Easter Week: March 25 - 31, 2024

      We are still doing our ukulele class on Monday nights, but a few weeks ago we took a leap and started attending the more advanced class.  It's called the Sing-Along class.  It's definitely a lot harder than the beginner class, but the beginner class was definitely too easy for us.  So, we just do the best we can in the sing-along class.  If we keep practicing, one of these weeks we'll be able to keep up.  This Monday when we went to class, Elder Rappleye's ukulele was out of tune, so he started to try to tune it while everyone else was playing.  That mixed him up and the next thing I know, I hear a loud snap. Elder Rappleye had broken a string.  That was the end of class for him, so he packed up his ukulele and took it out to the car.  I decided after playing a few more songs, I should pack up and leave too.  So, we had a shortened lesson that night.

We started the week by going to the temple on Tuesday night.  It has been three weeks since we have gone because it was closed for two weeks for cleaning and maintenance and the first week it was open we were not able to get an appointment.  The Laie temple is almost always busy.  It also has so many of the BYU-H students working in the temple.  It was so fun to have one of the Relief Society teachers in our YSA Ward officiating as I did initiatories.  This is how we are gathering Israel on our mission by going to the temple once a week whenever possible.  The picture of the left is the view from the top by the temple looking down on the grounds and out to the ocean.  It's always a beautiful view.

Wednesday was the start of a couple of weeks of saying goodbye to senior missionaries going home.  The first party was the Food Warehouse honoring Sister Jones who has served in the Food Warehouse for 22 months.  She did all the receiving when the orders were delivered.  She sat in the same office as me and made everything look so easy.  She had the best sense of humor.  She helped me feel like I wasn't the only one that struggled to figure things out. 

Whenever she would say, "when I was new here . . ."  it was always something I was feeling or having trouble with, so it helped me feel like I could keep trying and sooner or later I would know what I was doing hopefully as well as Sister Jones.  Everyone will miss Sister Jones - the students that work in the food warehouse, Kapu'u and Lili and the other employees, and me.  The new sister missionary coming in to take her place has some pretty big shoes to fill.

 The picture above shows most of the students that work in the food warehouse.  Starting with Zach, in the white T-shirt, Kina, Third, and Blankey on the left side of the table.  Aurel, Leilani, Jared, David, and Saturo are on the right side of the table.  All but Kina and David are students.  In the picture on the right is Kalo and Danna helping with the food.  Danna is a student at BYU-H. 

 

There is always lots of food at these Hawaiian parties.  I was asked to bring a salad for 30 people.  Not only were we honoring and saying goodbye to Sister Jones, Elder and Sister DeHart, and Elder and Sister Craighead was also invited to attend because Elder Craighead and Elder DeHart serviced all of the heavy equipment that is used in the food warehouse like the forklifts and picker.

Here's Elder Rappleye with Elder DeHart (right next to Elder Rappleye), the boss, Anthony Wong, and Elder Craighead (far right).  Both Craighead and DeHart are going home as well.  Both are very good mechanics and when they leave the motor pool they will be without a true mechanic (Elder Rappleye is only a mechanic hobbyist) for about a week until Elder Bates arrives to be the head mechanic.

They love to play games at parties here.  The picture on the right shows them playing a version of the game statue.  They had to dance to music and when the music stopped, they had to freeze until the music started again.  If they moved while the music was stopped, they were eliminated.

In this game, a person had to close their eyes and walk backwards through the cup obstacles without knocking any of them over while someone else is coaching them on which direction to step.  In the picture to the right is Blankey walking backwards and SIster Jones coaching him (left side) and Terry walking backwards and Third coaching him (right side).  I also had a turn walking backwards with David coaching me.  He was an excellent coach and I got through in the fastest time.

This was the craziest game.  They called it the water dance.  Everyone stood in a circle with a cup of water and Blankey was in the middle. Blankey would dance and when he gave a certain signal, everyone would throw the water they had in their cup at him.  If you look closely, you will see that some of the students had soda in their cups and not water.  So Blankey ended up not only wet, but sticky.

Of course, the star of the entertainment was Kina and his fire knife dancing skills.  It never gets old watching the fire knife dance.

But the true star of the party was Sister Jones.  She has endeared herself to everyone in the Food Warehouse and going to work every day is just not going to be the same. A light will be missing, and that light is Sister Jones.  Kapu'u will especially miss giving Sister Jones a hard time (with love) and fighting over what temperature to keep the office at.  I was always on Sister Jones's side.  Kapu'u likes to keep the office way TOO cold!

They showered Sister Jones with all kinds of going away gifts.  She turned around and gave out gifts to Kalo, Lili, and Kapu'u.  Tears were definitely shed all around.

Although we hate to say goodbye to Sister Jones and the Craigheads and DeHarts, we definitely love having an excuse to throw and enjoy a good party.

