Karen's Dangling Conversation

Random Thoughts

2025-07-13T22:56:00.000-07:00

I have some random thoughts to post here about the wards we are working in. So here goes:

This picture is our Stake President Wunder. The very first time I came to the Pukalani ward it was for a baptism. I sat down and looked up and there he was playing prelude on the piano just like this. Later I asked him about it and he said he really enjoys playing the piano. He learned from his Mom, she was a piano teach and his wife plays the piano too. Anyway I thought it was really sweet that he wants to play even when there are others around who can play.

In the Makawao Ward there is a counselor of the Stake Presidency in that ward. His name is Alias Akanaka. I knew that but what I didn't realize is that the whole ward is filled with Akanaka's. His father and mother are in this ward as well as many of his brothers and sisters which means that so many Akanaka cousins are in this ward. This picture is of the mission farewell for the youngest daughter of the Alias Akanaka family. They said it would be a family musical number and look at how many cousins got up to sing. It was so beautiful. Someone remarked that we should call it the Akanaka Ward. HA, HA!

In Relief Society I have witnessed the Akanaka girls taking such good care of their mom who has Alzheimer's so bad that she really doesn't recognize anything. They sit and hold her hand and rub her back and pull her back up when she sinks forward in her chair. It's the sweetest thing.

These are all my random thoughts about these two lovely wards that we serve in.

Food Bank Service Project

2025-06-28T22:50:00.000-07:00

The two wards that we work in UP-Country are the Pukalani and Makawao wards. These wards have an assignment to accept food from the food bank and make boxes for the needy in the community. Each ward takes a turn every other month. We got to go help the Makawao ward this month. The entire project takes three days as they have to accept delivery of the food on Friday morning at the church. Then in the evening ward members come and they start to sort the food and fill boxes according to what has been delivered. They fill as many boxes as possible. On Saturday morning is the pick up and people from the community can come by and pick up a box of food. That is the part we helped with in June. It was fun and the Elders were all there too! It's always fun to serve with our missionaries!

Pizza Party Night at the Frischs home

2025-06-28T01:17:00.000-07:00

Such a fun night with the Frisch Family. We had home made pizza and game night. There was a few people from the Makawao ward there and then the Bishop and his wife from the Pukaloni Ward came. It was such a fun night. We all made home made pizza, cooked in their outdoor pizza oven ........so good and a beautiful salad and lots of fun toppings for the pizza. We had such a great time chatting and getting to know each other. Then we played 2 truths and a lie.

Speaking Assignment Makawao Ward

2025-06-22T23:27:00.000-07:00

Today we spoke in the Makawao Ward. I gave basically my farewell talk for the third time, different wards of course. Jeff gave a great talk from the heart. He basically spills our whole life in his talks but people just love it and think he is the best. He is the BEST! Our talks were met by a very warm reception from the members and they were all so kind. We had a really enjoyable Sunday meeting with both the Pukaloni and the Makawao Wards today. We just love these wards. We didn't think we could love a ward more after our service in Kihei but I have to say we really really love these wards. There is so much good missionary work going on here too. It is so wonderful to be serving at this time when Heavenly Father is hastening the work of Gathering Israel on the earth.

In Pukaloni ward the Stake Patriarch President Wunder gave a wonderful talk and really shared with us so much about what exactly is happening in the church as far as missionary work and the work of building temples across the world. He gave us some really amazing statistics.

He said there are 382 temples announced, under construction or operating and when they are all completed it will give easy access to 95% of members across the world. Image that? What a huge blessing for all of us to have access to the blessings of the temple.

That is one thing I have learned about serving on this island of Maui is how much of a blessing it will be when these members have access to a temple. They sacrifice so much! It takes a full day to go to the temple , they catch an early flight, rent a car, drive to Laie, go to as many ordinances as they can and then drive back, fly home getting home late at night. Some of our ward members even serve in the temple with all those limitations. Being temple ordinance workers and going every week to serve. It is really amazing and humbling to think of this and that I have 5 temples within a few miles of my home in Provo, Utah.

President Wunder then talked about the temple on Maui and how the church has just recently purchased 46 acres of land, next to the Maui Lani Stake Center in Kahului. He said this isn't an announcement but he feels it will just be a matter of time when we get the church rendering of what the temple will look like and they will proceed with the ground breaking and get started. It has been about three years since the temple has been announced here on Maui and this is a significant step forward. He then gave a charge to the Priesthood and asked them to step up and do more than they are doing and lead their families in righteousness. It was inspiring.

