Huki 2.0, Visit from Friends, Hukilau, Cafe Rio & a Wildfire: August 5 - 11, 2024

       After having a week off from doing Ask Me, we started the week on Monday night by doing an Ask Me shift at the Gateway location for the Zollingers.  We did their Monday night shift, and they did our Tuesday night shift.  The Gateway location is always a nice spot to be at because by that time of day it is shady and there is always a breeze to help cool things off.  We just ended up missing ukulele lessons that night since we don't finish until 7pm, and that's when ukulele class is over.

    On Tuesday, Elder Rappleye and Bry finally got the green light to take the cargo van, pictured right, to the auto body shop in Kailua to get it fixed.  This is one of the first things Elder Rappleye worked on when we first arrived here in November.  The pictures were taken in December for the insurance adjuster.  It has taken 8 months to go through all the red tape between the insurance company, the church, the auto body shop, and the Polynesian Cultural Center to get everything signed off, bids on repairs, and money from the insurance company to pay the auto body shop.  Elder Rappleye was beginning to think the repair wasn't going to happen while we were still here.  Now it is in the shop for 3 weeks to get it fixed, and looking like he will be able to say mission accomplished on this job. This is the van they use for town runs, so the town run missionaries have to use the pickup truck or 12 passenger van to do the town run until the cargo van gets finished being repaired.

   Since we didn't have to do Ask Me on Tuesday night, we went to the temple.  This happened to be our "Hump Day".   We entered the MTC on November 6, 2023, which made Tuesday the halfway mark of our 18-month mission. We decided to get a picture showing how many months we have left - 9.  Watch for each month's picture on the 6th of the month as we count down to the end of our mission.  It's not that we can't wait to go home, it's just that we thought it would be fun to remember what we were doing on the 6th of each month as we get closer and closer to the end.

   The Polynesian Cultural Center is adding a new show called the Huki 2.0.  It's like the canoe pageant they used to do before the Covid-19 shut down.  They have revamped it, creating new costumes, music and dances.  All the employees were invited to the dress rehearsal on Wednesday morning before the PCC opened.  The pictures to the right are from the beginning of the show with the emcees introducing the program.

  Then came Mother Earth on her own canoe.

    After Mother Earth they start introducing the different islands at the Polynesian Cultural Center. The first one is the friendly island of Tonga.  Their costumes and dancing are always fun to see, along with their enthusiasm.

 

 Then the island of Aotearoa, or New Zealand.  I loved their bright blue dresses that remind me of the ocean.  They do a stick dance, tossing the stick to each other in rhythm.  They even toss them from one canoe to the other.

  Next the island of Fiji.  That's when my camera on my phone started to not cooperate and it would only take pictures occasionally, even though I was pressing the button on the screen.  So, I only got one picture of the Fiji island's canoe.

    

  And only a couple of pictures of the island of Tahiti's canoes.

  One picture of the island of Samoa's canoes.  The green costumes the girls wore with the bright yellow flowers in their hair were stunning.  They are the happy people of Samoa.  They also dance with enthusiasm. Part of their presentation is the men rocking the canoe side to side.  That takes a lot of core strength and balance.

 

    Last but not least is the island of Hawaii's canoe.

    At the end of the show, every island's canoe comes out on the lagoon.  I only captured Hawaii, Tonga, and Samoa's canoes.

     The students have been working hard all summer long to learn and get ready for this performance.  It was delayed about a month, but it is now performed every day at 12:40pm, right after they open.  Our second counselor in our YSA Bishopric is in the performance and performs on the Aotearoa canoe.  The two weeks before the opening they were doing 4 run throughs a day. 

    There have been several improvements at the PCC to get ready for this canoe show.  The pictures to the right show the new red umbrellas installed along the walkway by the main waterfall to provide shade to those watching the show (top), and a new sign displayed on the north end of the lagoon with the name of the show on it (bottom).  The waterfall was already picturesque, but the red umbrellas seem to enhance its appeal.

   The same day in the afternoon, we were able to meet up with our friends, Scott and Denise Osborne, from South Jordan, Utah.  We served with them in the Fayette Branch in downtown Salt Lake City the last several months before we left for our mission.  We were worried about leaving the branch shorthanded, but when the Osbornes got called and assigned to serve with us at Pamela's Place/Sunrise Metro, we knew we were leaving at the right time and in very capable hands.  It was good to find out how all our friends at Pamela's Place/Sunrise Metro are doing.  We do miss ministering to them, but we know we are doing what God wants us to do at this moment in time.

   

   Thursday when we went over to the Visitor's Center to pick up some packages that were delivered to us, we noticed a wildfire up in the hills behind Laie.  I was told it started near the trailhead to Laie Falls.

