May 17, 2015
Greetings all from Laie, Hawaii!!
It’s just after 8pm on Sunday evening and we’ve just come back from a fireside at the Visitor’s Center. This one was a musical fireside by the sister missionaries. There are quite a few of the sister missionaries with lovely musical talent and they put that on display this evening. In between musical numbers the Center Director Elder Priday called on the sister missionaries to extemporaneously talk about their mission and what it means to them (in missionary speak, they were asked to “bear their testimony”).
The missionaries have been preparing for this fireside for about a month deciding what songs to sing, who would sing solo and who would sing in groups, what languages they would sing in, and how or who would accompany them. One of the musical numbers was “As Sisters in Zion” where one verse was sung in Japanese, one in Chinese, and one in Tagalog (the language in the Philippines). Other numbers were sung in Hawaiian, Samoan, and Chinese. There were also some in English. The last number was Gethsemene which all of the sisters sang and I accompanied them on the piano (a version of the song is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uSGSvKy6Io).
This coming week is transfer week. Just about every one of the eleven sister missionary companionships are changing is some way. Two of the sister missionaries are going out elsewhere in the mission for their three-month assignment as full-time proselytizing missionaries. Two transfers from now they’ll come back to the Center. Two brand new sister missionaries are coming in from the MTC in Provo, Utah. Those two mean some work for your mother as she has the assignment to size the muumuus that the sister missionaries wear so that the Center Director’s wife Sister Priday can hem them up. This is not a favorite task for you mother, to say the least. However, it’s one that needs to be done and she’s, as you would expect, obedient and gets the job done with very little murmuring.
Since we spend so much time with these sister missionaries, they become quite like family and seeing two of them go away for a while is a bit sad. The real sadness comes next month when five of these missionaries complete their missions and go home. Most, if not all, of them we’ll never see again.
Our daily routine stays very much the same from week to week and day to day. There’s not much variation. We’re either at the Center in the morning or in the afternoon six days of the week. Some days are very busy, some are very slow. This morning was one of those very slow days when it’s hard for me not to doze off in the chair. I have to keep moving around. The only thing out of the ordinary was that the fountain wasn’t working out in the courtyard when we got there. I texted the Temple Engineer who came over and found the short in the wiring and got the fountains working again. When they aren’t running it is very quite out in the courtyard so the ferrel chickens and the birds make all of the noise.
Occasionally people come into the Center who are in the middle of a personal crisis of some sort. Your mother spent quite a bit of time with a young woman in that situation last week helping her to see her way clear to get the help she needed. A Bishop is assigned to be available for these kinds of situations and he has access to quite a few resources, including temporary housing, medical. psychological, or addiction assistance, and food. Since the Center is situated in a very beautiful and peaceful setting, it is kind of a beacon for people having difficulties and fortunately, we have some ability to help.
We had the opportunity to volunteer at the Polynesian Cultural Center last Saturday taking tickets and the Prime Dining venue. There are currently four different dinner options, each at a different price point. Starting June 1st a fifth will be added to handle the summer vacation traffic. The least expensive is called “The Island Buffet” and is the most popular. It is a buffet style restaurant, all you care to eat, with standard food options. Next up the chain is “Prime Dining” which is also a buffet style eatery with all the same options as The Island Buffet plus prime rib and a fish fillet as additional options. The other two, “Hale Ohana” and “Hale Aloha” are full-bore luaus, complete with the roast pig in the ground and a show. Starting in June the “Hale Kaui” will be open as a luau as well. The luaus are quite a bit more expensive, but the food, the service, and the show make it all worth while. As volunteers we can be assigned to take tickets at any of these eating venues. We have to be there at about 4:20pm and stay until about 6:20pm. Afterwards we can go to Prime Dining for a free meal. That also gives us time to visit with the other senior missionaries who were assigned as ticket takers at the other venues. It’s a lot of fun, good food, and when we’re finally back home, we’re plenty tired. The fun part is being able to visit (briefly) with the guests. Almost without exception they’re having a great time and are very upbeat and happy. Some of them we recognize as having visited the Visitors’ Center earlier in the day.
There is no proselytizing at the PCC. We even wear different name badges. At the Visitors’ Center my badge reads “Elder Smith, Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors’ Center, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”. At the PCC my badge reads: “Roland, Volunteer”. So, most of the week I’m called “Elder Smith”, even among us senior missionaries at the Center … we call each other Elder so-and-so or Sister so-and-so. Then for a couple of hours I get a first name with no last name. While it probably seems like a little thing, it ironic how I usually hear and react to “Elder Smith” but when someone calls me “Roland”, it doesn’t always register immediately. We’ll be doing this again on Tuesday at the Hale Aloha luau. Attached is a picture of my two badges and a picture of your mother having laugh with the young woman taking pictures at the entrance into Prime Dining.
I have had a couple of brief opportunities to break out the ham radio equipment. Friday was on of those occasions. I set up in the front yard and tuned around without hearing very much at all until i heard someone calling to see if anyone was listening (in ham talk he was calling CQ). He had a Hawaiian call sign, or at least a callsign that was originally assigned while he was living in Hawaii (I have an intermountain west callsign, but I’m in Hawaii and still use the same call sign). I answered and we had a short conversation. I heard him very well because he was using a lot of power, more than ten times the power I was able to use, but I came in pretty weak to him. He was located on the Big Island a fair ways south of here. Google Maps says he was 420 miles south of Laie. So far that’s the only contact I’ve made, but at least I know that my equipment is working.
We’re stating to get to know some people in the area and in our Ward. I even recognized a couple of people this week over at the “supermarket” that are in our Ward. That means we’re really starting to get settled in. We’re really enjoying being here and being missionaries. It is a very rewarding experience for both of us. I love you all and think of you often!
Love,
father!
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