Small World

We got back around 6:30 p.m. and had a fish fry at Elder and Sister Hobbs home at 7:00 p.m. It was for the maintenance crew and their wives.

An interesting thing happened while we were there. There were about 10-12 couples and we knew most of them. Bro Hobbs introduced us to his friend and life long business partner in the mink raising business, Gary Egbert. He was there alone and ate with us. He had recently been to Alaska salmon fishing and had brought back this salmon which we were having for the fish fry. It was really delicious! During the meal Bob came to me and said that Gary had a large home here that he needed house sitters for towards the end of the week, (Thur. to Sun.), and wondered if we were interested. He and his wife were going to the mainland for a few days and did not want to leave the house empty. After talking about it we decided not to do it as we will be trying to get settled into our new apartment and need time to do that. (We sure wish it had been this past week while we have been in the Laie Inn!) . Anyway, we were talking to him and he said, “You ought to come and stay in it just to see what a really nice home is, it has 7 bedrooms, ocean front, etc.”. We again declined but ask him where it was located. He said, “The first home next to the Hukilai Beach.” Bob and I looked at each other in surprise and Bro. Hobbs said, “We used to have a share in that house also but we sold it about two years ago!” Yup, it is Rick and Teressa’s time share house! Gary Egbert is one of the owners and said the last caretakers had had enough and wanted to go back to Alaska, so he and his wife moved into the caretakers apt. to be in charge for a while. When we told him who we were he said, “The Millers? Teressa is your daughter?” What a small world, huh?

1 week down

Another wonderful day in paradise! It rained several times, so a little more humidity, but we really do not mind it.

After a week of work, Bob has finally determined a little more of what is expected from him. He is specifically expected to keep all of the air conditioners and refrigeration units from the Polynesian Cultural Center (42 acres of property) running so everyone stays cool! The I Max theater and the gift shop that is part of it did not have air yesterday, so today he worked on the air handling equipment. The control water valve that feeds the coil needed to be repaired. At the Ambassador kitchen he worked on a reach-in cooler that was tripping the GFI breaker.He has the neatest little “cart”, He is quite happy with it. He just buzzes around all over the center, and of course everyone is becoming very acquainted with him!

We love the Polynesian attitude of waves and smiles and greetings from everyone all day long. This certainly is the place to be to boost your spirits!

Yesterday I took my cart driving test and passed. Of course, yesterday Bob took me to the motor pool place and set up the cones and had me driving through the course I would have to pass. He taught me how to make those silly carts do what you want, even in reverse! I was grateful for his help because when I drove the course and passed, Elder Florence said I drove the best of any woman yet! He even gave me a tootsie roll for my performance! So today at the office I became the cart driver…now I buzz all over the center. It’s tons of fun and you can cover so much more ground, see more people, get lots more waves and smiles and hugs than when you are “a foot”!

War Zone

Dear Family and Friends,

After being in Hawaii for almost two weeks we felt it was time to let you know that things are terrible here! The sea breeze throughout the night is so constant and the palm trees unrelenting waving causes us to become dizzy when we spend too much time sipping virgin pina colodas under their shade. Surely this must be dangerous to our health, for who knows when one of “them thar” coconuts could fall from the tree and cause serious damage!
We must keep a constant vigilance to stay out of harms way, but for ‘the cause’ we are determined to overcome the elements and push forward with the goal in mind.

Others have gone before and suffered great hardships for The Kingdom and we must prove we can also endure without complaint. We promise to “buck it up” and push for the end zone.

We will report again after we have survived our first few weeks of sunrises and sunsets that are nearly unbearable in their intensity; but again, without pause or looking back we will pour on the sunscreen, do our usually morning and evening walks on the beach and occasionally the golf course…and be careful of errant golf balls which, as you know, can be projectiles of death if one does not walk with caution!It’s a true war zone!!!!

We will report again regarding our sacrifices on this desert island. We have great hopes that Bob will soon have his own mango juice dispensing machine right in his shop. It is quite a ride on his “private tool cart” to go into the Polynesian Center’s Banyon Tree area each time he wants to quench his thirst!

Yes, we are happy, well, loving life, working HARD. We are truly happy to be here together as otherwise living in this ‘war zone’ alone would not be the Paradise everyone claims it to be!Hope this finds everyone well and happy. We love the gospel and proclaim it’s truth. Have a great day!

Love forever and always,
Elder and Sister Remund

Official first day

First day of actual work at the PCC.

