Elder & Sister Mundell

This week we returned to teaching early morning seminary, but at a new location.  The Kaneohe stake center recently re-opened after being closed for four years due to mold damage, the result of being unused for several months during the pandemic, and all of the seminary classes were moved to the renovated building.  The stake center is very close to our apartment, less than one mile away, so it's definitely better for us, but several of our students will now have a much longer drive to get there, and so we feel badly for them and their families.  It's a very big building, almost too big for seminary.  We were offered the large high council room near the library or a smaller classroom on the far side of the building, but we opted for the classroom because it will be easier for use to our assigned closet in the hallway.  We had a very spiritual discussion about the First Vision, and presented our first "life lessons" on goal-setting.  CES is starting a new in...

  We took a break from our mission this past week and visited the neighbor Hawaiian Islands on a cruise ship. We've spent our entire time on Oahu, and really wanted to see for ourselves what the other islands and their culture was like.  Of course we could have taken a plane to each of the islands of Hawaii, but we felt like going on a cruise would be the most fun and interesting way to accomplish that goal. There's a Norwegian cruise ship called "The Pride of America" that leaves Honolulu every Saturday and returns one week later, stopping at Maui, Hawaii and Kauai each for two days, so we made plans to take the cruise right after New Year's without letting too many people know why we wouldn't be around for that week. The Pride of America Our first stop was at Kahului on the island of Maui, and the LDS stake center was only about a half-mile from the port so we walked to Church. We met two other couples from the cruise ship that did the same thing. Later that...

This past week was a quiet one for Elder Mundell, except for one night.  Sister Mundell was on the mainland helping her daughter deal with the aftermath of losing her husband on Christmas Day, and many of the places we normally serve at during the week were minimally staffed during the holidays, so he spent most of his time in the apartment -- reading, marking copies of the Book of Mormon for the missionaries to hand out, and doing some family history work.  But on New Year's Eve it was anything but quiet.  It is traditional on Oahu, and probably the other islands of Hawaii as well, for families to go all out with elaborate expensive displays of fireworks for the start of the new year.  It seems fireworks are going off everywhere, and it starts several days before in late December.  The fireworks were booming and bursting with dazzling displays on New Year's Eve even before the sun went down, and continued through the night, reaching a deafening peak around midn...