April 2019

These are the huge doors that invite you in to the Prime Dining venue. As I mentioned in my last blog they are 12 ft.x 12ft. and weight 1000 lbs. They are hand carved picturing the bread fruit so common here. We are here to take tickets.

This is the dining room inside the Prime Dining venue. The specialty is the Prime Rib and the crab legs. Neither of which I am very fond of. The orientals LOVE the crab legs. I didn't grow up on rich foods or maybe I'm tired of eating here weekly. I prefer the  wonderful salad bar and the macadamia nut ice cream.

Often after ticket taking and dinner we'll enjoy the rocking chairs and watch the guests in the marketplace and enjoy the evening breeze, lights and to relax at the end of the day.

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I just want to remember a few of the Pacific Islands and cultures celebrated at the Polynesian Cultural Center. I may have sent some of them in an earlier blog.

Tonga

Tahiti

Fiji

Hawaii

Samoa

Aoteraroa (New Zealand)

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Supplying picnic tables to group activities on the beaches is quite the entrepreneurial business.  The weekends are always full of campers and plenty of need for more tables. They set them up and haul them away. And the beach parties always have plenty of bouncy houses, another entrepreneurial business.

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This is Nawaporn Ruangthap from Thailand, she goes by Cat. I visit with her in the VOICE program and help with her English. She was part of a piano recital the other night which was truly fabulous and she's only a first semester freshman. That day I started with Zumba at 5am, worked all day, took tickets with Steve at a dinner buffet where we got to eat, then we went to the piano recital and afterwards found the inter-murals basketball game final playoffs. We didn't get home until 10:30
pm, but boy what a fun day it was.

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Here we have two missionary couples ready to go home. the Edgars on the right worked at BYUH and were in our student married ward. Kathy Edgar is the labor and delivery nurse who came out to help all the girls on campus through their pregnancies and births. The girls absolutely loved her. She loved them all and helped through 125 births with dozens more on the way. The Shelton's, on the left, worked at the PCC.

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We met Camry at the first of Fall semester at a school opening party. She was alone the whole evening and talked to no one being the new student with no friends. We finally sat down by her and started talking. She's from Idaho and worked summers in a fishing tour business in Alaska. We became good friends through the year. She said at first she didn't like being here but by the time she left she absolutely loved it and the cultural diversity. She worked at the PCC in security. She's going back to Alaska to work for the summer and then plans to go on a mission. She is one of hundreds we've become friends with.

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This is Jun from South Korea. I met with him in the VOICE program for 18 months. Sadly, I can't say there was much improvement in his English. He is the quintessential South Korean with a very square jaw line. He served his two year mandatory military service before coming to school. He graduated with an IT degree.

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This is Christian in our ward. He's from Tonga and is 6'9". I mentioned to him that I liked his tie and he immediately started to take it off to give me. I tried my best to tell him NO, I didn't mean I wanted it. But he insisted and wouldn't take no for an answer. You must be careful with the Tongans, they will give you everything they have. There was no giving it back. Steve said I should have complimented him on his truck:) Christian said he would draw the line on the truck. At a roadside food/ gift stand I said I wanted to buy the tablecloth they had their carvings on. The Tongan tried his best to give it to me but I insisted on buying it only.

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We just completed our 5th graduation while serving at BYU-Hawaii. They are so full of cultural diversity and happiness for these grads who may be the first to graduate from their families or villages and who have come from thousands of miles away to attend school. We had grads from Ghana, Nepal, Hungary, Papa New Guinea, Haiti and Cook Islands just to name a few locations.

The Registrar's office puts on the graduation every semester and these are my co-workers. The student workers are from Fiji, Hawaii, Tonga, New Zealand, Philippines and Florida. Every semester there are changes in the workers due to their own graduations.

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We had a nice Easter Sunday ending with a pot luck dinner with about six missionary couples. It was complete with a dinner of ham, mashed potatoes, various salads, casseroles, rolls and carrot cake.

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This is Lolo and her new baby from Tonga. She and Pasa were married last year, you may remember their wedding pictures. One of the sweet joys is being invited to attend temple weddings of students.

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Farewell to more missionary friends. After they each give a short farewell, the ukulele orchestra plays 'Aloha-Oe' while everyone sings. We are part of the orchestra. Individually we're not very good, but all together we sound OK. This is Dar and Julie Weech from Pima, AZ, they served at the PCC, and Gary and Cheryl Lake served at BYU-H.

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 Sometimes on Saturdays, Steve needs quiet time to rejuvenate after spending the week helping students with their problems. So I often go to the Polynesian Cultural Center and enjoy the canoe show or the different village presentations. Because I spend my days indoors, I need to be out in the beautiful weather and enjoy the crowds of visitors on Saturday.

Mission Tidbits

*Recently Steve gave a presentation in two classes on campus about marriage. This professor has used him every semester as a guest speaker. The students complete a questionnaire from the teacher and then she shared them with Steve. One student said he was "adorable". We got a good laugh from that. I think his clients feel his warmth and his care for them like a loving grandfather. Of course we are the age of their grandparents. Some of the students that come to the VOICE come for a dose of grandmotherly love and advice also.

*Every semester Steve gives several presentations about suicide prevention. These are to Hales (dorms), student groups, faculty, church groups, etc.

*For some crazy reason I have cravings for anything crunchy, salty and chocolaty. Have you ever enjoyed pretzels with Nutella? Or how about celery with crunchy peanut butter, even rocky road ice cream? Or any kind of nuts in salads, ice cream, sandwiches, vegetables, etc.? Oh, so yummy!

*We're down to 6 weeks, I can't believe it.

God does not need our works, He needs our willingness.