Founder's Week and Love Is In The Air: February 10 - 16, 2025

 

   

      Love is in the air - it's Valentine's week and for Family Home Evening we started out learning how to make origami hearts.  It took a little time, but everyone who tried to make the origami hearts were able to master the skill and you can see the results of all the hearts on the table in the bottom right picture.

     Then we played team charades.  There were two teams, and half the team had to act out the phrases and the other half of the team had to guess what they were acting out.  All of the clues were Valentine/love related.  The pictures of the team with all girls acting were trying to get their team to guess Jack & Rose from the movie "Titanic".  It took them a long time to guess that one.  The other team is acting out "Beauty and the Beast".  That was a hard one too.  But most of the phrases were easily guessed

It's Founder's Week at BYU - Hawaii and they are celebrating 70 years.  The school opened in 1955 as the Church College of Hawaii.  In 1974 they changed the name to Brigham Young University - Hawaii.  Quoting from an article written by Juan Carlos De los Reyes, a student in our YSA Ward, 

"As BYU–Hawaii looks to the future, it remains rooted in its mission to prepare students to become leaders in their families, communities, and countries. The university’s commitment to excellence, spiritual growth, and cultural understanding ensures that it will continue to be a beacon of light and learning for future generations. From its first class of 153 students to its current global reach, BYU–Hawaii’s story is one of faith, perseverance, and aloha, creating disciples of Jesus Christ worldwide."   There were special activities all week for students, alumni, and the community.

  

   I found these two photos of an aerial photo of BYU-H taken in 1955 (top) and a current photo of BYU-H (bottom).  You can definitely see the growth of the campus.

      On Tuesday night there was an alumni/student talent show at the BYU-H Aloha Ballroom.  We decided to go check it out.  We were surprised that it wasn't very crowded, but then I realized that a lot of students are working at the PCC, and even more were probably practicing for culture night happening in 3 weeks.  The first performers were a community group of hula dancers.  They began with the blowing of the conch shell.

        Then one of the hula performers gave an oli, or a Hawaiian chant, of welcome.  Then they performed several hula dances.   These ladies are very good.  The leader of the group teaches hula lessons every Wednesday night at the Marriott Courtyard hotel that is in Laie.

 

    Next performers were a student dance class performing Tongan dances.  They started out all dancing while standing up, women in front, men in back.  The student in the bright red dress, front and center, is Maheta.  She is in our YSA Ward.

    

 Then they all sat down cross-legged on the floor to dance, women still in front, men in back.

The dance ended with the women sitting and the men standing up while dancing.  Notice all of the performers will huge smiles on their faces.  They have so much joy and fun when they dance.

    We were entertained by a group of 3 guitarists.   They were very good and played a song that we were not familiar with, but the locals all knew it and we could tell it was very popular.  It was sung in Hawaiian, so we couldn't understand the words, but the tune was very catchy.

   The Aloha Center employees performed the "boot scootin' boogie".  Elder and Sister Tate (they are in our district) who serve at the Aloha Center are the two dancers on the left of the singer.  

    The next group to perform was a Tahitian group.  Although we regularly see these dances at the Polynesian Cultural Center, it never gets old because of the performer's enthusiasm and love of the dances.

     A solo performer sang next.  She is a current student and sings in the BYU - Hawaii's  Ho'olokahi Chamber Choir.  She said she was nervous, but she sang wonderfully.

        We left before the show was over, but the last performers that we heard was a family group.  The Grandpa (far left in the picture) has been on the TV show, Hawaii 5-0 and has played in some famous places on the island and elsewhere.  His son (far right) and two of his grandsons were playing ukuleles with him.  They were all amazing, but the grandsons (middle two) were very accomplished for as young as they are.  Of course, one of the songs they played was the theme from the TV show, Hawaii 5-0.  I was really glad we stayed long enough to hear them perform.

 

    We received these 70th anniversary t-shirts when we attended the talent show Tuesday night.  We decided to wear them the next day when we did town run.  While we were at Wal-Mart picking up an order, we took time to take a selfie to show off our new T-Shirts.

 

   Speaking of Wal-Mart, when I went inside the store, I was greeted with Valentine's Day balloons everywhere.  It looked like I had just walked into a party!

