Mission Letter: Report from Laie for October 4, 2015

October 4, 2015

Greetings All!

We’ve had a very good and very busy week. Of course, every week seems to be a very good and busy week. The Visitors’ Center seemed to have more visitors than the previous week. We’ll see the numbers at the Visitors’ Center Training Meeting (VCTM) tomorrow morning.

On Monday morning we all gathered at the Center at 7am for Elder Scott’s funeral. Elder Scott was a member of the Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles and died the previous week from natural causes due to age. So, the VCTM was moved to Tuesday morning. That meant two mornings in a row needing to be that early at the Center. In addition, those were our two days to work the afternoon shift, making for very long days.

Tuesday after VCTM we drove down to Honolulu for a doctor’s visit at Tripler Medical Center to meet with the urologist there. That was a good visit and the first of three doctor appointments at the VA here. I’ll meet with my primary care doctor next Wednesday along with a followup at the Urology Center. That’ll be followed by visits with the cardiologist and the dermatologist. All of these are preventative in nature so they’ve got a good baseline for the future.

Wednesday was house cleaning, laundry, shopping, and about a dozen other things. We hadn’t had a Preparation day the week before, so we had plenty to catch up on!

Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were our normal morning shifts at the Center and included spending Friday afternoon at the Hale Ohana luau. Sister Smith guarded the exit while I counted the people. The counting process includes capturing the number of people every five minutes for the first hour. 222 people had purchased a ticket to the luau but only 218 actually showed up. Some day I’ll understand why someone would pay the money and then not go!

The Polynesian Cultural Center occasionally shows an outdoor movie at 7:30pm. On Friday they showed the new Cinderella movie. So, after working at the luau and having the complementary dinner, we took our lawn chairs and watched the movie. It was a lot of fun with some really great scenes. For those who have seen the movie, you’ll understand why the goose was one of my favorite characters!

Saturday and Sunday were also General Conference. With the four-hour time difference, the sessions started at 6am. Two more mornings needing to be at the Center very early in the morning followed by a long day. However, the conference proceedings were marvelous. General Conference of the Church is such a sweet experience every six months. When the last session ended at noon today Hawaii time, I was sad to see conference come to an end. It was very uplifting and energizing. The Church is lead by honorable and upright prophets, seers,and revelators.

So, this has been another busy and long day. Sister Smith has already headed to bed and we’ve got another early morning tomorrow morning, so I’m headed there as well. May God’s choicest blessings be with all of you!


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