4th of July and More: July 1 - 7, 2024

     July is here and the weather is getting warmer.  Since our pad doesn't have air conditioning except in our bedroom and we live upstairs in the house, we come home from working at the PCC to a very hot house.  We immediately go in and turn on the air conditioning in our bedroom so that it will be cool enough in the bedroom by the time we go to bed so we can sleep.  It's too noisy to keep it on while we sleep.  In the rest of the pad, we rely on fans and breezes from open windows to hopefully make the place livable.  I am told the hottest weather hasn't arrived yet.

      On Tuesday we had our first assignment in guarding the back entrance of the Gateway terrace.  We are charged with not allowing anyone including PCC employees in through the back entrance of the Gateway terrace between 4:15pm - 5:45pm, to make sure no one tries to get into the restaurant through the back without paying. It's the easiest job of all the luau/ask me assignments, but also the most boring.  While we were sitting guarding the entrance the only intruder was the brown anole lizard, one of the most commonly found lizards in Hawaii.  They are not native to Hawaii but were introduced on the island in the 1980's - 90's.  They can change color from brown to black, and the flap of skin sticking out is called a dewlap, used I think for territorial boundaries and mating.  It was quite interesting to watch these lizards come and go, or maybe we were just totally bored.   

  After our Gateway assignment, we walked over to the BYU-H Banyan dining hall to have a farewell dinner with our district before the Lee's go home.  It was the first time we have gone to the Banyan dining hall.  It's where the BYU students who have meal plans eat their meals.  You pay one price and then you can pick from several entree options or have all the options.   Pictured left - Elder Gammon, Elder and Sister Neeley, Elder Rappleye and me, Elder and Sister Lee (the one's going home), Elder and Sister Lee (the new district leaders), and Sister Gammon. 

We have a pretty big group of senior missionaries that meet together for lunch now.  Sister Archibald took this picture of our group on Wednesday, there were 21 of us on that day!

  The Polynesian Cultural Center was open on the 4th of July, so that meant we had to go in to work.  It was a little shorter workday, we were done by 12:30pm.  I went out to do Ask Me at 11AM to greet the bus tour groups and I had this family pictured to the left tell me I looked familiar.  They were not familiar to me.  We finally figured out that the husband worked at Test Out where my twin sister worked and knew Cindy.  Even in Hawaii, I'm getting twin mix-up moments!  But I don't think she'll get any in Armenia.

      The day we have been looking forward to for months was finally here!  It was a true miracle that our son, Scott, and his 4 girls arrived for a visit.  I can't go into all the details of why it's a miracle, it would be too long.  Just believe me when I say it's a miracle.  We were so happy to welcome Scott and his girls to Hawaii on the 4th of July.

  They arrived around 4:30 PM and by the time they got their luggage, rent car, and ate the Wendy's food we brought them it was close to 6PM.  The drive from Honolulu to Laie is an hour long.  There was a huge 4th of July party going on at the Hukilau Marketplace, so after unloading their luggage at our pad, we went to join the party.  There were thousands of people there, food vendors, games for kids, inflatable bounce houses, inflatable slides, and live music.  We got our picture taken with these two huge Transformers.  It was definitely a festive atmosphere, but I'm afraid the Florida crew was pretty tired from their super long day of travel that they weren't able to enjoy it as much.  But we insisted that they stay for the fireworks.

   It's not the 4th of July without fireworks!

   They actually thought it was cold while we were waiting and while watching the fireworks!  Floridians are pretty thin-blooded.  

    Friday morning while Scott and his girls slept away their jet lag, Elder Rappleye and I went into work at the PCC.  It was David Hadley's second to the last day, but we were having a going away luncheon for him.  He started working at the Food Warehouse a few weeks after I did, so we were newbies together learning the ropes.  I envied the way he learned so quickly all the computer work while I was struggling so much. 

      He was a very good worker, told good stories, and became the main trainer for all the new hires.  David is moving on to Washington D.C. to get a job and hopefully get into a master's program.  The food warehouse is definitely going to miss David.  He was given the Shaka award - conveying the spirit of Aloha - friendship, understanding, and compassion to all.

      

      After the luncheon, Scott and the girls were ready to go beach hopping. The first beach we stopped at was temple beach.  It's called that because it's the beach in direct line to the temple.  If you walk towards the ocean from the front of the temple you would come to temple beach.  We saw some pretty good-sized crabs on the beach.

     From temple beach we just walked along the beach until we reached Hukilau beach.  They were loving the beach so much, but we finally convinced them to walk back to the car so we could go check out a few more beaches.

  The next stop was Kawela Bay where we walked out to the Turtle Bay pillbox.  The girls are sitting on top of the pillbox in the picture to the left - Caroline, Stella, Gabi, and Ella.

   There was lava rock along the edge of the point.  Caroline and Ella found a blowhole in the rocks (picture on the right - left side) and were surprised when the water came up through the hole and sprayed them (picture on the right - right side).

They enjoyed climbing around on the lava rocks for quite a while.  The picture on the left with Gabi shows Kawala Bay in the background.  It's a nice calm bay if you want to enjoy the ocean without a lot of waves.

   We ended the day at Sunset Beach.  It was close enough to sunset that we just hung around on the beach until the sun set.  Of course, we had to get a picture with the 100+ year old palm tree that's on Sunset Beach.

