This post will start where I left off in the last post - Culture Night. I want to highlight some of the students that participated in Culture Night that we know. Two thousand students participated in Culture Night, that is over 60% of the student body. With that said, I don't have pictures of all the students we know that participated, so I can only highlight the ones I have pictures of.
The picture on the left is Tao. He is from Tahiti, and he participated in the Tahitian Club. Tao was our guide at the PCC when we first arrived in November and the next day at church we met him in our assigned YSA Ward.
The dancer in the front is in our YSA Ward. We have seen him there many times, but I'm not sure what his name is. He was dancing in the Rotuma Club. Just my opinion - he's quite good looking.
The student in the lower picture on the left with the cowboy hat is Rudy. He is also in the top picture in the front right. Rudy is in our YSA Ward. He is from the Philippines and danced with the Filipino Club (top picture), but he also danced in the Latin America Club (bottom picture). Sometimes they will join a club because that's where they went on their mission, or their friends will talk them into joining a club.
Pictured above is Nicha. She was in the conducting class I taught with Sister Bodily on Sunday afternoons. She danced with the Korea Club.
The student on the far right in the picture above is Rory. He is from Australia and was the Elder's Quorum President in our YSA ward until March, but is not in our ward anymore. He danced with the Cook Islands Club.
This is Duane. She is a Relief Society teacher in our YSA Ward. She is from the Philippines and danced with the Filipino Club. When we first met her, I told her that Duane is a boy's name in our culture. She told me that it's a boy's name in the Philippines too, but her dad really wanted a boy when she was born and although she was a girl, he still named her Duane.
The male student in the picture above is Jared. He works in the Food Warehouse with me. He is from the Philippines and danced with the Filipino Club.
The girl on the left is Shinehah (Shine). She is in our YSA Ward and is the activities coordinator. She is from the Philippines and was the choreographer for the Filipino Club.
We had a special Aloha 'Oe luncheon on Tuesday to say goodbye to the Harrises and wished them God speed. The picture above and to the left were taken at the luncheon.
Sister Harris worked in the President of the PCC's office on the days they didn't do the town run. The picture to the right is Brother Workman, the vice president of the PCC, presenting the Harrises with a replica of the Iosepha canoe that is displayed at the PCC in the Hawaii village. I think Elder Rappleye has some repenting to do because he said when he saw the model he started to covet it. We found it in the Ukulele Experience store selling for $500. I don't think we will be getting one for us.
Elder Harris has a wonderful tenor singing voice and he treated us with a farewell song - Bring Him Home from Les Misérables. Elder Curtis accompanied him on the ukulele. It was beautiful, but I was amazed that he could sing the whole song without losing it emotionally.
Elder Harris had befriended Kina, who works in the Food Warehouse, so he came and did a fire knife dance for them. Kina always provides great entertainment with his fire knife skills.
Tuesday night was our monthly senior missionary devotional. All the junior leadership missionaries presented us "A Day in the Life of a Junior Missionary".
They did short skits depicting all the activities they do during the day like exercise/personal study time, working for a couple of hours at the online teaching center, shifts at the visitor's center and PCC tram tours, and ministering to people in their assigned area.
I wasn't sitting in a good place to get pictures. These were taken at the end then they all introduced themselves. I guess I should sit a little closer to the front from now on in case I want to snap some pictures.
On Wednesday, I had another field trip with my boss, Lili, and Kina, the night manager. We went into Honolulu to the Blaisdell Center to the Hawai'i Hotel and Restuarant Show. Many of the vendors that the PCC orders food and paper products from had booths set up at this event. 
At the vendor's booths that the PCC uses, everyone know my boss, Lili. She has been working at the food warehouse for 12 years, so she is well known. They were always talking to her about different products and asking how they could serve the PCC better. The picture on the left is the Sysco booth. It occupied a big area in the convention hall. Doesn't all that fruit look delicious? Most of the vendors had samples that you could taste. That was a definite perk. The guy at the Ghirardelli Chocolate booth gave me a cup of chocolate chips to munch on as I walked around the hall. Domino's pizza was handing out slices of pizza and bites of chocolate chip cookies.
Here is a fish display at one of the vendors.
This pastry vendor's display was amazingly gorgeous. I tasted the best croissant I've ever had at one of the vendors.
Aren't these the most beautiful orchid leis you've ever seen? The leis the PCC gives to all the luau guests are not nearly that elaborate. It would cost a lot more for the luau if we handed out leis like these.
Here we are at the Diamond Bakery booth. They were passing out free samples of all different flavored shortbread cookies. I ended up taking two of every flavor home.
Look how small I look next to Kina. He's a big Samoan guy. He's the fire knife dancing guy in the earlier pictures at the Aloha 'Oe for the Harrises.
