The major activity today was a trip to the dentist. One hour each way into Kailau for a 20-minute appointment to re-cement a bridge in my mouth that had come loose. The bad news is that this is a temporary fix. I’ll need to come back to have a root canal done so a post can be put into the remains of one of the teeth holding the left side of the bridge. There just isn’t much tooth left. One of my many body issues is a mouth full of pretty poor teeth. I think I’m down to three teeth left that haven’t had a root canal done. My dad had poor teeth and I remember when he had the last of them pulled when I was about 6 years old when we were living in Tooele, Utah. He had false uppers and lowers for the rest of his life.

Each day in the evening right around sunset we get some beautiful light in the sky. At this time of the year the sun sets just to the right of the Laie Temple. By the time we get to the summer solstice, the sun will set directly behind the Temple. We also usually have partly to mostly cloudy skies as we approach sunset which makes for some pretty dramatic sunsets which the iPhone camera cannot capture. This picture is a “ghostly” representation of what the Temple looks like about twenty minutes before sunset.

Today I met several people from Vancouver, British Columbia, a place that we’ve visited when taking cruises to Alaska. It was fun to talk to these folks about their beautiful city, the rose gardens, and the eclectic eating establishments. I also talked with a couple from Manila who did business with a company I used to work for and sent me to the Philippines on several business trips. I talked with a couple from Louisiana about a couple of restaurants in New Orleans (not in the Bourbon Street area) and their delicious shrimp dishes. Another couple were from Nova Scotia and had arrived yesterday after a fourteen-hour airplane ride. These were just some of the people who visited the Laie Temple Visitors’ Center today. Each day has such a diverse set of people, including a Chinese couple from mainland China who, after I had asked them in (poor) Chinese if I could take their picture, insisted on having me in the picture with them. Another photo album has an unknown white guy who spoke a few words of Chinese.

Life is delightful!

Nina takes a walk most every morning and her route usually takes her down by the beach and up around the Temple. She always finds interesting things (usually flowers) to take pictures of and post to Facebook. She usually gets a number of comments and someone will tell her what kind of flower or tree is in the picture. Through that we learned from a member of our Ward here in Laie that the yellow hibiscus is Hawaii’s state flower and that’s the reason that the boulevard leading from the ocean to the Laie Temple is lined with these beautiful flowers. There are so many interesting flowers and trees here and I’m happy to learn more about them. Facebook usually is very frustrating to me … everything on it is so divisive and hyped beyond belief. The only reason I keep an account there is for the occasional post from families and friends about what is going on in their lives. Unfortunately, most of what is on Facebook today contain far too much hyperbole and hateful language. But, I do like the occasional bit of information, light, and truth that emerges from the muck and grime!

Meanwhile, most everyone knows that I’m pretty much an Apple user, perhaps even a “fanboy”. However, the latest updates to OS-X have me quite frustrated. I want the old iPhoto back! This new incarnation, called simply “Photos” is supposed to marry the iPhone / iPad photos capability with the desktop. Meanwhile, I’ve lost a whole bunch of functionality and have no idea how to get it back, even if it exists. Hopefully in the next few days someone will post information about how to make this application more useful. So, one consequence is that the photos I export to be used in this blog are now huge and can take a long time to load. Unless I run them through a second editor (I used to be able to have Photoshop be the default editor in iPhoto. Can’t do that in Photos, as far as I can tell), I can’t skinny the pictures down to make their load time more responsive.

There are several of this kind of a tree around the Visitors’ Center. Interestingly, the branches can grow together! If you look at the lower left side of the trunk places where the branches have grown into each other are visible. I’ve no idea how the tree does that. All of the trees I’ve known don’t merge branches when they collide with each other. I also have no idea how to search to find the name of a tree when all I have is a picture! I’m counting on you, Internet, to crowdsource the answer!

