Wednesday

We went into Kaneho today to see about fixing my rear light.  I had backed into the little tree at the side of the driveway and it broke the red covering on the rear light.  We stopped at a Nisson place, they had the red covering so I bought it.  I hate to have the mission know I did this, so I am replacing it. This small mistake cost me $335.00!  They will fix it for me on Monday for $35.00.  They told me to take it home with me so they don't mistakenly resell and use it.  So it came in this large box about 21/2 long and1 foot high.  Over packageing.  Simple mistakes are costly.

Then we tried a fish place for lunch, Fresh Catch, cross that off the list.  Too Fishy!

Then we went to the farmers market that is only on Wednesdays and Sunday afternoons, at the Kanehoe mall.   It is a great one with lots and lots of fruits and vegetables.  I bought a large avocado for $6.75!

Ramon bought some belts and a new wallet, at Sears.  We came back home and then went over to the Gerionio's for our weekly Wednesday dinner with the other 4 missionaries and them.  It was really a nice night as there were not too many of us and we could all participate in the discussion.  Our cute Sisters Huang and Buhler gave great lessons as did Elder Gunderson and Bass.  I sure love getting to know these Elders and Sisters and kind of hate it when they get transferred out of our district.

Sister Buhlet, Sister Huang (Wang), Elder Godfrey
Nikaia and Nick

Tuesday

Today was the Returning Missionaries Luncheon where we feed the Missionairies that are returning home after their service.  One thing after another went wrong but it's over and done with and all is well now.

I made Valentine treats as it is close to that Holiday.  Then we went in and I got a ticket in front of Taco Bell, our President wants us to order from Taco Bell but we furnish the drink, dessert and fruit.  I ran out to tell the officer, who hadn't even started to write the ticket that I had a handicap sticker, he said "But it has to be in the car."  I said "it is"  he said "displayed".  grumpy.  So I got my stuff as he was finished writing me a ticket, he softened a bit and told me to write a letter to the judge and he'll probably waive the ticket.  I explained I was in a hurry as I just barely remembered the temple takes less time now than before and I was anxious to get back to the pavillion and Elder Sanft with our food.  Then I rushed there and they didn't put forks in for the two salads that Sister Bekker ordered this morning.  I couldn't find my car keys to drive 1/2 block over to where the Sisters live to borrow 2 forks.  So I walked rapidly there and back.  Then everyone looked for my keys.  I knew I had them as I had driven over there.  Anyway, everyone looked and of course I found them in the pocket of my purse...after praying to find them.  So embarrassing.

We had a small group and I forgot to take a picture.  I feel bad because we knew 4 of the 6 returning missionaries.  Was a frustrating day.   Here are some pictures of the cookies and treats I made.

Monday January 28, 2019

Today we went to our VC meeting in the morning then drove over to Costco and Times Supermarket.  Shopping highlight of  my week.  We needed so many things and this next weekend is Break the Fast in both places.

After we came home we ate and then wentto FHE for the Senior Couples at the Grant Building.  A couple had toured Aisa for a month with only a back pack, looked fun but not my kind of fun.  Then we went over to Kahuku for our YSA FHE and it was combined with another ward's YSA and it was really nice.  We had a good group.  These kids come up with fun games. The first one was where we were put  into groups of 3-4 and then given a big piece of cake.  Then on the table were several things, like ice cream, sprinkles, condiments...kechup, mustard, salt pepper...about 8 things.  We had to roll dice and whatever it landed on corresponded to one of those items and we had to put it on our cake.  It was hillarious and fun.  Then they likened it to sin and the attonement.

Then we went into the Gym and played a version of human Fooze Ball.  This was really fun!  Would be a good game for a family reunion. You can see how to play it by the pictures I took, I think.

Friday January 25, 2019

Shoot, I thought I had posted about Ramon's surgery.  He had surgery Monday, at Castle Hospital in Kaneohe.  It went well and they were very nice to us and then we came home to recover.  This is so minor compared to the other surgeries but still surgery.  He never complains.  Is a good patient most of the time.

Well, it's been a pretty quiet week, letting Ramon heal and pretty much stay down and off his foot.

I went into our District Meeting Tuesday morning and met with the Elders for 1 1/2 hours.  I took a cute picture of them.  They had made district ties and so all had them on for this picture.  Two of our Elders think they'll be transferred tomorrow.  I hope not, but it's not up to me.   I do hope we get to keep Elder Bass until another transfer.   He's ours here in the Sunset Branches.

Elder Bass is second from right

After I stopped by Taco Bell to get Elder Sanft some food.  We have "returning missionaries luncheon" next Tuesday so put in that order too.

