Most Friday mornings all of the sister missionaries and the senior missionaries assigned to the Visitors’ Center gather at the garden behind the Temple and take a walk around the old pioneer cemetery. Most make at least one circuit (it climbs a pretty wicked hill) and many do the circuit twice, which makes about a mile. I do one circuit and then a much broader, more flat walk. As we completed the circuit last Friday morning the sun was just peaking over the horizon yielding a very pretty scene with sun rays streaming from the clouds. I was happy to have my iPhone with me to take the picture. The mornings have been fairly cool recently (as in getting down to maybe 55° at night) so a brisk walk in the mornings is quite invigorating. Later on in the morning, however, when the sun is up, the humidity is up, and the temperatures are up: not so much!

There’s an old English tune called “Under a Violet Moon”. I’ve never seen a violet moon, but I have seen violet skies! They happen from time to time at sunset over the Laie Hawaii Temple. I think that my old Minolta film camera using some professional color film and paper could actually come close to capturing the color. But, this will have to do. Hawaii offers spectacular sunrises and sunsets quite often and we’ve fewer of them to see than we’ve already experienced.

Every Monday morning we have the Visitors’ Center Training Meeting (VCTM) at 7:30am. After the opening song and prayer, announcements, and accountability reports, there is generally about an hour available for specific training. Sometimes the training has to do with practicing certain activities such as the tram-tour dialog or conducting tours on the Temple Grounds. Other trainings have to do with more spiritual matters and Church doctrine. Yesterday the training was around recognizing and feeling the special spirit and ambiance that surrounds the Laie Temple and the temple grounds. After some discussion inside the Visitors’ Center, we all went outside on the grounds to spend a few minutes in meditation. I walked up around the front of the Temple and sat for a while in front of the Temple to just let the peacefulness soak in. It was a very moving and special experience for me.

As I was coming back down I noticed the sister missionaries scattered around the plaza in front of the Visitors’ Center doing the same thing. It was such a beautiful morning. A light breeze, cooler temperatures, and a beautiful sky. We definitely picked the right day and time to be outside on the Temple Grounds!

Monday started a new Transfer so our shifts have reversed. We’re now at the Center on Monday and Tuesday afternoon with Wednesday as our Preparation Day followed by Thursday through Saturday on the morning shift. Our Sunday schedule stays the same. On Wednesday two new sister missionaries will arrive from the MTC in Provo, Utah and two other sister missionaries will have completed their three-month term as full-time proslyiting missionaries and will come back to the Center. The net result is that we’ll go from ten companionships to twelve companionships and 25 sister missionaries. Having two more companionships will be a great benefit now that the vacation season is picking up.

Finally, the air conditioning at the Center is stuck in the “on” position … and I really mean “on”! It is almost frigid in the Center. Bringing over a couple of sport jackets has proven to be an inspired decision!

I’ve re-ordered some of the menu items at the top of the blog and added a new item, “Looking Back”. I often wonder what was going on last year, a few years ago, or even five years ago. I’ve been blogging off and on since 2002, about 14 years of history (sometimes more often than others), so I’ve build a page that provides those links.

Ta ta for now!

We’ve crossed the half-way point of this mission. Sunday, February 28th marked the eleven and one-half months of the mission with eleven and one half months to go. Time marches onward at seemingly faster and faster pace. From now we’ve less time here than we’ve been here.

There are quite a few things we want to do while we’re here on Oahu but haven’t done yet. Fortunately, we’ve got company coming in a week and a half and we’ll start doing some of those touristy things! Jared and Tania are coming over for a week and we are beyond excited to spend some time with them. So, we’ll be doing things like the Kualoa Ranch, the Polynesian Cultural Center, Pearl Harbor, the Dole Plantation, plus some quality beach time. This is going to be a fun time!

Last post I put up a video of the Big Surf currently going on around here. A week later we went back out to Laie Point, took some video, and noticed (after I got home) that a Big Change had happened! The huge rock at the base of the hole in the big lava rock slab off shore had been blown out of the hole! So I’ve put up a brief before and after video on YouTube:

We’ve had some serious surf. So much so that The Eddie was held for the first time in about 9 years. The winner took home a $75,000 paycheck after riding down a huge 60 foot wave. Check the link for some fabulous video!

Life is great but moving too fast … now we’re on the downhill slide of our time in this little corner of paradise.

We had the morning shift at the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors’ Center on Monday morning. About mid-morning I got a broadcast text message from the Honolulu Department of Emergency Management stating that the highway north and west of here was going to be closed because of dangerously high surf conditions. A couple of visitors to the Center commented how much water was coming up onto the road and how much debris was being pushed by the waves up onto the road in that area as they drove through. High tide was approaching which would mean the surf would get even further inland.

