rAnDoM

Ev being a spaz..me being clueless
Having a great day at the water park!
Pineapple fields forever!

This week was a great one. We got Evan to the dentist. Dentist told him he needs to floss and floss regularly not just when he has something stuck in his teeth. We decided to hit the water park on Saturday and yes there is a water park in Hawaii, weird I know. We had a good time, wish the lines were shorter (dang tourists!) but we enjoyed a sunny but not blazing sunny day so no sunburns, which was good. We walked around Borders. I love bookstores they are great. There are so many books you could buy we could've seriously stayed there forever. We even looked at childrens books about the solar system and they have made it official, Pluto is no longer in the solar system they ousted em for not being planet like enough. Its considered as just being something floating in the air and being an object in the Kuiper belt. Its not the only thing in its orbit, its a party planet,the scientists found bigger objects in its orbit. Unlike all the other lonely planets. Pluto is considered by scientists as a dwarf planet. Sad day, its always the little guy that gets picked on. For an object to be a planet, it needs to meet these three requirements defined by the IAU:

• It needs to be in orbit around the Sun - Yes, so maybe Pluto is a planet.
• It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape - Pluto…check
• It needs to have “cleared the neighborhood” of its orbit - Uh oh. Here’s the rule breaker. According to this, Pluto is not a planet.

We came home late and got to bed. It had been a long day. Today we taught gospel doctrine, we taught about the Word of Wisdom, such pure revelation. Such a basic law to keep our bodies free from the bad stuff and keep us from creating harmful habits. Its true, pure truth. We also were taught today about trials and enduring them well. We hear all the time that we arent ever given anything that we cant handle, yet oft times we tend to disagree. It feels sometimes as if a wave keeps crashing on you and you cant get up to clear the break. Its often so tough and I wont pretend to know what its like to go through things that others have gone through that I haven't, but all I can say is be faithful and endure because thats what we are here to do, not to give up. I love the poem below its so neat!!! I am so excited to be heading to California this Thursday (Ev's birthday by the way, the BIG 24) We are excited to see family and friends and grateful we got such a good deal on our plane tickets. Aloha Nui Loa!!

Good Timber

by Douglas Malloch

The tree that never had to fight
For sun and sky and air and light,
But stood out in the open plain
And always got its share of rain,
Never became a forest king
But lived and died a scrubby thing.

The man who never had to toil
To gain and farm his patch of soil,
Who never had to win his share
Of sun and sky and light and air,
Never became a manly man
But lived and died as he began.

Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.

Where thickest lies the forest growth,
We find the patriarchs of both.
And they hold counsel with the stars
Whose broken branches show the scars
Of many winds and much of strife.
This is the common law of life.

Ciinnaammoonn Rollls,Wii Active and Teaching

Its been a great week. Busy with work as usual and Evan finishing up his term. We shopping to find a navy blue or cobalt dress and a shirt and tie to match for Ev for his sisters wedding in three weeks. We are so excited to go to Cali. Our shopping trip wasnt too successful.We went to the Waikele outlet mall and to the Kahala mall and then last weekend we went to Ala Moana outside mall..nothing..seriously how hard is it to have a blue dress at a store honestly though...NEWWAYS..we had fun time with each other. For the past couple weeks we have been wanting to make cinnamon rolls, so we finally got a rolling pin to make our job a little easier. We made the dough this morning and then came home and Evy rolled it on out and did his thing. They turned out really good. We shared them with the neighbors and we proud of ourselves. We made "notes to self" on what we would do better next time. Not too bad for our first time. The first batch we put in the oven were huge..then after we cooked them they were ginormous..Bigger than cinnabun =) Its nice to know that even the smallest things like making cinnamon rolls with my hubbs, we have fun doing because were doing it together.

So last week Evy and I started the Wii Active, honestly I never thought I was in that bad of shape, but if you havent heard of the Wii Active look it up. Its probably one of the coolest programs made for a game console, I swear. Its like you have a personal trainer basically. I love it. I can do it inside my home at whatever time I want. Now I love to sweat, I know thats gross but when I work out its fulfilling when I sweat...ya I know gross okay..but neways when I work out on the Wii active, I am sweating buckets, gross again..and I love it.. I highly recommend it to anyone that wants their own workout program laid out for them. Its kinda hard to explain without you seeing it, but you have a work out journal. You log into it and report what you ate the day before, how much water you drank, and how much sleep you got, how motivated you were to workout...etc..You can choose low intensity, medium, or high..Exercise and Sport Science was what I got my degree in and I think its a good program. It pushes you to burn calories and monitors your form making sure you are doing things right. I love it, what else can I say...Thank you Evy for my Wii Active! Onto teaching...I love to teach. I loved to teach before my mission, loved to teach on my mission and really love to teach now that I am back from my mission. Ev and I are Gospel Doctrine teachers. We werent suppose to teach today, but we got a call at 10 am asking us if we could teach (Church starts at 2pm). Of course we said sure! The topic as you probably learned was on the Second Coming.. What a huge topic, so busy with so much to think about and to teach..we honestly didnt know what to focus on more...but after the lesson we were given so many compliments on our lesson,I was convinced we did our job exactly how the Lord would have us do it. It was a neat feeling. It was really a neat lesson to think of the Savior born in such Humble circumstances, no one believed that the Carpenters son could be the Messiah, the Savior of the world. He then atones for our sins and bled from every pore. HE was then Resurrected and He will come again in great glory. The most powerful thing in the lesson was knowing that He LIVES and HE WILL COME AGAIN.

