Hi friends and family,
Things are great here at the PCC.  Everyone is getting ready for the 50th anniversary  and so much is happening and so many are working extremely hard to be ready in time. My friends in the sewing department are working especially hard making new uniforms for the newly re-opening of the Aloha Luau. Twenty years ago that was where they held the night show but when they build the 4000 seat Pacific Theater they turned it into a Luau and this year the termites pretty much destroyed it so it had to be re-built. Soooo Samoa Island built a huge cement platform and put up tents and created a new Samoan Luau with Samoan food and a whole wonderful singing and dancing act totally about the Samoan people. Next week that all changes again and their show moves to another theater space called Kauai and Aloha reopens and we have a third Luau called Ohana plus we have Prime Dining and the Island Buffet. Yes indeed you can say we feed a whole lot of people every single night but Sunday. What a place this is.
So the first week of Sept. they are having a huge celebration for all Alumni coming here from all over the world to celebrate 50 years. Isn't that amazing. They have events planned all week long and that is in addition to the normal visitors who are coming here anyway. As a matter of fact my daughter Kimberly and son Kevin will arrive here on Sept. 3rd for five days. Next week my niece Martha and her new husband Bob and her daughter Ali will be here visiting so that will be much fun. I also expect to see the Richardsons form my Anthem ward somewhere around the same time.

It has been busy for me as well as I performed a bunch of songs for my ward Fireside a couple of Sundays ago. I have found a wonderful young man named Kit Nagato from the Philippines. He is a wonderful ;ianist and always so willing to play. We are also performing the same show for the senior missionary fireside next Monday evening. Then I have been asked to put together a trio or quartet for a morning meeting on Sept. 3rd for all labor missionaries. I am a little concerned about the time this all takes while also preparing a Sunday school lesson for Sunday but it will all come together, it always does with help from above.

I keep meeting wonderful people from all over the world.  A couple of weeks ago  I had a nice gentleman come into the settlement and he started asking questions and then told me he was a Lutheran Minister and worked a Chaplain in the army.  He was great to talk with and we had a wonderful discussion about God and beliefs and he said the cutest thing. He said "if we Lutherans were half as friendly as you Mormons we could have taken over the country by now". I told him that if Lutheran ministers were as friendly as he was a lot of things would be different. Just kidding, but truly he was the friendliest minister I have ever met. Most I have known in my life were much too stern for my taste. Perhaps it was because of him serving in the service, who knows but we parted friends.

We have lots of marriages taking place between  now and Christmas and we plan on being a part of several. So many can't have

their parents here so we try and be aas helpful as possible. There are two next week and one of them is a darling girl from Chile who served a mission on Temple Square in SLC with the Gillettes as her mission President. She is marrying a guy from Alaska and is planning a pretty elaborate wedding with an amazing dress with colored flowers attached to her dress. Of course that is for the reception but I have never seen a dress like it but they must see them in Chile. She is a doll and I love her a lot so we will be there for her Temple wedding as well as a darling couple from China whose family could not be here of course. That will be very sweet and also next week.

Everything else is going just about the same, people go home and new people come in to take their place. We have a wonderful couple here now th Lunts form AZ. He taught music for over 21 years in AZ at Eastern College. So, we have a real director to help me with music now. and help teach Ukulele. They are totally wonderful and I love them. I miss my friend Gloria and deeply appreciate all that she taught me as she was a real pro on the Uke and I have fun with it now.

I love you all and look forward to seeing all of you soon. Keep writing and calling etc

Much love, Brenda

I have some pictures this time and will have from now on, thanks for reading my blog, still loving Hawaii.

Hi Everyone,

I have a brand new friend who teaches here at BYUH and he is teaching me all sorts of new things on my computer and my IPAD.  I am so excited because today he is helping me put my pictures on my blog finally.

So, here are some pictures of sister missionaries, couple missionaries and beautiful things I see every day.

this top picture shows some of the darling angels we make and sell.  They sell all year around. 

This is my friend Mary Ann Wright and her son and baby.  They came pretty early in my mission. Very fun.

This beautiful Lei was sent to me by my daughter Kimberly on my birthday. It was real and amazing. I loved it.

 This is President Orgill and he was president of the PCC for the past 13 years. Is now President of the Irvine CA mission. We all loved him and miss he and his wonderful wife very much.

 We make these pineapple ornaments that people love. Everything we sell helps the kids at BYUH as it helps the scholarship fund.

At Pearl Harbor called X-Ban Radar 

Happy Fathers Day to all you wonderful Fathers,

We are sure missing our Trapper this fathers day and hoping he has come to pay us a short visit.

Things are going very fast here as it seems like one day goes by and it's another Sunday.   I have enjoyed learning to sew all over again or rather remembering how and remembering also why I quit sewing as my back starts screaming at me after 30 minutes or so on the machine.  I am loving the Ukulele and getting better every day. Can't wait to bring it home with me. Perhaps I had better buy another one of them so I can teach anyone who wants to play it too.

