Aloha, from Hawaii!!

Aloha from the Hawaiian islands.  Well we did it.  We made all the arrangements and here we are in Hawaii.  I mentioned in our last letter that we were thinking about it, but here we are.  We talked about the possibility on Sat. and Amber kept bugging me on Monday.  I did not sleep a wink on Monday night worrying about the younger kids, etc.  I felt like I would be better off staying at home with them and letter mom and Amber go.  But she really wanted us both to go.  So we all made our arrangements to get off work and booked our flights on Tuesday night.  Less than 36 hours before we had to leave. We were all scrambling around to try and make things work.  Wed. night Summer had a softball game out in Spring Creek, and I had to be at Spring Creek high school to present the GBC scholarships to the SC seniors, so I went to her game after my assignment.  Her team won again, and she actually pitched the last inning and did very well for her first time pitching.  She walked a couple of batters, but did very well.  She said she was very nervous.  Then we came home and Sierra AToa and the sister missionaries were waiting for us at home for her new member discussion.  We did not get home from the game until 8 pm and they had to leave at 8:15.  And mom went to shopping after summers game, so it was just me, sierra and the sisters miss.  I was banking on Amber teaching the discussions, so I was trying to wing the 1st discussion and do it in a hurry.  I did not do the lesson justice, but I testified alot which hopefully brought the spirit to the lesson.

So when we were done with that, I had not had any thing to eat the entire day and we had to get packed.  So mom made me a grilled cheese sand-witch and we started packing.  We went to bed at 12:45 and had our alarm set to get up at 1:30 as we had to be on the road by 2 to drive to las vegas to catch our plane.  The round trip tickets from vegas were only 523.00, which was really cheap compared to what we were anticipating.  So after 45 minutes, I did not sleep a wink again as I was worried about everything.  We put new tires on the camry so we could take it as we had to leave it parked the vegas for 12 days, and I did not want to leave the suburban for that long. We got up, showered and got on the road by 3 am.  I drove to Ely, and I was dead tired.  Entering Ely, I could not stay awake or keep the car on the road, mom had to keep grabbing the steering wheel.  I just could not keep my eyes open any more.  Amber slept all the way to ely and then she drove from ely to vegas.  I slept a little bit but was worried about her falling asleep, so I did not get much rest that day.  We made it to vegas and I dropped mom and amber off at the airport and then I drove the car and parked it in MGM casinos parking lot as I did not have to pay parking.  The airport wanted $16 per day for 12 days, and I did not want to pay that much so I parked the car and caught a cab back to the airport for $11.  So we saved some money there.  We flew to L.A. and had an hour layover and then flew to Hawaii.  We got in about 5:30pm Hawaii time or 8:30 pm Elko time.  We were all really tired.  I did not make a rental car reservation as I wanted to make sure we got there ok first.  We got there and they said they did not have any more rentals, we we checked a couple other companies and found one at Hertz.  It cost $36 for one day and we rented that and then when we got to the members house that evening, I made another rental agreement online for the week with Enterprise.  The couple we are staying with, He is 70 and she is 68 and they have 2 married boys in SLC.  He is a CPA and is a partner here with a cpa firm.  Their names are Fred and Eileen Tanaka.  He is a sweet old japanese man and she is OCD.  She is a profectionist and everything has to be just the right way.  It is a really nice home up on a hill.  Friday we got up and went to the temple and did a session.  We went to the visitor's center to see the Ardis and Stu Jensen and they were at a zone conference so they were not there.  We did a little tour of the center and then went to lunch.  We did not eat hardly anything on Thurs. went we were traveling and the couple gave us some salad and chicken from costco.  Friday we did not eat breakfast and we were starving after the temple so we went to Papa Ole's one of amber's favorite places that they would eat after they went to the temple.  We had garlic chicken, but all it was was fried chicken nuggets.  Then we drove around the island.  We were meeting Kenny and Erica, one of Ambers converts at sandy beach for a bon fire.  We had to exchange rental cars and one of my hub caps were missing.  I hope they don't charge me for that.  It was raining really hard when we went to the temple and It must of come off in the rain or somebody stole it.  But we were an hour late getting to the beach.  It was right at sunset.  IT was not really a bon fire, but a little fire and they had bought some garlic chicken and salad.  So we sat around the fire and talked and ate dinner and had smores afterwards.  It was fun.  They are a really nice, sweet young couple.  Mom kept falling asleep during the conversations.  It was windy and the waves were big, but we are yet to touch the ocean.

