Time For Culture Night!: March 3 - 9, 2025

 Monday was going to be the last day to spend with Neal, Jasmin, and Esther before the Jorgensens arrived and Neal and Jasmin would be busy with their VIP tour of BYU-H and the PCC that they had been invited to attend.  We opted to go to Waimea Valley and Falls.  When we arrived, we were escorted into the park by this gorgeous peacock that walked along beside us from the parking lot to the entrance.  Look how close we were able to get to the peacock.  I was a little disappointed that the peacock never opened up his tail feathers.  Obviously, he is a very tame peacock, and he really had no interest in us.

   I knew after having a very hectic week or two leading up to their trip, Neal and Jasmin would enjoy the peaceful calming feel of the Waimea Valley.  We were there in July with Scott's family and there was a lot more people on the day we went.  This visit was more relaxing, not as crowded, and there were a lot more flowers in bloom throughout the walk up to the waterfall.  I think I enjoyed this visit more than the first time.

     Besides all the colors of flowering plants, there is also a Kauhale living site to explore on the way up to the falls.  Kauhale is Hawaiian for groups of houses or small community.  There were re-creations of different kinds of buildings the native Hawaiians would have in a small community or shared living space such as men's eating house, women's eating house, the canoe house (top left picture), medicine house aka hospital.  We spent a little bit of time exploring the Kauhale before continuing up to the waterfall.

    Waimea Falls was less crowded, but it also was not as flowing as when we went in July - not as much water was cascading down off the mountain, so it wasn't as impressive.  I have heard the waterfall can completely dry up if it's been a dry year.  None of us got in the water because we planned on going to a beach on the way back to Hau'ula.

    When we got down to the entrance there was a nice, covered area where we ate a picnic lunch that we had brought.  Esther had so much fun chasing the birds that were around the picnic area.

     Neal and Jasmin have been staying at our cramped little place, but BYU - H had reserved them a hotel room at the Marriott Courtyard right by the Polynesian Cultural Center for 3 nights starting on Monday night.  They decided to go back to our place, pack up and move over to the Courtyard and go enjoy the hotel pool.  We loved that plan because they were able to list us as guests as well, so we could join them at the pool.  It's the first time we have been to the Courtyard pool.  It was perfect for little Esther because they have an area that is only one foot deep where she could play in the water.  It would have been nice to stay longer, but we had to go home and get ready for our ward FHE at 6pm 

   It was another fun FHE at the HUB, the student game room.  Elder Rappleye got to try the golf simulator this time (bottom right picture).  He did much better than me because I had to play right-handed because they didn't have any left-handed clubs.  Elder Rappleye got invited to play a game of foosball (top right picture) and he and his partner won.  Elder Rappleye didn't fare so well in ping pong.  I think age is catching up with him and his reflexes.  The bottom left picture is Neal playing ping pong.

  

    Here's some pictures of the students enjoying the different game options from bowling to pool.  The junior sister missionaries tried their hand at pool.  They said they had never played pool before, but they won their game against two other students.  They are so petite which made the pool sticks seem extra-large for them.

    I told my boss that I could come into work Tuesday morning before we had to go to the airport.  She insisted I stay home to give the student learning how to do purchase orders a chance to do the job. (I found out when I came back the next week, he had lots of questions I could have answered for him if I had been there.)  I dropped Elder Rappleye off at work and I headed to Pounder's beach for an hour or so.  It wasn't the best beach weather, so I had the beach all to myself.

     Neal, Jasmin, and Esther were spending the morning taking a VIP tour of the BYU-H campus with the other influencers that had come for this event.  I met up with them at the Cannon Activities Center right before the devotional.  Esther loved going up and down the stairs while we waited to go into the CAC.  They had given her a lei to wear.  Jasmin had students stopping to talk to her as they entered the CAC and as we walked in to get our seats.  I captured a picture of Jasmin talking to Anisha, a student that was in our YSA ward the first two semesters we were here.  After the devotional Anisha came back and asked to get her picture taken with Jasmin.  The devotional speaker was Morgan Jones Pearson, the host of the All-In podcast.  I normally don't get to attend the devotional because I'm working at my assignment.  I usually just tune into the live stream, so it was a real treat to be able to attend in person.