Nina and I has an assignment at the Polynesian Cultural Center at 4:30 to take tickets and greet guests at the Aloha Luau, so we left a little early and drove out to Laie Point to see what action was going on out there. I took four short video clips and stitched them together using iMovie in my Macbook then uploaded it to YouTube:

The video is about two and a half minutes long and definitely doesn’t do justice to the power and magnificence of the waves!

There is a surfing competition called “The Big Eddie” has been given the green alert for tomorrow (Thursday). This is a huge event which hasn’t been held for six years. If the surf holds there will be a gazillion people coming to the north shore to watch this event. The link has some additional interesting details.

We had a delightful time at the PCC taking tickets. We haven’t been there for a month as we’ve been keeping our time available for the Visitors’ Center with a new director and a new senior missionary couple. It turned out that we did need to be quite flexible with our schedule, but now that some time has passed and schedules at the Center have settled down, we were able to resume our once-weekly volunteering at the PCC. The Aloha Luau is the largest of the luau venues and was sold out on Monday afternoon with about 530 people having the dinner and the show.

From 3pm until 7pm in the evening we offer a tram tour from the PCC past BYU-Hawaii over to the Visitors’ Center where the guests can visit for about 15 minutes before going back to the PCC. From the Aloha Luau I can see the area where the sister missionaries are standing and inviting guests to take the tour. They’re the young ladies in the dark blue muu-muu’s in the photo.

We’ve been having some significantly cooler weather here in Laie which is going to continue for at least the next week. Unfortunately, that means that the over-zealous air conditioning at the Visitors’ Center will keep the place beyond cool. I’m happy that I brought a couple of sport coats with me! Otherwise, though, life continues to be quite amazing.

Ta ta for now!

The trade winds are fickle things this time of the year and they have everything to do with the weather here in Oahu. We’ve had almost two weeks of very light winds resulting in not much rain, mostly sunny days, and very pleasant temperatures. A couple of days ago the winds came back along with much cooler temperatures. The air conditioning system in the Visitors’ Center is nicely equipped to handle warm, humid weather but not so much for cooler, not-so-humid weather. It’s almost like we need to issue blankets, sweaters, or jackets to the guests when they come in! I’m not complaining, though…. There’s nothing here needing to be shoveled, like snow, for instance!

It’s a Saturday evening and we’re kind of in the process of closing down the Visitors’ Center once everyone leaves. The cleaning crew have arrived and have started their work. Although the Visitors’ Center closes at 8pm, the call center remains in operation until 9pm or whenever the missionaries finish their conversation. Nina and I stay at the Center until all the missionaries are done for the night.

After eleven months (yesterday was our eleven month anniversary of arriving in Laie) of having my computer set up on the kitchen table (Nina’s is set up on the desk and there’s only room for one computer and one person there), I finally decided to buy and put together a writing table. That makes it possible for me to also set up the second monitor. I now no longer have to eat on top of or around my MacBook. I also have realized how much I miss having the second monitor!

Last Sunday we had a Regional Conference for our Sunday Church Services. This weekend is our Stake Conference. Since we’re on duty at the Center on Saturday Evening, the other senior couple (Elder and Sister Andrus) are going to the Adult Session this evening and we’ll go to the General Session tomorrow morning. We’ve also taken a one-month hiatus from volunteering at the Polynesian Cultural Center because of the personnel changes at the Center, that is a new Director and his wife and a new senior missionary couple. But, Monday we’re back at the PCC taking tickets at the Oaha Luau. It’ll be nice to be back over there once a week.

So, not much is really new over here! Normal life continues…

Ta at for now!

With weather like we’ve had for the past couple of weeks it’s easy to understand why people like living here so much. Particularly when we’re seeing temperatures like 9° in New Wilmington, PA, 18° in Florence, KY, 12° in Downingtown, PA, and 12° in Kirtland, OH! It’s just about 1:30pm and a delightful 79° with a light wind with 65% humidity outside. I talked with two couples from Minnesota yesterday who said that when they got up to a continuing snow storm for the fourth day in a row, they bought tickets to Hawaii.

Many years ago (I’ve told this story before…) when we were living in Munich, Germany, the sky had been grey and cloudy for seemingly weeks, the temperatures were in the mid 20’s, with a cold, biting wind. One Saturday morning we got up to another day of this gloomy, depressing weather and decided to “drive to sunshine!” We loaded up the car and headed south into Austria. Same weather. Continued south on the autobahn past Innsbruck and up into the Alps. Same weather. Then we crested the summit and headed into northern Italy. The sun was shining, the temperatures were in the low 40’s, and everything just had an inviting look about it. We decided to find a pension and spend the night. While it took much of the day to get there, we ended up in Bolzano, Italy in a delightful little hotel. The hotel staff were quite delighted that we were there (particularly with so many kids). They put us up in two rooms for the same price as one room. We had a nice time and drove back late Sunday afternoon to the same dreary weather but with a far better attitude. We’ve made other “drives to sunshine” before and since then, but that one is the most memorable to me.

