The Great Octapus Hunt

 Catch of the Day

For the past month on P day, I have been in search of the wily octopus. This has required many hours snorkeling in the coastal areas around Kona. I have enlisted the services of one of our temple workers  to be my guide and mentor in this quest. Brother Martinez is a born and raised Hawaiian islander. He has been hunting octopus for the past 45 years In the Kona area. He is the go-to-guy for the fish for all of his ward parties, so he is amply qualified to assist me in this undertaking. The Monday ritual is that I call him at 8:00 am Monday, and he answers the phone and I ask what it looks like today. He says there aren't any octopus out there, but do I want to go for a swim.  I always say yes. He tells me where and when to meet and we head out at the appointed time. We head to the beach that he wants to go to, and we get out of his car.  He seems to know everyone that we meet. I ask him if there is anyone on this island that he doesn't know and he just laughs, but I think that he really does know everyone. He knows every beach that we have gone to like the back of his hand. He can tell me where the best place to get into the water is and where all the natural steps are to get out. We swim around for a couple of hours.  Tony looks for octopus, and I am just totally fascinated by the world around me. I can tell you that this world and the creatures on it didn't happen by accident. I sometimes am able to put my mind to concentrating on looking for octopus, but I'm easily distracted. I have seen a couple, but by the time I got down to where they were, they we're gone and I was out of air. Tony, on the other hand, can spot them if there are any around. He grabs them by the head, and they wrap themselves around his arm, and then he bites them between the eyes. He says that that is the most humane way to kill them. We then have to beat them on rocks to tenderize them, scrub the slime off and clean them. He says that he going to cook them up and bring one to the Temple Saturday after the Temple closes for me to eat. Depending on how they taste may determine how excited I will be to go chasing them next Monday. Stay tuned.

Tenderizing the octopus

Scrubbing of the slime

Ready for the pot

Bits and Pieces

Drove by the Church of the Beach the other day on our way to church. We noticed that it is doing very well and doesn't lack for members. I guess that there is real appeal to a church that has sand, water and lots of people walking around in swimming suits.  There is a real church that has a building on the beach. It would appear that Sunday best is whatever you happen to show up in. The meeting only lasts an hour and they have three on Sunday, so you can pick which one is convenient for you. They even have a cross, so that after the meeting you can have your picture taken standing in front of it to prove to your friend that you actually attended church. They seem to have a large congregation also.

On a different note, since this is P day I had plans to go on a great octopus hunt. Plans were made, a guide was selected and I saved a lot of space on this page for pictures. As you can see from the pictures we had a lot of fun. We spent a couple of hours scouring the ocean bottom, saw a lot of colorful fish, a turtle, an eel but alas no octopus. Soooo the pictures will have to wait until we do it again and actually catch something. It was a great day.

Our Temple has just received the new endowment presentation video and we will start running it tomorrow, so we previewed it this afternoon to insure that it was working properly. It is very beautiful and presents the endowment well. I just keep thinking about how we were told to take the drama out of our presentation in the Manti Temple. Oh well.

A couple of weeks ago, the ward that we attend had a camp out at a private beach. It was beautiful there. There was a large bowery with tables to eat on and still enough space to put up a tent. There was sand with palm trees. In front of the sand there was a vast expanse of lava that stretched all the way to the water. There was a lava tube that allowed water to come into the lava bed to create a pool of water so the kids and adults could swim in the pool and swim thru the lava tube out into the ocean. It was a fun time, lots of food, as there always is at a Hawaiian party, and good conversation. Most of the people that were staying over pitched their tents on the sand under the trees and stars. We had to be at the Temple at 5AM so we had to come home that night so we could get up early. Well it rained that night so everyone camped under the stars got wet, really wet. Thank goodness we had to get up early and had to come home.

Some times it is hard to see where the ocean and sky meet

                                   

You have heard the saying that you can't see the forest for the trees, well some times you can't see where the ocean meets the sky. That maybe hard to believe but on certain days when the sky is over cast and gray the ocean reflects the gray sky and when you look out over the ocean you don't see the horizon because it all blends together.

That's the way the past weeks have been, we have been so busy that all the days have run together. Up at 3 or 4 AM to get to the Temple before the Maui wards get there, work until 2:30 in the afternoon and then drive home. Grab something to eat, sit down and the next thing you know you are taking a nap. Get up get something to eat, it's time for bed and you do it all over again.

It is really good to have the members from Maui over. They start early to try to get as much done as they can during a day. We really like it because the time flies because we are so busy. They also bring a great spirit with them so they are a real pleasure to be around. That seems to be the way almost all the people are here in Hawaii. They are so friendly, we have tried to put a finger on why that is, but all we can figure out is that they don't rush around, they pretty much take things as they come and they don't let much bother them. As a result they seem to be real happy and friendly to everyone.

