Rather quiet week.  Kaye was very successful with the Storytelling class.  It will soon grow to be bigger than the library can handle.  She is also moving forward on upgrading the Curriculum section of the library.  She had a meeting with the education professors and they all signed up to come and visit with her as she weeds, updates, and orders new books.  

My classes are better than last semester.  I have figured it out to a point.  I have never taught Missionary Prep (Religion 130) before so I am inventing this class as we go but the students seem engaged and focused.  This weekend they have the assignment to contact ten strangers on the street and start up a conversation.  They just finished reporting on their interview with ten returned missionaries.  It is fun to see them so excited about doing missionary type things.  They start teaching the missionary discussions after their midterm next week. 

For MLK day we went to Kaneohe to a movie and lunch at a place Leah saw on Diners and Dives.  Wow, this one was a dive.  It was at the end of the pier in a really small building.  Expensive!  The menu was very limited...rice, mac salad, spam or fish.  We decided to pass and went to I HOP which was awful.  What happened to that restaurant?   It made the rice and mac salad sound really good.
The big event of the week was whale watching on Saturday.  Here are some photos and comment.

Whale watching boat from the Aloha Tower

Here is the whale watching boat.  It is like a very small cruise ship.  It does whale watching in the day time and sunset dinner cruises in the evening.  Our cruise included a two-hour boat ride, nice buffet lunch and a guarantee to see whales. 

No whales in sight

 For most of the trip you just look over the rail looking at the empty ocean and the shoreline.  In this photo we are looking at Honolulu and seeing no whales. 

Then all of a sudden whales start to appear.  First you see their blow spouts shoot up.  Big ones for adults and little ones for the "calves" 

We soon see a huge flipper sticking out of the water. The whale begins to slap the water.
They stick their flipper out of the water and repeatedly slap the water.  It is exciting.  

Whale slapping the water with flipper

Then we begin to see the backs of the whales as they surface.  They come up and go down in a smooth motion hardly causing a ripple.  Then all at once they leap out of the water.  They are huge!  They rise about 2/3 of their body out of the water and then belly flop back into the ocean.  It was amazing to see. Boats are not allowed closer than 100 yards to the whales, so we are watching this from a distance.

I did not catch a whale out of the water with my little slow camera, but here is the splash.  You can see how big it is even viewed from 100 yards. The boat steward told us that we had the best sightings in the month.  The boat crew and captain were very excited. 

Then after the whale sightings they have activities.  Mom made a flower lei at their craft table.  Here she is making her lei. 

Making a lei aboard the whale sighting ship

This afternoon Kaye has a RS training meeting and I will make ministry visits.  Then we will attend a fireside this evening on family history.  That will end the week and we will be tired. 

As it turns out, last Sunday was our last week to serve in the Sunset Beach YSA branch. We have been transferred to the Laie Park YSA ward. Today was our first Sunday in our new ward. I understand the need for change, but I felt sad about leaving our little branch. I grew to love those Young Adults and admired how hard the branch presidency worked to make good things happen. They will soon be starting a family branch at Sunset Beach as well and the people who live in that area are very excited. I hope that area continues to grow and prosper.

Our new ward is about three times larger than the branch and we were surprised to see a few people that we already know. Some students had taken Dennis' class last semester and some are in his class' this semester. Everyone seemed happy to see him. I know it will take a little time to get acquainted but I hope we can be a help to the Bishop.

We were able to go through the temple on Wednesday evening with Marisa Santeco, one of the girls taking our mission prep class in the branch. Her parents came with her and they are a nice family. Marisa is leaving in a couple of weeks for the Provo MTC and then on to South America. It was a nice way to end our time in the branch.

 Friday we took a little driving trip and went down to the Pali Lookout. It has an amazing view of Kaneohe Bay, all the way from Chinaman's Hat and Coconut Island down to the Naval Base where the Obamas recently spent their Christmas vacation . It is usually cold and windy but we enjoyed perfect weather and no wind. This is the place where King Kamehameha fought the final battle with a king from Maui and eventually drove the warriors off the cliffs and united the islands into one kingdom.
This first picture is the trail that was the original

 road. It was the only route connecting the eastern or windward side of the island to Honolulu and the other side of the island. It was quite steep, narrow, and slippery in olden days. Imagine driving a wagon down the side of a cliff. Our little camera does not do it justice.

After visiting the lookout we drove down to Chinatown and wandered about. It is definitely not like San Francisco or Vancouver's Chinatown. It is a lot like China. Surprise. The markets are full of fresh produce and bins of chicken feet and other delicious looking meats. We ate at a Chinese restaurant called the Golden Palace. We had the salt and pepper crab which was delicious and also several portions of dim sum. It was all tasty and a fun visit.



This week we signed up to be 'mentors' for one of the clubs on campus. There are clubs for each country and we thought it would be fun to mentor the Canadian club, but they already had mentors and so we were assigned to the Indonesian club. I was a little apprehensive since my Indonesian is a little sparse,ok - non-existant, but it turned out to be one of the most enjoyable evenings we have spent. There are about 25 students from Indonesia on campus and they could not have been more friendly, welcoming and appreciative. We enjoyed meeting the kids as well as their advisor, Sister Mills who runs the Seasider on campus. Here are a few pictures of our new friends.

This is a picture of me with Adit. He is the president of the club. We are looking forward to getting to know the other kids in the group. Five newly arrived students introduced themselves and each expressed gratitude for the opportunity to come here and receive a higher education. It is something they do not take lightly. They all work at the PCC to help pay for their education.

