A group of carolers just went past our house … they’re in a wagon being pulled by an SUV. They’ll go to the top of the street, turn around, and come back down. It looks like a group of students from the university, but it’s quite dark and difficult to tell. The other night another group came around the neighborhood, this time a group of teenagers. It’s a lot of fun for them and quite nice for us.

We have seventeen Christmas Trees at the Center this year. Five of them were decorated by the missionaries at the Center. The other twelve have been decorated by the twelve family stakes on the Island of Oahu (there are in addition two single adult stakes at BYU-Hawaii). The tree in the picture was decorated by the Kaneohe Stake. Each tree has a theme and decorated appropriately. Several of the trees are worthy of a picture, so they could end up on my blog sometime.

We also had the third of our Christmas Firesides at the Center this evening. Tonight was the Ko’olauloa Children’s Chorus (note: they do singing telegrams! This is a fund raiser for their planned trip to Germany and Austria in 2017). This group also came over during Easter this year to put on a program. They’re very well known here in Hawaii and have traveled not only around Hawaii but elsewhere on the mainland as well as overseas. They put on a very nice program. I’m not sure how many children are in the chorus, probably somewhere around 50. The Center was packed, standing room only, with people spilling out the doors into the courtyard. We turned off the fountain and the courtyard music to cut down on the interference. I video’d their final number on my iPhone and uploaded it to YouTube:

The size of the crowd is quite visible in the video, which is about 4 minutes long.

It was a nice evening. It’s feeling very much like Christmas over here … thankfully no snow. As I’m writing this, a major winter storm is dumping snow and rain in Idaho and Utah. I can seriously say that I’m not missing the snow!

Ta ta for now!

As I’ve said before, the days just seem to run together over here. We’re fairly busy (both with our time at the Visitors’ Center as well as during the time we’re not there). For instance, this morning a set of sister missionaries came to our door to tell me that one of the bicycles is missing. We have eight bicycles, so I had to go do an inventory of the bicycles to determine which one was missing to figure out the registration number of the missing bike so it can be reported to the police. Maybe we’ll get it back … but I doubt it. We have a spare bicycle: old, rusty, not particularly spiffy to look at, but that’s the price of failing to lock up the bikes.

Last Wednesday I met for the first time with my new cardiologist here in Hawaii. He’s at the Tripler Army Hospital in downtown Honolulu. The hospital is up on top of a hill. It’s a very big hospital that has been added onto several times, but without adding to the parking. We figured out the parking problem, however. Give ourselves about fifteen extra minutes. Go to the bottom of the hill where there’s always parking spaces, and wait for the shuttle bus which comes by every ten minutes or so.

I’m very impressed and pleased with the cardiologist. There was nothing rushed about our visit and we were with him a good half-hour. He was also pleased with the documentation I’d brought with me, particularly all of the information from the hospital stay in Mumbai, India last January when I had the stents put in place. He made some small medication changes and set up a process where I check in with him weekly to see how we’re progressing with managing my blood pressure and heart.

After that we did some shopping. Our original intent was to get some lunch and return home, but as we got to the car one of the sister missionaries texted a request for some tortillas from Costco. So we picked up those plus some other items. After getting back to Laie we then did the apartment inspections.

Next week on Wednesday is transfer day. The Thursday before transfer day we inspect all of the sister missionary apartments to help insure that when the missionaries move to different apartments that they’ll be going into a reasonably clean and reasonably maintained place. Occasionally the inspections turn up apartments that need “do-overs”, but this time all of the apartments were in very good shape.

So, that was our Wednesday. It was a good day, a busy day, and we were quite “prepared” for the next week. On Monday our shift schedule changes, as it does every transfer. Life is good.

Ta ta for now!

Tonight we had the first of the Christmas firesides at the Visitors’ Center, the Sister Missionary Musical Fireside. We have a number of very talented sister missionaries who prepared musical numbers which were interspersed with testimonies from other sister missionaries. It was a beautiful fireside and very well attended … standing room barely. There will be three more firesides on Sunday evening this month. It’s feeling and sounding a lot like Christmas.

The LDS Church has produced an absolutely delightful and moving set of two-minute Christmas videos. Please go to christmas.mormon.org and click on “play”. Then scroll down to “Imagine A World Without A Savior” and play that one. You will not be disappointed!

Four of the sister missionaries asked if they could help decorate our Christmas Tree. We bought a six-foot tree (on sale) at Target a couple of weeks ago long with some ornaments and lights. After the fireside they came over and had a great time putting our tree into the Christmas Spirit. It was truly an International Decorating Team … with Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Cambodia represented, along with the United States (Nina and me). They had a lot of fun (along with some tasty snacks) and we now have a cute little Christmas Tree. We’ll use it next year and leave it for the people who will replace us (saving them a bit of money).

