May 12, 2014

The past two weeks have been very busy.  We were so tired this weekend we simply collapsed!
We did go to our Sunday church meetings.  Mothers Day was a day of rest.  But I better start with two weeks ago…

The Harlem Globetrotters came to Laie BYU-H.  The missionaries supported the event, but I can say that we had seen enough by half time, and probably won't be wanting to see another game in our lifetime.  The children loved it and the students didn't support it as much as we thought they would, probably because of the cost.  The best part was the mascot.  He was pretty funny.  The plays were still the same.

Samoan Devotional was Saturday morning at the PCC.  Each village at the PCC has a devotional once a year.  This time it was the Island of Samoa presenting the devotional.  The speakers are mostly students from Samoa and they present a theme for the meeting, at this meeting the theme was respecting our heritage.  These young people do a wonderful job and are very humble and most of them very poor.  During the meeting a rooster (chicken) flew up on the beams and starting crowing, it was very distracting but the meeting went on.   There were many comments from the speakers about the noise but finally the chicken stopped crowing, must of fallen asleep like some of us do during our church meeting.

Did you find the chicken?

Chicken joined the choir.  Inside the Hut.

One of the Samoan Huts

Above is the chiefs hut in the Samoan village.  This was just recently remodeled.  The Samoan culture is very strong in Laie and their chiefs have a lot of say as to what goes on at the PCC.  The Samoans are a large and friendly people and are not in a hurry.


Derek and Emily (Mangelson) Egan graduated from the University of Utah on Friday May 2, 2014. Derek graduated with Honors Bachelor of Science in Operations Management and Emily graduated with Bachelor of Science in Marketing.  We are proud of both of you and Love you both!

They are a handsome couple

They are on their way…..

We have had some birthday boys during April.  Jake turned 14 on April 7, and Sam turned 15 on April 17.  We miss and love you boys.

Sam and Anna at Laie Temple

Jake standing by statue at Polynesian Cultural Center

Coming this week is Erik's 20 birthday.  He sent us a picture of him and his companion.  They wanted to look alike…..bought glasses, ties and matching suit's I hear!   He's doing good in Connecticut.

Erik is on the left, can you tell.  I think he has gained weight.  Looks like he will gain much more if he wants to look like his companion. We are very proud of Erik and the way he is performing on his mission.

Aimee sent us pictures of Madeline on her first Prom Date.  She couldn't remember the boys name but he is 6'5" and Maddie is all of 5'2…..she did her best with 4" heels and stood tall.  You look real cute Maddie, hope you had a good time.  (Don't you think Mom's should know the name of the boy their daughter is going out with?)

Maddie and friends going to dance

Mary came to see us.  She arrived on Wednesday and stayed in Honolulu the first day.  She was with her friend Kathy.  Kathy helped her with car and getting around.  They came out to see us on Friday and I took her to the temple.  They visited the Polynesian Cultural Center and stayed for the Ha, Breath of Life Show that night.  It was good to spend some time together.  We drove in to Honolulu Saturday and took them to the Swap Meet.  We pushed Mary in wheelchair until we were all hot and tired.  We took them back to hotel and then did our shopping and came home.  Sunday they came out and Mary spent the day again with us.    I took her to Turtle Bay and we walked around the hotel and beach.

Mary and Cathy at Temple

Mary at Turtle Bay

Smelling the flowers

Relaxing by the water

I haven't heard from you Mary, did you get home?  Maybe trip wore you out.  I hope you found everyone okay at home.  Love you.

May Day was a busy day at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  It's an annual festival to have the Elementary Laie School come to the PCC and have music and dance festival at the Ha Theater.  It was  busy with children practicing during the days before the festival too.  We were able to go to the performance.  The children here learn very young how to dance and perform on stage.

                                                The top picture is of the May Day Queen.

The second picture is of the children's  white costumes.  After they finished dancing they dropped their white costumes and were all in colorful south of the boarder costumes and music.

The Festival went on for three hours.  Every child in the school performed.  Every person living in the little town of Laie was at the performance to watch.  Big crowd, the theater was filled, no seats available.

The World Fire knife Championships were held at the Polynesian Cultural Center this past week.  We have been scrambling to get costumes and outfits for the competitors and workers.  I think everyone had a new outfit, a new shirt, new palliates and lava lavas.    We also made a new sail for the Ha Show.  It was made with beautiful white silk.  We made four panels of 18 yards long, 42" wide.  We figured we worked with 72 yards of material in length and a football field is 100 yards long.  It took four of us a week to finish it.

