July/August 2018

How's this for a full rainbow? Minutes later it had a faint double rainbow on top.

The missionaries enjoyed a delicious pot luck breakfast at the Church Welfare Farm. This farm of several hundred acres is parceled out to members who want to farm for their own families or to give the food away.  They cannot sell their produce.

Of course the month started out with a BANG on July 4th. The Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) took over the celebration from Turtle Bay Resort and did a bang up job. There was great live music, a dozen different bouncy houses, food galore and thousands of people enjoyed the fun and fireworks.

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The first Friday of the month the PCC puts on a free outdoor movie for the community. Bring your own chair, blanket, food, popcorn, etc. and enjoy. This month we saw 'The Greatest Showman'.

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I finished this Christmas stocking for a new little gr'daughter, Jane, (Laura's #6 child). She's 14 months old but it wasn't done last year. 

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Our cultural lesson of the month is on the island of Hawaii. I hope you can read it.

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We enjoyed our first family members coming for a visit this month. Here we have Matt, Mary, Caleb, Andrew, Aaron and Clara Ford from Oklahoma.

One of our favorite spots is the lovely Waimea gardens to swim in the waterfall. It seems icy cold at first but you soon get used to it. I love the required life jackets they provide.

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We discovered the best kept secret on the island.  Paster Sage gives free outrigger rides to anyone who comes on Wed. at 5 pm. He is a full Hawaiian and is working to keep the ancient art of out-rigging and paddling alive among the young native people. He also supports a group of kids in local racing competitions. We start in a circle with lessons on how to paddle, hold hands for a prayer in the Hawaiian language, then launch the boats into the river off from the ocean.

The river does connect with the ocean which he said we'll try on a calm weather day. So far it's been too blustery to venture out.

Walking across the ocean to Chinaman's Hat has been on my bucket list since we first got here. It's about a 20 minute walk out to the the island but must be done at low tide. We took boogie boards across and then climbed to the top which is quite steep and rocky. One of our fearless senior missionaries had planned the trip for the Saturday Matt & Mary and family were here so we all joined in. There were about 70 missionaries and students that ventured out.

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We also enjoyed the 'Northshore Zipline' adventure, a must-do, one time adventure. Everyone also made it to the top of Diamond Head for a great view of Waikiki and the ocean.

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If you want great blessings, just go on a mission. My son, David and Tessy Giannicchini ware married on July 28, 2018. Steve and I received permission from our mission president to attend the Temple wedding in the Seattle Temple. All of David's siblings, Matt, Adam, Laura, Elizabeth and their spouses were there. Eleven of the 17 grandchildren were also there. Tessy is from Brazil and her mother also came for the wedding. We are so happy to have Tessy join our family and thrilled for both of them. 

Elizabeth, Laura, Tessy, David, me, Steve, Matt, Adam. Only missing 6 gr'children

Matt & Mary Ford, Adam & Christine Ford, Tessy, David, Laura & Craig Przybyla, Elizabeth & Sean Oborn.  Such a blessing to have everyone in the Temple together.

Mission Tidbits:

When I send an email at work, I always begin with 'Aloha' and end with 'Mahalo'.

"You don't need a lid on a bucket of crabs because when one reaches the top the other ones will pull it back down."

STUDY while others are sleeping

WORK while others are loafing

PREPARE while others are playing

DREAM while others are wishing

I'm sure you've all heard about the volcano and hurricane. The volcano is on the Big Island so it's 200 miles away. The hurricane is several hundred miles off  from the Big Island. Just last family home evening we had a presentation about being prepared for big weather events. So we've stocked up on many cases of water and we have lots of can goods. One student today said they were only going to stock up on bread, peanut butter and nutella. Sounds good enough to me!

Countries and number of students attending BYU-Hawaii:

Brazil - 12                               Korea - 82                                 Mongolia - 53                   Melanesia - 68, Countries included:

Tahiti - 40                                China - 92                                 Japan - 104                       Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Solomon

Samoa - 90                               Hong Kong - 84                        Philippines - 197              Islands, Vanuatu, New Caledonia   

Tonga - 146                              Singapore/Malaysia - 31          Fiji - 47

Cook Islands - 8                       Taiwan - 48                               Kiribati - 43

We almost missed this sunset at Sunset Beach.

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