      After the devotional, Neal, Jasmin, and Esther went off with their group for more VIP treatment.  I went over to the motor pool to pick up Elder Rappleye so we could pick up the passenger van to go to the airport to pick up the Jorgensens.  Our little car would not be big enough to transport all of us and their luggage back to Hau'ula.  On our way to the airport, we stopped at Leonard's Bakery food truck in Kaneohe to buy some malasadas for everyone since it was Malasada Day, aka Fat Tuesday, in Hawaii.  We knew after a long day of flying, the Jorgensens would be arriving hungry, and it would be a perfect way to start their Hawaii adventure with tasting malasadas from Leonard's.  We made a quick stop at Costco for groceries and dinner, then made the hour drive to Hau'ula.

       Since both the Jorgensens and Neal and Jasmin were visiting at the same time, we did not have enough room for all of them to stay with us, so we rented a VRBO close by in Hau'ula for them to stay in.  They stayed in the upper level of the house in the top left-hand picture.  It was so close to the beach, less than a one-minute walk.  The bottom right-hand picture shows the view from the deck.  The ocean breeze kept the place nice and cool.  Since Nea and Jasmin had the room at the Courtyard until Thursday morning, the Jorgensens had the whole place to themselves for a couple of days.

    Although we had family in town, we were not able to take Wednesday off because there is no one else to do town runs.  We figured the Jorgensens would like a nice relaxing day to adjust to the difference in time zones and enjoy the beach and settle into their place while we worked.  We did leave them our car and a list of things to do close by if they got adventuresome.

     Luckily the list of stops was not too long, so we were hoping to get back around 3pm.

      We hit a new place this week called Mid-City restaurant supply (pictured to the left).  They had a nice demo showroom and a big display of glassware that they sell.  It is located close to a few other places we have been before, so it was easy to find.

     

     We also drove by the Palama Settlement building.  It's a non-profit community based, social service agency that was first established in 1896 and moved to its current location in 1924.  It provides community, recreational, academic, sports, cultural, behavioral, and senior programs for the surrounding low-income housing projects and neighborhoods in the area of Palama Settlement.  When FestPAC was happening last June, they hosted performances of the different countries at this location just like the PCC did.  It's a pretty impressive building.  It's like a YMCA/Boy's and Girl's Club/Senior Citizen/Community Center all-in-one building.  It also has an outdoor pool, and large gymnasium along with other facilities.

       We got back from town run in time to get in line for the first night of Culture Night at the Cannon Activities Center.  Neal and Jasmin were having dinner with the President's Council, so we were babysitting Esther.  She really took a liking to her Uncle Lance.  You can tell because she is letting him hold her in the picture.  Despite getting in line very early to try and get a good seat, we ended up on the side on benches that had no back support, but down close to the floor, which we found out after the show started that those were not very good seats because the dancers would line up on the side and block our view of the performance.  Before the show started, we watched as all the missionaries that were standing in line with us got to move over to the lower front section.  I asked the usher 3 times if we could move over and pointed out all the missionaries that were sitting over there, but she insisted that we were not allowed over there, that only those who had disabilities were allowed to sit over there.  I know a lot of the missionaries seating over in that section did not have disabilities.  I just wanted my daughter's family to have good seats for the Culture Night show.  Neal and Jasmin finally found us and got Esther.  Since they had VIP status, they got to sit in the lower front section, but they couldn't get permission for us to sit with them.  The stars just were lined up against us that night and you probably can tell I'll still a little bitter about it.  Got to work on forgiving the usher who would not let us move over.  I'm sure she just thought she was doing her job right.

      

   

   We still enjoyed the experience despite the seating situation.  The first club to perform was the Hawaiian Club.

