We realize it has been quite some time since we wrote to update everyone as to what is going on with us here in the Honolulu Hawaii mission! WOW, the time is speeding by for us! We have less than a year left and there is so much to be done! Know we know why our boys didn’t write as often during the last half of their missions…so much to do and so little time. Boys, we apologize for scolding you for not writing more often! Looking at it from a parents point of view is certainly different than looking at it as a missionary! It is nice to be on the “other side” now, but we do realize that those at home like to hear from us!
Since our last letter home we have had lots of visitors. Gil and Cindy, Jeff and Audrey and boys were here during the first of May. Chad, Summer and Gavin came the third week of May; and Cary, Taura, Carly, Jack, and Lauren came the first of June. Then Rick, Teressa and the 2 little kids along with Mark and Paige and 3 of their managers from the Grease Monkey’s and family members (7 in all) came. The managers stayed 1 week and then Rick, Teressa, Skyler and Tyson stayed another week.
Since our last letter home we have had lots of visitors. Gil and Cindy, Jeff and Audrey and boys were here during the first of May. Chad, Summer and Gavin came the third week of May; and Cary, Taura, Carly, Jack, and Lauren came the first of June. Then Rick, Teressa and the 2 little kids along with Mark and Paige and 3 of their managers from the Grease Monkey’s and family members (7 in all) came. The managers stayed 1 week and then Rick, Teressa, Skyler and Tyson stayed another week.
Bob with Cindy and Gil at our favorite restaurant, Haleiwa Joes
Summer, Chad and Gavin at the Punch Bowl Cemetery
Cary, Taura, Lauren, Jack and Carly at Hukilau Beach
Teressa, Rick, Vickie, Bob, Tyson, and Skyler at our “favorite” again…Haleiwa Joes!
We are truly loving the weather and climate here…it is going to be so difficult to come back to Utah’s winter weather! It’s a good thing our family is all there or we might consider making a change in habitat! Let us tell you a little about what we are doing.
Bob has been working lots of hours keeping all of the refrigeration units, including air conditioners, ice makers, freezers, refrigerators, etc. running in this warm weather. The units really have to work hard to keep up. Many of the buildings and offices have air conditioning and the large kitchens for the PCC require huge freezers, ice makers, etc.
He has recently been involved with helping the PCC get their new night show underway. He was ask to build a mechanism that would raise and lower a “kite” during the Maori (New Zealand) presentation. The kite is in the form of a person (sort of) with a warrior face, it is about 10 feet wide and 8 feet high. It is built out of reeds and cloth, made by the manager of the New Zealand village, Kim Makekau (one of our super good friends and a wonderful guy!) In the Maori culture this particular kite would represent the spirit going to heaven. So during the story line of the night show a young boy and his father are flying the kite. It comes down from the 200 foot ceiling of the Pacific Theater and drops about 100 feet. They fly the kite during a song that tells about a legend of the spirit going into heaven and then it goes back up into the sky. Bob had to create and build the unit that attached to the kite to make it “fly”. It is pretty neat. The manager and his wife are really happy with what he has done and La Makekau (Kim’s wife) told me the other day how much they appreciated Elder Remund being here to do this for them. She said, “Isn’t it wonderful how the Lord puts the right people in the right place at the right time to make things happen!” They are so excited about all of it…the kite really makes the New Zealand presentation come to life and makes their legend so real. Today Bob met a guy from church headquarters in SLC that is over all of the pageants and productions that the Church put on. He was impressed with Bob’s work also!!
They are putting up new catwalks in the Pacific Theater to hang the new speaker system and lighting system from. The missionaries have been helping put the catwalks up…quite a deal in such a big theater. He has been involved with a lot of the wiring that has been going on (remember our last letter telling about all of the wire pulling, etc.).
There is just so much going on to get the Pacific Theater renovated and the new night show ready…it has been in progress for about two years now and the show should be ready next week. Elder Dallin Oaks is coming on July 22 and it will be presented for the first time to him. There will still be some kinks and issues to work out…but it is coming. What fun and excitement it is for us to be here during this time and for Bob to play such a big role in all of it…a true highlight of a “service mission”.
