The Hawaiian Temple Visitor's Center

The Laie Hawaiian Visitor Center

Note:  Our mission responsibilities have begun!  We are getting our apartment settled, establishing residency, buying a car,  preparing for the upcoming semester at BYUH, getting church callings which includes mentoring the individuals in the Young Single Adult Branch which has taken us through many beautiful places on the island.  We want you to enjoy it with us! 

The La'ie Hawaii Temple Visitor's Center plays an important role in this city.  The Center attracts more than 100,000 people annually.

These are the sister missionaries that greeted us at the door with "Aloha".  We asked where they were from...Los Angeles and Forteleza, Brazil.

This is the sight that welcomes you.  It is especially beautiful with the Christmas decor surrounding the magnificent reminder of our Savior and Redeemer!

This next room has this huge globe with Books of Mormon in many, many different languages.  "...having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.."

 The grass huts in this display talk about family and how central the family is in the Plan of Happiness.

 Every person on earth is a child of God.  He has a plan for each member of His family!  He desires that each understands and lives His plan for them to find the greatest happiness!

There were Christmas trees everywhere and we found that each stake on the island creates a tree with a different theme and it is displayed at the Visitor's Center.

Our favorite tree was covered with these hand-made nativity scenes and the many titles of our Savior, Jesus Christ!  It was lit in white lights with white ribbons and bulbs BUT the nativity scenes really made this tree exquisite!

Hallways were beautiful with displays and explanations of the gospel of Jesus Christ along with missionaries eager to answer questions and assist in anyway. 

This Christmas season has found us in places never dreamed of.  It has filled us with deep gratitude and awe at the tender mercies of the Lord.  We love our Savior, Jesus Christ!

"...open your ears that ye may hear, and your hearts that ye may understand, and your minds that the mysteries of God may be unfolded to your view."

                              Mosiah 2:9

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Our first visit to the Laie Hawaii Temple (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints)

Holiness to the Lord - The House of the Lord

This Laie Hawaiian temple was announced by Pres. Joseph F. Smith in 1915. It was dedicated by Pres. Heber J. Grant in 1919.  This Temple was the first temple built by the LDS Church outside of the continental United States.

There are several water features including this fountain spray throughout the grounds!

Today was a lovely December day in Laie!  We walked about two blocks to this beautiful scene!  What a blessing to have a temple so close to where we are serving! We love attending and serving within this holy place. It is a blessing in our lives.

It is located on the northeast shore of the Hawaian island of O'ahu.  The temple sits on a small hill, a half-mile from the Pacific Ocean, in the town of La'ie, 35 miles from Honolulu.

The sculpted and beautiful gardens are a bit of paradise within paradise!

The Hibiscus are everywhere and so perfect that they hardly look real!

The Banyan trees tower up so beautifully and their leaves intermingle causing a huge canopy above!

Even behind the temple, the beauty is exquisite!

This is a sculpture depicting a scene from the Book of Mormon where Lehi gives his son, Jacob, a blessing!

There are four separate depictions of noted events of the New Testament, Old Testament, Book of Mormon and the Restoration like this( frieze shown) on the four sides of the upper temple walls.  They are duplicated on the walls within the patio behind the Family History Center.

The temple is for families, one of the greatest treasures we have in mortality.  He has indicated that the greatest work we parents can do is performed in our homes, and our homes can be heaven, particularly when our marriages are sealed in the house of God.  Pres. Thomas S. Monson.

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The temple provides purpose for our lives.  It brings peace to our souls-not the peace provided by men but the peace promised by the Son of God when He said, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you."

                                                                                           President Thomas S. Monson

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Traveling to our new mission: from Icy Weather to Sunshine!

From outside our apartment at BYU-Hawaii - Aloha

ALOHA!!

Even in the opportunity to serve the Lord, "...it needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so,...righteousness could not be brought to pass.." (2 Nephi 2:11)

Dec. 19, 2013, THE DAY OF OUR TRAVEL FROM THE MAINLAND TO THE ISLAND OF OAHU, HAWAII... was to be a simple trip. 

However, here are the notes Sister Frogley made as we progressed:

Travel from SLC, UT to  LAIE, HI

3:15 am -The alarm went off at home in Draper. We finished plasticizing our room. Drank smoothies that I made last night. Finalized suitcases.

4:15 am - Adam, our son, started loading our 6 large bags in his sweetheart's car.

4:30 am -Left home. Adam and Nikki road with us as Craig drove Nikki's car through rain turning to snow. It was a slow go. Past a car on the freeway that had slid into the divider facing the oncoming, one way traffic.

