Lots of little things are going on at and around the Visitors’ Center. Time to catch up on a lot of them.

Today we had our quarterly interviews with President Warner, the Hawaii Honolulu Mission President. He presented our training meeting this morning before our shift at the Visitors’ Center on conflict management when a companionship is having trouble getting along with each other. One interesting side comment was, “Don’t ever hit. One strike and you’re headed home.” I liked the baseball metaphor. The missionary guide book (or rather the Missionary Bible) Preach My Gospel has a section on conflict management and how to do a “companionship inventory” as a means to figure out how to get along. It was an interesting training. We had our interview right after our shift ended for the day. His main question seemed to be whether or not we’re getting along with each other now that we’re together 24×7. The answer is “Pretty much. No big, and very few little issues.”

There is a lot of work going on in and around the grounds. A few days ago all of the yellow hibiscus plants were ripped up along both sides of both of the sidewalks going out to the street and a deep trench dug. It turns out the Royal Palms that line the walkway and the road going out to the ocean are “strangling” the flowers; stealing all their water and nutrients. The solution? A “root barrier”. In the picture above left the root barrier is being installed. New hibiscus flowers will follow Real Soon Now, we’re told by the grounds keepers. That means sometime by November or so, I think.

The contractor brought in a big crane to (1) install a new flange around the base of the flagpole and (2) tug on the pole to make it straight. While the pole is more straight than it was, it still is not completely straight, so the Temple Engineer overseeing the project isn’t accepting the flagpole until he’s told by Salt Lake that he has to do that. There’s enough flex in the pole, in my opinion, that when both the US Flag and the Hawaiian Flag are on the pole, it’ll flex into what ever direction the wind is blowing. Oh well. We’ll continue to wait.

There are four Sea Grape trees on the grounds, two on either side of the Visitors’ Center and two opposite on either side of the statue of Lehi blessing his son Joseph courtyard. Every six months or so, the groundskeepers “square up” the trees. The locals call them “sea grape trees”. Wikipedia doesn’t know them by that name. I’ve written about them before because of two peculiarities. First, the limbs and branches grow into each other. Secondly, the leaves act kind of like paper. You can mark, draw, or write on them with a sharp instrument and the impressions stay, even when the leaf dries out. For a long time before recorded history, they were used like we use paper today for exchanging notes between lovers.

There’s a bike rack off to the side of the Visitors’ Center for the sister missionaries to park their bikes. The Zone Leaders (who have a car) also park their bikes in the rack so when they’re in this area they can park their car, ride their bikes, and save miles (they have a limited amount of miles each month they’re allowed to drive). A few days ago this green bike, one of the style called a “beach cruiser” showed up in the rack with a flat rear tire. After asking around, I found it belonged to one of our regular guests, a young man with plenty of issues who comes into the center each day to charge up his cell phone and lately a tablet. I asked him about the bike. He said he was trying to figure out how to fix the flat tire. That may become a service project for me if it’s still there in a day or so. He’s one of a couple of people who may or may not have a place to live or even a steady place to sleep at night who regularly come by the Center for a little respite.

This summer has been hotter than usual longer than usual according to some of the locals. Evidence of that is at the Polynesian Cultural Center where a bunch of these triangular sails have been put up along the walkways providing the guests with a lot more shade. About once a week we’re at the PCC on an assignment from 4:30pm until 6:30pm. The PCC opens at noon and most guests have been there since it opened when we get there. There’s always a line of people waiting to get into the luau when we get there (the luau’s open about 4:45pm) and they’re always happy, hot, and tired. Before these new shade sails were put up, one oft-mentioned complaint was the lack of places to sit in the shade. This is a complaint that obviously has been heard and acted upon.

This Tuesday, after I we got back from my doctor appointment at the VA Clinic in Honolulu, our next task was to take tickets at the Ohana Luau. This is our favorite venue! It’s on the west side of the walkway, in the shade, beside the canoe canal, with lots of people going by. I think the luau can seat upwards of 600 people, but with the major vacation season ended, this week there were just under 300 guests for the luau. Just as the patronage at the PCC goes down when summer ends and school starts in the US, the visitor count at the Visitor’s Center plummets as well. Last week the Center had had half as many guests as we did the first week of August. On the other hand, the locals have started coming during the week and on Sunday now that the Center isn’t so crowded.