We were able to get the new sail finished for the Fire knife Opening.  It was completed for the Friday show.  The fire retardant wasn't put on the finished sail however.  When I watched the show I held my breath that the fire wouldn't be too close.  The Saturday show that we were able to watch was altered some, and the fire was used more than usual that night.  Truly, the Lord blesses this place, otherwise it would have burned down long ago.  The fire was over and under the sail so close I thought it would go up in a poof of smoke, but it didn't.  All went according to plan.  The fire dancers competed during the intermission.  We were able to see the Saturday final night Ha show and see the final three competitors.  It was a once in a life time show.  The fire knife finalist had drums play as they danced. For three nights we heard drums.  I was plugging my ears.  This was the 22nd annual World Fire knife Championship.  Let me explain what a fire knife is:  it is like a baton with both ends on fire. The ends have a material with gas and lighted, it burns very hot and these guys twirl the baton as fast as they can.  To be perfect there should not be a break in the fire circle as it is twirled.  It was kind of scary for us to watch,  but they are not afraid.

This picture is of Jeralee Galeai.  Her Mother works with me in Theater and Costumes.  I made her dress for competition night.  Her father is a fire knife dancer in the Ha, Breath of Life Show every night.  No wonder his daughter likes the fire knife.  She was 14 and won in the Junior Competitors.

May Day Festival for seven High Schools on Oahu were all the the PCC on Saturday morning.   Each year they have a "We are Samoan Festival" with the high schools participating.  It was like fantastic, they performed many different routines and were all in sync.  It was like going to the Davis Cup held at the University of Utah for the high school bands.  

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The custom of the Samoans is to throw money for the performers.  This is all money on the ground thrown to the dancer.  The money will go to the Kuhuku Samoan School Club.  

At the end of each performance money is thrown at the performers.  This is a tradition for the Samoan people, hundreds of dollars were given to the schools to support the Samoan club at each high school. We were fortunate to be here on our Mission to see these performances.  I guess these are the perks of Mission life at the PCC. Friday night Shen Yun Show.  A group of missionaries got together and went to a Chinese ballet call Shen Yun.  Beautiful costumes and beautiful and graceful dancers.  We borrowed a 12 passenger van from the PCC and went to the concert.  Many of the single sisters do not have cars, the van provided a way to get them all to the concert.  The Pollacks and Ron and I were going alone for Mothers Day Treat, but it ended up that Stacy and I shared our husbands with the single sisters.

The Shen Yun Show is Classical Chinese Dance.  The Chinese Dance is one way which 5,000 years of Chinese culture has been passed down and retained.   The show has never played in China.  It was China's rich cultural traditions displayed through music and dance.  The costumes were beautiful with bright flowing colors.  If you have a change to see it, go.

Elder/Sister Pollock, Sister's Linton, Johnson, DisPain, Bisson, Tisdel, Myasaki, Lewis and Sister/Elder Tremea

Wonderful Show

We passed our one year mark.  It's been like a celebration at the PCC for two weeks now, so I guess we will call it good.  It has gone fast and slow.  The weeks fly by, but sometimes the days seem really slow.  Today we worked all day and then worked tonight taking tickets.  We are still walk abouts so we are moving, walking and checking people.  Very tired tonight.

Looking through pictures and remembering the days gone by with family just a year ago.  We are almost to 51 year Anniversary.  Grateful for family and friends.    Where in the world are we?

Love and miss you all.

April 23, 2014

We hope you had a Happy Easter and a fun time hunting for the Easter Eggs.  We missed the hunt! Papa hasn't even been saving his change.  He has been spending it... I think.  He will have to change his ways real soon.  It felt different this Easter.  Last Easter we were having our farewell and had an Easter egg hunt in Aimee and Scott's back yard.  This year part of the family Easter egg was in Becky and Mark's yard.  Based on the picture below I think they had fun with out us.  Mike and Tammy had their own hunt in St George.  Next Easter we hope the hunt will be in St George with the entire family again.  We sure do miss the fun family gatherings.

2014 Easter at the Mangelson's 

Our Bishop was released the week before Easter, so Sunday was "Come What May".  Students had left to go home after graduation and we had skeleton crew.  The new Bishop and new councilors spoke in Sacrament and Priesthood and Relief Society were few in number.  This week has been busy week for Bishop to make new calls and find students to fill positions.  Papa will be busy Sunday again.