5:30 am -Arrived at the airport after freezing rain on icy roads. Thanked and hugged Adam and Nikki for their loving servicei!  Adam was so sick!  He really should not have come. SO SORRY, Adam!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  

5:55 am -Checked in our 4 big 50 pound bags. Went through security. Arrived at Gate A3 and relaxed a bit.

6:55 am -Boarded on time . Could not take our carry-ons inside the aircraft. Instructed to leave them just outside the plane entrance. Sitting in seats 7A&B.

7:25 am-NO TAKE OFF! Iced over plane! Take Off DELAYED!

Stopped aircraft taxiing to have a crew spray plane down with de-ice solution (peach colored) by TAC AIR.  Man in crow's nest hooked on top of the truck was driven around the plane to spray peach stuff all over the plane for 12 minutes, then they began spraying wings down with lime green spray for another 6 minutes. THIS TOOK UNTIL 8 am.

8:00 am -The plane taxied to runway and waited for a turn to take off and idled for sometime.
ANOTHER DELAY ...because of the snow, they must plow the runways.

8:15  am. -The pilot announced that  we must return to the gate to refuel. Idling the plane engines at the runway has used up too much fuel. Also, since waiting in the snow storm, we must DE-ICE the aircraft AGAIN.

8:30  am - We have not begun the refuel or the de-ice process. The storm rages on dropping more snow!

8:40  am - We are back to the gate A3...but have not disembarked. The plane engine has been shut off. Refueling has begun. The stewardess is bringing water around.  People are up stretching.  Several people have decided NOT to fly today and left the plane to try and gather their luggage. 

9:05 am - There is a report that a jet has slid off the runway!  Not us, thankfully.  The airport just closed down.  We are all disembarking the plane!!  Back to Gate A3.

9:20 am - Back inside the airport just waiting! Announcement that they should re-open the airport in two hours.

11:10 am - We are reboarding the same American Airlines flight 2641 to LA.

11:30 am - De-ice process AGAIN! I could not even see out of the window (pictured).  The window was iced over so that we could not even look out.

12:15 pm - Finally in the air!!!!  On the way to Los Angeles!


3:30 pm - We arrived in LAX and went to the customer service center.

We have been rerouted to a standby flight direct to Honolulu ...with another option if we do not make that plane , to go on a flight to Maui and then connect another flight to  Honolulu.  It would put us there about midnight ( or 3 am our time) ( we will have been awake over 24 hrs).Then another hour to drive to Laie, where our apartment is! 

4:36 We did NOT make the Standby Flight directly to Honolulu.  We wait again for the flight to Maui.

5:45 pm - We board the aircraft that will take us to Maui BUT WE DON'T LEAVE!  We sit in our seat-belts wondering why the jet is standing still for so long? After 20 minutes past the departure time, the  pilot announces that one tire( of the ten on the jumbo jet 676) needs replacing. After 30 more minutes, he explains that they had to have the hydraulics checked and when the paperwork arrived in his hands from that check, we could depart. Waited another 30 minutes.

7:15 pm Finally in the air going to Maui. (5 hr flight-lost 2 hours in time change).

10:15 pm Arrival in Maui. Hurried to next gate.

10:54 pm In flight to Honolulu.

12:15 am - Arrived in Honolulu!

12:30 am - Picked up 4 large suitcases at baggage claim ..BUT our carry ons did not make it.  Filled out paperwork and showed luggage stubs for them to be located. ( They were stuck in Maui.)

1:15 am - Brother Eric Marlowe, from BYUH,drove clear from Laie (over an hour) to pick us up! He greeted us with a big "Aloha!" ,,,and put a flower lei around Janet's neck and a fruit lei on Craig. A lovely traditional Hawaiian greeting even in the wee hours of the morning! Thank you, Brother Marlowe!  We were so happy to see you!

2:15 am -  We arrived at our apartment!! Brother Marlowe had the key and helped us get our luggage inside!

2:45am Hawaii time - ( 5:45 am SLC  time)
Feeling so blessed and thankful to our merciful Father for His watchful love and care...as we laid heads down on our pillows!!!

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"The Lord is good to all; and his tender mercies are over all.." Psalms 145:9

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Our Historic MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER (MTC) Experience

As we begin our second mission, we also experienced the MTC (Mission Training Center) for a second time.  BYU-Hawaii is our CES (Church Education System) mission assignment.  Craig will be teaching on the Religion Faculty and I have yet to receive my assignment. I was told it could be Academic Library Advisor or EIL (English as an International Language).  

We entered the MTC on December 2, 2013.....along with 152 other senior couples. They had never had 153 couples in one week..THAT WAS HISTORIC!  This picture only shows about one-fifth of the couples training that week.  We are the 8th from the right in this picture.