He told a story of giving a patriarchal blessing to a young man. His mother was not active and his father was not a member. He asked them to come to the blessing. After the blessing he felt inspired to talk to the father and he asked him to give a blessing to his son when he started school in the fall. He said his face went white and then President Wunder explained that even if he was not a member he still is the patriarch of his family and he can bless his son. He offered to come and help him give a blessing to his son before he goes to school in the fall. I thought this was so inspired.

After church today we were invited to have lunch with Jeanette and Ryon Frisch. Members of the Makawao ward. We went to their beautiful home in Paia and had a very fun lunch of hamburgers and yummy ice cream for dessert. It was so fun to visit with them and to have a tour of their house and garden. We kind of exchanged whole life stories and it was fun to get to know each other better.

A very good sabbath day.

Typical Sunday

2025-06-16T01:03:00.000-07:00

Our Amazing Makawao and Pukalani Elders
We love them so much!

Today we attended the Makawao and Pukalani wards upcountry. We love these two wards and are getting to know so many people there. Today Bishop Upfold called us in to talk about how we can best help in his ward. We asked him to give us 5 names a month from the ward list of people to visit and get to know. This is the kind of work we love doing. It is so rewarding helping to bring families back to church and to help and love and serve where ever we can. He also invited us to speak in church next Sunday. That is a fun opportunity that we have from time to time.

After church we were invited to a lesson for a young man we will call Brother T. He grew up in a part member family but was never baptized as a child. He really hasn't had any association with the church but I believe his Dad became active again after many years. He is from Northern California but came to Hawaii with his sister when they were asked to work on a farm and be caretakers for the owner who travels a lot for work. He has only been in Hawaii a few months but somehow he met the Elders and they began to teach him. He is a very thoughtful person and thinks deeply about the things they are teaching him. He follows through with the readings they ask him to do and he asks great questions. This week as we sat in on his lesson the elders asked him if he completed the reading they gave him last week and he said, "Yes I did and I decided that if I really am going to ask God if this book is true then I need to start reading it from the beginning." He then talked to us about the story of Lehi and his family and he had such great insights. It was amazing! So wonderful!

We were happy to give him a ride home and see the farm he lives on. Next week we will sit in on a lesson and he said he will take us on a tour of the farm.

(Today at church he showed up in a suit with a white shirt and tie.)

I just want to say how much we love working with and teaching with our Elders. They are all so amazing, all at different stages of learning and growing in the work. It is just fun to watch them teach and bring the spirit. It strengthens our testimony.

Senior Missionary Moments

2025-06-16T00:45:00.000-07:00

Our friends Jon and Marti Lelengren came over to Maui. She is the office secretary in Honolulu and he is going to take over the travel job that Jeff and I have been doing for 5 months now. We got to go to the beach on Saturday afternoon and go to dinner at Maui Gardens food trucks too. It was fun showing them around to some of our favorite places. It was a business trip and so we spent some time training Elder Lelengren for the travel. Jeff did a really good job creating a document that had most all the information on it for him. Jeff is really good at that and he spent a few hours training him which was great. Marti and I have so much in common and are becoming fast friends. She is a yoga instructor and so we had fun talking yoga and some of our favorite places to do yoga back in Utah.

Tonight (Sunday) we got together with all the missionary couples here on Maui plus the Lelengrens who are visiting. We now have 4 Sr missionary couples plus one set of Service missionaries here on Maui. So tonight we maxed out the Marriott's home at 6 couples! That's the most we have ever had at one of our dinners. The Marriott's are so sweet to always host us. They have the biggest apartment. Just last week a new couple flew in and they are going to be serving in Hana. It's pretty rustic out there. It is a very small Ohana apartment with the kitchen outside and presently it is under construction as they are re'doing the deck. So they don't have access to a washer and dryer right now. Ugh! I hope they will be okay. They are just a darling couple and a little bit younger than us. The Sherwood's are from South Jordan Utah. We all had a riot at dinner. The Marriott's are the best hosts. We all feel such a kinship being over here in Maui and serving together. There is so much work to be done here! Keep following along as we go!

