A week full of Christmas celebrations: December 16 - 22, 2024

 

     This was the first full week that school was out for Christmas break.  For FHE, the ward had another movie night in the Little Theater with dinner provided.  Can you tell what movie we watched from the photos? (The Polar Express).  The attendance was low because of kids going home or working at the PCC.

    I just feel that I need to document an aspect of the work Elder Rappleye does even though I don't have any pictures to go along with it. Elder Rappleye and Elder Bates who work out in the motor pool are the most popular senior missionaries in the mission.  I don't have any way to prove it, but all the senior missionaries that have vehicles are frequently asking for help with their cars.  The senior missionaries don't get mission cars, so every senior missionary who wants to have a car to use while serving here is responsible for buying and maintaining their own cars.  Whenever someone's vehicle is having mechanical troubles, they approach Elder Rappleye or Elder Bates and say, "Could you help me with . . . " or "I'm having a problem with my car, it's doing (fill in the blank), what do you think is wrong?"  Everyone knows who to ask if they have car issues and many days Elder Rappleye is helping a missionary with their vehicle or giving advice on what they need to do. With no auto repair shops in Laie or the surrounding area, the closest place to go to get a car fixed is Kaneohe, 40 minutes away.  For minor repairs or diagnostics, Elder Rappleye doesn't mind helping them, but it does keep him busy serving both the PCC and the senior missionaries.

    I went into work on Monday and worked the full day, then Lili, my boss told me, "Merry Christmas. You can have the rest of the week off."  I was like, WHAT???  The PCC was going to be so slow that week and all the student workers are allowed to work 40 hours a week when school is not in session.  They were going to have a hard time keeping the student workers busy all week, so they let me have some time off and had Jaz, who I've trained to do my job, do the purchase orders, to give him something to do all week.  Sister Sauve was already taking time off because she had family in town.  Since we haven't had Wednesday's off, I have not had enough time to get things done.  It was nice to have time off to clean, get Christmas gifts ready, practice the piano for a piano solo I was playing at the Christmas Eve devotional, and Tuesday morning I spent a little time at the beach.  I still had to work on Wednesday doing town run, and a short day on Thursday greeting the tour buses, so I wasn't completely off the hook on all my duties.

   This week at the Hukilua Marketplace is Santa week.  Every night some of the missionaries get a chance to help at Santa's workshop that has been set up near the Pacific Theater. The kids can stop by and tell Santa what they want for Christmas and get their picture taken with Mr. and Mrs. Claus.  We volunteered to be Mr. and Mrs. Claus on Tuesday night.  We had two elves to assist us - Sister Julene Jolley (a perfect name for an elf - sitting next to Santa in the picture) and Sister Carlene Bailey (the elf standing far right).  We had fun posing for a lot of pictures with kids, young and old, that believe in Santa Claus.  My main job as Mrs. Claus was to hand out candy canes to the young kids after they got their picture taken with Santa.  No sitting on Santa's lap was allowed, except for one lady who shocked us both and sat on Santa's lap and quickly took a picture.

     Thankfully this Wednesday's town run was not quite so crazy - only 11 stops (still quite a few).  It didn't help that when we went to one of the locations near the airport, they told us one of the items we needed to pick up was not at that location, but at their downtown location.  We had already done all the downtown pickups before we had gone out to the airport.  Alas, we had to head back to downtown Honolulu, and unluckily we got stuck in a traffic jam.  So, getting stuck in the traffic jam and going back downtown probably added an hour onto our travel time.  Luckily, we did go past the Aloha Tower nice and slow so I could get a picture of it.  I'm hoping to go see it up close and out of the car before we go home.

      The added stop downtown was right by these murals pictured left.  Since we had to illegally park, I opted to stay in the car while Elder Rappleye went in to get the part.  We have actually been here before, but I didn't get a picture of the murals last time.  There are so many buildings in Honolulu with painted murals on them.  It's so fun to see them, and it helps you remember where you are.

      We stopped by the Hukilua Marketplace after playing pickleball Wednesday night to see who was acting as Mr. and Mrs. Claus.  We were delighted to see our district leaders, Elder and Sister Lee in costume that night.  We were able to get our picture taken with them when there was no line.

     We were finally able to get over to another musical presentation at the Visitor's Center on Thursday night. It was the Laie 9th Ward Relief Society choir.

      Friday at work, we had a BBQ out at the motor pool for all who work out there and their spouses.  Everyone pitched in to bring something.  It was fun to have Anthony (the boss over motor pool) bring his 3 teenage kids to participate and we were able to get to know them a little bit more.

