"IS "TRUNKY" A WORD?

When I first arrived in the great 50th State of these the great United States I thought it was the most perfect of all places on the earth and it probably is. It is so beautiful, green, blue and all colors of the rainbow and then some. It is the "Garden of Eden" in all its glory. I don't know if there is any place that can compare. I do love it here and I have had amazing experiences here. Now after 22 months it is still as beautiful but it is not Utah and it is not Cache Valley with all its wonders and beauties.
When I first arrived I loved it so much I wanted to stay here forever and ever. It is still beautiful and one of God's chosen places but it is not Utah and not Cache Valley. I guess you just can't take Cache Valley out of the girl. It is the place that my ancestors prepared for me to live and to me it is as beautiful as Hawaii. Just in a different way. After 22 months I am throughly homesick and yes very "trunky." Some of the missionaries talked about being "trunky" and I said that I would never be like that but here it is getting close to going home and I am very "trunky." I am ready to see my beautiful mountains in all there glory and yes I am ready for four seasons. I can't say that I am ready for snow but that just comes with the territory. It only last 6 months or so.

I was informed last week that I had not posted in awhile so it is time to get to work and share some amazing pictures and some adventures I have been on in the past couple of months. I have been finishing up my "Hawaii" bucket list. Kevin came to visit and with his help I finished the last few things that I wanted to do.

In September a friend was getting ready to go home and she wanted to go on a helicopter ride. It was also on my list of things to do so on Labor Day we booked a flight and off we went. It was amazing. I wanted to stay up there all day. It was over way to soon.

LTOR Pilot, rider, me, Lisa and Cathy Hanrahan "a motley crew"

Sacred Falls. A man was killed on the trail up to the falls so they closed it to hikers. It is so beautiful. What a shame. 

Time passes when we are having such a great time serving. Elder Griffeth left in April and we had to have a new supervisor so here we are our new team. I have quite the story behind our new supervisor and his wife. It is a fun one and can only happen at the PCC.

THE NEW "P" TEAM!"

Elder Layne Winzeler, Bishop Misi, Pua and me. We make quite a team.

Sister Winzeler, me and Elder Winzeler the day we met at the "P" office.



Elder and Sister Winzeler came to the PCC in April. We were dreading, excited, fearful to see who we would be working with. It was such a pleasant surprise. They were from North Ogden and immediately we started looking for people we might know. A few names came up but then EW asked where I was from and what I did before I came here. I told him I was a teacher and I worked in Wellsville. He said his daughter had worked in Wellsville. Long story short his daughter Kilee and I  worked together at Wellsville at the time of Peggy Bankhead's death. Kilee was the student teacher who took her place upon Peggy's death, helped her students deal with the situation and finished out the school year. Well that alone made me and Kris start crying and an instant bond. She told me a story about Kilee and when she heard about Peggy's death that I hadn't heard before. Not only did she take Peggy's class but my granddaughter Kristen was in her class. That was a very traumatic year at Wellsville. Kilee had heard I was on a mission in Hawaii and told her parents to look me up but of course that was the last thing on their minds as they were trying to get situated and learn all they needed to know to begin their service. Low and behold EW and I were working in the same office and didn't even realize it for a week or so. Then old friendships were renewed.

HELP FOR A "TRUNKY" SISTER

September was here and I was feeling very, very homesick. I didn't know if I could make it another two and a half months. One night Kevin called me and said that he was going to come to Hawaii the end of September. I was so excited that I thought the time would never pass until I could see him. He flew in on a Monday and stayed until the following Monday. We finished up my Hawaii bucket list.

At first we couldn't decide which way to go.

Tuesday we went to the Hawaii FiveO headquarters at Waikiki. Turns out it is an old courthouse. I guess they still hold court there at times and it is also a museum.
 I cut of King Kamehameha's head.

I               

  

We went for a submarine ride to see the fish from a different view.

Then I made a wrong turn and ended up on some weird road. We found a beautiful waterfall and a nice walking trail. Kevin took the trail. I stayed behind and played on my phone.












