February 16, 2014

Rain, rain and more rain.  We haven't seen a sunny day for three weeks.  Everything is damp and we can't get dry.  We feel like wet mops traveling through time.  Nights are muggy.  Air conditioner at the apartment has stopped and we can feel the difference.   This too shall pass…

Thank you Tammy for the Valentine Box.  We shared the candy today with students and it was a big hit at church.  It has been so hot in the apartment we decided to not bake the cake yet.  My oven and even the top of my stove heats the place up in quick time.  We have no vent over stove either.  I bet the cake would be wonderful, maybe I will bake it for you when you come.  Thanks for your thoughtfulness.  We could not eat all of the candy so we shared some with our Elder Quorum Presidency, these guys are always hungry.  They loved the candy and said thanks.

We went to dinner and to see The Lion King for Valentine's.  Elder and Sister Pollock went with us.
The guys had planned the evening and we had good fun.  The show was in Honolulu at the Blaisdell Concert Hall.  This was a fun treat for Sister Pollock and I.  Notice it was raining but warm.

Elder and Sister Tremea and Sister and Elder Pollock

Paige, I hope you read this, I received your letter.  Thank you for thinking of us.  I think about the baby boys and know you are a busy good mom.  We love to hear from you.   All the fun things your family is doing brings back lots of memories.  Those years when the kids are little seem so long, yet they are just a moment in time.  Where are the horns from the deer Matt killed?  I bet they aren't for hat hangers!

Aloha to Ev and Kid.  We think of you often and I'm sorry I didn't get Christmas letters out.  It's about all I can do to get the Blog out.  By the time we get home from work we either have FHE, work at the PCC or Church Assignments and then we drop into bed.  I was sorry to hear you lost Tracker.  Who is doing the dusting for you now?  Indie must be very busy at your home taking care of all the family needs.  For your information, Aimee has been taking pictures of three cats that are watching our home.  I will include pictures.  Maybe you have seen these cats too.  She said they sleep on the backyard chair cushions and scare everyone away.  They have claimed their territory I guess.  We are thankful we have both family, friends and cats taking care of us.

Is this Jeanie's Cat?  Two yellow cats that have found a good place for afternoon naps too.

It was good to hear from you Robyn.  We are counting on you and Mark checking over the fence to see if anyone moves into our home.  We have scheduled our friend Ralph Harper to bring his son and crew to do Spring cleanup of the yard.   With the winter you have had ,we might lose trees etc. too.   Maybe it's time to just go desert landscaping.  What do you think?

Hey brother Don, Mr Knight Reflector.  You get more kudos for that Reflector than anyone I know. We all know if we don't thank you we will get cut off…or something like that.  Thanks for all you do to make it happen once a month.  We do appreciate what you have done.  Now, could you separate the family histories so it would be easier for the Campbell's and the Knights.  You know, put the Campbell's on a pink sheet and the Knights on blue sheets and ship it out.  That way we won't get mixed up with familly histories for the past, present and future.   I am just kidding!!!
Some days it's hard to get going, you were right... we were too old to go on a mission.   You and Clejo did it right going on a mission in your early fifties.  We keep you in our prayers and are thankful to have a family circle.

The little town of Laie had big news last week.  A sister here in the community drove her car off the Point and killed herself.   (The Point is a beautiful lookout point high above the town.  You can drive to it and see the ocean and waves hit rock formations.)  Everyone knew her.  She was single lady, 49 years old, never married.  Not sure why she did this.  We have had four funerals here in the past month.  One year birthdays and deaths are big family events here.  They celebrate or grieve for at least three days.  Food and money are exchanged and families live together for days and even weeks. I don't think you would understand it unless you were here to experience it.  They bring food, and take food home, money is given to the family.  Each family donates a lot of money.  This is a tradition.  Families will pool their money for these occasions.  They are very humble and kind to one another.  A few weeks ago a man died who was a truck driver.  We were driving to Kanohoe and pasted over 50 big semi trucks all shimmed up, traveling slowly, blowing their horns, one after another cruising the entire island on the little two lane road in his honor.  The traffic was backed up for miles.  If you were in a hurry, forget it.

Sunday in the Mission field is a very busy day, we start at 9 am and finish around 3 pm with an occasional stake meeting a 5 pm.  We work with the Elders and Sisters in the Laie Young Single Adult 5th Ward.  Right now we have around 110 young people in the ward, 70 girls and 40 boys, good odds if you are a male.  Most of the members are returned Missionaries and so have a good understanding of the Gospel.  Some of the Elders are just learning how to be home teachers, the mainland guys seem to have a better grasp of the system, so they are teamed up with the Asians and Polynesians to help them out.   For Valentine's Day the home teachers delivered 70 roses to the sisters, they were thrilled.   Any thing that can be done to get the members of the ward together is a blessing.  The goal is to get the sisters to rely on their home teachers for help, blessings and support instead of having to rely on the Bishop.  I think it is working.

We hope you are having a good week.  We love and miss you.
Nona and Papa

February 5, 2015

The last two days with the Barton's were busy and fun.  Friday I watched Sarah while Scott, Aimee Maddie and Jake went to the temple to perform baptisms with our Student Ward.  After they were back I took them to the Polynesian Cultural Center to see where Papa and I worked.  We had to hurry because Maddie had a surfing lesson at 10 am.  Everyone liked the beach the best I think.

We knew Joe who is now working part time at George's house were they stayed.  He is from California and loves to surf.  He will graduate this spring.  Papa asked him if he would be willing to give Maddie a surf lesson and he agreed.  Scott wanted to have one too, but I think Maddie got the best lesson.  She was thrilled.  The kids stayed at the beach all day.  I think they had their fill of sun and beach today.

