Nona & Papa's Mission, Polynesian Cultural Center, Laie Hawaii

September 29, 2013

This was another busy week, it seems like the weeks go by faster if we keep busy. There is always something to do, either at the Polynesian Cultural Center or in our Young Single Adult 5th Ward.

In the picture is my new student accountant, his name is Wade (not his real name) and he is from China (I can't say his real name) He is married and in his final year at BYU-H. He is a great guy, soft spoken and very nice and considerate. He plans on going back to China when he finishes school. Hopefully he will be able to find a job, he said the unemployment rate is very high, too many people and not enough jobs.

We worked a ticket shift at the PCC on Wednesday night, we started at 4:30 and ended around 7:00 pm. Darkness is coming earlier in the day and it will soon be dark by 6 pm. Hawaii does not change to daylight savings time, so when Utah changes we will only be 3 hours different instead of the current 4 hours.

Every time we work it seems we meet new friends. The young man
above is Hawaiian and his dad is a Stake President. This guy is full of energy and soon will be going on his mission to the Philippines. His call is to the Northern Philippines where it is dense rain forest. He claims he will be living in huts and sleeping on the ground. He loves to camp out on the beach, so he is excited to go. He is dressed in his costume for picture taking with the guests. The pictures can then be purchased by the guests for $20. Kind of like a cruise picture. On the left side is Joseph, he has been around the PCC for years and helps take care of the pictures.

Above we are doing the huka, or warrior dance. We dance around in a circle and shout out war cries. Strange things we do on our mission. Below is a picture of the PCC Prime Dining restaurant. It has beautiful murals painted on the walls. We are allowed to eat here after our ticket shift, the food is pretty good, prime rib, salmon and crab legs and all of the trimmings.

On payday Friday's farmer's market is held in one of the large rooms on campus. They have all kinds of produce, not cheap but fresh. Students come here and buy their supplies, at least it is less expensive than in the grocery stores.

We are about to order a soup, Sieman, it has noodles, fish, veggies and other stuff, it is very good. Costs about $5. We try to make it to the market on payday Friday just to get the soup. We usually buy an extra bowl for Keke, she is the volleyball player that you have seen in previous pictures. She loves the soup and said it gives her energy.

The volleyball team played in Honolulu this past weekend. We didn't drive over to the games. We felt bad because they lost the first night. It was close, 4th game 23 to 25. They won Saturday night. The team will be leaving for CA in the morning and will travel for 10 games. We have another girl, Ariel, in our YSA Ward. She is 6" tall and really nice. Ariel and Keke have played together since Junior High School.

Yesterday we drove to Millinani to Walmart. I decided to buy cutting board and cutter for sewing. I have one at home and considered having it sent, but probably would cost about the same. We do keep collecting things, and probably will leave them all here for someone else to use. On the way home on the North Shore, Sunset Beach there were five large turtles beached. We stopped to see them. The North Shore isn't as busy as it has been in the summer. Most of the travelers with children have come and gone. It was a real treat not to have a 2 1/2 hour drive to get to Walmart. Saturday summer days can be long waits with traffic.

Each turtle had a name and information

Hale'iwa is close to Sunset Beach where we found the turtles

The Green Turtles beach early afternoon and sun for the day. At sunset they slip out to sea again. The same turtles come each day. They have seen 12 beach in one day. Yesterday there were five. They all had names and the volunteers come everyday and rope off the space to protect the turtles. The volunteer was telling us how to tell the difference of each one, Males have long wide tails and females have short tales. Their necks have different markings as do their shells. Kuhina, Scallop was a male, and larger than the others, Sapphire, Olivia-Dawn and Hao okanaku were female. They were 29 to 40 years old and about 185 to 200 lbs. It was cool to see them all lined up on the beach.

We drove further toward home and stopped to watch the sunset. It had cloud cover so wasn't a complete sun drop in the ocean but it was beautiful.

Camera on my IPhone is not working today for me.....get the picture!!!
Papa is also taking picture above with the turtles.

It was Women's Conference last night. They tape it here and replay on Sunday evening for a fireside. I was a bit disappointed so I went to LDS.org and listened to it earlier. It was an inspiring conference. Such a good reminder to all of us to keep our first covenants we made with Baptism. I hope you all had a change to hear President Monson and the RS Sisters talks. We are looking forward to Conference. It will be live at 6:00 AM on Sunday here. That's dedication to go to the church that early for two hours. Hopefully the students will make and effort to be there.

Our mission couple Elder and Sister Reynolds are still here. He is slowly recovering in the hospital. It has been a week of prayers and fasting for him. He has been in coma for 3 days. He will be in the hospital for a long time, then physical therapy. I hope he has a window to travel and can fly home to recover.

On Sunday we attended Church, another all day event. I started at 9 am met with the Elders Quorum, at 10:30 we met with the Ward Council and at noon we started Priesthood and Relief Society and finished with Sacrament. We got home around 3:30 and then I went back for a Stake Leadership Training meeting at 5 pm. Finally finished up around 6:30. Not much time to sit around and read and relax. Since we are called to serve it is enjoyable to meet with the young people and feel their loving care and sharing their love. Below is a picture of our Elders Quorum Presidency. From left to right is Tim, from Taiwan, 1st councilor, Freddy, from Hawaii, President, Kevin from California, Secretary, Elder Tremea, Jason, from Hawaii, 2nd Councilor and Elder Creer new missionary from Provo Utah.

These guys try to do the best they can with a very changing quorum. The move-in and move-outs is crazy. We are constantly changing the Quorum leadership. We have about 50 members in the Quorum and most of them are returned missionaries. It is a struggle to keep them active. Once they leave the mission field they tend to become inactive so the Presidency is also on the look out for ways to keep them coming to Church.

That was a cute Homecoming picture Anna. Your dress looked very classy and pretty. It's too bad girls your age all don't dress modestly. The flower on your wrist looked pretty too. Who was the boy? Is this the boy your taking to the Sadie Dance?

Elle that was a pretty awesome goal you told us about. Doesn't matter the size it's what's inside that really counts. Hope you don't mind if I put your letter in the Blog for everyone to read about the game.

hello,

Yesterday i shot the winning goal for my team! yeah! its true! my coach Whitney, put me in forward because i was the only one who could see open areas, wanted to try it out, and i was full of energetic. this is how i scored, Katie (not the wagner twin) was right defender, passed it to Paige, who was right midfield or center half, (thats what one of the coaches, Rich calls it) and i ran up through the middle for her to pass, and i shot with my eyes closed, linda like in yatze you take a chance to get an open house, and it actually went into the left side corner! well, i passed off 4 things in Give Me Liberty thing at school, the Continents, Old Glory, Symbols of Utah, and the Star spangled Banner, and i got a squishy fake football that has stars and stripes on it. Cloe is still working on going down on the stairs, she's doing pretty good all you do is tap her belly and she'll go down a step until she and you are at the bottom then as fast as a rocket she'll run up.

love……………………………………………………………………………………………………winninggoalscorer;……………………………………………………
elly (yes its now spelled with a Y)

I was looking through some photo's of the family. Must be a bit homesick for ya.

Remember when.....