To start this blog, I have to go back to last week's mention of meeting Steven Sharp Nelson, from the Piano Guys. I forgot to mention that one of their YouTube videos was filmed on Pounder's beach here on Oahu, not far from our pad and the PCC. This picture shows the spot they used in their video. Check it out.
Https://youtu.be/jzF_y039slk?si=ooprLyFKJLDhjy63
We also had a leaking washing machine last time we did our laundry. Thankfully the washing machine sits on a tiled base with a 2- to 3-inch edge and a drain beside it, so it wasn't doing any damage. Just hoping it's not a sign that the washing machine is going to quit on us soon.
Monday morning started off with a beautiful sunrise. When I sit at the desk in our living room to put on my makeup in the mornings before work, I can look out the window and view the sunrise and get a glimpse of the ocean. This one caught my attention and was extra spectacular. It's not normally that colorful.
Monday night we were again assigned to help with line management at the Hale Aloha luau. I was helping at the entrance. Before the guests started coming to the entrance, I snapped this shot of all the leis waiting to be passed out to all the luau guests.
As I was working, the Cowleys came by to say hello. They had been enjoying the islands at the PCC all afternoon. They had their grandson, Coen, with them.
Tuesday, we hit our 100-day mark of our mission. We were told to give ourselves 100 days to get acclimated to life here in Hawaii, life as a missionary, and life in your job assignment. Here are a few things we have learned in the last 100 days -
1. This is not the kind of mission we always pictured we would serve someday. So, we have had to change our expectations.
2. It's actually can get cold here. At least it feels cold with the breeze, and humidity, and windows stuck open and no way to heat your house.
3. The bugs aren't as bad as I thought they would be. We have seen 3 cockroaches in our pad, 2 geckos, once in our bedroom and a couple of times in the kitchen. Ants have been the hardest problem to get rid of. I had imagined a lot worse!
4. We have more free time than I thought we would have. In some ways I like that and in other ways I don't. We try to find extra ways to bless and serve where we can.
5. It's been harder than expected to feel like we belong here. All the senior missionaries are nice and friendly, but we haven't felt like we "click" with any of the other couples yet. We feel like square pegs trying to fit in a round hole. But hopefully we will get there.
6. Unexpected challenges in our assignments at the PCC. There was no hands-on training by the outgoing missionaries, so learning our assignments has been by a lot of trial and error. I have never had trouble with anxiety until now. For months I felt anxious every morning going into work and worried about how many mistakes I would make that day. I still make mistakes and not always sure what I'm supposed to be doing, but at least I am not as anxious about it. I'm still waiting for a mistake free day. Elder Rappleye's assignment is less definitive as mine, so he has had a hard time knowing exactly what he is expected and should do. But we both are learning to like what we do.
7. Going to the beach at least once a week is good for the soul. Even if it's just a walk along the beach, it helps put things in perspective, reduces anxiety and stress, and helps me remember to enjoy the journey.
8. I'm told 90% of senior missionary applications have Hawaii listed on their requests. We did have Hawaii on our list, but just as a "why not?". The fact that we did not lobby for this mission or talk to anyone in the mission before we submitted, testifies to the fact that we are meant to be serving here. We have not figured out why yet. Hopefully it won't take us our whole mission to figure it out.
9. It is a blessing to go to the temple almost every week. Back home we lived just as close to a temple as we do here, but we were too busy with work, family, housework, etc. to be able to go as often as we are here.
10. Serving in a YSA ward is fun. We love serving in the YSA 10th ward. The students are so loving and accepting, and it is great to interact with so many cultures here. It's amazing to see how strong and valiant their testimonies are. They truly are the noble and great ones reserved to come in these latter-days to prepare the world for Christ's second coming. Sundays are my favorite day.
We had back-to-back assignments to help at the Hale Aloha luau because we were filling in for the Tanners. On Tuesday night, we switched locations. Elder Rappleye manned the entrance, and I was covering the exit. It's pretty slow back at the exit, but you get a view of the venue and what's going on. The picture to the right is breadfruit growing on a tree near the exit of the luau.