Bob goes to work at 7:00 a.m. He works out of the warehouse, a large area with buildings and shops etc. for all of the maintenance, repair, and upkeep of the PCC. He was issued his own cart today. It has a large tool box on the back of it and he said he has every tool he will ever need while working there. This box is all enclosed and protects the tools from the weather. This cart is also his transportation around the PCC. Similar to the golf carts of today. It is open air with a shade roof. This cart is “just for him” while at the PCC. He claims it is “his convertible!” The warehouse men have blue uniforms of levis’ and blue denim shirts (exact ally what Bob was hoping for)! He works from 7:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

My work starts in the “Island Office” at 8:00 a.m., a cute little office building in the middle of the PCC islands. It is the hub of all that goes on in those islands. There are six main islands represented here and each has its own area for demonstrations, dancing, singing, etc. where the students perform their program (usually 3-4 times each day) for the visitors that come to the PCC. Our office provides all of the support for these islands…schedules, time clock, work orders, finances, ordering and dispensing of supplies, etc. It is a very busy little place with lots of supervisors, workers, students, coming and going all of the time.

At noon, Bob and I meet for lunch for an hour (give or take whatever time we need, as we are now on Polynesian time and attitude)! Then I go to the first aid office. This is an older building on the outer perimeter of the center which houses some of the offices for security, computer support, safety, etc. I have been given the charge to “rework” the first aid office and programs. They have security and first aid help (sort of) for the hours they are open, but it is all done in Polynesian fashion (rather laid back and “what ever” style). There is some concern that they is liability for law suites and often it doesn’t give very good PR for the center…so we are going to see if we can “beef” things up a bit. It may be an impossible task, they have warned us about that in the first place. But we’ll see.

On Mon. nights we have FHE with the couples. One or two nights a week we will be helping at the luau’s at the PCC. It is mostly greeting, taking tickets, hosting, and visiting with the guests. We have not been assigned the student ward we will be working with yet, but that will keep us busy also.

Update from Vickie

Dear Family,

So here is your first of what I hope to be lots of missionary news! I am thinking about once a week or so I will do this. Just wanting to keep everyone up on what is happening and how we are.

Our week at the MTC, Aug. 11-16. We truly enjoyed it. Lots of orientation, classes for helping us learn basics and techniques of teaching, lots of practising our teaching on volunteers from the community, we learned that we really COULD do some of what was expected in this arena. We only ate lunch there, eating breakfast and dinner at home. We made so many great friends there that were going all over the world! We became close friends with Del and Sharlene Nebbeker, as they are going to the PCC with us. He is in Human Resources and she is going to do what I am (whatever that is...office, etc).

Sunday Aug. 17 was a great day for us as we were able to go to our own ward and see a few of our friends from Midway again and then most of the family were able to come over and visit. We loved that day. Thanks for coming and seeing us.

Mon. Aug. 18 we were at the airport and off to Hawaii. We were met by Bro and Sis Dixon and they took us to our apartment in Hauula. The drive from the airport was beautiful to say the least and not too bad for humidity so far. Our apartment was NOT anywhere near ready! Our BIG mistake was right then, we should have said, "OK, sorry but we will find another place!" But trying to be nice, and our little landlady was a sweet girl and wanting to have us rent, so we told her we would be back around 8:30. The apt. looked like a construction zone. Literally from the entrance from the carport underneath right into our apt. was construction "stuff", clothes, boxes, and I don't know what all! The two of them were painting in the apt. area and putting together a dresser for our bedroom.
We left for a tour of campus, the PCC, meeting lots of missionary and fellow workers and had Family Home Evening, it was nice and we loved meeting everyone and they were all so kind and eager to have us there.
Back to the apt. actually a little work was done so we could put our suitcases down on the floor and find the bed. However, she had not moved completely out of the apt. yet and it took her 3 days to get things out. Let me explain, the apt. is fairly new. It was built over the garage of their home, which they are in the process of working on, therefore they have been living in the small apt. with 4 children until now. So the apt. has two bedrooms. Each room has a bed, but that was it! One room had a clothes rod in the closet, the other did not. They put a small dresser in one room at my request. No closet doors, no window coverings on any windows...it was a literal fish bowl! We were upstairs, the view was beautiful of the ocean and the breeze came through those windows so great! But we couldn't unpack much as there was not room for many of our things. Only a couch in the living room, no shelves or bookcases. She had put two bath towels, 1 hand towel and 1 washcloth in the bathroom, but not rods to put them on! There was a box of pans in the cupboard, a toaster, 4 plates, 4 glasses and about 6 plastic spoons and forks. (She said she hoped that would do until she could get more). Well, we went to bed and the next morning we begin to see all of our roommates! They were everywhere in the bathroom, bedroom and kitchen. Each drawer that was opened there were about six or eight scurrying for cover. Then we opened the frig., the dishwasher and the oven...exact same story!!!! She told us she had sprayed everything a few days ago. So we decided we needed to clean good. Well, I cannot even tell you what we found when we "tipped the fridge" over completely on its side to clean the bottom, WOW was it scary! I've heard of BIG roaches...well 3-4 inch ones were common! The dishwasher was not working and she said sometimes the roaches get in the workings and gum them up. HELLO!!!!! Bob tore it apart and you would not believe the bugs and mounds of droppings he cleaned out of the workings in the door of that thing! Of course, we cleaned it all up (I almost gagged)! But I put on my rubber gloves and we went to work. Boy did we get it cleaned up and the dishwasher worked (imagine that), and the stove was clean and we washed out all of the cupboards (all looked the same), and now we thought we could probably get by. Well, because we were exhausted we went to bed and during the night we both awoke with little sleeping partners running here and there! This was where we finally threw in the towel...no way was I going to share EVERYTHING with those ugly little beasts! Food is enough, but not my bed! I talked to some of the other missionaries and they all agreed that we will have roaches but that is far from the normal and not acceptable! (Cockroaches in your bed is NOT normal)! We went on Friday to the Laie Inn and rented a room for the next 10 days. We are working on getting another place and the one we hope to get is right across the road from the PCC so we can walk to work and it is right on the beach. It is not available until Sept 2. But we stayed in our little hotel room last night and have rather enjoyed it! Our sweet little landlady said she was sorry (I guess they become accustomed to those critters) and wanted us to stay and she would fumigate again. However, we declined her offer and she said she would give us our deposit and rent back. We both were amazed at how quickly we moved back out of that little place! One half hour at the most!

