Three Week Anniversary

Today, April 24th, marks the end of our third week in Hilo, HI.  We have only been given a starting date for one of our teaching assignments.  We start an adult institute class this Wednesday night.  Eventually, we will teach a Marriage and Family Relations class and a Teacher Development class.  But, to keep us busy, our stake president sent an email to all the Bishops and the one Branch President telling them that they could call on us to talk in their sacrament meetings.  And so we have.  Last week we spoke in the Ka'u Ward which is the southern most ward in all of the USA.  The meeting started at 9 AM.  Ka'u is 1 1/2 hour drive from Hilo, so we had to get up very early that day.  It was a beautiful drive, though, except the part about being so tired driving back to Hilo that we had to pull over for a 15 catnap so Truman wouldn't fall asleep at the wheel.  I was so tired that I couldn't even stay awake to talk to him.  After their 3 hour block we drove about 20 miles further south to South Point, which is actually the southern most tip of all the 50 states.

This is what we found at South Point:

Guys fishing over the ledge which dropped down 30 feet to the ocean below. Elder Leishman would have loved to have his hand on one of the fishing poles, but it was the Sabbath so he just watched.

These guys were just getting ready to make the jump to the ocean from those platforms they are standing on.

This was taken after their jumps.  As you can see there were already others in the water.  There is a ladder of some sort built into the ledge for them to climb back to the top.

This week included a lot of study time, as we needed to prepare for two speaking assignments which we did today.  We spoke at a ward at 9 AM, then went to the Stake Center to attend Sunday School and RS/Priesthood in the ward whose boundaries our cottage is in.  At noon there was a "Linger-longer" luncheon outside in a pavilion behind the chapel.  Then at 1 PM we spoke in the YSA Branch.  At 6 PM we went back to the Stake Center for stake choir practice.  Elder Dale G.Renlund will  be visiting our stake that day.  We decided that singing in the choir would give us some good seats for the conference.

Besides studying this week, we spent our share of time at WalMart shopping for housewares, tools, cleaning supplies, office supplies, etc.  We also had transfers this week.  We lost half of our 12 Elders and Sisters onWednesday, transfer day. We had to meet one set of Sisters at the stake center at 6:30 AM.  They left their car there and we drove them to the airport.  One of them was being transferred to Oahu. Her flight left at 7:30 leaving the other one companion-less until 8:55 AM when her new companion would get here, so we were her companions until then.  We took her to McDonald's for breakfast, then back to the airport, then back to the stake center to get their car.  Whew! And it's now only 9:45 AM.

On Thursday, after studying and shopping was done, we decided to check out one of the waterfalls about 20 miles north of Hilo along the coast highway.  So here's a few pics of that afternoon.

I was smiling because I hadn't yet started down the 1/2 mile path that went down and down and down and then up and up and back down and up until we finally go to the falls.  But, the scenery was so breathtaking that we walked slowly so it wasn't at hard as it seemed like it was going to be.

This was taken towards the end.  I would never had finished the trek on my own.  It was kind of like Chichen Itza on the Yucatan Peninsula when Truman had to pull me most of the way up and support me most of the way down.  But I made it! And it was definitely worth the trip, both the Mayan Temple and the Hawaiian waterfall.

BREATHTAKING!!

UNBELIEVABLE!!