A Couple of Tender Mercies - December 4 - 10, 2023

       With the Thanksgiving holiday done and BYU-H finished for the semester except for finals, there wasn't as much going on with things to do and participate in.  We started getting into a routine.  Work at the PCC from 8AM until 2pmish. Go home and relax, clean house, or work on the blog.  It gets dark around 6pm and with the weather off and on again rainy it's been hard to make plans to do anything.  Ukulele lessons on Monday night we could do rain or shine.  We are getting a little more comfortable with the technique and still trying to decide if we want to make the investment to get our own ukuleles.  Pickleball has been non-existent with all the rainy days.

      I've been trying to get to the pool at BYU-H to do water aerobics, but between rainy days, work schedule, and limited access to when the pool is open, I haven't been able to make it happen.  The only time I have available that coincides with when the pool is open is Wednesday mornings and Saturday mornings, the days we have off.  But we have either had something happening in the mornings on those days or the weather hasn't cooperated.  Finally, after 3 1/2 weeks of being in Laie, I was able to get in a session at the pool on Wednesday morning.  It was wonderful!  The outdoor pool is a big pool, but only about 3 feet of shallow on one end of the pool and then it drops off to 8 feet deep.  That's fine with me because I am used to deep water aerobics, and they had flotation belts available to use.  I had the pool almost all to myself except for a couple of lap swimmers in the other lanes.  My body definitely has missed being in the water.  It felt like heaven.  I didn't want to get out, but after an hour, the pool was closing, and I had no choice but to get out.

   Wednesday was our town run day, so after the pool we had to quickly get ready and head into Honolulu.  We needed to be back by 4pm for our work Christmas party.   

     

 

The party was held at Pounders restaurant in the Hukilua Market next to the PCC on their outdoor patio.  It was a dinner, entertainment and gift exchange.

   

      It was a combined department Christmas party.  Elder Rappleye's motor pool department was included along with uniforms and mailroom.  The other couple sitting at the table with us is Elder and Sister Bates from St. George.  She works in the mailroom; he is the electrician.  But they used to live in South Jordan down by the equestrian park before they moved to St. George.

         Elder Rappleye with Elder Dan Duncan, a coworker in the motor pool with Elder Rappleye.  Elder Duncan's wife is one of the mission's nurses.  We have two nurses.  One of the nurses is a local, so she is just a part time service missionary.

      This picture shows a lot of my coworkers sitting at the table.  My boss, Lili, is standing in the red shirt and Santa hat, and Lisi, in the foreground, works in the food warehouse as well.  He is the name I drew for the gift exchange.  He's only been working there for a few weeks longer than me, so no one knew him very well and I couldn't get anyone to help be will gift ideas.

    

We had some Tongan dancing by Lisi and his friend.  He works in the food warehouse, but the late shift so I don't know him well.

Also, a fire knife dance.

A snowflake making contest.  I don't know why they gave us brown paper to make the snowflake out of, but that's what we had to work with.  Elder Rappleye is holding up our table's end result.  Many of the Polynesians had no idea how to make paper snowflakes.  

It was a fun night and a chance to see all of our coworkers in a different light and get to know them a lot better.

On Friday night we had our first assignment to help at the PCC at the Hale Aloha luau.  We get to wear our matching Aloha wear outfits that the seamstresses made for us.  We had several fabrics to choose from and we chose a green floral print.  Our assignment is to manage the line to get into the luau.  We make sure they have the right tickets. There are two locations for the luau, so we make sure their tickets are for the Hale Aloha.  If not, we send them over to the other location.  We also make sure no one goes in at the exit or back entrance to the luau.  They all receive leis and their picture taken at the front entrance, so we direct them to the front.  This picture is at the back exit and shows the backdrop of the stage of the Hale Aloha venue.  While they are eating the all-you-can-eat buffet, there is a performance they get to watch, the telling of the history of Queen Lili'uokalani, the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian Islands in song and dance.  Since it is December, the program was a little different in that they included some Christmas songs and hulas into the program.  The person manning the back exit has a view of the program while standing guard.