We were divided into districts of about four couples for training.

District #3 - Our teacher trainers are seated in front.

Our district is made up of a divergent group…three other couples. One man was in law  enforcement at the county level,  another an accountant, and another a tech guy. The tech guy-“friar Tuck” and his wife served in Cambodia last year.  We are growing closer and developing real respect for each other. It is great!

Journal entry - Yesterday at the MTC we role played a teaching scenario with a volunteer man who was about 82 years old. He claimed to be a non-member who retired from the Navy and settled near his children and so wondered about the church. He said he was told that if he wanted to learn, the best place was the MTC. We still don’t know if he was legitimate or just playing a part. Our experience was wonderful. We worried and prayed for help to work together. It was so wonderful to switch so naturally back and forth. I couldn’t help but notice that when Janny spoke, the spirit visibly moved this man. At one point I testified to him that in spite of his negative experience with his father that his experience AS a father was what his Father in Heaven wanted him to feel from Him. Your Father in Heaven loves you and is involved in the details of your life. Janny likewise testified… as we did so his eyes filled with tears…he was deeply moved. He was so anxious to accept our invitation to commit to reading the Joseph Smith pamphlet and accept an appointment for today to talk about the Book of Mormon…. But we are told we can’t have an appointment with him. We will be teaching someone else the Plan of Salvation.

Our second teaching day was to a woman who sweetly resisted our invitations with what she thought would be difficult questions… She commented, "It is troubling to be reading in what I thought was God’s word only to find the story hero and author beheading a man called Laban."   Interestingly, Janny and I had role-played that very question and discussed the answer. Our discussion was thoughtful and confirming. The woman, near the end of our discussion, broke out of her role and said, “You must be a seminary teacher or stake president or both???”  We laughed and went on with the role to the end.

 Little did we know that many more faith promoting experiences would be ours while training in Preach My Gospel. We also attended two evening firesides with speakers, Brother Bruce Hafen and Elder Quinton L. Cook.  Inspiring!!

Dec. 7, 13 -We are home and finished with the first week of our MTC experience.  They have so improved the MTC experience… we felt so engaged and so empowered from our experience and training. Though there was little that was new to us, the manner in which it was organized and presented was so beneficial. We are ready to teach investigators and less-actives…not just by knowing the missionary lessons but also by principle and experience. 

 Our second week at the MTC was training as a Church Education missionary. Within the MTC there are specified trainings for different types of missions, such as....Military, Proselyting, Member-Leadership Support, Humanitarian, Public Affairs, Accounting, Farming, Construction, Temple, Real Estate, Medical and many, many more!

Pictured are some Military and CES couples that we trained with.  Each couple has a specific call. These are a few of the places they have been called to serve....Russia, Tuscon AZ,  Italy, Japan, Baltic Sea Area, Jamaica, Africa, Germany, Minnesota, Canada, North Dakota, Puerto Rico, England.....and others.

Training included....
Our Purpose: Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.

-Truth: "To be known, the truth must be stated and the clearer and more complete the statement is, the better the opportunity will the Holy Spirit have for testifying to the souls of men that the work is true.’"  B.H.Roberts

-Teaching in a classroom setting. The worth of each soul.

- Prodigal Son: And thus we see that God's thoughts and ways concerning mercy are higher than our thoughts and ways...in as much as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my merciful ways higher than yours. One of the most effective ways to help students invite the influence of the Spirit into their hearts and prepare them to act on the principle they have learned is to encourage them to reflect on personal experiences related to that principle. This helps students recognize the impact the principle has had in their lives or in the lives of others. (Fundamentals of Gospel Teaching and Learning)

-Evidence...(scripture, past experience) + Assurance (must feel through the spirit-help them feel) + Action (commit to action)

-Priesthood Keys

-Administration and priesthood relationships.

 "THE LORD IS PREPARING MORE THAN WE ARE INVITING."    Pres. Thomas S. Monson

 We had studied identifying purpose, preparing and teaching skills, principle statements, the power of the spirit, and faith to believe that we are called and sustained by God. 

 It was gratifying to see the enthusiasm as everyone was anxious to start their service in their missions. What a blessing to meet and connect with such wonderful people who love their Savior and are willing to serve Him throughout the earth. We also are anxious to share our testimonies of our Savior and Redeemer and his gospel!

We are so grateful for this preparatory experience!

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Doctrine and Covenants 11:21 Seek not to ^adeclare my word, but first seek to ^bobtain my^cword, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my ^dSpirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the ^econvincing of men.

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