Helping Hands

The new school year is almost upon us, and we are getting ready to teach another semester of seminary. We will be learning from the second half of the Book of Mormon, starting in the middle of Alma. We attended a training meeting in Laie yesterday, and got a lot of good information to help us become better motivators and leaders for the wonderful youth in our class. We liked that the Church's emphasis was on helping the students gain a testimony and deepen their conversion to Jesus Christ, and our objective is prepare them for a life of discipleship, and not just graduation from seminary. That's been our approach, we want our kids to enjoy seminary, make it fun and interesting, be a class that invites the Spirit, and a place where they can ask questions and feel free to express themselves. All we really want is for them to show up and participate. The rest will follow if we're able to do that.

We volunteered through Just Serve to assist a charity called Helping Hands Hawaii hand out backpacks and school supplies this week. It was held at the Windward Community College where we do our daily walking exercise, so it was very convenient for us to volunteer there. It was an opportunity we didn't want to pass up! There was also a group of about 10-12 BYU Hawaii students there as well. Sister Mundell was asked to help the kids and their parents write thank-you notes to those who donated the school supplies, and Elder Mundell handed out the backpacks. We love doing this kind of service for others! We get to meet and talk to those who are benefiting from the donations, and we saw all kinds of people coming through the line. All were very appreciative of the school supplies, not entitled, and we could tell some were in desperate conditions financially. It feels good to partner with organizations like HHH and provide real help where it's needed the most. 

These are the thank-you cards from the children to the donors Sister Mundell helped with

Elder Mundell and BYU-H student Rod from Palawan Phillipines handed out the backpacks 

We also had a chance to talk with the coordinator for Just Serve for Oahu, and she said they are struggling to connect with the charitable organizations on the island, not getting a lot of visibility or recognition of what they do from the stake leaders, and as a result volunteer opportunities are not doing as well here as they are in other parts of the U.S. where Just Serve is a prominent partner and organizer to find volunteers willing to help dozens of local charities. We have to seek out and find opportunities to serve, and it takes a sustained effort to stay involved and get the word out that the LDS church is a great resource to bless the lives of needy families and individuals.

Olomana ward had its annual fish fry last night and it was a huge success. The food was great, more than 200 people showed up and had a good time, plus we were treated to some outstanding hula and other talents by the ward members. The fish fry was the first social event we attend after we arrived last year, and since it was moved up from August to July this year, we're now officially 2-time veterans of ward socials. 



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