Hong Kong Club was the next to perform.  They did a sword dance and a dragon dance.

Kiribati is located in Micronesia, a subregion of Oceania.  It consists of 33 islands, but only 20 are inhabited.  The islands spread across all four hemispheres and is the only country in the world to occupy all four hemispheres.  Pictures to the right are the Kiribati Club.

Myanmar Club was one of the smaller clubs to perform.

      

   Papua New Guinea Club was next with a very warrior-based performance with their bow and arrows and war paint.

Vietnam Club

The picture collage to the left is the women's dance.

This picture is of Frank.  He works in the Food Warehouse with me.  He danced in the men's Vietnam Club dance.

Frank is also in this picture.  He's the dancer, front and center.

The India Club was a lot bigger than last year.  Their performance was one of my favorites this year.

My piano student, Thanush performed with the India Club. He is in the top left-hand picture to the right, the one with his hand on his knee.  Karen, who is in our YSA Ward is also in the picture.  She is on the front row with the blue skirt, right on the edge of the picture.

The Mongolian Club was another one of my favorites.

The Samoan Club is always one of the biggest clubs at Culture Night.  They are a joyful, spirited group of dancers.  It is always delightful to watch their performance at Culture Night.

The Japanese Club was next.  We knew two students performing with the Japanese Club.  Satoru, who works in the Food Warehouse, is the one circled in the upper right-hand picture.  Shine, who is in our YSA Ward, is circled in the middle right-hand picture.  Since I was an exchange student to Japan years ago, I'm definitely partial to the Japanese Club.

      The Fiji Club was another fun performance.  The men dance with very strong movements, but the women dance with very graceful movements.

China Club

Aotearoa Club was the last club performance for the first night of Culture Night.  Aotearoa Club is another popular club and has a lot of participates. The whole night was enjoyable despite not having the best seats in the house.  The students put in a lot of time and effort, and it pays off because it's so well done.  You can feel their enthusiasm and energy.  You end up smiling the whole night as you watch all the students put their hearts and souls into every performance.

    The first night's performance lasted 2 hours with 13 clubs performing.

     Thursday was our Polynesian Cultural Center Day with the Jorgensens.  Even thought Neal, Jasmin, and Esther went to the PCC on Tuesday, they joined us too because there is so much to do and see there that you can't do it all in one afternoon.

      Of course, you always want to start your PCC experience by watching the Huki show on the Lagoon.  It never disappoints and it sets the stage for the rest of the day.

      Everyone wanted to have a ukulele lesson at the Mission Settlement.  Even little Esther had her own ukulele and strummed along while everyone else learned how to play the song, "You Are My Sunshine".

      I guess we have been to the PCC too many times now because I didn't take very many pictures.  We were able to visit the village of Hawaii, Tonga, and Samoa.

      The canoe ride with bonus shaved ice to enjoy during the ride (top picture).

        This view of the waterfall during the canoe ride is one I never tire of.  Every time it looks so magical (bottom picture).

      Everybody wanted to just go back to the Airbnb to eat dinner there.  Then the Jorgensens and us went back to the PCC to do a little shopping and go to the night show.  Neal, Jasmin and Esther saw the night show on Tuesday night, so they had a night to just relax at the Airbnb.  They probably had some work-related things to catch up on as well.

      While we were in shopping in Goo's Plantation store, a guy came up to us and asked us if we wanted to use his four HA show tickets.  They were too tired to stay for the show and wanted to go back to their hotel instead.  At first, we turned them down because we already had tickets, but then I thought that he might have better seats than we had.  The PCC was crowded that day, and we hadn't been able to get very good seats when we went to upgrade our seats.  So, I chased the guy down outside and told him we would take the tickets.  We found out that his seats were on the front row!  The only problem was we had 5 people but only 4 tickets.  We let the Jorgensens sit in the front row seats while we sat up in the upper level.  It was fun to see that the student performing as Mana in the show was the second counselor in our YSA ward bishopric, Ondrai Wihongi.  We knew he was cast as Mana, but they have 3 lead actors, and they rotate nights.  We have never attended on a night that Ondrai was performing as Mana until this time.  After the show they let the guests go down on stage and take pictures with the performers.  We hurried down to the stage to meet the Jorgensens and insisted on getting pictures with Ondrai.  Of course, since he was the lead role, everyone wanted pictures with him and the performer that portrayed Lani, so we ended up having to wait awhile before we could get our picture taken.  The front row seats at the Ha show are much better seats than front row seats at Culture Night.

