Hawaii Day 2

After sleeping in as much as we possibly could we woke up around 5 am (there's a 4 hour time difference) and started getting ready for the day.  We took a drive on "the most beautiful interstate in the country", HI-3.  And yes, Hawaii does have an interstate.  This was our first real look at Hawaii and it was just beautiful.  The plan was to go to the temple to do sealings in the morning and then head over to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We kept driving past the beach that was literally a few feet off the road.  Eventually we decided to stop and dip our feet in even though we were in church clothes!

 View during the drive.

 One thing we are learning is that everything moves a little slower here on the island, even the temple.  When we got there we asked when the next sealing session was.  The greater at the front took about 2 minutes trying to figure out when the next one would be until a coordinator came over and told us a time.  We ended up having a private sealing with just the two of us (an necessary temple workers) in the main sealing room right at the front of the temple.

 Our sealing room was the room with the windows right above the doors.

 We still had some time before the PCC opened so we went to the visitor center and distribution center.  There was a display with The Book of Mormon translated into 83 different languages.  (It is translated into more than 100 languages but 83 were on display.)  I loved this display as it showed how much the church has spread around the world. The sister missionaries also said it was a great missionary tool when people from other countries come and find the book in their own language.  They have them read a passage from it and then testify of its truthfulness.  Loved this.

 The sister missionaries then took our picture outside the temple.  Oh, and they get to wear mu-mus and sandals- what a great mission!

 Next we headed over to the PCC.  Here they demonstrated coconut tree climbing in Samoa.

 This guy was amazing and funny too.  He cracked a coconut with a rock, shaved it completely clean, and made coconut milk by squeezing the fresh coconut in the husk.  Later that night he also did the main fire dance.

 Mike's attempt at coconut tree climbing.  It's harder than it looks.

 Waiting for the river parade to begin.

 At the Fiji display

 Outside the Fiji hut

 The luau was fun with great food.  Although I have to say my New Zealand Brother-in-law's cooking is even better. At one point they had couples that were celebrating their anniversaries come on stage and say where they were from and how long they'd been married.  We decided to go up and we were by far the youngest ones up there with only 10 years of marriage (except for 1 older couple that had been married 7 months on their second marriage).  They then made us all dance and then kiss while this guy sang to us. Remember, everyone was old so while they were all shuffling Mike kept spinning and dipping me.  A little embarrassing, but fun.  Later that night we had several people comment to us that we were the most entertaining.  Another guy (fellow BYU grad) said he'd remember us as the kissing couple because our kiss was by far the best.  Haha!