Most of the students left for the summer.  Our ward was reduced from 125 to 60 members.  Our entire Elders Quorum presidency disappeared.  The only one remaining was Freddie and he is the President, thank goodness he did not leave.  On Sunday I had the opportunity to Call, Sustain and Set Apart 3 Elders to serve in the Bishopric.  Two of the young men were from Korea and one was from Hong Kong.  It was a pleasure talking to them and seeing their humility.  They all willingly accepted their calls, which I was especially grateful for.  It makes the Bishop's life much easier if they accept the calls and then magnify those callings.

On Saturday our Stake had a Mormon Helping hands service project.  Our project was to clean up the Haaula Elementary school which is about 3 miles away.  The Stake provided a school bus to transport the students from BYU-H.  We had around a 100 people show up.  We started at 8:00 am and finished around 10:30 am.  We cleaned the bushes around the school.  In Hawaii the plants grow really well, not like in St George.  Many ferns and green plants, trees and bushes were overgrown.  We carried out around 50 garbage bags full of dead brush and junk.

While some were working on the bushes others were working on the painting of the curbs and striping in the parking lot.  We started painting and about 30 minutes after we started we got a rain shower.  Paint started to spread out side of the lines, fortunately the rain ended and we continued.  We painted the curbs red and the lines white.  After we were finished it looked much better even if some of the lines were smeared.

On the left is a picture of our new Bishop.  His name is Bill Liva, he is in the black shirt, he is Samoan and is a very happy guy.  He is always smiling.  The guy in the yellow helping hands shirt is Brother Pauni, he serves on the High Council with me.  The Polynesian people are very kind, caring and giving.  They love their families and stay very close to their children.  Many of the children live with the parents even after they are older because it is hard finding good jobs.  Many do not go to school and rely on low paying jobs to support themselves.  Some times it takes more than one income to keep the household running.

Of course after every event in Hawaii food is involved.  I think the Polynesians believe that if they serve food the people will come. They serve food after FHE, Break the Fast, Socials and whatever else comes up.  At this gathering we had rice with chili poured over the top, cookies and mandarin oranges. Hawaiians love rice, they eat it for every meal, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  I think this might have something to do with their large sizes.






We went for a walk on a different stretch of beach.  The shoreline wasn't as good, it had sand and sea shells and then dropped off four or five feet.  It was a nice walk and a beautiful sunset.

Walking back to the car we came across a baby mongoose.  I think it thought Papa was it's mommy because it tried to follow him to the car.  We finally had to leave him and hope his real mom found him.  He was crying loud enough, I'm sure she found him.

We worked at the PCC twice last week.  The crowd is starting to enlarge.  We had two luau's every night.  I had seen workers cleaning the flowers and bushes earlier that morning and the large red ginger, bird of paradise, and red/yellow flowers were cut and made into arrangements for the Luau. I'm wondering what department does the flower arranging???

Costume Department has been busy.  We are making new skirts for the 2:30 pm lagoon show and replacing zippers in skirts and blouses.  This burlap we put two rows of feathers on the bottom and lined the inside so it can be disconnected and washed.  After the show the material smells so bad…
We will be starting to make another Sail next week.  The white silk arrived.  Each panel is 18 yards long and we connect four panels.  Fatue is checking the size on me.

On the way back from Kaneohe we noticed the locals are moving to the beach for their weekends again.  It will be crowded every weekend when the weather is good and children are out of school.

Papa and I stopped and played tourist at a roadside cafe, the Crouching Lion Inn on the way home. We decided it was expensive for a hamburger at $14.95 and $15.95 for fish sandwich.  The view was great.  We had a little sun, a little rain and a beautiful guinea hen beside our car when we left.

Have a great week.
Love and miss you.
Nona and Papa

PS

Congratulations to Emily and Derek on their duel graduation from the University of Utah this week. We love and appreciate your good example.
(Check the Easter Picture at the top of the Blog….they are the two lovebirds under one basket!)


When did they grow to such beautiful young women?  It seems like yesterday when we took this picture…….

  

April 13, 2014

Another two weeks has passed us by on our Hawaii Mission.  Over the past two weeks we have been busy getting ready for BYUH graduations, PCC celebrations and a big birthday party for Sister Tremea (Cathy, Nona) we celebrated her 70th birthday.

