesson for the students.

October 2, Sunday

• We had a break-the-fast dinner for the senior missionaries. It wasn’t really fast Sunday, but it was the first week of the month. During the dinner, some sister missionary came up to me and asked if I was an accompanist, or had I done some accompanying. I said yes, and she asked me if I would accompany a missionary quartet that was going to perform at a zone conference. I said that if the music wasn’t too hard, I could do it. (Paula said she couldn’t believe I said yes.) I have no idea how that sister knew I could play the piano. I think probably half of the missionaries do, so I don’t know why they would ask me.
• We visited the Hau'ula Beach and took photos of the three trees.

October 1, Saturday

• General Conference. We talked with our children and their families today. They were following a family tradition of getting together to listen to conference at Catherine’s house. We are glad they are following that tradition. 
• This is also Adam’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Adam. 38 years old? We are so glad you made it.

September

September 30, Friday

• We went to a hula festival at the PCC Friday after work. It started with two brothers playing a ukulele and an electric bass. They were singing Hawaiian songs. After a while, a man wearing an aloha shirt matching the one the brothers were wearing came near where we were sitting and was mouthing something to the singers. The man, we found out later, was their father, and he was apparently suggesting they play a specific song. When they sang the song, a woman from the front row got up and danced a hula to the music. It was beautiful – so graceful and expressive. It turns out the woman was their mother.
• A little later in the program, the father and his two sons sang together and their mother, and what appeared to be two grandmothers, a sister and possibly an aunt or two were all dancing. Paula is pretty sure that one of the grandmothers is the person Moana’s grandmother was modeled after.

September 29, Thursday

• Mark: Later than night while I was asleep, I had a rather unpleasant reaction to the shots. My body was achy, I had a fever and then cold chills. I felt rotten, so I slept in a couple extra hours. We had student appointments and class that day, and an appointment at the temple that afternoon, so we couldn’t really stay home. I did end up cancelling the temple appointment because I still felt rotten.
• But by the next morning, I was fine again.

September 28, Wednesday

• Mark: When we were at the office, everyone was talking about their appointments to get a Covid booster shot and a flu vaccine. So, we thought maybe we should too. Since we didn’t have any appointments or class that day, we looked up Walgreens on the Internet to see if we could get the shots there like we did in American Fork.     
• They had openings at a time we could make it, so we scheduled vaccinations for later that afternoon. After visiting Walgreens at Wahiawa.   We stopped at a little town called Haleiwa and visited the ‘Aweoweo Beach Park'. Haleiwa had an “old town” look to it with a bunch of buildings on the main road that have been converted into tourist shops.
• Our vaccines weren’t bothering us, but I did feel something weird under my arm and a corresponding spot on my side.September 27, 2022
• There was a campus-wide convocation today instead of devotional. The speaker gave a long, involved talk about the etymology of Old Testament terminology.  All the faculty showed up in their graduation regalia, but we were not required to attend. We could just watch it live streaming on the campus website.
• Paula taught our class on taking notes on reading texts.
• We met with students who all say they are doing well. I hope they really are.

September 26, Monday

• We are meeting with many of our students weekly now. We have two or three standing appointments every day. Some of the students are just delightful to meet with and seem to be making a lot of progress. Some of them have so many problems that it is just heartbreaking. One of them is just overwhelmed with responsibilities with his family and his job and feels like it’s useless to even try to do his homework. The problem is that if he doesn’t pass this semester, he will be kicked out of the university and will have to go home without any degree. Paula challenged him to at least try to focus on one problem at a time for at least 5 minutes and then, if he can, focus on a different task for 5 minutes and so on, just to see how much he can accomplish.
  
  
• We had our first mission district meeting tonight. One of the couples in our district are named Marc and Teri Purles. Sister Purles said something about her sister Julie Weist. I thought -- Julie Weist? She married my cousin Rick. So, I told her that. She was amazed. My cousin Rick died many years ago. Teri looks enough like Julie that they could be twins.
  A few minutes later I remembered that she must be the daughter of Robert Peterson, the singer. Sure enough, she is. I was in the musical Hans Christin Andersen with Robert Peterson in about 1977 at the Pioneer Memorial Theater at the University of Utah.
  Then a few minutes later I remembered that I went to high school with her brother Scott. How is that for a series of coincidences?
  
  
• The district leader is Elder Larry White, who says he knows Robb from the Tabernacle Choir.

