The view from our front deck one morning this week gave us a double rainbow. It never is quite as pretty with a small picture as it is in real life, but we wanted you to see it what our view is every morning. Some times there will be kite surfers out there even early in the mornings.



This has been a very busy couple of weeks in the Office of Honor and at BYU Hawaii for Elder and Sister McKell. We started about more cases this week than any other week that we have been here. We got about 10 Academic Honesty cases (end of the Winter Semester) and then our first illegal drugs case today. Housing found the marijuana in the dorm room but the girls had not come back to the room. One of the girls came to our Office today to turn herself in. I spent about 4 hours with the student and BYUH Security and Hawaii 50. I did the initial interview and then made sure that the other agencies were satisfied with the investigation. They let me take the whole thing. We will probably send two young ladies home that had not planned to go home at this time of the school year.


We have a small garden planted in the yard and we have a couple of tomato plants and the tomatoes are bigger than a golf ball. We can start to eat lettuce this week as well.






We had a Ward High Priests Social tonight at the Pavillion at the Church. There was more food there than at most Ward Family Parties. We took some pictures of the line, there were more trays of food than there were people. We had several couples do some songs and dance. There was a Bishop that is from Samoa that was wearing a sulu and would dance for every song played. He kept trying to get Eileen to get up and dance with him, but she never would. During one of the dances he climbed up a square cinder block corner post like he would have a coconut tree. It is so amazing to listen to these people sing, they all have beautiful voices and they sing parts and volume. There has been a Senior Missionary couple that also serve in the BYUH 12th Ward with us. They are going home to Colorado on Wednesday. The Samoans all sang them a farewell song in Samoan.




We have so many pretty lizards in the yard. It is fun to count them as we walk out to the car. Some days we see as many as 5 or 6. Then as we back out the driveway against the rock wall, there will be others sitting along there as well. I finally caught one with the skin on his neck flarred out. I have told my grandsons about the lizards, so this picture is for them.

BYU Hawaii 2011 Graduation Day

April 9, 2011, Winter Semester Graduation Day at BYU Hawaii

Eileen and I were asked to be there before 8am to make sure everyone was in standard before they walked for their Graduation. There were a couple of guys that could have used a little fresher haircut, but for the most part they all looked very good. We didn’t take pictures with everyone that we knew but it was such a positive experience to see how excited the Graduates were for the day and for the opportunity. There were a lot of family there and there were about 10 lei booths set up out on the lawn at 7:30am when we got there. The graduates were not allowed to have any thing around their neck except the Summa Cum Laude, the Magna Cum Laude or the Cum Laude ropes that they wear. As they lined up before their names were called, the Student Body President for next year put a flower lei on each graduate.

Elder Russell M. Nelson was the speaker. There were some 36 Countries represented at this Graduation. The registrar who read the names as they walked across the stage was amazing, she only started over two or three times. After the whole thing was over and they were all outside and they could meet with their friends and families, the leis were just absolutely piled on. Some made out of candy, some made out of flowers, some made out of money. We enjoyed seeing the different ones that people got. There were some kids that couldn’t find their way to the car, because they couldn’t even see over the pile of leis.


Sister McKell and I and Brother Meli Lesuma with Ratu Kalivati Titudua Volavola from Fiji. Meli is the Advisor that we work with in the Office of Honor and is also from Fiji.



Sakiusa Mekemeke Maiwiriwiri and his wife Salote with Sister McKell and I after Graduation. They are going home to Fiji and start a Taro business. They were the winners of the International Business Competition for Empower your Dreams competition


The Student Body President is also the Elder's Quorum President in our Ward. His name is Nicholas Amman Leimana Narayan from Hawaii. He is going to work for Goldman Sacks in Salt Lake City and his family plans to live in Utah County.

Scouting Again

Last summer when Eileen and I arrived in Hawaii, we were assigned to serve in the BYU Hawaii 12th Ward. That is 1 of 5 married student Wards in the BYU Hawaii 2nd Stake. The 12th Ward happens to be the only Ward with a High Priest Group and the only Ward with any youth program except Primary. We happen to have both a Young Men and a Young Women program. We had about 4 YM and 1 YW in the Ward, and then the Winter Semester started. We got 6 new families. All of the men were High Priests, one had been a Councilor in a Bishopric back home in Tonga. Two had been Councilors in their Stake Presidencies, in Tonga and one in Kiribati. One had been a Bishop in Samoa another in Tonga. Some wonderful Preisthood strength. With those 5 families came 5 YM and 1 YW. Five High Priests were also added to our Ward. Four of those priesthood brothers brought their wives to BYU Hawaii. Only one of the men is a student. All 5 of the students are teachers in their Home Countries at LDS Church School programs back home. On March 27th, we got another High Priest, he had just been released as a Stake President in the Marshall Islands. Another boost for our High Priests Group. His only son is too young for the Young Mens Program. With the end of Winter Semester, also came changes in the Stake High Council and I was called to serve there. The Church really is true, I was asked to be the High Councilman working with the YM/YW programs in the Stake. A married student couple have been called as the Stake YM and YW Presidents. It still shouldn’t be too overwhelming for them, no more kids in the program than they have.

I had asked the Scoutmaster several times when they had a campout planned and he kept telling me they were working on the schedule. Well they held their first campout last weekend, March 25-26th They went just to the edge of town and the foothills on the Hawaii Reserve property, a place called cricket field. There is a 40 acre grass field that is surrounded by trees. It has a water connection and several places that you could build fires at the edge of the trees. It is less than a mile to the Hukilau Beach from there. The Scoutmaster brought a pig that they roasted on a spit over the fire. There were 2 boys from Kiribati, 2 from Korea, 3 from Tonga, 2 Samoan and 1 Hawaiian. They all enjoyed the pig over the fire, and the spare ribs and the chicken and the hotdogs on the BBQ. Then when I got there with a Dutch Oven peach cobbler and ice cream, they were not sure if they wanted to try that. None of them had ever seen a dutch oven, or tasted cobbler. They did finish off the gallon of ice cream, though. After I got them all to try the cobbler, they said I have to bring one of those for every camp. Of the Adult leaders, there were 3 of us from the mainland, 1 Samoan, and 2 Tongans. They had a good time and with a large “easy corner”, a metal frame with 1 side and the top covered with tarps the rain didn’t bother them too much. It was a fun camp and I hope the first of many. I did not stay over night, since they are not my boys and I am not their leader, I just love the program and going to the mountain. That and the fact that I am an old man that doesn’t do well sleeping on the ground any more.





This past Wednesday night, I went to the Temple and helped them do Baptisms for the dead, also. We had 3 YW and 3 adult YW leaders. We had 7 YM and 7 adult YM leaders. Like most of the other Temples, we were asked to provide our own Priesthood brothers. We also had a family visiting from Canada, that wanted to do some of their own names so we did those as well. Our Temple President has made the decision that 5 is all of the sheet names he will let the young people do. He wants it to be a shorter, more spiritual experience instead of a rush to get it all done. Hurry is not part of our instructions. The sealers and the initiatory people have all been asked to slow things down and make sure that it is a positive spiritual experience for everyone that is involved.


42 years ago today, Eileen and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. It has been wonderful.. We decided to take Friday off work and fly to Kauai and spend the weekend. We have never been there before and it really was a fun trip. We stayed in Princeville on the north end of the Island and then just went sightseeing. Kuaui is called the Garden Island and is actually much greener than Oahu. I think it has more agriculture if you don’t count the Pineapple plantations on Oahu.