Lots of Visitors - Some Unexpectant: January 13 - 19, 2025

      For Christmas we received new family photos from all but one of our children's families.  I decided to tape them on the wall above the TV in our living area so we can see their beautiful smiling faces every day, and it makes us feel loved to have our family with us even if it's only in pictures.

    We got a surprise visit from Dave Conrad on Monday evening.  He is our son, Derek's boss and was in our stake presidency several years ago, but has since moved to Mapleton, UT.  Dave just called Elder Rappleye out of the blue on Monday afternoon telling us he was at the Polynesian Cultural Center and wondered if we could meet up and visit for a few minutes. We went at 6pm to visit him after the luau was done.  Another great experience to see friends from back home.

         After visiting with Dave Conrad and his wife, Jill and their friends who were with them, we headed over to campus for FHE.  It was missionary night.  The junior missionaries talked about how they both decided to serve missions.  They are both converts to the church.  Then a sister in the ward, Mary, who just got her mission call to Uruguay, talked about how she decided to go on a mission.  After that, we played a game.  We were paired up and you face each other with a cup in-between you on the floor (picture on the right).  Then it's like Simeon Says only all the motions are head, shoulders, knees or toes until the person shouting out the commands says cup and whoever grabs the cup first wins.  In each round half the people are eliminated until you get down to two people.  The final round was the only picture I took.  After the game, Elder Rappleye and I each gave a short spiritual thought.  It was very interesting hearing Sister Mansaloon, Sister Pabalate, and Mary's journeys to get to where they are today. 

    Tuesday night we went to the temple to do sealings.  We had names of 3 brothers in one family and 2 brothers in another family to seal to their parents.  We invited male students from our Ward to join us at the temple to participate in the sealing.  We were hoping to get enough males in the sealing group so the brothers could be all sealed at the same time.  But we only got Elijah Ebert to join us.  Elijah was in the Ward last school year and then went to Belgium for an internship.  Last Sunday we were so excited to see him back from his internship and back in our Ward.  Although we didn't get enough males to do the sealings of brothers at the same time, it was great to have Elijah there to do all of our male family names.  We are hoping to invite students with us every time we do sealings to help encourage them to attend the temple.  Next time - females!

    

  Wednesday's town run was a long tiring, but interesting day.  We had 14 stops - that's a LOT!  We have seen the mural in the top picture to the right from a distance, but our route took us right past it this week, so I'm glad I was able to get a picture of it.  The murals in the bottom picture were on a narrow one-way street we stopped at to pick up luggage, shoulder bags, etc. for the retail stores in Hukilau Marketplace.

    While we were stopped waiting for them to bring out the merchandise and load it in the van, we had a mother hen, and her chicks pay us a visit.  We were standing so close to them and neither the chicks nor the mother hen seemed to be worried about us being right next to them.

     One of the stops was a print shop.  We picked up these posters shown on the right and also some bigger posters for the Polynesian Hall of Fame that is located at the PCC.   There was going to be an induction ceremony on Saturday for the 2025 Hall of Famers.  More on that later in the post.  The package in the photo contained multiple football player's posters.  We wanted to look at all of them, but it was heat sealed, and we couldn't open it without ripping it, so we thought better of it.

   Our last stop was in a new area of town we had never been.  We ended up at a garage in a condo complex.  We were picking up a box full of painted and lacquered wooden chopsticks.  While we were waiting for the owner to package them up, I browsed all the paintings he had hanging all over the garage and stacked on the floor.  They were very colorful and looked pretty good.

   By the end of the day, the cargo van was fully loaded.  We had to play Tetris and move the load around several times to get everything in.  I wasn't sure we could get all the items in, but the employee at the luggage vendor was expert at Tetris and moved and packed the van so we could get everything in.  The left-hand picture shows the view from the back of the van - those are all the luggage boxes.  The right-hand picture shows the view looking back from the passenger seat.  Except for when we had the cargo van packed with AC units, this was the most packed we have had the van.  We didn't get home until after 4:30pm.  By the time we had dinner (we had no time for a lunch break, so we were starved) and got it cleaned up it was too late to go to pickleball, so no pickleball this week.😞😦😩😫

     We had a couple of uneventful days on Thursday and Friday, but on Saturday morning the PCC was going to host the induction of 3 football players into the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame.

