Laie - City of Refuge: January 15 - 20, 2024

 

       

 

      Monday was Martin Luther King holiday.  The students didn't have class, but the PCC was open.  So, we were working.  At the Food Warehouse, we were still missing our "boss", Lili.  She has been out since December 18th.  We were also missing Kapu'u, who is second in command.  Luckily Kalo was back and she was keeping things going.  As far as I could tell, everyone just knew what to do and was busy doing their duties.  We made it through the day without messing everything up.

      We always start the week off with ukulele lessons on Monday nights.  Here's a picture of our new ukulele.  We bought it at the Ukulele Experience store at the PCC.  They give the missionaries a discount and free engraving on the ukulele.  We had the Hawaiian Islands engraved on it, along with the name of our mission and dates of service.  If we end up not ever mastering playing the ukulele, we at least have a nice souvenir of our mission.

   

   Here is Elder Rappleye practicing the ukulele.  We have made it through the whole round of beginning lessons. This week's lesson we were back to learning the same songs we have already been taught.  So, we will be working on trying to get quicker at changing chords and not looking at the frets when we change chords.

Picture of the city of Laie

     Tuesday night we had our monthly Senior Missionary Devotional.  One of the Laie Stake Presidents spoke to us and told us about some of the history of Laie. We have heard some of what he told us, but we learned quite a bit about Laie's history.  One of the things we learned was that Laie was known as a city of refuge, Before1819, Laie was a puʻuhonua, or a sanctuary for fugitives.  As long as the fugitives were within the city boundaries, they were safe from their pursuers. The stake president compared this history of Laie being a city of refuge, to it also being a place of spiritual refuge.  With the temple, BYU - Hawaii, and the PCC all within Laie, it makes Laie a unique place to find spiritual refuge from the world.  The mission of the PCC is "to spread the spirit of aloha throughout the world."  Aloha meaning love, acceptance, and welcome. In gospel terms spread the light and love of Christ throughout the world. Aloha is a way of living and treating others with love and respect.  If we, who live and serve in Laie, strive to instill aloha, then Laie will still be a city of refuge.

      At the beginning of January, we had cooler and rainy days, but this week we had almost perfect weather - sunny and not too warm.  It was delightful to be outdoors, so we took advantage of the nice weather and spent some time at two different beaches on Wednesday and Saturday, our days off.  With beaches everywhere you go, it doesn't take a lot of time to get to a beach.  On Wednesday, we headed down to Kahana bay.  We pass by this beach on our way to town to do our grocery shopping.  It looks very inviting every time we pass by.   I've been wanting to go spend some time there for quite a while.  It's a little further away from where we live, but still only 20 minutes or so.  The only problem was the closer we got the more overcast it was getting.  When we were about 5 minutes away, we decided it would not be a good day to go to Kahana Bay and turned around and headed back north.  By the time we reached Laie, it was nice and sunny.  So, we stopped at Hukilua Beach and soaked up some sun, walked along the beach, and played in the water.

      

      Since we didn't get to go to Kahana Bay on Wednesday, we decided to try again on Saturday.  This time we decided to do a hike that was across the highway from the bay before heading to the beach.  It was a short 1.2 mile hike called Kapa'ele'ele' trail.  So many of the trails get very muddy and slippery after it rains.  Since we had no rain this week, we thought it would be a good time to try hiking it.

      

     The hike was not a favorite of mine.  It was very overgrown and lots of gnats and mosquitos.  I was worried the whole way about centipedes.  They tell us they can sting and it really packs a punch.  Not realizing that the trail would be overgrown, I was wearing shorts and sandals.  Thankfully Elder Rappleye lead the way, hopefully shoeing all predators out of the path.  We walked past this wall of vines draping off a power line.

  

    The trail got narrow and steep.  I could totally see how slippery it would be if muddy and one could slide right off the path down the hillside.  Luckily it was dry, but there were quite a few big tree limbs across the trail that you had to climb over or under or around.  At the top we got a great view of the bay.