     There are a lot of historic church buildings around downtown Honolulu that we drive by a lot on our town runs.  I was finally able to get a somewhat decent photo of the Kaumakapili Church, the United Church of Christ building. This church building was dedicated in 1911.

  

    I thought I'd highlight one of our stops for town run this week - June's Fabrics.  It's located in a small old warehouse, but it's crammed full of fabric as you can see from the picture to the right.  They specialize in Hawaiian print fabrics.  We have only picked up here one other time back when we were doing town run last spring.  As a sewer, I would have loved to browse the inventory while I was there, but we had no time for that with all the stops we had on our list. 

  

    We had another full van after all our stops.  You can't see all the boxes we had in the back of the van and underneath all the snacks we picked up at Sam's club for guest services.

    

      On Thursday I brought the Valentine's Day treats in for the student workers that Sister Sauve and I had put together last week.  They are all so far from home and most of their families can't afford to send care packages to them, so we try to help make their birthdays and holidays somewhat special for them. 

     Elder Rappleye and the motor pool group got to play with the big toys (Kubota, backhoe, and dump truck) on Thursday.  They are working on clearing out the green space that the PCC has been using because that space is going to be used by BYU-Hawaii now.  One of the jobs was moving a big pile of wood to get it ready for pick up by another company.  Elder Rappleye was the dump truck driver.  Bri would load up the back of the truck with the logs using the backhoe.  Elder Rappleye would drive the dump truck over to the new area and dump his load.  Elder Bates would then use the Kubota forks to stack the logs up.  All morning they worked out in the green space.  The servicing of carts would have to wait.  I think Elder Rappleye liked the change of scenery and pace.  He did forget to put a hat on and got a little too much sun on his head and face.

      Sister Sauve had brought in jars of candy for the students to guess how many pieces in each jar.  The person whose guess was the closest to the actual amount got to take home the jar.  On Friday she announced the winners - Jar #1 - was a tie with Joanna and Bryron, but she gave it to Joanna because Bryron was the winner of Jar #2.

 

      After we got done with work, we quickly went home hoping that Paulino, our back neighbor wouldn't be home from work yet.  Luckily, he wasn't home yet, so we grabbed the origami hearts we made on Monday night along with some hearts I had left from decorating the office and "heart attacked" his front door.

      I had written some sayings on the origami hearts and added some stickers to jazz them up.  I don't know what he thought when he saw his door, but his girlfriend went back to the mainland (she said she needed a break) before Christmas and hasn't returned yet, so we thought he might be feeling a little lonely and down on Valentine's Day.

   Our plan was to head down to Honolulu to check out a free Hula show at the International Marketplace in Waikiki that they do every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings.  We wanted to see if it was worth bringing our family to when they come visit in a couple of weeks.  We left early enough to allow plenty of time to find parking, or so we thought.  First google maps took us to the wrong place, then when we found the right parking garage, it showed 13 spots left on the top level, but by the time we got to the top there was no parking spots left anywhere.  By then we only had about 5 minutes until the show started so we knew we didn't have a chance to find another place to park and walk to the International Marketplace in time.  That was totally disappointing.  

      Instead, we ended up going to the one place we knew we could get a parking spot - Wal-Mart!  Then we walked the half a mile to Ala Moana Park.  We arrived just in time to see the last few minutes of the sunset.  Then we walked back to Ala Moana Mall's food court and got some dinner.  We found a Charlie's Philly Steaks eatery, so we had to get Elder Rappleye's picture taken by the sign.  It turned out to be a pretty lame Valentine's Day date, but if you had seen how crowded the food court was you would know we weren't the only was with lame plans.  While we were eating, a Hawaii Tours driver sat down across from us, and we started talking and found out that he lives in Laie and is a return missionary.  Missionary tags can be great conversation starters!

    Saturday was a great day for some beach time.  It was windy, but the sun was out which made it warm. You can see in the right-hand picture the kite surfers had been out on the water.  You can't tell from the left-hand picture, but the wind turbines in the background were turning. We were thinking how much Dave Rhoades would have liked a day like this - a perfect kite flying day. 

       Last winter here in Hawaii we hardly ever went to the beach, it was too rainy, overcast, and/or chilly for the beach.  This winter has been wonderful - warmer, drier, and a lot more sun.  So grateful to have a memorable last winter here in Hawaii.  

