My Macbook is still on the fritz. There was a local guy advertised in the paper, but first we couldn’t get it worked out how to meet and then for some reason he stopped returning my phone calls. So tomorrow I’m headed into Honolulu to an authorized Apple repair shop to hand over my computer. Meanwhile, I have a Dell Windows notebook. That computer is usually for my ham radio activities as what little software is available for ham radios, is only available for Windows systems. It is a pretty good laptop computer, but the whole layout is strange. I keep hitting the “home” key rather than the backspace, for instance, and that key does very unusual things which I don’t really understand. By the time I get my Macbook back, I’ll be used to this computer and perhaps the Macbook will feel strange (but I doubt it).

I figured out a way from my iPad to upload a picture to the picture gallery so I could include it in a blog post. It’s fairly convoluted, but it works. The picture is of the Christus Statue prominently displayed in the Visitors’ Center. The original was carved by Bertel Thorvaldsen in 1838 and is in the Church of Our Lady in Copenhagen, Denmark. The LDS Church commissioned a replica for the 1964 Worlds Trade Fair in New York City. That was popular enough that another was commissioned to be put in the Visitors’ Center in Salt Lake City. Since then, additional replicas have been commissioned to be put in the various Visitors’ Centers around the world. The purpose of the statue is to remind us that Jesus Christ is the center of our religion and provides a way for us to talk to our visitors about the Mormon religious beliefs. It’s kind of fun when the kids come in and say to their parents, “Look! There’s Jesus!” and then want to have their picture taken in front of the statue.

We had an couple of very interesting visitors today. One of the BYU-Hawaii professors brought two Japanese gentlemen in who were priests at the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Japan. One of them was, until recently, the personal secretary to the Japanese Emperor. We have three sister missionaries who come from Japan and two of them came into the Center (they weren’t scheduled to be there) just as these two gentlemen came in. They had quite a spirited discussion in Japanese!

The Meiji Shrine is very famous and quite revered in Japan. This is the shrine where the Emperor and his family go to worship and where literally millions of Japanese go on New Year’s Day. Nina and I have gone once to be there at midnight. While it wasn’t very impressive to us, the fact that we’ve been there at midnight on New Year’s is very impressive to the Japanese and was to these two men as well. They are here to deliver a lecture on the Shinto culture and belief system at BYU-Hawaii this week. Unfortunately, it’s at a time when we can’t be there.

We’ve been on the afternoon shift yesterday and today. Tomorrow is our Preparation Day. I’ll be going to Honolulu while Nina will be staying here to do some baking. Then Thursday through Saturday we’re on the morning shift plus we’ll be taking tickets at the Polynesian Culture Center for the second time on Thursday afternoon.

Nina posted a blog entry this evening as well and was kind of giggling as she was writing. I haven’t read it yet, so I don’t know what might have been tickling her funny bone. Time to sign off and go read it!

Life is mellow!