Greetings all from Laie, Hawaii. I’ve been expressing serious thanksgiving for air conditioning, particularly at night! The trade winds have subsided, as they usually do this time of year, only making occasional appearances. The humidity is way up, and air conditioning is a very nice amenity. There are quite a few senior missionaries serving at the Polynesian Cultural Center or at BYU-Hawaii who have apartments with no air conditioning!
We have had a pretty normal week … just busier than last week. The new transfer has happened, three new sister missionaries have arrived and have begun their training. The Chinese tourists traffic is increasing, and now other tour busses have started to discover the Visitors’ Center. We had a record 15,100+ visitors last month at the Center and likely will easily exceed that number this month. All the missionaries go home at night from the Visitors’ Center ready to drop into bed!
This is a beautiful time of year, though. While it still rains most every day, this time of the year the rain is almost always at night when the ground cools off and the clouds have to drop their moisture. June first also marked the start of hurricane season. Last year five major hurricanes came by Hawaii without making landfall. Much of that action was fostered by the El Niño phenomenon. That warmer water dissipated earlier this year and changed over to a La Niña, cooler than usual water temperatures along the equator. That’s supposed to mean fewer hurricanes. Only time will tell!
At the Visitors’ Center we had run completely out of Chinese material written in the character set used on mainland China (called “simplified Chinese”). We’ve had it all on order, but there’s been a backlog at the printer affecting all of us worldwide needing Chinese language material. On Thursday morning a case of 32 Simplified Chinese Books of Mormon along with another box of 8 were delivered to the Mission Office in Honolulu. Sister Overduyn called to tell me that they had unexpectedly arrived, so after our shift on Thursday morning I made a quick trip to Honolulu to pick up the material. That’s enough books for four or five days … hopefully the backlog is clearing up and the other seven cases of books we have on order will start arriving soon!
The drive into Honolulu means going up and through the mountains that divide the island. The highway climbs up the mountainside then dives into a long tunnel to come out on the Honolulu side. Most of the time the weather is different on the two sides of the island. It’ll quite often be cloudy on our side and sunny on the Honolulu side. This day was different. I went into the tunnel in sunshine and exited on the other side in a torrential downpour. As I was driving down the hill from the tunnel exit, I saw in my rear view mirror a car in the right lane suddenly swerve into a car in the left lane, both going around 60mph. It was quite a crash. I suspect hydroplaning as a possible cause, but I’ll never (in this lifetime) know. When I went back through the area a half-hour later after picking up the books at the Mission Office, one lane of traffic was open on the other downhill side and traffic was backed up for several miles. The accident happened around 4:15pm, so it seriously impacted rush hour traffic. I was mighty thankful that I’d gotten through the tunnel and headed down the hill ahead of the accident.
So, there’s been a lot to be thankful for over here!
This week we’ll be at the Visitors’ Center for two mornings and three afternoons along with a Sunday mid-day shift. We’ll have Wednesday as our Preparation Day and will go to Honolulu sometime that day for some lab work at the VA Hospital, pick up materials at the Mission Office, and do some shopping. We’ll also spend Friday afternoon taking tickets at the PCC and Thursday and Saturday evenings at the PCC coordinating the tram / bus traffic bringing visitors from the PCC over to the Visitors’ Center for a short 15-minute visit. We continue to keep very busy!
So, ’til next week … happy summer activities to all!
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