A General Authority visit and a Graduation: February 5 - 11, 2024

         

       We started the week thinking it would be a quiet normal week without anything out of the ordinary.  Then we saw this sign on the Aloha Center doors announcing a special Friday night devotional with Elder Ronald A. Rasband as the main speaker.  Usually BYU-H has devotionals every Tuesday at 11AM.  We can't make it over to the Cannon Activities Center to attend it because of our assignments at the PCC.  Tuesday is one of my busier days, usually sending out 10 - 15 purchase orders that have to be sent out by noon to all the different vendors.  I don't get them done by 11AM, so I miss going to the devotionals.  We were excited to hear about the Friday night devotion with Elder Rasband because that is a time we can attend.  So, all week we had this special event to look forward to.

     

      On our Wednesday off, we finally went and changed the title of our car into our name. We had to go down to Kaneohe to the Satellite City Hall office in the Windward City Shopping Center about 40 minutes away.   

     

    It's in an open-air shopping center like a strip mall with several wings to it.  As we are walking to the city hall, we see this mother hen with her baby chicks.  There are chickens and roosters rooming free all over the neighborhoods in Hau'ula and Laie, but I was surprised to see the hen with her chicks in a busy shopping area.  The mama didn't seem to be worried at all about our being so close to her little chicks.  I counted 7 or 8 baby chicks.  Definitely something we wouldn't see in South Jordan.

      Before our appointment at city hall, we went to check out a hike in Kaneohe called the Friendship Garden.  We were hoping to take that hike and then go to get the title changed, but when we were almost there it started to pour down rain.  We knew after a rainstorm like that the trail would be too muddy and slippery to hike, so we ended up just finding where the trail head was for when we go some other time.

      We did have our usual Ukulele lessons on Monday night, temple night on Tuesday night, pickleball night on Wednesday night, and then on Thursday night I went to my first Book Club night.  The group had read the book, "Everybody Always" by Bob Goff.  In my former life (before missionary life) I never had too much time to read, but there are some days at my PCC job that are pretty slow, so I needed something to read.  When I heard that there was a book club I decided to give it a try.  I enjoyed the book.  It was an easy read and it helped me ponder on how to go about doing a better job of loving everyone I meet.  I know I certainly need to improve on that Christlike attribute.  I've made a few goals I hope to be able to work on.  I'll probably be working on those for the rest of my life.

     I received another Focused Recognition certificate this week.  This time from my boss, Lili.  This time I was recognized for "achieving results" and "cultivating trust", 2 of the 7 Cultural Beliefs that are a part of the vision and mission of the Polynesian Cultural Center and all employees are encouraged to strive to emulate.  

  On Friday, Elder Rappleye and Bry, from the motor pool were scheduled at 1PM to drive down to Kailua, about an hour away, to get an estimate on a damaged PCC van that they use for town runs.  Well, Bry didn't show up for work and by 11AM, Elder Rappleye was getting desperate to have someone to go with him.  No one else in the motor pool could leave, so he called me and told me he needed me to go with him.  Friday is one of my busier days and I wasn't sure I'd be able to go with him.  When I explained to my boss, she let me go, but I'm not sure she was very happy about it.  Pictured is Kapaa Auto Body Shop where we had to go to get the bid.  We hit a little bit of traffic going down, but were only about 5 minutes late.

     Friday night was the evening devotional with Elder Rasband.  We got there super early and got really good seats.  The front section was reserved for the choir that would be singing during the devotional.  We didn't want to sit on the chairs on the floor, so we chose a few rows up on the bleacher seats.

We were able to sit next to Brent and Jen Cowley, our friends from the mainland who are living in Laie now.  And behind us in the picture, is Sister Bodily (farthest left) who teaches the conducting class with me, and Sister and Elder Harris, who are in our district.

Here's a picture from the Church newsroom website.  I've circled where Elder Rappleye and Brent Cowley are sitting.

This picture is also from the Church newsroom website.  Haylie Chase (on the right in the picture above) spoke first.  She is on the Young Women General Advisory Council and Elder and Sister Rasband's granddaughter (doesn't she look a lot like her grandmother?).  Then Elder Mark A. Bragg, General Authority Seventy, spoke. Sister Rasband also spoke, followed by Elder Rasband.  He talked about "Integrity to the Cause of Christ."  His message was directed towards the students, but we all need integrity to the cause of Christ.  He asked, "Where is integrity in your list of personal priorities?" and spoke about how our integrity is central to fulfilling our mortal charge to become the best we can be and like our Savior, Jesus Christ. I liked this quote towards the end of Elder Rasband's talk, " The time to decide your epitaph is not at the end of your career (or life) but at the beginning. Right now. I recommend you simply ask yourself as you face decisions going forward, is this moral, ethical and honest? Is this who I want to be?"  He also quoted President Nelson, "Your precious identity deserves your precious integrity! Guard it as the priceless prize that it is." 

 

On Saturday, we made the birthday treats for all the February birthdays in our YSA Ward.

We also found another dime in the street in front of our apartment on Saturday.  See an earlier post about why finding a dime is significant to us.

We also went up to Sunset Beach on the North Shore to see if we could watch some pro surfers riding the waves.  You can see the sign that was up on the beach of the World Surf League, sponsored by Hurley.

      They were not doing the competition that day, but you can see all the surfers out in the ocean waiting for the "perfect" wave.

    

  Hopefully you can see a surfer catching a wave in the picture on the left.  Elder Rappleye has a friend from work that loves to surf, so we were trying to get a good picture to send to him.  We really didn't get a very good one.  I need a better camera.

      Sunday was the last day of the conducting class, so at the end we had a little "graduation" ceremony where they were presented their new keyboards.  They are now ready to start the keyboarding class.  If they master all the lessons in the keyboarding class, they will get to keep the keyboards.  6 of the 8 girls were there to graduate.  We were missing 2 girls who couldn't be there.  Hopefully they will be able to make up the class and still graduate.  In the picture to the right is Tailo.  She is my YSA ward.  I think she is from Tonga.

Here is Deepika.  She is from India.

This is Ammu.  Not a great picture, but she is the one standing with the white top on.  She is Deepika's sister.

This is Krystel.  She is from the Philippines.  She has the most beautiful way of conducting.  It's very smooth and flowing.  She has already received a call in her ward to be the sacrament meeting chorister.

This is Ylisha (pronounced Elisha).  She is from the Philippines as well, and her and Krystel are friends, so hopefully they will keep each other moving forward with learning keyboarding.

This is Zaya.  She is in the white shirt and hair in a bun.  You can't really see her face, but she is the cutest girl.  She is from Mongolia and has some music experience with piano lessons, but it was years ago.  She is hoping to relearn and get better at playing the piano.  The other student is an advanced keyboarding student and is presenting Zaya her keyboard.  Sister Jones, in the orange top, is the senior sister missionary in charge of the conducting and keyboarding classes.  She also works with me in the food warehouse.  Unfortunately, she is finished with her mission the end of March. Everyone will be sad when she leaves.

We have a one week break from keyboarding classes because student's have stake conference in the afternoon during the normal keyboarding class time next week.  It will resume on February 25th.

New District group picture taken at our District meeting, February 11th.  The Wilde's returned home and we have a new couple, the Gammons.  They are CES/Seminary and Institute missionaries at BYU-H.