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.