Anyone want to come walking with me in the morning? The sun is coming up later and later so it's more difficult to get out early. I may have to drag Steve with me, or start walking in the dark.
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A young man in our ward works as a tour guide. He invited us along with many students to meet at Hukilau Beach and kayak to Goat Island a couple hundred yards away, you can see it in the distance. I'm good to do anything free that includes a life jacket. My partner was a young Polynesian from our Ward, I felt very safe since he grew up on the ocean. We had some good size waves that were a little scary. Several of the kayaks tipped over but luckily we stayed upright. One of the students that came along told us her friend was surfing recently near this island when a shark bit his surfboard. Last month a student was bit by a shark at Pounder's Beach. This is the beach where I played so often in the ocean with my son Matt, his wife Mary and their family in July. I might have questioned these stories had I not seen a shark myself on Sunset Beach while watching the sun go down.
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Is this the cutest little Mongolian toddler? We connected by giving high-fives to each other.
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This is our homeless friend Patricia wrapped up in her wind and rain resistant cocoon. This is a lovely covered patio at our local beach often used for parties. She sleeps in the attached restrooms. When her chair was stolen we gave her our camp chair and a poncho. She likes fruit punch and soft cookies since she has no teeth. Wouldn't you love to live on ocean front property?
The offices at BYU-H love to decorate for the holidays. This is Mary, a student from the Philippines, Salote from Tonga, student Farrah also from the Philippines and Karess, a local from Laie, we all work together in the Registrar's office.
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Our devotional last week was given by Jennifer Kajiyama Tinkham, entitled "By Small and Simple Things". She is a professor of Legal Studies. She grew up in Laie, went to all the local schools, went on a mission to Japan, then graduated from BYU-H. She received a joint JD/Masters of Public Administration degree from BYU-Provo. She is also certified to appear before the Supreme Court. She has gone through brain surgery and was a single mother with an 8 year old daughter, until this summer when she remarried in the Laie Temple.
She is less than 5 feet tall so her message was appropriate to her.
1. Seek to perform small and simple acts of kindness.
2. Find gratitude in the small and simple things in life.
3. See your small and simple character traits through God's eyes.
4. Perform your small and simple acts with faith in Jesus Christ.
Sunday evening while walking around the Temple we saw this couple taking wedding pictures. Knowing the temple wasn't open on Sunday I asked them if they were taking pre-wedding pictures. Turns out they are both from India and were married 5 years ago in the Hong Kong Temple. She never got to wear a wedding dress or have wedding pictures taken. They even have a little boy. One of the women on campus keeps a closet full of wedding dresses for girls to select from and borrow if they would like. I've seen some of the dresses and they are absolutely beautiful. So this gal was living her dream and loved being a new bride again.
Can you believe how my hair has grown? I haven't seen it this long since high school.
The full moon this week. The clouds here are so beautiful silver lined by the moon.
*sometimes when we come out of the school or any store that has AC, your glasses fog up so completely you can't see anything.
*Mission advice: don't wear drab colored clothes on a mission. Brightly colored clothes are good for your emotional health. Good thing Steve doesn't mind wearing white shirts every day. He did bring about 20 ties for a variety. Of course over here we only have one season (lovely with rain and humidity) and the temps don't differ more than about 10 degrees throughout the year, nor 10 degrees from day time to night time. So you can wear the same clothes year round.
*Remember Olive the student from Myanmar who our Gilbert neighbors introduced to the gospel several years ago? If you recall, we met Olive the first week we were here. She got married last year and is expecting a baby now. She works as an intern in the counseling office with Steve.
* I've met so many new freshman students through the VOICE program since the semester started. This program gives students a chance to practice their conversational English. Of course students must pass an English proficiency exam before being admitted to BYU-H but many still have a long way to go before they are fluent in English. They are enrolled in EIL (English as an International Language) classes for several semesters before they start their general ed classes. Remember students come from over 70 countries. They can be very shy, lonely, frightened, and introverts as new students and appreciate the chance to practice speaking with senior sister missionaries. I think sometimes we are their surrogate mothers or more like their grandmothers with great love, empathy and a listening ear for them. Ganbaa is from Mongolia and started learning his English online. He served a mission in his native country. Junior is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the new temple is located. He was a primary school teacher but came to get his degree so he can go back and get a better job and open more schools. He is married and has two children. Joy is from Taiwan and wanted me to teach her how to pray in English. She served a mission in her own country and English is still difficult for her. I love the way many foreign students (mostly Asian and Japanese) choose an English name to be known by. Jane is from Hong Kong. Many students are the only Church member in their family and still they have sacrificed to go on missions. In fact, 90% of the men at BYU-H are returned missionaries and 50% of the women have been on missions.
* We watched a fascinating video called 'Forks Over Knives'. It's all about the value of eating a plant-based diet. The people they followed in the video had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, etc. The improvement they made by following a plant-based diet were amazing. I highly recommend finding this video and learning from it. I think I'm going to quietly move in that direction. Do you think Steve will notice? [Yes, I will notice because I proofread the blog entries. :)] Over here fruits and vegetables are very expensive because they are all imported. And making them tasty takes a lot more time and effort. Info and recipes are located on forksoverknives.com
* Last night we attended the Mongolian Club's evening 'date night' activity. They had asked Steve to share thoughts on enriching their marriages. We then played a game and they provided a light dinner. It's fun to see them so happy and speaking their native language with each other.
*Today Steve was on a panel discussion in a married ward talking about 'resilience.' As with universities all over the country, many students here struggle with anxiety, depression and stress.
Greetings from different countries:
Aloha - Hawaii
Bula Vinaka - Fiji
Malo e lelei - Tonga
Ia orana - Tahiti
Talofa - Samoa
Kia ora - Aotearoa (New Zealand-Maori)
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