     Friday was our beach day, but before heading to the beach we stopped at the PCC motor pool to let everyone see where Elder Rappleye spends his days.  He also was able to give them a ride on one of the club cars around the villages before it opened to the public.  Esther enjoyed sitting in the driver's seat pretending to honk the horn (there is no horn on the club cars). 

     They were also able to go into the Hale Aloha luau venue and look around while it was empty.  Here's where we took our two-month left photo with the luau waterfall backdrop; except the waterfall was turned off, so you'll have to imagine the waterfall.

     Another stop was Laie Point to enjoy the views.

     Our main destination was Shark's Cove.  We had a great time enjoying the snorkeling, sand, sun, and water.

      The tide was pretty low which made the cove very shallow, but the surf would occasionally come up and over the rocky barrier and water would spill over into the cove (top left-hand picture).  I was snorkeling and all of a sudden, I watched all the fish dart towards the shore.  I didn't know why.  Seconds later the wave hit me and pushed me back, then I figured out why. 

    

      The sand is always a fun attraction at the beach for the little ones (top left-hand picture) and not so little ones (bottom right-hand picture).  We spent several hours enjoying Shark's Cove before everyone was ready to call it a day.

      Some would say a stop at Seven Brothers to eat makes your trip to the North Shore complete.  I won't go that far, but it doesn't ruin your North Shore experience if you stop to eat at Seven Brothers in Kahuku at the historic Kahuku Sugar Mill location either.

Everyone was hungry because we ate a lot of food there.

Esther entertained us during dinner by singing some children songs that she knew.  Then she found some fun chairs to sit in on the store front porch.  She loved hanging with her cousin, Noelle, and of course, chatting it up with her dad.

It was a full day of ideal island fun.

Saturday morning, we headed to the Swap Meet and did some souvenir shopping.  Then we headed over to Pearl Harbor.  Angela was a little girl about 9 years old the first time she went to Pearl Harbor, so it's been over 35 years ago since she was there.  She said she remembered it a little bit.  Neal was a baby and back then they didn't allow babies to go out on the memorial so it was the first time for him to visit.  As a former history major, he enjoyed learning more about the tragic event.

As you can see, they now allow little kids to go out to the memorial.  The two bottom pictures to the left show Neal, Esther, and Elder Rappleye looking down into the water where the sunken USS Arizona lies, and you can see part of the ship.

By the time we were done visiting the memorial, viewing the film and looking at the displays, everyone was ready to call it a day.  We headed back to Hau'ula and the Airbnb.  Several of us watched the BYU men's basketball team on TV beat the U of U.  

Sunday, we attended church in the morning.  Later in the afternoon, Neal and Jasmin did a wonderful presentation for our district at the Visitor's Center about Six Events that had to happen before Joseph Smith could translate the Book of Mormon. 

After our district meeting, we headed to the CAC on the BYU-Hawaii campus for a devotional with Elder Gerritt W. Gong and his wife as speakers.  By the time we got there it was packed.  We had to sit in the upper level on the side.  Getting good seats this week was just not in the cards for us.

     When Elder Gong came into the building, we all stood.  After we had sat back down, Elder Gong preceded to walk across the floor headed to the bleachers and shook our district leaders hands (bottom right-hand picture, photo credit Church News), then continued up the stairs shaking hands with people (bottom left-hand picture).  He got up to the walkway between the lower and upper seating, then turned away from where we were sitting and walked toward the other side of the building stopping and shaking a lot of people's hands.  He went all the way around to the other side of the auditorium shaking hands and visiting before heading back down to the floor (top picture) before sitting on the stand.  He spent about 15 minutes greeting people and shaking hands with people all around the building except for the area where we were sitting.

