The weather has changed a bit over the past week with a cold front moving through the islands. The winds have picked up and the rain showers have increased. It’s still rather cool, though, and I’ve even got a jacket on while writing this email. We had Stake Conference today which was held in the Canon Activity Center on the BYU-H campus. This very large building is a sports arena that is built to be converted into an auditorium. Otherwise it’s a basketball court or a volleyball court, or similar. It has a Very Efficient Air Conditioning System! As we left the house this morning I suggested to Sister Smith that she might want to bring a sweater. She did … and later wished she had brought a coat! I wear a suit on Sundays (mission policy … all other days it’s a short-sleeved white shirt, tie, and slacks) and was very glad for that. It was a very good conference despite being very cold inside the building. President Warner, our Hawaii Honolulu Mission President, and his wife spoke at Stake Conference and afterwards came over to the Visitors’ Center to conduct some missionary interviews. He was very funny about how cold it was in the meeting. To him it felt like being in a meat locker at the grocery store!
The air conditioning at the Visitors’ Center is just as temperamental. Yesterday it was very cold in the Center. The day before it was too warm. This afternoon it was pretty much OK, a bit on the cool side. The Honeywell repair man has spent several hours this past week trying to get the air conditioning system set up correctly. Apparently some of the controls aren’t working right and may need to be replaced. I take a sports coat with me to work at the Visitors’ Center just in case….
We’ve had a very good week. Our eleven-month-in-Hawaii anniversary was this past week. Although it seems like we just got here, it also seems like we’ve just been here forever. There’s only a year left, though. That’s actually a bit frightening! We’ve so much left to do over here!
We spent our preparation day visiting with doctors at the VA Hospital as well as seeing the doctor about the sleep apnea study that was done recently and then doing some shopping at the Ala Moana Mall in Waikiki … a very upscale (and very expensive) mall. While there, though, we discovered a small Japanese curry restaurant tucked down in the corner of the food court where we had a delicious curry lunch. I suspect we’ll go back again. I would often have pork / rice curry at the cafeteria at Nihon Semiconductor when I was working in Tsukuba, Japan and really like that lunch. All of the doctor stuff went well with good or better-than-expected outcomes. Despite some of the (well earned) poor reputation of some of the VA Hospitals in the US, I’m getting excellent care with very capable doctors and clinical staff at the hospital here in Honolulu. The VA hospital is next door to and part of the Tripler Army Hospital. That’s also a very large and well equipped hospital. Attached is a picture of the main Tripler building that I took last November.
The new Visitors’ Center Director, Elder Swinton, has made a few small changes to how we operate at the Center which has resulted in Sister Smith and I having more time available to greet and take visitors on tours of the Center. So we’re learning the dialogs and getting much more proficient at “TTI” … the acronym for “teach, testify, and invite”. We have many different kinds of tours we can give guests at the Center and, while we always give the sister missionaries priority to meet and greet the visitors, we’re enjoying being much more involved. The new Director is not afraid at all to experiment with different ideas and welcomes our input along with the input and suggestions from the other missionaries. I can see the wisdom in changing the Director every two years to bring in fresh eyes and fresh thoughts and ideas. This is not to say that the previous Director didn’t do any of those things … they were (and are) just right for the Center while they were here and built upon a foundation established before they arrived and left a well-run and well-organized Center for the new Director to build upon.
Sister Smith and I are the only missionaries here that speak German. While we don’t get a lot of visitors from Germany, about once a week or so we have the opportunity to work with German visitors. Today was one of those days. A couple were here on vacation from southern Germany, about an hour north of Munich. We had a great conversation with them and leaned a lot about some of the political issues and concerns. Germany, ever since WWII ended, has been a very safe and secure country to live in. However, the influx of tens of thousands of refugees from Syria and neighboring countries has seriously impacted the country, according to our visitors. The refugees don’t seem to be interested in becoming Germans, but rather want to establish a new Syria or a new Lebanon. There are now more Muslim babies being born in Germany than German babies! It was definitely an interesting conversation. After our mission we’d like to take a vacation to Germany and conversations like this heightens my desire to visit there again as well as giving me a great German vocabulary workout.
We currently have twenty sister missionaries assigned to the Center and I’ll have to say we have some of the cream of the crop. These young women are just outstanding. The newest sister missionary, Sister Nielsen, comes from Soda Springs, Idaho. She was on the state-championship cross-country team and can be seen running up and down the road each morning during the 30-minute missionary exercise time. She’s been a quick learner and is doing an excellent job here at the Center.
We’re looking forward to the coming week. Sister Swinton, wife of the Visitors’ Center Director and author of President Monson’s biography “To the Rescue” is speaking at the devotional on Tuesday. We’ll close down the Visitors’ Center for the event and Sister Smith and I have been invited to lunch with the BYU-H leadership along with Elder and Sister Swinton. That should be very interesting. We’ll be back at the Polynesian Cultural Center collecting meal tickets on Monday afternoon. Life continues to be very pleasantly busy!
We hope that you all have a great week as well. ‘Til next week!
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