It’s been an entire year since I’ve left Jerusalem.
The sadness and longing never goes away.
But most fortunately, the happiness never leaves either.
Holy Moly Holy Land I miss it and everyone and everything so much!
is Robby Reeves.
And it’s his birthday today.
I miss Robby a lot. He lived with my family for many many years, but doesn’t anymore. It’s bittersweet.
Robby is the best though. There isn’t anyone who is happier with life than he is. He’s so good and so fun and I love hanging out with him.
I wish I got to see him more, because this cool kid makes me happy. I love Robby Reeves! And I hope he has a happy happy birthday.
my sweet new ukulele to this tune:
5 Years Time by Noah and the Whale,
a delightful little song I was just introduced to.
Working on my ukulele skills
And looking for a name for my little ukey.
By the way, have you ever listened to Ted?
Semester over. Break time.
A week off to do whatever I want.
Awesome.
Except sad that so many peeps are gone now.
Too many goodbyes.
It happens though.
Here’s what else happened:
Cruised around the island in this sweet ride beaucoup, mostly with this Sister girl and Anito.
Jammed to the pod the whole time in the car. Listened to sweet tunes such as Journey, Sufjan Stevens, Mason Jennings, Billy Joel, First Aid Kit, Regina Spektor, Matt Costa, and more.
Went to a beautiful Buddhist temple where Sister, Anita, and I made a new friend from Singapore. Funny man.
Rung a giant gong to spread happiness and such.
Made some beautiful wishes.
Played on the beach of course!
Went to Swap Meet with some lovely amigas.
Worked on my ukulele skills. It’s progressing well.
Discovered some Cadbury mini eggs at Pricebusters! Then proceeded to eat too many of them. Somehow that always happens. :)
I also spent much time enjoying the beautiful Hawaiian sky and sun and trees and everything. I love being here. And this blessed school is so perfect for me.
Miffy rides a bike.
I ride a bike.
Should I take marine bio or not take marine bio?
I LOVE MY OWN ROOM.
Tis complete with Enya, yogi tea, and incense.
Early to bed, early to rise,
makes one healthy, wealthy, and wise.
is good.
But it is much better when you’re not being forced to do it.
Speaking of that, I no like HRI lately.
They’re the property management people over our house.
They are being especially dumb these days.
Our dearest wonderful Anita friend just turned 22. To celebrate the anniversary of her birth, we presented her with a yummy vegan cupcake on the beach at midnight.
Then we had a party at our house after church and Anita got to blow out more candles and make more wishes! Hooray!
We had some yummy yummy food. Quinoa, fruits, veggies, hummus, lumpia, cookies, and cupcakes! Yummo! Twas fabulouso.
We had such a lovely little party celebrating lovely Anita.
That girl is so wonderful. I love her so much. What would I do without her in my life? I just love being with her so muchos. She makes me a happy girl. And so HAPPY birthday to yo Anito!
putting a lei on dearest Gibby
Leinani, my wonderful 2nd counselor, with leis up to her eyeballs
rooooomies
Jesus and April, my favorite Mexicans :)
Becky and Tareiha, wonderful wonderful sisters
This will be me someday sort of soon, suffocating in leis, probably in three more semesters, or about 2013. :)
Done with papers!
Done with homeworks!
Done with exams!
Done with class!
And I am freeeee for a week!
To celebrate this blessed event, I went thrift shopping with Katie and Nate. There’s this awesome Goodwill Surplus store downtown and we found a wicked good Savers too. It was an absolutely delightful day of freedom. I love thrift stores so so much. And I really love those Williams a lot too. Perfect.
Sister and I made a bunch of yummy candy leis too because graduation is almost here! Glad I’m not graduating yet. Very glad.
Semeester is almost done.
Been spending a lot of time in Hale 5 lately with all my lovely Relief Society sisters. I just love them all a lot. A lot.
Sat in Kenze girl’s room the other night and watched her pack. :) Took her to the airport early in the morn and I’m gonna miss that girly. I’ll miss all those girlies.
