Enjoying Mission Life in Hawaii: June 3 - 9, 2024

       We are finally going into the drier season, and we are not getting rain every day. Luckily, the temperatures are still fairly mild, and the heat hasn't arrived yet.  The weather has been very pleasant and it's making it hard to have to be stuck in an office for most of the day doing my assignment at the Food Warehouse.  Elder Rappleye gets to be outdoors most of the time while he does his work in the motor pool.  When the heat hits, I probably will be grateful to be in an air-conditioned office.

      It's been especially hard for me because for most of the week I have been dealing with a headache that won't go away.  It started on Sunday.  I get headaches quite often when I'm fasting, but they usually go away after I break my fast and start eating again.  This time it hasn't done that.  Medication only provides temporary relief. 

      On Monday, our boss, Lili was back from her visit to the mainland, but Kapu'u will be out until Thursday.  Which means just me, and Sister Sauve are in the office, so it's a little more relaxed atmosphere.  Sister Sauve will play music on her phone, and we have a chance to visit with each other and the other workers a little more.  Don't worry, we are still getting our work done on time.

       Elder Rappleye had a record setting day.  He and his cohorts, Bry, and Elder Tam, serviced 12 carts in one day!  They have never been able to get so many carts done in one day.  Considering they try to do 20 a week, they got more than half the carts for the week done by the end of Monday.  That will make for a less stressful rest of the week.

      Monday night after we went to ukulele class, we headed over to the McKay pool for FHE.  I brought my swimsuit in case my headache wasn't too painful, and I could get in.  At first, I didn't feel like I wanted to get in, not only because of my headache but it actually felt a little chilly. I finally decided to go for it and I got in for about a half hour.  The students were playing a game of basketball in the shallow end. It was a fun game to watch.  I didn't want to get my hair wet, and I knew if I joined in the game, my hair would definitely get wet.

      Pictured to the right are a few of the groups of students just playing around in the deep end.  Top left - a friend and Maheta, Top right - Chad, Ren, and Clarbelle Bottom left - Hei (pronounced Hey), and her friend and bottom right - Andrew, the Bishop's son, aka Marshmellow man, and his friend.

      Top left picture - a group picture, but it doesn't include everybody that was there. Top right - the cheer squad, Camilla, Cyrelle, and Eve. Bottom left - Elder Rappleye and I. Still can't get Elder Rappleye in the water. Bottom right - the second cheer squad - Camilla, Cyrelle, Joey, and Owen.

    On Tuesday, we were notified that a dance studio from Rockwell, Texas would be performing at the welcome center at 12:45 to 1:15 pm.  After we ate lunch Elder Rappleye and I walked out to the front and caught the last dance number.  Apparently, they started earlier than 12:45 pm.  I was glad we went out there a little early or we would have missed the whole performance.

   

  Elijah in our YSA ward told us about a big event that was happening on Wednesday at the Kualoa Regional Park for FESTPAC - Festival of the Pacific Arts & Culture. It's a huge event that happens every 4 years and it's the first time they have held it in Hawaii in its 52-year history.  There are 27 nations represented in this festival.  We feel blessed to be able to be here for this historic event.  Elijah is on the Iosepha canoe crew. We drove down to Kualoa Regional Park on Wednesday in hopes that we could get into this Wa'a ceremony.  When we arrived, we were told we had to have a blue wristband to get in, so I guess it was by special invitation only.  Elijah didn't tell us about that important detail.

     Our backup plan was to go hike Likeke Falls trail.  We had tried once before to hike it, but on the previous try the trail was way too muddy.  This time the trail wasn't bad with only a few muddy spots to have to get around.  The collage on the left are views of the trail. The trail started out paved with huge trees lining the path. There are roots all over across the trail, so you had to be sure not to trip, and branches growing across the trail, so you had to be careful to avoid them.  It's a short hike, .8-mile round trip from the trailhead.  We had to park down the road a way because they were repaving the parking lot, so it probably added another 1/2 mile to the hike.

       To the right are pictures of the falls.  The bottom left picture is what we saw first as we approached the falls.  At first, we thought that was all there was to the falls, but as we hiked further up the big waterfall appeared to the left.  You can't even see the top of the waterfall in the pictures because of all the greenery up by the top.  It's a lot higher than it looks.  The waterfall is a spring fed waterfall, so it is there year-round.  Depending on how much rain there has been lately, it will add to the volume of the falls. Many waterfalls here will dry up in the summer because of lack of rain. We were really glad we finally made it back to do this hike.

    On our way home from the hike, we decided to stop at the Tropical Macadamia Nut Outlet.  We drive by there every time we are going home from town visits.  It is always crowded, so we just wanted to check it out.  It is purely a tourist trap.  Not much to see besides the gift shop.  They did have a pretty fountain area and some fun statues that made for a great photo op.