     This whole week at the Hukilua Marketplace is like a party every night.  So, we just go hang out at the marketplace after dark for a little while to enjoy the lights, music, and atmosphere.  The top right picture in the collage to the left shows the band that was playing in the gazebo in the marketplace Thursday night.  The bottom left picture shows the "train" that gives people rides around the marketplace and parking lot of the PCC.  We were hoping to take a ride on it, but the line was too long.  We wanted to make it over to the visitor's center on time for that night's musical presentation.

     When we got to the visitor's center we were surprised to see the Cowley family there.  We knew it wasn't their ward performing that night because it was the married student 4th ward.  We found out that Ava and Cohen's piano teacher is in that Ward, and she had recruited them to come perform.  There were also some nice singing groups that performed - a men's group and a women's group (pictured), and some individual performances.

 

We finally were able to go back up the mountain behind our house and hike all the way to the pillbox.  Above are pictures of the trail.  The top left is us at the trailhead up by the water tank where the paved portion of the trail ends. It had rained the day before so I was a little reluctant to hike it because I thought it would be too muddy, but surprisingly it wasn't bad except for the spot pictured bottom left.  There were places along the trail that was covered in dead pine needles like pictured in the bottom right picture.

When we got to the top of the ridge, we found this sign.  The left picture, taken on the way up, I'm pointing the way to the pillbox.  The other way goes to Koloa Gulch.  The right picture, taken on the way down, shows Elder Rappleye giving a thumbs up because we made it to the pillbox.

Shortly after the sign as we were walking along the ridge, we came to this section of the trail.  Thankfully the trail was wide enough and there really wasn't any risk of sliding down the mountain.

The views from the top.  The top picture is looking south over Hau'ula and beyond.  The bottom picture is looking north over Laie.  If you look closely you can find the BYU-Hawaii campus, Laie point, and Hukilua Bay.

We made it to the pillbox!  It's hidden behind trees that have grown up so you can't see it from our house or the highway.

The top picture is showing the other side view of the mountain shown in the bottom picture (yellow arrow pointing).  The red yellow is showing where the pillbox is located.  The bottom picture was taken from our deck.

This last picture shows the view of our house (red arrow) from the top of the mountain.  It's a zoomed in photo. Mission accomplished for Elder Rappleye, now having completed the hike to the pillbox.

  Saturday was our last chance to ride the PCC train, so we again went to the Polynesian Cultural Center so we could ride the train.  Knowing this is our last Christmas here, it was now or never.  As we waited in line for our turn, we asked the little boy behind us if he was excited to ride the train.  He told us that he already rode it, and this was going to be his 5th time!  I guess that means he liked it.

      After riding the train, we walked around the marketplace for a while.  The top right picture shows where they were making "snow".  The bottom two pictures show the band that was playing in the gazebo that night.

    We didn't stay long because we needed to hurry over to the Visitor's Center to enjoy another musical presentation.  Saturday night's performers were from the La'ie 7th Ward.  This was my favorite night of all the one's we went to.  They had so many youth participating, and they were all a little reluctant, but also very good.  The young men's group (bottom left picture) was especially reluctant, but the young man with the long hair had a good voice and carried the group.  Despite his demeanor, I think he actually enjoyed singing the song.

    

    The choir conductor was THE best!  He is the head of the theater department at BYU-H, Dr. Michael Morris. As he led the choir, he would sway and bob to the music.  You could tell he loved music, and it was in his heart and soul.  He sang a solo, "O, Holy Night" (above bottom right picture) - so very good.  The pictures to the right I took trying to capture his body movements, but it doesn't really show it.  I really should have videoed it.

     Sunday, we only had Sacrament Meeting, so after church we delivered gifts to our fellow district missionaries and to my Aunt Faith and Cousin Julie (bottom right picture).  We missed connecting with Cowleys and just left their package on their porch.  Elder and Sister Timothy is in the top left-hand picture.  Elder and Sister Lee are in the top right-hand picture. Sister Tate is in the bottom left-hand picture.  Elder Tate was taking a nap.  I'm sad I didn't get a picture of the Gammons when we dropped off their gift.  

Top Left to Right: Devin's family, Sara's family, Noelle's family, Derek's family, Neal's family, Aimee's family, Angela's family, and Elder and Sister Rappleye

 

     We decided to take a picture by our little Christmas tree to document it since all of our children were sending us pictures of them by their Christmas trees.  Merry Christmas Sunday!