 

Computer Virus' and Hurricane Lane

Along with everything else that has happened this year is the exciting week of the computer hack and virus that hit the PCC. It was a nice Tuesday in August when we all started having trouble with our computers. First we couldn't send or receive e-mails. We had to call all our vendors to get our food orders to go through. If that wasn't bad enough we came the next day and we couldn't get Ariett to work. Ariett is the program that lets us know what orders we need to put through to our vendors who then process the orders to get all the food to us to feed our 2000 plus guests each day at the PCC. On Thursday everything was down and we heard we were under siege and they wanted a big ransom to let us back on line. We thought that maybe Friday we would be back up and working but it wasn't until the following week that we were up and going intermittently. We had to go back to the old old ways of doing things by telephone. It was a mess for a few days and we are still seeing some down time but mostly back to normal. They didn't pay the ransom (I never heard that officially) only by a few who came in to work on our computers. We thought that was it and we could settle down and work as usual.
NOT TO BE!

When we first heard of Hurricane Lane he was suppose to turn and go another way and miss us completely. Not so. As he started coming closer and closer and getting bigger and bigger we decided that we better get prepared. We mostly had our 72 hour kits ready but when he turned into a CAT 5 and was headed straight for us everyone started to panic a little bit. Tuesday when they said that we would see strong winds and flooding from Lane we really began to prepare. Our landlord came on Wednesday night to fix a window and told us we better prepare to evacuate because the flood waters in this area get extremely high. They told us we could evacuate to higher ground so Lisa and I went to the girl's dorms on the second floor to await the onslaught or wind and rain. Thursday evening when Lane was a CAT 5 we checked ourselves into Hale 8. 

It hadn't started raining yet so we decided we needed food. Lisa had not been to the famous "Giovannis" food truck in Kahuku, yet so we ventured out for our "last good meal." It was very good.

Then we finished moving into our Hale 8 to await the storm.
Hey! Wait a minute. This Hale room and courtyard is a lot nicer that the place I am living in. I was about to start college life all over for the next 3 months so I wouldn't have to leave but they said I was too old and to get out! I wanted to handcuff myself to the bed but couldn't find any.


Thursday we went into work part of the day and finished moving ourselves into Hale 8. They closed the PCC to guests on August 23, 24, 25 Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This was getting more serious by the hour.

Friday we waited around most of the day and towards evening we decided to go get a second last meal, and watch the ocean. The waves were spectacular by not much rain, yet. This time we went to Domino's in Hauula. Pizza was very good.
Lisa waiting for pizza. Not too much excitement yet and Lane was slowing down and moving west a bit.

Saturday morning we woke up to the bad weather. It looked like it was going to get very ugly. This is actually the worst part of Hurricane Lane which turned out to be a tropical storm by the time he hit Oahu. We did have a few scary days but the Lord helped us, heard our prayers and spared us, yet again, from a disaster.



After all is said and done it was quite a humbling experience because if we presume to think we are in control we are highly mistaken. The Lord performed a miracle right before our eyes and I was very humbled and thankful for the outcome. (Although, I could have stayed at the Hale a few more nights)
We had to be out of our Hale by noon on Sat as the rains subsided.

Monday at work Elder Crookston came into our office and said "the weather people," whomever they are said they had never seen a hurricane act the way Lane did at the end. To fizzle out like he did. The other islands got hit harder than we did and I am sorry they did. They have had lots of other disasters this year with rains and flooding. I was still thankful to be safe.

AMEN!

Goodbye, goodbye! To volcano's, hurricanes and friends.

The days pass by and life passes us by also. It gets harder and harder to find things to write about. I do know we are very blessed to live on this island of Oahu. The Lord watches out for us and helps us even in our trials. We have been very blessed to have the vog from the volcano go the way of the west. Go west volcano ash, go west. The lava has subsided and is not as heavy. Then along comes Hurricane Hector. He was a mean man for awhile and it looked like he was going to smack right into us but I guess he saw Madame Pele upchucking all that lava and decided to take a detour and go off into the Pacific and hopefully disappear. We did get some effect from him but it was gentle winds and nice soft rain that come and went periodically. The wind cooled us off and the rain was just what we needed. Just enough. Now along comes Hurricane Lane and we won't know what he is doing until next week. "They" think he will pass us by. There is only one model that shows hime turning. I think the Lord loves this island. It really is out in the middle of nothing but water. We are very insignificant out here in the middle of the Pacific so he has to watch out for us.

