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.