Finals, Graduation and Christmas in the Air: December 9 - 15, 2024

     Once again, it's final's week and that means it was time to do our cookie delivery to our YSA student's Hales (dorms) to urge, encourage, and spread love to them and let them know we believe in them and that they can do hard things.  This time I had purchased on Amazon some cute Christmas self-sealing cellophane cookie bags.  It was so much easier to package the cookies for delivery and kept them nice and fresh.  I wish I had been using them from the beginning.  

      This is the fourth semester finals we have handed out cookies to everyone in the YSA 10th ward.  Elder Rappleye goes into the boy's Hales to pass them out to all the boys and I always recruit the young sister missionaries in our Ward to come help me pass out the cookies to the girl's Hales.  About two-thirds of the Ward are girls and one third are boys, so Elder Rappleye doesn't have as many doors to knock on.  He always finishes before I do, even with the sister missionaries helping me.

      This time I remembered to take a few pictures while we were delivering.  In the picture above are three of our Ward sisters we actually met in the hall.  They live in Hale 2. In Hale 2 there are just single rooms with 2 girls per room.  They don't have a kitchen, and they share a community restroom.  They were excited to get homemade chocolate chip cookies.  The picture to the left is Dana (to the right of me).  We caught her at home and gave her cookies for all of her roommates.  She lives in Hale 4. Hale 4 has 6 girls to an apartment.  They have their own kitchen and share a bathroom between all 6 roommates.

      We had the best success so far on this cookie delivery run.  I caught about two-thirds of the girls at home, and Elder Rappleye caught about half of the boys at home.  I think since we have done this a few times now, they are learning to expect the cookies and don't want to miss out.  We only have one more final's week to experience here before we go home.

      Tuesday evening, we were able to go to the temple with Elder Brian and Sister Julie Coleman and do sealings.  The Colemans taught religion classes at BYU-H and are part of the missionary pickleball group that plays on Wednesday nights.  We were able to do sealings with them and then went over the Hukilua Marketplace for a bite to eat.  We'll miss the Colemans.  Not so sure we'll miss Elder Coleman's wicked pickleball serve though.  Sister Coleman and I made a pretty good team on the pickleball court and had a pretty long winning streak going for a while.

   

   Wednesday's town run was crazy busy with 15 stops to make!  That's a record.  It was a long day, but we did get to see a few Christmas decorations in the downtown area and a beautiful fountain.  Hopefully we won't have another town run with that many stops again, but since we are only doing one run a week now instead of two, every week could be a long day.

     Although it was a long day doing the town run, we went to the musical presentation at the Visitor's Center that night.  Moana and Junior Feinga were performing.  We didn't realize Moana was part of the family band, "The Jets" in the late 1980's until she mentioned it when introducing themselves.  It was a good concert.  We even got a photo with Moana, just as if we are groupies - 😁😉

     Friday was commencement at BYU - Hawaii for Fall graduation.  There were 207 graduates from 21 states and 31 countries, 21 - 54 years old.  66% of the graduates were female, and 34% were male.  87.7% of the graduates had at least one job either at BYU-H or the PCC during their time at BYU - Hawaii.  The commencement speaker was Elder Marcus B. Nash.  He and I grew up in Seattle.  He was in the Ward that shared our building in the North Seattle Stake.  We went to early morning seminary together, although he was a year ahead of me in school.  It's been at least 50 years since then, but it would have been nice to have talked to him while he was here. I was working at the PCC during commencement exercises, so I knew our paths were not going to cross.  I was able to listen to the live stream in my office while I worked.  I'll share one quote from his talk, "To the degree you focus on Christ, He who is the 'light and the life of the world' will unerringly guide and take you safely home, no matter the currents and storms you encounter." – Elder Marcus B. Nash

