Brenda Came to Town Day 2

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 as 30 turtles on the beach.  It is fun to watch them come in and out on the waves.  We very often see two or three come in while we are watching.  
It was our lucky day and there were lots of turtles on the beach.  It was also a very exciting turtle day as we saw something happen that we have never seen before.  The turtles often come onto the beach with a big push of the waves and they are often coming in over the rocks on the shore.  Today we say a big turtle come in on a wave and it hit a big rock and flipped over onto it's back.  We watched and waiting, seeing if he could turn himself over again but he couldn't.  After a bit I decided to call the turtle hotline because it is a large fine to touch a turtle.  As I was dialing I looked over in the parking lot and I noticed there was a local man there hanging out by his car.  I asked him if he could come and look and see if he can help this turtle.  He said "It's illegal to touch them."  As he ran toward the beach to check it out.   The minute he saw the distressed turtle he ran towards it and flipped it back over.  The surprised turtle gratefully turned and swam back out to sea, even though he had been heading in when it happened.  He probably wanted to get back to the safety of the water.  The local man said if you ever see a turtle in distress and you can fix to please go ahead and help.  He said turtles cannot survive long on their backs. Only a few minutes before they can't breath and they will die quickly.  We were all relieved to see the turtle rescued.  

T

This is the flipped turtle on his back.

This is our second turtle stop that is so fun!  It's called Ho'okipa Beach.  It is big surfing beach but the turtles just love this beach. It is the most famous place to view the turtles on Maui.  The bummer is you can't get very close to them and I guess that is good for the turtles.  It is fun to view them from the look out point and it is also a beautiful spot to view the ocean and surfers.  

We had another sad turtle tale while we were at Kua'u Bay.  We saw this young turtle who was full of tumors.  It was so sad.  I already knew from a friends post about a turtle with this problem that there is nothing they can do for them.  They just have to live out their life.  It is very very sad.  This is the first time I have seen it in person and this poor little turtle had massive amounts of tumor all over it's body.  

We ended our day by going to our regular Book of Mormon Class that Jeff and I teach every Thursday night at 6:30 PM.  If you ever come to Maui you should come and see us.  This picture is with our friend Natallia Hill.  We just love teaching our Book of Mormon Class!