This has been a very nice Sunday. We were at the Visitors’ Center from 9-11:30am, then went to our Ward from 12-3pm. After dinner we went back over to the Center for a fireside on Kalaupapa, the leper colony in Hawaii. Dr. Woods, a BYU professor, has done quite a study on the residents/patients of the colony and is back doing some additional research. While he’s here he’s been presenting some firesides featuring interviews with some of the remaining residents. That was very interesting.

When we opened the Center at 9am this morning, there were quite a few people out in the courtyard ready to come in. Almost all of them were members on vacation here in Hawaii, and most of those were here because it was Spring Break back in Utah County in Utah. Further, almost all of them were at the Center because they’d gotten up, dressed, intending to go to Church a 9am just to learn that here in Laie the Church meetings start at 8am, 10am, and noon, not like the Utah standard times of 9am, 11am, and 1pm. So, since the Visitors’ Center is just across the parking lot from the Ward buildings, they came to the Center for a while before going to Church at 10am. We definitely appreciate faithful members who, even though they are on vacation, take the time to go to Church and renew eternal covenants.

Life is laid back today.

While we were at the Polynesian Cultural Center on Thursday afternoon I finally bought a hat. I wore it at the Visitors’ Center today for the first time. I rather like having the hat on; it’s much more comfortable out in the mid-day sunshine. Two of the sister missionaries (one from Japan and the other from the Philippines) asked me if they could take my picture in the new hat. Of course they could (and the result is the picture at the left). I also took a couple of pictures of them and sent them to their email accounts. They are so much fun to be around and to work with!

The sun shining onto the granite tile around the fountains can be very bright. It’s often bright enough that it hurts young people’s eyes. The standard procedure when taking pictures of people is to tell them that on the count of three they should open their eyes while we take the pictures. We then snap three or four pictures (on the digital cameras or smart phones) on the count of three. Quite often at least one of the pictures works. I often suggest that “takeovers are free” to let them know that it’s no bother for me to take more pictures if needed.

Today for the first time, however, a lady had a film camera … that is, a camera that used rolls of 35mm film. I’ve no idea where she buys the film, though. I haven’t seen rolls of film in stores in a very long time.

Some of the sister missionaries will wear a floppy hat when the sun is bright outside. There are other missionaries that don’t like the hats at all because they are too floppy. I think the hats are quite cute. These two missionaries like the hats. They also suggested, after I had taken their picture and sent it to them, that I should share their picture with my family. So, they are now in my photo album.

And speaking of being in someone’s photo album, I’m now in a half dozen photo albums across China. When I learn that someone is from China, I try out my meager Chinese on them by asking how they are (Ni hau ma?). They’re usually quite surprised that a caucasian speaks to them in Chinese. I also ask them if I can take their picture (Wo keyi ye ban ni pai zhao pian ma) (real Pinyin Chinese would have tone marks over the words, but my keyboard doesn’t have that capability). Quite often they don’t understand the first time I say it, but usually comprehend the second time and repeat, in nice Chinese, the question and laugh. After I take their picture, inevitably they want their picture taken with me! I’m sure it’s because I tried out my twenty-word Chinese vocabulary on them.

Then, as they are leaving, I always say “See you again!” in Chinese … which always gets a smile and a hearty laugh.

Years from now, someone will look at their pictures from their trip to Hawaii and wonder, “Who is that white guy?” and “Where were we when we took this picture?”

Life is full of laughs!

Our Preparation Day should normally be on Wednesday during this transfer (missionary transfers happen every six weeks; the period in between is called a “transfer”). Because of some schedule changes at the Visitors’ Center, today was our Preparation Day for this week. Next week will be a normal schedule, except that we’ll be in training to be a volunteer at the Polynesian Cultural Center next Wednesday afternoon.

We decided to drive down towards Honolulu to Kailau. The Windward Mall is in Kailua, but that wasn’t our destination. Nina needed to go to the Ben Franklin store to pick up some crafting supplies and to Whole Foods to get some soup making materials. Since Kailua also has a Target, we would do some shopping there as well rather than going on into Honolulu to Walmart.

