Celebration Week: May 27 - June 2, 2024

   

  The Polynesian Cultural Center was open on Memorial Day, so both of us had to go in to work as usual.  But we were able to get our jobs done quickly because it was a slow day, and only had to stay until 11 AM.  Our goal was to go visit the National Memorial Cemetry of the Pacific at the Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu.  We grabbed a quick lunch and were on our way.  We were worried that it might be super crowded because it was Memorial Day, but it wasn't crowded at all. Since they had a Memorial Day service at 8:30 am we figure most people must have gone in the morning.  The big statue of Lady Columbia or Lady Liberty behind us in the top left picture represents all grieving mothers.  A small chapel had lots of wreaths honoring those who had died. There were lots of mural maps on the walls, like the one pictured in the bottom right, depicting the battles fought in WWII.  We walked up to the lookout and there were great views of downtown Honolulu, Diamond Head, and the entire Cemetry, all 112 acres. 

  There are 53,000 veterans from WWI, WWII, Korean war, and Vietnam war buried in this Cemetry.  An American flag and a lei are put on every grave marker on Memorial Day weekend.  It was an impressive site to see flags blowing in the wind everywhere we looked.

In February we went as a district and made 53 ti leaf leis to be put on the grave markers on Memorial Day.  The picture to the right shows one of the graves with a ti leaf wreath, just like the ones we made.  It was great to see the final resting place (no pun intended?) of the ti leaf wreaths we made.  It's such a peaceful, sacred place to contemplate the sacrifices that were made by so many, so we can enjoy the freedoms and blessings that we have today. 

      Tuesday was Elder Rappleye's birthday.  He is the same age as the Nephite apostles that were told how old they would be when they could "come unto me in my kingdom and with me ye shall find rest. (3 Nephi 28:3) I hope that is not the case for Elder Rappleye, but instead that he lives to be the age of a tree, like his mom.

     We had invited Elder and Sister Lee (the newest Lee couple) to come have a birthday dinner celebrating Elder Rappleye's birthday and Sister Lee's birthday, whose birthday was the next day.  As we were leaving work around 2pm we saw Sister Lee and asked her if they were still on for dinner that night.  But she was actually going home from her assignment because she wasn't feeling well, and they weren't going to be able to come.  That left us with no birthday celebration plans. We decided to go have a picnic dinner in the gazebo on the hill up behind the temple.  It's such a lovely, peaceful place up there.  I don't know why we don't go up there more often.  If we lived in Laie, we probably would walk up there often.

     We found out it was National Hamburger Day, so we went to Seven Brothers and got a teriyaki burger and fries to share for our picnic dinner.  Then we got a chocolate chip cookie from Chunky Cookie at Pounders in the Hukilau Marketplace and went home and had milk and cookies.  Not the healthiest dinner, but on your birthday anything goes. 

   Wednesday, I did go to Kailua to the endodontist and had the root canal done.  I wasn't excited about having to get a root canal done, but I was excited to not have the pain anymore.  A nerve under the tooth had died and it had gotten abscessed, and the infection was going into my sinuses.  Probably because it had taken me so long to find an endodontist that accepted my insurance. I was pretty nervous about getting the root canal done, but I certainly had a great view from the window as I sat in the chair waiting.  Dr. Kang told me I wouldn't feel any pain.  I wasn't convinced, but I told me I was going to hold him to it.  True to his word, he did an amazing job, and it was not painful at all, even when he gave me the Novocain shots.  It was all done in less than an hour, and I only had to pay my co-pay, not the full amount. I still have to go back to the dentist to get a permanent crown put on, but I'm grateful to finally get the worst part over with before it got any worse.

      This week we have to give shout outs to our granddaughters in Florida.  Stella, pictured on the left above, graduated from middle school on Wednesday and Ella, pictured on the right, graduated from Elementary School on Wednesday as well.  A big day for the Rappleye Sunshine 5 in West Palm Beach.