We had the 4th of July off so we got together with the other 2 missionary couples here and had a barbecue. After we had eaten the men folk took a dip in the pool while the women cleaned up and then we went to the parade. It was the cheesiest parade we have ever seen and we loved every minute of it. There wasn't much rhyme or reason to what or who was in it. They had belly dancers, roller derby girls, the hospital workers, the nursing home people and about anyone else that wanted to be in it. We had been told that the majority of the parade would be made up with cement trunks but to our disappointment there wasn't a single one. After the parade we waited around and watched the fireworks fired from a barge that was in the bay. We had a wonderful time.

The Farther South You Go, The Farther South You Are

We went to Ka'u on Sunday. It is about 60 miles South of Kona. We went there 3 weeks ago to speak in church, but as it turned out they didn't get the meno and so we were not on the schedule. They felt bad, rescheduled us for last Sunday and we stayed for the meetings. We really enjoyed the members and the spirit there, so we weren't too disappointed about having to go back again to give our talks. The talks went well and the members said they enjoyed them.

When we were down the first time, we met a couple who own a car repair shop not far from where we live. Connie was thrilled to meet them because our air conditioning in the car was not working, and we didn't have any idea where to take it to be repaired. We found out where their shop was located and went to visit Carla at their shop. She gave us an estimate and we set up an appointment to get it fixed. We took it in on the appointed day and 4 hours later we drove off with a cool car. While we were there, we were asking her where she lived in relation to the Ka'u chapel. Carla tried to explain where her house was and finally said "why don't you come to dinner after you talk in church on the 9th." We felt like we kind of invited ourselves to dinner, but we excepted the invitation and went to her home after church. The food was wonderful, the company was superb.  Brother Perrea showed us around his fig orchard, his green house and explained how he was hoping to be producing figs to sell in a couple of years. Four hours later we said our good-byes and came home. It was so enjoyable that we decided to go back on Monday.

Monday morning after getting our housework done, we headed back to Ka'u. As we passed the Ocean View Subdivision where the Pereas live, we couldn't help but notice how barren the land looks from the highway. It is built on a lava flow that is about 150 years old and looks mighty barren, it really isn't as barren as it looks though.

When we got to Punalu'u, where the Ka'u church is, we went to the Punalu'u bakery.  It is the farthest Southern bakery in the United States. When we were down there the first time, we stopped at South Point, which is the furthest South spot in the U.S. ( I guess that technically the furthest South is really 12 more miles South to international waters),  but it is the furthest South dry land. After a few sweet rolls and a few pictures, we decided to circumnavigate the Island. We stopped at the the Blacksand Beach, took a few pics, onto Volcano National Park, and then onto Hilo, only to find that gas is 20 cents a gallon cheaper there than in Kona. We filled up with gas, got lost looking for downtown Hilo. we drove around for a while and finally found the highway only to lose it again because we were in the wrong lane. After driving thru some more neighborhoods, we finally found the highway for good and headed for Kona about 50 miles away. We stopped in Waimea where the Parker ranch is for dinner (cost us over $100), and continued home on the mountain road to Kona. We had to make our routine drive down Ali'i drive, along the ocean thru town and then home.

We had a great day, saw a lot of beautiful scenery and just enjoyed being here.

Live is good!

I know what's best, trust me

You can trust me. I only want what's best for you. Your best interest is all that I' m concerned about. I know what is best for you and your family. I can save you. You will never have to worry about anything. I'm only doing this because you will really be a lot better off if I do. I understand your needs better than you do. If you really understood what I'm trying to do, you would know I'm right. You don't really need that.

Have you noticed how many people there are in the world that have never met you, know nothing about you, but  still know what's best for you? They know how to best raise your children, what kind of car you should be driving, what size of house you need to live in, what kind of gas you need, what kind of light bulbs you need, what you should eat, what you should drink or just about anything else that has to do with your life and needs.

Isn't it interesting that all these things that are great for you aren't good enough for them. The car that they want you to drive isn't big enough for them, the house that's good enough for you isn't good enough for them. Your food is alright for you but they need better. Ever ask yourself what's wrong with this picture? Sound like anything you have ever heard before?

God's plan was for us to learn from our own experiences to learn good from evil. There was one who  claimed he could make sure that we would all be saved and he would make sure that we would be. There was another who said he would show the way and make it possible for us to be saved, but that we would have to prove ourselves worthy by our works and actions.  In other words, choose for ourselves which way we would go and who's plan we would follow.