     When we were here for last year's induction, we were told attendance was by invitation only, so we didn't get to go.  On Friday, our district leader sent out a text message telling us that if we wanted to go to the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony, we could get in with our PCC badges.  Although we had plans for later in the morning, we thought we would go attend for the first hour and then leave.  In the top left-hand picture you can see us with the Lees, our district leaders sitting on the front row because we were the first ones there.  Yes, we were a little bit excited to see BYU coach, Kalani Sitake, in person.  

     Then our bubble was burst.  We were told we had to buy a ticket if we wanted to attend.  Since we could only stay for a little bit, we opted to not buy $30 tickets for each of us and left, but the picture on the left shows what we missed.  Notice the reserved sign on the chair in the front row.  That sign was not on the chair when I was sitting in it before we left.  We were really hoping to get our picture taken with Coach Sitake, but it didn't happen.😒😞

     Instead, we headed down to Honolulu to meet up with the Cowleys and went to the Bishop's Museum.  Bob and Tammy Cowley, our friends from home, were visiting their son, Brent's family.  With our PCC badges, we were able to get Bob and Tammy in to see the museum for free!  We have been to the museum before by ourselves, but we were not able to see everything.  It's quite a large museum.

  

    During this visit we were able to see the planetarium show with the Cowleys.  It showed how the Polynesian people used the stars to navigate across the ocean from island to island.  They even showed us how to find certain constellations in the Hawaii night sky.

    We were able to also explore the Pacific Hall exhibits more.  We only were able to walk though it very quickly last time we were there.  These tiki statues are actually in the Hawaiian hall displays.

    We found some more statues all around the museum.  Although we explored more of the museum this visit, we still did not have time to go explore the science center building.  We'll have to see if we can make one more visit before we go home.

      We had to leave early in order to get back to the PCC for an Ask Me assignment.  Pictured to the right is the Ask Me crew for the night.  Somehow, we all showed up in blue aloha wear.  In the picture on the left side of the table is Elder Rainsdon (front), Elder Rappleye, Elder Greiner, and Sister Greiner.  On the right side of the table is Sister Rainsdon (front), Sister Rappleye, Sister Bates, and Elder Bates.

     Where we usually sit to eat dinner before our Ask Me shift there was a wedding dinner/party going on.  They had a live band, so we were able to enjoy the music of the band while we ate.  We ended up eating on the other side of the terrace.

   

     Our Ask Me post was at the entrance of the Gateway Buffet.  It's fairly close to the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame display, so we took turns going to see the displays of the new inductees.  The top right-hand picture shows the display where the poster we picked up on town run, (shown in a previous picture), is now displayed.  The red arrow is pointing to it.

     One of the top exciting things while on my mission happened on Sunday afternoon.  A friend from junior high/high school was visiting the island for just the day and came to Laie and I was able to meet up with her on the temple grounds. According to Debbi, we haven't seen each other since 1973.  My sister and I invited her to play church ball with us when we were 14 years old.  That was her first contact with the church.  She also would go to church youth dances with us.  She met the missionaries and took the lessons and wanted to get baptized, but her parents wouldn't allow her to be baptized.  My poor senior brain has a hard time remembering all this, but she told me the story when I saw her.  Her parents finally allowed her to be baptized after she had moved away. I either don't remember or didn't realize that she had gotten baptized, until a few years ago when we reconnected on social media, and I found out/relearned that she had joined the church.  She attended BYU-Idaho (Ricks College back then), met her husband, got married in the temple, raised 3 boys, and has gone on a senior mission with her husband, serving in one of the temples in Mexico.  She told me that my sister and I had encouraged her to read the Book of Mormon (I wish I could remember that!).  What is amazing to me is how after she was baptized her parents wouldn't take her to church (the church was about 10 miles from her home), and she got no help from her Ward members to help her get to church, but she was able to get to Ricks college where she could nourish her testimony and help it grow. Here's a quote from her, "I'm so thankful for your example to me as a 14-year-old! It really changed the course of my entire life.  It's a perfect example of "planting seeds". I am forever grateful."  I didn't think I had done anything extraordinary when I had invited her to play church ball. It was just something you do when you are friends. But what a miracle that has happened because of it.  God is a God of miracles!  Planting seeds, with time, good ground and nourishment, "will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life." (Alma 33:23).  We haven't had any opportunities to teach investigators here while on this mission, but this mission has given me an opportunity to see the fruit of my labor from many years ago. This was a totally unexpected mission blessing.