      Thursday is normally our town run day, but they are training Elder Boyer for the Tuesday town runs and wanted him to get more experience by going on Thursday too.  They wanted Elder Boyer to be the driver, and since Elder Rappleye didn't want to navigate, they had Elder Tam, who has done town runs before, go as the navigator.  So, we ended up staying at the PCC on Thursday.  

   I caught Elder Rappleye doing what they call, "talking story" with another cart driver.  They just stop and visit with each other for a while with the front ends of the carts next to each other.  Elder Rappleye is in the right-hand cart in the picture.  They were just leaving the motor pool area.  The building in the background on the left is where the food warehouse is located.  So, you can see that we work fairly close to each other,

 although Elder Rappleye goes all over the PCC looking for carts that need to be serviced. The picture above shows Elder Rappleye in the cart with his sidekick, Bry., going to look for carts.  When they find a cart that needs serviced, one of them will hop out and they drive both carts back to the motor pool, service the one they found, and then drive it back to where they found it with the other person following in the other cart to pick them up and then start looking for another cart to service. They need to service about 20 carts a week to keep them all up to date.  Elder Rappleye looks small sitting next to Bry, who is a big Samoan full-time employee in the motor pool.

      We got a new employee in the Food Warehouse, Kali.  Kina has transferred to landscaping; Jake found a different job not at the PCC, Quilla has moved back to the mainland, and Leah has transferred to First Aid at the PCC.  So, we are looking for new employees - anyone want to come live in Hawaii?  The only thing is you have to be a student at BYU-H to get hired.

Thursday and Friday, the food warehouse manager, Lili, and Kapu'u, second in command, were both out of the office.  They left Danna, one of the students, and Kalo, and David, in charge.  That's putting a lot of trust in everyone to do their jobs to keep the warehouse running smoothly, and Thursday it did run smoothly, at least while I was there.  Friday was not so stress free.  We had an ice block crisis and had to get an emergency ice delivery for Saturday arranged.

      Thursday night as we were going to the temple, we were driving past the PCC parking lot, I saw a white stretch limo parked in there.  That's the first time I've seen a limo at the PCC.  I wanted to stop and take a picture, but we needed to get to the temple.  I was hoping it would still be there when we were done at the temple, but no such luck - it was gone.  Maybe someone rich or famous or both was visiting the PCC on Thursday?

    The bosses, Regina and Anthony, planned a little surprise birthday celebration for Elder Rappleye on Friday morning.  Regina came to my office and told me she was kidnapping me and took me and Sister Sauve over to the motor pool office to sing happy birthday to Elder Rappleye and have cake and ice cream.  It was a nice surprise, especially since he didn't have any cake on his birthday on Tuesday.  Top left picture - Regina (seated, Elder Boyer, Elder Mike Bates, Bry, and Elder Ron Bates.  Top right picture - Elder Dan Duncan, Elvis (Robertson), and Anthony. Bottom left picture - Sister Sauve, Sister Patty Bates, and Sister Cindy Bates.  Bottom right picture - the birthday boy.  They even had ice cream sandwiches which Elder Rappleye loves.  What a fun break from our work routine!

      Later that day as Elder Rappleye was servicing a cart, he opened it up to check the batteries and he found a chicken egg sitting on one of the batteries.  He was so surprised, and he wasn't sure it was a real egg or a plastic one.  He was showing the other guys out in the motor pool the egg and Elder Bates accidentally dropped it.  Sure enough, it was a real egg.

     On a side note, Elder Rappleye ran over his first, and hopefully only chicken this week.  Usually, the chickens will scurry out of the way as you drive down the street, but this chicken headed straight towards us.  We expected it to dart away at the last minute, like they usually do, but it did not.  We were on the Kam highway which is a single lane both ways road with little to no shoulder, so there was no chance to swerve and miss the chicken.

