Monday, Nov. 28, 2022 - Misc Picture post

 Here is another batch of non-related pictures, but that I wanted to include!  Some are pictures from here, and some are ones that were sent to us!

Picture of the decorated Oakland temple sent from Misty! I was glad since the outdoor grounds of the Hawaiian temple have absolutely no lights at all!

Wendy’s started having a peppermint shake this year! My favorite thing at Christmas are the Chick-fil-A peppermint milkshakes….but they only have one here and it is way down in Honolulu! So, we were hopeful that when we tried Wendy’s, it would be the same. Alas…No! It does have a peppermint taste, but no little chunks of candies in it!  Still, it is something!

Visitors came- top: brother of Benny Wilkins and his wife

Bottom: Seloni Tupuata- who we served with in France

Misty and Layne at the Stanford vs BYU game in Calif.

Monroe Family all home for Thanksgiving, except Trevor on his mission in Rome!

Austin, Kaden, Devon, Chad, Brooke, Tanner, & Ashlyn

Love all the rainbows we are seeing as the rainy season begins!

Landon has his sunsets, and we have our rainbows!

Lastly…what happens if you leave your phone or IPad unattended in the midst of young missionaries!

Sisters Erickson and Burbidge

 

Sat. Nov.26, 2022 - Ward BBQ

 Today was our end of the semester Ward BBQ. Finals are coming up and graduation is Dec, 9- so we needed to have it now. We had it at Hukilau Beach because it is the closest to the campus .

Brother Au, fist counselor in the Bishopric had marinated the chicken for 3 days! Plus he also BBQ’d 

Hot dogs and hamburgers!

Because it was from 9am to noon- they had one table of breakfast foods and fruit, and one table for lunch, with the meat, rice, Chips, drinks.! They do food in a big way here!

The high school here is Kahuku high school. It is about 7 min. Down the road. Almost everyone on the. aorta Shore goes here. They have a HUGE football fan base! They re pretty amazing! This year they beat Punahou (think the private school Barack Obama went to ) the night before for the state championship. Of course Roger and I HAD to represent…

It was fun, but not too many attended, even though we were offering rides to the park!We are in the YSA 12th Ward, and it is mostly freshman. We had to be finished by noon because so many have to go to work at the PCC at noon.

Thursday, Nov. 24,2022 - Thanksgiving!

 Busy day today. Of course, we worked at the VC…but we had reduced hours. This is the opening crew: we had PLENTY of time to take pictures, since no one came into the Center!

Front- Sisters Spencer, Lameroux, and Beeson

Middle:  Sisters Blakesly, Clevenger, Bushman, and Fisher

Back: Elder Hua, Elder & Sis. Mahaffey, Sister Drury, E. Bushman, & E. Adams

Then we went over to the PCC at the Gateway Buffet Terrace, and enjoyed Dinner!  The AhYou family here feed the whole mission ( and others ) every Thanksgiving. They cooked 300 turkeys emu style- buried in the ground for hours -  the senior missionaries each brought a side dish and the young ones brought dessert. 

Believe me, when Polynesians are involved, there is PLENTY to eat!

Then they had a little program with a lot of singers and performers. At one point the lady began singing a song for couples and invited someone who was having an anniversary to come and dance while she sang. After a minute all the young missionaries started chanting BUSHMAN, BUSHMAN….wanting them to go up and dance…so they did.  You know what is coming….then they stated chanting MAHAFFEY, MAHAFFEY……so we had to get up and dance too!

Then we walked over to the amphitheater where they hold the HA night show to have a whole mission picture. Organizing that many people is always interesting….

                                 Always a good time during a holiday in the mission field!!!

Wed. Nov. 23, 2022 - Turkeys!

 We made some turkeys to give to some of our sisters.

Several of our sisters that we have worked with at the TC, and the sisters in our ward and some others who have made treats for us deserved a treat in return. So, we had fun making these. However, we were very lucky, because apparently Hawaii only has candy corn on Halloween. And we were lucky enough to get some leftovers!

Sis. Use o and Sis. Lahache!   We have such great missionaries!!!