Not a very busy week but some interesting things happened.  The normal beginning of school "stuff" with class introductions and the like.  We will settle in this coming week.  Mom has been busy getting things going at the library and school of education.  She has several big library projects including the updating of the curriculum collection.  But her biggest project is one jointly sponsored by the college of education involving helping TESOL (teaching english as a second language) students how to tell stories to kids.  Here is the poster that will go all around campus. 

The poster Dad made for Mom to put up around campus

 She will start next week training the TESOL students and helping them work with children from the married students and the community.  She is looking forward to this assignment. 
The school of education was pleased with the inventory report of their material collection.  No one had ever done this and it is now so organized.  Next they are going to have her create a professional library for the education majors so that they can have access to materials that will help them with their classes.  Mom is a star in both the library and the school of education.  I am very proud of her. 
With me it is business as usual but better than last semester, because I know the ropes this time and am ready for this diverse student body.

We have become real fans of the BYUH b-ball program and hardly miss their games.  They are a very scrappy team without any real stars.  We watch them win one in the last seconds and then next time they lost in the last seconds.  They are much more fun to watch than BYU because they know they are not stars and really work on their game.  So much passion in their play makes it fun to watch.  Here is a picture of Mom with Elder and Sister Rowell 

Kaye with Elder and Sister Rowell from Cedar Hills UT

During the week we had an assignment to visit less-actives.  This is a challenge because of the dogs the Hawaiian's love to keep and the way they decorate their front yards.  Hard sometimes to find the front door.  But we were well received when the addresses were correct and someone was at home.  Two young fellows promised to come to church, but then that is easy to do and seems to get the missionaries moving on.  We will have to go back to see if they intend to come...they are no different than less active members anywhere. Little time for the church or interest in changing. 

Today we had the elders over for Sunday dinner.  We had asked them what their favorite meal was and they said roast, carrots, potatoes, etc.  When they eat at members homes it is mostly rice and either chicken or pork.  So Kaye fixed them a good old Wright family Sunday dinner (a huge roast from Costco)  They ate everything.  Kaye had forgotten how much YSA young men eat.  They were in heaven with all those potatoes, roast and gravy.  And no rice.  Then they had chocolate cake and ice cream.  Here is a photo of the happy elders. 

Elder Wright with Elder Morgan and Peterson

One elder is from Springville and was a friend of our neighbors son, Nathan Hawks.  He is in Mexico on his mission.  The other elder, Elder Morgan, is likely a distant cousin of mom's.  They figured that out after telling about their ancestors.  We enjoyed visiting with them and learning about how their mission is unique.  Hawaii is not a "paradise" for missionaries and they have to be very focused and determined to be successful.  We are grateful for their good example. 

Well that is enough for today.  I want to have another piece of that chocolate cake and maybe some ice cream if there is any left before calling it a day. 
Dad

Happy 2014! We rang in the new year by working at the PCC and then came home to a semi-quiet evening. At least Dennis was quiet. People outside were all having big parties with yummy smelling barbeque and loud music and illegal fireworks. It went on all evening and into the new year. Everything was very quiet in the morning. I thought I should take some pots and pans and go bang on them under their bedroom windows! Here is a picture of Dennis beating the drums to announce the opening of the Island Buffet.

The rest of the week was quiet. We are ready to get back to work. Although the break was nice, it was a little long when you don't have anything to do. We went on a picnic on New Year's Day over to the state park on the beach. Sister Stephens went to sit down and she missed the bench and fell backward, striking her head on the edge of the table. She and her husband left and he took her to the university clinic and she received four stitches. I felt bad for her. She is a nice lady and seems to be fine now. We have a new senior couple in our building. They replaced the Cochrans who went home in December. They are the Frogleys from Draper, Utah. They have been assigned to our little branch at Sunset Beach.

This is a picture of Sister Natalie Prawitt who is from the Hobble Creek 6th Ward and whose dad is our home ward Bishop. What a small world it turns out to be. I am constantly amazed. She is serving in Kaneohe and Dennis and I had to go down there the other day. We were walking through the mall there and all of a sudden, this cute girl was hugging me! It was fun to see her. She is happy and doing well. I wish I could run into Kayla like that!

 On Friday Dennis and I went over to Pupekea to help our Branch President and his family move. The owner of their house is going to try and sell it and they decided to be pro-active and were able to find another place. When we finished there, we took a short drive down to Waialua to see what was there. There is a ward building and people who live in Haleiwa drive there to go to church. There isn't that much of a town, but there is an old sugar mill with a few shops. One of the shops there belonged to Kirk, our branch member who passed away. They built custom surfboards and designed T-shirts. This is a picture of their shop. If you look carefully, you can see that it says "Aloha Kirk" above the door. The other partner had it put there. It made me feel sad to see that and be reminded of his loss.

Today we started teaching our temple prep class again and four of my favorite girls are in the class. They are: (from left to right) Hana Akina, who recently graduated with her Master's from UH in LIBRARY SCIENCE! We talk the same language! Standing next to her is Taylor Moyes, who is from Arizona and just returned today from Christmas vacation. She was Kirk's girlfriend and is just starting her last year at the university majoring in education. The little short cutie is Marissa Santeco who will be leaving on her mission to Bolivia in February. I hope we can go through the temple with her by the end of this month. On the end is Kuulei Akina (Hana's sister). She runs her own photography business and took our branch picture a few weeks ago. These are the nicest girls. I feel blessed to have met them and hang out with them!

This week we will start back to school and we are glad!