Lili, our manager at the Food Warehouse, made a beautiful lei for Kyli Panti, one of the warehouse workers, who graduated. She sent me over to the Cannon Activities Center when the commencement ceremonies were over to find Kyli and give him the lei. I told her OKAY, but in my mind, I was thinking "How in the world I'm I going to find Kyli in the throng of people who are going to be out on the plaza celebrating?" Elder Rappleye drove me over there in a cart. We parked by the side of the CAC building and walked toward the crowds out on the plaza. We walked down one side of the plaza and then the other looking for Kyli. The longer we searched, the more discouraged I got. I stopped and said a prayer in my mind, then decided we would retrace our steps and go back around the plaza. We got all away around, still not finding Kyli. Then I saw Jared, another food warehouse worker, and asked him if he knew where Kyli was. Jared saved the day and pointed to a grassy spot right next to the CAC. We finally were able to give Kyli his lei and tell him congratulations. I love the picture his girlfriend took. It shows how the graduates are showered with love from friends and family with so many leis - flower, candy, ribbon, etc. He even was decked out with an inflatable flamingo around his waist and an inflatable crown on his head. Many others were similarly decked out. I have never seen anything like it before.

We received this delicious, wonderful loaf of bread from Tita's Grill, a food truck in the Hukilua Marketplace owned by the Ah You family. It was their Christmas gift to all the senior missionaries that serve in the Hawaii Laie Mission. We enjoyed the bread with our dinner from many nights.

The Mission Settlement missionaries put on the musical presentation at the Visitor's Center on Friday night. We attended because we wanted to support our district leader and his wife (Elder and Sister Lee), and the other missionaries. Most of the songs were the same ones we heard at the Mission Settlement Devotional a week ago. We still enjoyed it very much.

    After getting a taste of downtown Honolulu's Christmas decorations on Wednesday's town run, we decided to venture back down to Honolulu on Saturday morning and see if we could discover more Christmas decorations to enjoy.  We headed to Ward's Village and Ala Moana Mall.

     The decorations to the left we found around the Ward's Village area.  I'm sure they would have looked much more impressive after dark.

      There was an elf scavenger hunt at Ward Village.  We found a few perched at various businesses around the area (pictured right). I think there were 51 total you could find. We didn't even come close to finding all of them.

   Then we headed to Ala Moana Mall.  It's a big mall in downtown Honolulu near Waikiki.  It was not the best weekend to go to the mall being it's so close to Christmas, but we had not been to the mall yet and malls are usually decked out for Christmas. Besides a few Christmas decorations, we found a Giving Machine that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints sponsors at the mall.

      We also found a big Christmas tree in an open area of the mall (pictured on the left side of the collage to the right).  The other picture on the right side is the Christmas tree we found at Ward's village.  Although we did find a few Christmas decorations to enjoy, we were a little disappointed that there wasn't more. (Since going down there I discovered that there were more Christmas decorations at City Hall near where we saw the huge Santa and Mrs. Claus when we were doing town run.)

     Since we were on the hunt for Christmas decorations, we went down to the Hukilua Marketplace that night and snapped a few pictures of some of the decorations there.  The top picture on the left is the nativity scene that is displayed in the gazebo.  The fun wintery train scene is at the entrance to Pounder's restaurant.  The bottom right picture is technically not a Christmas decoration, but it shows the PCC's main waterfall all lit up after dark. 

     We usually are not in the PCC after dark, but Saturday night we were invited to a private screening of a PCC documentary that has been produced and they are hoping to be able to get it shown on Netflix or Hulu, or something like that.  The documentary follows several BYU-H students that work at the PCC and how working at the PCC is beneficial in allowing them to go to school and improve their education without going into debt to do so.  They are then able to go back to their countries and help their families and communities.  Many of the students don't get to go home to see their families until they have graduated, that's at least 4 years being away from their families.  It was a very interesting documentary.  We have been here at the Polynesian Cultural Center for over a year and there were still things mentioned in the documentary that we didn't know about.  It reaffirmed to us how inspired this relationship between the PCC and BYU-H is and how God's hand is in all the details.

 

   It was Jo Ya's last Sunday in our YSA Ward.  The next day she would fly home to Taiwan.  We gave her a lei to say goodbye and wish her success in her future endeavors.  We love to see the students accomplish their goals of graduation, but it's hard to have to say goodbye.  Jo Ya is definitely part of the rising generation, youth of the noble birthright, that will keep building the kingdom of God wherever life takes her.

       Because of conflicts in the student's finals schedules, our work Christmas party was held on Sunday.  It was held in the Gateway Buffet building.  Lili and Regina set up and decorated these beautiful tables.

