Hawai'i Day 5
Day 5:
Rondi and I attended the McCully ward in Honolulu. The building is amazing. The chapel is shaped kind of like a big T, which seats facing from the sides on the front. There are about 10 sets of doors that can be opened to let air in.
They have Sunday School Classes taught in each of the following languages: English, Spanish, Chuukese, Marshallese, Pohnpeian, and Japanese! There is a beautiful reflecting pool in the courtyard. It is a beautiful building, and the people were very, very friendly. About ½ of the people there were visitors! But, it is so nice, that no matter where you go, church is conducted exactly the same, lessons are taught the same, and the sacrament is the same. The only difference in Hawaii is that each speaker begins by saying, “Aloha!” at which point the congregation responds with, “Aloha!” I like it.
Later we decided to take a hike up to Muanawili Falls. At the beginning of our hike we met a man and his daughter coming down. He said to us, “you are entering into the bowels of hell!” and his young daughter said, “turn around, it isn’t worth it!” It was a good thing that Brooke had been there before so that she could encourage us to keep going! A little bit farther we stopped and had a guy take our picture. His wife looked at us and lamented, “oh, you look so CLEAN!” Needless to say, we started really getting nervous at that point, well, I’m not sure about everyone else, but I was! We started up the hill and it didn’t take us long to understand what they meant. The entire path was covered with tree roots covered in mud. There were mud puddles in between the roots, and very slick mud on every side. Trying to avoid the mud puddles put us on mud that was just like stepping on a sheet of ice! Of course, I demonstrated to our group the art of slipping and falling, several times! I found myself covered in the slimy mud. Other than the slipping and sliding, the hike really was quite fun, and the beautiful views and scenery were incredible!
The falls themselves were smaller than I had anticipated, but it was very nice to relax and watch all of the kids jump off the cliffs into the pool at the base of the falls. Rondi and Corby took turns jumping off with several other hikers. At one point, Corby decided she wanted to do the really high jump. I’m not very good at estimated heights, but we feel that she jumped approximately 60 feet. It was more scary than she had anticipated, so it actually took her about 20 minutes to get up the courage to make the jump. Luckily there were a couple of guys who hiked up with her who were helping her make the decision to jump. After a long wait, she finally made the jump! What a trooper! She is amazing!
That night, after finally getting all cleaned up, we walked down the beach and watched the sunset. It was incredible!
Rondi and I attended the McCully ward in Honolulu. The building is amazing. The chapel is shaped kind of like a big T, which seats facing from the sides on the front. There are about 10 sets of doors that can be opened to let air in.
They have Sunday School Classes taught in each of the following languages: English, Spanish, Chuukese, Marshallese, Pohnpeian, and Japanese! There is a beautiful reflecting pool in the courtyard. It is a beautiful building, and the people were very, very friendly. About ½ of the people there were visitors! But, it is so nice, that no matter where you go, church is conducted exactly the same, lessons are taught the same, and the sacrament is the same. The only difference in Hawaii is that each speaker begins by saying, “Aloha!” at which point the congregation responds with, “Aloha!” I like it.
Later we decided to take a hike up to Muanawili Falls. At the beginning of our hike we met a man and his daughter coming down. He said to us, “you are entering into the bowels of hell!” and his young daughter said, “turn around, it isn’t worth it!” It was a good thing that Brooke had been there before so that she could encourage us to keep going! A little bit farther we stopped and had a guy take our picture. His wife looked at us and lamented, “oh, you look so CLEAN!” Needless to say, we started really getting nervous at that point, well, I’m not sure about everyone else, but I was! We started up the hill and it didn’t take us long to understand what they meant. The entire path was covered with tree roots covered in mud. There were mud puddles in between the roots, and very slick mud on every side. Trying to avoid the mud puddles put us on mud that was just like stepping on a sheet of ice! Of course, I demonstrated to our group the art of slipping and falling, several times! I found myself covered in the slimy mud. Other than the slipping and sliding, the hike really was quite fun, and the beautiful views and scenery were incredible!
The falls themselves were smaller than I had anticipated, but it was very nice to relax and watch all of the kids jump off the cliffs into the pool at the base of the falls. Rondi and Corby took turns jumping off with several other hikers. At one point, Corby decided she wanted to do the really high jump. I’m not very good at estimated heights, but we feel that she jumped approximately 60 feet. It was more scary than she had anticipated, so it actually took her about 20 minutes to get up the courage to make the jump. Luckily there were a couple of guys who hiked up with her who were helping her make the decision to jump. After a long wait, she finally made the jump! What a trooper! She is amazing!
That night, after finally getting all cleaned up, we walked down the beach and watched the sunset. It was incredible!
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