December 11th – 17th

Lighthouse Hike

On Monday morning I needed some down time so we went on a hike to the lighthouse. It was a popular and busy paved walk. Over a mile up hill. The views were gorgeous.

Koko Head Crater

Koko Head Crater aerial view. Koko head has the long stair case to the top on one side and a botanical garden in the crater. Haunama Bay, right next to it, was formed in volcano cone and has great snorkeling.

This is a great place for whale watching. Haven’t seen one yet though.

The lighthouse. It’s still operational so people aren’t allowed to visit it.

Cactus was intermingled with tropical plants

At the top of the overlooks. On a clear day you can see other Hawaiin islands on the lighthouse side. This view looks toward where we live in Kailua. It was a windy day so my hair is a little wild

Christmas FHE YSA

On Monday evening the Relief Society did FHE. Everyone was supposed to wear pajamas so we went to the Salvation Army and got some inexpensive festive looking pajamas.

They had a dinner with Kaula pork and cabbage and noodles with fish cake. The fish cake was festive looking. It also had spam in it.

After dinner they played a game. They had two wrapped packages in many layers with lots of different types of tape. When ever the music stopped you could try and unwrap the present. Whoever unwrapped it got the prize inside. I think one was a gift card.

After the game they had a gingerbread decorating contest. It got a little crazy. The team we were on decided to turn a chocolate bunny into Godizilla and make a volcano. Godzilla and the volcano destroyed the Christmas village.

The other team had Nicki on it who studied art and museum curating. She and her teammates created a beautiful beach Christmas village. They molded the ocean waves with taffy, and used protein powder and graham cracker crumbs for the sand. They even had red fishes swimming in the water and a surfer. They even made a palm tree.

The Winners!!

The Relief Society had asked me to leave the decorations up for the FHE and another ward saw them and asked to use them too. (By the time Christmas was done we had used them for 6 events.)

District Meeting

On Tuesday Elder Randall the district leader asked us to give a part of the lesson in district meeting. John had to go to a doctor appointment so I did it. I am getting better at talking in front of people. Fortunately, I watched the other missionaries do their presentation first and was able to see that I needed to present it as training for missionaries.

Thrift Shop

On Wednesday at the thrift shop I worked the register and sorted Christmas cards when it was slow. I got a bunch for sending out the Target gift cards I got for everyone. They were really nice cards for 5 cents each. We have been too busy to shop for gifts this year. I also got dried fruit and nut platters for Dad and Gayle, Grandma and Grandpa Whitman, and Nathan and Josie. Someone from the Kaneohe Ward sent us a tie and stone bracelet for Christmas. So nice. This week I also walked down to Salvation Army and got some loose fitting slacks. I am getting tired of wearing dresses and the slacks I brought are too hot to wear in Hawaii.

Kaneohe Christmas Party

Kaneohe had traditional Luau food for their party.

Top left is bread fruit, Lomi Lomi salmon tomato salad, pineapple Bottom left. green bananas cooked in coconut cream , purple sweet potato, chicken long rice (rice noodles), kalua pork. Top right in container is poi (made from taro root)

They cooked the pork in a deep pit, but it was really windy that day so the fire kept going out. They steamed a bunch of the food in big barrels with water and cinder blocks at the bottom sitting on a large propane cooking burner. They used large boards to block the wind.

The pork and pineapple was really good. The rest was either too strongly flavored, like the salmon salad and noodles, or too bland. The banana had the texture and flavor of a potato. It looked like a green banana. Maybe that’s why. The food was all very interesting.

After eating they had everyone sing some Hawaiian Christmas songs such as Mele Kalikimaka and The 12 days of Christmas in Hawaii.

1 Maya bird 2 coconuts, 3 giant squid, 4 flower lais, 5 big fat pigs. 6 Hulu lessons, 7 ukuleles, 8 shrimps a swimming, 9 Poi, 10 cans of spam, 11 missionaries, 12 Tvs

Then they had a talent show. Kids sang Hawaiian Christmas songs. The two girls below were really good.

The young men played the Uuelele.

The last thing they did was a slideshow with all the activities of the year. There were videos in it too.

One of the videos was of the youth playing slip-n-slide kickball. They had blow up pools filled with water which were the bases and people with hoses were the slides, keeping the pools filled and spraying people. They kids were sliding and tripping all over the place. It was funny.

Kailua Christmas Party

The Kailua Christmas Party theme was Polar Express. They had three days on the calendar scheduled to decorate. The Clarks went on all three days. We went on Saturday to help. It was a lot.

They had made a train in the front entry and a ticket booth. We helped crinkle paper and put lights under to make it look like snow. Elder Clark set up the smoke machine to look like smoke was coming out of the train chimney, but it smoked up the whole building so we couldn’t run it long.

The Clarks were asked to be Santa and Mrs. Claus and give out tickets at the entrance. They were perfect for the job. They came over to our place to get ready after decorating because they lived so far away. Sister Clark put on a whole bunch of makeup and put makeup in her hair to make it look gray. They used a couple of our pillows to make Santa look fat. They both looked great!

Sister Clark had this cute little old lady voice she used to be Mrs. Santa. They stayed in character the whole night.

The decorating committee had wrapped the whole gym in paper and made windows around the room to make it look like the inside of a train. They even wrapped the water jugs and decorated the food areas. No wonder it took days. Sister Clark was so tired. I don’t think we are supposed to do such extravagant activities. Members even used their own money for the decorations. It was a lot.

They used natural greenery for the table centerpieces. People were cutting them from the greenery around the church. They also made chartruese boards as decorations filled with cookies and treats to go with the hot cocoa. The treats all came from Trader Joes. There were a couple of large suit cases filled with them. Trader Joes isn’t on Oahu so they had gotten them from the mainland.

They had lots of wonderful food. The main dish was thick slices of prime rib. A professional chef taught a bunch of members how to make it. The prime rib alone for all those people must have cost a fortune.

It was very noisy with all the people that came and the music playing.

They had activity rooms for the kids where they experienced a simulation of the polar express. (not sure how). They also had the grinch show up. He was very popular.

They also had a professional photo booth. Everyone could take pictures of themselves and then email or text it to themselves. Though the main card came out a little blurry.

Lastly they had the young women dance the hot chocolate dance and then they brought hot chocolate to everyone.

It was a fun, loud, yummy, activity!