      Friday night we were doing an Ask Me assignment at the Gateway.  On the terrace we noticed they had set up the tables in a different grouping with centerpieces and tablecloths.  We were told that there was going to be a VIP group from China visiting at 6 pm.  That would be right during our assignment, and we would be right in front of the Gateway Restaurant, so we were hoping to see them come in.  A little after 6pm, President Grace (the man in the yellow shirt at the front of the line of people in the top picture to the right) and the group of VIPs from China came into the PCC.  We were standing at the other end of the building from where they entered so we didn't get to greet them with Aloha, but I was able to snap a picture.  The picture on the bottom is the dining area set up, ready and waiting for them.

  Our assignment was close to the First Aid station, so at the end of our assignment I went over to visit with Leah, who used to work at the food warehouse and is now working at First Aid.  It seems like on a day-to-day basis it's a less stressful job than the food warehouse, but on certain days it could be very stressful.

 

    The Iosepha canoe that is usually on display in the Kauaiwiʻulaokalani Hālau Wa’a at the Hawaiian village in the PCC is sailing around the island of Oahu during the month of June as part of the Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture that will be held here on Oahu.  The Iosepha is a traditional 57-foot voyaging canoe built in 2001 and the last time it sailed was 8 years ago.  It's pictured above docked at Hale'iwa Harbor.

      It was scheduled to anchor at Hukilau Bay on Saturday, and we were planning on going to see it, but the waters were forecasted to be too choppy, so they had to change plans and just sail by without anchoring around 8 - 9 am.

     We thought there wasn't going to be any hoopla since it wasn't going to be anchoring, so we were just going to wait to see it next Saturday when it would be at Kualoa Regional Park. 

     Elder Rappleye decided with the change of plans that he would change the oil in our car Saturday morning because it needed to be done.  He ran into some complications, and it took him longer than planned to get that task accomplished.

    When he finally got home from changing the oil over at the motor pool around 10AM, we quickly changed into beach wear and drove to Hukilau beach for some sunshine and R & R.  When we arrived the parking lot was full, but luckily, we found one last parking spot.  We couldn't figure out why it was so crowded because we thought the Iosepha canoe would have sailed by a long time ago. We found out that it hadn't sailed by yet and everybody was still waiting for it.  We were only there for a few minutes when it came into sight.  The group in the top picture above started blowing the conch shells and singing to welcome and celebrate the canoe's safe arrival.  In the bottom picture, Elder Rappleye and others are watching for the canoe's appearance.

   When the canoe first appeared, it did not have its sail up.  All we could see was a mast sticking up out of the ocean. When it finally passed Goat Island, they rigged up the sail and we watched it travel across the bay.  It was quite a way out from shore.  I've circled where the boat is in the pictures to the left.  I didn't zoom in because I wanted the perspective of distance.  You can compare the size of the canoe from the picture of it docked in Hale'iwa. It was quite exciting to see it appear.  You can imagine how the villagers must have felt when they would see their men coming back home from a long voyage.

      After spending time at Hukilau beach, we went home for some lunch.  Then we went back to the motor pool to give our car some more tender loving care with a car wash and vacuum.

      Sunday was our Munch and Mingle that we have every first Sunday of the month at the Gateway Terrace.  It's also when we sing "Aloha 'Oe" to the missionaries that will be going home during the month.

      There are six missionaries going home during the month of June.

      The Sneddons, pictured on the top left, are service missionaries helping in the mission office.  We have helped Elder Sneddon a couple of times with the mission vehicles.  Elder Rappleye helps Elder Sneddon every zone conference with checking the mission vehicles - puts air in the tires if needed, checks the oil, checks the lights, etc,   They will be going to Korea to serve a full-time mission.

      Sister Bromley, pictured on the bottom left, and her husband, not pictured, served at the PCC.  Sister Bromley is Tim Frodsham's sister.  Elder Frodsham and his wife were in our MTC District.

     Elder and Sister Dahlin, pictured above served at the PCC.  We feel like we know them most of the three couples that are leaving.  They were one of the couples that would eat lunch with the group every day.  That's a great way to bond and get to know with other.  We are definitely going to miss them.  The mission just isn't going to be the same without them.

     After the Aloha 'Oe, we had a mission photo taken in front of the PCC's main waterfall.  I have yet to get a copy of it, but when I do, I will post it in my blog.