Two new sister missionaries arrived this afternoon. One is from Cambodia and the other from China. They arrived in Hawaii on Monday afternoon, spent two nights at the Honolulu Hawaii Mission Home, and came up to Laie this afternoon on the return trip of sending two of our sister missionaries out for their three-month full time proselytizing assignment. Nina is busy sizing the muumuus the new missionaries will be wearing starting tomorrow morning at the Visitors’ Center. We won’t be there; Thursdays are our Preparation Day for this six-week session. The best part is that we don’t have to go into Honolulu tomorrow to do any shopping! We can use the day for whatever here in the area.

I do have a couple of bicycles that need tires fixed. I’ve patched both of them recently, so this means buying two new tires and inner tubes so that the bikes can be really fixed. We’ll also go to the Temple for a session. Then I think some local sight seeing might be on the agenda.

The Temple Corner is in the back left side of the Visitors’ Center. The hall has four large murals on the left show the history of temples and four large murals on the right discussing the ordinances and ceremonies we perform in the temple along with pictures of some of the rooms in the temple. At the end of the hall is a large picture window looking out on the Temple. There are four chairs and a bench situated to look out the window. We get quite a few people who live in the area who come into the Center and sit in the Temple Corner to read or meditate. It’s a very peaceful part of the Center.

Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise visitor to the Center. This was a fellow I’d worked with at LSI Logic in Colorado Springs twelve years ago. He was in a serious automobile accident that severed both of his legs below the knees. He’s a member of the Church and a good father. Of course, he had no idea we were here; they were visiting Hawaii for the graduation of a son from the University of Hawaii and came up to Laie to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. When he came in, I knew that I knew him, but couldn’t place him. Fortunately, he immediately recognized me and we had a nice conversation catching up on the intervening years. I’m sure that we’ll have a number of these pleasant surprises while we’re here.

Today was a fairly busy morning at the Center. A group of twenty-seven Chinese from Beijing came in on a tour and spent close to a half-hour at the Center. One of our Chinese sister missionaries fielded questions very handily and they took a lot of Church literature with them as they left. I took a family reunion group on a tour as well. They were here from San Francisco and had all attended a session at the Temple before coming to the Center. Then I had a nice time with a young couple from Vancouver, British Columbia who were here on their honeymoon. They were a lot of fun. They’ve been sweethearts since high school. Both of them had served missions and then got married four days ago in the Vancouver Temple. When she learned that Nina and I will celebrate 51 years in a couple of weeks, she said she was pretty sure they’d be able to do the same fifty-one years from now, but at the moment they were busy figuring out how to live together as two fairly headstrong individuals. He chuckled and agreed. I told him the secret might be to think about it in missionary terms: he’d never have to change companions and he would never be the senior companion. It didn’t mean he should be the junior companion, either.  I think that piece of advice was well received as they both liked the idea.

So what do I do to celebrate fifty one years on June 12th? Time to put my thinking cap on!

Life is full of wonderment.