I suppose an explanation should be written after my last blog post. In a nutshell, I had an expectation of what I would be doing when we arrived at the Polynesian Cultural Center nearly three months ago. After the initial few weeks, I became aware that that expectation was perhaps not going to unfold as I thought. There is no one at fault except myself for basing an expectation on missing data. I am assigned the position of Theatre and Lighting Specialist. I am fully confident that before our two years are up, I will be fully engaged in various theatrical endeavors. In the meantime, I am left with far too much time on my hands and a desire to be a hardworking missionary.

Luckily, our mission president was looking for several individuals to help with activities in the mission office, primarily involving the junior missionaries who perform the actual proselyting work in this area. Most of the senior missionaries work during the day and don’t have time to help in the office. Because Virginia and I are assigned to work with the night show, I have abundant time during the day to offer my services. The president took me up on my offer and I began working with the office staff.

My immediate responsibility is data entry for the transfers of missionaries that happens every six weeks. That isn’t too demanding, but it requires about 10 hours a month. In addition, I am the assistant vehicle coordinator, and we are responsible for all mission cars in our fleet of about 30. We service and repair the cars and ensure the GPS tracking devices are working. The amount of work I do on vehicles is variable, and I don’t have a good idea yet how much time that will involve.

The majority of the work I will be doing however, and by far the most enjoyable, is maintaining the mission bicycles the sister missionaries use in Laie. Normally, the church doesn’t provide bicycles for missionary use, the missionaries purchase and maintain them. Our president has special permission based on the unique situation here in Hawaii. This is a difficult environment to keep bicycles operational. The humidity and sea salt in the air are highly corrosive to metal parts and the sun’s UV rays deteriorate plastics and rubber. The bikes are in constant need of care and upkeep. This mission is new as of January when it split from the Honolulu Mission. All the bikes we currently operate were brought here from the Honolulu Mission. They are worn and broken, dirty and rusty. The president asked me to replace the entire fleet of bicycles, and then maintain them going forward. His preference is that they are all the same model and color so as to be easily identifiable. With supply chain what it is and our isolation on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, finding a specific model is a significant hurdle. I’ve been to every Walmart on Oahu and purchased every Huffy, Nel Lusso lady’s cruiser I can find.

Some of the bikes are floor models and were pre-built, and the rest came in boxes that I put together. This week is transfers, and the missionaries will be settling into new companionships for the next 6 weeks. I hope to begin rolling out the bikes by the end of the week. I’ve set up a bike shop in the garage of a missionary apartment where I will fit the bikes to the missionaries and then maintain them regularly to hopefully stay ahead of rust and corrosion.

Lastly, I’ve volunteered my services as a photographer to help with the official mission photographs, which I began shooting this past weekend. We called all the missionaries together, junior and senior at 6:30am on Saturday at the Laie Temple. The temple faces east and greets the morning light. With the sun rising at 6:42, we got the soft light of dawn that gave us a pleasant light for our photograph. Don’t look too hard to find me. President wanted me to Photoshop myself into the image, but I’m not up to that much manipulation. But you can find Virginia’s smiling face.

Many years ago, I read a talk by President Monson given as a BYU devotional in 2000. At the time he was an apostle. He was talking to the BYU students about important stages of our lives: education, work, family, etc. He gave this advice with regards to finding a job we can be happy in:

"The rule is, 'Find a vacuum and expand into it.' Ask yourself, 'What is there that needs doing and is not being done?' Then assess your capacity for doing things and let it be your ambition to do the work that you can do best, in an area where it is needed most, and then put all your mind into it.”

That is what I did in my career at BYU for 32 years as Resident Lighting Designer, and it is what I am doing now as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints assigned to the Hawaii Laie Mission. I’m carving out my own way on this island. I’m creating a niche that I am individually suited for and that capitalizes on my talents and interests. The other day I was in my bike shop building a bicycle that a sister missionary will soon be using to pedal around town on her way to an appointment or assignment. I thought to myself, “I’m a happy missionary, I’m doing a good work”. Slowly but surely, we are making our way through this two-year assignment. It’s not fully shaped or defined. There is still plenty of room for growth and development. Aloha.