My work at the Island Office remains busy and fun. We do so many different things… student files, student time cards, managing schedules for students and managers, we help with a lot of the catering for the villages, decorating for weddings and devotionals…the list of WHAT we do is never ending. Each day is a new adventure, so never a dull moment!
A couple of the big events we just finished have been the World Championship Fire Knife Competition and the Tahitian Dance Festival Competition. The Fire Knife was in June…fire knife throwers from all over the world came to compete, including Samoa, Tonga, Japan, USA, and many of the Islands of Hawaii. These boys start learning this skill at the age of 2-3 and are trained very well. The knife is about 3 feet long with a huge hook type knife on one end (very sharp) and a torch on the other end. They have routines where they throw them, spin them, etc. Often the knife is torched at both ends and sometimes they put two knives together…their routines are about 8 minutes long (for the older boys ages 12-30ish), and the younger boys have shorter routines. It is pretty impressive and so fun to see. The event went for 3 nights. Being a part of the Island Office, where all of the organization for the event takes place, Bob and I were heavily involved! One of the things I did was help with the first aid as each contestant came off the stage to look them over for burns and treat them when needed. Each one would get some type of burn, but this year every burn was quite minor…we would clean and dress the burns from the fire and wounds from the knife. The winner trophies were HUGE and cash awards for the big winners were over a thousand dollars each.
The Tahitian Dance Competition was just last week, in July, but only 2 days. A similar event to the Fire Knife event. Dancers from Tahiti and Hawaii, solos and groups, competed. Costuming was unbelievable…some of the kids were under 2 years of age! So cute and the older ones were really getting good. The judges were flown in from Tahiti and “wined and dined” while they were here…part of the Island Office responsibility also! On both of these events we would work until about 2:00 a.m. and get started again at 7:00 a.m. So our hours were long and we were tired…but so great to be a part of it!
Our student ward is great also. We have had quite a bunch go on missions. Just to night we are going over to Hale One Lounge (one of the girls dorms) where one of the Japanese girls from our ward is going to open her mission call. It came today and she sent me a text and invited us to be there. We get close to the kids and it is hard to see them leave, however we know this is what their lives are for…education, missions, marriage and returning to their own countries to make life better for all.
Next weekend on Sat., July 25th, we will be flying to the big island of Hawaii to Kona to the temple. We are taking some of the students, many are return missionaries and can do endowments and if not endowed they will do baptisms. The bishopric will be going as well. We will leave early in the morning and come home that night. The flight is less than an hour. We are really excited to make this trip with our ward.
This coming Sat. we are going take a break and go to the Kualoa Ranch and do a Jungle Adventure ride and also a Bus Tour Ride up into the mountains. This is a beautiful area of mountain range and valleys that over look the ocean. It is only about ½ hour drive south of where we live. Many movies have been shot here including Jurassic Park, Windtalkers, parts of the Godzilla movies, and a lot from the TV show Lost. We are certainly looking forward to this day of adventure. We are hoping some of the other missionaries will be going with us.
We will take some pictures of our adventures, of the “kite”, and a few other things and get them in another letter soon. For now we have to say that we surely do miss all of you and all of the happenings at home. There is so much going on there and we love having you call us, email us, sending pictures and blogs to keep us involved. Summer time is always a fun time and we do miss the vacations, picnics, boat outings, ball games, dance and piano recitals, swim meets, etc. that we know all of the kids are involved in. To miss school events, weddings, baptisms, birthdays, etc. …. this is the hard part for us. We are sorry to hear about Cal Edwards (Joan’s brother) death and Joni Nielson (LaVaa’s sister Trudy’s, daughter) health problems. We know many members of our families have trials and hardships with health and with this difficult economy…all we can do is pray for help to understand to know what to do, then have the faith that the Lord will bless us, each and everyone, with those things that are needed in their lives. Most important, we must endure…the true test is in “HOW WELL” we endure it!
We pray for each of you daily that you will be happy and successful and protected. We know you help each other out and we are grateful for everyone doing so much to take care of Mom and our home and yard. It takes all of you to make our mission successful! Thank you each one for the part you play. We love you all.
Love to all forever and always,
Your missionaries from Hawaii,
Elder and Sister Remund
Grandpa and Grandma
Dad and Mom
Bob and Vickie
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