   

  On the way down, the trail was even steeper.  They had a rope along the trail that you could use to help assist you to not fall.  You would definitely need it if it was slippery.  We thought it was interesting that we did this hike the same week we were studying about Lehi's dream of the Tree of Life in the Book of Mormon. Although it wasn't a rod of iron like in Lehi's vision, the rope certainly reminded us of hanging on to the iron rod (Word of God) to get us safely home.

    

 Elder Rappleye is giving a demonstration of holding on to the rod (aka rope) in the picture above.  The picture to the right shows the rope along the trail.

      Elder Rappleye at the end of the trail, coming out of the forest, It put us out at the edge of the highway, so we had to walk along the highway to get back to the beach area.  You can probably understand why this hike is not a favorite of mine.

      Pictured above is both ends of the bay.  We loved that the water was calmer in this bay.  I wish we had a kayak or raft to paddle around in.  You can see that it's a wide-open beach with no one around, even though it's a Saturday!  Actually, there were people on the beach, but it obviously did not feel crowded at all.

      The weather cooperated again this week so we could play pickleball.  There are quite a few senior missionaries that like to come and play.  We only have two courts. We play short games of first team to 7 points, so we can quickly rotate in and out teams.

      This week we did initiatories at the temple on Thursday night.  Women only get to do 3 names at one appointment, but men can do 5 names because it's not as busy on the men's side.  You are not allowed to book back-to-back appointments.  You just have to fill your time slot and then if you want to do more names you can do more, but you have to go into the back of the rotation, so the wait time depends on how busy it is.  It is a busy temple, so I have not been able to do a second round yet.  The wait time is too long.  I don't want to keep Elder Rappleye waiting a long time in the lobby.

     Today was the third week of Conducting class, halfway through the course.  Here's a picture of the students practicing their conducting.  They are conducting the song "I Am A Child of God".  They learned how to conduct 4/4 time and how to conduct songs with fermatas (you can hold me as long as you want) in them.  They are quick learners.

      Pictured from left to right is Kawdalya from India, Rizza from the Philippines, Deepika from India, Taputailo from Samoa, Ylistia from the Philippines, Krystel from the Philippines, and Nicha from the Philippines.

      Sunday is definitely my favorite day of the week.  It is the day we get to have the most time and interaction with the students.  I am so impressed with how friendly they are and how much they know about the gospel.  The talks in Sacrament meeting by the students have been very good and you can tell they have strong testimonies of the gospel. They will strengthen the stakes of Zion wherever they end up after they are done with their schooling.

A lot of Rain in Paradise - January 8 - 13, 2024

        We started the week with rain on Monday.  It was raining when we got up and it rained all day.  At times it was fast and furious, but for most of the day it was a steady rain.  By the end of the day when we went to ukulele class, we saw a lake had formed in the grassy area by the HJG building where we have class.  It took days for the "lake" to disappear.  Probably because we kept having rain throughout the week, just not non-stop like on Monday.

     We found out that there is a movie theater in Kaneohe that has discounted movie rates on Tuesdays.  I wanted to go see the movie, "The Boys in the Boat" since I read the book.  So, after work on Tuesday, we drove down to the Windward mall where the theaters are and saw the movie.

      Thankfully it was a nice morning on Wednesday, so I could finally get back to the pool.  Now that the school schedule is back to normal along with the PCC schedule, I'm hoping the weather will cooperate so I can get to the pool every Wednesday and possibly Saturday mornings.

      We had a number of things we needed to get done on our day off on Wednesday.  One of them was to give Elder Rappleye a haircut. He hasn't gotten his haircut since we left, and it needed to be cut. Our daughter, Aimee, has been giving Elder Rappleye his haircuts since she got her cosmetologist license about 10 years ago. Before that I always cut his hair.  When we came to Hawaii, we were not sure if there would be a good place to get Elder Rappleye's haircut close to where we lived or if he would have to go into town or if I would have to go back to cutting his hair.  Elder Rappleye asked around for recommendations for places to go to get a haircut.  He did not like the reviews he was hearing of any of the places around Laie.  He didn't want to spend his time going to town to get his haircut on our days off.  So, when we saw that Costco had a haircutting kit on sale, we bought it as a "Christmas" gift knowing that we would save more than the cost of the kit by having me cut his hair.  I'm not too excited to be back in the haircutting business, but it seems to be the best option.  Here's Elder Rappleye with his new haircut.  It's not as good as Aimee can do, but it can't be worse than what we were hearing the barbers around here do.  Plus, it is basically free, and it can be done without wait time.  Elder Rappleye does have less hair now than when I used to cut it - does that make it easier?

