September 6, 2015
Greetings all … happy September, Beginning of School, End of Summer, Labor Day, or whatever. None of those have any particular meaning to us here other than the impact on visitors to the Visitors’ Center. Our day tomorrow will be a normal Monday for us at the Center, even though it is Labor Day.
We’ve also had a normal busy week! Well, not completely normal, I guess. The bedbugs kind of made the week somewhat abnormal. The highlight of the week was being able to be online on a video call with Jim and LeeAnn and their family and friends as Steven opened his mission call to go to the Fresno, California Mission, English speaking. He reports to the MTC on October 7th, just a month away! Jim and LeeAnn will be joining a very select group of people who have raised a son or daughter who wants to and will be serving a mission for the Church. We’re also very excited to have another missionary from our family!
Maybe we’re winning the bedbug battle, at least in one missionary pad. Terminex came in and did a (reportedly) thorough treatment of the apartment. They found live bugs in the apartment as well, so it was probably needed to have the exterminator come in and do the (rather expensive) job. Bugs are also reported in another of the apartments, but hopefully we’ve got them contained and possibly eliminated. Only time will tell.
As mentioned before, the visitor count at the Visitors’ Center has dropped of because school has started and far fewer families are coming. It’ll be that way until the November – January time frame, then back off again until Spring Break. By that time we’ll have been here a year and gone through the whole cycle. We had visitors from Ireland and India this past week along with several other places around the world.
Last Sunday evening we had a missionary musical fireside at the Visitors’ Center which was very well received. Well over two hundred people crowded into the front part of the Center for the 90-minute fireside consisting of musical numbers and brief testimonies from the sister missionaries. These kind of events certainly help with the visitor count! Plus, we get to hear some really well-performed and lovely music. For the next three months we’ll be having two firesides a month featuring descendants of the first members to settle in Laie. The place was founded in 1865 making this the 150th anniversary. I’m looking forward to hearing these great stories.
Today was another of our favorite activities … Break the Fast. On the Fast and Testimony Sunday (usually the first Sunday of the month) members of the Church fast for two consecutive meals and contribute the money not spent (plus a generous additional amount) for the welfare activities of the Church. That Sunday’s worship service is a testimony meeting where members of the congregation voluntarily go to the pulpit to express their feelings about God and the Church. Well, after fasting for two meals, it’s good to have a nice meal, so all of the senior missionaries here get together over at one of the luau locations at the Polynesian Cultural Center for a potluck dinner. We’re all assigned to one of three groups: one to bring a salad for 15-25 people, another group to bring a main dish, and a third to bring dessert, again for 15-25 people (each month the groups rotate). This month our assignment was a main dish and Sister Smith put together a very tasty macaroni casserole. We have more than eighty seniors here, some assigned to the Polynesian Cultural Center, others to BYU-Hawaii, a few to the Temple, and three couples assigned to the Visitors’ Center. We do enjoy the meal and particularly the social camaraderie of getting together with all the other senior missionaries. We’ve just gotten home from Break the Fast and have enjoyed a nice evening.
The PCC is closed on Sundays so holding the Break the Fast event over there is very handy. The tables, chairs, and drink dispensers are already in place. There is a nice sound system so announcements can be heard by everyone. During the meal all of the new missionaries are introduced and those leaving before the next month’s event say their goodbyes. One couple is leaving early, these are relatives of Kent and Gloria Evans (Gloria takes these letters over to read them to Mother), as he was diagnosed with aggressive prostrate cancer. We’ll miss them and hope that all will go well with the surgery. Another missionary couple that we’ve gotten to know finish up their mission at the end of the month and head back home. We’ll definitely miss them as well. We’ve been here long enough now to get to know some people and good byes are starting to take on some meaning.
So, we’ve been on our mission one day short of six months. The time is going by very quickly! We’ve managed to miss all of the hurricanes so far this year. Strangely, there have been more named hurricanes in the Pacific this year than in the Atlantic Ocean. But there’s still two more months in the standard hurricane season (although I’m not sure that hurricanes themselves respect seasons).
Jim asked about the flag pole, so attached is a picture of the significantly straighter pole. The Church hasn’t signed off on it, though, so we still don’t have a flag up on it.
A second picture is of the Koalua Ranch, a major tourist attraction south of here. One of its claims to fame is that Jurassic Park (the first one) was filmed here. The mountains in the background are quite the signature view here on Oahu and we love the mountains!
Jaelene, Casey, and crew are in the process of moving so watch for a new mailing address. Cell phone and email addresses won’t change.
That’s all I can think of for today. Until next week! We love you and appreciate all that you are doing with your lives!
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