     Thursday night we had Dan and Stacy Duncan over for dinner.  Elder Rappleye and Elder Duncan have worked together in the motor pool since we got here last November, but a couple of months ago the mission leader, President Bassett moved him and his wife over to work at the visitor's center.  They will be done with their mission and going home on September 2nd, and we wanted to have them come to dinner before they leave.  They were nice enough to join us in our hot apartment for dinner.

    Saturday morning, I went to a Hula dance lesson class for senior missionaries.  I missed the first lesson the Saturday before, but luckily most of the class time was reviewing what they learned the previous week, so I was able to get somewhat caught up.  Here's a picture of the group that was there on Saturday.  I'm not sure I'll be able to keep going.  Next Saturday I have a training meeting for the food warehouse I have to go to, so I'll miss another class.  The sister in the front of our group picture is our instructor.

   Right after the Hula lesson, we went to Hukilau beach to help with a community Hukilau.  The pictures on the right show us gathered around the boat with the fishing net in it. In the top picture, the man in charge, in the red shirt and straw hat, is giving us instructions on how the hukilau works.  In the bottom picture the boat is heading out to spread out the net in the bay.  It's a huge net and covers a good portion of the bay.  Divers go out all along the edge of the net and make sure the net does not get caught on any rocks, coral, logs, etc. that are under the water as the net gets pulled into shore.

These pictures show the pulling in the net team.  The bottom left picture shows a red dot on the beach.  That is where they started pulling in the net.  As they pulled it in, they walked forward and pulled to close up the area of the net.  If any of the divers saw that the net was caught on anything, he would signal to the puling team, and everybody would stop until the diver had untangled the net.

   Since I was one of the few who came dressed ready to get in the water, I was on the anchor team.  Our biggest job was to just stand in the water on the other end of the bay holding on to the other end of the net until we were given the signal to start pulling in our end of the net.  The top picture shows us holding on to the net waiting for the signal to start pulling in our end.  I'm the one on the far left.  The bottom picture shows us finally getting to pull in our side of the net.  Some of us pulled in from the top of the net and some held on to the bottom of the net and kept it close to the ocean floor and pulled to keep the fish from swimming out through the bottom.

  

 Here's a few pictures showing some of the fish that was caught.  They gathered up the bigger fish and threw the smaller fish back into the ocean.

      Sister Sauve, the sister I work with in the office at the food warehouse, is standing next to a local keiki (child) holding one of the larger fishes that were caught.  She is also in the bottom right picture holding her own fish.  We didn't hold a fish, but a pretty good size crab got caught in the net and I did hold on to it long enough to get a picture taken (top right).  Then there was a crazy local who put the head of the fish in his mouth (bottom left).  THE FISH IS STILL ALIVE!

   A few miscellaneous pictures from the Hukilau.  Elder Rappleye and I with the ocean in the background.  The bottom left picture shows them cleaning the net.  After pulling all the fish out of the net, they then clean the net of all the seaweed and other things that got stuck in the net.  You can see the clean portion of the net on the sand.  The bottom right picture shows the piles of rope that was used to pull in the net.  Did I tell you it was a HUGE net?

 

     After the Hukilau, we came home and cleaned up, then went to the grocery store in Laie to buy last minute items for the dinner Sister Sauve and I were having the next day for the Food Warehouse student workers.  Then Elder Rappleye took the car to the motor pool and replaced the brake pads on our car while I stayed home and made no bake cookies for Sunday dinner. 

     The fire was still burning on Sunday.  We noticed 2 helicopters dropping water onto the fire while we were sitting in our Ward Council Meeting.  I also heard it had burned over 200 acres of forest.  I circled in yellow where the helicopter is in the picture above.

     Sister Sauve's old roommate from college is Sister Sudweeks, her and her husband are service missionaries teaching at BYU-H.  They went home to the mainland for the summer break, and they graciously let us use their apartment, which is much bigger than either Sister Sauve or our apartments are, for our dinner with the student workers at the Food Warehouse.  We would not be able to host that many people without using the Sudweeks apartment.  It worked out really well.  We decided to make Cafe Rio sweet pork/rice/beans and all the fixing's for tacos.  Most of the students have never had Cafe Rio food.  We got almost all the students to come.  We were just missing Leiana, Faith, and some of the summer student workers.  The picture to the left shows the whole group -Sister Mansaloon (one of the junior missionaries in our YSA ward), Sister Sauve, Vanessa (one of our summer student workers), Rachel, Ken (Blankey), Ralph, Saturo, Aurel, Jared, Rowan (the newest employee), me and Elder Rappleye.  Sister Earl is taking the picture.  It was my first attempt at making Cafe Rio sweet pork and cilantro lime rice.  It was a lot of work, and it was not without some major disasters along the way.  In the end, it turned out well.

     We ended up having to leave early for our district meeting at 6pm at the Visitor's Center, but returned after our meeting to help Sister Sauve clean up.  I guess, while we were gone, they were already discussing what they want to do the next time we have a dinner - potluck!  We won't be able to use the Sudweeks apartment until December during Christmas break - stay tuned.