Brenda comes to town Day #8

2025-06-11T22:39:00.000-07:00

Day 8 was the saddest day because that is the day we had to say goodbye to Brenda I cannot express what a boost it was to have my dear friend come to this beautiful island and enjoy some time together. I miss home so much and all my family and friends so it was a big deal to have her come and visit. Our fun memories will linger with all the photos we took and they will continue to make me happy in days to come. Aloha Brenda! Aloha nui oe......until we meet again my friend!

Brenda's Trip Day 7

2025-06-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

We hiked to the Makamakaole Stream Hike which is fondly nicknamed 13 Crossings. While we cannot confirm that there are only 13 crossings of the river on this hike we can confirm that it is a hike that is worth the hype! So gorgeous! It is a relatively easy hike but there is a lot of bouldering. It takes you through a lovely Bamboo Forest, past a lovely Banyan tree and ends at a beautiful hidden grotto with a spectacular waterfall. The pool is deep enough to swim in. If you dare! We did dare! So fun! On the way back with hiked to the other falls which is an even bigger falls and water hole for swimming. We didn't get into this one and kinda glad because on the way down we saw some giant crawdads in the river ......I guess they were probably in the other one too but we did not see them. So that was good.

My favorite hiking buddy! He is so good and helps me down all the hard parts and holds my hand.

Love rocks! Everywhere I go there are love rocks!! God Loves me and HE loves YOU TOO!

Where is Brenda? Can you see her in this picture?

Here's a big hint! There she is!

Love this ancient Hawaiian wall! So Cool!

Jeffy jumped right in!

Brenda kinda eased into the water!

We all got in together! My big regret was leaving on my hiking boots! It was nice on my toes in the moment but now my shoes stink so bad!! Hopefully a little baking soda will help!

The second waterfall had these cool caves! Perfect for posing with your hubby!

Cutest missionary companion ever!!

We wear our name tags everywhere we go and on this hike there were several LDS Families! Oh and then a big group of senior aged boys who were probably on their Senior Trip together and they were all going to be heading out on missions! One had his mission call already to California! So Fun!!

This side of the island has the best views and it is so beautiful!! Who am I kidding the Island has great views on all sides! It is a gorgeous island!

We ended the day with Fish Tacos from Coconuts! Always a hit!

Brenda comes to Maui Day #6

2025-06-09T19:32:00.000-07:00

Monday we went out to Black Rock which is by the Sheraton Hotel in Kanapali, out past Lahaina. This is one of our favorite snorkeling spots. We have seen such wonderful things here and it is easy to get to. You don't have to swim a long way. It's a short swim out to the point and then you can cut over and you are in a magical reef with lots of fish. You can swim to the edge of that reef and there the ocean drops off a long way. It is so fun to see. We have seen large groups of fish out there, eagle rays, monk seal and many colorful reef fish. Oh and lots and lots of turtles. I mean this is the place to swim with the turtles. They are so plentiful and fun to watch here. We had a great day!

This is black rock, see the big rock out there that people are jumping off of? That's what people love to do here. In the evening they have runner that takes a lighted torch up to rock and lights all the tiki torches. They he bows to the four corners of the earth. Then he throws the torch in the water and dives off the rock. It's a fun thing to watch if you stay until dusk.

Brenda comes to town day 5

2025-06-08T19:21:00.000-07:00

Sunday turned out pretty fun! I was not super happy because we had to go up country which is where our two wards that we attend are. I couldn't work out a way to bring Brenda along because she would have to spend many hours waiting around while we attended our missionary lessons and meetings. So she went to church with Beth to the Kihei ward. That seemed like the best solution. As it turned out it was the best thing because she was not feeling super great that day. So she got to have a very low key day and get some rest before we came back. When we returned we were having the missionaries over for dinner. I asked Beth if we could have the dinner at her house and it all turned out so fun! We love our missionaries and these are two of the best! Elder Arnold and Elder Houme (prounounced UMO) ! He is our French Elder from Quebec Canada. We love them both, they are super great missionaries We had such a fun dinner and ate outside at the beautiful Jeffery's home. I made meat loaf and backed potatoes and lots of veggies from the farmers market. For dessert I made crepes with whipped cream and strawberries and it was all so yummy and everyone loved it.

Our friend Matt joined us for dinner!

French Crepes

Looks like he wants to steal mine!

