May 5th 2013, MTC...Here we come!!

May 5, 2013.
9 am Church seemed early.  I'm about to be put on new schedule!!!  It was fast Sunday today.  Ron bore testimony did good.  Everyone said good-by which was hard but all want to come see us.  Maybe we will have company and see some of the Ward members. Primary sang "love one Another" to us.  We are defiantly going to miss the children.  I slipped into RS.  Susan Fraser gave awesome lesson on Finding Peace Within.  Bore my testimony and told sisters of my week of the adversary working against me.  1.  Washer not working for 10 days....can't fix; leaving phone on hood of car at Swigs with little girls. Finding it with GPS in middle of intersection; and last my great text deletion of 1000 messages that screwed up my G-mail. 

At 6 pm we met with President Topham of the Little Valley Stake to be set apart as Missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Mike Tremea and Scott Barton assisted the President in setting us apart to be missionaries.  It was an honor to have our son and son-in-law be worthy Melchizedek Priesthood holders to assist in performing this ordinance.  We then went back to our house for treats and a family prayer.  We did not sleep very well knowing that we will not be coming back to our house for 18 months.  We were taking a leap of faith to provide service to our Father in Heaven in Hawaii. 

Tammy had dinner.
Aimee Diabetic Camp

May 6, 2013
Up at 6.30 it was a quick night.  Finished packing Ron even did a quick vacuum of house. Scott & Aimee, Jake and Sarah came.  Put luggage in back of car.  Tammy & Elle came too.  

I left things to do in house.  Couldn't get wash and things all done, oh well...Girls said they would.  Kids wondered who would feed them on Sundays.  That has been a good thing for all of us.  I enjoy having them and it’s fun to see the kids together.  Mike had to work at 6 and older kids to school early so we didn't see them.

Goodbyes at the Airport were hard.  I feel lonely deep inside.  I sure couldn't do this without Ron.  He's been my rock.   Raining when we left.  Flight pretty smooth . Becky waiting for us in SL.

Plane ride pretty smooth even though it was blowing and we flew right in the clouds.  Erik and Becky were waiting for us when we picked up our luggage.  Good to see them. Erik's mission papers have been processed...he is waiting and very anxious.    He will probably get his call this week.  We stopped for lunch at Zuppas.  Drove right to MTC.  

We were last couple to check in.  Walked right through without any lines.  Room wasn't cleaned, but we had eaten and left luggage and went right to class at the Chapel.  Class went until 4:30 pm.  Broke into Districts and left for dinner.
        We met missionary (very large Hawaiian) who was friendly and informative.  Lived near Laie and knew everyone there.  We saw him two other times and I told Ron if we see him again I want to get his picture.  We came to our room and crashed!  Very tired.
Sent pictures to kids and talked to Aimee.  Hail and rain in St George.

May 7, 2013
Up at 6:30 am.....too early for me but then I'm going to have to face that more and more.  Today we had classes all day.  Practicing the first three lessons in Preach My Gospel.  We were divided in our District and role played as investigators with other couple being the missionary couple.

This was fun getting to know other couples.  Many of the couples are going to the Church History spots.  Two going to Mexico and two sister’s to Australia.  We study and listen to lessons and break for lunch and dinner.  It's fun to go to cafeteria because we see all the young missionaries.   They are so excited and happy it’s catching.  

It's easy to feel the spirit to love everyone here.  It's just a Happy Place.  Prepared lesson and went to bed.

May 8, 2013

Today was so much better, our investigators were kind and helpful and practically taught us.  It was a fun experience.  I think we are eating too much.  We have been having a fresh doughnut every morning.  Duh..if we are not careful we will have to do lots of workouts later.

Our small District of 4 couples has spent enough time to feel comfortable together.  

The Jones are from Payson.  They brought us big bags of chocolate covered cherries YUM YUM.  I was passing around life savors but the chocolate just hit the spot.  The Nelsons are going to Mexico.  She is Hispanic and they are returning to her hometown.  Unfortunately right now it is one of the most dangerous places to be.  Two Drug Lords are fighting for seniority and killing people.  Three of her family members have been randomly shot.  Elder and Sister Finlaieson are going to New York Visitor Center.  We are the first to leave Saturday. 

Dinner, we met 6 girls from the Islands.  One from Laie.  

All were assigned to California and learning Tongan language.



The grounds are beautiful here, the tulips are 24 inches high in every color you could image.   Elders and Sisters running to and from classes to cafeteria and soccer and volleyball games.

Eric has his mission call!!!  We tried every way we knew, asking, praying and seeking help but were not able to Skype or Face Time.  Gave up and used phones.  I remember how nervous and anxious that time was until you know for sure.   So exciting...he's going to Boston Mass.  Great place for him.  We went to bed exhausted...again.

We finished up the week on Friday, May 10.  Becky and Erik picked us up at 1:30 and we headed to their house.  Becky had a big dinner (last supper) for us that evening.  It is so nice to be with family.  Our flight leaves at noon tomorrow. 

