Elder & Sister Mundell

 We have the privilege of working with amazing individuals and groups who are not members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but whose Christlike virtues are examples to us of what it means to love and serve other people less fortunate than themselves by volunteering their time, talents, resources and their hearts for the worthy causes that we're involved in. We wanted to mention and highlight some of these special people from time to time that we love and admire, who are making a difference in the lives of the Hawaiian people. We won't mention them by name because we haven't gotten their permission to do so.  One lady is tireless in her efforts to provide a safe and pleasant space for displaced homeless families in her community. She opened a homeless shelter 5 years ago and everything that she does is donation based. She is building small dwellings for individuals and families to stay in on the property, to get them off the street and into a community set...

The purpose of this blog, which we also post on our Facebook account, is to keep family and friends back home informed about what we're doing, and include some of our special spiritual experiences and other interesting but not-so-spiritual experiences as well. This week we wanted to detail most of what we did, starting at Monday and working our way through Sunday. It was quite a week! What made it so noteworthy or unusual from other weeks was the sheer variety of missionary and service activities we participated in. Sister Mundell writes all our appointments and everything else down in a weekly planner, which has been absolutely crucial for us to keep on top of everything we have going on. And here's the kicker: it's going to get even busier for us very soon, within the next two or three weeks. But this is exactly what we signed up for when we volunteered to serve a mission! On Monday, we had our third and final orientation for the state hospital. Cathy went to Waimanalo an...

     One of the first things we did after arriving in Hawaii was contact Elder and Sister Fowler, the senior couple who preceded us in our area. They returned back last week to support a couple who was going to the temple for the first time and be sealed together. So we finally met them in person, and it was nice to get to know them better.       We had a couple of very good ward activities this week. Sister Mundell taught 16 people how to make sugar cookies, and the younger ones had a lot of fun frosting them then decorating with sprinkles. One sister we've been helping become more involved in church brought her children to pickleball and they stayed for primary activity night, which turned out to be a huge success. We believe many of the individuals the Lord has called us to minister to will return primarily through activities for their children.       We are complementing our ward outreach efforts with volunteer co...

     Monday and Wednesday this week were devoted mostly to orientation for volunteers at the state hospital. It was repeatedly emphasized over and over again that we should protect the privacy and security of the patient population. It was typical mandatory training stuff they needed to pass along. A highlight of our orientation training was learning defensive moves we can employ in case someone tries to attack us. We were told they've never had any of their volunteers get hurt, and they wanted to keep it that way.      We're starting to conduct weekly group sessions with people who are dealing with addiction issues. They are there voluntarily, so it makes a huge difference in their desire to change and become a better person. The majority of them want to talk about the Bible, so we discuss a different scripture topic each week. We decided to start with the virtues of faith, hope and charity. We also engage them in enjoyable recreational games to help them ...

     We've had many people ask us questions like "what is it like to be senior missionaries?" or "what do you do as a senior couple?" Today we'd like to help you understand our day-to-day experiences a little better. Every day we are focused on what we can do to serve our Heavenly Father, to follow Jesus Christ, and to find ways to bless and serve God's children. An important part of each morning is to review our appointment calendar together and make plans by scheduling out our day. Some days are very busy, this past Friday we were gone from our apartment from 7:30 am until 9:30 pm without a break. Other days we don't have much to do, so it's important for us to find additional missionary opportunities by making some calls to various non-profit groups and try to reach out to them again, reminding them of our desire to serve as volunteers in their relief organizations. We make sure to exercise, eat a good diet and get enough rest so we can remain...