C'est tres bien

A Pretty flowering tree at Kihei Ward

Brenda comes to town Day 4

2025-06-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

Day 4 is my favorite day of the week. Saturday! We went up to the Kula Farmer's Market and it is my favorite thing to do on a Saturday. Jeff is tired of it now but I would go every Saturday if I could! It is the perfect mix of vegetables, fruits and fun treats. So many yummy things and the quality is off the charts. Everyone does such a good job! I love love love it! We had such a great times buying, exploring and tasting our way through the market.

These are a certain type of limes. They have tiny little beads inside that just burst in your mouth. So cool.

These are star fruit. Which are so cool when you cut them into stars! I don't particularly loves the taste.

After the market we went to a bread making class from one of our ward members in Pukalani Ward. She had the Elders over as well. Her name is Lynn Hanuhanu. Such a lovely sister and we made yummy bread and she fed us a very healthy wonderful lunch and then sent us all home with bread and rolls to give away to friends or to keep! What a fun time we had.

Her house was purple so I wanted to show it to my son who loves Purpler!

Next stop was Iao Valley. This is a national park and just a lovely sacred spot. It is so fun to hike the river and stop for a swim. We had a great time hiking and exploring this wonderful place.

Brenda came to town Day 3

2025-06-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

On Day 3 Jeff and I had to attend a Missionary Zone Conference which took up most of the day. We were so grateful that Beth Jefferies and Brenda were able to go and have a fun day at the Cacao Farm in Lahaina. It looks like they really had a great time and they came home with all kinds of facts about chocolate and how it is grown and manufactured. I should mention that it was very kind of our good friends the Jefferies to have Brenda stay at their house in their guest room. They have a beautiful home and it was much more comfortable than trying to have her stay in our tiny guest room, inside of our tiny apartment. It was such a blessing and much more comfortable for Brenda.

After Zone conference we picked up the girls and headed to one of the beaches in south Wailea. We found that there was a beached monk seal so that was fun to see. It was a bit windy but we still had a great time at the beach. Jeff and I call this beach Secret Beach because it is down a long path and then you come out onto this gorgeous beach that has grass and shade and tables and a long beautiful white sand beach.

Brenda Came to Town Day 2

2025-06-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

Day 2 of Brenda's visit we started out the day by going to a friend's group from the Kihei Ward where they study a talk each week from the most recent general conference. It was very fun to listen and learn and share insights about the gospel with these wonderful, faithful women. Since we met at Maui Gardens, Brenda and I walked through it together. It's such a beautiful place and super crowded during the day. We often go at night and there are fewer people there. Please enjoy reading Dozer the turtle's life story. He is not to be confused with the green turtles that live in the sea.

Brenda and I went off to take a look at some of the beautiful turtles on the Island. Two of our favorite places for turtle viewing are both in Paia. The best place is called Kua'u Bay. It's a small beach that many people are not aware of so it's not crowded and the turtles come up and sun on the beach. Sometimes we have counted as many as 30 turtles on the beach. It is fun to watch them come in and out on the waves. We very often see two or three come in while we are watching.
It was our lucky day and there were lots of turtles on the beach. It was also a very exciting turtle day as we saw something happen that we have never seen before. The turtles often come onto the beach with a big push of the waves and they are often coming in over the rocks on the shore. Today we say a big turtle come in on a wave and it hit a big rock and flipped over onto it's back. We watched and waiting, seeing if he could turn himself over again but he couldn't. After a bit I decided to call the turtle hotline because it is a large fine to touch a turtle. As I was dialing I looked over in the parking lot and I noticed there was a local man there hanging out by his car. I asked him if he could come and look and see if he can help this turtle. He said "It's illegal to touch them." As he ran toward the beach to check it out. The minute he saw the distressed turtle he ran towards it and flipped it back over. The surprised turtle gratefully turned and swam back out to sea, even though he had been heading in when it happened. He probably wanted to get back to the safety of the water. The local man said if you ever see a turtle in distress and you can fix to please go ahead and help. He said turtles cannot survive long on their backs. Only a few minutes before they can't breath and they will die quickly. We were all relieved to see the turtle rescued.

This is the flipped turtle on his back.

This is our second turtle stop that is so fun! It's called Ho'okipa Beach. It is big surfing beach but the turtles just love this beach. It is the most famous place to view the turtles on Maui. The bummer is you can't get very close to them and I guess that is good for the turtles. It is fun to view them from the look out point and it is also a beautiful spot to view the ocean and surfers.

