When we say that we get people from all over the world at the Visitors’ Center, today was certainly an example of that (for more on one specific group, see Nina’s blog). While it wasn’t a particularly busy day at the Center (it rained quite hard for a couple of hours this morning), we had people come in from the Marshall Islands, Germany, Korea, mainland China, Philippines, Venezuela, and of course, the US. I talked with a couple from Virginia and, as they left, turned to meet with another family from, of course, Virginia.

One of the women visiting was deaf and Nina spent about an hour conversing with her on little slips of paper that they passed back and forth, kind of like back in High School!  Nina’s started keeping a little book on all the unusual (to us, at least) places that people come from to visit the Center.

There are several different areas in the Center, each with a name. The front area where the Christus statue stands is called The Christus. Behind that is the Book of Mormon room. To the right is Prophets Corner and beyond that is Family History. On the left is the Temple Corner and beyond that God’s Plan. These short names help us to make assignments and guide people on tours through the Center.

The Temple Corner is lined with pictures on each side leading to a large plate-glass window looking out at the Temple. One of the senior couples is assigned to wash the window once a week. It has a nice view and we don’t want it obscured! When we’re in the Temple Corner with people we talk about the Temple, why we have temples, and what we do with temples. Since the general public isn’t allowed in the Temple, we get a lot of questions about the temple and what we do with them since we don’t have worship services in the temple.

Yesterday we were at the Polynesian Cultural Center again for our weekly opportunity to volunteer there and then have dinner without having to cook or do dishes. This time we were assigned to the Hale Ohana luau with me at the back exit to the restrooms and Nina up front with a clicker to count the number of people coming in. My job is to direct people to the restroom (it’s not hard to find), or to the smoking area (a bit harder to find) and to keep people from coming in from that direction. Occasionally people come in because they don’t know where the entrance is. Nina’s job is to count the number of people coming in and record the count every five minutes. Someone from the ticket office comes over with an expected count of the number of guests based on the tickets sold up to that point. Yesterday the expected ticket count was 402. I think we ended up with about 417 when all was said and done. Some people buy a general admission ticket and then later decide to add a luau to their general admission. They’ll make that decision just about the time the luaus start (4:45pm) when they realize they’re hungry and the main evening show doesn’t start until 7:30 pm.

Being at the exit is my least favorite assignment, but I do get to sit down for most of the time we’re there and I do get to talk to some people. Yesterday there was a family seated close to the exit with a very rambunctious two-year-old boy. He had a very hard time sitting down and, of course, the parents were interested in eating and watching the show. The boy came over by where I was to play in the rocks and dirt alongside the venue. He was having a great time, doing absolutely no damage, when his mother realized what he was doing and I thought she was going to die from embarrassment. He was just re-arranging the rocks! No problem, as far as I was concerned. Fortunately, she didn’t scold the boy (she was too busy apologizing, I think). About ten minutes later, he was back…. We had fun!

Life is very pleasant!