   

   We weren't sure how long everything we needed to get done would take us, but after we got the haircut out of the way, we decided we had time to go to Laniakea Beach on the North Shore.  This beach is known for being a popular feeding and sunbathing area for sea turtles.  The best time is supposed to be between 11am - 1pm. We got out there around 11:45am.  We did see turtles swimming in the ocean close to shore.  Every once in a while, a fin or turtle head would pop up out of the water.  We could also see the turtles in the swell of the waves.  I tried to get a picture, but as you can see from the picture at the right, all I got was the waves.  They would pop up so unpredictably and in different places.  It was hard to get a shot of them.  The turtles never came up on the beach while we were there.

      We also got a good long walk on the beach before we gave up on the turtles and headed home.

      Everyone from the motor pool is back from vacation and they are fully staffed again. There are about 80 electric carts that motor pool is responsible to service every month.  Each department or person who has a cart is supposed to bring it to the motor pool every month to get serviced, but lots of time Elder Rappleye and Bry have to go looking for them and take them to the motor pool to get serviced.  It's about servicing 4 carts a day to keep on top of things.  Usually, they get behind early in the month and have to do a lot of carts the last two weeks of the month.  There are always things popping up to do and fires to be put out.  

       My boss, Lili was still out this week along with Kalo who helps in the warehouse. Kalo does a lot of the counting of inventory, so Kapu'u and I were doing all the counting of inventory this week. 

      Thursday has become our temple day, if I can remember to get online early enough in the week to get an appointment.  Thursday is usually a wide-open day after work with no commitments to get in the way of going to the temple.  It was another rainy and stormy cool day.  In fact, we had the coldest morning temperature since we arrived - a chilly 59 degrees!  I know a lot of you won't feel sorry for us, but with the humidity it feels a lot colder.  Plus, our pad has no furnace so we can't turn on the heat when it gets a little chilly.  We have kept all our windows open since we have arrived to help keep our pad from getting too hot because we don't have air conditioning either.  The problem is that there are several windows that we can't reach to close when the weather turns chilly.  The window right by where I sit at the desk is broken and we can't shut it.  3 windows are up high in our stairwell so we can't reach to close them either, For the last week or so we have woken up in the morning to a pretty chilly apartment.  We didn't bring with us any kind of winter clothing because we didn't think we would need any.  Thankfully it doesn't stay cold all day or for weeks at a time. There are unexpected trials here in paradise that we have not been prepared for.

 

      Saturday, we decided to try to combine a fun activity on the same day as grocery shopping.  We have not tried to do both in one day yet.  With it being Saturday and the roads and stores more crowded, we weren't sure how it would work.  But off we went.

      We did fun first.  Last Saturday we went to the northwestern part of the island.  This week, we headed for the southeastern most point of the island, Makapu'u Point. 

       There is a lighthouse on the point which was built in 1909.  We missed a turn on the way to the lighthouse which got us there about 30 minutes later than we had hoped.  It was 10:30 am and it was already packed with cars parked along the highway. Elder Rappleye decided to try our luck and pulled into what looked like a full parking lot.  But just as we were about to turn around and head out, someone pulled out of a parking space a little way in front of us, so we ended up getting a spot right near the trailhead. Score!

      The trail is a 2-mile round trip hike and it's uphill the whole way.  In the picture above you can see the parking lot down below and the view out to the ocean.  We were probably about two thirds of the way up at that point.  

      The picture on the right is Elder Rappleye with the lighthouse in the background.