With all the interesting revelations about how government is really working, it's plain to see that the only ones our elected officials are interested in helping are themselves. They want control over us. Why else would they spy on their own citizens or buy votes by way of give away programs? They always have a logical reason.  It always sounds good and it is always portrayed  in a way that any reasonable person should want it. How is it that it never turns out as advertised. The laws or the rules never seen to work. The government never seems to be able to provide the proper over site. Maybe, just maybe, God is the only one who knows what is best for us and loves us enough to show us the way by his son Jesus Christ's example. Communism or socialism or any other "ism" will never work because it is designed to benefit the ones in charge  the very most. When I was in officer's school, they always stressed that when given the opportunity to kill the leader or the second man, you always  kill the second man. You will always find someone who thinks he has something to gain as the leader but the second man in line is just the second man and nobody wants that position if it means you might get killed. With Satan's plan, he is the one who stood to gain the most. He wanted to become a God without proving he had what it would take to become one. It didn't work out for him and it won't work out well for anyone else either. God is in charge!

Aloha from paradise.

We now pause for a commercial message

For those who may have wandered on to this blog and are wondering what is going on,I will give you a little information about us.

We are Paul and Connie Cox and have been called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Chist of Latter Day Saints. We are serving in the Kona Hawaii Temple located in the town of Kona on the big island of Hawaii.

The purpose of the temple is to preform ordinances for the living and the dead that we believe are necessary to enter into the kingdom God. These ordinances for the living include marriage for time and all eternity, for the dead, they include baptism, marriage for time and eternity and the binding of children to their parents to eternal families.

We believe that the whole purpose of life is for God's spirit children to come to earth, gain a physical body, gain experience and prove ourselves worthy to enter back into God presence by keeping his commandments and obeying his laws.

We believe that the Book of Mormon is another witness of Jesus Christ, that together with the Bible and modern revelation thru the living prophets God has provided, we have and will be given the laws and principles of the gospel necessary to be saved thru the atoning sacrifice of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I know this to be true and testify that it is true.

I guess that is about it, so Aloha

A Million Voices

The first few nights after we moved into our apartment here in Kona, we went to sleep listening to all this chirping  and thought it was some  kind of night bird. Later when talking to brother Elwood, we found out that it wasn't some kind of night bird, but a tree frog that apparently hitched a ride on some plants from Puerto Rico. There must have been at least 2 of them that slipped into Hawaii without  a passport, or maybe it was part of Obama's path to citizenship program, and ICE failed to apprehend them and have then deported. Well they have multiplied, and now there are about a billion of them because they don't seem to have any natural predators. There may not be a billion, but there are a lot of them. They are named Coqui frogs, named after the sound they make. They come out after dark and only the male makes the sound. The people here hate them and have issued an extermination order. It doesn't seem to be having much of an effect, but they don't like them nevertheless.  They are hard to find, because they seem to be able to throw their voice and they are only about the size of a quarter. They have tried several things. You can make a trap out of PVC pipe or you can cut all the leaves off your plants and spray them with citric acid or you can sprinkle lime around your plants and trees or you can catch them with your hands and freeze them for 3 hours or boil them or steam them or squash them. The traps don't seem to work very well, and the other methods are expensive and they are hard to catch by hand. I guess that they are working on some kind of wonder spray to exterminate them. We find them fun, and we like being sung to sleep every night by a million voices. Here is a link to them if you would like to hear what they sound like.
 
Apparently these links can only be viewed on a computer.

                                 
                                       

When it rains it pours

Where we live, we get rain almost every day. In Kona, it will be hot (by hot I mean 83), we look up towards where we live it will be cloudy, and by the time we are heading home it will be starting to sprinkle. We know because if one drop hits the windshield, the windshield wipers come on.  I have never seen wipers so sensitive. It will eventually pour for a few minutes, just enough to keep the humidity in the 90% range.

Our Temple may be small, but it has great people who serve there. They come from all over the island. There are two stakes on this island and one on Maui that make up the temple district. The workers on this island travel as long as 3 hrs. to work here. The Maui people fly over about twice a year for 3 or 4 days at great expense to them. They start at about 5 am, do as many ordinances as they can until about 9 pm, get up the next day and do it all over again. When the Tongan saints come, the majority of the sessions will be in in their native language. They were here in March and will be here again starting the first week in June. We are looking forward to the experience.

There seems to be a special spirit about the native Hawaiian people. The vail seems to be thin when it comes to them and temple work. They do many more family file cards each day than temple files. We have one family from Hilo who says that it is going to take him 700 years to finish what he has right now. They come once or twice a week. Last week they did 95 sealings.  The sealer said that was a record for him in one shift.

It's hard not to feel the spirit every day. We work mostly in the office, scheduling, recording ordinances, ordering supplies, bug patrol, changing light bulbs and anything else the Presidency wants done. We do get to assist at the Vail and initiatory from time to time, but most of our day is spent doing other things. We feel the sweet spirit of the workers and patrons alike. We also feel the strong spirit associated with the temple itself.  It is not easy to describe, it's just there. We can't think of any place we would rather be at this point in our lives, even though we miss home, family and friends (and our dog).  We know this is where we should be, doing what little we can to move the work along.

