Greetings all from Hau’ula, Hawaii … a town just south of Laie. We’re actually 3.3 miles south of where we used to live. Attached are three pictures, one from the front and two from the front room. We’re pretty much settled in. Most everything has been moved from the old house, I just have to pull down my ham radio antennas and bring them over here, then to figure out how to put any or all of them up for the five months we’ll be here. Also, we’re about 80% put away … that is, things put in their most-likely permanent place.
The construction on the old house is well underway. They definitely didn’t waste any time! The contract is a 90-day contract with penalties for late days. That was also the case with the apartment that was converted last year … but it was still almost 8 months before it was finished and sister missionaries could move in.
Every Wednesday the missionaries on the Island of Oahu go to Pearl Harbor for a four-hour service project. Most of those projects are at or around the Battleship Missouri (the ship where Japan signed the unconditional surrender papers finally ending WWII). The assignment rotates around the various zones on the Island. Last Wednesday we went with Heather and Ty to Pearl Harbor to go out to the Battleship Arizona Memorial. In the parking lot we met up with the missionaries just completing their service project. One of them was Elder Apeland from Elder James Smith’s ward in Oregon! Elder Apeland had some very nice things to say about our missionary grandson and said he was hoping to be as fine a missionary as Elder James Smith is! I had my picture taken with him, so Elder Smith (if you read this), this picture is for you!
Heather and Ty stopped here in Hawaii on their way home to Mumbai India after their summer home leave. It’s actually the long way to Mumbai, so we really appreciate their making the long trip home via Hawaii!! They arrived late Monday afternoon and left Thursday morning, flying on Korean Airlines through South Korea on to Mumbai. All went well on their flights and they arrived without incident, thankfully!!
We were able to arrange to have Tuesday and Wednesday pretty much free to spend with them. Top on their priority list was to do a session at the Laie Temple, which we did on Tuesday morning. We did a lot of sightseeing on Tuesday. On Wednesday we meandered our way down to Pearl Harbor making several tourist stops on the way. The Battleship Arizona Memorial is always very sobering and very well done. We came home by continuing on around the circle, again making several tourist stops. One stop was for shave ice (over here it’s called ‘shave ice’ not ‘shaved ice’). We passed this little coffee shop that advertised shave ice, that was the next thing to do on the list, so Ty turned around and back we went. The fellow doing the shave ice concession was quite familiar with the Mormon Church and has a couple of nephews on missions (although I’m pretty sure he isn’t a member). He treated us to what I’m pretty sure was a super-sized “small” shave ice. Heather will definitely attest that it was very delicious. Hawaiian shave ice always has ice cream at the bottom which makes for a great finish after getting through the mound of shave ice with at least three flavors of syrup.
Heather and Ty came over on Thursday morning to help us finish the last of the packing … the stuff that couldn’t be packed before the day of the move. Shortly after they left to go to the airport the Hawaii Mission Housing Coordinator Elder Tufts showed up with the Mission pickup truck. A couple of elders from Hau’ula also came over to help. We first moved Elder and Sister Andrus into their new place as they needed to go on duty at noon at the Visitors’ Center. After than we made four trips to our apartment to move all our furniture and personal stuff. Elder and Sister Andrus were moving into a furnished apartment. Ours is completely unfurnished, so we had to bring furniture as well. It was quite a trick getting the couch out. Finally, after taking a door off the hinges (which had been painted over several times), we were able to force the couch out the door.
Our new place is actually quite spacious. The front part is kind of a great room with the kitchen on one side. I’ve attached two pictures taken in the room. We’ve plenty of space and have both remarked how much more walking we’re doing. I think we could have put our entire old house into the great room here. Down the hallway are four closets, a bathroom on the right, two bedrooms on the left, and a master bedroom at the end of the hallway with a bath. The master bedroom is “closed off” and not available for our use. The Church wasn’t willing to pay the full rent the landlord was asking, so she felt she had to make some concession to come down in price. That concession was half the car port out front and the closed-off bedroom and bathroom. We didn’t need the space and I’m quite happy to have one fewer room and bathroom to clean. As it is, we have a second room that we’ll use as a kind of study and I’ll put my ham radio gear in there. We’re not allowed to have anyone sleep there unless we pay the landlord AirBnB rates for the room. Not gonna happen. It’s cheaper to get a room at the Courtyard Marriott in Laie!
So now we’re figuring out all our new routines, like where is everything?? How much time do we need to allow to get places? One thing we’ve noticed is that we have to make a left turn across traffic to get out of our street and the traffic on the highway sometimes is pretty intense. The longest wait (so far) has been about 4 minutes, which seems like an eternity.
The Visitors’ Center visitors are always fun and interesting. Today we had two families from Soda Springs at the Center. One, last name Wilson, worked at Monsanto and remembered dad. His father worked with dad in some capacity. These are Wilsons married to Godfreys. We also had a couple here from Hamburg, Germany. The Germans are always surprised and happy with someone speaks some of their language. We had a great conversation; unfortunately like most Germans, they weren’t interested in knowing anything about the Church.
So, we’re now in a new place, settled pretty much in. The address is 54-174 Kawaipuna St., Hau’ula, Hawaii 96717. Telephone numbers unchanged.
On a sad note, one of our beloved sister missionaries finally had to return home to take care of some medical issues better handled there than here. We already miss her. She was one of the kindest missionaries here. She stuck it out as long as possible and we wish her the absolute best. This week starts a new transfer and two new missionaries arrive on Wednesday. One is English-speaking, the other is an American who has spent nine weeks at the MTC learning Chinese. She’ll get the opportunity to really use that language!
So, that’s kind of how it is. We love you and pray for all of you! ‘Til next week!!
Love,
father/father-in-law/brother/brother-in-law/grandfather/son/uncle/cousin/friend/missionary
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