    Here's some of the student workers - Satoru (left edge of picture), Jared, Rachel, Rowan, Leiana, Aurel, Ralph (behind Aurel) and Jaz.  Regina is standing.

    

      I only got this picture of the food, but there was a lot more.  A separate dessert table, and more salads and sides.  It was a Christmas feast.

      After eating, the group played a few games.  These pictures show the game of picking up M&Ms with chopsticks from the plate in the middle to the plate in front of each individual.  Whoever could get the most M&Ms onto their plate during the allotted time won.  

 

   These pictures show the game where you place a cookie on your eye and have to try to wiggle it down your face and into your mouth without touching the cookie with your hands.  It was pretty hilarious watching everyone try to do it.  No one was able to accomplish the task, but Elder Rappleye was the only one to get his cookie touching his tongue, so he was declared the winner.

 

 

   The next game was to try to unroll a roll of crepe paper using just one hand.  When they said go, crepe paper was flying everywhere!

   It was finally time for the gift exchange.  We all grabbed a gift from off the table and stood in a big circle.  Then Regina went around the circle, the first person rolled two dice and depending on what number they rolled we would have to pass the present to the left or right, exchange with (blank), everyone changes with someone else, etc.  When everyone had a turn to roll the dice, and we had mixed up the gifts multiple times, then we all opened up the present we ended up holding.

 

   I opened up my gift and it was a mini waffle maker.  Elder Rappleye opened up his gift and it was a beach towel.  The top picture shows Jared, Kyli, Satoru, Jaz, Ralph, Aurel, and Rachel with their gifts.

       Here's a picture of the whole supply chain group of workers.  It includes the motor pool, the food warehouse, uniforms, and the main warehouse.  I don't know if you can see in the pictures, but the murals on the walls of the Gateway are amazing.  Most of the student workers don't get to go home for Christmas because they can't afford to, and they need to stay during the school break and work. This work party was to help give some Christmas cheer to the students who are a long way from home and family.

Let The Christmas Festivities Begin: December 2 - 8, 2024

 

      December has arrived, but it doesn't feel like December.  It is still summer weather here with high temperatures in the 80's.  The morning lows are a little cooler now though.   

     When I had to go get my eyes checked to get a replacement driver's license, I ended up needing new prescription lens.  I had brought my old glasses with me in case I broke or lost my current glasses that I use when I'm reading or working on the computer.  I really liked the frames in my old glasses, so I asked them to put the new prescription lenses in my old frames.  On Monday I finally got my new pair of glasses.

     On Monday night we had a really fun scavenger hunt game for FHE.  We had to go around and find certain things and take our team's picture with the item in the picture.  The list of things we had to find is in the screen shot above.  It's just too bad that not very many students showed up to participate.  It's "crunch time" - so close to the end of the semester and finals.

   There was a boys' team and a girls' team.  The pictures to the left are the boys' team pictures.  The boys' team included the bishop, his son, Andrew, Elder Rappleye (orange Aloha shirt), Jake, and Ben.

     The girls' team included the bishop's wife and daughter, the junior missionaries, Sister Mansaloon and Sister Pabalate, Isa, and me.

     It was a close game.  The winner was the boys' team, but the girls' team had the best "person wearing red" picture.

  On Tuesday I finished work extra early and didn't want to sit around waiting for Elder Rappleye to be done, so I started walking home (about a two-mile walk).  I've been wanting to get a picture of this mural that we pass by every day to and from the PCC, but we go by it too fast.  Since I was walking past it, I was finally able to get a picture of it.

Tuesday night was another BYU- concert we were able to attend.  It was the Shaka Steel and Polynesian Drum Pan Christmas concert. 

     Before the Shaka Steel Drum ensemble performed, they had a Polynesian dance class perform with Tahitian drummers accompanying the dancers.   The pictures to the right show the group that performed first. 

    Then the Shaka Steel Drum group performed.  A year ago, this was the first BYU-Hawaii concert we went to.  Now a year later, we were able to go again, and what a treat!  I remembered last year's concert was a fun concert, but I had forgotten how much fun it was.  The students are so good, and you can tell they really enjoy what they are doing.  This year, a member of our YSA ward, Sam, was part of the group.  I circled him in red in the top picture.  He also is a very good piano player and sings in the BYU-H choral choir.  He is very talented.

