Father's Day

Most of our usual missionary activities were paused this week so we could spend time with Linda, Elder Mundell's sister who was visiting us from Oregon. The really cool thing about the past week is we were able to visit some places we'd never been to before. These included the botanical gardens, Dole plantation, Bellows beach, a star show at the planetarium, and best of all ... Oahu was hosting FestPAC and we had a chance to see several island groups from around the Pacific performing dances and demonstrating their cultural arts. 

Sister & Elder Mundell with Linda, learning ukulele. 

Our visit to the planetarium at Windward Community College reminded us just how vast and infinite the universe really is, and how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. There's a verse in Moses that says "Worlds without number have I created", and It's mind blowing to look at the stars and realize that what we're seeing is their light from many years ago that is finally reaching us. Dole plantation was nice, the best part was getting a Dole Whip from the store after our narrated tour was over. We couldn't believe how crowded it was on a Monday, thousands of tourists and yet not that many tour buses in the parking lot. So evidently most drove themselves from wherever they were staying near Waikiki.  We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center on Monday and Tuesday. The PCC was also hosting a few of the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC) events before they opened at 12:30, so we were able to catch shows from Guam, American Samoa and Taiwan. Elder Mundell's family lived on Guam for over 16 years, so it was thrilling for him to see the performers from his adopted home. The shows were very well done, and it was obvious that they had invested a lot of hours into practicing for their performances. FestPAC is hosted by a different island nation every four years, so we were very fortunate to be "at the right place at the right time" and see this cultural phenomena for ourselves!

Elder Mundell came down with a cold last weekend, but it didn't affect him too much. However, he passed it onto his sister, and later to his wife and companion as well. Sister Mundell has not been feeling well the past few days, and was so congested a couple of nights ago she was unable to breathe laying down in bed, and the only solution was for her to sleep in our recliner chair. Both of our fathers loved their La-Z-Boy recliners, and it brought back good memories of them as we celebrate Father's Day. People who visit our apartment are amazed and probably a little jealous that we have a recliner! It was left here by the previous senior couple. We hardly ever sit in it, but fortunately Cathy was able to benefit from its therapeutic effects this week. We feel so blessed to have good health (most of the time!) and we are trying to take good care of ourselves on this mission -- eating right, getting plenty of exercise and managing our time wisely by keeping everything in balance. We know the only way to serve effectively is to stay healthy, and the Lord is blessing us for our efforts. 

In honor of our fathers this day, we remember
their La-Z-Boy recliners.