      A very beautiful peaceful way to end the first full day of their Hawaiian vacation.  Gabi and Stella in the picture to the right.

Saturday morning was the Aotearoa Island (New Zealand) devotional.  We were so excited that Scott's family could experience an island devotional with us.  This is the third island devotional we have been to since coming in November.

The program was about the Māori holiday of "Matariki Heri Kai" - The feast of Matariki.

      Matariki is the Maori name for the cluster of stars known as Pleiades.  It rises in the sky in midwinter (June in New Zealand) and marks the beginning of the Māori new year.  Traditionally Matariki was a time to knowledge the passing of those who died during the past year and release their spirits into the sky to become stars.  It was also a time to reflect, to be thankful for the harvest, and share the bounty with family and friends.  During the devotional they had everyone stand who had lost loved ones during the year and everyone who stood took a turn to tell the name of the person and the relationship to them.  I stood up and named my Uncle Jay Wrathall who had passed away in May.  Everyone who stood was given a gold paper star as a remembrance of their loved one.  Then at the end of the devotional, everyone was given a blue paper star to write a hope or dream for the new year on it as a way to "mataraiki manako nui" (look to the future).  The program to the right shows the pictures and names of all the students that participated in the devotional.

  

   The group performed a "waiata" (song) called "Tatai Whakapapa" Tatai means share and Whakapapa meaning genealogy.  The whole devotional was about our link to our ancestors and family.

    

    Here is a picture of Scott's family and us in the Māori Ancestral Meeting House in the Aotearoa Island at the PCC where the devotional was held.

    After the devotional since they were honoring the feast of Matariki, we enjoyed a feast of the harvest - fish - harvest from the ocean, shrimp - harvest from freshwater, vegetables - harvest from the earth, chicken - harvest from the sky (it's the closest thing they had to share from the bird category).  Everything was delicious.

    

     They even treated us to more entertainment while we ate.  It was a great way to start our Saturday activities, and it gave Scott's family a taste of what was in store for them next week when they would get to experience all of the Polynesian Cultural Center.

We found out that the Manoa Falls trail would be closed next week for trail upgrades and maintenance, so Saturday would be the only opportunity to hike to the falls.  So, rain or shine, mud or not, we were determined to do it.  Here is the group at the beginning of the hike.

It turned out to be a great day for the hike.  They trail was a little muddy, but not bad.  It was a little crowded because it was a Saturday, but for the most part the trail was wide enough for the hikers going up and those going down.

Above are some of the views of the lush, green vegetation along the trail.  It is so dense and almost fairy-tale like.

  This picture shows the falls.  It is the tallest waterfall we have seen here on Oahu.  There were signs posted warning people not to get in the water because of a bacteria risk, but you can see there were people who disregarded the warning and were in the water.

Wearing missionary tags helps you remember that you need to be a good example, so we stayed out of the water.  I'm not saying we would have gone in if we were not wearing missionary tags, but it sure looked inviting after hiking up the mountain.

We realized we were super close to Tantalus.  We had planned to go there on another day, but since we were so close we headed up another part of the mountain to see the views of Honolulu, Pearl Harbor, and Diamond Head from Tantalus.  When we went before it was super windy, but this time it was a lot less windy and beautiful clear skies.

Partway back down the mountain, we pulled over and took these pictures to the right with Diamond Head in the background.  Like father like son - both are wearing orange shirts on this day!

Let's not forget our Costco run for groceries for the week ahead.  Here we are enjoying the cheapest meal in town - Costco pizza and soda.  We saw both Elder and Sister Bates (Ron and Patty, and Mike and Cindy) at Costco.  It's the senior missionaries favorite place to buy groceries!

After our busy Saturday, we were ready for Sunday, a slower pace day of rest.  Scott and his girls attended our YSA ward at 9AM.  I think the girls liked meeting some of the students.  It's just too bad it's summer break and we don't have a lot of students on campus right now.  After church we hung out at our pad and Grandpa pulled out his ukulele and Caroline and him played and sang a duet of the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen.

Most of us even had time for a little nap before we went to the Munch and Mingle at the Gateway.  Every first Sunday of the month all the senior missionaries gather at the Gateway for a potluck dinner.  It's definitely a great time to socialize and get to know more of the couples, especially if they work at BYU-H or the visitor's center where we don't interact with them as much during the week.

We always sing "Aloha 'Oe" to the missionaries that are departing and going home within the coming month.  The top picture to the right is us with the Handleys, from Orem, Utah.  They worked at the Mission Settlement in the PCC.  Elder Handley is an excellent photographer who always took the group mission photos.  The bottom left picture is us with the Tanners from Eagle, Idaho.  They worked at the PCC.  Elder Rappleye and Elder Tanner have had some great conversations during lunch - some friendly ribbing going on now and then.  The bottom right picture is us with the Lees, from Ogden, Utah.  They have been our district leaders since we arrived in the mission and worked over at BYU-H in the religion department.  All three are great missionary couples and we are going to miss them.

After the Munch and Mingle, we went over to the visitor's center to look around.  The junior sister missionaries loved having us there because we asked for the full tour.  It was too bad the visitor's center was closing soon, so we had to have a shortened version.  It was a lovely evening to walk around on the temple grounds afterwards.

We are definitely looking forward to a full week of activities with Scott and his girls and making them have a memorable time in Hawaii.  We love being able to have our family come visit us here while we serve our mission.