This morning I helped out with the first Ham Radio Technician Class licensing class here in Laie. One of the other senior missionaries, Elder Crookston from Arizona, is also an Amateur Extra Class license holder and has been recruiting people for the class. We’ll have a testing session in April and we hope to have the BYU-Hawaii club station back on the air and functional by then. I was very pleasantly surprised when about 35 people showed up for the class! Not all of them will persist through, but most will and it’ll be great to have an active ham radio community once again in Laie. About half the class were students at the University, the rest local residents who are interested in emergency communications.

The first Friday morning after transfers we’ve been holding a French toast breakfast for the sister missionaries as a way for them to get to know each other a bit better and to meet any newly arrived missionaries. These have been a lot of fun and more than meet their purpose. It turns out that President Warner, president of the Hawaii Honolulu Mission, also does a breakfast once a quarter for the zones who meet or exceed their goals. This time it was our turn so on Friday we all got together for a pancake breakfast and a zone picture. One of the elders is skilled at making neckties, so he and his companion made a necktie for each of the men in the zone as well as a little flower for the hair for all the sisters. The tie is now in my “tie rotation” of fourteen ties so once every couple of weeks I’ll wear it at the Visitors’ Center. It is a nice looking and well-made tie!

About once a week I write a letter back home to family and friends. This week I decided to also include these letters in my blog website. The link is at the top right, “Mission Letters”. They’re listed in order. They’re another look at our missionary experience in Hawaii … and who knows where else in the future!

It’s time to go over for our shift at the Visitors’ Center. We’ll enjoy this weather with the guests who’ll come from the Polynesian Cultural Center on the Laie Tram Tour as well as those who walk in.

Ta ta for now!

We’ve now, as of February 8th, been on our mission for eleven months … one year to go. There is so much (touristy) things to do that we haven’t even started! It’s time to kick things up a notch. We’ve been enjoying just fabulous weather. Highs in the upper 70’s or low 80’s, little or no wind, low humidity (50-60%), and brilliant, blue skies. It’s also delightful sleeping weather with the windows open and the breeze wafting through. The windows open have an added benefit in that the beach is less than a half mile east of the house and we can hear the surf all night long.

The visitors to the Visitors’ Center come in spurts. We’ll have a hundred to two hundred visitors one hour and less than ten another hour during the mornings. Today was definitely like that. From noon to 1:00pm we had more than fifty visitors. From 1:00 to 2:00pm we had 4 visitors. Nina likes to find a comfortable corner and read when we’re not busy. I also have my favorite chair and catch up on things in the world in my iPad as occasion permits. The sister missionaries will go back to the call center and connect with their online investigators so they can make good use of the downtime. Then, suddenly we get a group of 25 people from Brazil, all speaking Portuguese and little English, with a plethora of questions about the Temple and the Church. When that happens it’s all hands on deck to help them feel welcome and comfortable asking their questions.

We have the morning shift on Monday through Wednesday currently. After we got home today, Nina needed to make a quick trip to the store to pick up some items for Valentine’s cards for the sister missionaries. As she drove past one of the beaches she noticed that the ocean was quite busy and really churning up some impressive waves. So, we grabbed a couple of chairs and headed to our favorite ocean-watching beach, Sunset Beach about twenty minutes west of Laie.

I took a couple of videos. The first one is about a half-minute long showing the beach and the waves coming in:

The second one is about ten seconds long of a time-lapse on the beach, one picture every ten seconds:

The beach was a nice, quick break. We’re back home, Nina’s putting dinner together, and we’ll go back over to the Center a 8:00pm for a meeting with the Director, his wife, the other senior couple (Elder and Sister Andrus), and Nina and me. We get together fairly regularly right now since the other two couples are quite new and still figuring things out.

Life is very delightful! Ta ta for now!

I’ve come down with another cold. Definitely not on the list of things I’m fond of doing…. We’re having some of the best weather of the year and I just plain feel lousy. Of course, it won’t last and soon this cold will be history (and the only memory will be this blog post). And, at the same time, we’re busier at the Visitors’ Center than we’ve ever been. Last Saturday is a prime example!