I love our Relief Society.
Had a class party at Brother Ford’s house too, complete with Rock Band, yummy food, and some very good people.
Went to April’s art show too. She just keeps getting more and more incredible.
Got a sweet awesome box from Tingy boy in the mail too, full of wonderful presents. And I got a very happy card from Sashie. I just know the greatest people in the world. But really if you get to know people well enough, they’re all pretty great.
I love Easter. Such a glorious time of year.
It is especially glorious having General Conference all weekend. So good. Gen Conf is the best.
You know what else is the best? Waking up and discovering Sister hid a little Easter bag full of chocolate treats for me to find. I love Easter time.
You know what else is the best? Waking up and discovering Sister hid a little Easter bag full of chocolate treats for me to find. I love Easter time.
And it was so incredible being in Jerusalem last year for Easter.
I could not have spent Easter in a better place or with better people. It was the absolutely best of the the best.
Reading in the New Testament about Christ’s last week and picturing myself in all of the places makes this whole week so much more meaningful and real.
Christ entered triumphantly into Jerusalem, with His divinity being recognized. It is now known as Palm Sunday.
A few days later, on Thursday, Maundy Thursday, he had a Passover feast with his disciples, where he institued the sacrament and where he announced that one of his belobed disciples would betray him.
Later that night, he went as he was wont to the Mt. of Olives with some of his disciples. They came to Gethsemane, and Christ told his disciples to “Watch and pray, lest ye enter not into tempataion.” This garden, at these olives trees, is where our Savior suffered ALL the pains and sorrows and sins of the world. There is not one thing he did not suffer, and he did it alone.
Then came Judas Iscariot with the Roman guard to arrest Christ. It was late in the night and Christ was pained and exhausted. They took him to the high priests house where he was mocked and hurt. Then he went from Pilate, to Herod Antipas, and back to Pilate. Where he was bitterly scourged and humiliated in front of many he knew and taught. He was forced to carry his own cross on the Via Dolorosa, the Way of Sorrows, on his way to Golgotha, where he was nailed to a cross and crucified. This day was Good Friday, good often meaning holy.
After Christ died, Joseph of Arimethia begged for his body so he could put him in his tomb. Nicodemus annointed Christ’s body with very expensive oils. Christ was laid to rest in Joseph of Arimethia’s tomb, a borrowed tomb.
Saturday passed. Then came Sunday, the first Easter. Christ overcame death and was resurrected. Mary went to the tomb to pay tribute to her Lord, but he was not there. Angels said to her, “He is not here, for he is risen.” Christ then came and showed his risen self to the people.
He is risen. A very happy Easter.
I know this very wonderful girl. Her name is Anita. She’s from NZ and is completely lovely. 
She lives in the hales and most unfortunately for her, she discovered her mattress has a bad case of bed bugs. Eww.
She did a very good job of exterminating them though so hopefully they’ll be all gone. And then she came over to my house did more bug exterminating. We had like 5 million flies in here and Anito just killed them all, like a champ.
Then we watched Harry Potter 1 and 2 and ate fajitas and looked at lots funny pictures from freshman year. So wonderful. And now her name is Extermanita and I love her so much.
That’s what I decided to name my penguin friend.
Why, may you ask, am I naming my penguin friend Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen…
The answer is threefold.
1.) I like to give names to inanimate objects, whether it is a bike, laptop, car, cell phone, or any one of my many little friends, I like when they have good names.
2.) Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen is one of those good names!
3.) It’s Bunsen Burner Day! And Robert Wilhelm Eberhard von Bunsen invented the Bunsen Burner! Perfecto.
I just found this happy happy picture while browsing through my Jerusalem friends old blogs, back in the Jerusalem days most of them blogged. :)
A grand mahalos to Moon for taking this lovely picture.
Oh how I miss times like these with such dear friends, holding hands and skipping through enchanted forest paths… how beautiful.