September 25, Sunday

• We went for a walk down a deserted old road down the street from us. It led to an old, seemingly abandoned care center. We only passed about a dozen No Trespassing signs on the walk. Our neighbors assured us that it would be okay to walk there.
• Church at the Tongan Ward. I figured out that the word malo means thank you. I had heard that before, but the words malo e lelei means hello, so I was having a hard time figuring that all out.

September 24, Saturday

• Today we took a trip to Costco. We went the southern route because now that we live in Hau’ula, or Punaluu to be more exact, the southern route is shorter than the northern route. We are starting to recognize some of the sights along the way, now. It was just a busy as ever at Costco and we spent probably twice what we used to spend in Utah. It’s a little shocking sometimes how much we spend, but the Lord must be blessing us, because at the end of the month we always seem to be back to the same bank balance.
• We actually made a loop around the island so we could stop at Ted’s Bakery which is at the top of the island near Sunset Beach. All the beaches seemed particularly crowded today until evening when we went to a beach down the highway to try out our new beach chairs. (Kahana Beach Park) The beach chairs are nice because we don’t have to just stand and watch the waves. But they are only about 3 inches off the ground, so getting down to them and then getting back up is not so easy.
  
  

  

  Kahana Bay

  
  

      September 23, 2002

• A couple of days ago we met with a student who told us he was working at the Samoan Village at the PCC. He said that his job was to climb cocoanut trees. We asked him if he already knew how to do that before he came to BYUH. He said, “oh yes, I used to do that all the time.” We asked him if he did it just for fun. He said, “no, it’s not fun. I did it for work. I would knock down the coconuts so they could be sold.” He told us that he used to do it once a day, but now he does it several times a day as part of the show.          

So, today, after work, we decided to go to the PCC to watch “our student” climb a coconut tree. At the ticket booth, the ticket seller, another BYUH student, though not one of ours said, “But the villages close in an hour,” we said something like that was okay and that we just needed to see one of our students climb a coconut tree in the Samoan Village. She looked at us in kind of a resigned manner and reached out to put entrance bands around our arms.

As we walked to the villages, I said to Paula, I couldn’t find my discount card. She said, “So you didn’t pay?” I said, “no, I thought maybe you did while I was looking for my discount card. We can go back and pay after we are finished.” She said, “No, we have to go back and pay right now. This will bother me the whole time if we don’t.”

So, we went back to the ticket booth and said, “we never paid for these.” She said, “that’s okay, you can just have them.”

That was such a nice thing for her to do for us. Missionaries are often blessed in unexpected ways.  We also received a free coconut.

September 22, Thursday

• Paula taught a lesson on Notetaking and reading
• We stopped at the PCC for dinner at one of the many food trucks at the Hukilau Market Place

September 20, 2022, Tuesday

• Mark taught a lesson on notetaking
• Tuesday devotional was Elder Taniela B. Wakolo, General Authority Seventy, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints \From Fiji
• We attended a mission zone conference at the temple visitors center in Laie.
  
  
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September 18, Sunday

• Church at the Tongan Ward. The Sunday School teacher expected the missionaries to know all the answers to her questions. We were sorry to disappoint.

September 17, Saturday

• Stayed home most of the day to finish unpacking, cleaning and rearranging
• Went to Turtle Bay Resort to play on the beach.
  
  
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September 16, Friday

• Back to Kaneohe to the DMV to try to register the car in our name. More problems, the bill of sale showed that the previous owner held a lien on the car. So, we will try again. We went to Ross and Target again. Paula doesn’t mind the trip if we get to shop. We had breakfast at McDonalds which Paula really enjoyed.

September 14, Wednesday

• We talked to Karena, wishing we could help.
• We bought Subway sandwiches and went to a beach to eat them and watch the sun set.

    September 15, Thursday

• We taught class on time management. The two new students were the only ones there to start. Angelo came late again.
• We went to the PCC and attended the night show called “Ha Breath of Life.” We bought our tickets from one of our students, some of our students, who was a dancer in the show.  Paula was able to talk to a guest from Colombia in Spanish.
• Taught class on procrastination
• Talked with academic advisors

September 12, Monday

• Paula gave devotional at work
• New student in class from Cook Islands

    September 11, Sunday

• Church at the Tongan ward. The two young elders assigned to the ward spoke, in English, so that was a nice change.
• Dinner with the Weeks. They invited us, a lady from their ward, and the husband’s cousin and her boyfriend

September 10, Saturday

• We moved to our new apartment in Hau’ula. It is pretty nice – new, clean, not rusty, damp or rotten. The landlady said we shouldn’t have to worry about bugs and such because they have a quarterly pest service.
  