We are still enjoying doing the town run on Thursdays, although this week's run was the biggest and hardest one so far.   We did not arrive back to the PCC until 4:30pm. Our first stop in Kaneohe should have been an easy stop to pick up ukuleles for the Ukulele Experience store, but the GPS took us to their store in the Windward Mall instead of their factory down the road from the mall, so that took longer than it should have.  Then we had 11 more stops to make, the most stops to date.  At one of the stops, Elder Rappleye spotted this cute mini-VW van camper. Since a favorite pastime here in Hawaii is camping on the beach on the weekends, it seems like this car would be very popular here. Our daughter, Noelle, would have probably loved one of those to drive around in high school and college.

We noticed a monk seal snoozing on the Hau'ula beach on our way home from town.  I am told it was Sadie, who winters in Kauai and has returned to her Oahu home.  At first, 
I thought it was a big rock, but then I realized it was a seal.

We have to give a shout out to our granddaughter, Lilli.  She took the ACT test and got a score of 32!  She was hoping for a perfect score of 36, but google says that only the top 3% of students who take the ACT score 32 or higher.  We are very proud of Lilli.  That is an amazing score, and we know how hard she studied for the test.  She wants to take the test again and try to do better.  She never stops trying to do the best she can.  We know God loves effort and He loves Lilli, so we think that's got to be a winning combination.

On Friday evening we had another Ask Me assignment.  This is the first time we have helped at the Gateway Buffet spot.  We stand right outside of the Gateway Buffet and help answer the guest's questions as they leave the restaurant.  One of us also has to stamp hands if they are leaving and want to come back in.  You get to talk to a lot of people, and they are all in a great mood after spending the day visiting the PCC and enjoying a wonderful buffet.  Everyone has a smile on their faces.  That night they had a lot of big touring groups of young people because it's spring break for a lot of students right now.

Saturday morning our YSA Ward had an Easter breakfast activity.  We were assigned to come early and decorate the tables.  Annelise does a great job planning and preparing for the Ward activities.  She had all the supplies for decorating the tables.  All we had to do was show up and set it all up.

There is always plenty of delicious food.

They also had an Easter egg hunt in the HGB.  They hid 300 plastic eggs for the students.  I got out in the common area too late for pictures of the hunt, but here's one picture of them after the scramble for the eggs with them holding their bags full of eggs.

The pictures to the left show them back in our party room enjoying the fruits of their labor - the candy!  It was amazing how much they got into searching for the eggs, It's like they were little kids again.  I guess you are never  

too old to have fun.

They also dyed Easter eggs.  I could tell by some of their reactions that for some it was their first-time dying eggs.  They used eggs that were like ping pong balls only egg shaped.  No boiling eggs a head of time.  As expensive as eggs are here, it was probably cheaper to use these kinds of eggs and you get to keep them.

We have to give another shout out to my cute grandson, Parker Kingsley James (Peekay) who turned one.  Isn't he the cutest?  He always has a smile on his face and he's always quick to give a smile to almost everyone.  Missing these family events are hard.  We love you Peekay!

We also missed this cute little one's blessing day on Easter Sunday, Weston Eugene was blessed by his dad.  He was born in December, so we haven't even met him yet or gotten to hold him.  We are definitely going to have to make up for lost time when we get home.

I have to admit this Easter weekend was the hardest time for me since arriving in Hawaii.  So many special family events to not participate in.  Our love for God and His love for us helps us through these hard times.

We didn't want to spend Easter dinner by ourselves, but our pad is small and doesn't have room for a big crowd.  We invited the Jr. sister missionaries over for dinner because they are away from home too and we didn't want them to have Easter dinner alone.  We took this picture out on our deck after dinner.  Sister Earl and SIster Scott are holding the bunnies I made them with chocolates inside.

Even though it was hard to be away from family this year at Easter, we have so much gratitude and joy for the gift God and Christ gave us of His Atonement and Resurrection. Easter is something we should celebrate all year long.

The Weeks Are Flying By:: March 18 - 24, 2024

 

     This post will start where I left off in the last post - Culture Night.  I want to highlight some of the students that participated in Culture Night that we know.  Two thousand students participated in Culture Night, that is over 60% of the student body.  With that said, I don't have pictures of all the students we know that participated, so I can only highlight the ones I have pictures of.

     The picture on the left is Tao.  He is from Tahiti, and he participated in the Tahitian Club.  Tao was our guide at the PCC when we first arrived in November and the next day at church we met him in our assigned YSA Ward.

     The dancer in the front is in our YSA Ward.  We have seen him there many times, but I'm not sure what his name is.  He was dancing in the Rotuma Club.  Just my opinion - he's quite good looking.