     Back in March we were asked to do the Town Run for the PCC on Thursdays because Elder and Sister Harris had to go home early for Elder Harris to get treatment for cancer.  We loved doing the town run (going all over the island picking up things that the different departments at the PCC need), but we only ended up doing it for about 2 months because when new missionaries came in May they assigned a new couple to do the town runs on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We were hoping they would split the duties and let us keep doing the town runs on Thursdays.  I wasn't happy about not getting to do it anymore, but that decision was out of our hands.  Instead, I have been going out on Thursdays around lunch time to greet the tour busses as they arrive to answer questions and hand out maps of the PCC.

     Well, we were informed last week, that they needed us to start doing the town run again, only this time they want us to do it once a week on Wednesdays.  They know that Elder Rappleye and I can't leave our regular assignments on Tuesdays, and they don't want Elder Rappleye to not be out at the motor pool on Thursdays either, so the only solution was to have us go on Wednesdays (our day off).  Apparently, the other couple that came in May and started doing the town runs can't do it anymore (we are not sure why) and we are the only other missionaries with experience doing it.  As much as we enjoy doing the town run, I'm not too excited to give up our Wednesdays off.  We know serving a mission involves sacrifice and this is a big one, at least for me.  The pictures above show us driving home with a full cargo van on the Likelike Highway.  I'm not sure how long we'll be doing the town run again, but for now it's indefinite.

     On Thursday when I went out to greet the guests getting off the tour busses, I found the ticketing & reservation booth decorated for Christmas (bottom picture).  I stand right between the ticketing booth and the archway in the picture to pass out maps and answer the guest's questions as they enter the Hukilau Marketplace.  It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas here at the PCC!

    In the evening, we attended yet another BYU-H concert.  This one was the choral department with an orchestra to accompany them, "Glad Tidings! Nu 'Oli!  Dr. Erica Glenn, who conducts the Seasider Singers and Ho'olokahi Chamber Choir, is amazing.  She takes all these students from all over the Pacific and Asian Rim and puts together wonderful concerts.  The students all have so much talent to share.  It's not like the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square Christmas concert, but it's a very, very close second! We love being able to enjoy all the BYU - Hawaii cultural events especially at Christmas time.

     Friday morning, we were back in the cargo van making an emergency town run to Kapolei on the northwest side of the island.  We had to pick up some smoothie mixes for the PCC.  We went the North Shore route.  I don't know if you can see it in the picture on the top right, the ocean waves were pretty big that day.  The two bottom pictures show a couple murals on a building in Waihiawa we saw as we were stopped at a traffic light.  It was a quick early trip (left at 6:30 AM) and were back at the Polynesian Cultural Center by 10AM, in time to do our regular duties the rest of the day.

  

    We helped decorate the Polar Express "train" earlier in the week for the Laie Christmas Parade on Friday night.  Empty wrapped Christmas packages on the roof, peppermint candies along the sides and back, and striped bows and mesh garland along the roof.  And of course, Christmas lights.

     Nobody had really thought about how the towing of the "train" would work.  At the last minute, the motor pool missionaries to the rescue to get the right hitch on the vehicles and get it up and running.

     While we were waiting in the parade line for the parade to start, I took a few pictures of some of the other "floats".  Top left picture is a car decorated like the Grinch.  Top right picture is Rudolph pulling a sleigh and a small wagon decorated behind the sleigh.  The bottom left was a Minion Gingerbread house float, and the bottom right picture shows a "spam musubi" - a Hawaiian snack made with a slice of grilled Spam, rice wrapped together with nori roasted seaweed.

    Here is the crew that rode the "polar express".  These pictures were taken while we were waiting in line at the start of the parade route.  In the back two rows were Sisters Kim Manley, Shellie Peterson, Sheri Sauve, and Sharla Behan (top left picture).  In the front two rows were Elder Brent Timothy and Sister Sue Timothy (front row top right picture), and Elder Rappleye and me in the middle (bottom left picture).

     Here's a picture of our train all lit up as we traveled the parade route.  We had candy we were tossing out to the kids, by we definitely didn't have enough because we ran out long before we finished the parade route.