      On a clear day you can see the islands of Moloka'i and Lana'i, but it was a bit hazy so we could barely see the shapes of the islands.  The picture below is our view of "the islands".

      Here's pictures of views from the top of the point.  You actually hike higher than the lighthouse and look down on it. It was well worth the hike up, fairly easy and paved all the way.

 

   You can see that it was pretty windy at the top.

      We left the point a little after noon and headed to Walmart and Costco.  Our stop to play did cost us, both places were pretty busy.  Thankfully we did not have a lot of shopping to do, so we were on the road back home by about 3pm.  Maybe we will be able to do more combined fun/errand trips in the future.

      On Sunday, our sacrament meeting was the highest attendance since we have been here.  It's the beginning of the semester, and there are a lot of new students who have moved into the ward.  They all want to "check" out the new Ward, aka girls checking out the boys and the boys checking out the girls.  Ha, the fun of a young single adult ward.  Here at BYU-H, the students have to get an endorsement from their bishop every semester in order to qualify to stay in school.  One of the requirements of the bishop is attendance at sacrament meeting.  We had over 90% attendance last week.  The goal is 100% attendance.  Second hour attendance however is not so good.

      Second week of conducting class and everyone came back.  In fact, we added one more student, so now we have 8.  I'm impressed with all of them.  We had them each take a turn to conduct a hymn in 3/4 time.  All did super and looked very comfortable in front of an audience. At the end of class, they all have to go into the keyboarding class and group conduct a hymn while the keyboarding students and teachers sing.  I'll have to try to remember to take a picture next week of the group.

      On the second Sunday of each month we have a district meeting.  It's a time for our district to get together and discuss the gospel and get to know each other better.  We have a new couple in our district, the Gammons.  Now we are not the newest couple in our district.  I think they said they were from Pennsylvania.  They are CES/Seminary and Institute missionaries.  Elder Gammon was CES for his career.  They will be teaching institute at BYU-H.  We have 5 couples in our district, 3 are BYU-H missionaries and 2 are PCC missionaries.  I provided chocolate Oreo cream pie for refreshments.

      It was transfers for the junior missionaries and both sisters in the YSA 10th Ward got transferred out to married student Wards.  Now we have two new junior sister missionaries, one of them is a brand new sister from the Philippines.

      Hopefully we have survived the coldest and wettest week of the winter.  We have also hit our two-month mark in Hawaii.  Although we are still learning the ropes, we do feel like some things are getting easier.  Hoping all of you in Utah are surviving the coldest, snowiest week of the winter so far.

 

Moving into 2024: January 1 -

       We were up so late on New Year's Eve, that we slept in a little bit and got a late start on the day.  The PCC was closed for New Year's Day, so we used the time to get caught up on things - laundry, cleaning, washing the car, blogging, etc.  We did get to go to the beach for a little bit.  We went to a beach close to where we live that the locals call Pounder's beach.  It's amazing to me that so far, the beaches that we have gone to are never crowded.  I guess that's because there are so many beaches to choose from it spreads the crowds out.

      This planter is sitting right next to our front door.  I was told that if I wanted to, I could plant whatever I wanted in it.  My first thought was I wasn't going to bother with it because I wasn't sure if I would have time or if I wanted to invest any money into it.  It was tempting though because I love growing flowers.  Every day we would come home, and I watched as the planter started filling up with weeds.  I couldn't let the weeds keep growing and if I had to pull weeds all the time I might as well plant something in it. Also, it looked like maybe some of the plants growing in it were maybe ones we might want to keep.  We have seen how expensive food is around here, so I decided maybe it would be worth it to plant a tomato plant in the planter.  The next time we were in town at Walmart, I checked in the garden area and found a patio tomato plant that I thought would work in our planter. Here it is all planted.  The other two plants I figured out are basil.  I learned that basil and tomato plants are great companion plants.  The basil helps keep the bugs away from the tomato plant.  We'll see if we get some home-grown tomatoes from our "garden". 

