Week 84 & 85
Aloha everyone!
So yeah…. I swear it was just Monday… but I guess its been 14 days… and wow those 14 days have been busy!!!! Probably over 100 hours of service, a Trip to Kalaupapa, 2 day trip to Maui, 2 Sundays, and a bunch of teaching sprinkled in the mix. Oh and did I mention we are going back down to Kalaupapa for 2 days this week? Yeah. Its kind of nuts over here right now! And so I know its kind of overwhelming so I will try and stick to the highlights of our trips and I have over 200 pictures from these past 2 weeks so ill try and summarize and after my mission you can ask me to see them all because some of them are million dollar views.
Ok so Kalaupapa. The quick story of the place is it is a leper colony on the back of Molokai where all the lepers were sent during the King Kamehameha reign until the cure was found for leprosy. It is on the north shore of Molokai separated from the rest of the island by a 2000 foot cliff… yeah that’s big! And the only way in is either hike down or by plane. The water is too rough fro boats except in June. So anyway a catholic priest and a Mormon boy went down there to help and most of the patients were then Mormon or Catholic. Well there are no longer any patients living that are LDS but there are still 9 lepers and then the support staff of 100 federal and state workers that take care of them and the peninsula.
#Conquered
Down there the church has a chapel, mission home, and cultural hall. And in past members of the church would hike down to administer services to the patients and the workers that stay down there full time. But when the last patient died they stopped (about 8 years ago) but lately they have decided to restart having services down there so we went down with a ward from Maui to clean the grounds and prepare the chapel for the first services. The hike is 3.5 miles of 26 switchbacks of stairs… Stairway to you knows where… it took us 45 mins to get down and 1.5 hours out. Most people it take 2 hours plus to get out. It was an amazing experience to be there and to feel of the sacredness of the place. It is a very peaceful place and the resting place for all those who were out cast from their families to be exiled there. We are going to go down on Wednesday with President Warner to do another serviced project and to do whatever we can to help the community. We will stay the night and hike out on Thursday.
Our other trip was to Maui for Doctor’s appointments and Zone conference. We flew over Wednesday morning then came home Thursday night. Our flight was on Mokulele Airlines, which flies between the islands in little 9 seater cessnas! It was awesome! It was a brisk 25 min flight along Molokai’s North shore. And I can honestly say it is the most beautiful view I have ever seen and probably will be forever. We flew at about 3,00 Ft. about a mile off the coast and it was incredible. Pictures don’t do it justice. Anyway it was like heaven having fast foot and real stores!!!!!! We went to Panda Express first of coarse. Then went to Walmart!!! It was awesome! We had Tacobell for dinner then Krispy Kreme for breakfast! The only one in Hawaii! Our Zone Conference was great and we got a lot of great instruction!
Our Taxi to Maui!
Anyway! Im about out of time and I don’t want to keep you too long! Im grateful for the opportunities and experiences I am blessed to have here. I will try and include some pictures and blow your mind! Haha I Love you all and cant believe I soon will finish my time here and return home.
I love you all!
Elder Shoaf
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