We had another sad turtle tale while we were at Kua'u Bay. We saw this young turtle who was full of tumors. It was so sad. I already knew from a friends post about a turtle with this problem that there is nothing they can do for them. They just have to live out their life. It is very very sad. This is the first time I have seen it in person and this poor little turtle had massive amounts of tumor all over it's body.

We ended our day by going to our regular Book of Mormon Class that Jeff and I teach every Thursday night at 6:30 PM. If you ever come to Maui you should come and see us. This picture is with our friend Natallia Hill. We just love teaching our Book of Mormon Class!

Brenda Came to Town Day One

2025-06-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

We picked Brenda up at the Airport and then we went straight to Lahaina to see a performance by the Polynesian Cultural Center dancers. They had sailed the boat from the PCC called the Iosepha. This is a hand carved canoe that they made at the PCC. It has a great story I won't take the time to tell here but maybe later on one of my posts.

First Stop was dinner at one of our favorite plate lunch places in Lahaina! It's so beautiful and right on the water and the food is so good!

The dancers were so amazing! It was like a mini PCC performance just for us!

Before the performance started they handed out leis that they had brought from the students who did not make the trip. It was so fun that they brought one to Brenda and then we each got one too. It was so cool! I love the leis. I can't wait to learn how to make them.

They even had fire dancers. This is a girl pictured here and her dad was one of the most amazing firedancers ever at the PCC but let me tell you she is AMAZING! So so good!

Turtle Hospital

2025-06-02T00:29:00.000-07:00

We had some random excitement at our usual Black Rock Snorkel day. We saw this crew pull up on the beach and settle in all their equipment. Then they all went out into the ocean and we were all trying to figure out what they were doing? I decided to go swim out and see if I could see what they were doing but as I was swimming out they were all swimming back in. I could not see if they had a turtle or not. When I swam back up to the beach I saw that they did have a turtle and looked like they were doing some turtle surgery on it. Jeff talked to them and found out they had had several calls about a turtle that had a fish hook stuck in it's fin. So they found it and took out the hook. They did watch the turtle for a bit and then they took it back out to the water. All better!

2025-05-29T00:24:00.000-07:00

It's William's 13th Birthday Today!

Hooray for William ! What a great kid he is! He is the MVP that made me a Grandma Gibby!! My first every grandkid and we have had so much fun together! Love you William forever and ever!! I love watching you grow and learn and I know you are becoming your best self! Happy Happy Birthday!!! Hope we get to celebrate the next one in person! Love you William! Love Grandma Gibby

Eagle Rays at Black Rock

2025-05-29T00:12:00.000-07:00

Jeff and I had a day to go snorkeling this week and we headed out to Black Rock which is one of our favorite places to snorkel. So many fish and a huge variety of fish. Lots of eels. And a huge amount of turtles who swim up really close to the shore and mix and mingle with all the tourists. We like to go out of the bay and around the edge of the reef and there is this really fun place where the water is not very deep but the reef is so alive with fish and plants and it's just amazing. On this day we watched a really big turtle as he nibbled on the moss growing on the rocks. It is so fun to see them doing this because they just roll around with the tide and get tossed to and fro . It's really amazing to see. After we explored our reef we decided to swim out to the edge of the reef and there is a really big drop off into the really deep ocean. We were hovering there on the edge of the reef and we were watching this huge school of fish down at the bottom as they were swaying with the motion of the ocean. We saw a big turtle go through them and they all parted to let it by and then back into the huge school formation. As we were just hanging out there I caught something over in my left peripheral view and we both looked over at the same time and saw two Eagle Rays swimming right by us on our left in formation. It was one of the most majestic things I have ever seen. They have really long tales and that scared me quite a bit so I was backing my way back to the reef. Jeff on the other hand swam out after them. Crazy! They swam off and then made a big circle and came back along the reef. What a great day of snorkeling!!

These are the best pictures I could find of our Rays and the school of fish!

Apartment Inspections

2025-05-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

Apartment Inspections

At the end of each transfer, so every 6 weeks, we get to go and inspect all the missionary apartments. We usually have had 2 to do but another senior couple was off island this time and we got to do 4! We love our missionaries and we try to keep them in the safest and best environment possible. Jeff is so good at special projects and due to some unusual circumstances one of the sister's apartments needed some special attention. Jeff has spent many weeks trying to get this apartment updated and all the issues resolved. When we went to inspect it for the transfer these two sweet sisters had made us the cutest little care package. It was so sweet of them and made us feel like all the extra effort was worth it.