      It was another holiday week with Monday off and then working at the PCC Tuesday through Friday.  In both the Food Warehouse and the Motor Pool, we have had several people gone on holiday break.  In the Motor Pool, Elder Rappleye was missing Bry, a full-time employee, Elder Tam, a service missionary, and Elder Dehart had family in town, so he was not available to come in.  With so many gone, Elder Rappleye was doing more of the hands-on work instead of the office duties.  He was definitely liking it much better.  In the Food Warehouse, my boss, Lili, has been gone for 4 weeks along with several of the student warehouse workers.  It's been extremely stressful for Kapu'u, who was left in charge.  She's very capable, but being short workers just makes things stressful.  I was doing a lot more counting of inventory this past week.  I'm actually starting to remember where items are located and feel more comfortable with putting in the inventory count.  Luckily, I still didn't have to do the count for the freezer items😊.

      We did have ukulele lessons on New Year's Day in the evening.  We finally bought a ukulele for both of us to share.  So now I have to borrow a ukulele at the lessons and Elder Rappleye uses ours.  We can also now practice, so maybe we'll start seeing some improvement in our skills.

      

      On Tuesday night, there was another special screening at the Hawaiian Journey Theater at the PCC.  This time it was the movie, "Tala".  It's a movie based on actual events about a family's struggles to hold on to their faith amid an extremely challenging trial - the death of their baby caused by persecutions for being members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The actor who played the father (shown in the picture above) works in the Food Warehouse at the PCC.  I had heard about the movie from others who had seen it.  So, when we got the chance to go watch it, we jumped at the chance.  Interestingly a few weeks before the showing of this movie, Pelekina's (Kina is what he goes by) brother passed away from an accident.  His acting in this movie is so real, just like I had seen from him a few weeks before grieving for his brother.

      It was nice enough weather this week to play pickleball on the outside courts.  We are just learning the game, so we are not very good.  We have played tennis, but this is different - different balls, different size court, and different rules.  I think it's going to take some time to adjust our skills to pickleball.  But everyone is very nice about playing with us and helping us to learn.

      One of the best things about this mission is the opportunity to go to the temple often.  You just have to plan ahead to get an appointment.  We were invited to go do sealings with 2 other couples on Thursday night, the Archibalds and the Tanners.  Afterwards we went and got something to eat at Pounder's, a restaurant at the Hakilua Marketplace next to the PCC.  This was our first time eating at Pounders.  I wish I had a picture to share, but I don't take my phone with me when I'm going to the temple.  The food was really good, and they have the "good" fries like they have at the Gateway.  Just a note - I order some of the food they use at Pounders every week in my assignment.

    

  We had another assignment at the Hale Aloha luau on Friday night to help with line management.  This time we were on our own, no trainers helping us.  I was helping at the entrance and Elder Rappleye was managing the exit.  It was not very busy towards the end of our shift, so I managed to snap a few quick pictures of the actors waiting for the show to start.

      If you look closely at the picture on the right, you can see a few leis left on the stands.  Before the luau starts, the stands are full of leis.

      You can't see the queen, but she is between the two Kahili bearers escorting her onto the stage. 

      On Saturday, we got out early so we could go hike Ka'ena Point.  It's the western most point of the island of Oahu.  The trail follows the route the railroad used to take goods and passengers from Honolulu to Kahuku between 1897 and 1946. We hiked along the left-hand side of the point and back. We took the coastal, lower trail out to the point, hoping to spot maybe a whale or two.  They say January - March is a good time to see whales. No such luck.

      At times we were close enough to the ocean that we could feel the ocean spray on our faces.

 

      Luckily, all the way out to the point we were hiking in the shade of the peak.  You can see the sun coming up over the peak in this picture.  We were almost to the end of the 3 mile trail before the sun was totally up over the peak.  

      Near the point we saw the Moli, or albatross bird.  There were several of them seating on their nests.  I took lots of pictures of them, but I can't find them on my camera - ???  I'm so disappointed.  Hopefully we will go out again and I'll get pictures of the birds.

      Here we are at the point.

   

   Here is the view as we sat on the black lava rocks and ate our snacks.

