Weeks pass like days

One day seems to pass into another and weeks pass like days and months like weeks. It is just such a beautiful place for it to happen. It is just such a different experience. Living with roommates, having a beautiful place to walk to work each day, not having near the responsibilities that seem to occur at home and all this serving the "Lord." I seem to run into people I know wherever I go and that makes the homesickness less. Then there is "P-day." I have a great respect for "P-day." It is really a day that we try to take as "Sister Roomies" to go and enjoy our time together here.

Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head                        

Kristen asked for a picture of fish. These are Waikiki fish.
                    

                            Looking towards downtown Waikiki Beach and all the hotels.


The next few pictures are at Waikiki beach. On my last trip (2014) we had a fun experience there and this is in reference to that experience. Some may get a laugh at this and others will just shake their heads.


Is this Duke's?
  Is this Duke's?

Is this Duke's?
 Is this Dukes? 

Is this Dukes?

 or is this Dukes?


Maybe this is Dukes?

THIS IS DUKE'S-YUM! YUM!

PCC TICKET TAKING

One of the fun things we do at the PCC is to take tickets for the Lua's and while we are waiting we can help the get everything in place for the guests. When we are able to we can help clean up the dirty tables and set the tables up for the next guests. It is an unbelievable feat that takes place every night. It is amazing trying to clean up from 500 guests and get ready for the next 500 in a half hour but it is accomplished. This is one of my favorite duties-----
                                                   

                                          LEI DUTY

They are so beautiful!!!

    

These two hibiscus flowers fell from the sky as we were talking tickets. They fell from a thirty foot? tree to the ground. We were told that early in the day they are a yellow color and as the day goes on they turn an orange color. They are gorgeous to see. I think it is spring in Hawaii and everything is beginning to look greener. If that is possible. At the very least they look like they are perking up.

SPRING BREAK in Hawaii

I work with Pua in purchasing and this is a picture of her daughter and date to the Jr. Prom. It is a really big deal here as it is at home. Earlier in the day many of them met at the temple to take prom pictures and people from all over came to watch. They always have youth conference this week and there were five or six stakes that came. I could hear them cheering and chanting and having fun on Sat evening. The sound will carry over to our house at night.

"P-day" this week found us on the other side of the island at a place called "Ewa." We found a new Walmart that is much nicer than the one we have been going to, a new mall and lots and lots of stores and new places to explore. It was by fate we found it. Someone told us of a train ride on that side of the island so we decided to book the ride. All five of us packed ourselves in the car and off we went. The next pictures are of the train ride. We called it the "Pineapple Express. It was a delightful day. We even had an encounter with a whale. We could see him spouting out his blow hole and then he decided to show us his tail. It was a long way out so I couldn't get any pictures. We also met Elder and Sister Coleman (from my North Logan Stake and 2nd cousin to Craig). We feel we have a lot in common plus she is the nicest of ladies and Bro Coleman is the nicest of gentlemen.

                        

They started calling our house the "Jackson Five" but I said that it didn't fit so we are now the "Beach Girls." How many Beach Boys were there?

From left to right. Sis Me, Sister Raeola Baker, Sister Cecily Nelson, Sister Polly Beach, Sister Diane Dykman. We are a happy bunch.

                       

                          

The day ended by Waimea Bay.                   

Flowers of the week!

        

     

  

Happy 175 Years

                          

                         

We celebrate and have our parties on Sunday because most of the people work at night at the PCC so we wouldn't have any attendance at church functions. We listened to Russell M Nelson's talk about women. Then we had short talks from all our RS president's and another sister talked about how

EXTRA-Ordinary we are as women. Then refreshments were had by all. Notice! Sandal are worn by all or just about all.

   

Even more tender mercies in Laie!

I know I write about tender mercies quite a bit but the Lord just seems to watch out and put people or things in certain places when they are needed. This is a story that helped on both sides of the coin and we all got to where we needed to be in time.
 It was 1:00 pm on Thursday afternoon Mar 9 and I answered a call from Pam Gunnell on my phone. I knew she was coming to Hawaii and was excited to hear from her, also. She said that her and her parents (the Bybee's) were at the temple in Laie and asked how to get to the PCC. I thought she was coming for the afternoon.