      Later that evening, we went over to the Cowley's house in Laie to visit with them and see their new little one, Kai.  I got to be a temporary grandma and hold Kai, who was only two-weeks old.  It was fun to visit with Bob and Tammy some more and hear about happenings from home.  The bonus was they had room in their suitcase to take a few things back to our house for us so we will have less stuff to pack up when we go home in May.

Tender Mercies: January 6 - 12, 2025

 

     Monday marked our 4 months until we are released day.  Since we have ukulele class on Monday evenings, we took our "4" picture there.

      We had our first FHE of the new semester on Monday night after ukulele class.  We played a game they called squid FHE edition.  It's hard to explain, but the link below is a video Kimmy made showing everyone playing the game.  It even shows the refreshments we had after the activity.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEhDsxtxpiQ/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

      We were paired up with a partner.  My partner, Airyn, and me in the left-hand photo, and Elder Rappleye and his partner in the red shirt.  Elder Rappleye didn't find out his partner's name.😒😏😞😦😲

  

 I posted the left-hand picture back in October.  I took a current picture of the same flower bed on Tuesday (right-hand picture), so you can see the progress of the plants.  It's looking pretty good.  I'll have to post another update right before we go home.

      All week was hard with our thoughts and prayers on Derek and Sharron, but trusting that God would provide peace, healing, strength, and comfort to carry them through the days, weeks, and possibly months of mourning.  We sent them this arrangement of flowers pictured right as a way to express our support and love for them.

      Friday morning my son's family had a little memorial for Elysium, their baby that passed.  It was held at Pony Express Memorial Cemetery in Eagle Mountain.  A few of his siblings attended along with Sharron's family members who were in town.

      We were able to get away from our assignments for an hour to view it on zoom (so, so thankful for modern technology!).  We locked ourselves in Elder Rappleye's motor pool office (top left picture).  Derek dedicated the grave with his two brothers, Devin and Neal, and his father-in-law, James Adams standing next to the grave with him (bottom right picture).  There were tears shed as we watched and listened to the short, sweet service. Then reluctantly we went back to work.

I had only been back to work after the memorial for a little while when I needed to go meet my nephew, Gab Terry, and his beautiful family.  They were on the island staying in Laie and had asked us to get them some discount tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  I was able to meet them out in the Hukilau Marketplace, visit for just a few minutes and get them their tickets.  It's a definite perk serving here at the PCC - you get to see lots of friends and family!

   Friday night we were able to go to the temple for an endowment session with the Timothy's and the Lee's from our district.  The Timothy's were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and invited our district to join them in celebrating at the temple.  It was especially good to be in the temple after the memorial service earlier in the day.  It helped us focus on the promises made by God when we keep our covenants and to "think celestial".

   

  Saturday morning, we headed down to Ho'omaluhia Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe.  We went there last March when my dad and Javann were here visiting, but we didn't see that much of the gardens.  It covers 400 acres and is surrounded by the Koolau mountains.  We did a short hike from the overlook of the lake down to the lake and partially around the lake and back up to our car.

 

    The Koolau Mountain Range is so green, lush and very stunning.  The gardens are in the middle of Kaneohe, but when you are in the gardens it feels like you are miles away from civilization.

      After visiting the gardens, we headed to town for a Costco gas run and groceries.  While we were at Costco, one of the students in our YSA Ward saw us and came over to us to say hello.  She was not one of the students we would have recognized, but she recognized us.  I was grateful that she was comfortable enough to come say hello.  So many of the students are shy and don't put themselves out there in social settings.  It warmed our heavy hearts.

      We drive by this mural that is on a building at Farrington High School on King Street in Honolulu a lot.  I finally was able to get a fairly good photo of it.

    We made it home in time to spend a little time at Hukilau Beach.  On Saturdays the beaches are always busy but not crowded.  We watched several people board sailing.  See if you can spot all 4 board sailors in the picture on the left.

