It has been quite some time since we have written a letter to you and updated all of you as to what is happening to us here in Hawaii. Let’s see, where should we start? Well, let me start by telling you that there is ONE LESS LIVE RAT IN HAWAII!!! And how would I know that? Because we caught it in a trap in the attic of our office! We knew, (well, Lanae my supervisor knew) that we had a rat because she had heard it in the ceiling. Of course there was the possibility that it was a mouse or mice, but she suspected a rat and so she told us to watch for signs. Sure enough, within a few days we say droppings in our conference room where there had been some boxes of Top Roman Noodles stored. That blasted rat had eaten through some of the boxes! Then the next day we found some droppings on one of the desk tops and also on one of the chairs…so needless to say the Sister Missionaries are all going “crazy” and cleaning and cleaning and I was just hoping that one morning when I opened the door and got the office ready for the day that I wouldn’t meet him eye to eye! We also called the pest control guy and told him we had “rat citings” in the office and he came over and put traps up in our attic. The traps are like a mouse trap, but many times bigger and they use coconut as bait…sure enough when he checked the trap the next morning he had a dead rat! WOW, were we (Sister Missionaries) happy to know that! They keep the traps set for a few days but so far we haven’t caught any more. When Chad (the pest control guy) came down with the rat he said it was a big one but none of us were interested in seeing it! He said he always ties the traps down to something because sometimes they will drag the trap and get away before they die! Oh………..just another exciting adventure! People here are all used to rats and aren’t as “freaked out” as us Hallies!
Speaking of rats…or varmints…or whatever all of these creatures are here in Hawaii…notice the size of the snails we have here! This critter was one I nearly stepped on while walking into work one day! Had I stepped on it, I probably would have turned my ankle and ended up on crutches! They really are BIG! Pretty slow too…just like they say… “Slow as a snail!” 
So the idea was to have the Christmas story portrayed along the island lagoon as people rode in the canoes. They had a simple story line that told about a little girl that loved Christmas for the presents and candy so her parents told her the story of the Christ child and His importance in the celebration of Christmas. Each part of the story was portrayed along the lagoon with music, songs, dancing, live animals (Mary on the donkey, sheep and goats, etc.). Each part of the Christmas story was acted out and then it also told of some of the commercial parts of Christmas like the presents, candy, Santa, etc. and they had a life size gingerbread house with children dancing and singing, Santa’s workshop at the North pole with the elves singing and dancing and a Candy Cane lane with the same things going on. It took the men (Bob and some of the maintenance men) about 2 weeks to put up all of the lights (over 5 miles of lights) and it was really beautiful. Bob made a really neat lighted star for one of the islands and when everyone saw it, then they wanted all of their stars to be like it…so he became known as the “star maker” and I think he made over 20 of them in different sizes! He had the wood shop cut the wood and he put them together and put the lights in them…they were really a hit.
The Lagoon looked as beautiful as Temple Square…just a really different look than we are used to seeing. People loved it and many came to ride the Lagoon and plans are being made to repeat it next year and of course it will be bigger and better!
This is a small area in the lagoon, the reflections in the water made everything so pretty!
Above is the North Pole where Santa and his elves were singing and dancing! So cute!
A far away look at one of the manger scenes where the angel appeared to Mary. The pictures just do NOT do justice to what it really looked like…but you get the idea!Getting everything ready, from Dec. 1 to 13 we worked about 12-16 hours a day getting everything ready, from lights to props, to costumes, to practicing with the performers, to preparation for feeding everyone (a MUST around here…if you do anything, you get fed!) Then the actual time for the event was Dec. 15 to the 22 and we spent about 18 hours each day helping, working, and presenting…and loving every minute of it. Boy were we tired when it was over!!!!!
Bob is now in the process of taking all of the lights down…and it has turned into a “one man show” because all of the other guys have other things that they need to do and of course Bob takes on the project by himself! He has worked for the past two weeks on it and thinks that perhaps in another week it will be done. He has had to get the “snorkel left” to get high enough to get the lights from the trees and he actually likes doing that (I think)!
Here are some pictures of Bob taking down the lights with the snorkel.
Down comes “1” of the “1,680” strands of lights…5 miles worth, OR “169,680 individual lights…eat your heart out Troy!