  

  

  We are very happy with our apartment. 

  
  

  

  Mark has to back into our parking place. It's very tricky. 

  
  

September 9, Friday

• We met with two students today.
• Mark gave the devotional at our department meeting. Parts of that old farewell talk are getting a lot of use.

September 8, Thursday

• Mark taught the class on time management today. There was only one student to start with, then three others came.
• Paula went to a book group for missionaries. The location was just halfway around the block, so Mark walked her there and walked to pick her up.

September 7, Wednesday

• Talked with students from Korea and Papua New Guinea
• Came home at lunch to spray for cockroaches. Just sprayed inside along the floorboards and windows.
• After work Mark sprayed outside around the doors, windows, and foundation, after which Paula said, “Well, we can’t stay here, now, so:
• Dinner at the cafeteria at BYUH campus. Sat by the missionaries Elder Pugmire and Adams. The food was okay, but for $18 per person, it wasn’t exactly a bargain for two people on a diet.

September 6, Tuesday

• First cockroach ran across the living room floor. Paula handed Mark a fly swatter. He chased it into the kitchen, swatting, but hitting nothing. The cockroach ran under the refrigerator. After Mark finally found the bug spray, he sprayed around the bottom of the refrigerator. I hope I got the disgusting creature.

September 5, Monday

• We walked to Temple Beach, sat on a log and watched the waves. We did our scripture study. Mark sent email about goddess of the sea
• Worked on class ppt . Mark scrubbed and bleached the bathroom floor. It was really gross.
• Spent the afternoon at the PCC visiting the “villages.”
• Paula got a call from Sister Olson telling us about the new place we would be moving into at the end of the week. It sounds nice but moving isn’t my favorite activity.

September 4, Sunday

• Fast and testimony meeting Most of the testimonies were given in Tongan. One Tongan testimony included the words “eeny meeny miney moe.” We have no idea what the rest of it was. Elders Quorum meeting was also all in Tongan, except when the teacher said “ministering interviews” in English. So, I guess that was the topic of the lesson.
• Break the fast with seniors at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Missionaries are asked to bring a food dish to share with the others.

September 3, Saturday

• We went to the enormous swap meet at the Aloha Stadium in Honolulu with the Kings and Hansens. Paula found some pants and a mumu that she liked. I bought a pastry for lunch and the sales lady gave us a free chocolate scone, just to be nice, I guess.

September 2, Friday

• Trip to Windward City satellite city hall to get the car registered in our name. It was not easy to find in spite of the directions we got in our missionary tips handout. When we bought the car, the previous owner sent us the title and said she had had the title changed to our name.  When we got to Hawaii, we couldn’t find it, so we must have left it at home or lost it somewhere in our travels. We filled out a form for a replacement title and went to the DMV. The woman working there said she could not give us a replacement title because the car was still registered in the previous owner’s name. The previous owner would have to request a replacement and create a bill of sale, have them both notarized and send them to us so we could submit them to the DMV. Believe it or not, that was easier said than done. The previous owner lives in Oregon and was planning to leave any day to go to the MTC in Provo. She said she would take care of it and mail it to us.
• Another part of that trip was a visit to Target where we bought some plastic totes, because Paula loves her totes. We also went to Ross where Mark bought a couple of pair of pants and a shirt that fit him, since he had lost so much weight before leaving on the mission. Paula bought a water cup with a straw, a knife, and a purse.  Then we went to Longs Drug store where we got stuff like bug spray, body wash, shampoo, thank you cards and distilled water. Everything was so modern-looking compared to what we had seen in Laie that we almost felt like we were back home.
• There had been a warning light on the dashboard for several days indicating that we had low tire pressure. We tried to fix the problem in Laie at the only gas station in town, but the air pressure machine was out of order. So, we went to Kaneohe hoping that the low tire pressure was no big thing and that we could find another gas station there. We did find a gas station with a working air pressure machine and got it fixed for $2 – for air.

September 1, Thursday

• We taught our first class. We had two students show up. One was from the Philippines and the other one from Japan.
• At BYUH we are instructed to start every class with a prayer. That’s unusual for us, but we do what we are told.

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AUGUST 2022

Week of August 29

August 29 - Monday

·        Ohana meeting, Ohana means family, so I guess they call the university employees one big family.

·        We were served breakfast and then attended a meeting with University President Kauwe and Elder Gilbert of the Seventy spoke.