Maddie's Surfing teacher….Joe.  She did get up and surfed!!!  She said she saw a big turtle with baby out surfing!

Beach to ourselves, Aimee Sarah and Jake enjoying the waves.

Maddie's soft sand ball

Papa's new Missionary Exercise!

Turtle carving on the beach

Beach day over…clean off the sand!

We went to dinner with Scott and Aimee. Tonight we had curry chicken.  We were told about this little Fiji Grocery Store off the side of the road.  Little hole in the wall, but turned out pretty good. Week has rapidly passed and was all too soon to pack up and go home.  We took them back to Airport and had some teary goodbyes.

Last Day at the PCC…..we will miss the Grandchildren.

Barton Family Hang Loose...

 
Last week the students were all excited because it was the Chinese New Year.  Foods and parties were talked about on campus.  We were invited to Sarah and Wade's home for dinner.  It was a good evening with them.  Baby Tyler has grown so much, he is 20 pounds and only 3 months old.  His legs and arms were plump.  Wade's mother is still here from China and has been helping with baby while the parents are both going to school.  She doesn't want to leave but her visa expires in April.  If they fly home for just one day they can renew their visa for another 6 months.  Crazy to think it is that easy to stay in America.  She has asked to take the baby home so the kids can finish school, but I don't think that will happen.  Dinner was dumplings, vegetables, chicken wings, and some kind of rolled ball with a gooey sweet taste.  They kept asking if we liked.  Oh, and we were taught to eat with chop sticks which was fun.  They had purchased some small chop sticks that were easier to eat with.  It was nice evening.  Both Sarah and Wade are only children.  Sarah had an adopted sister when she was eight, but Wade is from long line of male children only.  Father, grandfather, great grandfather.  Sarah is first generation joining church.   Wade's family have been members for awhile. Sarah came to Hawaii to go to school and lived with a single lady there.  She was LDS and helped her get in school.  She took to church and Sarah meet with the missionaries and later joined the church.  Her parents are not members.  They are supportive to her and her husband and family here.  She said she has work to do when she gets back to China.  They still have two years of school.

We were working last week and had a nice surprise.  Kelly and Claudia Clayton were at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We were taking tickets and got to talk to them. They updated us on their family and the Ward at home.  They were here on a conference trip.  We were happy they stopped to see us.

Claudia, Sister and Elder Tremea and Kelly Clayton

Work last week seemed long.  It's hard to take time off and then go back to the normal work week. Papa has Church Auditors here for the week and he has been busy.  We are sewing shirts and mending costumes.  We also do that glue gun thing….if we can't mend it we glue it.  Cathy, our boss, came in today and had been to the store first.  We noticed a hole in her pants and she had been to store, and around PCC and campus.  Well, we fixed it for her with tape, couldn't hardly use the glue gun on this one, and the material was too thin.  Pants needed a good patch job.  We are also making these sunny yellow headbands for the Ha Show. 

Boss Cathy's taped pants

Costume Department, headbands for the show

Boss Cathy's make shift kitchen!  She is making soup.  I just put clean cover on ironing board!!!  Notice electric plug.

Tuesday Bob and Dareth Anderson flew over to see us from Maui.  We picked them up at the Airport at 9:00 am.  We drove them to Laie to go to the PCC.  The day was a wet one.  It rained all day.  We stopped in Haleiwa for breakfast at the Cafe Haleiwa.  It was a small little surf cafe, but very good. We stopped at Teds for malasadas and then home.  I took them to the PCC and got ponchos for them to battle the rain.  Everyone has a good time at the PCC rain or shine.  The shows go on even if it rains.  I think they enjoyed all the villages and shows.  We worked taking tickets at Prime Dining and took them to dinner with us after.  They couldn't stay for the Ha, Breath of Life Show because their flight was at 9:45 pm.  We drove them back to the airport.  Today we drove around the Island twice.

Ocean walk in the rain.

Turtle Bay 

Ron had a treat last Saturday, our P-day.  Some of the guys asked him to go golfing with them.  He was gone almost 6 hours golfing 18 holes.  They went to Turtle Bay.  Some pictures of the course are below. He had good time, borrowed some clubs and didn't do too bad.  He hasn't golfed for 9 months. He kept up with all of them, except Brent Przybille, true blue golfer from Canada.

Turtle Bay Golf Course

Elder Przybille

Tough Course?

Golf Course

Sunday was Fast Day.  We have decided to take a different class and support one of the students who has started a Family Search Class.  I think we will like it.  We lack names and dates on the Church Files.  Looks like there is much to do.  We might have you send us some information if we continue.  The students are very quick to help everyone on the computer.  Our ward also has a class after church for indexing.  

Sacrament Meeting was spiritual meeting.  The girls bore testimonies first and the boys all finished up strong.   The students are from so many different cultures, places and each try to express their testimony in English.  We can understand why some are shy and struggle at school with culture and English.

We had Break the Fast with all the Missionaries Sunday after church.  Sherelene and I ended up washing all the tablecloths this time.  Lucky me, Papa took them up to George's washer.  It would take me all week to wash 10 tablecloths.   That's the perks of talking to George about the house problems every day.  I am beginning to think they are good friends already.

Today is Wednesday and we just got back from the Temple.  We went to the 7:00 pm Session.  Next week we are going to go earlier.  It was good Session.  The officiator was Papa's golfing buddy.   He is a small Samoan with big smile and so kind to us.  Tonight when I looked around the room we were surrounded by every color, shape and size people.  It was a touch of heaven.

Hawaiian Temple

 That's all for now.  It's after ll:00 pm and I have to get up and go early.  Be good and do something good every single day.  The Church is true, keep living and reading your scriptures.    We pray for you,  sometimes, morning, noon and night, just to make sure you are covered.

Love you.