Twas Passover today (and pretty full moon). I didn’t really celebrate though. It’s not as easy celebrating Jewish holidays when you’re not living in a Jewish state.
I surely had a Passover feast last year though. I even sang Hebrew songs and read translated Hebrew stories too. How awesome is that.
But today I read in the New Testament about Jesus and his apostles’ Passover feast. That night was His last night before he was crucified, the night He suffered for every pain and every sin and for every person in the world.
So blessed that I got to go to Jerusalem and study these stories on site, where they happened about 2000 years ago. So blessed.
Wish I had some sort of Passover party today. All I did mostly was go to class. Nutrition, soccer, and peacebuilding. I maybe did a little bit of homeworks/hdub today too. Not the most eventful Passover, but still a good day of course.
This day is so much more special to me since a year ago, when I got to do the Palm Sunday processional walk in JERUSALEM, on a hot hot sunny day, with thousands of other devoted Christians.
Just as Christ’s followers did 2000 years ago, we carried palm leaves and walked from Bethphage to St. Anne’s church inside Lion’s Gate. What an incredible experience. I’m just so blessed to have learned and enjoyed all I have with such good people.
I talked with Bishop after church today. He is so so wonderful. So inspired and guided by the spirit. Was so comforting and encouraging talking with him. Talked to him about some good Relief Society stuffs and also… about going on a mission, which I’m doing this fall. Crazy. But so good. So exciting.
Also had a super fabulous vegan feast party with the neighbors and fellow vegetarian type peoples. Absolutely lovely. Hopefully we’ll have another one next week for Easters!
Don’t forget to read the post about my dear birthday sister who I love muchos. :)
I love Hawaiian state holidays, especially Prince Kuhio Day. No class and our Black and White ward dinner dance activity.
Since I’ve got a sweet ride and a costco card, I took the boys to Costcoland this morning to get foods for the activity. Then help set up for it in the ballroom and fun stuffs.
Had quite a lovely time with the activity. Helped clean up at the end and did a lot of piano playing in the ballroom. Twas marvelous. I must do more piano fun.
P.S. I LOVE GOOGLE EARTH!
P.P.S. I bought And So It Goes on itunes. Billy Joel is the man.
As is Prince Kuhio!
This is my sister. Today we are celebrating her day of birth. What a beautifully joyous day. I love birthdays so much. I love sister too.
Here is a random list of things I love about my sister dear:
-her good belly laugh
-her rocking back and forth and knee slap when things are especially humorous
-her shuffle, both of feet and of shovel
-her good aunty-ness
-her compassion for animals and people
-her spider/cockroach dreams
-her hearts
-her playing dumb about computer things so I’ll do them for her
-her playing dumb about computer things so I’ll do them for her
-her blogging
-her curry and her potatoes :)
-her cottage love
-her sporting her new sunglasses
-her musketeerishness
-her pebbles hair
-her toe
-her on top of it – ness
-her family devotion
-her books
-her m&m love
-her dinosaur
-her eyebrow raising
-her timeliness
-her products and supplies she lets me steal
-her attempt at accents
-her in her blue aloha work shirt
-her sharing acai with me
-her beach dedication and love
-her being called boy
-her muted side of the closet
-her cockroach killing skills
-being able to do everything with her
-and I especially love her love for me
-her cottage love
-her sporting her new sunglasses
-her musketeerishness
-her pebbles hair
-her toe
-her on top of it – ness
-her family devotion
-her books
-her m&m love
-her dinosaur
-her eyebrow raising
-her timeliness-her products and supplies she lets me steal
-her attempt at accents
-her in her blue aloha work shirt
-her sharing acai with me
-her beach dedication and love
-her being called boy
-her muted side of the closet
-her cockroach killing skills
-being able to do everything with her
-and I especially love her love for me
I just love this girl so much. I think I love her more than I realize. It’s so nice seeing her everyday. It’s so nice going to bed with my last words for the day being, “Goodnight, love you.” Things are just so good.
Hoppy Birthday Sister Dear.
