I'll have to admit this week was a little hard to be away from family. I'm glad all of our children love hanging out with each other so much that they held a family reunion without us, and I love that they included us in the only way they could by sending us lots of pictures and videos, but it was still hard not to wish we were there enjoying all the fun activities like boating, swimming, hiking, parades, glow stick dance parties, s'mores, and more. Rappalooza was declared a success by everyone who attended and kudos to our party planner daughter, Noelle, for planning, organizing and hosting everyone in Logan, UT.
We've decided that every time we make an appointment to do sealings at the temple we will reserve 4 spots and invite another couple to go with us. I wasn't sure if we would get any takers because everyone's schedules are different with different days off and being finished for the day at different times. Tuesday night was our first attempt to go with another couple. We decided to extend the first invitation to the couples in our district. We were so excited when Elder Brent and Sister Sue Timothy took us up on our offer and came with us to do sealings. We ended up in a sealing session with Taputailo Ufi, the student I've been teaching piano to. After the session and when she was taking our picture, she asked us if we could take her to Tamura's so she could do some grocery shopping. Since Tamura's is in Hau'ula, just down the hill from where we live, we agreed to take her, even though that made the back seat in our car a little tight.
The picture to the left, Sister Sauve took when I was printing out 200 labels and the machine was printing them out faster than I could fold them up. She said it reminded her of the I Love Lucy chocolates episode for those of you who can remember the TV show I Love Lucy. Here's the link for those who might not be familiar with what I'm talking about.
https://youtu.be/AnHiAWlrYQc?si=B1F1mpl9UoLf5q96
The students have to label every food item that is received into the warehouse with the date it was received to keep track of the inventory and make sure they are pulling the items in FIFO - first in first out, order. Thursdays is one of the busier days of receiving deliveries, so lots of labels are used on Thursdays.
Friday morning when I arrived at work, this surprise in the picture to the right was waiting for me in front of my computer. Sister Sauve found out that I like wheat thins, so she brought me in a box of them with a note of appreciation for helping her adjust to her food warehouse job and my words of encouragement as she struggled to learn the system. Even though her job is receiving, and my job is purchasing, many of the struggles to figure things out are the same. I could totally relate to what she told me about her feelings and frustrations as she learned her job.
The day went all downhill from there. I walked into the chill area of the warehouse to ask Lili, my boss, a question and found this sight in the picture to the left, only worse because this picture wasn't taken until after we had picked up most of the pineapples. Lili was using the forklift to put away the delivery of pineapples when the pallet all the boxes on snapped in two and caused all the pineapples to tumble to the ground. Jared was standing nearby, but fortunately he was able to get out of the way, so no injuries to any workers. We were able to salvage some of the cases of pineapples, but we lost about 10 cases. There was a small benefit to the accident. I got to take home a couple of the not too damaged pineapples. This was the first time since we arrived 8 months ago that a major incident has happened.
In the top picture to the left, it shows the two canoes that were neck and neck for most of the race and it was hard for us to tell who won until the winning canoers raised their paddles in the air and cheered. The bottom picture shows 3 of the 4 canoes after the race.
We did find out from the director of the races that next Saturday is the state championships in Honolulu. We are considering going to watch those races if the weather is nice. Since the canoe races were done so early, we decided to do a hike nearby called crouching lion. The picture on the right shows the front side of the peak we hiked to (blue arrow), but we hiked up the back side of the peak and came up where the red arrow shows, then hiked across the saddle and climbed up to the top of the taller peak.
This picture shows better how high the peak is.
We had read that it's a short but steep hike. The picture to the left show Elder Rappleye climbing up one of the steepest parts of the hike using a rope. Thank goodness for a lot of tree roots and branches along the trail that we could use to steady ourselves and keep us from sliding on the loose gravelly dirt. The whole time we are climbing up I'm worrying about how the heck we are going it get down the steep trail without sliding all the way down on our butts.
We had a gorgeous view of Kahana Bay behind us as we climbed up the trail.
Just as we get to the first peak (the spot where the red arrow is in the picture previously), we come upon this memorial. Not a very encouraging sight. I had read that there have been fatalities on this trail, so I was a little reluctant to go on this hike. The last thing I wanted to do was fall to my death or get injured while hiking.
But we pressed forward, admittedly with a few doubts in my head, and made it to the top. Now that we were safely to the top, we were glad we continued on. It was quite windy and rocky up at the top, so we definitely had to watch our steps.
The views were amazing. The top picture to the left is looking out towards Kahana bay and the ocean. The bottom picture is looking down off the cliff to the highway and houses below.
Going down was another adventure. We were so busy trying to keep from sliding on our butts that I couldn't take pictures, but I did get this one of Elder Rappleye going backwards down a steep section of the trail using his hands to grab on to rocks and a rope that would help steady him. I am proud to say that we managed to not once slip and slide on our butts the whole way down. We saw other people sliding on their butts as they were going down. The key was to go slow and steady. Needless to say, we were glad to make it back to the trailhead. The picture on the left is us at the end of the hike, relieved and all smiles. You can see the signs posted about how dangerous the hike is. The area closed sign is there to try to keep people from going up there, but people are hiking it all the time. Every time we drive past the parking lot on the way to town, there are lots of cars there.
It really did give us a sense of accomplishment that we completed that hike as "old" as we are. Not too bad for two senior missionaries!
Later that night, we had a Ask Me shift at the Polynesian Cultural Center and had a surprise visit from Elder Rappleye's cousin Judy (bottom picture) and her son's family. Her son is stationed at Wheeler Army Airfield here on Oahu, and she came to visit him and his family. They just happened to be at the PCC the same night we were working. Her dad and Elder Rappleye's dad are brothers. Sunday night the Relief Society presidency organized an icebreaker activity to get everyone together and get to know each other. We are between spring and fall terms and there are not a lot of students here right now, and those that are here are working 40-hour work weeks, so there is not a lot of time for socializing. The picture to the left shows the group that showed up for pizza and we played a getting to know you game. I knew a lot of the girls, but there were a few I hadn't met yet. It's always fun to hang out with the students.
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