Thanksgiving Week
We had a short work week with the Thanksgiving holiday on Thursday. I am serving in the career center at BYUH. I am the first senior missionary to be there full time. Looks like I will be the executive secretary to the director. I will be answering the phone and emails, helping to train student career mentors and other duties TBA. I am looking forward to helping the students find good internships and jobs after graduating. Our students are very diverse coming from over 70 countries. There are many languages spoken in the career center and we have 4 managers over various areas of the world, with an emphasis on the Pacific Rim. Their helpers, the student career mentors, speak many of these languages, as well as the mangers. The Church's mission statement is to have these graduates return to their countries of origin to build the Kingdom. I think I am really going to enjoy serving with these students.
On Thanksgiving we had dinner at the Polynesian Cultural Center. All the senior missionaries were invited. The turkey and ham were cooked underground with banana leaves on top. It is called kailua style and was delicious. We also had hula lessons and entertainment. Bill ran into an old classmate from Highland High, Jeff Swinton. He and his wife Heidi are directors of the Laie Temple Square Visitor's Center.
On Friday we we went to the North Shore and watched the surfers and then to Waimea Valley and waterfall. It was gorgeous and saw some lovely flowers that you can see.
We decided that since the ancient Hawaiians built shrines out of rocks for their ancestors, that Bill needed to build a shrine behind our apt. to George and Tryphena Garff who served a mission here in 1896. They both taught school here in the then Sandwich Islands. After visiting the town of Haleiwa, we tried to stop at the famous Ted's Bakery but it was closed as the power was out from a power pole being knocked down on the road ahead. Consequently, we had to go home all away around the other side of the island, so we made a pit stop in Kailua and went to Target and Whole Foods for some needed items.
On Saturday we took long walks on the beach, had a beach picnic with the senior missionaries and capped the evening off with a view of the sunset as we ate shrimp at Seven Brothers in Kahuku.
Hi Bill and Karen -- Loved reading the blog. I may be the only one doing so from Australia. Is that Bob Tippetts the one from the 15th ward, who used to be our neighbor? Say hi to him for us. Looks like your experiences and ours on our missions will be very different, and it will be fun to share stories when we take our next ride together up Emigration Canyon! :)
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