        We were invited to go out to dinner on Saturday night with the Zollingers, a missionary couple from our stake back home.  We just went to the Hukilau marketplace where there are lots of choices from all the different food trucks.  We saw one of the new missionary couples at the marketplace while we were trying to decide where to eat, Elder David and Sister Nancy Haupt. We invited them to join us as well. Elder Haupt is the new electrician for the PCC and Sister Haupt is serving in the sewing room as a seamstress.  After we ate, we got our picture taken at the Shaka statue just like the tourists do - Elder Haupt, Sister Haupt, Elder Zollinger, Sister Zollinger, and us.

     We ended the week with Sister Mansaloon and Sister Pabalate over for Sunday dinner.  With another transfer coming up next week for them, it was time to have them over for dinner again before one of them might be transferred to a different area.

     We are so grateful for the small tender mercies that we received this week as we continue to serve here in paradise.  We know that God is aware of us and will succor, lift, and bless us as needed.

The Best and Worst of Times: December 30, 2024 - January 5, 2025

 

 

     Sister Cindy Bates, who works in the motor pool office, had a birthday on December 28th, but Monday is when they had a little birthday celebration for her.  I came over from the Food Warehouse to join the celebration and was able to catch Elder Rappleye and Elder Bates servicing one of the PCC club cars before the birthday celebration started.

 

  The birthday celebration was pretty low key with cupcakes and ice cream.  We did sing happy birthday to the birthday girl (pictured top and bottom pictures).

  

    It's still Christmas break for the students, so there was no FHE after ukulele class.  We decided we better go enjoy the campus Christmas lights and nativity before they take them down.

    We had a Ask Me shift on New Year's Eve.  I didn't think people would want to come to the Polynesian Cultural Center on New Year's Eve, but it was really busy.  We were at the entrance to the Gateway Buffet, and we've never seen the lines to get into the buffet so long.  To the left is a picture of the lines.  After I took the picture, I think the lines got even longer.  The girl in the green top is the hostess and a student at BYU-H.  She did a really good job of keeping order and keeping people happy while they were waiting.

  After our shift, we went home until about 10 PM and then drove over to the temple.  We were here last New Year's Eve and knew that in front of the temple is where everyone parties.  This year it started raining around 8 PM and was still drizzling at 10 PM so we weren't sure if there was going to be a party or not.  When we got there, nobody was around.  We decided to park our car and wait it out until 11 or so to see if it would stop raining, or if anyone would come to watch the fireworks, or if there would be fireworks at all.  Elder Rappleye took advantage of the wait and got a nap in.

      Eventually the rain stopped, and people started to show up.  The pre-fireworks music was not as grand as last year.  Only one group played, but they were pretty good (top picture).  Only one dancer this year as well (bottom right).  The bottom left picture shows the group of people gathered in front of the temple to watch the fireworks.  I don't think the crowd was as large as last year either.  The rain discouraged people from coming.

    

  Here's just a few photos of the fireworks.  We timed the fireworks this year and they easily went on for over 20 minutes.

       In fact, in the top left-hand picture you can see how smokey the sky is from the barrage of fireworks that had gone off practically non-stop for 20 minutes.

     The bottom two pictures show the crowd around us all videoing the fireworks.  It's not as large as Times Square in New York City, but it's the closest thing I'll experience to it.

      We had New Year's Day off.  We decided to finally go see the movie, "Wicked".  We drove down to Kaneohe, to the Windward Mall Regal Theaters in the afternoon and enjoyed free popcorn, my birthday reward as a Regal Crown Club member and the movie.  I didn't realize it was only going to be part one!  How long do I have to wait for part two?

   

 Last post of Christmas decorations, I promise.  I couldn't resist taking pictures of the Christmas decorations at the Windward Mall. 

      Thursday town run was uneventful.  It was another not so busy day, and we actually got back around the same time as we usually finish at the PCC.  Usually when we do town run it is a longer day than our normal days.

        We got invited to a sealing for a student that is in our YSA Ward - Matt Ducay.  He is from the Philippines and his finance grew up here in Laie.  Since Matt is from the Philippines, none of his family members were able to attend the sealing and wedding festivities.  We were more than happy to fill in for his missing family members. 

    The sealing was at 8:45 AM Friday morning at the Laie Temple.  The bride had a lot of family there.  We knew several of the groomsmen who were Matt's friends from the YSA Ward.

     The pictures are of the bride and groom coming out of the temple after the ceremony.  After that we couldn't stick around any longer, we had to go to work at the PCC.

