February 14, 2016
Greetings all from this little corner of paradise. We’ve enjoyed a continuing streak of outstanding weather … so much so that Sister Smith is currently sitting on a blanket in the field across the street from the house chatting with her sister Pam on the phone (by the time this is finally sent, we’ll have had dinner and cleaned up the kitchen). Today we had a Church Regional Conference from 8-10am followed by our shift at the Visitors’ Center from 11:30 – 4pm. Sunday evenings have a lot of ham radio activity available to me when I have the time and that’s happening so far this evening.
Speaking of ham radio, yesterday was the first class for a group of people here to prepare for the FCC’s Technician Class license. About 35 people came to the class, about half of them students at BYU-Hawaii. Another senior missionary, Elder Crookston from Arizona, is organizing the class and I’m assisting as time is available. I’ll probably have other ham radio related news in the future! Laie is in the Honolulu County and the County’s Department of Emergency Management is keen to get more qualified radio operators in this area in case of an emergency. The two biggest threats are tsunami’s and hurricanes. Earthquakes in Alaska, Chile, Central America, and the south Pacific are the biggest tsunami threats. Last summer saw a record five major hurricanes in the central Pacific, all of which dodged Hawaii (thankfully!). Our luck will run out sometime!
We’ve had some fun and interesting people come to the Visitors’ Center this past week. French-speaking people have come out of the woodwork, it seems. None of them were from France, but from Montreal, Canada and a couple of French-speaking Caribbean Islands. One of our Chinese sisters took French in high school and has been our go-to person for all of the French-speaking visitors. Her high school French that she took in Hong Kong is really paying off!
We’ve also had visitors from Finland … where Elder Andrus (the other senior missionary couple at the Center) served his mission some 45 years ago. He was definitely pleased to be able to exercise (and recall) his Finish language. I met with two couples from Germany this past week. One was from Frankfurt and the other from Munich. They are always appreciative when someone can speak a bit of their language! Other countries included India, Pakistan, and Thailand, along with the normal influx of visitors from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and mainland China. We’ve also had visitors from all across the US, including a delightful couple this afternoon from Cape Cod. For some reason though, Utah pretty much dominates the US visitor locations 😉 .
With one exception, we’ve spent the entire week close to home. Our Preparation Day was spent cleaning the house and doing laundry. On Wednesday afternoon we took a quick drive over to Sunset Beach to watch the big waves which was a lot of fun. This is the season for the big waves … as reported from the Department of Emergency Management this morning:
AN INCOMING WEST NORTHWEST SWELL WILL SPREAD WEST TO EAST ACROSS THE ISLAND CHAIN ON SUNDAY PRODUCING ADVISORY LEVEL SURF HEIGHTS ACROSS MOST NORTH AND WEST FACING SHORES OF THE SMALLER ISLANDS SUNDAY AND MONDAY.
The waves were forecast to build from 12-15 feet to 25-35 feet by Sunday evening. We’ll probably take another drive to Sunset Beach tomorrow!
You may know that I have obstructive sleep apnea. That was diagnosed in 1992 through a sleep study which hasn’t been updated since then. My doctor felt it was time to rectify that, so last Tuesday evening I drove down to Honolulu to spend the night at the sleep clinic hooked up to what seemed like a gazillion sensors. I’ve no idea yet what the outcome of the study was. Hopefully I’ll hear from the doctor in the next week to get the results. Most likely the pressure settings in my CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine will need to be adjusted. Sleep apnea runs in the family, including my siblings and a couple of children.
The coming week will be fun-filled and busy, just like last week and the weeks before. Life is good and we’re engaged in an important work. We love you and pray for you daily!
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