The picture on the left is a couple of carts full of the pineapple drink they serve at the luau, and they serve it in a pineapple. It's very delicious, and what's better than drinking a pineapple drink in the pineapple?
I finally got a picture of the boys carrying the pig from the "imu", an underground oven or cooking pit to the carving table. Looks delicious!
Right after our shift, we ate a quick dinner at the Gateway, and then headed over to the Visitor's Center for our monthly Senior Missionary Devotional. Elder Harris, from our district, sang a special musical number, "For Me Alone" by Sally DeFord. We have never heard this song before. It's a very beautiful song about Christ suffering and atoning for our sins. Elder Harris did an amazing performance. I'm going to include some of the lyrics of the song:
For love of all God’s children Christ redeemed us from the fall His mercy without measure is sufficient for us all
But if I alone had stumbled; if I alone had strayed If I alone had wandered from the straight and narrow way If I alone were foolish; if I alone were frail If I alone had faltered when the power of hell assailed If I alone bore guilt for which my all could never atone He would have come for me For me alone
On Wednesday, our day off, we spent most of the day preparing for Elder Rappleye's sister and husband, Betty Ann and Steve Curtis's visit. They actually arrived in Hawaii on Wednesday afternoon but were spending a couple of days in Waikiki before coming to stay with us on Saturday. We were cleaning and arranging the extra bedroom for them to stay in.
In the evening, we went and played pickleball and then went over to the Pacific Theater at the PCC to watch the Masters of the Flame competition. PCC employees vie for the title of best fire knife dancers. They even had a women's division.
There were 15 competitors in the men's single division. Kena, the fourth in from the right, works in the food warehouse in the afternoon shift. He showed off his skills at our Christmas party in December. There were 6 women in the women's division.
Here's a few photos from the men's competition.
I just wanted to stay long enough to see Kena compete. It was getting late, and we had to get up pretty early to go to work the next day, so we ended up leaving before he competed. All the competitors we watched dropped the knifes. No one had a perfect routine. It's a tough skill to master.
We took Friday off and met Steve and Betty Ann down at Waikiki where they were staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Paradise Village. By the time we got down there, we only had a little time before our lunch reservation at Duke's, so we relaxed by the pool.
Here are a few views we had from the pool. Waikiki is an absolute crazy crowded place. So many people, so many tall buildings, so many cars - it's faster to walk places than drive. And that's what we did, we walked to Duke's for lunch.
Almost everyone we talked to recommended eating at Duke's. We were excited that Betty Ann and Steve had made us a reservation there, because we will probably not go back down to Waikiki again unless family or friends are staying there and invite us to come visit them.
The food did not disappoint. It was expensive though. The best thing was the dessert, Kimo's Original Hula Pie - chocolate cookie crust, macadamia nut ice cream, hot fudge, toasted mac nuts, and whipped cream. TO DIE FOR! All 4 of us shared one piece - it's HUGE! I don't want to know how many calories are in that piece of pie.
View of the beach from the restaurant. We were hoping for a table on the patio but didn't get one. It's always crowded at Dukes.
Picture on the right - statue on Waikiki beach of native Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku, legendary swimmer and surfer, Elder Rappleye and his sister, Betty Ann Curtis are in the picture to the right. Can't go to Waikiki beach without getting a picture in front of this statue.
Some fun photo ops along the walk.
On the walk back, we took the sunny route and walked along the beach.
After lunch we decided to get out of Honolulu and drive out to Hawaii Kai where Steve and Betty Ann used to live 35 years ago. Since we never got a chance to come visit them when they lived in Hawaii, they took us to see their old house. It just so happened that the current owner happened to drive up as we were parked in front of the house. She was kind enough to let us come in, and Steve and Betty Ann could see the changes to the inside of the house since they lived there. They loved reliving their time on the island.
Views of Hawaii Kai. Steve and Betty Ann lived up high on the hill (Mariners Ridge) where you see all the houses.
View of Maunatua Bay.
West side of Koko Crater
We drove all the way out to Makapu'u Lookout. It's just below the lighthouse on Makapu'u Point. It was super windy out there on this day.
We also stopped at the Halona Blowhole. When the waves come in strong enough, water sprays up through a hole in the lava rock, looking like a mini Old Faithful. instead of hot steam it's cool ocean spray.