·        Met with our first students after having had breakfast provided by the university, Went to an orientation meeting for new employees

August 30 - Tuesday

·        Met with a student from Kiribati. We later learned that “ti” is pronounced as “s.”

·        It was sometime this week that we went to visit the sister who stored our car until we came to Hawaii

August 31 - Wednesday

·        Paula went to the watercolor class. Classes started at the University

(End of the week of August 29)

Week of August 22

Monday, August 22

The Baileys drove us to the airport early in the morning. We had a direct flight to Honolulu, but it was still very long.  There were a lot of missionaries on the flight headed to our mission or the other HI mission. Flying above the island and watching the landing was amazing.

·        The mission president, his wife and several senior missionary coordinator couples met us at the airport in Honolulu. There were about twenty-four missionaries that came that day on the airplane. Each of us was given a hug and a kukui nut lei

·        The mission sent a U Haul trailer to the airport to pick everyone’s luggage. It’s a good thing they did because we filled the whole thing.

·        We were split up into groups of two or three couples per van for the ride to Laie. The trip took about an hour, so at 35 MPH that would make Laie about 35 miles from Honolulu.

·   We were taken to a stake center in Laie for dinner and introductions. Next, we went to the Visitors Center to see a video about the beginnings of the church in Laie and then had a group picture taken in front of the temple. 

     Then we went home to our apartments. Since our car was sitting in the carport of a member of the local ward, our supervising couple took us there to pick it up. The house was painted a sort of fluorescent green color. Written across the front of the house in huge colorful letters were the words, “Jesus is our Savior, Trump is the president.” I thought they should add the words, “Don’t get the two mixed up.”

      Our apartment is just a temporary accommodation. That’s too bad because it is nice, and from what we have heard, not all the apartments are that nice. This temporary accommodation has two bedrooms, two beds, two bunk beds, two bathrooms with a shower and a bathroom sink, and toilet each, a kitchen, eating area, and a living room. The laundry is in another part of our little apartment row. We share the washer and dryer with another missionary couple. Everything is hot and sticky.

·        The apartment row is surrounded by a lush garden that is tended by a lady who is also a tenant. There was a large banana tree just over the garden wall and a star fruit tree in our garden. Everywhere were pots of flowers and plants and even trees. The lady is a member of the local ward and brought us enough fruit to last us for the first week.

·        When we picked up our car, which had been sitting on a covered car port at the home of a member for three months, it was very dirty, but started right up. That night it rained hard, and we were parked on the street, so we woke up to a car that looked like it had just been washed.

August 23 - Tuesday

·        On that second day we had our BYUH employee pictures taken, got our BYUH ID cards, found our office, met with our supervisor (Michael Aldrich), and got our parking permit. We started learning the online course computer software called Canvas and more about meeting with students.

 August 24 - Wednesday

·        We got up early and went to the beach that is west of our house. We really had no sense of direction at that point, but I had watched the sun come up and knew if we headed east, we would come to the ocean. We only had to walk about two blocks and we were right there. It was such a dramatic moment for us. 

      We drove to Hau’ula to see our new place. We stopped and ate at a place that sells “world famous” fish tacos. We won’t ever need to do that again.

August 25 - Thursday

·        Hukilau Marketplace. We bought our first Loco Moco, a popular dish that consists of two large hamburger patties on a plate of rice, topped with two fried eggs and covered with gravy. I doubt that it is intended for a single person.

August 26 - Friday

·        We went to a new student orientation meeting in the gymnasium/activity center where faculty performed some Hawaiian chant for new students. The students were then allowed to visit and check out various tables staffed by people from campus resource offices and organizations. Aaron Shumway - Director of Religious Education held an orientation workshop for us.  

August 27 - Saturday

·        Devotional in the Tahiti Village at the PCC

·        Talks by students who worked in the village and music by a student choir. The congregation all sang hymns - one verse in Tahitian and then the same verse in French and then the same verse in English.

·        We headed north on Kamehameha Highway around the northern shore of Oahu, past Turtle Bay and Turtle Beach, then turned south into the center of the island to get to Costco. It was pretty much like every other Costco only busier. Later we heard from the mission president that it is the busiest Costco in the world. He said people will fly into Oahu, fill up their cars with goods, load them into their luggage and then fly home to the other islands.

August 28 Sunday

·        Church at the Tongan ward.  We were assigned by the mission president to attend a Tongan ward in a city south of Laie called Hau’ula. On our first Sunday that we attended that ward, we met Bishop Tonga. That seemed to be an unlikely coincidence. We were asked to give the opening and closing prayers in Sacrament Meeting – one of the few parts of the meeting that were in English.