Tuesday, Nov.22 - Pres. Eyring

 Today we went to a BYUH devotional with President Eyring!

They started with a great musical number from the BYUH combined choirs:

The the devotional was a little different. They sat in a semi-circle on the stage with Clark Gilbert- head of Church Education, Pres. Keauwe - Pres. Of BYUH, Pres. Eyring, and three students .

So, instead of Pres, Eyring just speaking the whole time, the students gave them some pre-selected questions from the student body. It was good, but sadly, Pres. Eyring did not meet with the missionaries later that day! Rats!

Sat. Nov. 20- Finished product!

 So, now we have everything in the Visitor’s Center decorated and ready for Christmas!

The Christus Statue

Asian Theater

“

The Hawaiian Village

Walk through video theater- God’s Plan for his family

Temple hallway

Book of Mormon room

And then the 12 trees around the center. Each Stake on the island decorates their own tree. It is so great to see their creativity!  A couple serving here who came out with us- The Bowmans decorated our mission tree. She used to work with an interior design firm in DC that decorated a White House tree once. She really did a beautiful tree:

 

Kaneohe Stake.                -                   Makakilo Stake

BYU Married Student Stake.             -                 Laie Hawaii Stake

Waipahu Stake.              -                   Honolulu West Stake

Laie YSA 2nd Stake.               -                  Missionaries Tree

                                Mililani Stake                     -             BYU Women's Organization’s children

                               Honolulu Stake.                                     Laie YSA 1st Stake 

Friday, Nov. 19 - Decorating for Christmas!!!!!

 Decorating the Visitor’s Center for Christmas is a week long job! Our part lasts 2 days, then each Stake on Oahu decorates a tree and that usually takes a week or so to finish.  

First we gather everyone after closing on Friday night to haul everything down from the attic. We made a huge long line to pass down all the trees, the poinsettias, the lights, all other decorations, etc. once everything is down from the attic, we begin setting up the trees and poinsettias and if time, putting the lights on the trees. (The missionaries have to be home by 9:30 )

Top left and around- Sisters Glassett and Seals, sisters Peterson and Birch, Sr.  Falapapapenga on ladder, Sisters, Weaver, Roden, Blakeslee, and Clevenger (with back to camera)

Top left and around - Sisters Wisjman, Brinton, McKenzie, ? , Birchell, Brown, E.Olsen, Roden, Kendall-our mission nurse, Gonzales,  & Weaver.  Next pic: In the temple hallway- squatting- Sr.Gutierrez , then left to right Sisters Archibald, DeWaal, Seals, Glassett, Morse, Kaufusi, Crowley, Bankhead, Hansen.

Bottom right:  Sisters Kaufusi,E. Olsen, Cannon, Sr. Bushman, E, Bushman, E. Meade, E. Rustad, E.Adams, E. Hua, Sr. Brown.

Last pic- bottom left- Sisters, Smith, Padilla, Burbidge.

Saturday morning we had donuts nd milk for everyone before we started putting up all the lights and decorating the village.

Top: Sisters Agasen, Chan is behind her, Crowley, Horton, Kofford, Morse, Archibald -tall one, Gertsch, Bankhead, Alapa, Jensen, Johnson, Hong.

Bottom:  Elders Shockley and Carter serving it all 

After breakfast, we got to work on doing all the lights…. To an easy task!  

The trees behind the Christus were all that LED blue/white light color. So, the other 4 trees near it had to be that same color lights. The two up by the front door were a warm white…white, but a little yellowy.

The lights in the village had to all be the really old , totally yellowy lights! Sheesh!

Top- Sr. Burbidge, E. Meade, Sr. Mickelson, Sr. DeWaal, & Sr. Erickson

Bottom - Srs.Argyle, Birchell, & Losee.

Of course, we all worked hard…especially Elder Mahaffey who had to crawl under to connect lights!

And Sisters Morse and Archibald who helped to decorate the village and were so excited to actually get to walk on the sand, which is against the rules in our mission!

Left to right- Cannons, Bushmans and us. All the people we serve with in the Visitor”s Center.

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