November 22, 2015

This past week we crossed eight months here in Laie and only have fifteen months left on this mission. While it seems like we’ve been here forever, paradoxically, it seems like we just got here. As Kermit the Frog says, “Time’s fun when you’re having flies…”.

Tonight we had the last of the “Ohana Firesides” celebrating the early Polynesian pioneers who came to Laie and built the Temple. Tonight’s presentation honored the Fijian Saints. Of course, everyone has long, complicated names and we couldn’t possibly remember any of them. The first Mormon missionaries went to Tahiti in 1844 and met with some success. However, after about twenty years, the missionaries left the islands. A few years later the Reorganized Church sent missionaries to Tahiti and many of the members joined with the Reorganized Church. It wasn’t until the early 1900’s that missionaries from Salt Lake returned to Tahiti, essentially to start over.

We’ve had a fairly busy week at the Center. With Thanksgiving coming up next week we’ve seen an uptick in family visitors from the mainland which should continue through the end of December. The rainy season is starting up as well … which is both good and bad. Good from the standpoint that the high temperatures are now in the 70’s but bad in the fact that the humidity is high and there is a Lot of Rain!

One interesting set of visitors came from Estonia / Latvia in eastern Europe. They are Russian Orthodox, but were quite interested in our doctrine as it compared to their religion. The two sister missionaries who gave them the tour got quite an insight into another religion that claims to be the only true Church on the earth. We all had a delightful conversation about Estonia and how religion fared (very badly) during the “Soviet occupation”. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were among the first countries to break away from the former USSR, made somewhat difficult for Russia as one of their main submarine ports was located there. Seeing some of the history from their perspective was very enlightening. Everyone has a story if we have time to listen. When it’s busy at the Center there isn’t much opportunity to hear these stories, one of the reasons we also like slower traffic days at the Center.

We’re also in the midst of gearing up for Christmas. Fortunately, I’m not directly involved with that activity. The other senior missionary couple, Elder and Sister Jensen have that as their assignment. This past week he organized the process of getting the twelve Christmas trees down from there storage location upstairs over the Christus and getting them set up with lights working. Many of the light strings were, as expected, not working. On our Preparation Day Nina and I stopped by Home Depot where there was a wonderful sale underway for Christmas light strings … a hundred light string for $2.57. We picked up thirty boxes and almost all of them have been used on the trees.

Most of the trees are assigned to various wards or stakes on the island to decorate. They are to be completed by next Saturday evening (two days after Thanksgiving). We’re having a missionary musical fireside on November 29th and will officially turn on the lights at the conclusion of the fireside.

Meanwhile, we still have Thanksgiving! This is one of the two days of the year the Center is closed. I’ll report on our activities next week. It sounds like we’re in for a real nice treat!

On the health side, I’m making good progress. I’d say I’m around 90%. I have an appointment with the doctor on Tuesday morning where I should learn that the pneumonia is gone from my lungs and that I’m doing OK on the recovery. I’m tired of being “dang tired”, which has eased up a bit. However, by 9:30pm or so I’m right ready to crash.

We had our flags at half-staff for most of the week in memory of the slaughter in Paris last week. As you would expect, that’s been the topic of a lot of conversations. We try to keep those discussions out of the Center so the sister missionaries don’t get caught up in any hard discussions or arguments. They have enough fun keeping up with the theological arguments that they get from the visitors! The majority of the English-speaking guests aren’t believers of any religion, so holding a gospel discussion is sometimes rather challenging!

We’re still having fun and enjoying this assignment. I hope this finds you all well and happy; ready for the Thanksgiving Feast!

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