     We ended at Laie Elementary School where they were having a carnival.  There were lots of people all over the school playground.  There was a big "Light The World" marque sign (bottom picture) and a beautiful mural on one of the school's walls (top picture).  A small group of senior missionaries, which we were part of, sang a few Christmas songs for the group. It started pouring down rain as we started singing.

    Shortly after singing and when the rain stopped, they started shooting off fireworks.  It was a fun community event that started the Christmas season with a bang.   

     After the fireworks the all-night outdoor movie session was going to begin.  We had plenty of partying by then, so we headed home.

  Saturday morning was the Mission Settlement Devotional.  Last year at the start of our mission, the Mission Settlement Devotional was the first one we experienced.  Now we are experiencing it for the second time with a whole new staff of senior missionaries.  I don't know how many more island devotionals we will get to experience before we go home.  I will definitely miss these devotionals.  They are always uplifting and spiritual.  It's great to see the students lead and participate in the devotionals.

     

  

      The Mission Settlement Devotional is a little different because it's staffed by mostly senior missionaries.   This year, it was mostly a musical devotional with Elder Lee narrating (top left picture).  The Mission Settlement manager is in the bottom right picture.  Elder Harris, top right picture, sang a solo, and President Grace, who speaks at every island devotional was the only speaker (bottom left picture).

    All the musical numbers were wonderful.  In the top left picture are the only students that participated.  The top right picture is most of the mission settlement senior missionaries.  The only ones missing is Elder and Sister Lee.  The bottom left picture is part of a group of sister missionaries we call the "settlement sisters".  They are very good singers and performers.  The bottom right picture is Elder Harris playing the ukelele.

    Here is our 5-month left picture in front of the world map in the Mission Settlement school house.  We are down to just one hand to count down!  We were actually one day late on this picture.  We were so busy with the parade festivities on Friday that we forgot to take our 5-month picture.

      Saturday night we went over to the Temple Visitor's Center.  There were decorated Christmas trees all over the center.  Each one decorated by different Wards around Laie.

     Each night during the month of December, there was a musical presentation at the Visitor's Center by different Wards, families, and individuals.  We decided to attend the one on Saturday night to see what they were like.  The Tautuiaki Family presented a few songs.  It was mostly one sister that sang (pictured above top right-hand).  The Christmas tree on the left in the collage above was my favorite decorated tree at the Visitor's Center.  The Christmas tree pictured bottom right is a tree decorated by all the junior sister missionaries.  They all made an ornament that represented them.  It was fun to see all the different kinds of ornaments that were made.

   On Sunday after church Jo Ya, who is a Relief Society teacher and is graduating next week, wanted a picture of the whole Relief Society, but these are just a few of the sisters that we got to come take a picture outside the building we meet in for church.  Jo Ya's parents are on the front row left side and Jo Ya is to the right of her mother standing behind the girl that is squatting.  She will be going back to Taiwan and apply for graduate school to BYU-Provo and hopefully she gets accepted.  Her major is TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language).  Her English is very good and this past summer she did an internship in Mongolia.  She is one of our favorites and we will miss her.  We are also hoping she comes to BYU-Provo, so we'll be able to see her again.

      We ended our week with having the sister missionaries over for dinner.  This is the first time in months that we did not have Sister Earl there.  She got transferred for her last transfer before she went home.  We will miss her, but she is from Roosevelt, UT so there is a good chance of seeing her when we get home.  We now have Sister Pabalate along with Sister Mansaloon.  Both are from the Philippines.

   After dinner, we went to the Visitor's Center to enjoy another musical presentation.  This time the Laie Park YSA Ward were performing.  They had lots of students participating.  The male soloist in the picture to the left is actually a professor at BYU-H in voice.  He sang "O Holy Night" and it was very good.  The bishopric and the bishop's family were one of the groups that sang.  In the large group, there are two students I knew - Zaya, who I taught piano for a while until her Sunday meeting times changed and she wasn't able to come any more, and Isa, who is good friends with our bishop's family and comes to our Ward activities occasionally.  Vanessa, who worked in the Food Warehouse during the summer was singing with the Filipino choir group.  This musical presentation was much better than the first one we saw the night before.