We’ve had a very nicely busy week at the Visitors’ Center, even with being closed on Thursday for Thanksgiving. The weather at the beginning of the week was very wet and rainy but by Friday it had changed to absolutely ideal Hawaiian weather. The forecast for the next few days looks like more of the same. I’m expecting to (and looking forward to) having a busy December with the opportunity to talk with lots of guests.

Life is quite pleasant! Ta ta for now!

Today is Thanksgiving … and a very wet one at that! Traditionally, the locals go to the beach on Thanksgiving. However, a low pressure weather system is moving through the islands and we’ve been having a lot of very drenching rain. But, that didn’t affect our Thanksgiving!

The owner of Tita’s Grill in the neighboring town of Kahuku prepares a Thanksgiving feast for all of the missionaries, the residents of a local senior citizens home, as well as any of the homeless in the area. This year they prepared 3,200 pounds of turkey and ham along with mashed potatoes, rice, gravy stuffing, and breads. The senior missionaries are to bring either a salad or dessert. There are about 90 senior missionaries here along with about 34 young missionaries (elders and sisters). The young missionaries serve the meal as part of their service.

In addition to the feast, a band consisting of a couple of guys with a great sound system, came over to provide the music during the meal. I really enjoyed their music as well as the conversation with those sitting around us. I suspect there were about 120 or more people there for dinner. In addition to the people who come to Tita’s Grill, the owner sends thirty turkeys south to Kaneohe and another thirty west to Mililani for the homeless shelters. They do an amazing amount of good each year for Thanksgiving!

Most of the senior missionaries brought dessert while a few brought some kind of a salad. The dessert selection was excellent so I was able to have dessert before dinner, then have dinner, and then finish up with pumpkin pie loaded with whipped cream. Very nice!

Recently the Ai’u family, owners of Tita’s Grill, opened up a new food truck at the Hukilau Market Place at the Polynesian Cultural Center. They have a huge reputation and the new location is doing very well, which is a Very Good Thing. The lease on their place in Kahuku is doubling in February, probably making it impossible to to continue operating in their current location. The corner where their establishment is located is very prime real estate. That probably means this five-year tradition of providing a Thanksgiving feast for all of the missionaries and the homeless and less fortunate in the area will come to an end as well.

There were two serving lines set up and everything moved very quickly. Meanwile, the skies were open with drenching rain falling all around us during the meal. When we finished and were ready to leave, huge ponding out in the parking lot meant soaking wet feet trying to get out to the car.

We are so very thankful to be here on a mission. We so appreciate the love and support from our family while we’re here as well. We work with a bunch of amazing people … the sister missionaries (who have become almost like daughters) … the Visitors’ Center Director and his wife, Elder and Sister Priday (who do a fantastic job of keeping the Center running smoothly and providing a sweet, serene place for our visitors) … and the other senior couple at the Center, Elder and Sister Jensen. They are kind of like our complement as we work on opposite shifts. They’ve done a wonderful job of getting the Center decorated for the Christmas Season, which for the Center starts on Sunday morning when I switch the background music inside the Center and out around the fountain to Christmas music.

Nina has a very applicable saying posted on our fridge:

Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude (A.A. Milne).

I resemble that today. Thank you all!

We live in a very sports-minded community. That has become quite evident over the past week as the local Kahuku High School Red Devils football team played and won the state championship, ending a 13-0 season. This isn’t a fluke, either. Kahuku has won the state championship eight times in the past sixteen years. When I asked on Sunday what the secret is, I was told it was all the Samoans and Tongans living here in Laie, grandsons of the people who came here a hundred or hundred and fifty years ago when they were gathering to the Hawaiian Zion. I’m certain there’s a lot of truth to that “secret”, but it also helps to have a tradition of winning on your side as well.

It’s not just football, either. The surfing competition season is just starting the heat up as the big waves start rolling in. It’s a rare day now that there isn’t a “high surf advisory” somewhere on the island of Oahu. There are a lot of beaches that are sheltered from the big waves for the family vacationers along with some pretty spectacular surfing beaches. Sunset Beach, about twenty minutes to the west of us, is one of those premier surfing beaches. One of the members of our bishopric is said to be a champion surfer! We’ll be going to watch at least one competition as it involves water, sand, and sunshine … all important things for Nina!

About half of the Christmas Trees are decorated at the Visitors’ Center. They’ll all be done by Saturday night in readiness for the fireside and tree-lighting event on Sunday. It’s getting enough like Christmas that Nina has started playing some Christmas music on her iPhone. Happy Thanksgiving!

Ta ta for now!

