March 2018

 I like to to start out with a beautiful sunrise. These are from our second floor front door.

You never know what you'll find while on a walk. By the looks of these vines I don't think this car has moved in a while. BTH, we saw a tow truck picking up 5 deserted, stripped down cars a few weeks ago...a great improvement on the beach.

We toured the very old Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu. This was the royal residence of rulers of the Kingdom of Hawaii beginning with King Kamehameha III and ending with Queen Lili'uokalani. 

Does your living room look like this?

This is a tree on the grounds of the Iolani Palace. They said the trees were several hundred years old and are just gigantic. That's me way down at the base. The tree below is a Banyan tree. The vines grow down from the tall branches and then attach themselves to the ground to strengthen the tree trunk to support the continually growing tree.

We attended a great Celtic performance during the week of St. Patricks.

The Career Center hosted a Polynesian/Asian career fair for several days. International companies from the Asian/Pacific side of the world came to promote their companies and look for future employees. There were 50 different companies represented here, ie., IT companies, hotel/tourism companies, foreign (Tongan/Samoan) gov't jobs, and all branches of the military were represented. Remember that our I-WORK students (international students) have their student loans forgiven if they return to their native countries and work for 4 years building their countries, families and Church. This is similar to joining and working for the military for 4 years after they have paid for your schooling. 

Very few students have cars on campus. It's a huge expense that usually only a few of the mainland kids can afford. Housing is within walking distance of the campus and PCC so you see students on skateboards, bikes, and razor scooters on their way to and from campus and work.  I've seen this fellow several times around and he lives in married housing, I think he brought his child's scooter.

The hibiscus is Hawaii's state flower. This hibiscus was over 8 inches in diameter. It was opened up so completely enjoying the sunshine.

It's so fun to see students walking around campus playing their ukuleles. This student is from Tonga and so happy to stop for a picture. We love attending our ukulele class every Monday night.

A Tongan PCC employee made this lei for our neighbor before she left the mission. Each petal is attached separately, it's a work of love.

Maybe you've seen the Tonga Sisters as they performed on Ellen. They also sang at our Ward Christmas Church service, they are nieces of our Bishop. Ellen gave each of them a $10K scholarship to further their education. You can listen to them on youtube. It's amazing how all the people of the Polynesian culture have beautiful voices. They are always singing at different activities and programs around campus and Church. Keala Settle, who played the bearded lady on 'Greatest Showman' is also from Laie. The gals in the Registrar's office all remember when she was a student here. Her local family and friends bought out an evening at the local theater in her honor so family and friends could come see the show and get up and sing and dance along with the movie.

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Here are some pictures from the cultural celebration that lasted for two nights on campus. Twenty-five different countries are represented as students participate in an energy filled, enthusiastic celebration of their culture in song and dance, in costumes, in energy, in spirit and happiness! It was a spectacular event.

This is a married Tongan couple in our ward, Sioni and Sini. They are Tonga through and through. Very friendly, boisterous and have a great love of their heritage and culture. Korean dance is below.

Aotearoa - Maori word for New Zealand. The interpretation is 'the land of the long white cloud.'

Part of the dance from Chinese students.

I never tire of these beautiful flags flying around the large circle entrance to campus. 76 countries are represented and they rotate them every day so none receives more prominence than another. That's our little white car with the sun screen in the window. We get here every day by 8am and are lucky enough to get a parking space.

We happened to be working at the PCC the night of our anniversary.  The students working at the Prime Dining venue sang to us and gave us each a lei. What a nice surprise Steve arranged for me.

This old fashioned island car is in the Hukilau Marketplace at the Polynesian  Cultural Center. It's a perfect spot for a picture.

And another beautiful sunset.

We hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Easter and General Conference today. What a great General Conference it was! There are so many historic changes, and 7 new Temples. Wow! Above all, the reality of the life, ministry and Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. He is risen and leads and guides His church.

Mission Tidbits:
Sometimes I include mundane or ordinary pictures of things I want to remember from our mission. They may not be spectacular to you, but they are memories of our everyday living here in paradise.

We have students graduating the end of April from the following countries: United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu (group of islands NE of Australia, (I don't think I've heard of these islands), Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Sweden, Malaysia, China, Western Samoa, Japan, Hong Kong, Norway, Philippines, Colombia, S. Korea, Mexico, Thailand, Canada, Mongolia, Finland, Taiwan, Brazil, Tahiti, Australia, Singapore, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Chile, India, Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Papa New Guinea. Of course there are plenty of graduates from the mainland also.

We have been called to teach the Strengthening Marriage class in Sunday school. Should be interesting!

Our weekly Addiction Recovery Class on Tuesday at 9 pm has been expanded to include a 'Spouse and Family Support Group'. Steve and another senior missionary lead the ARP class and the wife of Steve's partner and I lead the 'Spouse' class. We do not do therapy. We simply follow the church's 12-step program which was designed based on the Alcoholic's Anonymous program.

I've added a few extra evening activities. On Monday prior to Family Home Evening we both attend the ukulele lessons. Tuesday, before ARP, is a lei making class at the PCC, Wednesday is a hula class I attend that the community of Laie provides, we juggle our Temple attendance and ticket taking (and free meal) assignment, laundry and ironing wherever we can squeeze it in. Good thing Steve loves to iron his own white shirts while we watch something on our computer.

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