·        Went to the wrong beach to watch the sunset. Laie Point. It was on the east side of the island.

(End of week - August 22 - 28)

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        MTC Photos

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Setting Apart and Sacrament Meeting.

We were set apart by President Dean. Everyone but Adam’s family was there. Adam was recovering from covid. President Dean talked about being fishers of men and let everyone choose a fish swivel. We asked the children what they remembered from the setting apart blessings. This is what they said: Paula’s blessing: Heavenly Father loves me and is proud of me. He is confident in my abilities and that I have the skills to do what needs to be done. Family will be taken care of and heath, security and safety. Mark’s blessing: Some of the responsibilities that I am given might seem managerial, but are actually ministering, I should take advantage of opportunities to bear my testimony and use my priesthood to bless others; My mind would be quickened to understand all tasks and guidelines of the mission. As I work with others, they will see and want what I have. My family will be blessed with health, security and safety. I should council with the mission president.

Sacrament Meeting – August 14, 2022

We were asked to speak on gospel habits. Paula talked about recognizing God’s love in our lives, Worship and Consecration

Mark had been working on a talk for several months based on the parable of the Good Samaritan and loving our neighbor. Jesus taught that being a good neighbor means having compassion on those in need. I (Mark) talked about some of the good neighbors we have had over the years and how they have blessed our lives, and how being a good neighbor is related to missionary work and blessing the lives of others. 

Mission Decision

Mark wanted to serve a mission with Paula for years and years. His thinking was that he didn’t seem to have accomplished much on his mission to France, so maybe going out a second time he could make up for the first one. The other reason was because that President Nelson said that the gathering of Israel on both sides of the veil was the most important work being performed on earth today.

Paula was reluctant to go on a mission, mostly because of health concerns of family members.  

Catherine’s husband, Alex, had leukemia as a child but had an impressive recovery after getting a bone marrow transplant from his sister.

The cancer came back after Alex and Catherine were married. That time it was diagnosed as breast cancer. He had chemotherapy and radiation treatment and made another impressive recovery. Several years later the cancer was back as metastasized breast cancer located in his spine. That led to years of oral chemotherapy that never really got rid of it.

Catherine and Alex and their daughter Madeleine moved to Pleasant Grove, Utah, after years in Boston, Houston, and the Denver area until he had to take a disability retirement. Catherine and Alex moved to Utah to be closer to family, and Paula and I moved to American Fork to be closer to Catherine’s family and to offer help and support.

A year or so ago, Alex underwent some delicate radiation treatment on his spine, which had the potential of eradicating the cancer.

Paula and Mark were pretty sure that the procedure was going to work and that Catherine and family would not have as great a need for family support. Or at least Mark was. Anyway, we started looking at the church website that shows missionary opportunities for senior couples, thinking that we wouldn’t be needed quite as much at home. Paula supported Mark’s desire to serve again. She felt that he hadn’t asked for much out of life and if this was important to him that he should have the opportunity.

We looked at opportunities for French and Spanish speaking missionaries in France and Canada. We looked at temple mission possibilities, which were rare. Then we saw some opportunities in Hawaii. One of them was for Student Success Missionaries at BYU Hawaii. Paula had been an academic advisor for 20 years or more and had taught college survival skills to new students. Mark had taught college level communication classes for most of his career and had advised the student newspaper staff. We thought that it certainly couldn’t hurt to apply for that mission opportunity but were not really expecting to get the call.

But on February first, we got the dream call of serving as Academic Success Missionaries at BYU Hawaii. Our departure date was six months away. That seemed like an eternity away but we started waiting and working toward that day.

Mission Preparations

·        Paula and Mark read the Book of Mormon together – well, listened to it.

·        Had health exams, colonoscopies, vaccinations, blood tests and numerous other pokes and proddings

·        Mark bought Aloha shirts and khakis instead of white shirts, ties and slacks

·        Paula got long, flowered dresses, dress slacks and tops to wear on campus

·        We started wondering what we would do with the house while we were away for 18 months until Alex told us that his parents had been looking for someplace to rent close by so they could spend more time near Alex and Catherine and Madeleine while we were gone. Of course, we were delighted to say that they could live in our house, so it wouldn’t be empty. Alex’s father is a generous man and offered to pay us twice as much as we would need to cover the cost of utilities while we were gone. Another tender mercy

·        We spent as much time as we could with our children. On August 20 the whole family came to help clean the house.