A Bleak Hawaii Mission

October 24, 2021.   Email #4.   Dear loved ones,   It was a big week at BYU-H this week.  A new BYU president (John Kauwe) was inaugurated. He is the eleventh president but the first president to be native Hawaiian.  They held a luncheon on Monday to honor him. Many dignitaries came to Laie for this event.  Our ukulele teacher asked for the members of our class to be the “prelude” music as the guests were entering the ball room for the luncheon.  I debated with myself whether I should be part of the ukulele performance because I had only attended three classes and didn’t have the songs memorized.  Two of the songs were in the Hawaiian language and I just didn’t know them yet.  I was fairly comfortable on the ukulele and felt that I could do reasonably well with that but not the singing part.  In the end, I decided to go and was glad that I did.  Here are those in attendance that are particularly worth mentioning.  Elder Ho...

October 18, 2021 Email #3 Aloha loved ones! I hope this letter finds you all well and happy.     Some things are becoming routine, so I won’t write about them too much.  The store was busier this week and so I had more to do.  I am being called to go to the “settlement” on occasion, which adds some variety to my day.  One thing that I dislike and that is taking some getting used to is that I get home so late—about  7:00  and still need to get dinner etc.  And then we might have another meeting to go to—district or zone meeting so it makes for a long day.  Which was the case for both Monday and Tuesday nights this week.  Wednesday we got together with the six couples that we were in the MTC with. We are regularly invited to join with other couples for dinner, or ice cream or some form of socializing.  Great fun!   Our zone conference was fabulous.  The spirit was strong. We were challenged by Elder King to read and mar...

October 11, 2021 Email #2 Dear family, We had our first full “normal” week of assignments this week. Basically, Scott goes to “work”  at 8:00 and is welcome to go home  at 4:00  but he usually stays until I get off  at 6:30  or so.  He chooses to stay longer and is happy to keep working on his assignments.  I don’t go to my assignment  until around noon .  Except for Wednesdays when I work at the warehouse.    There is a weekly devotional given on BYU-H campus every Tuesday morning.  I haven’t really followed who is going to be speaking—just not in the habit yet.   Monday night , I decided to look through a senior missionary newsletter that had been emailed to the missionaries a few days previously.  To my great delight, Elder Nattress—Katelyn’s former mission president was scheduled to be the speaker the next day. I made sure that I was in attendance Tuesday morning.   Scott also attended but came late...

October 4, 2021  Email #1 Hi Family,   We are so happy to be here in Laie, Hawaii-- two weeks now. In some ways it seems like we have been here a really long time already.    I have had a sense of being “off”.   It’s like when you go on vacation and eventually just want to get home to begin “normal life” again because everything is so “not real life” when you are on vacation.   I hope that I don’t feel this way for the whole 18 months.  I’m sure it is caused by trying to get used to so many new things-- New apartment (which is not very furnished), new stores, new schedule, new friends, new responsibilities  etc., etc., etc.  But there are many, many things that we love here and are so grateful for.  We are enjoying many wonderful sunrises and a few sunsets.  They are gorgeous and I never get tired of them.  We live on the Point at Laie.  Which means that we are on a peninsula so we can see the ocean from eve...