      There were signs saying that monk seals are known to hang out at the point, but we did not see any while we were there. We hope to get a chance to hike along the right-hand side of the point sometime. 

      Even though the hike was fairly flat, we still were feeling it by the end of the 6 miles.  Only two months into our mission and we can tell we are getting out of shape.  Too much sitting, not enough time to exercise and move. 

      With the start of a new semester at BYU-H, the senior missionaries are offering the church's conducting and keyboarding class.  I work with Sister Jones in the Food Warehouse and she is in charge of the program and told me they needed instructors for the conducting class.  I told her I would love to help out.  The class is offered on Sunday afternoons at the McKay building.  Sister Bodily and I are the instructors for the new conducting class.  We had 7 students on Sunday afternoon, all girls, most of them from the Philippines.  All have a little bit of music background.  For 6 weeks we will be teaching them all about conducting music.  After the 6 weeks, if they have mastered conducting, they get to move on to learning the keyboard.  I will then be teaching the keyboarding class when that happens.  They get one on one instruction, so they need enough teachers to match the number of students.  The church provides the keyboard, and if the student goes all the way through the program and fulfills all the requirements, they get to keep the keyboard.  One of the requirements is to be willing to share their new talent and skills in church callings and help others learn as well.  I am excited to use my talents to help others learn.  It also gives me another chance to get to know more of the students here.

The end of 2023: December 25 - 31, 2023

 

      We inherited this little Christmas tree when we moved into our pad in Hau'ula.  We found it on the top shelf on our hall closet.  There was only the tree.  We bought a few gold ornaments and a mini battery powered string of light to decorate the tree.  The little flowers that are on the tree, are really clip earrings that I got from our work Christmas party.  They used them as part of the table decorations and were going to throw them out, so I grabbed a few to help liven up our tree.  Then I made a couple of extra fan angels to add to the tree decorations.  This picture was taken on Christmas Eve.

    

  We kept Christmas very simple this year.  In some ways we enjoyed the stress-free aspect of the Christmas season, but we definitely missed being around all of our family and friends and the joy that comes from being with those we love.

    

 Here we are on Christmas morning.

  

   We had a few gifts make it over to Hawaii to open Christmas day.  Elder Rappleye loves this book his brother, Lloyd sent him with family history stories written by his brother.  There was one story that Lloyd included that Elder Rappleye wrote about soap box derby racing.  

      I received this lovely necklace from my daughter, Noelle, with the state of Utah engraved in one circle, the state of Hawaii engraved on another circle and a little small circle with a heart engraved on it between the two other circles.  A perfect necklace to wear while serving here.

      We got a few other things - a clock with a picture of Jesus on the face of it from my brother, David; a photo book from Neal and Jasmin of their family events for the year; a cool picture called "Star of Bethlehem" made from reclaimed wood.  It's an original work of art given to us by our daughter, Sara, that her friend Brooke designed and made.

  

   I was totally surprised by the pink insulated bag and 2 quarts of gelato that one of the vendors gave to me for Christmas. I was so excited to get the cute pink bag.  We have been taking our lunch to work in just a Ziplock bag. The insulated bag is perfect for carrying our lunch to work.  The gelato is delicious as well.  That was an unexpected perk of working in the Food Warehouse.

      On Christmas day, we had another mission wide lunch.  It was a nice traditional Christmas dinner of ham, funeral potatoes (I was asked to make some), and all the fixings, plus a lot of dessert to choose from.  We sat with the Harrises, from our district.

      

You can get an idea of how many people were there from these pictures, although it doesn't show everybody.

After eating, everybody who had ukuleles got them out and they played, and everyone sang Christmas songs.

   

      

In the picture on the right, Elder Curtis is leading the ukulele players.  He is our ukulele instructor on Monday nights for all the beginner missionaries.

                 One of the junior sister missionaries entertained us with a hula dance.

  

    Christmas day was the nicest day we have had in a long time, so we had to get some beach time.  We headed up to Sunset Beach.  The waves were still too big for swimming, but we walked the whole length of the beach and watched the surfers for a while.  I love the feel of the warm sand around my feet.