So through all of that we also spent our days at the PCC and BYUH doing lots of orientation, learning our way around, meeting the Pres. of BYUH and also the Pres. of the PCC. We have been to Walmart once and yesterday we took a few hours and drove into Honolulu, just for the drive, and had dinner at the Hard Rock cafe. It is a beautiful island and we love it!

We have our assignments for Mon. am. Bob starts at 7:00 a.m. in his levi's and blue denim shirt (he is in all his glory). They issue those to him. I start at 8:00 a.m. at the Island Office, which is a cute little office in the middle of the 6 represented islands and we do the scheduling and time for the students working in the islands, finances, issuing of items each island need to run each day, etc. It will be lots of fun. In the afternoon I report to the Safety and First Aid office. I have been there but have not been given my specific assignment yet.
We spent one day as "tourists" at the center last week to get a feel for the place. It was a fun day with the Nebbekers and then we went to the luau and the show at night.

Today was Stake Conference and the Mission Pres., President and Sister Peterson, spoke and also the Temple President, Pres. and Sister Workman. The meeting was great. Our stake Pres. spoke about being prepared both temporally and spiritually for whatever is to come. He discussed a lot about the parable of the ten virgins and how prayer is the vital key to keep us spiritually prepared for eternal life. I must say, it made me reflect upon how much we do depend on the Lord and how blessed we are.

Please know that we love you all so much and that we pray for you every day. We want you to be healthy, happy, and successful. We are well and happy. It sure helps to be with someone you know. I just shudder to think what our "missionaries" went through, and all alone! It's a good thing mother's do not have to know it all!

Hope your week ahead is marvelous. We will keep in touch.

Love to you all,
kids and grandkids alike.
Love forever and always,
"The Happy Wanderers!"

{MTC Day 1}

This is an email that Vickie sent

Aloha,
Just a quick note to say Hi to everyone and let you know that our first day in the MTC was very good. Such nice people and beautiful environment. Most of the time was spent in orientation. Bob, of course, knew several of the men from the MTC. Actually, I knew one of the couples going out as missionaries, Bob and Andrea Stratton from Orem. We leave each morning at 7:00 a.m and will be home at night around 6:00 p.m. (except for tonight...we have a devotional with one of the apostles)! Pretty exciting for us.
Thanks to each of you for Sunday...it was a wonderful day and time. We love you all.
Have a great day...looks like we have sold the car...YEA!
Maholo and with love,
Elder and Sister Remund!!!!!!!

Farewell

Hey everyone, this is Amy. I have taken it upon myself to update Bob and Vickie's website a little bit until they can get settled in Hawaii and hopefully have time to do it themselves.

They had their farewell on Sunday August 10, 2008 and a luncheon afterwards with many friends and family attending. Thanks to all of you for making it such a great day for them.

Today, August 11th was the first day at the MTC where they will be spending their first week as missionaries. They take the big flight over on Monday August 18th.