I am loving the ward I have been assigned to and believe it or not I have loved teaching Gospel Doctrine as scary as it is. It is different of course than teaching to a normal ward of people over 22.My good friends the Blazers are going home to Utah tomorrow so I went to their church service to give last hugs.  They are going home in a blaze of glory as she had a lot to do with the education week here at BYUH and it was just two days. They had great speakers and were both speakers themselves. She asked me to sing at the opening session and I was honored to do so.

Things are great here and I am still loving it. I love to be immersed in everything.. I had written this and saved it and then I didn't know how to find it so I wrote again and then it popped up as a raft. So I am posting these two at the same time.
Thanks for keeping in touch and for emails etc. I love them but must get to bed now.

Love you all, Brenda

Here we are June nearly over already, well half over anyway.  It has been a great month have met so many people once again from all parts of the world visiting the PCC. The weather has warmed up quite a bit so I get more tired at the end of the day just from the heat and high humidity.

We had a two day education week here at BYU Hawaii and I was so happy to be asked to sing in the opening session. Our main speakers were T.C. Christensen and his wife who had four children born with the rarest form of MS.  They told about their journey with these darling children who had to endure so much in their young lives. They lost two of them already and the other two are going through a lot as well. She is singing now with the Mormon Tabernacle choir so when they left they headed for Chicago so she could join them in their Great Lakes tour I think they called it. A lovely couple and she is good friends with an old friend of mine who I performed with quite a bit still singing in the choir Trisha Swanson.
Things are really moving forward preparing for the 50yh anniversary with lots of fixing up and painting and just beautifying the whole place. They have a whole new show at the Samoa Island and a Luau and they are working many hours a day trying to finish the Aloha  Luau. It got totally invaded by termites and had to be rebuilt.

I have lost all three of my roommates. They served their 18 months and two are home in Utah and the other one is leaving in a couple of days. She is going up to Oregon but will be in SLC to film the parade on the 24th.  Our PCC float one first prize last year and it was amazing. They are putting the whole HA the Breath of Life show on in SLC so that will be wonderful for you SLC people to go and see. Go to the PCC site and I imagine they talk about the calendar of events.

I had my son Mark come here a short time ago and I met him at the airport and we went to dinner in Waikiki
and then he met his friend Jeremy and they flew to Kona for the half Ironman.  They both finished the race but poor Jeremy had blisters all over his feet so Mark came out to the PCC alone and we enjoyed most of the day together. I am looking forward to Kimberly and Kevin coming in Sept.

It seems so empty in this apartment and I had lots of help last evening from my other friends cleaning the kitchen trying to rid it of the roaches that have infested. that i the only bad part of being her roaches and the salt air rusts everything in site. A brand new bike looks ten years old in one year They put new locks on our doors here and in three months they looked ten years old. Very strange air here, we have volcanic powder in the air mixed with the salt so it is all over your wind shield in no time at all.  You have to wash your windows every day.

Time is flying by so fast it seems like it is impossible that I have been here already nearly a year. I want to get home near the time that Jordan arrives home from Argentina because once he is home he will head out to school somewhere and Jazzie will be going to Utah State. I can't believe it is that time of life already.
Love you all, please write me or call me too. Different kind of mission you know.
I miss everyone so much,
Love, Brenda

Hi Everyone,

Since my last posting I have had still more visitors and these came all the way from Pennsylvania. Dear friends who we met during our short time working at the Day-Timer company in Allentown PA back in 1990 and 91 I think.  We have stayed in touch these many years with Pat and Dan Vassileros, and again I bet I spelled it wrong, have always ha trouble with that name. We had a great time even if it was short, I spent the whole day with them taking them around the PCC with a young man who is a guide there who served a mission there and attended their ward. Dave Richardson is his name and he is finishing school here with his wife and baby.  He added them on to his group so we all learned even more about this wonderful place.  I loved seeing them and love them.

We keep very busy here with meeting the folks who visit from really all parts of the world. We have a lot of people form Canada and Australia and many from Japan, China and Korea. We love to connect with them and if possible share a little bit about the church although we can only do that if they ask. We do invite them to take the free tram ride over to the Laie Temple and visitors Center and that is a good thing for it is beautiful.

There is much work going on at the center trying to prepare for the big anniversary celebration the month of September mostly the first week. We expect President Monson to be with us that week or part of it, not sure. Things are being spruced up and  new things are opening, and always ther eis something new happening.

I am working hard trying to perfect my Ukulele playing and really enjoying it. My friend Gloria is a great teacher and still has much to teach me before she leaves probably in July.

We have fun on our days off  going shopping or going into Honolulu.  A group of women got together and went for a day of just seeing things on our day off and went to a place sort of like Sea World but not nearly as good. We enjoyed it though, loved the Dolphins of course. Everywhere we drove of course we saw ocean because the road mostly goes around the whole island.  I even ran into a lady from Anthem AZ where I live full time. I had never met her before but she had attended some of our concerts in Anthem.