5/11
Our flight day to Hawaii has finally arrived.  We said our good byes to the grand kids;  Mark and Becky drove us to the airport with our entire luggage.  We had 4 big bags of 50 lbs. each and 2 carry on bags; they filled up the back of Mark’s car.  We found a skycap at the airport and he took care of the luggage, thank goodness, I am getting to old to lift all that weight.  We said good-bye to Mark and Becky, sad day, we then went through the check in process and got to our flight gate.  We were wearing our missionary tags and the people were all nice to us, and helped us through the process. 

We arrived in Hawaii at 2:30, found the baggage claim area and waited for our luggage.  Elder Palmer and his wife found us, I wonder how they new we were the new missionaries?  Must have been because we were wearing our missionary tags and suits and every one else was dressed in shorts and tee shirts.  We hauled our luggage to his car and headed to our new home in Laie, Hawaii.  We stopped at a Mexican restaurant and had fish tacos, Mike would have liked them, and hopefully they will grow on me as well.  We arrived at our new apartment around 5 pm, met the owners, Brother and sister Pierce and hauled our luggage in.  Brother Pierce is in the Temple Presidency at the Laie Temple.  They are very nice people.

The apartment was small but very clean; I wondered how we would fit all of the contents of our luggage in.  After a couple of hours we managed to get settled.   Our apartment is next to a very busy highway so you can guess it is very noisy, thank goodness we have air conditioning. Elder Palmer brought us a few supplies to get us through the weekend.  Tomorrow is Sunday so we can sleep in a little. 

5/12
Our Sacrament meeting started at 10 am, we met in a large room of one of the buildings.  We will be assigned to a student ward eventually, which will keep us young.  It was Mother’s day and the speakers talked about their mothers.  Excellent talks and sincere.  After sacrament meeting we decided to go home and catch up on some sleep.   Mom opened the Mother’s day gifts from the kids and that really made her day and mine to.  We were both crying, remembering the good times we have had.  

Thank you for making our first day here in Hawaii so special.  The rest of the day was pretty quite.  At 6 pm we were invited to dinner at a missionary couples house along with 4 other couples, they fed us a potluck dinner, which really hit the spot.  It rained most of the day and was a little cooler.

5/13
Big day.  This is the day we pick up our car at Matson Shipping in Honolulu.  Elder Palmer drove us to the port and the car was waiting for us.  It was sure nice to see our old friend the car.  Funny how the little things make you feel so good.   We drove to Costco, Wal-Mart, Kmart and Lowe's to get food and supplies for the apartment.  Sure nice to have our car again.  We drove back to the apartment, going by the Dole Pineapple plantation, the sandy beaches of the north shore and the big waves.  The northern side of the island is beautiful. 

5/14
Mom started working with sister Harris to go over her assignment.  She will be working in the President’s Office area and I will be working in the basement.  That’s where they always put bean counters.  Our jobs will be 8-5 jobs every day except Saturday and we will also work 2 days a week at the PCC taking tickets for another 3 hours per day.  We are going to have to pace ourselves so that we don’t wear out.

On this day we also met President Grace of the PCC, great big guy from New Zealand.  We loved his accent.   We will not have to start our full time mission assignments until next Monday, this week will get every thing set up so that we can hit the ground running on Monday.   

5/15   
Today was car registration day, it started out good, the scenery on this side of the island is gorgeous, I think even better than Kauai.  We drove to Kaneohe a small town about 25 miles away to register the car.  We had to check in first at Allstate Insurance to change the insurance to Hawaii.  What a joke!!!  We had to cancel our policy in Utah and start a new policy in Hawaii; you would think that Allstate could just transfer the policy.  Oh well.  We then tried to find a car place to inspect the car, big mistake; these stores only work on appointment only.  We couldn't wait that long so we headed back to the apartment.  At 2 pm we started our first day of training at the PCC, 3 hours worth of employee training of what we can and can’t do.  They have lots of rules to follow, like we wear a different badge when we are at the PCC.  We can’t wear our missionary badge; we wear this badge everywhere else except the PCC.  Part of being a missionary is to follow the rules.

5/16
Every morning at the PCC they have a devotional meeting in every department.  Different people are assigned a scripture, thought and prayer.  Good idea, this brings the people together and starts the day off right.  This approach certainly would not have worked at the University of Utah.  We got a call off to Erik for his birthday, he is now 19, and pretty soon he will be old like me.  We had another training meeting at 2 pm for another 3 hours, learned more about the PCC and the type of customer service we should provide.  This is really a totally different mission than other proselyting missions, we are more like employees, but we are here to keep the PCC operating to serve the Lord’s needs to help students get their education. 

5/17
Computer training today.  We got our user ID’s and passwords to access the PCC systems.  I think we are getting a little overwhelmed.  We just have to have faith in the Lord to take care of the details.  Today they gave us tickets to the PCC; we visited all of the villages at the PCC.  They include, Hawaii, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Tahiti, New Zealand and Marquesas’.  These villages are replicated on how life was on each of these islands many years ago.  Very interesting stuff, I think our grand kids will love it when they come to visit.  That night we ate prime rib and crab legs at the PCC restaurant, hope we don’t over eat.  After the feast we went to the show, it is called the “Breath of Life”.  Absolutely fantastic.  The performers are college kids from BYUH and most from the Islands described above.  It was a “Wow” show.