Then after the meeting, they announced that Elder Gong had time before he had to leave to catch his flight to stay and shake hands with those who wanted to stay.  Since we were way up at the top, by the time we got down to the floor the lines were way long.  Esther was tired and ready to go to bed, so we opted to leave and not stay.  If Elder Rappleye and I had been there by ourselves, we would have probably stayed to shake his hand. 

 The top picture shows the line beginning to form while we were still up on the top where we were sitting.  The bottom left-hand picture shows my former piano student, Tapu, shaking Elder Gong's hand (photo credit BYU-H), The bottom right-hand picture shows Elder Gong during his speech (photo credit BYU-H).

Elder Gong shared 3 messages with the students and all those in attendance.

"First, this year we are studying the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in Come Follow Me. Please know each of you is a needed part of the continuing Restoration.

Second, especially our wonderful BYU–Hawaii students and those who serve at the PCC and elsewhere, you come from many nations, kindreds, and tongues. You have a unique opportunity to learn and exemplify gospel culture—to foster peace and understanding among people of all backgrounds; to be examples of family and community in a world seeking gospel faith, integrity, competence, and goodwill.

Third, this is a wonderful time of hope, promise, and opportunity for you. Your future is bright. All things can work together for your good as you look to Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, keep your covenants, and live with joy."

And of course, he gave the students some dating advice to go along with his other 3 messages.

He reminded us that "this blessed community is the only place in the whole world where we find [together] a holy house of the Lord, a Brigham Young University campus, a Polynesian Cultural Center, a Hawaii Laie Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stakes of Zion, and a gospel community of Saints in the household of faith all in one place."  

It is indeed a special and sacred place.

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! 

   

Two Too Many Mistakes: February 17 - 23, 2025

      Monday was President's Day.  Normally we don't get the day off because the Polynesian Cultural Center is open on most holidays.  I was surprised when late Friday afternoon after we came home, I received a text message saying I didn't have to come in on Monday.  I was grateful to have Monday to do some housekeeping things and get caught up with some financial record keeping.  Elder Rappleye still had to go into work at the motor pool.   A lot of regular employees had the day off which makes it an excellent day to grab carts and service them because the carts are not being used like on normal workdays.  He did finish up early, around 12:30pm and came home.  There was also no Family Home Evening with the YSA Ward that night, but we did go to ukulele class.  It was a pretty chill day.

     Tuesday was anything BUT chill.  We had our work at the PCC during the day.  When I went into work on Tuesday, I found out that my worst nightmare had come true - I had sent in the wrong numbers for the order from Sysco! I've gone 15 months without my worst fears coming true, that of totally botching an order.  Normally I send in the Sysco order on Mondays, for a Tuesday delivery.  When I do the order on Monday, I am looking at a new week's order guide.  Since Monday was a holiday, I sent in the order on Friday, which had me looking at the last week's order guide.  When I do the order on Mondays, I look at the first column of red numbers - those are the amounts/items to order.  When I order on Friday, it's the last column of red numbers.  I apparently scrolled over to what I thought was the last column of red numbers, but it was not the last column. Instead, it was the column of the delivery I had already ordered earlier in the week, and we had received on Friday.  So basically, I double ordered Friday's order.  Major mistake!!  It left them scrambling for a few items.  Then after work, we had an Ask Me shift at the Marketplace, followed immediately by our monthly senior devotional.  Elder Thompson and Sister Purcell, the mission president's first counselor's wife sang a duet that Elder Thompson had written the lyrics and Sister Purcell had composed the music (top picture).  Elder Thompson is playing the ukulele.  He is our ukulele instructor on Monday nights.  Then President and Sister Bassett spoke.  They reviewed the last six months of devotional topics.  The bottom picture above shows the outline of the devotionals.  They also talked about the Christlike attribute of Charity.  We definitely feel like we have a way to go on that attribute before we've mastered it.