      The student in the lower picture on the left with the cowboy hat is Rudy.  He is also in the top picture in the front right.  Rudy is in our YSA Ward.  He is from the Philippines and danced with the Filipino Club (top picture), but he also danced in the Latin America Club (bottom picture).  Sometimes they will join a club because that's where they went on their mission, or their friends will talk them into joining a club.

Pictured above is Nicha.  She was in the conducting class I taught with Sister Bodily on Sunday afternoons.  She danced with the Korea Club.

The student on the far right in the picture above is Rory.  He is from Australia and was the Elder's Quorum President in our YSA ward until March, but is not in our ward anymore.  He danced with the Cook Islands Club.

This is Duane.  She is a Relief Society teacher in our YSA Ward.  She is from the Philippines and danced with the Filipino Club.  When we first met her, I told her that Duane is a boy's name in our culture.  She told me that it's a boy's name in the Philippines too, but her dad really wanted a boy when she was born and although she was a girl, he still named her Duane.

The male student in the picture above is Jared.  He works in the Food Warehouse with me.  He is from the Philippines and danced with the Filipino Club.

The girl on the left is Shinehah (Shine).  She is in our YSA Ward and is the activities coordinator.  She is from the Philippines and was the choreographer for the Filipino Club.

The Harrises, who are in our District, are the missionary couple who had to go home early. Elder Harris was diagnosed with cancer and had to go home for treatment.  They were the couple doing the town run on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which we are now doing the Thursday town runs.  They are from Boise, ID.  We are all so sad to see them have to go home early and hope for a good outcome.

We had a special Aloha 'Oe luncheon on Tuesday to say goodbye to the Harrises and wished them God speed.  The picture above and to the left were taken at the luncheon.

Sister Harris worked in the President of the PCC's office on the days they didn't do the town run.  The picture to the right is Brother Workman, the vice president of the PCC, presenting the Harrises with a replica of the Iosepha canoe that is displayed at the PCC in the Hawaii village.  I think Elder Rappleye has some repenting to do because he said when he saw the model he started to covet it.  We found it in the Ukulele Experience store selling for $500.  I don't think we will be getting one for us.

Elder Harris has a wonderful tenor singing voice and he treated us with a farewell song - Bring Him Home from Les Misérables.  Elder Curtis accompanied him on the ukulele.  It was beautiful, but I was amazed that he could sing the whole song without losing it emotionally.

Elder Harris had befriended Kina, who works in the Food Warehouse, so he came and did a fire knife dance for them.  Kina always provides great entertainment with his fire knife skills.

Tuesday night was our monthly senior missionary devotional.  All the junior leadership missionaries presented us "A Day in the Life of a Junior Missionary". 

They did short skits depicting all the activities they do during the day like exercise/personal study time, working for a couple of hours at the online teaching center, shifts at the visitor's center and PCC tram tours, and ministering to people in their assigned area.

I wasn't sitting in a good place to get pictures.  These were taken at the end then they all introduced themselves.  I guess I should sit a little closer to the front from now on in case I want to snap some pictures.

     On Wednesday, I had another field trip with my boss, Lili, and Kina, the night manager.  We went into Honolulu to the Blaisdell Center to the Hawai'i Hotel and Restuarant Show.  Many of the vendors that the PCC orders food and paper products from had booths set up at this event. 

At the vendor's booths that the PCC uses, everyone know my boss, Lili.  She has been working at the food warehouse for 12 years, so she is well known.  They were always talking to her about different products and asking how they could serve the PCC better.  The picture on the left is the Sysco booth.  It occupied a big area in the convention hall.  Doesn't all that fruit look delicious?  Most of the vendors had samples that you could taste.  That was a definite perk.  The guy at the Ghirardelli Chocolate booth gave me a cup of chocolate chips to munch on as I walked around the hall. Domino's pizza was handing out slices of pizza and bites of chocolate chip cookies.

Here is a fish display at one of the vendors.

This pastry vendor's display was amazingly gorgeous.  I tasted the best croissant I've ever had at one of the vendors.

Aren't these the most beautiful orchid leis you've ever seen?  The leis the PCC gives to all the luau guests are not nearly that elaborate.  It would cost a lot more for the luau if we handed out leis like these.

    Here we are at the Diamond Bakery booth.  They were passing out free samples of all different flavored shortbread cookies.  I ended up taking two of every flavor home.

      Look how small I look next to Kina.  He's a big Samoan guy.  He's the fire knife dancing guy in the earlier pictures at the Aloha 'Oe for the Harrises.

      Every vendor was giving away not only free samples to taste, but free swag.  I brought back with me pens, refrigerator magnets, etc.  I even got a free eye cream treatment with Truffoire, a gourmet skin care product.  It worked wonders under my eyes.  I was too afraid to ask how much it would cost because I knew I couldn't afford it.  He did put a pretty hard sell on me, but I didn't cave.  I came home and looked it up on their website and it's $400 for a one ounce bottle!  Oh, to be rich!  Now I need to repent.