      We had a low-key Sunday.  No piano lessons, my student couldn't make it. No mission activities.  We did have our extended family home evening on google meet with all of our children and grandchildren able to zoom in.  The wonders of technology have made serving a mission so far from family bearable.  Thirty years ago, when my parents and Elder Rappleye's parents served as senior missionaries they were not able to Facetime, google meet, zoom, see family posts on Facebook, Instagram, or even talk on the phone (long distance fees too expensive).  Letters were still the only way to stay in touch.  That must have been a great sacrifice for them, and I admire them tremendously for it.  Our sacrifice seems like a small price to pay compared to theirs.  Just trying to "Honor Our Legacy", as one of the seven cultural beliefs of the Polynesian Cultural Center encourages.

This Winter Has Been Wonderful: February 3 - 9, 2025

 

     Another new week and we start it off with FHE on Monday night.  FHE was billed as a Talent Night, but it ended up being a karaoke night.  I only got a couple picture of Shine singing.  She was the first one to sing.  She is not shy at all to sing in front of people.  She likes to dance as she sings - bobbing with the beat.  After she sang, they turned off the lights, so I couldn't get any good pictures.  Some of the students sang songs in their native tongues - Tagalog (Filipino), Japanese, French.  Kahealani sang "Fallen" by Alicia Keyes and did an awesome rendition.  I tried to get Elder Rappleye to sing "Sweet Caroline" with me, but he wouldn't do it.  I didn't want to do it by myself, so we both were chickens and didn't sing.

Here's pictures of the Food Warehouse office decorated for Valentine's Day.  I washed all the windows inside and out before putting the hearts on them.  I don't think they've been washed the whole time I've been here.

    

       On Tuesday, I got a couple pictures of Elder Rappleye and Alex Tam working on modifying the first aid cart by installing a utility box in the back of the cart to carry first aid supplies in it.

    Tuesday night we had planned to do temple sealings at the Laie Temple.  I had made an appointment and added extra guests so we could invite some of the female students in our YSA ward to come help us seal daughters to their parents.  We got one student, Maria, from Indonesia, to come help us.  The only problem was that when we arrived at the temple, they said I didn't have an appointment.  I was sure I had made an appointment and had even seen an email reminder the day before.  When I finally found the appointment notice on my phone, I realized I had accidentally made the appointment for the Jordan River temple!  That was not going to work.  Thankfully there was room in the 6:30pm sealing session (I had made a 6 pm appointment and the Laie temple does sealings on the half hour😕😖😞😦), so we were still able to do the sealings.  In my confusion and embarrassment, I forgot to get a picture of us with Maria, so I uploaded a photo from her Facebook page. Since we had to wait awhile for the 6:30pm session to start, we were able to talk with Maria and get to know her a little bit.

      On Wednesday during our town run stops, we had to pick up rubber stamps for the Fiji island village for their tattooing station (temporary tattoos).  It was a new place that we have never stopped at before.  On the magnetic board in the lobby, they had displayed a "Charles" name magnetic.  I made Elder Rappleye pose for a picture holding his name magnet.

  As we drive around the Honolulu area, we often drive along Honolulu's elevated rail system called Skyline.  The columns (6 - 7 feet wide by 30 feet high) holding up the rail are concrete engraved with Hawaiian designs.  At first, I thought every column was the same design, but then I noticed that there are different designs on the columns.  Two of the designs are shown in the collage to the left.  

It was another long town run day with 13 stops.

 

   Wednesday night was the Masters of the Flame PCC employee competition.  We watched this competition last year when Kina, one of the employees in the Food Warehouse was competing (he's now working on the grounds crew).  I've shown pictures of him doing fireknife dancing at different occasions in previous blog posts.  This year we got great seats to watch the competition plus we were sitting with a group of senior missionaries.

      Kina was competing again this year.  The bottom right photo shows all the male competitors, and the yellow arrow is pointing to Kina. The top left photo shows the drummers.  They beat the drums the whole time the competitors are twirling the fireknife.  The top right shows the junior competitors (boys younger than 18 years of age).  One of the boys is only 8 years old!  The bottom left picture shows the female competitors. I've included a link to a highlight reel if you want to see live action of the event.

   https://www.facebook.com/reel/1252355889157837

 

   Here are a few professional pictures I found on Facebook of the competition.  They capture the motion much better than my phone camera does.

