Week 6 Exploring the North Shore

This week it is Michael’s turn to write:

Well, it has been a quiet week here at Lake Wobegon.  Oops, I mean at the Banyan Tree.  Our 36 story apartment building is aptly named for the centuries old banyan tree that sits majestically on the grounds.  The avian life that just one tree can attract is truly stunning.  Late in the day many hundreds, if not thousands, of neon green parakeets gather in its branches.  The sound can be deafening for a few minutes but the majesty of nature and its colors is worth the cacophony.

Our learning curve for helping to manage a fleet of 118 cars and its 200+ young teenage drivers is beginning to flatten.  Tracking oil change and tire rotation schedules, odometer tracking, car registrations, safety inspections, cleanliness checks, mechanical problems, car accidents, auto body repairs, and shipping out old cars and receiving new ones is all beginning to become a bit more familiar.  We asked for busy and busy is what we get.  That’s how we want it.

In addition to our world of vehicle coordination, we enjoy rubbing shoulders with the young missionaries.  We are part of a young missionary district — we attend and participate at their weekly district council meeting and their zone conference.  We love their energy, their desire to work hard, and their love of the gospel.  Mission wide, we are working hard to put names with faces, even for those on the other islands with whom we often talk on the phone.  We dare say that many of them enjoy getting to know us, despite the age difference.  There is one Elder who played on the recent three consecutive state championship basketball teams at Olympus High School, my alma mater.  When I suggested, tongue in cheek, that the basketball team of 1975 helped lay the groundwork for their success, he didn’t buy it.

We have done a bit of exploration of Oahu island on our p-days, and sometimes on a Sunday evening we will head to a new beach to catch a classic Hawaiian sunset.

Yesterday we decided to head towards the north shore for the first time.  We spent some time at the Laie Park Beach, drove by the Laie Temple (which is closed for cleaning) and then took in a football game of the famous Kahuku High School Red Raiders — a program that has placed many a player on college football teams (including BYU) as well in the NFL.

 

 

On another note:  it is not uncommon for a new missionary to experience some homesickness.  Well, dare I say in the case of Karen she has been experiencing tennis sickness.  But to her credit, she did some digging and found a weekly Tuesday night clinic to attend and ply her tennis skills.  The instructor is a recent graduate of the University of Hawaii’s tennis team and runs a great clinic.  It was great to see her out on the court, black badge and all.  Karen left court exhilarated that evening and her “sickness” has fled.

We love our Auwaiolimu Ward, we love being missionaries, and we loving the Aloha spirit of the people! Hurrah for Israel.

Thanks for reading.  See you next week.