The drive south on Highway 83 is a beautiful drive. The road goes along the coast with steep mountains a short way inland, like the mountains in the picture to the left. These are very rugged mountains! After periods of rain waterfalls form all along the sides. The rainiest months are November, December, and January with about 4″ of rain and an average of 12 days with some rain. The driest months are June, July, and August with less than a half-inch of rain but still an average of 12 days with some rain. In July the high temperatures average around 90º while in December the average high is 80º. The big difference, however, is that in August the trade winds die down….

All along the coast are beaches and the occasional public park. There are coral reefs off shore, so the waves break quite a ways away from the beach. A public park is just opposite the island. We stopped there on our way back north to take some pictures. Nina, of course, had to check out the beach to see what treasures she might find (a few pieces of coral came home with us. There’s a couple of pretty big chunks of coral on the beach near Nina’s feet). The sand on the beaches is fairly course … not nearly as soft and fine as the Florida Gulf Coast beaches. There aren’t many sea shells to be found, either. Nina has done a lot of looking on her morning walks without finding any. Crabs abound, however. Much of the coastline is very rocky, with large volcanic rocks, stones, and boulders along the beach and out into the water. In many places the water seems to be quite shallow for quite a ways out into the water. Further north and west from Laie is Sunset Beach which I’ve been told has pretty good surfboarding. Last week fifteen foot waves were reported. I expect those were for the very bravest of souls….

Another sight all along the roadway are fishing poles set in the sand. Three are set in this picture; I saw a couple of places today where someone had eight or more poles set. I’ve no idea what the intended catch would be or even how good the fishing is.

The shopping trip was very successful. We are running out of things we need to buy to finish setting up housekeeping here in Laie. That is very good! I keep thinking that it’d be nce to have a bicycle. What I really need to do is to rent one for a few days and see if I would really use it! Most of our sister missionaries are either walking or riding bicycles and they seem to get around quite nicely. This area is pretty flat, so a pretty normal bicycle with a few gears would be more than sufficient. And, of course, this is being written while I’m eating a delicious piece of vanilla cake….

Life is sweet!

You might imagine my surprise when I opened the door for four visitors at the Laie Temple Visitors’ Center this morning … and realized that the group included my cousin Perry Gillette and his wife Linda! I think they were as stunned as I was!! Perry was the quickest on the draw; I was standing there with jaw dropped. Of course we had to take some pictures around the Christus!

Perry is retired military and he and his wife recently served a “military relations” mission out in Washington D.C. I think they’ve been back about a year from that mission. They apparently come to Hawaii fairly often because they can stay very inexpensively in military guest quarters. They had just finished a session at the Laie Temple and came into the Center to change clothes prior to doing some sight-seeing. What a delightful coincidence that they came at a time when we were on duty at the center. Fortunately, they’ll be back next Sunday afternoon for a special fireside at the Center about the Hawaiian leper colony on Kalaupapa. It’ll be fun to visit some more with them!

Transfers came off today with nary a hitch. All of the sister missionaries are having a great evening visiting with the sisters who have returned from their 3-month assignment in the regular Honolulu Hawaiian Mission and getting to know the new sister missionary who just arrived from New Zealand. It’ll be fun getting to know these missionaries.

Today we also met our Mission President and his wife for the first time. We had our first interview with them as they were here meeting all of the new missionaries that have arrived in the past couple of months. President Warner and his wife were delightful and we were glad to have finally met them. I’m sure we’ll see them here from time to time.

I’ve been told a couple of times recently that I’ve gotten quite tan. It’s hard for me to tell. I just know that I put on liberal amounts of sunscreen before going to work at the Center because I spend most of my time outside walking around and talking with people. The sun gets pretty hot, but so far I’ve avoided getting a sunburn. So, I took another selfie today and put side-by-side a picture of me taken on March 21st (two days after we got here) and one from this morning (click on the picture to see a larger version). I can see that I’m not as lily white as I was, but the tan probably needs some more work. On our preparation day on Friday I want to look for a “dignified hat” that I can wear. It’s probably a good idea to be a little less out in the sunsnine!

Life is full of Delightful Coincidences today!