 

   Here's some of the pictures I got on my phone.  I can't zoom in as close, and they all have a red tone to them because of the lighting.  They are definitely not as good as the professionals with the high-quality camera equipment.

   We were pretty beat from the long town run day, so we left around 9pm after the men performed.  I was mostly interested in seeing how well Kina did.  When we left, they hadn't announced the winners, but in my opinion, I thought Kina did really well and had a good chance of placing.  He had definitely improved his skills, and he was one of only 2 or 3 competitors that only dropped their fireknife once during their whole routine.  The rest of the competitors dropped it multiple times.

      The next day I was so excited to find out that Kina took 3rd place!  He also finished in 2nd place in the double fireknife dance - that's when they twirl 2 fireknifes at the same time!  Kina's holding up his arms in the top picture that shows the men's winners.  The bottom pictures show the women winners and the junior winners.

    Shout out to our daughter-in-law, Jasmin Rappleye, who was a guest "gospel scholar" on BYUTV's "Come Follow Up" episode this week.  She did a great job discussing Doctrine and Covenants Sections 6 - 9.  Just like Oliver Cowdery was given the "gift of Aaron" from God, she has also been given a gift from God to be able to present the gospel and truth in a very intelligent, yet relatable way.  Now that this episode has aired, some of the senior missionaries we serve with are asking us, "Are you related to Jasmin Rappleye?"  It's so fun to be able to say, "Yes, she is our daughter-in-law!"

      Thursday was our 3-month left mark.  We took the picture out on the Gateway Terrace while we were eating lunch.  Elder Rappleye is wearing his "uniform" and I'm wearing "Aloha wear" because Thursday is my day to go out and greet the guests as they get off the tour buses and answer any questions and hand out maps of the PCC.

   

        After work, Sister Sauve came over to our pad and we put together Valentine treat bags for the student workers in the Food Warehouse.  We made 20 of them and we will give them to the students next week for Valentine's Day.

     On Friday, Elder Rappleye and I made an emergency town run for the Food Warehouse to pick up mochi.  Mochi is a Japanese dessert made with sweet glutinous rice flour wrapped around a sweet center to form a small bite-sized confection with a chewy smooth elastic texture.  It is used in the cookies they make for the Luaus and Gateway Buffet.  They use the mini mochi in place of chocolate chips.  You can see from the picture that we picked up strawberry mini mochi.  There was a miscommunication because when we arrived Lili, my boss, was already there picking up the mochi.  She had already gone down to Honolulu with her daughter to pick out flowers for her daughter's wedding.  Lili didn't know we had been sent down to pick it up.  It worked out because we were able to put it in the cargo van and take it back to the PCC and Lili and her daughter were able to finish what they needed to do.

 

 

    Saturday morning, I had an uninvited guest watching me cook breakfast.  I'm grateful I've only seen small geckos in our pad and I haven't seen them very often.  I'm not sure I could handle seeing the big ones in our house.

    We have heard the Bates telling us all about the resort, Ko 'Olena on the west side of the island.  They go hang out there on their p-days quite often.  After hearing them talk about it so often, we decided we should go check it out ourselves.  They told us you have to get there early because there is limited free parking available.  It's about an hour and 20-minute drive to the resort from where we live.  We got to the entrance of the resort by 9:20am, but the sign said the lots were already full!  Since we had brought our bathing suits for a morning at the beach, we decided to go find another beach to hang out at.  We ended up at Pu'uloa Beach Park in Ewa Beach.  It's a small locals beach.  You can see in the right-hand picture we had a view of Diamond Head in the distance (far right edge of the picture).  On Monday when we talked to the Bates about going to Ko 'Olena resort they told us that the sign for the free parking lots is not updated very often and even if it says they are full, they are not necessarily full, but we should have checked them out to see if there were any open spots.  If we decide to try again, that's what we will have to do.  It's such a long way to drive, I'm not sure we will try again.  We have great beaches much closer to us.

    One of the reasons we decided to try to go to Ko 'Olena Resort was that it was close to The Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Kapolei.  Elder Rappleye's sister, Betty Ann had given us a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory for Christmas that we wanted to finally go use.  So, after spending a few hours at the beach, we headed over to The Cheesecake Factory restaurant for lunch.  The weather was very pleasant, so we requested to sit out on the patio where it was not quite as noisy.  We haven't gone out to eat very much during our whole mission, so it was a treat to enjoy lunch and a piece of Hershey's chocolate bar cheesecake.  Thanks, Betty Ann and Steve!