I dug into my pictures to find some that I have taken and can not find too many. I did have a friend stop by a couple of Saturdays ago. It was a good friend and teacher that I worked with at Wellsville Elementary School, Laurie Anderson, her husband Mark, and daughter Millie. Her daughter has graduated from high school and it was her graduation present. It was so good to see someone from home. It seems like ages since I saw anyone from UT.


The "single sisters" had a party a few weeks back. We ate played a few games and just enjoyed being together. We all have such diverse jobs at the PCC that we hardly every get to see each other. I think there are "21" of us here now. It usually varies between 20 and 24. I doubt I will get a new roommate before I go home.
L to R- Sharon Mason who is leaving this week. My newest roomie, Lisa Greer. Sister Day who leaves around the same time as me and Sister Brimley who is our newest sister. Quite a motley crew.


L-R Sister Talley, Julie Nield, who lives up the street from me in Smithfield and also taught school. Karol Fletcher and another roommate, Linda Sherwood.



It is now official with Sharon Mason leaving I am the longest serving single sister missionary at the PCC. I will have that distinction until I leave in a few months. Then is will be my turn to say Aloha to  the PCC.

L-R Cathy Hanrahan, Sister Applegarth and Pam Page.

 God paints the most beautiful pictures for us. 

Two Sunday's ago I decided I needed to go to sunset beach and watch the sunset. A couple of us got together and this is what we came up with.

AMEN!

Some new adventures but mostly repeats.

We are on an island and not a very big one at that. There isn't to much that hasn't been done. Now we get some repeats of things done in the past. It is fun all the same. The one thing that I really miss at church is singing a few patriotic songs. Neither this year or last year did they sing patriotic songs at church. On the mainland we usually sing a few but they say that most of the students are from other countries and don't care to sing patriotic songs. Don't know if it is true or not but we didn't sing any of them. I thought it was kind of sad. Our day started off with a breakfast at the church farm. Many of the missionaries were there and we had a very good breakfast. I haven't had a waffle since we got here and they were very delicious. Of course food is better when you don't have to cook it yourself. Elder Crookston told us about his trip to the big island and how they helped build the small homes for the people that homes were engulfed by the lava. Here are some pictures that Louise sent to share with us of their trip.

The Crookston's did a fly over of the big island and this is a picture of fissure 8. If you look close you can see the lava flowing out to sea. They said that there is 9 miles of new island from the volcano.

Below is a picture they took in the evening of the ash cloud from where they were staying.

 They did have a big celebration at the PCC. It was the first for them. I think it was a big success. It starts out with Laie days and and goes for a couple of weeks. They had a "small" parade on the fourth with a big party at Hukilau Marketplace with lots of blow ups and even a mechanical bull for the families. It was like a giant ward party that we have on the mainland, It then ended with a fireworks display at 9:00 pm. It gets dark here about 7:30 this time of year. The weather was perfect. We had the trade winds in the day and then they slowed down for the fireworks. The fireworks were beautiful. Pictures never do it justice but here goes.

 

This is just a fun picture of the Hawaiian "chair in" theatre. They put up a big screen and we all go sit 

on the grass and watch the movie. It was "The Greatest Showman." The bearded lady was from Laie and worked at the PCC at one time.

A grand time was had by all who attended.

A bunch of single sisters went to the Kualoa Ranch yesterday and took a tour of the ranch. We had a good time. Here we are and a few of the views from the top.
Lisa Greer, Linda Sherwood, Karol Fletcher, Me, Sister Card, Cindy Myrup, Sister McCann and Karen Rhodes.
Love the mountains.

A look at Chinaman's hat from above.
Another view from a different direction.

Anniversary Flowers Appear, Again. 😄

Strange tree at the PCC

Look close at this tree and see if you can tell why it is so strange. It blends right in. Very creative.

and finally but not least....no not flowers but more pictures of Madama Pele spewing up lava. It seems she just isn't about to quit.