We got home about 10:30 pm.  Dead tired again.  Sat. we got up and amber worked on her home work and then we went to the swap meet to buy some souvenirs.  It was very hot and we got some island slippers or sandals that amber wore on her mission.  She loved them.  We went around visiting people on sat. but no one was home.  We did find a convert lady home Catherine and visited with her.  A military lady. We were 1 for 7 for visits, nobody was home.  I told amber this was like missionary work. We also stopped in and visited with her mission president and his family.  They are a really nice couple. We came back to the place where we were staying and helped her organize some music for the stake choir.  Our host family fed us Shabu Shabu, for dinner that night.  A japanese dish where they have boiling water on the table and you boil your meat and cabbage and noodles and onions  and mushrooms as you like it and then eat it with a sauce.  It was different but good.

Sunday we drove back and forth all over the island again.  We went to 4 different sacrament meetings from one side of the island to the other, 3 times.  It was fun for amber seeing many missionary friends and members.  She visited sister Laugingoa at one church and sister L. started crying.  She was very happy to see her "mom" amber.

Then we visited with other members that amber wanted to see.  Her one ward mission leader, Brother Cloward, had a house right on the beach.  We could walk right out his back yard through a gate and the ocean was 20 feet away.  It was a beautiful place.  He grew up there and inherited it from his dad.  He has cancer and is not doing very well right now.  He just got out of the hospital 2 days earlier.  The view and sight was unbelievable. I could not imagine living in a place that beautiful and have that view of the ocean your entire life.

We went over to a member family's house for dinner in Ewa beach, the Putenat's.  Their son just got home off his mission 6 months ago from mexico city.  But they were a very nice enjoyable family.  We had a fun visit with them.  Then we visited old Carl, another of amber's converts, and tried a few other homes, but nobody was home.  It was a fun full day.  We were fasting the entire day until we ate with that family.  We left out place at 8 and got back after 9 pm.  

So our Hawaiian vacation is not the typical.  We are yet to really see the beach or swim in the ocean, but we are having a post mission vacation and visiting with many, many people, which is alot of fun.  The 1st ward we attended, a gentleman gave us leis which smelt great and were very pretty.  Also on Saturday, I was able to try my 1st coconut at the swap meet.  They cut off the top and we drank the milk with a straw which was delicious and then he carved off the meat of the coconut and we ate that.  I had never tried fresh coconut milk before.  It was great.

Well we hope you have a super week.  Cody is at home taking care of his 3 little sisters, cooking them dinner, and lunches etc.  We will get back to elko next Tuesday, so the kids will have to be all alone this last week of school.

Keep working hard as the time blows by too fast.  We love you and are glad you are serving a mission.

Love 

DAD

Dearest Hermana Nielsen,

Well, we made it! I can't believe we are here.  It came about so fast.  We had to hurry and decide and so this all came about spur of the moment.  I had to get someone to cover my crossguarding, turn over all the soccer coaching duties to my asst. coach, and find someone to watch Adelaide.  I thought I would divide it up between 4 people and I called Sadie Goulding first and she volunteered to take her the whole 7 days.  What a lady! she is still recovering from her appendix wound.  How will I ever repay her?  cody had really stepped up too.  I couldn't be here with out everyones' assistance.  Summer is doing part of the paper route to help out. (upper dotta, brown and yellow apts.)  She will easing into doing that anyway as Cody phases out.

We have a rental car.  Amber really wanted to drive, but it costs extra is the driver is under 25 yrs.  So, she is doing the backseat driving and getting us around very well.  I am amazed at her knowledge of the Is.  Our hosts offered us their GPS, but we don't need it.  
We went to the temple our first day here which was really wonderful.  We went to the VC to visit the Jensens, but they were at zone conference so we will try and catch up with them again on Wed. when we go back to Laie and visit the the PPC.  We will stay in their condo on the Big Island when we go over there on thurs.  They will rent it to us for $80 a day.

We went to the swap meet at Aloha Stadium on Sat. I was looking for  a wooden bowl, that I could serve taco salad, chinese coleslaw, etc.  I wanted to bring back something that I would use a lot and remind me of the trip.  I don't need anymore tshirts which were really cheap.  We found a really big one for $65  (too much) they said $55, and Dad got them to sell it for $45, so that was good.  We also got fresh cut pina and mango which was so delicious, and  a fresh coconut.

Sunday we went to 4 sacrament mtgs.  we went back and forth across the southern part of the Is.  It was so fun to see the peoples' faces as they recognized "Sister Nielsen",  especially, when we surprised Sis. Lauhingoa.  Her jaw just dropped and she gave her a big, loooong hug.  I got it on video, but may have missed the initial surprise.

Do you remember Sis. Ahnee?  the hawaiian sister that served in Elko?  You were only 4, so maybe not.  We contacted her and we are going to try and see her when we go to Big Island.

Well, sorry this is short, this is the 2nd time I have written, because I accidently deleted my first attempt when I was just about finished,  Dad covered all the details in his letter.

We love you so much, keep working hard, we love hearing about your miracles,

Love, Mom