More Family Activities: January 29 - February 4, 2024

       We started this week with Derek and Sharron still here visiting and hoping for a nice warm sunny beach day.  Monday morning was overcast and intermitted rain showers.  Still not good beach weather. Sigh!

  It was our Polynesian Cultural Center day, so we were hoping for nice weather while we were there as well.  It started out nice for our canoe ride through the villages on the lagoon. 

   

  This view of the main waterfall is always stunning.  But this time I noticed the fun fan shaped tree.

  

       We started in the island of Hawaii for the show there.  Then we headed to the island of Samoa, which is definitely a crowd favorite.  The picture on the right is in the Samoan village.  The speaker is giving us a welcome speech in Samoan.

  

    Kap, is in the picture on the left.  He is demonstrating how to open a coconut.  He has been doing shows in the Samoan village at the PCC for over 40 years.  He is quite the showman and has a very funny stand-up routine.

  

    He can climb the coconut tree, twirl the fire stick and even balance the fire stick on his bare feet.

      But his real talent is art.  He sells his paintings at the PCC.

      

      Here are some more pictures of the fire stick dancers.  This was the first time I have seen a female fire stick dancer.  Go girl power!

 

We also visited the Tongan village where they do a fun drum show where they call up people from the audience to play the drums.  That's always a fun show too.  I didn't get any pictures of the drum show this time, but I took the picture below at a previous show I saw back in December.

      Here's our group at the Ha, night show. You are not allowed to take pictures during the show, but this was taken before the show started. Sharron's parents were on babysitting duty.  We got them tickets for the show the next night.  It's a definite must see if you come to the PCC.

 

      Tuesday was their last day in Hawaii.  Unfortunately, it was still a cool (low 70's), overcast, rainy day.  Tuesday is one of my busier days at my assignment at the PCC, so I went to work in the morning because it was raining and our planned activity - the beach, was on hold.  While I was at work, they decided to go to the Laie temple visitor's center.

      Then later in the morning, after I had worked a couple of hours at the PCC, the rain stopped, and the sun started to come out.  We ventured over to Laie Point. 

      In the picture above, Peekay is "reading" all about the legend of Mo'o, the giant lizard.

Then we went back to the PCC to see some of the things we missed the day before.  All too soon it was time for Derek and Sharron and Parker to head down to Honolulu.  Their flight on Wednesday morning was super early, so they were spending the night in a hotel near the airport.  We were disappointed that the weather had not cooperated to give them lots of sunshine and beach time, but so glad to spend some time with them, even if it was way too short.

   As we were waiting for the Adams to come back from driving them to Honolulu (not enough room in the car for us), we exchanged their Ha show tickets for upgraded seats and enjoyed one of the best sunsets we've had since coming to Laie.  Since Laie is on the eastern side of the island, we don't usually get views of awesome sunsets, but if you are up early enough, you can enjoy awesome sunrises.

      It was hard to see family leave so soon and hard to get back into a missionary mind-set, but we are so glad to be allowed to have family come to visit while we are here.  Thank goodness the next day, Wednesday, was our day off to give us a day to help readjust back to missionary mode.  It was a gorgeous day.  We were definitely wishing Derek and Sharron could have stayed one more day - it would have been a great beach day!

     

   There is a path at the end of our road with this sign posted - No Trespassing Danger Keep Out.  We have not ventured past that sign, but we have seen other people walking up the path or coming down from the path.  Some people have told us that it's okay to go walking up the path, but we haven't dared to do it.  But on Wednesday afternoon, we decided to go ahead and check out the path that goes up the mountain, despite the sign that says otherwise.

     

     

       It's a fairly steep grade up, but it's a nice, paved road until you get to this water tank.  The peak you see behind the water tank in the picture is the peak we see from our kitchen window.

     

   

         As we walked around the water tank, we found this trail going into the forested hillside.  It looked like a fairly well traveled path, so we decided to take it to see if it would take us to the top of the mountain, hoping to get a great view of the ocean.

It was very quiet and peaceful as we walked along, getting deeper into the ravine between two mountain ridges.  The whole time we are walking, I'm feeling like any moment we are going to be surrounded by government agents with weapons drawn on us, telling us to put our hands up over our heads and that we were under arrest for trespassing.  Luckily that never happened.  In the above picture, you can see what happens to my hair when I let it go ala natural here in Hawaii's humid climate.

The trail never did go up, just deeper into the ravine.  This was the best view of the ocean we got between the trees as we hiked along.  We finally decided to turn around and head back home.

    

      On the way back down the paved part of the trail, we finally got a pretty good view of the ocean.

   

   Friday night, we were assigned to do the Ask Me shift at the Hale Aloha in the PCC.  We enjoy the Ask Me assignment more than the Luau assignment, because you have more of a chance to visit and answer questions from the guests. 

 

     We got up early Saturday morning, 6AM, so we could attend our grandson, Brinton's, baptism via zoom.  It is a wonderful blessing to have the technology available to us to be able to still witness and be a part of the milestones of our family members even while we are serving a mission thousands of miles away.

     I was even able to give the opening prayer.

 

Here's a screenshot of Brinton saying hello to us.  Isn't he so handsome?

I took this other screenshot right after Brinton's confirmation, after the priesthood brethren had stepped away from the circle and before Brinton stood up.

      After the baptism, we went over to the PCC and attended an island devotional in the Hawaii village.  Each island at the PCC will present a devotional throughout the year.  We attended the mission settlement devotional when we first arrived here.  This devotional was presented by staff that works in the Hawaii village. 

 Pictures of the program, front and back.

      The theme of the devotional was "A Song to Our Descendants" They talked about how a lot of their history is shared through song and dance, and the importance of sharing and teaching our values and testimony of the gospel to our current and future descendants.  So of course, they shared a lot of songs and dance throughout the program.  You can see on the back of the program, the hymn, "High On The Mountain Top" translated into Hawaiian.  That was the opening song.

      The Hula Kahiko - an ancient dance used to honor and entertain the chiefs who have travelled from different places.

      "Iesu Me Ke Kanaka Waiwai" (Jesus and the Rich Man) song.  It's based on the parable from Matthew 19:16 - 24 of the rich young man who asks Jesus, "what must I do to gain eternal life?".  It was composed in 1915.

      Hula 'Auana, a contemporary or less formal style hula that tells stories of everyday life through movements of the limbs and hips.  Notice they smile as they do the less formal style of hula.  They don't smile when they do the traditional hulas.

     Musical number, a song and dance called, "Kulaiwi" - an expression of a deep connection to homeland, ancestors, heritage, and culture.

   President Grace, the president of the PCC was the concluding speaker at the devotional.  It was a very enjoyable devotional where I learned a lot about the Hawaiian culture.

      Although we as senior missionaries are not supposed to be given a formal calling in our YSA ward, the Bishop asked us "as an assignment" to conduct the Teacher Council Meetings every week in the second hour of our church meetings.  I'm not sure if the bishop is following the guidelines right, but we told him we would do it.  We will miss interacting with the members during RS/Priesthood and getting to know them better.  Instead, we will get to know the teachers really well as we try to help them learn to teach like the Savior.  Sunday was our first week to teach.  We only had one of the Relief Society teachers join us in the class.

      With this assignment and my conducting class on Sunday afternoons, it makes Sunday my busiest day.