I’m beginning to figure out some of the ways to make the new Photos application on my Macbook behave like the older iPhoto did. The options had to be there somewhere, and slowly they’re revealing themselves. The latest was the right way to skinny down a photo so that it loads much faster. Computer screen resolutions are not very sharp compared to what we can do when we print a picture on photo paper. Consequently, most photos on the web, like Facebook or Instagram, have resolution set for the computer screen, but don’t have sufficient resolution to be printed on anything larger than a 4×6 print. I’m getting happier with the application. There’s still much more, though, that needs to be found.

Sunday evening a local, popular, and well known children’s choir performed a half-hour program at the Visitors’ Center. The program started at 6pm, but by 5:30pm all seats were taken. By 5:45pm all standing room had been taken as well, including all of the doorways. The program, what I could hear of it, sounded quite delightful. Nina was able to be in the room and said that the program was “fabulous”. Someone brought their dog and left it outside the door. No leash. And, the dog wanted inside. Wanted quite badly to be inside. We had to open the doors to get some air circulation as well as to let people stand in the doorways, so I found myself outside holding down the dog. He was an older dog and completely deaf, so he didn’t bark (that was goodness) but had to be restrained (that wasn’t goodness). After the concert was over, the owner came out, whistled, and he and the dog left. That’s kind of the life of a missionary at the Visitors’ Center!

Last Tuesday I went an hour south of here to Kailua to a dentist because a bridge in my mouth had come loose. The dentist put it back in, but said that it probably wouldn’t hold very long as there wasn’t much tooth left to hook onto. He said that when it started to get loose again, I should come back because he’d have to do a root canal and put in a post to give something for the bridge to be cemented to. Well, five days later it started to come loose again. Tomorrow morning I’ve a 9am appointment for a root canal. As I remember the count, I’ll be down to two teeth that haven’t had a root canal. But, the bridge should be stable for quite a while to come. I’ve definitely inherited my dad’s poor teeth!

We’ll be volunteering a few nights each month as ticket takers for the luaus at the Polynesian Cultural Center. That requires us to be in matching Hawaiian costumes. Yesterday we visited the costume department at the PCC to see what they had available. That turned out to be futile … they didn’t have anything in our sizes that matched. So, in addition to getting teeth fixed tomorrow, we’ll be shopping for a mu’umu’u and a matching shirt. That should be interesting as we’ll want to find something sturdy, that will hold up for a couple of years, as well as match our rather finicky tastes in clothing. I’m certain that a picture will be in order when we finally find something. Our first assignment is on May 1st, twelve days from now. By then we need to be in costume! By purchasing our own clothing, we’ll be able to bring it home with us rather than turning it back in to the PCC. I’m thinking that MAY be a bonus as well.

Over the past couple of days we’ve had some wonderful family and friend visitors at the Center! A family from our ward along with her mother and step-father stopped in to the Center on Monday morning. We had been there for our 7:30am weekly training meeting. I was going out to the car while Nina took care of some business at the front desk when I saw this large group getting out of a car in the parking lot. Something prompted me that I should go over and say, “Aloha!” and greet them. As I got there, I recognized everyone, including the step-father! He was a person that went to school with me back at Soda Springs High School, some 53 years ago. He’d come over to the house and we’d work with my ham radio station. I hadn’t seen him since then other than a few posts on Facebook. The mother, his wife, was a fun and delightful widow in one of the wards in our Stake where I was assigned as a High Councilor for a couple of years. I was very happy to learn that the two of them had found each other and gotten married. Meanwhile, my old classmate was kind of dumbfounded that I had been a High Councilor! We both agreed that we’d let activities from 53 years ago remain buried….

Then, later that day my cousin Beverly Tomlinson and her husband came into the Center. Their son Jay was graduating from BYU-Hawaii and they were there for the occasion. Her mother is my dad’s only sister. It was great fun catching up on what was going on in their lives. They stopped by again for a few minutes this afternoon to introduce me to their son. He’ll be here a few more months, so we’ll see about having him come over for dinner some evening.

One delightful side benefit of being a missionary here at the Visitors’ Center in Hawaii is that we’ll see and be able to visit with lots of family and friends over the next couple of years. I’m rather liking this! It isn’t missionary work, this is missionary fun!

Life is very pleasant!