Hawaii Laie Mission Nov. 2023 -May 2025: More Family Visitors - So Much Fun: October 14

To begin this week's post, I have to back up a little because I forgot to include in last week's post our district meeting on Sunday night, October 13th. We met at the temple's visitor's center and Sister Kmak came and presented a historical narrative about the making of the Polynesian Cultural Center. I had already heard her presentation at my Food Warehouse training meeting a couple of weeks ago, but it was good to hear it again because I had already forgotten a few things she told us plus she had added a few more new details. The PCC is definitely a result of inspiration and God's hand. It was also the last district meeting for the Neeley's, who are going home on the 22nd. Sister Kmak is also going home on the 22nd. Our district group picture above: Elder and Sister Lee, Elder and Sister TImothy, Sister Kmak (not in our district), us, and Elder and Sister Neeley. We missed Elder and Sister Gammon who were traveling back from the mainland where they had attended their son's wedding.

Monday night's FHE activity was playing the game Werewolf. The game is like the game Mafia only with a werewolf theme. I didn't get any pictures at that activity. It was very poorly attended, which is sad because we have been getting good attendance at all the FHE's previously.

Tuesday night was our monthly senior missionary devotional held at the visitor's center. President and Sister Basset spoke. After the devotional we always have refreshments and a chance to socialize with the other senior missionaries. It is one of two times a month that all the senior missionaries get together. The BYU-Hawaii and PCC missionaries don't get to interact with each other too much on a day-to-day basis. Because we go to ukulele lessons and pickleball, we get to meet and interact with BYU-H missionaries there as well.

On Wednesday, our day off, we decided to go see the movie Six Days in August. It's a movie about the six days in August 1844 after Joseph Smith's martyrdom and the events leading up to Brigham Young becoming the new prophet of the church. I didn't get a picture of us at the theater, but I took a picture of the opening scene of the movie on the big screen.

On Thursday, the much-anticipated day arrived of our son, Devin and his family coming to visit us. It was so good to see them and get to hug our 5 grandchildren. We greeted them at the airport with a kukui nut lei for each of them and gummy pineapple fruit snacks. After getting up super early to be at the airport and travelling all day to arrive in Hawaii, the kids were pretty excited to be here.

After stopping at Costco in Honolulu for lunch and groceries, we drove to their Airbnb which just so happened to be located on the Kam highway at the bottom of the hill from where we live. It was super nice to have them staying so close to us. They immediately wanted to head to a beach and hit the waves even through the weather wasn't very cooperative. It was windy and overcast. We took them to Hukilau Beach on the north end of Laie. The kids and Josie loved playing in the ocean and boogie boarding. There was a kite surfer going back and forth across the bay. You can see him in the bottom left picture.

We didn't swim because the weather wasn't the best. In fact, it rained on us while we were at the beach. Since we can go to the beach almost any day, I'm a little picky about when I get in the water. We did see a few "blue bubbles" (Portuguese man-o-wars) on the beach, and ever since I got stung, I'm hesitant to get in when I see blue bubbles on the beach. Fortunately, none of the grandkids or Josie got stung while they were in the water.

We were up and going early Friday morning. Forget about jet lag here. Devin's family booked a swim with dolphins/snorkeling tour for all of us for Friday morning. We had to be at the Waianae Boat Harbor at 7:30 AM and it was an hour and a half drive from Hau'ula. Elder Rappleye chose to just go along for the boat ride. I was all in. Here we all are at the boat dock getting ready to board the boat for our fun adventure.

First thing we did after they went through all the rules and safety instructions was an oli. An oli is a Hawaiian chant similar to a prayer. We were given a plumeria flower, and we then lined the sides of the boat. We all together chanted a oli giving thanks for the ocean and ocean life. Then we all tossed our flowers into the ocean. Doing the chant and tossing the flowers was supposed to give us safety, and help draw the dolphins, fish, and turtles to us so we could have a good voyage. The top picture is us saying the chant, and the bottom picture shows the flowers floating on the water after we tossed them.

As we were motoring to the snorkeling spot, we were blessed to spot a pod of spinner dolphins. By law, you are not allowed to swim with spinner dolphins, but we were able to view them from the boat. They came right up to our boat, and they were very playful. The chant was already helping us have good luck spotting dolphins.

After watching the dolphins for a while, Captain Matt steered the boat to the snorkeling spot. It was time to suit up and get ready to jump in the water. Since Elder Rappleye wasn't going in the water, he became our designated photographer. The bottom two pictures are me (left) and Josie(right) jumping off the boat into the ocean.

We snorkeled around for a while. The tour guide found a big turtle resting at the bottom of the ocean and we all got to view it from the surface. After a while the turtle started to swim away, so we were able to watch the turtle as it swam away. It is against the law to touch the turtles, and we had to stay 30 feet away from it. The tour guide thought by the size of the turtle it was around 75 years old. We also saw lots of zebra striped fish and other smaller varieties of fish. The pictures to the right - our whole group (top left), Devin (top right), Sunny (I think, bottom left), and me giving the shaka sign (bottom right).

They also offered other activities if you got tired of snorkeling. All of Devin's girl's took advantage of playing on the floating mat. Vienna and Myla went down the slide that goes from the top of the catamaran and drops you 21 feet into the ocean. All too soon, we were back on the boat and headed to find the dolphins we could swim with. Since we are swimming with the dolphins in the wild and in their natural habitat, it's never a sure thing that the captain is going to find any dolphins to swim with. That's why it was awesome that Myla asked God in the family's morning prayer to help us find dolphins, turtles, and fish to see on our adventure.

