Reporting In from Laie on Sunday, August 14th

Greetings from a very muggy evening in Laie, Hawaii. We’ve had a series of short rain showers during the afternoon and it seems like the humidity has gone up quite dramatically after each of the showers. Tomorrow looks to be a bit nicer than this afternoon.

We had another of our “Music from the Laie Hawaii Temple Visitors’ Center” firesides this evening. Tonight’s program featured Steve Cheney on his steel guitar for the first part of the program followed by the Shumway extended family for the remainder of the program. The steel guitar was invented here in Laie and is an integral part of Hawaiian music and, of course, country music. Steve Cheney is a master of the steel guitar and plays every evening at the Polynesian Cultural Center’s Aloha luau. His son Dan is also quite accomplished and plays every evening at the PCC’s Ohana luau.

Aaron Shumway is the President of the Laie Stake and has a very talented family (particularly on his wife’s side). They sang several numbers and performed a couple of solo instrumentals. It was a very nice program and, as usual, the Visitors’ Center was filled to overflowing for the event. Everyone seemed to have a very good time.

Unfortunately for me, Sister Smith’s summer cold migrated to me this week. A cold really does impact all facets of one’s life! Her cold has hung on for close to three weeks now and I’m only on my first week. Someone will probably come up with a cure (or a prevention) for the common cold about a week after I die!

We are still looking for a place to move to so that our current apartment can be upgraded to a two-bedroom apartment. The other senior couple have found a place in the neighboring town just south of us. That’s where they attend Church. The place isn’t optimal and isn’t quite as nice as where we’re now living, but there is very little available for rent. Elder Swinton, the director, has suggested moving us into one of the apartments down by the beach. That’d be ok … again not nearly as nice as where we’re living right now … but it displaces four sister missionaries who would then need a place to live. That doesn’t sound like a good plan at the moment. We’re continuing to look, as is the mission’s housing coordinator.

We’ve stayed pretty close to home this past week, both of us having a cold means we haven’t been very ambitious to go sightseeing or whatever. Never-the-less, it’s been a very busy week for us. Sister Smith is currently managing a project to do a deep cleaning on each of the sister missionary apartments. Each week for the past three weeks she’s been arranging to deep clean one apartment. Three are done, four remain to be completed. The apartment looks much better when it’s finished, but making all the arrangements and handling all of the logistics is quite a task. We’re in the fifth week of the transfer this week and that’ll impact the cleaning schedule as this transfer comes to an end.

Last week was a record-setting week on a couple of fronts. We had an all-time high number of guests who came on the Laie Tram Tour from the Polynesian Cultural Center for a day of 452 people. We also had a record number of qualified referrals to be sent out to local missionaries and a record number of baptisms for a week. That meant we needed to have a party! So last Friday was “Sloppy Joe Day”. Sister Smith cooked up her famous sloppy joes and we all got together for lunch. The sister missionaries really enjoy these kinds of activities when they can kick back a bit and visit.

Two pictures are attached. One is a picture taken near the top of the cascading pools in front of the Temple. Some adventurous souls have climbed out onto the cement work to take some pictures. A few minutes later, the lady closest to me slipped and fell into the pool. By the time I got there, she was out and quite embarrassed.

The other picture is of the Shumway family. President Aaron Shumway is the tall fellow on the left.

Life here continues to be good to us and we’re enjoying the work at the Visitors’ Center. So, ’til next week! Ta ta for now!

Love,
father/father-in-law/brother/brother-in-law/son/uncle/grandfather/friend/missionary

Posing By the Pools
Posing By the Pools

Shumway Family
Shumway Family


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