2016!!! Oh How Time Flies!

Sunday, January 10, 2016
Well, it has been a couple weeks since I have posted on this blog.  With the beginning of this new year I am greatly aware that our time as missionaries here in Hawaii is quickly winding down.  When we first arrived it seemed like one year would be a long time.  The first couple months did seem to drag a little but now the time is going fast.
I'll quickly recap the last couple of weeks.  We have been on a little vacation from the temple as it has been closed for cleaning and maintenance since December 28 and will not reopen until January 19.  As long as the temple was closed Larry and I planned a trip to other islands for a week.  I had never been to Kauai or Maui so that is where we went.
On the island of Kauai we stayed at Kauai Shores in Kapaa.  We traveled around the island in both directions.  We were able to see Kilauea lighthouse and the Nene geese, beautiful beaches and ocean scenes and lush greenery in Hanalei and Princeville.  We took a river cruise on the Wailua river to see the fern grotto.  From what Larry said, it wasn't as neat as it used to be but it was to me since I had never seen it before.  Our hotel was right on the beach so it was fun to walk along the beach there.
We stopped in the town of Kapaa to window shop in the quaint stores.  We went to Waimea and Kokee state parks and Poipu where we again found a fun little old town to visit.
We then went to Maui for three days. We stayed at the Maui Banyan resort.  Here we took a sunset cruise in the ocean to hopefully see whales.  And indeed we did see several whales.  They weren't actively breeching out of the water but we could see them and hear them as they surfaced quite often.  At one point we were surrounded by several whale and had to wait to leave the area.  It seems that a boat cannot start its engine if there are whale within a certain distance from the boat.  It was pretty cool. On Friday we did something that I didn't really think Larry was serious about.  He wanted to leave the hotel very early, drive to the top of the crater Haleakala to watch the sunrise.  That very early time was 4:00 a.m.  which meant we had to arise at 3:30.  I was not really hip on this but when we arrived at the top after about an hour and a half drive in the dark on switchbacks, there were about 150 cars there.  We weren't the only crazy people.  It was cold for Hawaii (45 degrees) but the eventual sunrise was truly amazing.  I was glad that we did it and that I hadn't discouraged Larry from his life long dream of doing that. (It did take me the rest of that day to really wake up). We then went to Lahaina and again, walked around a fun little old time shopping district.  Banyan park was there where one banyan tree had reproduced so many times that a whole park was just banyan trees.
Saturday morning we got up and took the road to Hana-a very beautiful but pretty treacherous drive with something like 200 curves and several narrow bridges where only one car could cross at a time. With the time that we stopped to take pictures and do a couple little hikes to waterfalls and a black beach, it took us about 3 hours to get to Hana.  Once there, there was absolutely nothing.  No restaurants, no fast food places, not even a place to get a soft drink.  Back on the road we got and made the return trip in just over an hour.
Today, Sunday, we left the beautiful island of Maui and returned to our humble little apartment in Laie to get back to the business of serving our mission.

As a little side note, our good neighbors, Gary and Connie Reed have been serving a mission in Redland California for the past year.  We turned our papers in the same week and got our calls a week apart.  They have served their mission and will be leaving for home this Thursday!  It doesn't seem possible that they have been gone a year and are nearly finished and we still have five months left.  I guess if there is one thing that I envy about their mission it is that they were able to leave soon after getting their call and are finished and able to go home.  Our time will come soon enough though.  We still have service to do and am looking forward to getting back to the temple and our assignments there.  I have missed it and I'm sure I will miss it even more come June when we leave.  One thing I have to look forward to is the eventual visit from two of my children and their families the end of March and first week of April.  Stacie and Keri both gave the vacation to their kids for Christmas so they are pretty stoked about coming to Hawaii to play, and of course, see grandma and grandpa!
Wahooo!