Circling the Island, Girl's Afternoon Out, and More Family Visitors: February 24 - March 2, 2025

 

    On Monday it was Sister Sue Timothy's birthday.  She is in our district, and I have given a little gift to everyone in our district on their birthdays.  So, at lunch time, I went to Tutu's Sweet Shop in the Hukilau Marketplace where she serves to wish her a happy birthday and give her a little gift.

     We have picked up almost 30 ukuleles for the PCC in the last few weeks on our town run.  The employee that we talk to when we pick up the ukuleles told us that he had just delivered a beautiful 6-string guitar to the Ukulele Experience Store at the PCC, and we should go check it out.  Before I left the PCC for the day, I went over to the Ukulele Experience store to check out the 6-string guitar and the other new ukuleles we delivered.  Elder Thompson is showing off the guitar for me in the left-hand picture.  He told me the guitar is selling for $14,000.  It definitely is a beauty.

      We played nine-square in the air at FHE.  I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy participating.  Our bishop took some pictures, and he usually shares them on messenger, but I haven't seen any pictures yet.

     When Sister Sauve and I came into work on Tuesday morning, we found out that Kyli, a worker in the Food Warehouse, had been in an accident on his scooter on his way to work and was all scraped up.  It looked like his wounds needed some attention, so we grabbed the first aid kit and "Dr" Sauve cleaned his wounds and applied antiseptic and bandages.  By the time she was done, he was in much better spirits and able to get to work.  It was not so for his scooter.  He wasn't sure it was going to run without some repairs to it.  Luckily it just needed a few tweaks, and then it was good to go.

     Tuesday night we went to the temple to do sealings.  We had invited students to join us.  Shine and Damien took us up on the offer.  When we arrived at the temple, the front desk personnel told us Damien was already there.  I told the front desk that Shine was coming and to watch out for her.  Shine never showed up or so we thought.  After I got out of the temple, I saw a message on my phone that she had come and sent me a message that she was there, but since she didn't see us in the lobby or respond to her text (I had left my phone in my locker) she just went home.  She never said anything to the front desk personnel.  I should have sent her a message to have her tell the front desk that she was with our group.  I felt bad for the miscommunication error.  We would have loved having her join us in the temple, but it was great to have Damien be our "son" for our family names.

         It's chick season here in Hawaii.  We have a hen with her chicks camped in our front yard behind the tree in the pictures to the right.  We can hear the chicks chirping away from our upstairs pad.  Wednesday, we came out of our pad to go to work, and mama hen was sitting in the grass with a few of her chicks close by.  When we approached to get in our car, the hen popped up and at least six chicks come scampering out from under her.  She had been covering up the chicks underneath her to keep them safe.  It reminded me of the scriptures that tell us how Jesus Christ will gather us under his wing just as a hen gathereth her chickens if we will repent and come unto Him.

    We did not get "fired" from doing town run.  If you read our last blog post, you will know what I'm referring to.  So, on Wednesday we were back to doing the town run and this is the first time we have had to go pick up something over on the southeastern side of the island past Hawaii Kai.  I came home and mapped our route out on Google Maps.  We ended up basically circling the island clockwise on Wednesday.  Starting at the red dot in Laie, going south along the coast.

       After stopping in Kaneohe to pick up 15 ukuleles, instead of heading to downtown Honolulu like we normally would, we headed south around the southeastern tip of the island.  Here's a picture of Elder Rappleye driving with a view of Manana Island, commonly known as Rabbit Island because the shape of the island looks like a rabbit head.  Does it look like a rabbit head in this picture?

We were headed to a stop east of Hawaii Kai and Google Maps indicated that this was the fastest route. We have been to Hawaii Kai and that area before, but not while doing the town run.  It was nice to take in a little different scenery.  It put us way east of downtown Honolulu, so after stopping to pick up two boxes for the retail warehouse, we headed into downtown Honolulu along Hwy 72 and the southern coastline.

      As we headed into downtown, we passed the Hawaii State Capitol building.  I've always wondered about the mural of plumeria painted around the bottom of the building.  I found out that it's a 2,000-foot mural of a plumeria lei that goes partially around the building.  It was painted and unveiled in June 2024 to welcome and honor the participants of the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture (FestPAC) which we were able to watch and see last June.

     We ended up picking up an air conditioning unit, 5 ladders from Home Depot, 10 bamboo fencing partitions, shaved ice syrup, paint, etc.  Our last stop was at Sam's club for snacks for guest services.  You can see our fully loaded van. Another week of filling the van to capacity.  From Sam's Club in Pearl City, google maps indicated it was a minute quicker to go back to the Polynesian Cultural Center around the north shore route.  That would have us circling the island, 105 miles round trip!  You can't go farther west than we did and circle the island.  There isn't a road that goes up the far west coast and around to the other side.  The road dead ends at the Ka'ena Point trailhead.  Needless to say, it was a long day.

    

     On Thursday, I didn't go out to greet the buses like I normally do because several of us from the Food Warehouse took a field trip down to the Hawaii Restaurant Association Foodservice Expo in Honolulu.

     We had to leave at noon from the Polynesian Cultural Center to drive down to Honolulu.  Lili thought it was at the Hawaii Convention Center, but I read in the email that it was at the Blaisdell Convention Center, the same place it was held last year.  

