June 7, 2015

Greetings from Laie, Hawaii! We’ve just returned from the monthly “Break the Fast” potluck dinner for all the senior missionaries in the area. It’s held at one of the luau locations at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Fast Sunday at 5:30pm (the PCC is closed on Sundays, so the venue is made available for this potluck dinner). There are about 80 senior missionaries (mostly couples and a few senior sister missionaries) who gather together. We’re divided into three groups. Each month one group brings salads, another brings deserts, and the other brings a main dish. The assignment rotates each month. Tonight our assignment was a main dish. There’s always a LOT of food and some very yummy deserts. We have a nice time visiting with the other missionaries here. In our assignment at the Visitors’ Center we don’t see many other of the senior missionaries during the week.

We got some sad news this morning. When we arrived here on March 19th, we replaced Elder and Sister Rose who flew back to Utah that evening. We had a couple of phone conversations with them before arriving and talked face-to-face for about twenty minutes before they left. This morning we learned that Elder (now Brother) Rose passed away from a serious bacterial infection and his wife has been seriously ill with a different infection. They had been been here for a year and all of the sister missionaries (except two who recently arrived) served with them. Quite a few tears were shed today.

Sunday is one of the busiest days of the week at the Center. We’re there from 9:00am until 11:30am and the first half-hour is very quiet and then the guest start coming. Many of the visitors are members of the Church from the mainland. We did have a couple come in this morning from Bulgaria! They were traveling by themselves, which is kind of unusual for those former eastern block countries. They usually come in tour groups.

I’ve mentioned that we have a new sister missionary here from Cambodia. Her family was baptized when she was 11 years old (I don’t know how old she is so I don’t know how long ago that was, but she’s probably no older than 27 as that’s the normal cutoff age for the young men and women missionaries). Since she’s been here we’ve had three different families come in from Cambodia. I don’t think we’ve had any here before she arrived! Anyway, yesterday afternoon a young man and his wife came into the center and she immediately recognized him as the missionary who had baptized her family those many years ago. He didn’t know she was here and, of course, she had no idea he would be there, either. He’s been back to Cambodia a couple of times on business in the intervening years and has visited her family. They had a delightful reunion and conversation. What a fun, fun “coincidence”. I’m more and more convinced that in these things there are no “coincidences”, only appointments made by God kept by man.

Some of you know Kent and Gloria Evans in Soda Springs. They visit mother almost every day and Gloria reads our letters and blog entries to Mother. They have a relative (a niece, as I remember) who, with her husband, are serving an 18 month mission at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We’ve seen them before, but this evening at Break-the-Fast we sat next to them and had a delightful conversation. While we knew they were here, they didn’t know about us and our connection to Kent and Gloria. They’ve been here almost a year and we’ll see them fairly regularly. I copy Gloria on this email so she can read it to mother.

There is a piano over at the Center in the large theater and occasionally I close the doors to the theater when it’s a slow time and play a bit on the piano. As summer came the “slow times” happen less and less often. So, I ordered a small keyboard through the Distribution Center. It finally arrived last Wednesday. The problem is, we have no place to stand it up on a permanent basis. So, it has to be leaned up against the wall in a corner and when I want to use it (I’m trying to practice every day), I pull out the ironing board and set the keyboard on it, as there is no stand with the keyboard. I’m singularly unimpressed at how rusty and stiff my fingers have gotten! Hopefully this will help loosen them up.

We’ve been working on getting our BYU-Hawaii ID cards as well as the Hawaiian Residence cards. My replacement Social Security Card arrived, finally, and then the BYU-H ID machine broke down. It is supposedly working again so maybe tomorrow we can finally get the BYU-H ID card and be able to use the library and fitness center (which has a nice swimming pool). Next is the residence card which is obtained at the drivers’ license bureau. It’s somewhat expensive but pays for itself in several months with discounts off the prices the tourists pay. A new gas station (and a new McDonalds, for what that’s worth) is being built here in Laie and the residence card is good for a ten-cent discount on gasoline. I’m thinking that by itself will pay for the card which is about $60. The only value for the McDonalds is an occasional ice cream cone….

I’ve been asked to substitute-teach the 16-17 year old Sunday School class next week so today I visited that class. There were seven students, two of whom are leaving later this week for the summer. They were quite a lively group. It’ll be a challenge to get and keep their attention away from their phones…. Preparation for the class will definitely be my focus this week and, if everyone survives, I’ll report on it next week. The lesson material has to do with “church councils”. That is enough to put anyone to sleep. Suggestions (other than changing the topic) are welcome and solicited.

Summer has arrived. Not only have the number of visitors increased, the overall heat index (temperature and humidity) have gone up as well. While the temperature rarely gets above 83°, and is usually between 75° at night and a high of 82° during the day, the humidity has gone up significantly. Previously it would kind of dry out at night, and it still does, but not nearly as much. We’re quite happy to have air conditioning, but the window unit in our bedroom has some kind of a motor or bearing issue and sounds kind of like a jet engine. It’s now time to have the facilities people fix it. The winds have also shifted. They are now much more out of the south at night rather than out of the east or north east. I’m glad we’ve had a couple of months to get more acclimatized before the big heat arrives.

We’re having a great time … busy, tired every evening, but really enjoying meeting with and talking to so many nice people from all over the world. I’ve also fallen in love with my new Apple Watch. It’s a difficult to explain, amazingly useful device that also tells time.

I’m hoping all of you have a great week as I’m certain we’ll have one here!

Love,
father!

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