The last day of Devin's family's visit started early with sunrise on Laie Point. We have been here in Laie for almost a year and have never gone to see the sunrise on Laie Point. We have seen lots of beautiful sunrises from our apartment window, but it's much more enjoyable to watch out on the Point with family.
You can see that sunrises are just as beautiful as sunsets here in Hawaii.
We saved the best for the last day. It was the Polynesian Cultural Center Day. They came over a little early so Elder Rappleye could take them for a quick ride on a cart (the same kind he services and fixes all the time) through the islands of the PCC before it opened. They got a sneak peak of what the PCC looked like before any of the guests arrived, and they could go all around the 42 acres of the PCC in a quick 10-minute ride. I also gave them a quick tour of the food warehouse.
You always want to start your experience at the PCC with the Huki show that's on the lagoon. We were able to get really good seats to watch the Huki show. The show gives the guests a great overview of all the islands in the Polynesian Cultural Center.
You always want to start your experience at the PCC with the Huki show that's on the lagoon. We were able to get really good seats to watch the Huki show. The show gives the guests a great overview of all the islands in the Polynesian Cultural Center.
After the Huki show we headed to the Aotearoa village to see the Māori show and do some fun hands-on activities. 
Devin's kids loved all the activities in all of the different islands. Here they are canoeing. Since they all kayak, they are veterans at paddling.
Some of the hands-on activities - fishing on the lagoon (left picture), spear throwing in the Tahiti village (top right picture), and poi twirling in the Aotearoa village.
After enjoying as many of the island villages, activities, and shows we could in one afternoon at the PCC, Devin's family headed into the Gateway Buffet to eat dinner. We eat there for free 3 or 4 times a month when we do Ask Me, so we didn't want to pay to eat there. While they were eating dinner, we went and upgraded our HA show tickets and ate at one of the many food trunks in the Hukilau Marketplace. We hooked up with Devin's family in time to see the HA show. Pictured on the left - everyone excitedly waiting for the show to begin despite being exhausted. Everyone loved the HA show, but Sunny ended up falling asleep before it was over. We said our dreaded goodbyes after the show. They had to get up very early to drive to the Honolulu airport and be there by 6AM in the morning. They packed their Hawaiian vacation full of fun, memorable activities. I'm sure they were dragging when they got home. We hated to see them leave, but so glad they could come enjoy paradise. The weather was perfect the whole time they were here.
Some of the hands-on activities - fishing on the lagoon (left picture), spear throwing in the Tahiti village (top right picture), and poi twirling in the Aotearoa village.
Tuesday it was back to our missionary service.
On Wednesday, I went on a work field trip. I'm never thrilled to spend my day off going to tour a warehouse, but that's what I did Wednesday morning. Since I was going to be gone, Elder Rappleye decided to go to the motor pool and work to try to get caught up since he'd been gone a couple of days.
I have toured a few warehouses since coming on my mission, but this warehouse was the most impressive one I've seen. It was big, very clean and well organized. Lance (in the bottom left picture), the warehouse manager, took us on the tour and explained how things work in their warehouse.
I was impressed with their emphasis on safety (they haven't had an accident in close to 4 years). Lance also showed us the board pictured to the left. They use the concepts from Stephen R. Covey on creating trust among the employees which translates into good teamwork in order to achieve the high results they expect. Very classy.
Since the warehouse was so huge, they had some equipment to make things easier, like conveyor belts and rolling (slanted) shelves to help with keeping the inventory flowing FIFO (first in, first out).
Although I wasn't very excited to go on this field trip, I learned a lot and it was interesting to see a very good well-run warehouse.
The warehouse was located just south of the Costco we go to, so when the tour was finished, I just walked over to Costco instead of riding back to Laie with everyone. Elder Rappleye drove down after working in the motor pool for a few hours and met me at Costco in time for lunch (gotta love those Costco food court lunches) and grocery shopping. I was glad to be able to get both the field trip and grocery shopping done on the same day.
The temple is finally back open. We were able to go on Thursday night. After we got done at the temple, we stopped by the visitor's center to pick up some mail. Elder Nelson told us that we had just missed someone who had come in asking about us. From what he told us about the people he talked to I figured out that it must of been Denice Dahle from South Jordan, Utah. She attended my water aerobics classes and was one of my favorite water aerobics attendees. We figured that she was probably going to the HA show that night. Since we had to drive by the PCC on our way home, we decided to stop there and see if we could find her before they went into the night show - definitely a shot in the dark. I didn't have any way to contact her, but I had Laura's number, a friend of Denice that also attended my water aerobics classes. On our way over to the Marketplace, I texted Laura hoping that she would be still awake asking her if Denice was in Hawaii and if she could send her a message to meet me by the Pacific Theater before she went into the show. Somehow it all worked and as we walked up to the entrance of the theater and started looking around for Denice and her husband, Bill (our accountant), she spotted us, and we were able to visit for a little bit and take a photo with them before the HA show started. It's always so good to see people we know from back home, so if you are ever here in Laie or on Oahu, let us know and we'll try to connect somehow. We were guided by the spirit, and it worked. The picture above shows us with Bill and Denice Dahle. It was the first time they have visited the Polynesian Cultural Center. They gave it 5 stars and a thumbs up.
We also had a Luau shift Saturday night. I was doing security guard duty at the back exit of Hale Aloha and was able to witness one of the guests make a marriage proposal in front of all the attendees at the luau. I don't know how often that happens at the luau, but it was a first for me. She did accept and said yes! You probably can't really see the blissful couple, but I circled them in the picture. I couldn't abandon my post in order to get a better picture.
On Sunday, we had the junior sister missionaries over for dinner. We knew transfers were coming up in a couple of weeks and this might be the last time Sister Earl and/or Sister Mansaloon would be able to join us for dinner. It is Sister Earl's last transfer before going home in December.
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