And, as part of the 150th anniversary celebration, the Center is hosting two firesides a month featuring descendants of the early Mormon settlers who came to Laie, turned it into a thriving community, and built the fifth temple put into operation after the Church moved to Utah. Not only will those firesides help with the visitor counts, they’ll also be fascinating insights into the people who came here from all across Polynesia. The Polynesian Triangle goes from Hawaii in the north, southwest to New Zealand (Maori), east to Tahiti, and back northwest to Hawaii, taking in Samoa and many other islands in the south Pacific. It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that these people traveled by canoe and navigated by the stars among these islands.

After our ticket-taking assignment, the volunteers are allowed to have a free meal at the Prime Dining buffet. So we all gather together at a couple of the tables and help take care of the left-overs. The menu is unwavering and unchanging, so it’s a bit difficult for the folks (like Nina) who crave variety in their meals. I have no problem with it at all, this said by the person who has had the same breakfast almost every morning for the past 65 years….

While were were eating on Tuesday evening, Nina got a text message over an app called “WhatsApp”, probably the most popular texting application in the world. This app was developed to communicate using data rather than the Simple Messaging System (SMS) provided by the phone companies, who charge for each text message. By using the data plan, people avoid paying money for each text message. The text was from Sabey, Heather and Ty’s driver in Mumbai, India. Sabey is a delightful, kind, compassionate, and savvy guy who runs a business supplying cars and drivers to people. He was incredibly helpful with the Indian complexities when I was in the hospital in Mumbai having the stents put in place. Anyway, Sabey and Nina text each other occasionally. It was fun watching her smile and face as she had a brief texting exchange with Sabey who was inquiring about how things are going for us here in Hawaii. We had one of the other missionaries take a picture of the two of us in our “Aloha Attire” so Nina could send it to Sabey. Maybe she’ll post the picture somewhere….

This afternoon near shift change time, a large family came into the Center with their father who has Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He’s confined to a wheelchair, but communicates by blowing into a tube that selects words and letters on a screen in front of him. When he’s satisfied with what’s on the screen, a text-to-speech system reads aloud what’s on the screen. His daughter had just returned from her mission and they were at the Center taking a lot of family photos. It was touching to watch how caring the whole family, including the little tykes, weas with their father, making sure he was at the center of everything going on. The whole thing reminded me a bit of Stephen Hawking, perhaps the world’s most brilliant theoretical physicist who also has the same disease and communicates in much the same way, although I think the fellow at the Center today is further along the disease path.

The Christus Statue is the centerpiece of the Visitors’ Center and is the first thing everyone sees when they come into the Center. The other evening I was sitting in the bench seats in front of the Christus, but facing out towards the windows and noticed the reflection of the Christus in the window. Wondering whether or not the reflection would come out in a picture, I took one with my iPhone. The result is to the left. I rather like how the reflection looks like the Christus is watching over everything.

The tour dialog that we use with guests at the Center tells them that the statue is symbolic of our strong belief in Jesus Christ, but that we don’t worship the statue. That’s important for many of our Asian guests who are used to venerating statues of Buddha or Confucius or any of the multitude of Hindu gods and goddesses. The original Christus is in Denmark. All of the Temple Visitors’ Centers have a copy of this statue. We’re privileged to have one from marble from the same quarry that Thorvaldsen used for his original statue. Ours weighs 26,000 pounds and stands on top of 28,000 pounds of concrete.

I’ve put this picture up before. The surf continues to be strong and our weather continues to be very humid and hot as a result of the multitude of hurricanes out in the ocean east of the Islands. In a couple of months the beaches on the west shore will be closed to casual people as the competition surf will start coming in. I’m looking forward to watching some of these surf competitions at Sunset Beach, about twenty minutes west of us.

So, tomorrow is our Preparation Day. We don’t have much planned beyond having four sister missionaries over for brunch tomorrow, doing laundry, and cleaning the house. It’ll be nice to have a quiet day with nothing pressing on the agenda.

Life is pleasant!