Nina has come down with a cold. It’s in the beginning stages which means she’ll be feeling lousy for the next week or so and it’ll probably degenerate into laryngitis. And, of course, I’ll be next in line. However, there isn’t really time to take time off to be sick, so we just plug through it, taking advantage of every second at home to rest and sleep.

The statistics are in for the month of July. We had 22,389 guests during the month. That’s 10,000 more than the same month last year. Part of that increase has to do with the Laie Tram Tours from the Polynesian Cultural Center during the afternoons. In July we had 8,893 tram guests, compared to 2,510 in July a year ago. Both numbers show a pretty dramatic increase. It’s clear to us that the Lord is hastening his work and we’re running hard to keep up. We’ve just been notified that we’ll be receiving 4 additional sister missionaries at the end of August and that’ll start taking some of the load off the sister missionaries.

So, what do we do with all of these tram tour and other guests? As the two pictures indicate, our sister missionaries spend a lot of time in the afternoons outside in the courtyard greeting guests, answering questions, taking pictures, and inviting them to come into the Visitors’ Center for more information. Many do that. Some prefer to stay outside and enjoy the beautiful setting and the peaceful, calm atmosphere. It’s quite a contrast to the noise, hustle, and bustle at the Polynesian Cultural Center!

Monday is usually our least busy day, probably because the Temple is closed on Mondays. An additional factor may be that people on vacation are flying in or back home on Mondays. Saturdays and Sundays are the busiest days. We’ll get around 500 guests on a Monday and around 1,000 on Saturday and Sunday, literally twice as many. As a result, all of the Preparation Days for the sister missionaries are spread across Monday – Wednesday. The two senior couples (Elder and Sister Andrus along with Nina and me) have our Preparation Days either on Wednesday or Thursday. That means we can have the most missionaries available to meet and greet guests on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

‘Til next time. Ta ta for now!