Visitor's Center

Sunday May 1, 2022   

Email #31

Aloha my dear, dear family and friends!

 

I hope that you aren’t tired of me using that as my greeting each week.  The longer I am here, the more I love the word--Aloha.  It is more than just a word of greeting.  When people use it they are expressing great love for the person they are greeting.  And I do send my great love to you!

 

We had our first day of serving at the visitor’s center today.  We had about five minutes of instruction and then were asked to show a group of people the movie: “Welcome to Laie”.  I gave a quick introduction to the movie before it began, and then we bore brief testimonies at the end.  We are really excited to be able to have this opportunity.  We will be able to express our feelings and bare our testimonies on a regular basis even if it is mostly to members of the church.  One experience I had was special to me.  I showed the film to a family group and at the end a “twenty something” year old son wanted to play the piano in the theater.  I told him to go ahead. He is on the spectrum and doesn’t read music but plays from his head and heart.  His father asked him to play something that represented his feelings about Hawaii.  He began somewhat timidly but eventually played a beautifully crafted song that was lengthy.  It was a beautiful thing to witness.  I imagine that is the way he likes to communicate with people—with music, not words.  

We will serve at the center each Sunday for a two-hour shift. 

 

Tuesday morning Scott and I helped at the new student orientation.   As I looked over the room filled with approximately 220 brand new students coming here to attend BYUH, I got really emotional.  It was a beautiful sight.  Many of these students would never have been able to get an education without this program of learning at BYUH. It is such an inspired program.  The church is so amazing.  Our part was very minimal—just talking with/greeting the students and being available to help in whatever way they need.  I can’t imagine coming to a new “country”, new language, new job, new friends, new environment, new school etc. Many of the students I spoke with were from the Philippines, Samoa, Tonga but I also spoke to those from oriental countries, Papa New Guinea and a couple of countries that I couldn’t pronounce. I know that there were also students from India and Cambodia. I was told later that there were about 25 countries represented in that room. It was a fun experience and we were grateful to have been able to be involved.

 

This past week was going to be the Scovilles last week of work.  I would take over in opening the store on the following Monday (tomorrow) but that was moved up because they got covid and couldn’t come in to work. The scheduling was all messed up because the students were just beginning spring term and the managers didn’t know their schedules.  So basically—I had no idea if I would have any help or not.  On Thursday we ended up having a lot of help in the early hours and hardly any help in the later hours so I worked from 11:30 to closing (7:30).  Our store opens at 12:30, and at 12:25 on Friday, I was the only worker there.  We are supposed to always have at least three employees at our store.  One employee walked in at 12:26 and I decided I better open the doors after all.  The two of us handled it alone until 2:30 when another employee came.  Hopefully, a consistent schedule can be made in the future.  I missed having the Scovilles there by my side.  But now that I’ve done two days pretty much on my own-- Monday won’t seem as stressful.  

 

Saturday morning, we attended a devotional for the Samoan Village.  Each village holds a “special devotional” once a year in which they have speakers, refreshments, music etc.  It was very nice and the music was entertaining.  I was excited to hear the “famous” Kap speak—the key-note speaker.  He is the legendary Samoan man who climbs the palm tree in the Samoan show.  I don’t think he ever wears shoes.  He didn’t have any on at the devotional.  Unfortunately, he gave his whole talk in Samoan so we couldn’t understand anything he said—except for the “Amen” at the end. It would have been appropriate to use his native language if the room was filled with Samoans, but approximately 75 percent of those attending did not speak Samoan.  For refreshments, they served bread and cocoa rice—a thick hot chocolate drink that had rice in it.  I don’t care for hot drinks unless it is cold outside.  A hot drink in Hawaii just seemed “wrong”.  But the bread was delicious. 

 

That evening Scott was asked by another senior missionary to help give a blessing to a sister missionary who has covid. That makes three missionaries so far that I know of who has covid this time around.  I thought we were done with it, but here we go again.  We hope that you are all staying well.  We are excited about a new grandson coming this week!  You are in our prayers Jordan and Faith!

 

Have a wonderful week.  We love you with all our hearts!

Much love,

Sister Bleak, mom, grandma

 

 

How I have seen the hand of the Lord in my life this week:

*I felt the spirit while helping out at the new student orientation. 

*I was helped to find my glasses that I misplaced.

*I got a lead on some possible shoes to help my feet and back problems. 

*I was helped to have the strength to make it through a very long day.

*Even though there were only two of us for quite a while—we were able to handle it (on Friday).  Thankfully, the store was slow. 

*I felt the spirit as I helped at the visitor’s center.