Greetings all from this little corner of the Pacific … well, corner probably isn’t right, perhaps better said is from this little dot in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! We were reminded last Monday evening at Family Home Evening how much of an island we’re living on and how little land is available for development. The Church owns about 7000 acres of land in and around Laie, much of it requires too much earth moving to be worth developing as it’s on mountain sides. The rest is designated as “agriculture” and the County of Honolulu (which covers the entire island) is in no mind to change that designation. Consequently, house prices are astronomical (the median price in Laie is $750,000 and over $1,300,000 in Honolulu). No one can sell because there isn’t anything to buy except for high-rise condos in Waikiki. It was a very interesting discussion that has quite an impact on BYU-Hawaii and the Polynesian Cultural Center. Apparently it’s becoming very difficult to attract highly-qualified faculty because there there isn’t anything in the area to purchase at a price they can afford to pay, or else the commute is an hour or more in each direction every day. Not exactly a paradise!
We’ve had another interesting, busy, and fairly hectic week. But, it’s pretty much the same week as last week or the week before. The mainland Chinese visitor counts are definitely increasing as the tour guides spread the word. We’ve had a number of visitors from Switzerland this week, including one gentleman this morning who started out quite skeptical and ended up loading up with literature as well as an English and a German Book of Mormon. I had a great discussion with a muslim couple now living in California who have asked for the missionaries to come and teach them. They were both very conversant about the Quran and all the references to Jesus Christ in that book and want to know more. I probably will never in this lifetime know what will come of it, but we had a great visit. We also have had several people from Iran come to the Center this week.
We’re completely out of literature written in the character set used in mainland China and can only offer them information written in the character set used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. However, even that is being taken. We’re fervently praying that the orders we’ve placed for Chinese language books and material will arrive this week.
Even though tomorrow is Memorial Day, for us it’ll be business as usual. We are having a couple of Elders over for a Memorial Day style lunch … hamburgers, hot dogs, and Sister Smith’s delicious potato salad. I’m looking forward to that! The Elders will help me move some beds around as well. We’re re-opening an apartment that has (finally … after seven months) been converted from a one-bedroom plus garage apartment to two-bedrooms and no garage apartment. We’ve got beds in storage that I need to pull out and set up in the new bedroom.
Wednesday is transfer day. As I’ve said earlier, three sister missionaries are completing their missions and heading home and three new missionaries are arriving, one Spanish-speaking, one Tagalog-speaking, and one English-speaking.
Our shift schedule changes this week as well. We’ll have our Preparation Day on Wednesday for the next seven weeks. Most transfers are six weeks long, but this next transfer is going to be seven weeks to sync up with the Mission Training Centers’ switch from a two-week program to a three-week program for domestic missionaries.
Enjoy the holiday and eat lots of great holiday food! ’til next week!
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