      Then after the devotional we headed back to the PCC to preview a new movie in the Hawaiian Journey theater that was made here in Laie and the actors are mostly BYU-Hawaii/PCC employees.  The movie, "She Heard Us" is based on a true story that happened in the 1980's in the director/producer's family, so it brings his family history alive.  The three sisters sitting behind us and the senior couple to the right of us in the top picture to the left are all missionaries.  This same producer made the movie, Tala, that we saw at the beginning of our mission.  It also was based on a true story from his family history.  We really liked the movie, Tala, and were excited to see this new movie that he made.  The story told about a miracle they experienced in their family, but it was a more sobering, sad experience so we didn't like it was much as his other movie.  It was still a very interesting story, and it testified that God hears and answers prayers in His Way, which is sometimes in very unexpectant ways.  The director/producer is standing in the bottom right picture above.  It was a long and busy day.

      We were pretty excited when we got to work on Wednesday and found out we only had 7 stops for our town run.  That's the smallest amount of stops we've had since the week after Christmas. But during our drive to town, two more stops were added via text messages. Our last stop was a new location, a Sherwin Williams store in Honolulu by the airport.  The parking lot was tight, but we have seen worse.  Elder Rappleye parked the van.  I hopped out to go inside to pick up the items on the order.  Elder Rappleye decided he could probably get turned around in the parking lot on his own without my guidance.  He did really well to back up into an empty parking stall, but when he pulled out, he thought he had pulled out far enough (the van is really long) before turning the wheels, misjudged and clipped a beautiful blue Toyota's front bumper (see top picture to the left) that was parked in the spot next to him.  It did minimal damage to the van we were driving (see bottom picture to the left) 😬😨😰.  The damage is at the same place on the van that Elder Rappleye had worked so hard to get fixed when we first got here. 😦😧 Thankfully no one got hurt, but it was an inconvenience to deal with finding who owned the car and getting the information we needed to report the accident.  I came out of the store and when I found out about what happened I felt sick about it (Elder Rappleye even more so).  We thought maybe the PCC would "fire" us now and we wouldn't have to do town run any more.  There went our perfect driving record.  It really is amazing we have not had an accident before now with all the stops we make and all the traffic and tight situations we find ourselves in.  I told Elder Rappleye no more backing up without assistance - just to be safe.

      On Tuesday it was Leiana's birthday, but she didn't work a shift while I was there. On Thursday she was there in the morning, so I was able to give her a little birthday gift and get a picture with her.  She's a fun, happy worker.  She is from Tonga.

   When I went into the Gateway to get the Ask Me button I wear while greeting the tour bus guests, I noticed the new menus on the tables.  We had picked up those menus on one of our town run trips.

       After I was done greeting the buses, I went to go return the maps that I hadn't given out when I spied Casey Griffiths from Scripture Central.  I was just listening to one of his podcasts about the Doctrine and Covenants that morning while I was getting ready for work.  I had to stop and talk to him.  The best way to introduce myself to him? "Hi, are you Casey Griffiths?  I'm Neal Rappleye's mom."  He knows our son Neal, and our daughter-in-law, Jasmin, because they both work for Scripture Central too.  He was nice enough to talk to me for a few minutes and let me get a picture with him to send to Neal and let him know who I saw that day.  If you haven't heard of Casey Griffiths or Scripture Central, I attached a link to one of their You Tube podcasts below.

https://youtu.be/dShq_CKJ7wc?si=o4XJU_ieyBrUUEm

      Elder Rappleye got another recognition with his picture and write up in the Employee Bulletin that the Polynesian Cultural Center puts out.  Wowing Customers is one of the seven cultural beliefs that is part of the PCC's values and objectives.

