First Christmas Away

Sunday, Dec. 23 -  We only had sacrament mtg. and enjoyed hearing a Chinese girl tell how she & her family joined the church even though the extended family were all Buddhist. Her grandmother was very angry when she found the Book of Mormon they had been reading and gave it away.  For about 5 yrs. they had no contact with the church.  They came to the U.S. and somehow found some missionaries, obtained another Book of Mormon, read it and joined the church.   Cocoa (the girl) was constantly teased by her cousins because her family had joined this strange church. Several years later, she is now attending BYUH and feels it a very special privilege to have been accepted here.  What a brave little girl!

We heard that Carol & Gene Walker had been in a car accident on Sat. Their car is totaled.  Their daughter Kimberly and her 2 children are here visiting.  She was hospitalized over night.  I was cooking our Christmas Turkey so prepared some food to take to them.  Janice Maples made some rolls and a salad.  We drove up to Turtle Bay to deliver dinner.  They were pretty bruised up and still in shock.  They'll have to purchase a new car. What a miracle they were not hurt worse.

 

Christmas Eve day was fun!   We went to Sam's, Wal-Mart & Costco then met up with friends at the Dole Pineapple Plantation.  Will show pics. later as we didn't get any.  We drove out to Hale'iwa Beach and found about 10 turtles just swimming around in the water.  They were waiting for Santa's Reindeer to hop on their backs so they could tow Santa (who was riding on a whale)  to make his deliveries to all  the Hawaiian Children. One little turtle was sunning himself by the lava rocks!! 

 

Later that evening we went to a fun Christmas Eve Party.  We all took white elephant gifts to exchange. 

The favorite gifts were this knife & little red refrigerator.  (both items I got from "Give & Take").  The Allens from AZ. were first to get these items, then we started trading our gifts. A sister missionary from Taiwan ended up with the knife. She was not about to trade with any one! We're not sure what she was going to do with it.  The little fridge (plugs into your car cigarette lighter) was passed to 3 different people and the last guy to get it, got up and left so he wouldn't have to trade with anyone else. It only holds about 2 cans of pop. 

 

We laughed a lot, at the poor sports some of these missionaries were!!

Christmas Day -  Tried to sleep in till 7:00 a.m.  Friends called inviting us to breakfast. Really enjoyed face time with Ranay's family and talking to all our kids & grandkids. We do miss all of you and seeing the beautiful white snow made us both homesick!!

Later in the morning, we sang @ a Retirement Center.  It was beautiful!!  When we get old (older) we would love to live here!!! Two senior citizens were 102 & 104.  Guess you live to be really old here in Hawaii.

We were starving (poor Christmas Missionaries) so drove on down the coast and found this unique little place to eat called "Keneke's". They had a wonderful menu {salmon dinner for $7.50 -  Hamburgers 2 / $5.00}. We'll definitely be going back there real soon! They have bible scriptures written all over the walls.....great restaurant for missionaries!!

 

Visited with some more friends from St. George then later played games with other couples in the evening.  The day went by too fast!!  

 

 Mele Kalikimaka and thanks to our family & friends for all the wonderful gifts and cards. Aloha to all!!