President Gordon B. Hinckley taught:How do you prepare for the Second Coming? Well, you just do not worry about it. You just live the kind of life that if the Second Coming were to be tomorrow you would be ready. Nobody knows when it is going to happen. … Our responsibility is to prepare ourselves, to live worthy of the association of the Savior, to deport ourselves in such a way that we would not be embarrassed if He were to come among us. That is a challenge in this day and age (Church News, 2 Jan. 1999, 2)

We all know about the parable of the ten virgins, when all ten were waiting for the bridegroom. 5 were prepared and had their lamps filled and the other 5 procrastinated and werent ready when the Bridegroom(the Lord) was ready. A great quote...In the parable, oil can be purchased at the market. In our lives the oil of preparedness is accumulated drop by drop in righteous living. Attendance at sacrament meetings adds oil to our lamps, drop by drop over the years. Fasting, family prayer, home teaching, control of bodily appetites, preaching the gospel, studying the scriptures—each act of dedication and obedience is a drop added to our store. Deeds of kindness, payment of offerings and tithes, chaste thoughts and actions, marriage in the covenant for eternity—these, too, contribute importantly to the oil with which we can at midnight refuel our exhausted lamps (Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 256)

Well I hope this will enlighten you for the week and I hope that you fill your lamps will drops of oil each day..not gallons, just drops day by day...

reflections on the day

I imagine that every Sunday, when 3 hours is spent at church, you would always come home edified and uplifted ready to start a new week; You plan to be better, more kind, and on the look out for opportunities to serve your fellow brodas and sistas. Sometimes you learn something new, you're are grateful for the Gospel, but dont spend enough time pondering because you are so starving by the time you get home that all you want to do is eat. Today thankfully, I ate lunch before going to church and found sour skittles left in my bag from the movies, I was set. I really enjoyed today. I finished up my Visiting Teaching, as I was given a new route, dont even know who my companion is, but knew that it was the last day of the month and I needed to make sure my sisters were doing okay. I love visiting my sisters and chatting and getting to know them. I love just being able to offer a helping hand and knowing that if they need anything that they know they can call upon me, its a good feeling. We went to a baptism today. One of Evan's high school friends was entering the waters of Baptism. I havent been to a baptism in a long while, it just doesnt happen that often at BYU.As we sat there listening to the prelude music, I couldnt help but become reflectant as I saw the missionaries. I remember when I was in that situation. When so much faith and time was put into preparing our investigator and new friend. I remember teaching and praying for our investigator hoping that they would read and pray and ask Heavenly Father to bless them to recognize the truth. I forgot how much my companion and I used to pray. We were praying machines! But who better to talk to then the one whom we are serving.I remember see the "light" in their eyes as people we taught were baptized. As their knowledge grew and as they were blessed and recognized that things didnt happen by chance, but that God was real and listening to them. I remember the joy when people accepted the Gospel and just "got it" and I also remember feeling sorrow when people "got it" but didnt want it, as they didnt want to make necessary changes in their lives. Im not sure I liked those days very much. As the baptism began the room was full. In Hawaii they always find a reason for a party, everything is a big deal to family and friends, and to add to that not only that everyone is related to everyone,there is just a large support group here. It was a neat experience when the newest baptized member stood up and said, "this is going to be a huge change for me, but I am ready to do it" I cant help but think about those words and pray for her. As her transformation may come easy but as life often happens, the disappointments and challenges come and some reason people find God to blame instead of turning to him for help, they turn away and think someone else can help them better. I love how such an event brings so much Joy. How such an event like baptism brings people to reflect upon the day they were baptized and the feelings that followed that moment when they were perfect as they came up from the water. Its neat to just be in one place and feel so edified and have the Spirit testify to you that what is happening this day is the true and right way by His authority. I feel blessed and grateful. I feel joy for our friend as she begins her journey. I cant imagine what my life would be like if I didnt know where I came from, why I am here and where I am going... I am truly grateful for Jesus Christ who made the whole Plan of Salvation possible. I thank my Father in Heaven for giving us so many chances to shape up and get it right....