Dominic Plays Baseball 2025

2025-05-22T18:03:00.000-07:00

Domonic has started Baseball and he is really good at it. I have been getting lots of cute pictures and videos of his great hits and fast running. Way to go Domonic! I love to see you doing something that you love!

The Twins Graduate from Pre-School

2025-05-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

These cute girls just graduated from Pre-school. They are growing so fast and will go off to kindergarten this fall. It is so fun to watch them grow! I took them to preschool many times throughout their time there and it was so fun to see all their projects and the things they learned. It was so sad to miss their graduation while we are here on our mission but I hope to be home in time to attend their kindergarten graduation! We shall see how it goes!

Adalynn loved singing and field trips

Avery loved singing art and writing

Quin is so proud of them!

Pre-School Class 2024-2025

Avery

Adalynn

Avery

Avery and Adalynn

Preparation Day Adventures

2025-05-20T01:05:00.000-07:00

Another successful P-Day or Preparation Day as it is known in the mission. This is the day we have to rest, rejuvenate and clean our tiny apartment. Today we went to explore the west side of the Island. That is the area near Lahaina and traveling past it out to some kind of wild places. We decided to drive to the Blow hole at Nakalele. It was pretty underwhelming today as the waters were very calm today! We decided to drive past and see where it took us. This side of the island is so beautiful with amazing views of the water and it's a lot more green than where we live in Kihei. The road began to turn into a true one lane road with no shoulder and very little spaces to pull off, almost none. We ran into about 4 cars coming the opposite direction and the guy in the car could not, or was too scared to back it up. So a guy in a jeep behind us offered to back up for him. Luckily not too far away was a roomy pull out where there was a snack stand and parking. So all the cars had to back up and Jeff had to back up one of the other cars as I guess people are too scared to back up on this scary road. We decided to turn around here because they said the road was about 7 miles like this and we didn't want to take the time to try to drive it with all the crazy drivers that don't know how to back up their cars.

We headed back to one of our favorite beaches. Kapalua Bay. It is just off of the Montage property which is a gorgeous hotel in this area. The walk down to the beach is just gorgeous. It is so pretty here.

The last time I was here I was so excited to see my first octopus. (See previous post for the Octopus story. Magic!) I jumped in the water to see if I could back track and find him once more. Actually I don't know if it is a he or a she. I swam back to the location I had seen him in before and he was there in the exact same spot. I was so thrilled. He was again hunkered down in his little coral nest so very hard to spot but it was unmistakable. Jeff had followed me at first but then got bored and headed out to snorkel so I wasn't able to show him the octopus. I decided to go exploring and went out and saw a great big eel. It was backing into a piece of coral so just his head was poking out and the upper half of his body but I could see it was a big eel. I have seen lots of eel so far but usually they are small. Jeff swam up to me and so I took him to go see the Octopus. When we got back to it, he had come out of hole a bit and I was so shocked I had to adjust my snorkel. He was hovering half in and half out of his hole. When Jeff tried to go down and touch him he backed into his hole again. Jeff got bored and left but I stayed and watched him for a long time. I think he was interested in me. We played this game where I would pretend to swim away and he would come pretty far out of his hole and then I would drift back over to him and he wasn't as scared as before so I could sit and watch him as he hovered there. It is really fun because you can see him change colors. He can match the rocks exactly so he can't be seen at all. I can see him because I know what to look for but if you were just swimming by you would never notice him at all. I finally wished him a final goodbye and swam back into shore.

We were able to enjoy an amazing sunset there and then began to walk back to the car just enjoying the beautiful scenery. What a fun day!

There were a bunch of goats grazing and walking in the roadway.

Such a pretty view

This is the bay we snorkeled in!

A gorgeous sunset

This house is known as Cliff House

Octopus Update

2025-05-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

Update to my Octopus story. We ended up going back to the same spot to snorkel and I was able to find my Octopus. He was in the exact same place as I found him before. I was able to show him to Jeff. This time he kept creeping out of his little nest. I think he was actually curious about me. I would swim away and he would poke his head up above the coral and then as I swam back he would sink back down in his hole. But as I kept doing that he began to not go back into his hole but he would just watch me. I can't wait to go back and see if he gets more used to me. I would love to see him come out of his hole.