       On Friday, we had originally planned on having Jimboy and Camilla over for dinner, but at the last minute Jimboy had to go into work, so it has been postponed until sometime in March.  Since I didn't have to fix dinner for company, I had some time to go to the BYU-H sewing Center where they have sewing machines available for students, staff, and missionaries to use free of charge.  I am sewing some birthday gifts for my grandchildren there.  I'll have to post pictures next time I'm working on them.

      We finally had a Saturday free and clear of any obligations, so we went to the farthest western most part of the island to hike the Ka'ena Point west side coastal trail.  Last winter we hiked the eastern side of the point, and we made it a goal to hike from the other side before we went home.  It took us an hour and 40 minutes to drive to the trailhead.  When we arrived the road was closed, so we couldn't drive all the way to the trailhead.  We parked along the side of the road along with a lot of other cars and had to start our hike about a mile from the trailhead.  As we walked along the road on our way to the trailhead, we came across two fisherman hauling home their morning catch (top picture).  I think it's a bluefin jack or bigeye jack fish.

     

     We finally made it to the actual trailhead. The purple arrow shows the side of the point we hiked. 

 

       It was quite an enjoyable walk along the coastline.  The trail was good except for a few puddles to avoid and a couple of places where the trail had eroded away so we had to take a small detour.  The bottom left picture in the collage shows the starfish flower (Stapelia Grandiflora) a succulent with stems that resemble cacti but are more closely related to milkweeds.  The blooms look like starfish and emit a strong odor that smells like rotting meat, which attracts its primary pollinators - flies.

   

  About halfway up the coast is the Ka'ena Point Arch.  The top picture was taken looking towards the point.  The bottom pictures were taken looking back away from the point towards the trailhead.

      The picture above shows the view of all the whales we saw from the trail.  Actually, my phone camera is lame and not quick enough to capture the whales as they come up out of the water.  We never saw any of them breach, but we could spot the spouting, then a few seconds later their backs or tail would emerge above the water.  They were pretty far away from the coast.  Of course, binoculars would have been great to have, but we forgot to bring them.

    

        Just before you get to the point, you enter a nature preserve area for sea birds and monk seals.

   Last year when we hiked the other side, we didn't see whales or seals.  This year we hit the jackpot.  Not only did we see whales, but there were two monk seals on the beach at the point.  I circled where the seal is in the bottom picture because it is pretty well camouflaged among the rocks.  The other seal in the top picture is pretty easy to spot on the sand.

Here we are at the point!

  

    Views from where we sat and ate some snacks before we headed back down the coast. It's the northwestern most point of the island.

      Here are pictures of the sea birds in their nesting habitat.  I even got a picture of one in flight (bottom right).

A view down the whole coastline from the point.

   With 2.5 miles still to hike, I lost the sole of my right sandal.  Thank goodness there was still enough of the bottom of my sandal to allow me to continue walking the rest of the way.

      Despite the extra 1.8 miles we had to hike because of the road closure and the blow out of my sandal, we really enjoyed this hike.  It was well worth the long drive to get there.

  

      There was a gorgeous sunset on Sunday night.  This is the view looking towards the temple parking lot.  We were on our way to attend a musical devotional at the church building near the Laie temple and visitor's center.

    We were privileged to attend a devotional with Nik and Darla Day.  Nik is a singer-songwriter who has written songs for lots of the yearly youth themes like "I WIll Go and Do", "A Great Work", and "Peace in Christ".  Nik sat at the piano and played, sang, and talked while seated at the piano.  His wife, Darla, told her conversion story with songs interspersed. Her story is a testament to God's love, mercy and redemption. Every time they performed one of his songs, it turned into a sing-along.  Almost all the junior missionaries were familiar with his songs.  Many had their phones out recording all the songs as they were sung.  The bottom picture shows our mission leader and his wife, President and Sister Bassett and Nik and Darla Day.

      Here's a link to a piece of the song "Peace in Christ" that I recorded during the devotional.  

https://photos.app.goo.gl/dNb8cn4BW6gPj6ig8

 It was a rough week, but it ended with a highlight and reminded us that through Christ's atonement he can redeem us from the mistakes we made this week and every week.