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.