   Since Lili was driving, we went to the Hawaii Convention Center first.  There was road construction all around the building, so it was quite the adventure just to get into the parking garage.  Then when we got into the convention center it was totally empty, and Lili finally figured out that the expo was at the Blaisdell Convention Center instead.  I got some cool pictures of the Hawaii Convention Center while we were wandering around trying to figure things out.  The Aloha letters, the big, long mural, and the 3-story high waterfall were all in the Hawaii Convention Center.  

      We finally made it over to the Blaisdell Convention Center.  There was 4 of us attending, all ladies, so it was like a girl's afternoon out. The top picture to the left shows all 4 of us - me, Sister Sauve, Lili, and Leiana. Leiana, me, and Sister Sauve are in the bottom picture to the left.  This display was at the entrance to the expo.  All three of us headed over to the food sampling area.  Several of the vendors we order from, like Y Hata and Sysco were giving out all kinds of samples from meats to breads to desserts and drinks.  My favorite? - very hard to choose, but I would say the carrot cake. 10/10!  There were definitely more foods to sample this year than I remember from last year's expo.  We sampled to our hearts content.

       While we were busy tasting all kinds of great food, our boss, Lili, headed to the booth where she could get a free massage.  We found her in the middle of her session with a big smile on her face.

      We also were handed big shopping bags where we could put all kinds of swag that the vendors were giving out from pens, lip balm, magnets, and more.  This year's expo was much more enjoyable than last year's.

   The motor pool team and physical facilities team has been busy clearing out the "green space" that the PCC has been using.  I wish I had a before picture, but this cleared out space had piles of wood, green waste, containers, and sheds.  Now there is none of those things.  This space is owned by BYU-Hawaii, and they now want to use this space, so the PCC had to get rid of everything that was occupying this space.

      We were so excited for Friday to come.  We met up with our home Ward bishop and his wife, Brian and Sandi McCleary.  They were visiting the island, and we were able to get them discount tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center and watch the Huki canoe show with them.  Notice in the picture that Sandi and I are twins wearing the exact same kind of shorts!

      Both of them lived here in Laie while Brian was going to school at BYU - Hawaii in the 1980's.

       Later in the day, Neal, Jasmin, and Esther flew into Honolulu and drove up to our place.  They arrived just in time to have dinner at the Hukilau Marketplace with us and the McClearys.   After getting up super early to catch their flight, spending a long day traveling 3,000 miles with a toddler and probably being dead tired, Neal, Jasmin, and Ester were real troopers to hang out with us instead of hitting the pillows as soon as they got here.  After dinner, the McClearys went to the night show, "HA", at the PCC and we headed home to let our visitors get some rest.

      We had made an appointment at the Laie temple weeks ago to do endowments Saturday morning with the McClearys.  When Neal and Jasmin changed their plans of visiting us to earlier in March, they somehow were able to get an appointment for themselves at the same time.  Saturday was the last day the temple was going to be open, then it would be closed for the next two weeks.  It was the only time they had a chance to go, but every day I checked for openings, there was nothing available.  It was a miracle that they got a spot, let alone on the same session that we had with the McClearys.  Grandma (me) opted to babysit Esther on the temple grounds while everyone else attended the temple.  Esther hasn't been around grandma since she was 5 months old.  I was a little nervous about whether Esther would be okay with me for that long having just barely arrived the night before.  She did great!  There was so much to see and explore on the temple grounds that she was easily entertained for the two hours her parents were in the temple.  The picture of Esther in front of the temple doors is my favorite picture.

Here's our whole group at the temple.

       After the temple session, we spent some time at the visitor's center.  In the left-hand picture to the left, the junior sister missionary standing next to me is Sister Hendershot. Elder Rappleye was her dad, Richard's, Varsity scout leader and Priesthood teacher when we lived in Colorado Springs, Colorado 35 years ago.  Such a small world!  At both the temple and visitor's center, Jasmin was recognized from her social media posts and met several of her "fans".

      Saturday afternoon was nap time for Esther, so we just hung around the house visiting while Esther napped.  Later in the evening we were able to watch the BYU - West Virginia men's basketball game on TV.

      It was nice to have both the McClearys and Neal and Jasmin attend church with us at our YSA Ward on Sunday morning. Yes, some of the students recognized Jasmin there as well. Then the McClearys went their own way for the rest of the day before they caught their flight back to the mainland later that night.  We feel pretty blessed to have our bishop come visit us on our mission.

      Later in the afternoon, I went and taught Thanush piano lessons.  He comes a little later because his church meetings don't end until 2:30pm.  Because he has to come later, we stay until 3:30pm for his lesson.  Everyone else goes home at 3:15pm, so Elder Rappleye gets to come along with me now so I'm not all alone with Thanush after everyone leaves.

     It's always so fun when we can bring family or friends to our monthly munch and mingle gathering.  This time was extra fun because we got to watch the many senior missionaries all get excited when they recognized Jasmin. So many wanted to visit with her and tell her how much they enjoy her posts.  There was no bigger fan there than our mission leader, President Bassett (top picture).  He even announced Jasmin and Neal's presence when he greeted everyone before we started eating.  I would say he was super excited about meeting Jasmin.

      Neal and Jasmin were finally able to sit down and eat.  There is always a lot of delicious food at our potluck dinners.

      The bottom picture to the right is our Mission Settlement sisters singing Aloha 'Oe.  Everyone sings Aloha 'Oe, but the Settlement sisters help keep the group together.

 

         There was only one sister leaving us in March - Sister Susie Ratelle.  She served in the Mission Settlement and for the last few months in the PCC mailroom.

     We only have one more munch and mingle before it's our turn to have Aloha 'Oe sung to us. Yikees!