 I told her I would come pick her up and bring her over. When I got there she said that they had hired an Uber driver to bring them to Laie to go to the temple but that wouldn't come and get them so they were kind of stuck here. They were going to catch the bus at the PCC and go back to Waikiki Beach. The catch was that they wanted to go whale watching at 2:30 and the bus takes about 2 hours after it has to stop 2 or 3 times at every city. I offered to drive them back to Waikiki but didn't think we would ever be able to make it in time. I knew we could make it to the Honolulu but the traffic is horrendous once you get there and I had never driven it before. I told Pam's mom and dad to pray for me or I wouldn't make it.
My phone, maps, also, had not been working correctly since I arrived. Siri would get me started and then stop talking. Pam worked on it as I was driving and she got it to start working. Yea, I could navigate my way through the streets of Honolulu which we did. Siri got us to Waikiki with a minute or two to spare, which was the first miracle. The driver was there already and whisked them away on their new adventure.
I was happy to help and enjoyed being with them. I love seeing people from home.
 Well, I drove to a park and set Siri to take me home and to get out of Honolulu. The streets are crazy there if you don't know what you are doing. Siri did a good job, I wasn't a bit nervous and I was on my way home. I reached Koneohe and decided to stop at McDonalds for a drink and a bite to eat. Siri was still trying to get me back on the highway so I knew she was still working. I went in to got the drink and came back. I did know the way home from there but looked down at my phone and she had quit talking and I couldn't get her to navigate again. I tried several times because I knew I would need it again on Sat. NO, GO! She wouldn't work.
 On Sat I took her to the Verizon store and they had to completely reset it because Maurice couldn't get her to work, either. The tender mercy, (I call it a miracle) was that the Lord kept her talking until I could get to where I could find my way and wasn't nervous driving home by myself. I know we are protected while here on this island and when I need Him the most.

I met up with Pam again on Sat while they were at the  PCC.   I loved seeing them again and enjoyed meeting her mom and dad. Their granddaughter is married to my cousin Lavon's grandson. I keep saying it is a small world, after all and the Lord looks after us  with His many tender mercies.

People Keep Coming to Laie!

Tuesday Mar 7, 2017 I received a call  and was really excited to hear Rhonda Derrick on the other end. She and Steve were in Hawaii and coming to the PCC on Thursday. It was their 31st wedding anniversary and they were taking a tour and going to the Luau on Wed. They were coming early and asked if they could take me to lunch. (on one note) If you come to the PCC you do not have to buy me lunch. I am just so happy to see you and visit with. Lunch does not have to come with it.

Anyway we did have lunch and they brought me a care package from my kids. It had a levi skirt and a couple of pairs of levi's. That is about the heaviest thing you could ask anyone coming to Hawaii to bring. They graciously tucked it in their suitcases and I was so glad to have them. On the other hand it gave them room to take home some of their souvenirs. It was so good to see them but awful hard to say good-bye.

Rhonda, me and Steve in the Hukilou Marketplace. Can you tell that spring is just around the corner?

Our Little "Hale" now has 5.

                                  WE ARE NOW "ONE O'HANA SHARING ALOHA."
Sister Baker arrived last Sat evening, Mar 4 with the big rainstorm. They thought they would be washed away before she arrived. She is settling in nicely. She has the smallest room for awhile but in May when Diane leaves she will probably have the biggest one.

Polly,             Diane,       Cecely,        Karen  and now Raeola.

We had spent the day at Hanauma bay, swimming and watching the fish. It is a beautiful bay. I was there once before when we were here in "99". We saw many colorful fish but the funniest ones were black and white striped and they called them "convict fish."

    

Monday started with a sad farewell for the Clarks. They will be going back to Utah in a couple of weeks. They were one of the couples that met me at the airport and brought me to Laie. They will be missed but Elder Clark has been training an Elder to take his place as the "safety inspector" and Sis Clark was working in the cash office. I don't know who will take her place. Life will go on and someone else will be just as loved. That is the beauty of this place and we all come and go. (Notice all the beautiful lei's)

                                                       PLANTS OF THE WEEK

These flowers look like our petunias so I guess this is a petunia bush. Probably not but I will call it that anyway. Saw it while walking to stake conference today.

Side Track

At stake conference there were about a thousand kids of all different nationalities and a few, like about 20 "old" people. It was a good conference especially the afternoon session. Our General Authority was Ian S Ardern of the Seventy. He is from New Zealand. The most remarkable thing about it is that we FaceBooked 2,000 people with a message on keeping the sabbath day holy. It was totally amazing. He picked a young returned missionary and asked to see her phone and whamo it was done in a few seconds. 

Here they do not have an evening session on Sat because many of the kids work at the PCC in the evenings so we had two sessions today. It was almost like general conference.

Back to flowers

                   .   

This one was very interesting and quite large.

 

  

This is one of my favorites. It is like a tulip tree.

                           

                               The colors in this plant are scrumptious. The plants come from the PCC nursery          which the Carpenter's take care of.

                   

                        Wish I knew the names of the plants. Polly got this one from the PCC

                        nursery and it sits by our front door.