      After church on Sunday, Faye, one of the students in our YSA Ward, asked us to help her with her Eternal Marriage religion class assignment.  She had an assignment to interview a couple who have been married a long time and sealed in the temple.  She interviewed us about how we met, how we chose to get married, and how we made our marriage work.  I'm not sure how well we answered her questions, but we were delighted to help her with her class assignment.  We found out that she is engaged to someone back home in the Philippines.  It's common to find students engaged to someone back in their home country, especially the Filipinos.

    We had our monthly district meeting Sunday evening at the visitor's center.  The Christus in the visitor's center always makes a great backdrop for our district picture - left to right: Elder Gammon, Sister Gammon, Sister Tate, Elder Tate, Elder Timothy, Sister Timothy, Sister Rappleye, Elder Rappleye, Sister Lee, and Elder Lee.

      We also saw Sister Mansaloon and Sister Pabalate doing their shift at the Visitor's Center, so we had to get a picture with them.  We also were celebrating Sister Timothy's birthday later this month.  She's the only February birthday in our district.

     Elder Hudnall, a senior missionary serving at BYU-H, gave us a presentation on suicide prevention.  He and his wife are facilitating the starting up of a HOPE squad at BYU-H.           From Wikipedia: Hope Squad is an educational program developed to address mental health and suicide prevention in schools. It was founded in 2004.  It was founded by Greg Hudnall (Elder Hudnall), a former principal in Provo, Utah, following a series of student suicides, the most notable occurring in 1997 involving a 14-year-old student. Hope Squad's approach involves training students to recognize and respond to mental distress and suicidal ideation among their peers. Its establishment was a response to high rates of youth suicide in the western United States.  

    We all need to be watch dogs for those we know and love for warning signs of suicide tendencies.  The one website that Elder Hudnall recommended all of us can access for help in this matter, but especially parents, is shown in the picture to the left.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also has lots of resources online to help educate and help with suicide prevention.  I am including a link just in case anyone might be interested.

See Church Resources for Suicide Prevention

Special Visitors, Stormy Weather, and Shout Outs: January 27 - February 2, 2025

   Monday morning, a corner of the Food Warehouse turned into a florist shop as my manager, Lili, made some table centerpieces and other floral decorations for a luncheon on the Gateway Terrace that afternoon for Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Elder Ronald Rasband, and Sister Camille Johnson, General Relief Society President.

     Lili is very talented and did an amazing job.  She reminds me of my sister-in-law, Tricia Terry and my niece, Meadow Alexander, who are also amazing at floral arranging.  The General Authorities were here to speak at the BYU-H devotional on Tuesday.  But on Monday they were going to have lunch at the Gateway Terrace and go to the HA show at the PCC that night.

      Mondays are great days because we get to do FHE with the students.  This week we were playing bingo.  I don't know why they had us sitting so far apart from each other, but it reminds me of the days of covid - everyone had to be 6 feet apart whenever you were in public places.  It was fun playing "gratitude" bingo. 

      We each got to arrange our bingo card by putting pictures of the things we were grateful for in the squares in whatever order we wished.  Neither Elder Rappleye or I won, but we did have donuts for refreshments.  We haven't had a donut in ages, so it felt like we won.  Our bishop is in the pink shirt in the bottom left-hand picture.  The cute girls in the top picture are Kimmy, in the back left, Angel in the back middle, and Shine in the back right.  Sister Mansaloon and Sister Pabalate are in the front.

    Elder D. Todd Christofferson, Elder Ronald Rasband, and Sister Camille Johnson spoke at the Tuesday devotional this week.  Elder Christofferson spoke about one of the 7 Cultural Beliefs of the Polynesian Cultural Center (I'm not sure he knew his topic was about one of the beliefs) - "Honor Our Legacy."  He talked about the heritage of the school and the Laie area and urged listeners to keep its legacy of faith and build upon it.  Elder Rasband spoke about and urged the students to give the Lord equal time along with their studies.  Sister Johnson counseled us to get rid or reduce windage.  Windage is anything the wind can grab.  She described 3 potential sources of windage - failure to employ the joyful gift of daily repentance, procrastination, and looking for validation and affirmation from unreliable sources.  She urged us to secure our attachment to the Savior.