We ended the day back at Waikiki. Sunset view from Steve and Betty Ann's hotel room. You know you are on vacation when you have ice cream for dinner - Lappert's Ice Cream. Steve and Betty Ann highly recommended it and judging from the line outside the door, everyone else thought so too. We had just enough time to get our ice cream and head to the beach.
We finished the day off with a bang by watching fireworks over Waikiki Bay.
Saturday was the day we were most excited about. It was the day we were going to do a whale watching tour. This was something we had hoped to do when our son, Derek and his wife, Sharron, were here in January, but it got cancelled because of poor weather conditions. We were really hoping that wouldn't happen again. The weather cooperated this time and we were able to do our tour. Here we are as we headed out to sea.
We sailed out of Haleiwa with Bob Marlin Charters. We had booked a private 4-person tour, so it was just us on the boat which gave us a better chance of moving from one side of the boat to the other, depending on where the whales were. It was a 2-hour tour, and there is no guarantee on how many whale sightings you will see, or if you will even see any whales. We were all put to work scanning the ocean for signs of whales - plumes of water coming from the whale's blowhole. Over an hour into the tour, we still had not seen any whales. It started to rain lightly on us, and I was beginning to think maybe we should give up and go back to port.
Elder Rappleye was the first one to spot a whale. then a little later, I spotted a whale. Soon we had lots of whale tails popping out of the water.
Then Steve and Betty Ann each spotted some whales. Captain Kev maneuvered the boat so that the group of 4 or 5 whales were swimming alongside us about 50 feet out from our boat. Our captain did a good job to keep the speed of the boat about the same speed as the whales.
The biggest thrill was when two whales, one right after the other, breached and came up out of the water. Then a short time later for the third time a whale breached. We couldn't tell if it was three different whales, but it was at least two different whales. In the picture collage to the left, I kept the wake of the boat in one of the pictures so you can see how close we were to the whale. By now, we knew we had definitely gotten our money's worth. Captain Kev told us that he had not seen that many whales breaching in at least two weeks, and he goes out every day with tours.
Here we are returning to port, all very happy with our adventure of whale watching. Thanks to Betty Ann, who provided all the great whale pics. She got the best pictures between us.
Here's a picture of our awesome Captain Kev. He's been doing tours for 12 years so he's very experienced.
We spent the rest of the day exploring the shops at Haleiwa.
On our way back home, we stopped along the north shore at Ted's Bakery for a late lunch/early dinner. We got the two-choice mixed plate of mahi mahi and lemon chicken. We were all so famished from our whale watching and shopping excursion. Everything tasted wonderful!
It was fun to have someone to play games with at night. The two games we played were Five Crowns and Tapped Out. I couldn't help but think about our Pamela Place downtown group that we used to play games with before our mission call. I'm sure they would love both of those games.
On Sunday, Steve and Betty Ann went to church in their old ward down in Hawaii Kai. They got to see a lot of old friends.
I had a make-up conducting class to do for two of my students. After the make-up class, they received their keyboards. The picture to the left is Rizza getting her keyboard.
This is Nicha receiving her keyboard. I wish I could go on and teach all 8 of my conducting class students keyboarding, but that would not be feasible. So, I had to choose one student to teach in the 2:15pm class. I chose Taputailo Ufi (Talo for short) because she is in our YSA ward. I also am teaching Zaya keyboarding at 3:30pm because her church schedule won't allow her to get to the 2:15pm time. They get a one-hour lesson every Sunday.
Unbeknownst to us, Sister Jones took pictures of all of the teachers with their students. Here is my student, Talo at her first lesson. She has a little bit of background in piano, so we were able to breeze through section 1 of the keyboarding class.
After the keyboarding lessons and Steve and Betty Ann had returned from their visiting in Hawaii Kai, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner. There had been transfers a couple of days before Sunday, so we had one new sister missionary. Sister Earl, from Roosevelt, UT is the sister nearest the window (she was a new sister), and Sister Scott, from San Diego is closest to me. Both sisters have been on their mission for a while. It was fun getting to know both of them.
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