As Captain Matt was motoring around looking for dolphins that we could swim with, he spotted some rare pygmy killer whale dolphins. The crew got so excited to see them and have us swim with these dolphins. One of the tour guides said that in the 7 years she's been doing these tours this was only the second time they have seen pygmy killer whale dolphins. They are rarely seen oceanic dolphins. They call them killer whale dolphins because they have some similar features as the orca whale, or killer whales. The picture on the right shows what they look like. They are not the dolphins we saw because I didn't get any photos while we were in the water, but this picture looked the most like what I experienced.

There was a mother dolphin with her baby swimming in the group we saw. That was pretty cool. Just like with the turtles, we were not allowed to get very close to them. In all we probably only got to see them for less than 5 minutes because they were always swimming away from us. You can see in the picture to the left the whole group that was on our boat swimming in the water trying to get a view of the dolphins.

After a while it was time for all of us to get back on the boat and head back to the boat harbor. On the way back they served us sandwiches and drinks. The pictures on the right show the kids enjoying the boat ride. The excursion lasted about 3 1/2 hours. The weather was perfect and the ocean relatively calm. After watching us all enjoy ourselves in the water, Elder Rappleye was wishing he had joined us in the water. Hopefully he'll get another chance to swim with dolphins. I definitely wouldn't mind doing it again.

We got back to the boat harbor around 11AM, so we had plenty of time in the day left for more adventures. We headed to go hike to Manoa Falls. We got to the trailhead, took a group picture, then the park ranger told us that getting in the water was not allowed and that the waterfall was just a trickle right now because it's been so dry. She told us of a new place we hadn't heard about, Judd Memorial Loop trail, that was close by. We decided to go check it out.

It was about a 20-minute drive up towards the Pali lookout to the trailhead. We hiked a short way on the trail before we came to a fun little swimming hole. The pictures on the right show the swimming hole from the bottom of the pool (top picture) and from the top of the pool (bottom picture). Despite what the pictures show, there were quite a few people there when we arrived. By the time we left almost everyone had left too.

It had a nice natural waterslide. Several of us tried out the slide. Myla and Devin are pictured to the left getting ready to go down the slide.

You could climb up the rocks and then jump off into the pool. Pictured to the right is Devin and Vienna jumping into the water. Myla was a one that jumped off the most. She just kept doing it over and over again. Elder Rappleye and I had changed out of our swimsuits at the boat harbor not realizing that we would be doing more water play. We knew that going in the water at Manoa Falls was not allowed, so we didn't see any reason to stay in our swimsuits.

We enjoyed relaxing by the pool and watching everyone else play. Besides sliding and jumping there was a lot of scampering on the rocks and soaking in the sunshine. The top right picture was taken as we headed back up the trail to our cars after we were done playing.

After a long day of play, we headed back to Hau'ula and relaxed at Devin's Airbnb. We were able to watch the BYU - Oklahoma State football game. BYU winning the game was a great way to end a fantastic day.

Saturday we were up early again to go to Hanauma Bay to snorkel and play in the ocean. You need reservations to go to Hanauma Bay. We were only able to reserve spots for 5 adults and 5 kids in one reservation, but we needed 6 adults. We were not aware of the limit before we were booking our reservation. The reservations can only be made 48 hours in advance and if you don't get online right at 7AM Hawaii time, the spots are gone within 15 - 20 minutes. By the time I was done making the first reservation and going back in to make another reservation, the time slot we had reserved was already full. The only reservation we could get for Elder Rappleye (the one extra adult) was 45 minutes earlier than the main group.

So Elder Rappleye and I drove down early to get Elder Rappleye in and he could find us a good spot on the beach while I waited at the top of the hill for Devin's family to come and get in at our later reserved time. I took the picture above of the bay as I waited. I also found out while I waited that we all could have come at the same time and gone in together early.

We enjoyed Hanauma bay all day until 3 pm. I didn't take any pictures except this one to the right showing the bay and Koko Head crater in the background. The weather was perfect. We couldn't ask for a more perfect day in paradise.

On the way back to Hau'ula we stopped at the Halona blowhole, but the tide was too low to get any good sprays coming out of the blowhole. Then we went to the Makapu'u Lighthouse trail and hiked up to the top to look down on the lighthouse and enjoy the views. We have hiked that trail a couple of times before, but this time was the most pleasant weather-wise. Both of the other times we hiked it, it has been hot. The temperature this time was just right with a nice ocean breeze.

Sunday was a little more restful day. Devin's family attended church with us in our YSA ward at the HGB building on campus. They all came wearing their kukui nut leis that I gave them at the airport.

After church, we went over to the temple grounds. Behind the temple is a nice big banyan tree and benches to sit on. It's a little more private, so we had a picnic lunch and did our monthly extended family home evening on Google Meet. It was great to have Devin's family join with us in person. We all shared our favorite conference talks from the recent General Conference. You can see from the pictures that the kids all had fun climbing around in the huge banyan tree. After EFHE was done, we went into the visitor's center to look around and we watched the Welcome to Laie video that talks about the history of the church in Laie.

We then went for a drive along the North Shore. We stopped at Kawela Bay to see the huge banyan tree. Both the bay and the banyan tree were filming locations for the movie, Pirates of the Caribbean and other TV shows and movies. Then we stopped at Sharks Cove. Since it was Sunday, nobody snorkeled, but most of Devin's family waded in the tide pools looking for fish and sea creatures. Some of them were lucky enough to see a turtle. You can see Brinton (bottom left photo) - he's our rock climber, and Sunny (bottom right picture) is our sand baby.