Upon our return from Utah to our Maui home, we had one day to prepare for the arrival of family from California, David, Bonnie, and Dexter. We had a wonderful time being with and hosting them. And they had a wonderful time as well. More on their visit in a moment.

Addiction Recovery Program (ARP) support meeting attendance was down a little during the holidays but our first two meetings this year were well attended. We are very grateful for Senior Missionary, Elder Jeff Taylor for the excellent and sensitive job he does conducting the meetings when we are away. “Addictions don’t take holiday’s,” they say so we continue with the support meetings right on through holidays. Sister Hardman and I were grateful to be with our friends in Christ again and to support them in their efforts to apply the Atonement of Jesus Christ to empower them to recover.

We are currently on Step 7 of, “Healing through the Savior.” As written in the manual, and as recited by participants, “All the previous steps have prepared us for this step. Step 1 helped us to be humble and admit we were powerless over our addictions. Steps 2 and 3 helped us have enough faith and confidence in the Lord to ask Him for help. Our inventories from step 4 helped us see our characters and behaviors more clearly. Working step 5 demonstrated our courage to be honest with God, ourselves, and another person. Step 6 helped us become ready and willing to let go of our character weaknesses. We are now ready to take step 7…Humbly ask Heavenly Father to remove our shortcomings.”

Each week as we read the manual together, then hear what each participant wants to share, we feel profound compassion, sometimes heartbreak, experienced wisdom, and anxious pleas for God’s help. We are blessed hearing strong and heartfelt testimonies when a participant gets to that point where they know the Lord has blessed them. The Atonement of Jesus Christ takes on powerful meaning and purpose when individuals and relationships move in the direction of healing.

We also teach Sunday School to the older youth in our ward. Picture a small classroom table in the middle of a large classroom surrounded by fifteen to twenty chairs filled with youth who are of a variety of cultures and who are attentive and reverent. Sister Hardman and I sit around the circle with them and we all try to participate as equals. A week ago the Come, Follow Me topic was, “The First Testament of Jesus Christ – Introduction to the Old Testament.” 

“When you think of the Old Testament, perhaps one of the oldest books in the world, what stories do you remember?” We engaged the students with, “How do these stories point us to Jesus Christ? That will be our goal this year, to learn to read scriptures and see how they point us to Christ.” One young man answered, “Jonah.” So we turned to Jonah and read the story. We then turned to the New Testament to see Jesus telling others directly how to see Him in that story. A young woman on my right mentioned, “Manna from heaven.” So we read from Exodus and then from the Gospel of John where Jesus told them who the bread of life is. I made a point to thank the young men in the room for administering the sacrament to us the previous hour. Other class members mentioned stories and we read the story and how they point to Christ.

The time was limited but we touched on a few other points mentioned in Come, Follow Me, then bore testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, prayed, and concluded the meeting. We love these kids.

While not in ARP and Church meetings we hosted and had fun with our family from California. With our seven-year-old grandson, they wanted to spend a lot of time on the beach and in the water. Several times we took them to our favorite beach on the island, Keawakapu in south Kihei. The corral rich sand is beautifully consistent and pleasant to walk on. The waves are gentle for families. The palms provide morning shade, and the people are very pleasant. We brought sand chairs, umbrella and tools to build sand-castles. On another day we explored the Dragon’s Teeth ancient lava flow reaching out into the powerful waves of the north shore at Kapalua. We visited the wonderful, “Maui Ocean Center,” with its many aquariums of sea creatures, educational exhibits and opportunities to learn about life common to this area of the pacific. 

We ascended the 175 steps to the lookout for the natural and historic Iao Needle which towers above Iao Valley not far from Wailuku and Kahului. We all waded in the natural stream and enjoyed God’s creations in this beautiful place. We journeyed to the south end of the island, crossing lava flows from several hundred years ago to walk coastal trails rich with shells, strong winds, a blow hole, and a few goats. We then removed the hiking shoes returning to the beautiful beaches of Makena and Wailea to play and observe the sunset. Our time together included meals and delicious places, food-trucks, extremely good ice cream at Roselani’s in Paia, and goats milk chocolates at the up-country Surfing Goat Dairy farm.

At the end of their vacation it was hard to get them on the airplane. We didn’t want them to go and they didn’t want to leave. It was blessing to have them with us. After saying goodbye, Sister Hardman and I went to Costco for a hotdog, then to a furniture store to get a new bed. While there we met a worker, Brian, who after making the sale wanted to tell us his stories of rescue and service and good-will. We listened! On Saturday evening we had dinner with our friends, Elder and Sister Marriott. They are a joy to be with. We took a two mile walk with them in the dark observing Jupiter and a few constellations. On Sunday we worshiped with our ward members who we have come to love.

The year is off to a good start.