Karen's Dangling Conversation

  Today we attended the Makawao and Pukalani wards upcountry.  We love these two wards and are getting to know so many people there. Today Bishop Upfold called us in to talk about how we can best help in his ward.  We asked him to give us 5 names a month from the ward list of people to visit and get to know.  This is the kind of work we love doing.  It is so rewarding helping to bring families back to church and to help and love and serve where ever we can.  He also invited us to speak in church next Sunday.  That is a fun opportunity that we have from time to time.  After church we were invited to a lesson for a young man we will call Brother T.  He grew up in a part member family but was never baptized as a child.  He really hasn't had any association with the church but I believe his Dad became active again after many years.  He is from Northern California but came to Hawaii with his sister when they were asked to work on a farm ...

 Our friends Jon and Marti Lelengren came over to Maui.  She is the office secretary in Honolulu and he is going to take over the travel job that Jeff and I have been doing for 5 months now.  We got to go to the beach on Saturday afternoon and go to dinner at Maui Gardens food trucks too.  It was fun showing them around to some of our favorite places.  It was a business trip and so we spent some time training Elder Lelengren for the travel.  Jeff did a really good job creating a document that had most all the information on it for him.  Jeff is really good at that and he spent a few hours training him which was great.  Marti and I have so much in common and are becoming fast friends.  She is a yoga instructor and so we had fun talking yoga and some of our favorite places to do yoga back in Utah.   Tonight (Sunday) we got together with all the missionary couples here on Maui plus the Lelengrens who are visiting.  We now have 4 S...

We hiked to the Makamakaole Stream Hike which is fondly nicknamed 13 Crossings.  While we cannot confirm that there are only 13 crossings of the river on this hike we can confirm that it is a hike that is worth the hype!  So gorgeous!  It is a relatively easy hike but there is a lot of bouldering.  It takes you through a lovely Bamboo Forest, past a lovely Banyan tree and ends at a beautiful hidden grotto with a spectacular waterfall.  The pool is deep enough to swim in.  If you dare!  We did dare!  So fun!  On the way back with hiked to the other falls which is an even bigger falls and water hole for swimming.  We didn't get into this one and kinda glad because on the way down we saw some giant crawdads in the river ......I guess they were probably in the other one too but we did not see them. So that was good.  My favorite hiking buddy!  He is so good and helps me down all the hard parts and holds my hand. Love rocks!  E...

 Monday we went out to Black Rock which is by the Sheraton Hotel in Kanapali, out past Lahaina.  This is one of our favorite snorkeling spots.  We have seen such wonderful things here and it is easy to get to.  You don't have to swim a long way.  It's a short swim out to the point and then you can cut over and you are in magical reef with lots of fish.  You can swim to the edge of that reef and there the ocean drops off a long way.  It is so fun to see.  We have seen large groups of fish out there, eagle rays, monk seal and many colorful reef fish.  Oh and lots and lots of turtles.  I mean this is the place to swim with the turtles.  They are so plentiful and fun to watch here.  We had a great day!

 Sunday turned out pretty fun!  I was not super happy because we had to go up country which is where our two wards that we attend are.  I couldn't work out a way to bring Brenda along because she would have to spend many hours waiting around while we attended our missionary lessons and meetings.  So she went to church with Beth to the Kihei ward.  That seemed like the best solution.  As it turned out it was the best thing because she was not feeling super great that day.  So she got to have a very low key day and get some rest before we came back.  When we returned we were having the missionaries over for dinner.  I asked Beth if we could have the dinner at her house and it all turned out so fun!  We love our missionaries and these are two of the best!  Elder Arnold and Elder Houme (prounounced UMO) !  He is our French Elder from Quebec Canada.  We love them both, they are super great missionaries  We had such a fun d...

Day 4 is my favorite day of the week.  Saturday!  We went up to the Kula Farmer's Market and it is my favorite thing to do on a Saturday.  Jeff is tired of it now but I would go every Saturday if I could!  It is the perfect mix of vegetables, fruits and fun treats.  So many yummy things and the quality is off the charts.  Everyone does such a good job!  I love love love it!  We had such a great times buying, exploring and tasting our way through the market.   These are a certain type of limes.  They have tiny little beads inside that just burst in your mouth.  So cool. These are star fruit.  Which are so cool when you cut them into stars!  I don't particularly loves the taste. After the market we went to a bread making class from one of our ward members in Pukalani Ward.  She had the Elders over as well. Her name is Lynn Hanuhanu.  Such a lovely sister and we made yummy bread and she fed us a very healthy wo...

On Day 3 Jeff and I had to attend a Missionary Zone Conference which took up most of the day.  We were so grateful that Beth Jefferies and Brenda were able to go and have a fun day at the Cacao Farm in Lahaina.  It looks like they really had a great time and they came home with all kinds of facts about chocolate and how it is grown and manufactured.  I should mention that it was very kind of our good friends the Jefferies to have Brenda stay at their house in their guest room.  They have a beautiful home and it was much more comfortable than trying to have her stay in our tiny guest room, inside of our tiny apartment.  It was such a blessing and much more comfortable for Brenda.   After Zone conference we picked up the girls and headed to one of the beaches in south Wailea.  We found that there was a beached monk seal so that was fun to see.  It was a bit windy but we still had a great time at the beach. Jeff and I call this beach Secret Beac...

Day 2 of Brenda's visit we started out the day by going to a friend's group from the Kihei Ward where they study a talk each week from the most recent general conference.  It was very fun to listen and learn and share insights about the gospel with these wonderful, faithful women.  Since we met at Maui Gardens, Brenda and I walked through it together.  It's such a beautiful place and super crowded during the day.  We often go at night and there are fewer people there.  Please enjoy reading Dozer the turtle's life story.  He is not to be confused with the green turtles that live in the sea.   Brenda and I went off to take a look at some of the beautiful turtles on the Island.  Two of our favorite places for turtle viewing are both in Paia.  The best place is called Kua'u Bay.  It's a small beach that many people are not aware of so it's not crowded and the turtles come up and sun on the beach.  Sometimes we have counted as many ...