Wednesday I ran into town by myself and got my infusion, then went to a few places to shop and then home by 3:00.  Long day by myself when I'm used to a companion by my side all the time :)

Today Elder Sanft felt good enough to go get a hair cut and then we went over to BYUH for me to run and see what the Farmet's Market was all about.  I didn't like it so saved some money.  My friend Kathy's back from Utah so I asked her to go with me so I could show her this weirdly producing Papaya tree.  The tree ususally grows on one big trunk with papayas growing on the top under the leaves, kind of like coconuts.  Well, Kathy told me that if you cut the trunk it will branch out and papayas will grow on the branches too.  This tree must have had about 100 papayas on it's branches.  Never seen such a sight.  I'll go back and take a picture and put it here.

Tomorrow we are back to work checking how clean our Elders keep their apartments.  Love these guys and they do the best they can.  I'm never dissappointed.

Sunday - January 20, 2019

We have had a pretty nice Sunday.  It was almost as busy as usual even with the two hour block in church instead of three.   We went to a fireside in Laie put on by the Wolfgramms, we heard Moana's name, so went, didn't know much about it.  Turns out our YSA Branch should have known about it as it was our Stake YSA putting it on.  Darn, I feel bad my YSA people didn't know.  Moana, one of the  original "Jets" and two younger sisters and two brothers were there.  It was very nice and informative about the family.  We never know what's happening with them so this was  fun.  Afterwards we went up and talked to the girls and Moana.  I guess there were 10 children when they started out, and Mom and Dad took a break and 10 years later had another 7 kids who followed the older ones into the business as they dropped out, got married and had kids.

Moana is holding the mike, Tatiana is next and  ?

Here are some pictures Leslie took of  us at the PCC yesterday.

Kind of looks familiar with the scooter and Elder Sanft crippled again!

Saturday January 19, 2019

Elder Sanft with Vai Sikahema and his wife

Where is the time going?  Everytime I type a date I am amazed at it!  Time just flys by.

We woke up today late and exhausted still from helping with all the reception plans for the Handcock's son Hunter and Emily's wedding reception here at th house.  I helped Mele do the flowers, and by that I mean I just cut wire and washed ferns and did whatever I could to help.  She is an artist and boy is she ever good.  Natural eye to arrange and display.  It was fun for me to help her and I enjoyed being useful.

During the reception I was incharge of the dessert table, cakes and pies.  They had it set here by our lanai and so it was easy to do. Ramon had the two Labs in the house so they wouldn't bark or run away with the gates open.  The food was terrific and it was very beautiful.  Hunter and Emily had a ring ceremony perfomed by Dave and then dinner for the guests.  The little Kahuku hospital actually catered the meal and it was delicious!  Ted's Bakery provided the pies and cakes.  I'll post some pictures to show the beauty of it all.

Dessert Table

Better view Dessert Table with no desserts

This is Mele Handcock, the artist!

This afternoo we went over to the PCC with Leslie to see if we could watch some celebration of the Polyneisan football team at the Canoe Festival.  We missed it but did run into Vai Sikahema
as we were walking.

Wednesday January 16, 2019

We went to the doctor today in Kailua.  We got lost and it was further than we thought, so we were about a half an hour late, but no worries here in Hawaii!  Bad news is Ramon has two breaks and has to have surgery on Monday.  We feel competent with the surgeon, the doctor is female by the name of Brandee Black.  She was very nice and professional.

We came home and then went to Nick Geronio's for dinner at 5:30.  There was quite a crowd tonight with lots of senior missionaries there and the Nicoles brought some of their family that was here visiting.  Good food, and messages from the Elders.

Elder Sanft's leg up!

Elders giving their message to us all.

Monday January 14, 2019

Well, I must say first off...bad news for Elder Sanft.  He was trying to get the perfect picture for me of the big waves at Waimea and he climbed up onto a guardrail and when he jumped off he hurt his foot.

He thought he had just sprained it but not so, he broke his ankle, of the good foot.  For those of you who know, remember the bad ankle had had 3 surgeries in about 3 years, the last one a horrendous surgery.  The last one he had an 8 inch rod placed in his leg and anchored with screws to make the ankle work.  Recovery was months and he barely got off the scooter before we left on this mission.

Anyway, we went to the tiny little hospital in Kahuku and were one of three people in the ER.  They Xrayed it and said the ankle was broken in the socket.  He actually went around for a couple of hours walking on it and we were going to go to a surprise Birthday Party for Elder Allen that night.  On the way there I told him we'd just stop and have it checked.  He said he was fine it was just sprained.  We missed the party and it got worse from then on.  The swelling started as soon as he took his shoe off at the hospital and they cast it in a soft cast and we have an appointment with a surgeon on Wednesday morning.  They feel it will require surgery.  He said as he jumped he knew he needed to protect the bad ankle and landed hard on the good one.

Tonight I ordered another scooter from Amazon, it'll be here on Monday.  Poor guy.

Before all the swelling...

He stayed down for the last two days but decided to attend FHE tonight.  It was fun.  We did visual

future boards.  They set goals last week (we missed it) and this was a followup.  We did ours on

exercise...ya, right! 

Elder Gunderson and Louis & Sister Taufa

FHE gang, some new guys and the usual...