      On our way home we also spotted Sadie, the Hawaiian monk seal.  We decided to stop and get some pictures.  They had it roped off and a volunteer there to answer questions and make sure no one goes into the roped off area.  I was told that Sadie is 15 years old (average age monk seals live is 30 years), weighs about 400 pounds and is about 6 feet long.  The picture of me is not very good, but it gives you a perspective of how close we were to Sadie.

      There was a plaque with information about how they are an endangered species.  The volunteer told us that the number one factor for death in monk seals is toxins in the water, specifically cat toxins.  I guess there are a lot of cats excreting in the ocean.  Makes me not want to get in the ocean.

By Wednesday night by headache was pretty painful and I was starting to feel feverish.  We really wanted to go to Clubs Got Talent night at the Cannon Activities Center.  It is like America's Got Talent, where the clubs complete for cash prizes to help fund the club's activities.  I was really disappointed to miss that.

      On Thursday morning I woke up still feeling feverish.  I took my temperature, and I was over 101 degrees, so I couldn't go into work that day. I took a Covid test, but it was negative.  Elder Rappleye left for work at the PCC, and I went back to bed.  By mid-morning I woke up famished, so I got some breakfast.  With some food in my stomach, I didn't feel like staying in bed anymore, so I decided to get some things done - I did a load of laundry, balanced the books, and read.  By early afternoon my fever broke, so I showered and felt much better.  Except I still had my headache - stabbing pains behind my ears and pressure at my temples.  The medicine I was taking wasn't helping much.

I learned late Thursday night that my twin sister, Cindy, broke her leg while hiking at a mission wide conference in Armenia.  It was very serious.  She said her foot was sticking out at a 90-degree angle from her leg. I'll spare you pictures of the gruesome sight.  Luckily it was a clean break, but she had to have surgery the next day and they put in a metal plate down near her ankle where the break was and a screw to attach a piece of bone that broke off her tibia when her foot detached.  The picture above is Cindy in the hospital the night before her surgery.  She was very hungry because she hadn't eaten since 8AM and wouldn't be able to eat until after her surgery the next afternoon, so her husband went and got her a pizza.  She has a long recovery ahead of her, starting with not being able to put any weight on her foot for a month.  She is using a walker to get around and keeping her foot off the ground.

 

      Friday morning, the motor pool had a farewell breakfast for Elder Duncan.  He isn't going home, but they have changed his assignment, and he would not be working out in the motor pool anymore.  He and his wife will be working at the visitor center full time.  They have been helping out at the visitor's center for a while, but their call was officially changed by Salt Lake to the visitor's center for the last three months of their mission.  Sister Duncan was the mission nurse, but not anymore.  Elder and Sister Duncan are in the above picture in the aloha shirt and white print blouse.  Elder Tam is to their right, Elder and Sister Bates is to their left.

      Elder Duncan snapped this picture as the Bates and Elder Rappleye were driving away back to the motor pool.  Time to go get to work. I had already left to go to my office.

      Friday night we had the Hale Ohana luau assignment.  I took the back exit because my headache was still bothering me, and I knew it would be a quieter assignment back there.  I noticed this golden fire hydrant by the drinking fountain by the back exit.  I hadn't noticed it before.  The plaque states:  "This fire hydrant once served the little community of Iosepha, Skull Valley, Utah.  It stands here as a reminder of the faithful Polynesian pioneers who migrated to Utah in the late 1800's to join in the "gathering of Zion" and to be married in the temple for time and all eternity.  Iosepha, meaning Joseph (referring to Joseph F. Smith) was settled on August 28, 1889, and continued for 20 years.  At its peak, 220 Polynesians inhabited the little desert community.  When the building of the Hawaii temple was announced in 1915, the Iosepha saints moved back to their beloved Hawaii and settled along Iosepha Street in Laie.  The Hawaii temple was the first to be built by the latter-day saints outside of the continental United States. A lasting monument to the faith and dedication of the Polynesian pioneers." It must have been hard for those Polynesian to live in the desert of Skull Valley coming from such a lush green place as Hawaii.  I can totally see why they would move back to Hawaii as soon as the temple was announced.

  

      I got a great picture of some of the actors in the luau program.  They stand right by the exit waiting to go on stage. 

      

      After we were done with our assignment, we went and ate dinner at the Gateway Buffet.  This was the first time I caught this little guy, a dirty dish carrying robot, making its way to the kitchen.

  

    We also saw our friend, Damian, from our YSA ward working at the Gateway.  He is from Fiji and it's his first semester here at BYU-H.  He was out in the dining area creating a special local dish for the guests tableside, trying to enhance the guests' experience.  It's one of the 7 cultural beliefs - Wow Customers.

      After dinner we went out to the entrance and this band from Riverside, California was playing.  We caught just the last few songs before they finished their concert.  We get quite a few school performing groups come visit the PCC and perform a short program when they are here.  Sometimes it's a dance group like on Tuesday, sometimes it's a singing group, or an instrumental group like this one.  Notice in the top picture the student on the front row in the purple shirt sitting by the clarinetist.  It's the first time I have seen a violinist in a band.