I caught Elder Rappleye actually wading in the water!  Maybe he is starting to be a little Hawaiian? 

   This is the iconic palm tree that you will see in a lot of people's posts on social media.  If you see this palm tree in the background, you will know it was taken at Sunset Beach on the north shore of Oahu.  The sign on the tree (right by the edge of the picture) says not to climb on the tree.

      It was definitely not feeling like a traditional Christmas with cold and snow, and family, but it will definitely be one we will remember.

Before I move on from the Christmas season, I'm going to post some more pictures that show the Christmas decorations around the PCC, Visitor's Center, and BYU-H.

Every time we would go into the Visitor's Center at the temple, I would say, "We need to get a picture in front of the Christus."  But we would be in our PCC work clothes, or all the sister missionaries would be busy talking to tourist so they couldn't take our picture, or we would be in a hurry to pick up our mail.  But we finally got a day when we went into the Visitor's Center and it was quiet and empty.  So, we were able to get one of the sister missionaries to take our picture in front of the Christus.

It was back to work the day after Christmas.  Because the PCC was closed on Christmas they were not closed on Wednesday.  We would have to do a 4-day straight work week.  Even the paid employees were not liking it much.

      On Wednesday, December 27th, we got several text messages, pictures, and videos of the news of the birth of our 25th grandchild.

    

  Weston Eugene Smith II, was born at 11:12 AM, weighing 8 lbs. 1 oz., and 21 inches long.  Parents are Weston and Sara Smith and big sister is Susanna.

        This is the hardest sacrifice I have had to make so far on this mission experience.  The holidays have been hard to not be around family, but to miss holding this precious little baby fresh from heaven and not being able to help take care of Susanna for Sara and Weston has been super difficult.  A big thank you and shout out to our daughter, Noelle, for stepping in and taking my place to help Sara and Weston. We may not be able to meet Eugene until we get back.  We will miss so many firsts and so many bonding opportunities.  I hope we can make up time when we get home.

      We did our first shift of "Ask Me" on Wednesday night.  We were actually filling in for another couple who couldn't do their shift.  We were stationed out in the Hukilua Marketplace.  We wear big "Ask Me" badges and stand by the "Ask Me" flag.  We are there to help answer any of the tourist's questions they need answers to - "where's the restroom?", "where is the Pacific Theater where the night show is? "where can I get . . .?"

We even helped a woman who had hurt her leg and was bleeding.  I had to run and get her a wheelchair and help them get her to the first aid station.

      And what a coincidence!  As we were standing watching the tourist walk by, Elder Rappleye noticed someone we knew.  He shouted out, "Kirk" and he actually heard and turned to see us.  It was Kirk Magleby, the man who got our son, Neal, his job at Book of Mormon Central (now Scripture Central).  He and his family were on vacation in Hawaii.  We had to snap a picture and send it to Neal to show him who we ran into.

    

  On Friday after we finished our work at the PCC, we drove down to the Pali Lookout.  I remember visiting this spot the last time we were in Hawaii 35 years ago.  It's got a great view of the island and usually very windy on the lookout.  But it must have been a very calm day because it wasn't very windy at all.  The views were awesome!

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    Then we drove down to Ko'olau Golf Course, which we could see from the Pali lookout.  The trailhead to Likeke Falls is at the far end of the parking lot. At the beginning of the trail, it was a little muddy. I had read reviews saying that the trail can be pretty slippery when it is muddy, so I was a little concerned.  

      We got as far as this water tank, then the trail veers to the left and it got super muddy.  We only went a few feet and decided it was too muddy to go any further.  Our shoes were getting quite muddy, and it was slick.  We just turned around and went back to our car.

      We had parked our car down on the road and hiked up to the golf course parking lot because there had been a sign saying no parking allowed for hikers that day due to a special event at the golf course.

