TWO MONTHS...BUT WHO'S COUNTING?

Here we are. Ten months into our mission with just two months to go.  And the time is going so fast now.  I think it is because we are in the temple nearly every day and we have no time to have to fill our time.  This month we are on the late shift which starts at 1:00 pm and ends at 8:00 pm.  Rarely do we leave any earlier than that.  There is always a need for someone to be trained or an opportunity to help when shifts are short of workers.  I have mentioned before how I love training and learning a little about people.
This week I helped train two young ladies who are attending BYUH.  Both are from the mainland-one from Minnesota and one from Blackfoot, ID.  I told her I had cousins who live in Blackfoot.  She knows them!  I am always so amazed at how small this world really is in the whole scheme of things.

Another young lady I worked with this week is Sister Bennion from Boise, ID.  What a delightful young woman.  In talking to her, I found that she is about to go on a mission.  Her parents came over to HI for Easter and to be here when her mission call was opened.  While they were here, she came to the temple to receive her endowment.  She then talked to her bishop about serving in the temple and she is doing that now- before she serves her mission.  What great training that is for these young people.  I know her temple service will be a testimony of eternal families and the blessings of temple service throughout her life.

I have heard from many of the very busy students who serve in the temple that they will make time to serve because they need the blessings in their lives as far as schooling and dating and eventual marriage.  Oh how I wish I had had that kind of vision when I was their age.  I wish I had been more instrumental in instilling that love of temple work to my children.

Larry and I were discussing the fact that in the early days of our church the saints were asked to gather together where the temples were.  Now days, saints are asked to gather in their own countries as temples are dotting the earth.  Each and every conference there are new temples announced where faithful saints and growth in the church require it so as to save people from traveling such long distances to do the Lord's work.

Today our stake presidency was released and a new presidency called for the Laie North Stake.  Our bishop, Kingsley Ah You is the new President.  He is an awesome leader and will do great things while in this calling.  Our visiting Authorities were Elder Sitati from the Seventy and Elder Aunu, an Area Seventy.  Both of them spoke in our Saturday night session as well as today leaving us with wonderful advice and counsel.

In comments outside of what is happening here in Laie, Spencer received his Mission Call to Portugal.  Not sure if I mentioned this in my last post but he received it just before they all came here to visit.  He leaves August 3 and from what we have heard from home, we will be reporting our mission the same day as he has his farewell.  I am so excited for him to feel the spirit of missionary work though his mission will be vastly different than ours.  What an honor it is to be his grandmother. He is an extraordinary young man. I know his grandpa Bruce is SO proud of him and how he serves others.

GRATEFUL FOR FAMILIES AND FUN!

Uh Oh!!  I was so busy this past week that I totally forgot to make this post.  So here it is.  I was so lucky to have two of my daughters, Stacie and Keri and their families come to Hawaii to visit us and "play".  And play we did.
They came on March 31 so we went to Keri's rental on the point for pizza and to talk for a while.  They were quite tired after their day of travel so we left and they went to bed.  The next day we went to the temple to work and they played.  We went to the beach later and then to North Shore Taco to eat.  On Saturday we all (minus Steve due to back surgery) went to ClimbWorks zipline.  What a HOOT!  I really enjoyed it much to my surprise.  There were eight ziplines of varying distances to conquer.  I didn't ever feel unsafe.  The hardest part was when we had to pull ourselves up from one level to another to catch the next zipline.  I found out that my core strength is next to nothing right now.  I was able to get about half way and had to be pulled up the rest of the way.  What a WHIMP I felt like!  We got some great pictures of the whole experience and the kids and grandkids won't stop talking about it.
It was conference weekend so on Sunday we listened to conference and then I prepared dinner for everyone and we ate at Keith's house since he has more room than we do.  Ham, rolls, potato Salad, chips and fresh veggies and quinoa salad were prepared by Debra.
Monday we went to Haleiwa with Stacie's family then to Turtle bay beach with all.
Tuesday those with temple recommends (all but Kaydee, Maelynn and Elli) came to the temple.  It was great having them there and letting those I work with know they were my kids/grandkids there doing baptisms and initiatory.  The little girls stayed at our apartment and wrote little notes to us and scattered them around the apartment.  How fun it was to come home and find them all over.  Then we went to Polynesian Cultural Center for the rest of the day.  I know they all enjoyed that as well.
All good things must come to an end and so they all left to go back home early Thursday morning.  Lots of pictures hit Instagram and Facebook!

I mentioned that it was conference weekend last week.  I really love that we get to hear so many speakers with so many different topics having to do with the gospel and our eternal salvation.  I will be reporting on some of these talks in future blogs but for now suffice it to say that my testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost has been strengthened so much through the words I was able to hear and through the testimonies that were borne.  I love this church with all my might and am so proud to be serving my God in the capacity of a temple missionary at this time and season of my life.  I have always loved the temple and the peace and calmness that I feel there but I haven't always been as dedicated to temple attendance as I am now.  I often wonder why I didn't indulge myself in the blessings of the temple on more on my own rather than only going when it was a scheduled temple night.  I have some repenting to do.  I love the principles of the gospel that are taught in the temple and know that each time we attend, there is something new to be learned if we just open our hearts and minds to it and ask for guidance before attending the temple.

As a last little note in this post.  We are down to about 9 weeks more here in Laie.  We got our travel plans home from the church missionary department and will be leaving June 13.  I am already torn about leaving.  It will be nice to get back to our normal life and do some things we are planning but I will miss helping people learn about the temple, the friendships I have made while here and having that feeling of being a missionary and being obedient to my Father in Heaven.  I'm sure it will be an interesting adjustment.

Oh, and Spencer got his mission call and will be serving in Porto, Portugal mission, leaving August 3.  I am so excited for him.  He is very excited to and looking forward to serving a mission.  Proud of this great young man and the potential that I see in him.