Bob was sooooooooooo in heaven with this “BIG BOY” toy!Next year if anyone wants to come and volunteer their time, they can help put up and take down lights! Any “takers” on that offer?
This is Bob’s cart filled with extension cords…he filled the cart three times like this! (There were 320 heavy duty cords!) So this HAS been quite a project. He got an email from the director of the Islands today thanking him for his devotion to getting the lights and electrical equipment put away and accounted for. The comment was, “Many are excited about such activities and projects but few truly see it to the end!”Just one other little fun story about this event…one night one of the goats that was in the live manager scene got a little hungry and strayed from his “assigned spot” to eat. Before anyone noticed he was nibbling on a nice green bush…one covered with lights…he not only ate greenery, but lights and wiring also. Needless to say, it was a shocking experience for him! But he did live through it!
I think I told you about the flood…what an adventure that was! I believe the final word was that we had 16 inches of rain in 18 hours. Now that is a lot of water! Many of the homes that were damaged are still being repaired and families have not moved back in. It was something that was one of the “you have to see it to believe it”…just trying to tell about it does not really work! Many miracle stories have come out of it and we were blessed to not have any lives lost on the island during that time.
Just a couple of days after the flood we experienced our first black out! We were over in Honolulu with the Nebekers and were in Ruby Tuesdays at the AlaMona Mall, having just ordered our dinner. The lights dimmed and then GONE! Everyone just waits for a few minutes to see what is happening and then we started getting the word that it is a major black out all over the island. There had been a lot of lightening and thunder (which is not a common thing here) during the day and quite a bit of rain. All of the city was dark, there was a tiny bit of generated power in the restaurant, but they said they were closing the restaurant and the mall so everyone had to leave. They came to our table and said since we had already ordered and our meal was started they could finish it on the grill and they put candles out for us to finish. That part was really quite fun! So we just took our time and had a nice dinner and then left. The parking lot was so jammed as well as the streets of Honolulu! No street lights to help the cars to move around. We were parked on the third level of this HUGE parking mall…it is about 2 city blocks long. We just decided to hang out there for a while…we were up where we could see out and we just watched the cars and people for another hour and then decided to work our way out and home. After we got out of the parking lot and through the major city streets and out to the freeway it wasn’t so bad, except very, very dark! No lights anywhere…and it stayed that way until about 3:00 p.m. the next afternoon! We kept our refrigerator door closed so the cold would stay in and we didn’t have any food spoilage.
Needless to say we are now preparing our 72 hour emergency kit, pretty much a duplicate of the one we have on our pantry shelf in Midway, so we will be more prepared for such things in the future. When disaster warnings come, such as a flood, hurricane, tsunami, tropical storm, earthquake, etc. we have instructions to go to certain areas…our area is on the hillside behind the temple. They have huge sirens on huge poles all over the island and once a month (the first Thur.) they test them at noon. When the sirens go off we are suppose to leave and go to our designated areas with our emergency kits! So far we have not had a signal to do that, but most of the missionaries have told us that at least once during their stay here they do get that experience! (Actually, I was a little disappointed this past week when the tropical storm warnings we were hearing about didn’t really progress to major tropical storms!!!) Just lots of wind and a little power outage around the island, but nothing too major!
Well, we are so busy and very happy serving here. The people love Bob more and more the longer we are here because he does everything and anything for ALL! He has become the hero to everyone! “Bob the Builder” is ONE of his nicknames, even among the students!
So that is a little wrap up of our Christmas events…and we will be telling more in our next issue of “Catching a Glimpse!”
This has been a fun letter to write, especially as we listen to the ocean waves on the beach just outside of our door. We drove over to Costco on the other side of the island tonight after work to get some supplies for our ward camp out on the beach tomorrow night, and we sat outside and ate our salad and ice cream sundae in the nice warm breeze. I really love being able to be outdoors and no worries about the weather at any time! I am getting more and more attached to the climate with every passing day! Sorry, but we DO NOT miss the cold and snow. (No, I probably should rephrase that…”I” do not miss the cold and snow…Bob sort of DOES miss the snow, probably not the cold!) We send our love and say good bye for now,
Elder and Sister Remund
