Week 35 Report

It’s been another great week in the Hawaii Honolulu Mission. Monday was Halloween. Our missionaries were instructed to keep dinner and teaching appointments, but otherwise keep a low profile – no proselyting. Instead the senior missionary couples throughout the mission were encouraged to organize dinner and FHE for each Zone. So the office couples got together and had dinner and some games with the Honolulu Zone (which we are in). We had a great turn out and a great time.

We dearly love these cute missionaries and they love us.

Most of the week was business as usual in the office – letters to prepare and mail, email’s to answer, return travel to request, records to update, housing problems to deal with, etc., etc., etc. Devon made one trip to Laie and one to Waipahu for housing issues. President Bekker was in the office on Wednesday so we took turns going over our individual lists of questions for him. The mission is running smoothly, but there are problems. We have a few missionaries dealing with serious illness with family members. We keep a close watch on them and they are doing remarkably well. And then we have the little silly problems – cars that get “dinged” or towed, missionaries that get locked out of their apartment, bikes that break down, and apartments that have something break or leak. It is constant, but pretty much everyone takes it in stride.

Wednesday evening Elder and Sister Overduyn invited all the office couples over for split pea and ham soup with Elder Phair and Elder Kempe. It was great. We ate, visited, and then we taught everyone to play No Peeky - a really fun game play with Rook cards. We taught it to our YSA in England and also love playing it with our grandkids. We all had a good time.

We had Elder Eborn and Elder Jensen over for dinner on Thursday (sorry no photo) and then I went to stake choir practice. We’re preparing for stake conference and the Christmas concert. I’ve been practicing my ukulele when I can, and Sister Reeder and I get together every Friday for a little jam session.

On Friday we looked at a newly remodeled apartment in our building. We are going to lose the apartment Elder and Sister Overduyn are living in when they leave in December. The owner has family that needs to live there. So we need another apartment for the couple replacing the Overduyns. This new apartment is on the 29^th floor of our building, has an amazing view, and, as I said, is completely remodeled. I think we may move to it and let the new couple take over our apartment. Devon’s not anxious to move, but I would love the view. Besides there’s a dishwasher and all the windows and doors have screens on them – something we don’t have here.

Friday evening our dinner out was with the Overuyns and the Evans (senior member and leadership missionaries). It was at the Pagoda – a restaurant surrounded by a moat with lots koi fish. It was pretty good.

Saturday started off with stake Christmas concert choir practice at 7:30 am. After that Sister Overduyn and I got pedicures. When I got home Devon was watching the BYU football game. We watched until half time then set the DVR to record the game and headed out to run various errands. We came home and watched the end of the game, even though we already knew they won. Go Cougars! In the evening we decided to go see a movie and ended up in a remodeled theater with recliner chairs – very nice.

Sunday was wonderful, as always. Elder Yoshihio Kukuchi, an emeritus general authority, visited our ward and bore such a sweet and strong testimony. We also met a sweet senior couple from Washington who are here on vacation for two weeks. It was fun to talk with them.

After church we had short naps and then headed up to the monthly Break the Fast with the senior missionaries in Laie. We left an hour early to check on a couple of apartments. One is being remodeled and Devon wanted to see how it was coming along. It looks good, but we didn’t have a key so we could only look through the windows. The other apartment is one for a senior couple – not so nice. I think we’ll exercise faith and keep looking. The couple doesn’t arrive till later in January. Housing is so hard to find that it’s hard to let go of a vacant one even if it isn't ideal.

The dinner with the senior couples was very enjoyable – good food and good company.

We were beyond exited to run into Elder and Sister Gray at break the fast. They are a couple from Orem that we served with in the Mt. Timpanogos Temple a few years ago. They come to BYU Hawaii every winter semester as service missionaries for 4 1/2 months and love it. Our paths have crossed with so many wonderful people here - old friends and new.

We close our week with great anticipation. Emily arrives on Wednesday and Daryn, Catie, and Clara arrive on Thursday. We are beyond excited! We’ve worked very hard to get ahead in our work, so we will have time to enjoy their visits. We close this week with continued gratitude for the opportunity to be here. Truly there is nothing better than serving a mission together.

Love these interesting palm trees.