Elder & Sister Mundell

  Our Christmas morning began with the worst news imaginable.  Our son-in-law Anthony Young had passed away.  He was only 32 years old, and left behind his newlywed wife Keilah (Cathy's daughter) and their two-month old son Chase.  They visited us six months ago in June, and were married here in Hawaii.  We cannot even begin to describe the grief, sorrow and confusion we felt trying to process the news, especially since we didn't have any information about how it happened. Sister Mundell tried the best she could to comfort and console Keilah, but felt so helpless being so far away from her.  All she could do was cry, and then cry some more.  And pray.  Lots of prayers were said that Christmas day for Keilah and her little baby. We made plans to have Christmas dinner with two single sisters who weren't going to be spending the holiday with their family, so in spite of it all, we did the best we could and tried to make it a special Christmas for our...

Last Sunday we participated in the baptismal service for DJ, who's the 17 year-old nephew of Maka, Elder Manalo's stepfather. Leighton Manalo is currently serving a full time mission in Brazil, it is amazing to us to see the expanding influence this exceptional young man is having on his family back home in Hawaii.  He was the only member in his family after joining the church as a pre-teen, and now his mother and DJ have been baptized, and Maka has returned to church. DJ's mother has been away from the church for more than 30 years and gave a wonderful, inspiring testimony at the baptism. She feels the need to come back again.  We're seeing miracles happening.   We like to think of December baptisms as our opportunity to experience a White Christmas! DJ Nagayama at his baptism with Elder Winn and Elder Eddington It's been so busy for us as we approach the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.  There's been fun games and activities, decorations,...

We did some missionary work for deceased family members this week. Elder Mundell has been struggling for several years trying to find his ancestors on his father's side of the family, and he's made some progress recently - with the help of unknown researchers working independently and undoubtedly angels on the other side of the veil as well. He was able to connect his grandmother Gertrude Serine to her grandparents John Fitzpatrick and Bridget Mullay.  So we submitted the names of Dan's great-great grandparents, and all of their children as well.  This is how Elder Mundell is a direct descendant of John & Bridget Fitzpatrick  On Wednesday we did the baptisms and confirmations at the temple, and followed it up by doing the initiatory ordinances for most of his family members.  It had been over a year since we'd done baptisms for the dead, and it will be a treasured memory for us to do these proxy ordinances.  We also did sealings on Saturday with a large grou...

This is our second December in Hawaii, and this year it seems warmer and much drier than in 2023. We haven't had a cold front push into the islands yet, and as a result our fall weather has persisted into the winter months which are usually very wet, with some rainfall expected almost every day. But we're very grateful for the pleasant unseasonably warm and dry conditions we've been having lately .  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Here's some pictures of the brightly colored lights where we live, and our humble attempt at holiday decorations inside of the apartment.  This week we helped the patients decorate the reception room for the Windward Health Center. We also baked several dozen sugar cookies, made colorful frosting and then presented them to the ladies at the shelter to decorate so they could enjoy a delightful snack.  Our seminary lesson on Friday was about Moroni chapter 6 and serving in church, so Sister Mundell wanted the students to learn b...

Last year we were invited to cook our Thanksgiving turkey in an underground oven the Hawaiians call an "imu", but because we were unfamiliar with this type of cooking, we decided not to participate.  It was something we've regretted ever since.  So this year, we wanted to have the full imu experience.  Imus are the traditional way Polynesian island people have cooked their food for centuries.  Today they use the same techniques, and also employ modern methods to get a big fire going faster.  To get our turkey ready, we needed to start our preparations well in advance.  We wanted to brine the bird first, so we improvised by placing it in a 5-gallon bucket with a salty solution  with spices and citrus and letting it sit overnight on Tuesday before dropping it off on Wednesday to be cooked.   When we arrived on Wednesday, what we saw was amazing.  This was no small event, they used a backhoe to dig a pit and load it with wood...