Every vendor was giving away not only free samples to taste, but free swag. I brought back with me pens, refrigerator magnets, etc. I even got a free eye cream treatment with Truffoire, a gourmet skin care product. It worked wonders under my eyes. I was too afraid to ask how much it would cost because I knew I couldn't afford it. He did put a pretty hard sell on me, but I didn't cave. I came home and looked it up on their website and it's $400 for a one ounce bottle! Oh, to be rich! Now I need to repent.
Friday night we had a district activity. We all attended the play, "Once On This Island" that the theater department at BYU-H performed on campus.
Here's the synopsis of the play:
Ti Moune is a peasant girl saved by the gods on a Caribbean island. She becomes the subject of a bet between two of the gods, Erzulie and Papa Ge, who disagree on which is stronger, love or death. Ti Moune rescues a boy, Daniel, from the upper class, falls in love with him, and would give her life for his. Will the gods grant her wish?
I didn't get any pictures of the play, but here is one from the BYU-H Facebook post. The performance was good, but the way it ended I did not like. I like happy endings and the ending was not what I would call happy. The heroine gets the boy but only for a little while. He chooses to go through with the arranged marriage to a woman he doesn't love and gives up on true love. The heroine, Ti Moune, is so heartbroken she just sits at the palace gate waiting for her true love to come to her, but he never does, so she dies. The gods allowed her to become a tree in the palace garden to be near her true love. Does that sound like a happy ending?
Saturday morning we went out to Kapaka Farms in Hau'ula with 10 other senior missionaries to help at the community fair they were doing. The farm is owned by the church and it's like a community garden. Families have plots they garden and can use the harvest to help feed their families or give to neighbors in need. They were having their second annual community fair. Here's a picture on the left of the view of part of the farm.
They needed our help to run the games for the kids and serve food at the luncheon. I didn't get very many pictures, but the picture on the right is the prize table. There were all kinds of awesome prizes they were giving away. In the back on the right side of the picture is the slush machines. We helped hand out slush to anyone who wanted some. The sister in the red t-shirt at the table is my Aunt Faith. She organized the prize table.
The young Elders were in charge of the 9 square game. Although they were in their Sunday clothes, they were really getting into playing the game.
In the pictures on the left is Elder Rappleye helping with the fishing pond. The kids could fish as many times as they wanted to. Some came back so many times their pockets were full of prizes, and they were actually telling us what prizes they already had so they could get some different ones. There was also a bounce house and face painting for the kids.
They served a dish that they call Coco Samoa. It's showed in the picture above. It looks like muddy water, but it's rice and cocoa. It's like drinking hot chocolate but it's a thicker consistency. Everyone loves it here. We tried it and it was pretty good. I'm not a big hot chocolate drinker so I only had a little bit.
My Aunt Faith was helping at a booth to let people make flower arrangements. She helped me make one for our pad. While I was doing that she told me that my Uncle Jay had a stoke on Thursday and he was in the hospital. He would probably go to a rehab center for a few weeks before coming home.
It was Sister Jone's last Sunday at piano lessons. She has been in charge of the program, but it is time for her to go home. The students and all of us are really going to miss Sister Jones. Sister Coleman is going to be taking over as the leader of the piano lessons.
On Sunday, we participated with all the senior missionaries in the Ko'olauloa Community Easter Celebration. It was held iin the Cannon Activity Center on the BYU-H campus. All the different churches in the community were invited to participate in it with choir selections. It ended up being just different wards and stake choirs from our church, but it was a very good way to celebrate Palm Sunday with music that celebrated Jesus Christ.
Our missionary choir started out the program singing our mission song, Cause of Christ. Here's the words of our song:
Let us walk in the ways of the Lord.
Let his love guide us well in His work.
Marching forth we give thanks for his light.
We will love in the cause of Christ.
La'ie! La'ie! Mahalo Ke Akua
La'ie! La'ie! Mahalo Ke Akua.
In the spirit of Aloha we will serve
Give our all to each soul for their worth.
Pressing forward with our might and soul,
We will share in the cause of Christ.
Chorus
As we follow in the covenant path
God gives knowledge we know we are free
To accept His will and follow willingly,
We invite in the cause of Christ.
Chorus
We'll endure through the storms of our lives,
No wind or rain can throw us from our course!
As we choose each day to follow God's commands,
We'll find joy and love because of Christ.
Chorus.
Mahalo Ke Akua literally means "thanks be to God"
Thie picture on the right is the BYU-H Chamber Choir singing their musical selection. There was also a Primary choir, a couple YSA stake choirs, and a married student stake choir.
This is the Samoan Ward singing in the picture to the left. My boss, Lili was singing in that choir. The Tongan ward had a choir that sang but I didn't get a picture of them. It was a bigger choir than the Samoan ward's choir, but both choirs wore the same dresses.
After the concert they had ube donuts for everyone. It was very good. Ube is a purple yam and a very popular food here in Hawaii. It was the first time tasting a purple ube donut.
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