Last night I met Togi – from Mongolia who joined the church in December – I sent you the picture of us. He works each evening in the Gateway restaurant where we did tickets. Amazing young man.
Also met Rita from Fiji and Tauva from Samoa . These kids are so dear and so smart. More to come – but here is a bit….
Wednesday May 6, 2009
It is going well…..we are feeling like we are getting our arms around it. It isn’t easy or a vacation. We are up between 6 and 6:30 and to the office by 8 ish. We never miss devotional at 8:30 a.m. which is our Office devotional. Each department here has their own. We have Devotional with the Executive office staff in the big board room with President Orgil, COO’s, CFO, etc. They are all really fine people.
My morning office job is with Kathy Tolleson who is head of Human Resources. Another missionary Maren Dixon works with me and in the afternoons when I leave, a student named Kay from the Phillipines (who calls me mommy) does other work for Kathy. Kay calls my job the “nose bleed job.”
Kathy is gradually giving me more and more tasks. Primarily I handle complaint (Nose bleeds) and compliment letters. For example, one of my letters was to an injured guest. I wrote him up a heartfelt apology that his trip was cut short due to the injury – wished him a speedy and full recovery and then got him a refund for his tickets. He fell and cracked some ribs getting off the canoe ride. He complimented everyone for taking care of him and getting him to the hospital which was nice, but that was unfortunate he fell. The canoe guys are to hold onto people….. I have to write the letter, give it to Pres.Orgil for approval and suggest a refund. He ok’s it and I make a check requisition to have the refund made out after I track down what was paid – very good records are kept here. We can see his reserve number and the number on his tickets – actually he mailed the unused tickets back to us. He missed the Luau and night show. We gave him a full refund and invited him back another time….I have to be flowery and very sympathetic. Some letters you want to just tell them to quit griping, but this man was legitimate. I take the check requisition downstairs to Kristy who gives it to Maka who makes the check after I have first taken it to Pres. Orgil for his signature of approval. (He must get tired of me handing him letters and check reqs..) I get the check the next morning and make all the copies for the ones who get a copy and log it into a computer file and then file the hard copies in the drawer……one letter takes many processes. 3 letters I did this morning were apologies that their experience wasn’t up to their expectations so I sent them a DVD of the Tongan Village performances and traditions…
..I’m sure that was very interesting…
Then I walk over to the PCC after lunch and work in the Mission Settlement section until 5:30. There I work on sewing projects in between guests who wander in. I tell them about the Hawaiian Quilts on display there, have one I am sewing the binding on, and give people a short history of the first settlers who came and brought Christianity to the Islands and the Mission Settlement house itself – how it came to be. It is a replica of a New England one – come over and you get the private tour….
Gil picks me up there. He is everywhere in the center and in his office. He has a neat office with windows facing the entrance of the complex and a side view of the PCC which is right next to this office. He is causing some awareness of many things that can easily be changed for the better here. Leadership from Sr. Missionaries with various business and other skills is really a neat thing to watch. Everyone finds their niche and starts a web of cohesiveness and improvement. I am very impressed with the caliber and willingness and skills of all these people rolling up their sleeves.
We are ticket takers at the Luau one or two evenings a week from 5 to 6:30. We get home really tired and do it all over again. Sat. is P day but we have had two 8 a.m devotionals to go to on Sat. so far, and then Costco or Koneohe for “stuff.” Church is 8 a.m. I am becoming a morning person whether I like it or not. I am holding off some sniffles as of yesterday and hoping for success. I don’t need to get sick…
I will have to write a whole page and put up pictures about the Samoan Devotional. It made me want to be Samoan.
We have walked our beach twice.
Shame! It is absolutely breathtaking and I see it from my bedroom window – wake up and leave. It is calling us and we will get out there a few evenings this week. We have 4 evenings this week taken up, luau ticket taking last night and Gil had Elders Quorum Meeting, Family Home Evening was Monday, tonight is Crime Prevention town meeting at 7, Friday night we are going to the High School May Day show at 9 after the PCC Night Show. So you see we have full days.
May Day here is unbelievable – That is a whole blog page in itself.
We plan to get settled into a more permanent house right away and then maybe things will smooth out. We are in a vacation rental. It is nice but right next to Kamehameha highway and traffic noise is annoying me immensely to say the least. I dooooo like it here and know that we are making an ant size difference, but with lots of ants things can be good. There is a really great group of senior missionaries here. One couple on their 3rd Mission , she raised 9 children and they are in their 70’s. So I am bucking up. They raised my bar.
Tell everyone hello and love…..
This is Leilei and her sister Gaily Bopp - neat sisters
These 2 sisters and their friend are in their 80's on a girl trip. I so enjoyed their visit to the Mission Settlement and their spunk, I had to take their picture. The one in the middle reminded me of Aunt Fern. Fern's prettier. But these ladies have get up and go and spunk.
This is me with Michael Hogge, mom's cousin. Wonderful relative!
We drove out to Turtle Bay and had dinner - quiet, lovely resort. YUM
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