Sunday, January 20, 2013

Dec. 4, 2012

Hi everyone,( I found this is drafts and thought I had lost it. somesay I will really understand this blogspot thing. so I may go ahead and post this and hope I haven't said it all again and repeated myself. If so just ignore it and please be patient with my rambling) I have already written in Jan and this will be in the wrong place so forgive me please.

today is Dec. 4th Tuesday. Since December has started there is much more going on here preparing for Christmas and all that goes on here at the PCC. I always want you to go to their official site and see the latest happenings as I believe they announce events. this coming Friday we start the Christmas Lagoon just like we had in Oct. for Halloween. that brought in thousands of people from just about everywhere. Hundreds of locals  and of course students from here and also lots of adults were involved in that. It was a huge undertaking and again this Christmas it will be a huge undertaking.

There will be the story of Christmas told and much music. There will be animals like sheep and goats and who knows what all, I can't wait to find out. This evening there will be a dress rehearsal with everyone. Gloria and I and the Ballams have been asked to participate by having our own special place we will be singing Silent night with our Ukulele's. we got one that can hook into a sound system and we will have mikes. We are singing Silent Night all night long every time a huge canoe (holds 30 people) goes by so that will be kind of hard. I don't know how many hours that will be. I think it is three nights the first week and the second and then goes every night but Sunday. However we have other responsibilities like singing at the visitors centor one night and Family Home Evenings we are singing for as we did last night. It was wonderful to be involved last night for we have over 60 Senior missionaries here right now and they were pretty much all there last night. One of my roommates Janice Boise is here on a mission turning every VHS  into DVD's and has re-filmed the night show called the Breath of Life. they will sell that at the show like they have been doing for years only she has made it significantly better. It is basically the Plan of Salvation ad it is done incredibly well. I have seen it twice now and like to see it when people come to visit if I can get away.
Brother Stotts wife and sister and daughter and Mom came to visit the PCC a short time ago and I was able to have dinner with them and have a nice visit. It was so great to see them all, such fun and I think they really enjoyed themselves.

So last night Janice had put video to music of the tab. choir and also Breath of Heaven by amy Grant was playing while the new film the church has put out on the birth of the Savior. It was really beautiful and she made us all copies. there is live narration and she sang the opening song Were You there and she asked me to sing Candlelight Carol. I was thrilled she included me and Michael Ballam played for me and that was fun. I believe I mentioned before his son Ben is here on a 9 month mission and they are here for him. However they are being kept very very busy.  their family will put on an evening for the missionaries as well as at the visitors Center and all of us missionaries will also put on a program at the visitors Center. I am doing a trio with friends as well as a solo, not sure which one yet. I am planning on doing Heirlooms at the next Monday night Fireside as well as a trio. Weill be more fun. Last week I sang a duet with Michael for the women of BYUH and he told the history of Christmas and I learned things I had never heard. We sang Starbright since it was written by the Uncle of the President of the University Loren Wheelright. So that was fun too.

Well, I guess I had better get going and this is getting a bit long. I am going to try and attach a picture of me taken with President Orgil. He is the current President of the PCC and has been here for 12 years. He has just recently been informed that he is going to be released in Feb. and he and his wife will be called as new mission Presidents somewhere in the world but they don't know where yet. He is an amazing man and his wife is wonderful as well, they will bless anywhere they go.

I love you all and would love to hear from you at brendalwoods12@gmail.com. I can't figure out this blog thing and how to get comments. Dumb huh?
Love, Brenda and God bless you all.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope the year has started out well for everyone and that we are all eady for the New Year.

I have had a great month so far except that I have been sick all week with what everyone else has had here at the PCC and it lasts and lasts I'm afraid. It is awful to have to jsut stay here and cough my head off and feel lousey and miss being with all the wonderful people who come here to visit. I really do miss all my new friends at the mission settlement where I spend all my time every day.  So I pray that I can get back to work on Monday.

It has been a busy month as everyone has been preparing for the big evening we had last night as we honored President Orgill and his wife Cherrie as they are leaving the PCC after 12 years of service as CEO and President.  They are going to be called as Mission President and wife somewhere in the world but nobody knows where yet. So for the last week his f 102 of amily has been flying in from all over the world with their children, even a son who was just released from his mission in California. What a night it was starting at 6:20 in the evening when all 25 plus of them were put into huge canoes and taken around the whole PCC to each island village and given a presentation or show at each one. All the Senior missionaries about forty of us were at the mission settlement building on the porch and we played the Ukaleles and sang to his family as they went by . they even had a bunch of the dancers from the big night show on barges in the water with torches and sand and danced. It was really a sight to behold. When that was all over we all were invited over to the Island Feast building for a feast with the family and we had a program and gave them gifts from all the islands as well as all of the people who work at the PCC, each separate department. So we didn't get home until one in the morning last night. It was all worth every minute of it as the love that poured out to this amazing man and his darling wife was simply amazing. I went away from that evening last night with a very full heart and testimony strengthened that the Polynesian Cultural Center is part of God's plan for literally millions of people as over the past 50 years indeed it has hosted millions of people who could not have left here without feeling of the special spirit of this place and this people. So many miracles have taken place time and time again and now it is celebrating fifty miraculous years. this is a place that many people in Honululusaid would never survive and inspite of the odds against it it has indeed survived and thrived and grown and only through the hand of God has this happened. Now in Sept. President Monson will be here to celebrate the anniversary with everyone here and I just can't wait.

Now, in another week seven of my dearest friends from Salt Lake will be arriving to spend time here on this wonderful island and with me at the PCC and time in the beautiful temple here and I am so excited. They are my friends who I have loved since shortly after I met my darling Trapper, so for nearly 50 years. Boy that sure says how old I am. anyway I am so thrilled to show them this wonderful place and I have the grandaughter of a past Bishop from the Mt. Olympus Ward where we lived for 22 years, as our special guide. Her name is Amanda and her Mom was Marsha Hansen and Bishop and Naoma Hansen are her grandparents. I have come to just love this special young freshman and I see her nearly every other day as she is a guide here. She reminds me of my Jazzie who is only a year younger than Amanda. That is going to be a great day as she has offered to be our personal guide on her day off Thursday, how about that?


This evening we went to see Lincoln and as we came out of the theater we ran into the new President of the PCC and his family and friends. He name is Alfred Grace and I may have mentioned that above. I hope you all see it as it is very good and yes we can go see movies as service missionaries.
Tomorrow I have signed up to help out the huge family of President rgill by bringing a salad for thier dinner and a dessert on Monday for them . They have over 20 people to feed and the missionaries have taken it upon themselves to help out and I am so happy to do that.

I love it here as you can tell and I have so missed being there at the PCC while I have been under the weather. I love my new friends and am excited to know more perfectly wonderful people freom all over the country.
Oh I also expect the Vassilaros the first week of Feb. and I can't wait to see Pat and Dan. They will also be visiting the Kammerers who have been living and teaching here for over 20 years Can't wait to see then all.