There are a lot of birds around here and I’ve no idea what most of them are, including the little guy in the picture. This afternoon a beautiful bird landed on the fence beside me with bright red plumage on the head, a white band around the neck, and black feathers on the body. Of course, my iPhone was in the Center being charged and I wasn’t able to get a picture. I’m going to start bringing my CoolPix camera as well as it has a somewhat-capable zoom lens. I’m sure I’ll see this bird, or a brother again.

General Conference was this past weekend. It was a delightful set of sessions and I’m downloading them to watch again during slow times at the Center. Perhaps it has something to do with age, and perhaps it has something to do with being on a mission, but General Conference just seems to get better every year. Elder Holland followed by President Uchtdorf were a powerful one-two testimony and talks that definitely need to be studied.

This morning after the Visitors’ Center Training Meeting, Nina and I went over to BYU-Hawaii to start the process of getting an ID card and to check out the book store. There are around 3,000 students at the University and I understand that plans are under way to double the capacity. All of the students I’ve met at the Visitors’ Center have been just delightful to talk with and interact with. This afternoon I met a couple of families that were here to check out the University as a possibility for their graduating senior. Another mother and daughter were here having just registered the daughter who will start this fall. I asked her to come over and say hello when she gets here in the fall. Now I just have to remember what she looks like (fat chance…).

The past two Mondays were very slow at the Center. Some of that is because the Temple is closed on Mondays, so the Distribution Center and the Family History Center are closed as well. Today, however, was vastly different. It is clearly Spring Break across most of Utah! Our shift this afternoon was the busiest shift we’ve had since we arrived.

And, speaking of arriving, on Wednesday we will no longer be the “greenest” missionaries! A new sister missionary is coming from the MTC to work at the Center. She’ll soon be an integral part of the group. Three of our sister missionaries are headed out for their three-month period doing “normal” missionary work (called going “full field”). Two sister missionaries are returning on Wednesday from their three-month stint “full field”. Several companionships are being changed and some of the sisters are moving from their current apartment to a different apartment. So, Wednesday things get shaken up a bit and we’ll be feeling more like “old hands” at the Visitors’ Center missionaries!

I’ve been fussing with new header pictures, but they aren’t lining up correctly. Something is causing them to be cut off on the right and left side. That’s a problem for another day.

Life is very busy at present!

Afternoon shifts start at 2:30pm (we’re usually there by 2:20pm) and end about 8:00pm. They’re usually much busier than the morning shift because of the Laie City Tram Tours. These tours start at the Polynesian Cultural Center every twenty minutes from 3pm until 6:40pm. The Visitors’ Center is one of the stops and most everyone gets off the tram and comes onto the grounds, with their cameras out clicking away.

The sister missionaries and I greet them and offer to take their picture. We’re not refused very often, and if so, it’s usually a language gap (they didn’t understand the question). I ask them where they’re from and about their vacation in Hawaii. Most of the folks from the US respond with their state when I ask them where they’re from. “California”, “New Mexico”, or such. Then I try to guess, usually by repeating the home town of the last folks that came from that state. Every once in a while I’m right, mostly I’m wrong, but it does get the conversation going.

Tonight we had a large tour group of Russian Jews who had their own tour guide and, for the most part, didn’t want anything to do with us. We later had another woman from Russia and we had a nice conversation with her. She was surprised to see that we had information in Russian and took several pamphlets to read later. Sometimes when we ask them what they know about the Mormon Church, we find that they’re interested in knowing more so we give them a referral card to fill out with their name, email address, and phone number. Most will give us their name and email. Two of the sister missionaries are called “online sisters” and they spend most of their time on the computer following up with these contacts.

They also engage in chat sessions initiated from mormon.org. When someone goes to this website they can click on a “chat” button on the upper right. That’ll connect them to one of the visitors’ centers and a set of sister missionaries. The bulk of the chat sessions go to the Salt Lake Temple Square Visitors’ Center. But, since we’re open four hours later in the evening, around 5pm Salt Lake time the chat requests roll over to our Center. The sister missionaries really enjoy working these chat sessions as most of them are from people genuinely interested in learning more about the Church. A few, however, come from trolls who just want to harass the missionaries. Fortunately, they have a button they can click which will kindly end the chat session and block the IP address for a few minutes. Also fortunately, that doesn’t happen very often.