      The motor pool shut down their operations during the devotional, so Elder Rappleye was able to go attend the devotional in person.  Sister Sauve and I were not able to leave our office, so we just watched the live stream while we worked.

      Elder Rappleye was sitting up in the rafters (his words), but in the bottom picture I count 20 senior missionaries.  Most of them serve at BYU-H, but there are a few PCC missionaries.

    

 

  Tuesday at lunch, our group of PCC missionaries that eat lunch together sang "Happy Birthday" to Mini (Sister Margaret Handy).

   Speaking of birthdays, I need to do a shout out to my grandchildren who have January birthdays.  Their birthdays are within 5 days of each other. Sunny (in the pink) who lives up to her nickname Sunny always has a smile on her face and is so fun to be around. She turned 7 years old.  Brinton, her brother (top right-hand picture) loves learning about all kinds of things and is very good at putting Lego sets together.  He turned 9 years old.  Sterling (bottom right-hand picture) who is the kindest, most likable kid turned 17 years old.  I secretly told him he was my favorite because he was the only grandchild to call me on my birthday and wish me a happy birthday.  That is just a small way that shows his kind nature.

    Pictured to the right is our list of stops for our Wednesday's town run minus Hawthorne Cat that got added on late.  It was our most stops in one day to date - 15. It was our longest day as well.   We didn't get back to the PCC until after 5 pm. To give you an idea of what kind of things we are picking up I'm including our list -

1.  Sherwin Williams - Kaneohe - 5-gallon buckets of paint plus other things

2.  Kanile'a Ukulele - Kaneohe - 3 ukuleles

3.  Beachside Lighting - Kailua - lights

4.  Element 8 - Honolulu - a big box (I don't know what was in it)

5.  Daltile - Honolulu - box of ceramic tiles

6.  Battery Bills - Honolulu - batteries for portable generators

7.  FQ Labs - Honolulu - drop off water samples from the Lagoon to test water quality

8.  West Marine - Honolulu - Hardener

9.  Ryan's Graphics - Honolulu - Gateway Menus

10.  Burney's - Honolulu - small, insulated blankets for some kind of kitchen equipment

11.  American Retail Supply - Waipahu - shelving

12. Hawthorne Cat - Waipahu - 5-gallon buckets of oil, filters, and a cable

13.  The Home Depot - Honolulu - ratchet straps

14. Signs Today - Honolulu - signs for Hukilau Marketplace

 

     It varies every week, but some places we go quite frequently.  We have to be aware of when places close (some close as early as 2 pm) and get there before they close.  After 9 weeks of town run and the previous times we've done it last spring, we are getting quite familiar with the layout and streets of Honolulu and surrounding areas.  I'm sure we have guardian angels surrounding us as we travel each week because sometimes, we get into some tight spots and hairy situations.  I am always grateful to get back to the PCC without any mishap.

    Frank, one of the food warehouse student workers, had his birthday on Tuesday, but he didn't work the morning shift, so I didn't see him that day.  But on Thursday he was working the same time I was there, so I gave him a birthday gift.  Frank is from the Philippines and a great worker at the warehouse.

    Thursday was a stormy rainy day.  It's the first time I've had to greet the guests getting off the tour buses in the rain.  I took this picture (right) between tour buses arriving when it was raining pretty hard.  You can see all the raindrops hitting the pavement and how the view of the mountains is obscured by clouds.  I was taking refuge under the porch of Nona's Clothing store that is right by where the tour buses drop the guests off.  It's not as fun visiting the Polynesian Cultural Center on a rainy day.  I did find out that they have a rainy-day schedule with added shows and activities that are in the covered buildings to help the guests have a great experience despite the rain.

     I also took the time to go into Tutu's Sweet shop after greeting all the tour bus guests and take a picture of the macaroons on display that they sell there.  Those are the macaroons we go pick up on our town runs.  I haven't tasted them, but they do look delicious!

    When I came out to the motor pool when I was done with my work, Elder Rappleye was working on the backhoe.  I'm not sure what or why he was having to fix on the backhoe, but I was able to snap a few pictures.  Notice, the sunshine showing on the cement in the lower left-hand corner of the picture.  The rain did stop for a little bit during the afternoon.