      Saturday morning, I woke up with an extremely bad headache.  Actually, it had kept me awake during the night and I had determined that as soon as it wasn't too early to call, I would ask someone to come over and help Elder Rappleye give me a priesthood blessing.  I had endured enough; a weeklong headache was as much as I could bear.  I would not be able to do what we had planned to do on Saturday with the pain I felt.  Around 7:30 in the morning, I sent out a text to our district asking if any of the Elders could come help Elder Rappleye give me a priesthood blessing.  About an hour later, Elder Lee, our district leader, came over and assisted Elder Rappleye in giving me a blessing.  It didn't go away immediately, but I took some Excedrin, and then we prepared to go do our activities we had planned.  Moving forward with faith.

  

   We drove down to Kualoa Regional Park to see the canoes.  This is what we had tried to do on Wednesday, but couldn't get in.  On Saturday it was open to the public.  We got there just in time for the opening welcome chat in Hawaiian.  We couldn't understand a word of it.

      You can see the iconic Chinaman's Hat in the background.  If you are familiar with that, you will know where we were.  The bottom two pictures show the carvers working on carving a canoe.  It was amazing how fast they can chip away at the log to make a canoe.

      To the right is the pictures of the Iosepha canoe.  The top picture shows how far out into the water it was.  The bottom picture is a zoomed in picture.  Notice the amazing views in the background of the top picture.  Moli'i Pond was beautiful.  We only stayed for about an hour, then we headed down to the Honolulu Convention Center for more FESTPAC activities.

     At the convention center, the exhibit hall had thatched roofed buildings set up all around the hall, each one was a different Polynesian island displaying and selling handmade crafts, food, and clothing.

  We had only planned on staying two hours, but that was definitely not long enough.  We saw the Aotearoa group perform on stage.  Aotearoa is one of the most popular shows at the Polynesian Cultural Center, and it was no different at FESTPAC.  It is a very loud, fast paced, and high energy performance.

    I really wanted to stay longer, but we had to get to Costco to do our shopping before it closed.  I hope we can get back down there to see and do more. 

      Thankfully, even with the loud Aotearoa performance, my headache did not bother me most of the day.  Although it took until Tuesday to finally disappear, my headache pain diminished each day until it was gone.  So grateful for priesthood power in my life. (Editor's Note:  I just found out today, Saturday, the 15th, from a BYU-H teacher that a flu bug has been going around with fever and sharp painful headaches as symptoms.  I guess I was one of the victims.)

Another shout out to my daughter-in-law, Joslyn Rappleye.  I gave her a shout out in May when she graduated with a degree in Nursing.  This shout out is for her taking her nursing licensing test and passing it!  Now she is an official RN! Hip, Hip, Hooray!

     On Sunday when we drove to campus for church, we noticed the entrance to the David O. McKay building was boarded up so you can't see the mosaic that is in front of the building.  We have heard rumors that the mosaic is going to be removed and won't be returning when they take the building down and build a new one.  The collage on the left shows the boarded-up view on the top and the mosaic on the bottom.  I hope the rumor is not true because the mosaic is so icon and historic.

     At piano lessons we had all the students play together the hymn, I Need Thee Every Hour, out of the Keyboard Course book.  They could play whatever part they had learned, right hand alone, left hand alone, or both hands together.  My student, Tapu, on the far left in the picture, had learned the right hand very well, and she could play the first line with both hands, so that is what she tried to play.  Sister Coleman, the sister in charge of the piano group, is leading the song.  Since I was taking the picture, I wasn't sitting next to Tapu while she played.  After the song was over, I asked her how she did.  She said "bad".  I'm sure she is too hard on herself.  It is a lot harder to play when you are trying to stay together as a group and people are singing along.  It takes practice, so it was a good practice run.

     We had a District Meeting and dinner on Sunday at the Neeley's pad.  It was a going way dinner for our District Leaders,Elder Robert and Sister Becky Lee.  That was the last District meeting with them because they will be leaving July 8th to go home.  Sister Gammon got a cake that said, "Well Done Thou Good and Faithful Servants", to wish them farewell.

     

     Here is our first and last District picture.  First picture with our new couple, the Timothys, Brent and Tyra (they work at the PCC), and last picture with Elder and Sister Lee.  Our new District leaders were called, and they are the new Elder Brent and Sister Jacque Lee (seated in the front row next to the out-going Elder and Sister Lee.  Back row in the picture is Elder and Sister Neeley, Elder and Sister Timothy, Elder and Sister Gammon, and Elder and Sister Rappleye.  Just when you get used to things here, changes happen.  We will miss our excellent District Leaders, the Lees. Enjoy your future endeavors.