A Smooth Sailing Week: September 16 - 22, 2024

       

     Monday started the third and last week of my boss, Lili, being out of town.  Usually when she is gone, all kinds of issues come up and Kapu'u is under a lot of stress trying to put out all the fires and handle everything.  But this time it's been smooth sailing.  I think the fact that we are fully staffed helps a lot, more hands lighten the load, and the fact that the number of guests is down at the PCC, so that equals less food coming in and out of the warehouse to keep track of.  It has been very low key.

      Monday night for FHE with our singles ward, we did a scavenger hunt.  Our team found all the clues and figured out the picture-gram first, so we were the winners.  They took this group picture after the activity while I was downstairs helping get the refreshments ready, thus I'm not in the picture, but Elder Rappleye is in the front row on the left.

      We spent a little time on the beach Wednesday morning.  The waves were a little too rough for us to get in, but we had the beach all to ourselves.  Beach time certainly helps with my mental health.  Can't ever get enough.

       After lunch, we went to see the Byodo-In temple in the Valley of the Temple Memorial Park.  It's a smaller scale version of the almost 1,000-year-old Byodo-In temple in Uji, Japan.  This is a non-practicing Buddhist temple built in 1963.

        This is the Bon Sho, or sacred bell.  The bell is five feet high and weighs three tons. It is made of a mixture of brass and tin.  It has a distinctive shape and tone, sending a message of deep calm and peace said to cleanse the mind of evil and temptation.   The soft wooden log called the "shu-moku" is used to strike the bell.  Visitors customarily ring the bell before they enter the temple.  It is believed that ringing the bell will bring you happiness, blessings, and a long life.  Since we both rang the bell, we are hoping for double blessings, double happiness, and extra long life for both of us.

  The Amida Buddha statue (left side of collage) was the main attraction in the temple.  It reflects light as it appears to hover over golden lotus leaves.  The hand position indicates that the Buddha rests in the highest of the nine paradises.  The height of the statues is nine feet tall to further emphasize the ninth paradise image.

   The top right picture shows Elder Rappleye standing in front of the meditation pavilion.  It's up the hill a short distance away from the temple to provide a serene location for peace, tranquility, and meditation.  The bottom right picture is also near the meditation pavilion.

The reflecting pond that surrounds the temple is in the shape of the Chinese character shin or kokoro meaning spirit.  The pond was full of koi, and they symbolize love, power, perseverance and longevity.  We've been wanting to visit this temple for quite a while.  It was an enjoyable place to visit.

Because Elder Rappleye works out in the motor pool, he gets a lot of questions from the senior missionaries, especially the single sisters, when their cars are having mechanical troubles.  A lot of putting air into their tires, or diagnostic work and giving them recommendations on what to do to fix their cars.  Elder Rappleye was given a nice surprise on Friday when Sister Sauve gave him a very nice thank you note and gift card to Foodland for his services.  He really wasn't expecting any compensation for his services, it's just part of our missionary work.

Saturday was my monthly training meeting in the morning.  This month's training was on one of the 7 Cultural Beliefs which are the core values at the PCC.  Sister Maralee Kmak, one of the senior missionaries who works in the archives department, came and did a presentation about "Honoring Our Legacy" at the PCC.  I learned a few new things about the history of the PCC and what they did to support the students that couldn't go home during the COVID lockdown when the PCC was closed.  They involved the students in several renovation projects which helped the students learn new skills.  They also turned some of the land into gardens and the students learned to grow crops like taro and other foods.  

The picture above is a slide Sister Kmak showed with a quote I really liked and wanted to remember. It expresses what the Aloha spirit entails.  Here is just a part of the quote:  "It is the hope to make someone else happy.  It is the commitment of everlasting love.  It is a wish for someone's welfare and safety.  It is the spirit of the Good Samaritan.  It is charity for those in need.  It is loving our neighbor more than ourselves. . . I honor and respect you for who you are, a child of God" The quote describes the spirit of Aloha as the gospel of Jesus Christ.  If we are true Christians, we will have the spirit of Aloha.  We have seen and experienced a lot of the spirit of Aloha while we have been here. 

At the training meeting, we also celebrated the September birthdays - Byron, Kyle, and Jared, the three standing in front.  We all sang happy birthday to them.

Another Sunday dinner with Sister Earl and Sister Mansaloon.  It was transfers this week, and neither sister got transferred.  It's Sister Earl's 6th transfer in our YSA Ward.  She only has one more transfer before she goes home.  She feels like she is going to "die" in our Ward, which means she will stay in our YSA Ward until she leaves.  We'll see how it goes, but we love having the junior sisters over for dinner.  We try to make it work once every month.

One more family birthday celebrated this week, with one more September birthday to go - Happy Birthday to our beautiful, wonderful daughter, Aimee!