Friday night we had a district activity.  We all attended the play, "Once On This Island" that the theater department at BYU-H performed on campus.

Here's the synopsis of the play: 

Ti Moune is a peasant girl saved by the gods on a Caribbean island. She becomes the subject of a bet between two of the gods, Erzulie and Papa Ge, who disagree on which is stronger, love or death. Ti Moune rescues a boy, Daniel, from the upper class, falls in love with him, and would give her life for his. Will the gods grant her wish?  

I didn't get any pictures of the play, but here is one from the BYU-H Facebook post.  The performance was good, but the way it ended I did not like.  I like happy endings and the ending was not what I would call happy.  The heroine gets the boy but only for a little while.  He chooses to go through with the arranged marriage to a woman he doesn't love and gives up on true love.  The heroine, Ti Moune, is so heartbroken she just sits at the palace gate waiting for her true love to come to her, but he never does, so she dies.  The gods allowed her to become a tree in the palace garden to be near her true love.  Does that sound like a happy ending?

Saturday morning we went out to Kapaka Farms in Hau'ula with 10 other senior missionaries to help at the community fair they were doing.  The farm is owned by the church and it's like a community garden.  Families have plots they garden and can use the harvest to help feed their families or give to neighbors in need.  They were having their second annual community fair.  Here's a picture on the left of the view of part of  the farm.

They needed our help to run the games for the kids and serve food at the luncheon.  I didn't get very many pictures, but the picture on the right is the prize table.  There were all kinds of awesome prizes they were giving away.  In the back on the right side of the picture is the slush machines.  We helped hand out slush to anyone who wanted some.  The sister in the red t-shirt at the table is my Aunt Faith.  She organized the prize table.

The young Elders were in charge of the 9 square game.  Although they were in their Sunday clothes, they were really getting into playing the game.

In the pictures on the left is Elder Rappleye helping with the fishing pond.  The kids could fish as many times as they wanted to.  Some came back so many times their pockets were full of prizes, and they were actually telling us what prizes they already had so they could get some different ones.  There was also a bounce house and face painting for the kids.

     They served a dish that they call Coco Samoa.  It's showed in the picture above.  It looks like muddy water, but it's rice and cocoa.  It's like drinking hot chocolate but it's a thicker consistency.  Everyone loves it here.  We tried it and it was pretty good.  I'm not a big hot chocolate drinker so I only had a little bit.

    

     My Aunt Faith was helping at a booth to let people make flower arrangements.  She helped me make one for our pad.  While I was doing that she told me that my Uncle Jay had a stoke on Thursday and he was in the hospital.  He would probably go to a rehab center for a few weeks before coming home.

It was Sister Jone's last Sunday at piano lessons.  She has been in charge of the program, but it is time for her to go home.  The students and all of us are really going to miss Sister Jones.  Sister Coleman is going to be taking over as the leader of the piano lessons.

      On Sunday, we participated with all the senior missionaries in the Ko'olauloa Community Easter Celebration.  It was held iin the Cannon Activity Center on the BYU-H campus.  All the different churches in the community were invited to participate in it with choir selections.  It ended up being just different wards and stake choirs from our church, but it was a very good way to celebrate Palm Sunday with music that celebrated Jesus Christ.

 Our missionary choir started out the program singing our mission song, Cause of Christ.  Here's the words of our song:

Let us walk in the ways of the Lord.

Let his love guide us well in His work.

Marching forth we give thanks for his light. 

We will love in the cause of Christ.

La'ie! La'ie! Mahalo Ke Akua

La'ie! La'ie! Mahalo Ke Akua.

In the spirit of Aloha we will serve

Give our all to each soul for their worth.

Pressing forward with our might and soul,

We will share in the cause of Christ.

Chorus

As we follow in the covenant path

God gives knowledge we know we are free

To accept His will and follow willingly,

We invite in the cause of Christ.

Chorus

We'll endure through the storms of our lives,

No wind or rain can throw us from our course!

As we choose each day to follow God's commands,

We'll find joy and love because of Christ.

Chorus.

Mahalo Ke Akua literally means "thanks be to God"

    Thie picture on the right is the BYU-H Chamber Choir singing their musical selection.  There was also a Primary choir, a couple YSA stake choirs, and a married student stake choir.

This is the Samoan Ward singing in the picture to the left.  My boss, Lili was singing in that choir.  The Tongan ward had a choir that sang but I didn't get a picture of them.  It was a bigger choir than the Samoan ward's choir, but both choirs wore the same dresses.

After the concert they had ube donuts for everyone.  It was very good. Ube is a purple yam and a very popular food here in Hawaii.  It was the first time tasting a purple ube donut.