      When we arrived at the entrance to the golf course, we found the gate closed and locked.  The rock wall going out from the fence was pretty high and the rocks were covered with moss, so it was going to be a little difficult to climb over the wall.  Luckily, we found at the end of one side of the wall a small, narrow opening that we could squeeze through then proceeded down the road to our car.

      On Saturday night we were able to go to a special screening for PCC employees of the movie "Shaka: A Story of Aloha".  It is a documentary on the origin, meaning, and uses of the Shaka gesture.  Those who watched it were asked to take an exit survey on how they liked the documentary.  The producer was wanting feedback before they made the final cuts.  The producer was there and told us how the movie came to be.  Many of the people interviewed were there as well.  We learned a lot about the Shaka and the Hawaiian culture.  Maybe it will one day show up at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City.

      For the last day of the year, December 31st, we decided to view the last sunset of the year up along the North Shore.  We haven't been able to view a sunset yet because we are on the eastern side of the island, so we get the sunrises, but the sunsets are blocked by the mountains.  

    

  We drove up to Kawala Bay and just barely got to the beach in time to catch the sun going down.  It wasn't as spectacular as I was hoping for because there were no clouds in the sky to light up.  But it was a nice peaceful way to say goodbye to 2023.

      We were warned that the Hawaiians love to celebrate New Year's with lots of fireworks, and that it would be a long and loud night.  I thought it couldn't be as big as the 4th of July back home.  When we attended our church meeting we asked the students what they would be doing to celebrate the new year.  They all told us that they would be going to the temple grounds to view the fireworks at midnight. Nobody had told us about that event. We weren't sure we were wanting to stay up that late, but around 7pm the fireworks started going off in our neighborhood.  And it was a lot!  We had a pretty good view from our deck to see them.  We thought, "This is pretty good, we don't need to go to the temple to see the fireworks.  We have a pretty good show right here."  But then Brent Cowley sent us a text and told us that people were gathering at the temple and that there was a band playing.  So around 10pm, we decided to head to the temple to check it out because we knew it was going to be too noisy in our neighborhood to try to sleep.

    

   It is only about a 10-minute drive to the temple from where we live.  By the time we got there we could see there were a lot of people out and about.  There were lots of fireworks already going off.  We parked a few blocks away from the temple and walked down towards the temple.  We could hear music playing.

     

Across the street from the temple was this band playing.  They were pretty good.  There were lots of people sitting around listening to the band and waiting for midnight.  There is a roundabout in front of the temple where lots of people were sitting, plus people on the sidewalk and lawn in front of the temple.

      

Different people would take turns playing music.  There were even a few people that performed dances.  It was a very festive atmosphere.  The whole time leading up to midnight you could see fireworks going off in the surrounding neighborhood.

      The band would keep announcing the minutes until midnight.  Then they started a countdown from 10, 9, 8, etc.  At midnight everyone yelled and screamed, and then, boy did the fireworks go off.  We thought there had been a good show before midnight, but now it was amazing.  The pictures above show the crowd all videoing the firework show.  Hopefully it can give you an idea on how big the crowd was.

      I never got a very good picture of the firework show.  It lasted a good 15 - 20 minutes of non-stop fireworks in multiple places.  This picture shows the fireworks going on as we looked toward the ocean.  There were also fireworks going on behind us to the north of the temple.

      

      It was the craziest New Year's Eve celebration we have ever been a part of.  The number of fireworks exploding all at once and back-to-back was crazy.  The people of Laie definitely love to celebrate New Year's.  It's probably the closest we'll get to how it feels to be at Times Square in New York City on New Year's Eve.

 

      Someone launched some floating lanterns.  I didn't get a clear shot of them until they were quite high in the sky.  All you can see are the little specks of lights in the dark sky.  They almost look like bright stars, but they are the floating lanterns.

      We didn't stick around too long after midnight.  There were still a lot of people just milling around celebrating when we left.  We were told to expect fireworks going off until about 2 or 3 in the morning.  By the time we got back to Hau'ula around 12:45AM, our neighborhood was pretty quiet.  Thank goodness because we were ready for sleep.

Wishing everyone a bright, joyous, wonderful New Year!