December 13, 2015
Greetings from Laie and the Laie Temple Visitors’ Center. We’ve had a nice, busy Sunday that included a very enjoyable fireside at the Center featuring the Ko’olauloa Children’s Chorus. They put on a delightful half-hour fireside this evening. Their main program is this Thursday evening over in the theater at BYU-Hawaii.
Our new schedule starts this week and goes through January 23rd. This transfer we are at the Center on Monday and Tuesday afternoons, have Wednesday as a Preparation Day, and then are at the Center on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday mornings. Also, four sister missionaries have completed their missions and are headed home on Wednesday. They’ve all been wonderful missionaries and we’ll miss them greatly. We have one new sister missionary coming in on Wednesday from the MTC. When all the companionship and apartment changes are done, we’ll have 23 sister missionaries here, down three from last transfer. We’re authorized, and have housing available, for 26 missionaries.
This past week has been pretty laid back for us at the Center. The visitor count is down significantly from the previous week. We’re in that in-between period after Thanksgiving visitors and before Christmas visitors. Lots of schools and colleges will be closing down this coming week for Christmas and New Year, so the number of visitors should go up quite dramatically next week and the following week. We are closed on Christmas Day, when we’ll also go caroling at a local senior nursing facility.
Fewer visitors means more time to spend with the visitors that do come. It also means that Sister Smith can get out from behind the front desk and actually meet and greet the visitors. Everyone has a story. Yesterday I talked with a woman from New Haven, Connecticut where she works in the post office as a supervisor. She’s just completed her 30th year at that post office and is taking a vacation, her first visit to Hawaii. She has fallen head over heals in love with Hawaii, has checked the Post Office employment openings, found that there are some openings in Hawaii, and yesterday morning put in her application. I told her that if she gets the job, she must come back and let us know. She agreed!
Since the last letter I’ve put up a couple of new blog posts. Check them out at https://www.rnsmith.com/.
As I’m writing this, I see on my weather app that quite the winter storm is potentially dropping significant amounts of snow in Idaho. Wyoming, and Utah. My favorite brother must be quite the prognosticator! Some months ago he reserved his time share in Las Vegas and he and Chris drove down there today. Just ahead of the snow. Perry, just because you can avoid storms doesn’t mean you can win at the tables….
Sister Smith is well into recovery from her annual cold / laryngitis. I’m fully recovered from my bout with pneumonia. We’re both doing well and enjoying this season of the year. The Church has published two new Christmas videos, each about 2 1/2 minutes long (see http://christmas.mormon.org). We play them a lot at the Center and they’re very well received. The one titled “A Savior is Born” is such a joyful rendition of the scriptures around Christ’s birth. If you haven’t seen it, please do so. You’ll not be disappointed.
Life is very good here in Laie. We’re enjoying our work and assignment, and particularly enjoying the sister missionaries. We appreciate your emails, texts, phone calls, and Skype calls (and would be delighted with more of them!)! We hope you are having a nice holiday season!
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