Well aloha for now.
 

Real complex where we live. At least for now. we have been given 7 days to get our paper work in to the office or else....else what we are not sure.

Our real church. The temple is directly behind it. you can't see angel Moroni because of the angle picture was taken from.

Real picture of what we have to put up with some nights from our Lani..

Well here It is Sunday again. We have just reached the realization that we have now served over 1/23 of our mission and it seem like we just got here. At this rate we will be finished and headed home in another month or so. Time does fly when you are working hard.

We were invited to a family home evening group for single sisters the other night. We were the guest speakers. They were interested in where we were from and what it was like living and growing up in Manti. We did our best and then had a question and answer period. We were surprised how many have been to Manti and how many of those who had been to Manti have seen the pageant. Connie practiced her hula dancing, then the sisters practiced their Mother's Day song. Not sure what that was all about. I asked if they were all getting up in church and singing to themselves, I don't remember what they said, but I didn't see any of them sing in church. The food was great, the sisters were ever better, and we had a terrific time.

For all those concerned about the picture of our home, well that isn't really where we live.  I just liked the looks of it and I was looking for a little sympathy. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, that wasn't  a picture of our church either. Our church looks like a normal LDS church, except that we do have portions of the roof open over the center part of one area.

On Mother's Day we were invited to the Bishop's home for dinner after church. They live higher up the mountain than we do and about a mile away. We had a good time.  The  Elders that serve around this area were there as well as about 30 other people. It was beautiful up there and then it decided to rain. It was wonderful.

Today we had a speaking assignment at the Ka'u ward. We looked on google to find out where it was and found that it was about 70 miles away and that it should take about 11/2 hours to get there. We jumped up at 6 am, headed out by 7 to make sure we were there on time. We got there an hour and 10 minutes later, rain pouring down so we drove around a little so as to be fashionably closer to the right time. We walked in about 30 minutes early, met the Bishop and found out that we weren't on the program, that they hadn't gotten the memo. They rescheduled us for the 9th of June. We stayed anyway and learned from the High Council speaker that a good High Council talk has a beginning and an end, and the closer those two are to one another the better the talk is.  Our High Council speakers in Manti could learn a thing or two from this guy. It was a good trial run for the 9th.

The members were super, friendly, loving, made us feel welcome and we were glad that we were there. On the way home we stopped at the furthest South point of the U.S.. We love the spirit of the saints here. We have discovered that the church is true here too. What a surprise!

One more....

This is our church. It's not big either but as you can see it has a nice cemetery just in case you die in church.

Just a few pics

This is the house that we live in. It's not pretty from the out side but it is comfortable.

28 days later and still no posts

Well, here it is 28 days later and no posts. This blogging stuff is tougher than it looks. First you have to find the time and then you have to come up with something to say that may be interesting to some one other than your self.

We have been working in the Kona temple now for 3weeks. The first week is pretty much a blur. It was spent with Brother and Sister Elwood trying to help us make sense of what they have been doing for the last 12 months. They understand it very well and us, we'll not so much. The Elwood's are wonderful people and we were sorry to have them leave. Once they left it was up us to see just how much of what they had taught us, we had retained. It turns out, not much but with a little head scratching and a lot of referring to notes we managed to get thru the first week handling the office on our own with out any major incident. At least any that we know of.

We love the Kona Temple and especially all the great people. We are hoping for the day when we can pronounce their names especially those who have true Hawaii names. The native Hawaii people didn't have a written language until the early missionaries in 1820. It is made up of 8 consonants (HKLMNPW), 5 vowels (AEIOU) and an 'Okina which is kind of a stop and looks like an apostrophe, an kahako which is a stress mark over a vowel. This all sounds pretty simple but it all Greek to me. I still pronounce creek with an a in it so you can imagination what comes out when I trying to pronounce humuhumunukunuku'apua'a which is the name of the state fish (there is a kahako over the u following the p). Will its not pretty and it is good for a laugh.

The Hawaiian culture is a very hugging and kiss on the cheek culture which is much different than what we left in Utah. I won't say it's hard to get use to it is just different and not a way of greeting that we are accustomed to but we are adapting.

One of the things about the Church of  Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that continues to amaze me is how you always seem to fit in and belong no matter where you are meeting other members. We love it here, we love the work and we love the people. Time is flying by and we can tell already that it is going be very hard to leave the friends that we are making here.

Tomorrow will be "P" day and we will be doing "P" day stuff. Cleaning the apartment, washing clothes shopping and those kinds of things.

Life is good!
Aloha

Here we go.....

We are starting out our mission to the Kona Hawaii Temple.  We are going to try out blogging so we can share our experiences with all of you back home.  Enjoy.