November 15, 2015
Greetings all from lovely Laie, Hawaii! We’ve definitely gotten to “winter” over here with the tradewinds back and temperatures in the mid to low 70’s. It feels very nice and we’re seldom having to run the air conditioning anymore (except in our bedroom at night to get the humidity down).
The recovery from pneumonia continues slowly. I’m generally feeling better day by day, but am quite tired most of the time. I have to keep reminding myself that it’s only been two weeks! I visited with the doctor last Wednesday and he was OK with where I was in the recovery process. I go back in another four weeks for x-rays to be sure everything is cleared up.
This past week has been very quiet and steady at the Center. Vacation season picks up in a couple of weeks and goes through the end of the year, so I’m kind of appreciating this time when we aren’t so very busy and I can put more energy into getting back to full strength. j
We get a weekly update on what’s happening at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Most of the time the update is pretty benign, but this past week the sales and marketing group gave us some of their statistics. Overall visitors to the PCC is down about 3% over last year, but the revenue per guest is up. More guests are buying the premium packages (I’d definitely recommend that, personally) and the souvenir sales are up as well. One down side is that the number of visitors from Japan is down considerably. The extremely poor Japanese Yen to US $ exchange rate is the primary reason. We’ve noticed in the Center that our visitors from Japan are way down from earlier in the year as well. Normally about 100 yen buys one dollar. Right now the exchange rate is about 135 yen to buy one dollar. That’s pretty expensive!
With the change in seasons we’re also seeing a change in the pollen in the air. Lots of sneezing going on over here and the winter flowers have started blooming. The kinds of flowers in bloom changes over the year and there is always something new in bloom. This is a pretty place to be.
This morning we had a group of Chinese people come into the Center. One of the newest sister missionaries was on duty and she was the only Chinese speaker available. It was fun watching her step up and get into a good conversation with these Chinese people. I could see her confidence grow as they talked and she answered their questions. As they left they all took a Book of Mormon as well as some other literature and several filled out guest comment cards asking for more information. That sister missionary was walking around on clouds the rest of the morning! What a great experience for her.
When the sister missionaries get those requests for additional information, they have a bank of computers in the back of the Center where they can engage in chat conversations, text messaging, and phone conversations. That means the guest is contacted by the missionary they talked with within a couple of days and while their conversation in the Center is still fresh in the guest’s mind. It’s a great system and a lot of people end up being baptized through this process.
Well, despite the pneumonia and recovery, we’re still having fun over here and enjoying our mission. We appreciate hearing from you as well!! (hint hint) BTW, Eileen, I’d sure like to get your new address and phone number.
The attached photo is of the Army Marching Band from Schofield Barracks marching in the Laie 150th Anniversary Parade. They were quite a spirited group!
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