   

   After we finish our shift helping with line management, we are allowed to go eat at the Gateway Restaurant at the PCC for free.  It's in a beautiful big building with murals depicting Hawaiian history.  There is a live band playing background music to listen to while you eat.  It's all-you-can eat and they even have Dole whip, a must try if you are ever in Hawaii.

    

 

 After we ate, we walked around the Hukilua Marketplace like we were tourists and visited some of the gift shops.  Here is a picture of a display of stuffed  animals and mermaid  dolls.  Loved it!

      

      

      On Saturday morning, another missionary couple, Elder and Sister Young, invited us to have breakfast with them at Papa Ole's.  It is right near our house in Hau'ula, down the hill and in the small shopping area north of our street.  Besides Papa Ole's, the shopping area has a very small post office, Dominos pizza take out place, a small health care center, Longs Drug and Tamara's, a somewhat run down grocery store, but the prices are better than Foodland.  

      

     We decided to walk down to Papa Ole's to meet them, it's less than 1/2 mile.  On our way down the street, we found 5 dimes lying on the street.  It's a well-known fact in Elder Rappleye's family that when you find an unexpected dime cross your path, it's a sign that Dad Rappleye sent them to let you know he's watching over you.  What a tender mercy to find 5 dimes all at once!  We realized that it has been 5 weeks since we started our mission - one dime for each week.  Since we have been struggling just a little bit with the adjustment to missionary life and life in Hawaii, especially Elder Rappleye with his assignment at the PCC, we felt  God's loves us and that He is aware of our   struggles.  

      

   

  Breakfast was good.  We shared an order of supreme pancakes - banana, chocolate chip and mac nut.  It was delicious, but very sweet so we couldn't eat it all.  Elder and Sister Young gave us some great advice.  They've been serving here for a year and he's a counselor.  He helps the students who are struggling with things.  The best advice was just relax, and give yourselves some time, adjustments take time.  

Then on our walk back home, we found another dime in the parking lot of the shopping area!  Another reassurance that help is there for us on the other side of the veil.

After breakfast, we finally had a nice day to be able to try one of the hikes on the island.  Most of the trails get very muddy and slippery when it rains, so you have to time it in between rainstorms.  But the rainstorms have been so frequent that there has not been time for the trails to dry up between the storms. We decided to check out the closest trail we knew of - the Hau'ula Loop trail.  To find the trailhead, we had to park in a neighborhood and walk up the street.  You can see Elder Rappleye in the orange shirt walking up the street.

Once we hit the trailhead, it was a slight grade with a pavement trail with quite a bit of shade.

We ended up missing the sign for the trail that shows where we are supposed to leave the paved trail and head into the forest.  Instead, we walked past these graffiti murals on cement retaining walls.  There was some pretty nice artwork.  We even saw the Pink Panther.

We finally realized that we weren't on the right trail because it dead ended at a gated off area.  We turned around and headed back down the trail.  Luckily we found the turn off and headed onto the real trail.

There was plenty of shade along the trail.  That was great since it was a warm afternoon.  Unlike the hiking trails in Utah that are very rocky, this trail was covered with tree roots.

We climbed up fairly high on the mountainside.  They have different kinds of mountains than Utah, greener and lots of ridges.

On the way back down the trail, we had great views of the ocean.

         On Sunday evening, our district had a going away dinner for the Wildes.  They are done serving their mission and are going back home to Provo, UT.  The Wildes are the couple sitting on the couch.  The Harrises, us, and the Neeleys are standing in the back from left to right in the photo, and the Lee's are on either side of the couch.  We had the dinner at the Neeley's pad, which we decided is much more up-to-date than our place, but they only have one bedroom.  It stays a lot cooler than our place because it's on the ground floor and they have a window air conditioning unit in the front room.

The Lees brought this huge chocolate shell cupcake that one of their daughters had sent them for Christmas.  Elder Lee is getting ready to crack it open to see what's inside - it was chocolate covered pretzels.  We all helped them eat the chocolate treat.  It was definitely good quality chocolate.

We didn't get much time to get acquainted with the Wildes, but we enjoyed getting to know a little about them the two times we were together.

That wraps up another week.  Still doesn't completely feel like home yet, but getting a little more used to our new life with each passing day.