The Oceana Time-Warner Cable installer arrived this morning just after 8 am. It turns out that he’s the bishop of the Laie Fourth Ward. We are assigned to the Third Ward. He was delightful and did a great job of cleaning up the wiring mess from a previous installation done several years ago and now we have fast wifi and internet (most of the time). It seems a bit “bursty”, but it’s still much better than what we’ve been using for the past several months: campground wifi and my Verizon hotspot when that wasn’t available. Along with the Internet came 27 TV channels. We haven’t turned the TV on, so I’ve no idea what those channels consist of. Perhaps we’ll see a baseball or football game or two. No other reason to turn the TV on!

Today was also our “preparation day”. That’s the day to clean the apartment, do the laundry, wash the car (if needed), and do the shopping. So we drove down to the north side of Honolulu, renewed our Costco membership, and stocked up with a number of items from there. We then stopped at a Walmart for a few items. The drive down and back took a little over a hour each way, so this isn’t a trip we’ll make very often.

We have a very nice one-bedroom house to live in that includes a garage. The garage triples as a place to put our car (pictured), a place to fix bicycles (there’s one with a broken headlight but she hasn’t brought the bike over to me, yet), and a place for the sister missionaries who have a car to wash and vacuum their car. There are eleven sets of sister missionaries. Most are on bicycles. Four companionships have a car (and bicycles). I can see where a bicycle would be very handy to have. We may have to splurge in a month or so.

Our home has a nice living room which opens into a small dining room and kitchen. Down the hallway to the right is a laundry room on the left with a washer and dryer, our bedroom on the right (the windows between the garage and the front door), and goes into the bathroom, complete with a bathtub / shower. There are two air conditioners, one in the window of the front room and the other in the window of our bedroom. So far we haven’t needed to turn either of them on, although the day before yesterday got quite warm. A rain shower fortunately cooled things down a bit as we were going to bed.

The Laie Temple is just to the south of us across an open field and a large parking lot. This is also the view out the window over our small table. Mail is delivered six days a week around 4:30 pm. Our address is:

55-113 Lanihuli Street
Laie, HI 96762

And, of course, cards, letters, boxes of chocolate, etc. are welcome.

The Visitors’ Center is just east of the Temple (to the left and just out of the frame in the previous picture). While we can walk to the Center, we usually have stuff we’re carrying back and forth so we usually drive. The Center is quite popular, particularly now that the water features have been refurbished and are working again. The whole area in front of the Center has been completely redone, so the whole area was under construction from last August until the day before we arrived. The Temple is visible from a distance and lots of people stop to take pictures and most come inside the Center. In the afternoons from 3pm until 7pm the Church runs a Laie Tram Tour every twenty minutes. A pair of sister missionaries ride the tram which starts at the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC), goes through the downtown area, through BYU-Hawaii campus, and the Visitors’ Center before returning to the PCC. The sister missionaries are tour guides on the trams which make three or four stops (including the Visitors’ Center). Most of the folks on the tram come inside the center as well, after standing around the fountains taking pictures.

One of my very important duties is to be outside around the fountains as well, volunteering to take pictures of people and groups. That is very well received and makes it possible to get acquainted and learn a bit about the guests. I get lots of questions, mostly about Temples, why we build them and what we do inside of them. An often-asked question is whether or not they can go inside the building. I tell them “yes, you can … after you are baptized a member and remain in good standing for a year.” In the week we’ve been here I’ve visited with people for all over Asia, including quite a few from mainland China (which gives my limited Chinese a workout). We also have many visitors from Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. We try to have sister missionaries on each shift who speak Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

Well, the bed is calling. We have an early day tomorrow. Stay tuned!

Life is excellent.