Elder Jeffery R. Holland, a member of the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, was in Hawaii and scheduled a devotional for all of the missionaries on Saturday afternoon. The big question was what to do about the Laie Tram Tour coming from the Polynesian Cultural Center to the Temple Visitors’ Center that afternnoon. After a lot of discussion with the PCC and the Hawaii Honolulu Mission President, Elder Swinton, the Visitors’ Center Director, finally decided to keep the Center open but send all of the sisters down to Honolulu. He recruited another senior couple, Elder and Sister Noels, to come over an help out. So Nina and I worked the morning shift (and the sisters left about 11am). Elder and Sister Andrus (the other senior missionaries at the Center) together with Elder and Sister Noels worked the afternoon shift while Nina and I went over to the PCC to load the trams. Lance, the main tram driver, agreed that he’d drive that afternoon and give the dialog to the guests. So, Nina and I put on our Aloha attire and spent the afternoon recruiting people for the tram. Lance drove them on the tour and the Andrus’s met the tram at the Center to invite folks to come inside while the Noels manned the desk and helped out inside. The Andrus’s took them on a tour and put them back on the tram so Nina and I could meet them when they returned to the PCC. It actually worked pretty well!

Fortunately, the sisters were back from Honolulu by 6pm and they came over to the PCC to help with the 6:20 and 6:40 trams. That was a great thing, as about 6pm everything at the PCC became just plain bedlam! Getting people to line up and not jump the lines for the 6pm tram was difficult and we only had 25 people for that tram. The 6:20 and 6:40 trams were full (70 people each time) and we had to turn people away. I was sure glad the sisters were there!

Saturday was made even more interesting as it was the Hawaiian Football Hall of Fame induction ceremony in the morning. The Hall of Fame is at the Polynesian Cultural Center. Sai Sikahema, very well known and popular running back at BYU, then with the Cardinals, the Packers, and finally with the Eagles, was being inducted, and there were BYU football fans galore at the PCC. Also, the next day (Sunday) was the NFL’s Pro Bowl game at the Aloha Center in Honolulu and half of the players in the game were staying at Turtle Bay, just up the road from the Polynesian Cultural Center. The players and entourage spent the afternoon being hosted at the PCC. It was a very busy day at the PCC overall, and for us complicated by the fact that we didn’t have any sisters available and that we really didn’t know what we were doing!

With a brand-new freshly minted Visitors’ Center Director and his wife along with a brand new set of senior missionaries, we’ve been going through a whole lot of reflection on why we do certain things at the Visitors’ Center. That also means doing some experimentation to test out ideas. Most don’t pass muster! The new director is doing a great job and is really concentrating on how we can do the best possible job of meeting our mission. Part of that is figuring out what needs to be measured, since things that get measured get done. We’ve been capturing a lot of statistics, some of them quite subjective and a couple others just plain guesses. We’re doing away with some of those as they don’t really tell us anything useful.

Elder and Sister Jensen completed their mission a couple of weeks ago and have gone home. We took the picture outside in front of the Temple on the last Monday that they were here. They’ve been great missionaries and a lot of fun to work with. We definitely miss them as we also do Elder and Sister Priday, the previous Center Director and his wife. Both couples say that they’re adjusting to “civilian life” and slowly getting used to not being at the Visitors’ Center.

The new Laie Temple Visitors’ Center Director and his wife are here! They arrived very late Friday evening and have been running ever since. Elder and Sister Swinton are delightful people … definitely people people. We shall really enjoy working with and for them at the Center!

Further, Elder and Sister Jensen completed their mission on Wednesday and Elder and Sister Andrus from Rexburg, Idaho arrived very late Wednesday evening as replacements for Elder and Sister Jensen. They are also delightful people and we’ll have a lot of fun working with them.

As a result, we’ve been busy. We didn’t have a Preparation Day this week because of all the changes and people coming and going. We also worked very long schedules on a couple of days and have been quite consumed training Elder and Sister Jensen and supporting Elder and Sister Swinton as they’ve taken over the reins at the Visitors’ Center. But, that’s why we’re here and we’re enjoying all the change that’s happening.

Change is often quite invigorating, particularly when good continuity happens during the changeover. The sister missionaries seem to be working very well with the change in people … combined with this being the last week of the transfer. Saturday evening they’ll learn who’s being transferred, who will have new companions, who will move into different apartments and be assigned to different wards. Three sisters are completing their missions, one new sister is coming from the MTC in Provo, and at least one sister is returning from her three-month prosyliting assignment. So that’s a lot of change happening in a two-week period! Good thing the work we’re involved with is true!

On Tuesday we learned that a very good friend and former boss, Karl Anderson, is in Hawaii. He also knows Elder and Sister Swinton quite well. So, Karl and his wife Joyce came to the Visitors’Center on Wednesday about noon and we all had a great visit. I really enjoyed catching up on all the things that are happening with the Kirtland area and the plans for the recent property purchases the Church has made in Kirtland. Karl is the definitive expert on Kirtland and even has his own Wikipedia page! As Nina has often remarked, special experiences like this are clear signs that the Lord knows where we are and demonstrates that to us.

Hopefully we’ll get some pictures of Elder and Sister Andrus in the next couple of days. That’ll make good blog material as well. Meanwhile, I’m tired and it’s time to get ready for bed.

Ta ta for now!