    They had a reception in the Aloha Ballroom in the afternoon.  We had to get all our work done before we could go, so we got there a little late.  Everyone had already eaten, and they had started the toasts.  There was also a lot of dancing as part of the program.  First the bride's mother danced.  I was told she danced for a long time in the Polynesian Cultural Center's night show.

     Then the bride danced a hula.  The bride is an identical twin like I am.  She and her sister definitely look alike.

   This is the only picture I got of her twin sister.  She's the one circled in yellow.

     

All the bridesmaids did a dance.

Then the groomsmen did a dance.

This picture shows all the groomsmen we know from the YSA Ward - (left to right) Ezra Valdez, Vaugh Platon, Josh Gamil, the groom, Matt, and Jarom Notarte.  The Bishop nicknamed them the "Backstreet Boys".

This is Elder Armstrong from New Zealand.  He performed in the Haka.  Looking pretty good.  The Armstrongs serve in the same BYU-H office that the bride, Lehua worked.

I had to include the top picture because I love the way Matt is looking at his new wife - so in love!

Shortly after getting out of the temple for the sealing, we got word from our daughter-in-law, Sharron, that she was showing signs of preterm labor.  They sent her to Utah Valley Hospital because they are experts on preterm labor.  Sharron is only 19 weeks into her pregnancy.  This was not good news, and the family started praying for a miracle.  The doctor decided to keep her in the hospital overnight and the next day they decided to do a cerclage, which is a procedure to stitch the cervix closed because her sac was poking out of her cervix.  They did an ultrasound and found out that the baby was a girl.  She looked healthy and they heard her heartbeat.  So far, no sign of trouble.

Saturday afternoon when they went in to do the procedure, Sharron's water broke, which was the worst-case scenario.  The chance of infection to the baby was pretty much certain with her water broken. Now the odds were extremely high that she was going to lose the baby.  The only thing to do was to induce labor and hope that the baby would make it through delivery, and they would be able to hold her for just a moment.  But that was not to be.  Sharron started hemorrhaging shortly after talking the induction tablet and they rushed her into OR.  She lost about 2 liters of blood and had to get a blood transfusion.  Derek, our son, was exiled to the waiting room (his words).

A set of handprints and footprints is the only thing they get to keep of her.  

Because of their personal and religious beliefs, they gave their baby a name. They named her Elysium "Ellie" Rappleye, born and passed on January 4, 2025, at 5:40pm.  They decided to bury her in the cemetery in Eagle Mountain close to their home (more about that in next week's post).

It's been very hard to be 3,000 miles away in Hawaii unable to be there and offer our support only through prayers and talking on the phone.  We are extremely grateful that Sharron's parents could travel down to Utah to be there for them.  We are also grateful for the knowledge of God's plan of salvation, that the sealing covenant of eternal marriage that Derek and Sharron have will allow them to raise Elysium in the Millenium, free from Satan's power, and that Christ's atoning power can provide comfort, peace, and assurance during their time of grief.  The spirit has whispered and reaffirmed to them and all of us that "the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ." (Mosiah 16:8)

On Sunday afternoon, we drove down to the Honolulu airport and picked up our daughter's nephew, Lawson Toone from Calgary, Canada, who is starting school at BYU-Hawaii this semester.  We had no problems picking him up, but when we got to his hale (dorm room) it was all locked and he had no idea how to get a key.  We found some students so we asked them if they knew where to go to check in to the dorms, and they directed us to security.  I knew where the security office was, so we headed there.  They did have key cards for new students, but the problem was there was not one for Lawson.  Since it was Sunday there was no one there to talk to about the problem.  The security officer did unlock his room door for him so he could get in, but he had no way to get back in if he left his room.  We had planned to take him to the munch and mingle with us so he could have some dinner after his long flight, but he didn't want to leave his room without knowing if he would be able to get back in.  Luckily, I had planned ahead.  The paper bag that Lawson is holding in the picture I had filled with food items so he would have something to eat until he got his cafeteria card.  I had also brought some take home containers so I told Lawson we would bring him over some food from the munch and mingle so he could have some dinner.  Although it was not ideal, it all worked out in the end.  

We only sang "Aloha 'Oe" to one missionary couple who are leaving at the end of January, Elder Dennis and Sister Kim Singleton from Alabama.  They served in the Visitor's Center.