      But during our Ask Me shift later in the evening, the rain was back.  While we were eating dinner before our shift on the Gateway Terrace, it poured down rain.  Luckily by the time we had to go out, the rain was just a steady drizzle.  You can see that there are no guests walking around on the grounds.  We are by the Shaka statue and there are usually guests posing for pictures at the statue the whole time we do Ask Me.  In fact, we are asked to take pictures all the time for the guests when we are assigned this spot.  Not on this night.😕😞😟😥

  

      I need to do another shout out to my granddaughter, Lili.  Her Academic Olympiad team from Logan High School took first place in state on Thursday!  Her gold medals she is holding are for - total team points, social studies, science, and battle for Olympus.  Hip, hip, hooray for Lili!

      We began the month of February with the Hawaii village devotional Saturday morning.  The theme of the devotional was "Who does God want me to be?" based on the scripture from Ether 12:27 (bottom right-hand picture).  The flag on the program cover is the Hawaiian state flag.  The stage was decorated with unique floral arrangements using woven heart shaped fans (top right-hand picture).  

     The program started with the students participating in a flag raising ceremony.  I wasn't in a good spot to get a good photo of it (top left-hand picture), but you can just barely see the flag through the tree leaves.

     The student speakers were all very good.  Rafael (main picture in the collage to the right) introduced the theme.  Sissy (middle right picture), Keoni (bottom middle picture), Sterling (a girl, bottom right picture) who grew up in Laie and wanted to go off-island to college, told of how God reveled to her the need to stay on island and go to BYU-H.  The last speaker, Manuel (bottom left picture) is from the Philippines.  He spoke of being raised by a single mom and how his motivation to get a good education came from his mom who encouraged him to go to BYU-H.  His mother died while he was here at BYU-H during his sophomore year.  He is now in his last semester and will graduate in April.  He testified that his mom is still encouraging him and watching over him on the other side of the veil.  It was a very powerful talk.  President Grace was the concluding speaker (top right picture).

   

     Music is always a part of all devotionals.  The men sang a song that Rafael had written.  Rafael is playing the guitar in the picture to the left.  The bottom picture shows some of the words to the song Rafael wrote.  It was a very pretty song.

   

  The women did a hula dance.

    There was another small group musical number.  After the devotional, we are always served refreshments.  The student workers always treat the senior missionaries so well.  

      After the devotional, we went to the motor pool and cleaned our car, inside and out.  Then took pictures of the car, so we could make a flyer about our car to advertise it when we get ready to sell it at the end of our mission.  Here is the flyer I made up.  We already have two senior missionary couples who have their calls and are looking for a car to buy.  Elder Rappleye is stressing about whether we are going to get someone to buy our car.  I can't believe we are already having to do things to get ready to go home.

      After lunch, we were ready to hit the beach and soak up some sunshine.  We went to a small, overlooked beach on the North Shore called Waialee Beach.  You can't see the beach area from the road, you just see the parking area.  We have driven past the parking lot many times and wondered if it was a good place to stop.  There never are very many cars in the parking lot. We decided to stop this time and take a look.  It's a small beach that is not really good for swimming because it's rocky.  But it was a great place to just relax and unwind because not many people were there.  The fun little islet is not too far from the shore.  A few young men showed up while we were there with spears and snorkel gear.  They went out into the water and were looking for fish to catch, but we never saw them get one.  It was a lovely few hours in a little piece of paradise.  Then it was back to real life as a missionary.

       I can't believe it was time for another Munch and Mingle on Sunday.  We sang Aloha 'Oe to three senior missionaries - Sister Kim Manley who worked in uniforms.  We got to know her really well as she would come out to eat lunch with the PCC group almost every day.  Also Elder Warwick and Sister Leah Tempany.  They are from Australia and Elder Tempany served as the PCC architect and Sister Tempany assisted.  The Tempanys would come join us for lunch on occasion.   The bottom left picture shows the group of singers leading us in Aloha 'Oe.  The bottom right picture shows part of our group of senior missionaries at the munch and mingle.  The top picture shows Sister Manley, and the Tempanys as we are singing Aloha 'Oe to them.  We only have a few more munch and mingles to enjoy before we are the ones being sung Aloha 'Oe to.  It is really starting to hit home that the end of our mission is drawing near.