 I'll exercise when the ocean settles down again.  It's been so wild.  At 10:15 last night it was so noisy I drove the car down our lane, I didn't want to walk the lane in the dark.  I wanted to see if the ocean was over the road again but it wasn't.  It had been Saturday night!

Friday January 11, 2019

We lost a dear friend to cancer yesterday.  No matter how prepared you are, no matter how much you know you'll be reunited again, no matter how strong you feel, it still leaves a wounded and hurting heart.  I hate cancer!

Joseph Peery was my oldest son's best friend, perhaps his first real honest to goodness forever friend.  All through High School they pretty much were always together.  Joseph, outgoing Joseph, became shy reticent Doran's friend.  He got him interested in Debate and off they went.  They went to in State debate tournaments and out of state tournaments.  They stayed up late nights in our basement doing "debate" stuff.  I had a Principal at Timpview tell me of all the school paper they used running things off on the ditto machine.  Those were the days.

Joseph played the piano.  He,  his brother Sam and Sister Christie all played brilliantly.  So every time one of them came over they had to play for me.   Joseph played at Doran's mission farewell.  Joseph was a year younger than Doran but none of that mattered.  Joseph met the love of his life, Julie, while in High School.  She waited for him while he served his mission.  As soon as he returned home, they got engaged and married.  They have 6 wonderful children.  Joseph and Julie moved back to North Carolina, where they've lived most of their married life.

He was an amazing friend and person.  To quote Julie as she announced his passing "Throughout his life he pressed forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men."  What more could be said of a great man.  We'll surely miss you Joseph, just knowing you were on this earth, making people happy and serving our Lord was comfort for us.

Tuesday and Wednesday January 8 and 9, 2019

Tuesday we ran into Waipahu to get Elder Sanft his shot in the eye.  We went to a new doctor whom we really liked.  She was young and was going to Utah to Ski in February, had never been.  We were happy to have a doctor closer to where we live.

Afterward we came home and went out "ministering" with Michele;  the Sister's and Alora went Kahuku's way and we did Sunset area.  We had success with two Sister's being home.  It was nice to go when it wasn't so dark out that we could actually see what we were doing.  The last place we went to we met a young lady that had just graduated from BYUH and was from Tennessee.  She also works at this "home" store I love in Hale'iwa, so we had lots to talk about.  She was wondering where church was  ?  and so we told her and she said she'd try and come next Sunday.

Next Sunday we are only having the Sacrament and then closing prayer and running over to BYUH for a special fireside by Elder Renlund, an apostle of our church.   He is doing a world wide fireside from there on "Overcoming Doubt with Faith" if you want to tune in.  We heard him personally in our last mission, before he was an apostle and he is a great speaker.  By the way, we love the new schedule, we go at 8 a.m. to our family branch until 10 a.m.  then have a break until 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Better schedule for us, we can rest up a bit.  The other schedule was from 8 a.m. until 5:30.  Longer day.  This past Sunday we did have to "break the fast's" pretty much back to back though...:) because we did our YSA one at 4 and then the one for seniors at the PCC at 6.


Wednesday...
We've had a rather slow start to our week but topped the middle of the week off with a fun night with our "Senior Couple's activity" (once a month).  We went on a Sunset Dinner cruise out of Honolulu.
The Allens, Sebrings and Sanfts went in the missionary van with Elder Allen driving us in.  Traffic was busy so we all held our breaths that we'd make the cruise in time.  Ended up having plenty of time.  Good food, and good friends and wonderful views from the ship.  Perfect night for cruising around Honolulu harbor!

Welcomed as we arrived at Aloha Tower Marketplace

Us six seated

Lovely steak and crab dinner

My kind of boat

Diamond Head

Blurry coastline--sorry

Entertainment

The Allens, he was honored, it was his Birthday

Sunset  (as promised)

Wednesday January 2, 2019

Happy New Year.  We started today with a quick trip into Mililani to see the 10 a.m. movie Aqua Man!  Then had errands to run to pick up things for dinner tonight at Gerionios, then dinner tomorrow with the missionaries at our home, then Friday with our friends the Gibbons, then Sunday for  the two "break the fasts"!  Lots of items to pick up at Sams and Costco and the grocery store.

We got caught in a traffic jam again, because of the turtle traffic, took us an hour to get from Hale'iwa to home, a normal 15 min drive.  Grrrr!  I rushed in and started the queso we were taking to the Gerionio's tonight as it's taco night.

Sure is fun to have and look forward to our Wednesday night dinners with this family.  We had to get special permission for the Elders and Sisters to meet and eat with them on a week night.  But President Bekker was agreeable to it.

The birds were in a playful mood and kind of latched on to all of us at one time or another.  Blue and Marley are 7 months old now and Pistachio the love bird joins in the fun.  A few pictures:

Nick with Marley

Nicki with Blue

Shy and Nikya

Elder Bass 

Me with Pistashio on my head....