This is the part of the octopus that I can see.

This is what the octopus looks like. It's a Day Octopus. At least that is what I can find out from looking for pictures of it.

Beach Walk

2025-05-16T02:48:00.000-07:00

I took a walk on the beach this morning and I found this dead lobster. I thought it was picture worthy. I have not yet seen a lobster in my snorkeling so it was interesting to see this one.

Mother's Day 2025

2025-05-11T02:29:00.000-07:00

It was Mother's Day today and although I stayed home from church because I was sick from a bad cough and cold, I still always think about my Mom. She was such a good mom and I think all of my sisters and I miss her so much. She taught us so many things, how to sew, how to cook, how to play the piano, how to knit, how to crochet, how to clean, how to paint, how to do almost anything. She was such a talented, self taught woman and I sure miss her smile and her quick wit. She taught me to stay current on events and how to be self reliant. She taught me to love the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she taught me to read. She made a deep impression on who I am today and I love her for it. Happy Mother's Day mommy in heaven. We all still really love and miss you down here.

First Ward Temple Trip and a Visit to Laie

2025-05-08T00:25:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to go on a temple trip with our ward over to Oahu to go to the Laie Temple. We decided to go a day or two early so that we could visit with our friends the McGills and maybe just relax for a day. The craziest thing is that I have been so healthy the entire time I have been here on Maui, not even a sniffle, but a few days before this trip I started to get a head cold, that quickly turned into something else. I was really sick but it felt like I had gallbladder pains, but I was also very tired and felt terrible. In the morning when I tried to get up and Jeff wasn't here I fainted and found myself on the floor when I woke up. After a couple of days of crazy symptoms and because we were planning to leave the following day I decided to go to the urgent care and get checked out. After doing blood work and checking me out the doctor could not find anything wrong. He told me to go on my trip and just go to an ER if the symptoms returned. That at least made us feel better about things and so we decided to continue as planned.

Our first day we spent in Honolulu and went to dinner with our good friends who work in the mission office, the Llengrens. We had met in the MTC and we wanted to get to know each other and talk about our stories of getting here and how things were going on our missions. We decided to go to the Yard House by Wakiki. Yummy food! It was so fun. I didn't feel 100% but I was much better. We were lucky enough to run into one of our favorite Elders, who we had known on Maui, Elder Kofe. We had a soft spot for him because we had flown over to Maui together during the start of both of our missions. It was so fun to see him and how much he has grown into being a great missionary!

After dinner we drove out to Laie and to our friends house Jennifer and Shay McGill. They are friends from our ward back in Provo. They are both here teaching at BYU Hawaii for a few years. It was so great to see them and to stay in a big house for a change and sit on a comfy couch! It was just the best!!! They are a lot of fun too! Their son Trey, just got called on a mission to the Ivory Coast! Speaking french! Sounds like a dream!

We had a great day on Friday, they both had to work but we spent time at the beach and drove around the North Shore and of course got shaved ice at Masamoto's! We went to dinner that night at Pounder's, it's the restaurant by the Polynesian Cultural Center. Really fun to visit and have a good catch up!

Next day was temple day and we had a full day planned at the temple. The ward was there too and it was fun to see all our friends. They did a special session just for our ward. Prior to the session Jeff and I both did initiatories and after the session we did sealings. It's quite a regimented process they have going for sealings, they really use their time wisely. We had to leave a few of our names there but they said they would get them done.

After temple we headed for a bite to eat and met up with several ward members, including one of our dear friends who was just baptized. She had done baptisms and was able to do it for her mom and her sister, that was very sweet. It seems like she had a great experience.

We packed up and headed back to the mission home and met up with our dear friends the Navarros. They are in charge of all the cars in the mission and they had arranged for us to drive one of the mission cars while we were there. It was so kind of them. They volunteered to drive us to the airport. When we got there Sister Navarro had made the cutest candy lei and a flower for my hair for a Happy Mother's Day! She is so sweet. We had a nice time visiting with them on the way back to the airport. They told us they are hoping to go on another mission to Western Samoa, which is where Sister Navarro is from.

We got home again safely and Beth Jefferies came to pick us up at the airport. We are so grateful for such kind friends to help us out! It was a great weekend!

When I went to write this post I realized that I did not get one picture from our temple trip! Except this cute picture of our dear Elder Kofe!! It was really so fun to see him!!!