The Sunday after Thanksgiving will be the beginning of the Christmas Season at the Visitors’ Center. However, to get ready twelve Christmas Trees have to be set up, lights working, and decorated. Most of the trees are decorated by various wards or stakes in the area. The four trees by the Christus, however, are decorated by the Visitors’ Center missionaries. Today was “decoration day”!

The tallest tree stands in front of the tall front window. The decorating crew (a dozen people) arrived about nine and spent close to three hours decorating the tree. Now our big problem is to keep the little children from pulling ornaments off of the trees. There’s still a lot more to be done … most trees will be decorated next week. The Young Adult Stake will be putting a huge number of poinsettias around the Center (some of which will “protect” the trees around the Christus).

We’ll have a missionary musical fireside on November 29th and at the end we’ll turn on all of the Christmas lights in the Center. These things are very well attended, so hopefully the weather will cooperate. Every week afterwards will be another fireside on Sunday evening. Our attendance stats should be pretty good for December. We’re already seeing an increase in visitors coming from the mainland taking vacation over Thanksgiving. That trend should continue through end of December.

I’m definitely feeling better. I’ll be visiting with the doctor on Tuesday morning where they’ll take an x-ray to verify that the pneumonia is gone. I’m still quite tired, but not nearly like a week ago.

So, the holidays are upon us. Life is busy in a very good way. This evening Nina and I were visiting with a young lady outside near the fountains. She was quite impressed with the beauty of the Temple grounds and how peaceful the area feels. That’s a sentiment we hear several times a day when we’re at the Center. There is definitely a loving, peaceful feeling around the Temple. We are so very blessed to be involved with the Visitors’ Center!

Life is good … tired … peaceful. Ta ta for now!

Today I learned that our dear Japanese friend Tokiko Imai passed away last week. She was 44. I’ve no information about the cause of death, just a quick note on her Facebook page posted by her sister.

Tokiko was my administrative assistant when we moved to Japan in 1985. She was young, naive, delightful, a bit nutty, and spoke excellent English and Japanese. Her bilingual capability got her hired. She was the perfect match for Nina and me as we moved to Japan and set up our housekeeping. She traveled around Japan with us. She managed so many things for us that she literally became part of our family.

After a couple of years as my admin, an opportunity came up for her to move her career along and become part of the SAP Implementation Team for LSI Logic. I encouraged (pushed, actually) her to take the jump and move from being and admin to becoming an individual contributor. She never looked back. She’s been part of implementing and maintaining that complex software product at several companies ever since and traveling throughout Asia as part of her assignments.

She came to the administrative assistant position after escaping a very bad marriage in Oregon that lasted only a few months. After that she wasn’t very interested in marriage or even serious relationships. She lived alone, occasionally with a cat for company. Over the intervening years we messaged each other less often and now she’s just gone. It has been a sad day.

Meanwhile, on the health front, I think I’m back to about 80% and continue to improve.

Ta ta for now!

Visited with the doctor this morning about my progress with pneumonia. He said things were going well, that I should expect a six-week recovery period, and that I was only one week into the process. He said my lungs were moving air nicely, so I guess that’s a good sign! No more antibiotics which is a Really Good Thing!

Today was our preparation day but was also a day where our water was turned off from 8:30am until 2:30pm so the city could do some maintenance. My doctor appointment was at 11:30, so after that we drove the hour over to the cleaners to pick up my suit, had lunch at McDonalds followed by an ice cream cone, and drove back home. I finished ironing my shirts and appreciated the fact that the water was back on!

Then came the phone call … one of the sisters up the street had left the faucet in the bathroom sink turned on. When the water came back on, no one was home. The sink overflowed, the hallway, kitchen, and laundry room were flooded along with water making its way into both bedrooms. Lots of towels later, we’ve got fans running to try and dry things out. The humidity is quite high (although the temperatures are very reasonable), so the drying process is going to take quite a bit of time … well into tomorrow for sure. Nina and the sisters had a great laugh as they cleaned things up. For a few sisters, an important lesson was learned!

Just as I was finishing up this post, the UPS driver showed up at our door with a rather large box. I couldn’t remember that I had anything on order other than a Christmas Tree Light Tester, which should come in a small envelope and it’s coming through the Post Office. Turns out the box contains a blood pressure monitor kit from the Veterans Administration. I knew that was coming but didn’t expect it for a couple more weeks (the VA is seldom very fast and never this fast!). So, now I get the opportunity to check my blood pressure every day, 7×365. The machine automatically connects to the VA computer system and uploads the info. They’ve only got me on a blood pressure monitoring program, but the machine has the ability to plug in glucose, oxygen, temperature, and weight measurement devices. Recently my blood pressure has been very low, probably due to the antibiotic for pneumonia. Prior to that it has been pretty erratic and I’m taking far too many meds to try and keep it under control. Maybe aggressive monitoring will sort things out.

Life is good, health is slowly returning, and ta ta for now!