For me, however, the afternoon shift means spending most of the day outside interacting with people and standing on my feet. I’m developing a bit of a tan. I’m also pretty tired by the end of the day! It’s a good kind of tired, though.

Welcome home, Hermana Baker! Our granddaughter Kendra Baker flew home today from her mission. She was assigned to the New York City North Mission, Spanish speaking and completed her eighteen-month mission today. She had a great mission and worked very hard right up to the very last day. Congratulations, Sister Baker on a marvelous mission!

I’m still having great fun!

The Japanese have a very descriptive word for the combination of high temperature and high humidity that just sounds like the condition: moo-she-ah-tsu-e. The best we can do in English is “sultry”:

sul·try
adjective
1. (of the air or weather) hot and humid.
synonyms: humid, close, airless, stifling, oppressive, muggy, sticky, sweltering, tropical, heavy; More
antonyms: refreshing

2. (of a person, especially a woman) attractive in a way that suggests a passionate nature.
synonyms: passionate, attractive, sensual, sexy, voluptuous, erotic, seductive
"a sultry film star"

That definition kind of makes “hot and humid” sound like it’s sexy, or something. Well, it isn’t. I can attest to that. Last night the temperatures went down to the low 80’s with humidity in excess of 95%. It wasn’t sexy at all! However, the trade winds are back today and the temperature will get down to 70º and the humidity down to 55%. I’ll be sleeping much better tonight. The choices are to endure the “sultry” weather or turn on the (very noisy) window air conditioner. We’re told that in August we’ll be very happy for the air conditioner regardless of the noise level when the trade winds disappear for about five or six weeks. I can wait.

We had the morning shift at the Visitors’ Center this morning. That means we arrive at the Center (a 30 second drive from our home) at 8:45 am, turn everything on by 8:55 am, have a short thought and prayer with the sister missionaries who will be on our shift, and then open the doors. Except, this morning there were no sister missionaries. They were all in District Meetings with their young Elder compatriots for training which didn’t finish until around 10:15 am. That meant that Nina and I were the sole resources available for the folks who came to the Center. We were fairly busy. We had a large group from Beijing, China (my little bit of Mandarin Chinese is really beginning to pay off) as well as a large group from Korea. I can now with confidence ask if I can take someone’s group picture in five languages. That doesn’t mean they understand me….

Missionary transfers are next week. We’ll be notified Saturday evening around 8pm what transfers will occur. The sister missionaries are called to serve at the Visitors’ Center for eighteen months, except that three of those months will be spent doing regular missionary work, affectionately called “Far Field Missionaries”. At least one sister missionary will come back from Far Field, meaning that another sister will likely go out for three months. Further, the companionships may be shuffled as well causing a few sister missionaries to move from one apartment to a different apartment and have a different companion.

During the week before transfers all of the missionary apartments across the mission are inspected. My assignment is for Nina and I to inspect all of the sister missionary apartments associated with the Visitors’ Center. There are seven of these apartments. Four apartments have two bedrooms and four sister missionaries. Two apartments have two bedrooms, but only two missionaries. One apartment has one bedroom and two missionaries. The inspection checklist is a full page and demerits are assessed for items not meeting the standard. All of the missionaries know when the inspection is going to happen and many spend the better part of a day just before inspections trying to get their apartment ready for inspection. A few just keep their apartment in good shape and don’t have to sweat the inspection. It’s very clear when we go into an apartment which category the tenants are in! It took a couple of hours to do the inspection for the seven apartments. All in all, they were in good shape.

I have a new qualification: Apartment Inspector.

Check out Nina’s blog at http://seashellsandseaglass.wordpress.com. She’s got some great commentary.

Life is grand!