The LDS Church bought 8,000 acres of land on Ohau’s north shore in 1865 as a gathering place for the Polynesian saints. That resulted in the Lai Hawaii Temple in 1919, the Church College of Hawai in 1955 (now known as BYU-Hawaii), the Polynesian Cultural Center in 1963, and the Visitors’ Center in 1964. This year is the 150th anniversary which will culminate in November with a cultural festival. Leading up to that big event are several smaller events including six firesides at the Visitors’ Center, two each month. The second of these firesides was held tonight.

The Goo family has been an integral part of Laie since the mid-1950’s when they were asked by regional Church authorities to move to Laie and open a general store. The family talked this evening about their family history coming from China to Hawaii, eventually joining the Church, then searching out their ancestors back in southeastern China (Cantonese speaking area) and doing all of the associated temple work, literally thousands of ordinances. The Goo line has been traced back some twenty-five generations and related lines further than that. That’s definitely the blessing of good Chinese record-keeping over the years! Needless to say, Nina and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to their story. We’ve had a delightful day and evening!

About a half-hour or so from here on the west side of the Island is the Dole Plantation Visitor’s Center. James Dole started growing pineapples in Hawaii around 1900 starting a company now known as Dole Food Company. In the area where James Dole first started growing pineapples the company has built a visitor’s center. The place has every possible kind of pineapple-related souvenir one could imagine and many, many more. It’s actually a fun store to browse through. Last week we stopped their on our way to WalMart and had lunch at their grill followed by (incredibly sweet) pineapple ice cream. When browsing through the store I ran across a display of Hawaiian-brewed beer labeled as “Liquid Aloha”. That sounds pretty Hawaiian to me. However, even if I was a beer drinker, this wouldn’t be on my agenda due to the very high premium beer prices. But, it was worth a picture.

Another hurricane is making its way through the area south and west of Hawaii. Today we’re getting the effects of this storm with periodically torrential rain downpours. No sunshine today. Also, no lunar eclipse, either. If the sky was visible, the eclipse would have been well underway before moonrise. Alas, thick cloud cover has ensured we don’t get to see any of the eclipse in person, only what’s showing up on the Internet. There won’t be another lunar eclipse while we’re serving in Hawaii. Tomorrow is supposed to be partly cloudy for much of the day. The temperatures are a bit cooler as well. Paradise is improving!

Ta ta for now!