First the birthdays.  On April 9th we celebrated Sister Tremea's 70th birthday.  The kids sent her gifts and lots of cards and letters to look at. As you can see here she is very proud of her collections.  She certainly does not look like she is 70 years old. The kids decided to send gifts that they remembered that Nona liked and things that they remembered most.  Some of her gifts included black licorice, Cavanaughs rum balls, clean wipes, jelly beans and stuff.  

The girls also sent us a birthday celebration kit, with candles, balloons, ribbon, sparklers, etc.



Seamstress had a birthday celebration for 4 of us that had birthdays in April.
Tamera our Mongolian student,  Sister Cherrington, Sister Miesasaki and Sister Tremea.

Sister Fuller did all the decorations.  Papa gave box sent from Aimee and Tammy to Brother and Sister Fuller and they hosted the party and picked up 2 cakes from Ted's Bakery.












We were the walk a-abouts at PCC.    The missionaries that worked with us sang to me at dinner. Never in all my dreams did I think at 70…. I would have a birthday while serving a mission at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Two cute students sang for us.

Thank you, thank you, for all the cards. the pretty dress (Tammy), the poem from Emily that made me cry, and all the wonderful thoughts of your love.   What a thoughtful fun way to spend a Birthday when I was able to give away all my favorite things.   The candy, whips, hand lotion, jelly beans and treats was fun to give away and everyone was excited to receive something.

Below is our friends at the Birthday Party at Elder and Sister Fullers home on the Point.

Our Missionary Friends from Left to right…Elder and Sister Tremea,  Elder and Sister Nielson, Elder and Sister Cooper, Elder and Sister Sessionsn, Elder and Sister Cardnal and Elder and Sister Fuller

Phtue in Wardrobe/Costumes also had a birthday on the 10th of April.  Sister Cooper made a cake and we had cake and ice cream together.  She has worked at the PCC for 35 years.  She turned 60 years old.  Oh, to be 60!!!  (Sister Cooper took this fuzzy picture!)  

                                                    Sister Tremea and Phtue

Kathy Helo and Phtue

Last week was a busy one in Costumes.  We made feather skirts and Lapa Lapa's and had to have 18 made in two days.  We were busy.  I did a good burn job on my arm while pressing them.  

We have been catching rats too……this is number 18 and 19!

We called these two Romeo and Juliet because we caught them in one trap together………

Needless to say, I have been using the disinfectant and cleaning up the place again.

On Friday a group of us from the office (11 to be exact) went to a funeral service for the mother of our boss Larry Yuen. We took a 12 passenger van and I was the designated driver.   The service was in Waipahu about 30 miles away in an LDS Chapel. Mrs Yuen was 89 years old, had 10 children, 36 grandchildren and 45 great grandchildren.  That would be quite a party when they all got together. One of her sons George Yuen lives in Eden Utah.  She came from a family of 14 children, she was Japanese and her husband was Chinese.  Wow what a legacy.

The viewing was held in the culture hall.  While we waiting in line waiting to see the family all kinds of sweets and small sandwiches were provided to us.  After the funeral service was held in the Chapel we were invited back into the culture hall and invited to eat lunch.  Again lots and lots of food, and really good food. Apparently this is the tradition in Hawaii, to provide food for all of the guests that attend a funeral.  Another tradition in Hawaiian funerals is that donations are made to the family in the form of cash and not flowers.  I guess this donation helps the family pay for all of the food.  

Today at church we brought a couple from St George, Bro and Sister Randle   They contacted us at the PCC Friday night and we asked them to join us today.  Their children were friends of Aimee and Scott's and their granddaughter Olivia is a friend of Maddie's.  We had many visitors because of graduation this week, unfortunately many of the students have already left so our meeting attendance for the summer will be small.    It was a bitter sweet Sacrament meeting.  Bishop Wasden was released and our new Bishop Liva sustained.  Bishop Liva is Samoan and seems to be a very humble man.  He works at the Temple and his wife works in the PCC Business office.  It will all be good, the Samoan students were excited and we have lots of them in the ward.  We will miss Bishop Wasden and his wife and family.  They have been a great example to the students and us as well.

It is wonderful to know that our Church is organized in such a manner that a new Bishop is selected to take over from an old Bishop and is given the Priesthood keys to manage the needs of each ward. He has been given the gift of discernment and he knows how to manage the needs of each member of his ward (Ohana, family).   The Lord is in charge of the operation of his kingdom on earth and will not let it go astray or fail.