I found out about a dentist about an hour away who treats missionaries for free so I went to see him to make sure all is well, and it is. That was a kind thing for him to do.

There are many kind people here who like to take care of missionaries who are here serving so I know God will bless them.

Many of my new friends families are coming to visit their parents before they return home so it is fun to meet all of them.

I can't remember if I had my new calling yet when I last wrote. I have been called to teach the Gospel Doctrine class and that scared me to death. That is the class my Trapper taught and he was an amazing teacher so needless to say I have been really worried about it and study like crazy. So, I guess you know that I have been the most blessed person by having this assignment. I am learning more and more every week and loving it even though I get scared every week.  I have had totally full classes as we have our new summer students here and a number of them are returned missionaries and that is intimidating and yet they don't make me feel that way at all. In fact they are there to help and support me.. I just love these kids so much and my heart goes out to them so much because they are so brand new to all of this, most of them anyway.  Here they are from many different countries and English is their second or third language and they have to learn everything in English. I am so proud of all of them I really am.

I have had many opportunities to sing as well, but mostly at Christmas. I am going to sing for the Education Week for adults.  It is really only two days here but I am looking forward to that. Also I am directing the stake choir and that is fun but tough. It is hard to get them to come out but once they do they have a good time.  My really good singers have left on missions though so I have to find some more. There are 7 wards in my stake so you would think we could find some great singers. They decided they want to practice a couple times a month so we can be ready for the next stake conference or anything else they want us for.

We have had a ton of rain but it is getting hot and very humid so that wears us down. 

We will be having new sister missionaries coming very soon as we have some people leaving. That is the way it goes. Out with the old and in with the new.  I am down to eight months now until I come home and I can't believe how fast every week goes. It seems like the world is speeding up.

I love hearing from you so please email me at brendalwoods@gmail.com. I miss all my friends so very much but it is fun getting to know new people too. One couple is moving to St. George, the Whelchels so we may see them when we go through there to get to SLC.

W

Hi Everyone,

I don't know what I do but more often than not I write a whole lot and I am abut to post it and it disappears and I get discouraged and just forget abut it.

I will try once again to post here some of my thoughts and feelings about being here. It is the second week of May 2013 and I am still loving being here and serving these young people coming here for an education from 70 countries. the school is gong through much construction right now with many new dorms for both single people and married people.  Also there is a beautiful new stake center that will be dedicated in Sept by Russel Nelson who will be coming over for the celebration of the fiftieth birthday birthday party of the PCC. That will be a huge week with lots going on.  I can't wait to be in a real church again as i have been assigned to a wonderful freshman ward who is now meeting in a classroom setting and we move to other classrooms for the Sunday school classes.  I have been teaching Gospel Doctrine for the first time in my life an at first it terrified me. However with a few classes under my belt I am now really enjoying it and loving teaching these beautiful young people. My ward are all freshman but we have many ages. Since the church put out the new rules that young women can serve missions now at age 19 and young men at 18, students are flying out the door as soon as they are ld enough to serve the Lord. Consequently we change faces in our ward often. As a matter of fact since I came here we are on our third Relief Society Presidency. How would that be? However visiting teaching is easier because everyone lives in the same dorm and they call them Hale's here.
We have fifteen sister missionaries and over 20 couples serving and also people serving missions teaching at BYU Hawaii. It is totally amazing there are so many who are needed.  Also the Pcc is now building an entirely new marketplace that hopefully will bring in more people who are just driving by. We will have a restaurant and many stores. They are rebuilding a Luau venue that was infested with termites and about to fall down.....well almost anyway. The new IMAX movie is open and runs all day and has a beautiful new shop that people just love.
We are selling Ukulele's every day and teaching people every day and I am helping to sew when I have the time. It rains nearly every day but that is good as it brings people into the settlement where I work every day.
We sell lots of umbrellas and ponchos.

I feel so bless to have so many new friends and to have wonderful home evenings every Monday night. Last week we had one of the temple presidency speak to us and he was so amazing. Our whole world will be dotted with so many more temple than we now have and millions of lives will be blessed because of it.
Last night we had this wonderful group of diverse young people from BYUH give us a presentation that they are presenting around the country talking of what they are involved in called Enactus. There are 166 students involved along with skilled faculty managers and faculty campus and business leaders doing good in the world. They talk of their many projects and it is fascinating.They will be our future business leaders.

We are having an Education Week next month that I have been asked to sing for.It actually only lasts two days here and we will all go to as much as we can while we are not working.

My wonderful ward is working hard to send a large box over here to help many young people who come from very poor circumstances. They need bedding an everything that goes along with it. I know that many missionaries are asking for help from their home wards. These darling young people sometimes come here with the clothes on their backs an then they start working the day after they are here but don't get a pay check for three weeks so they need help. They work so hard and try so hard.. Just imagine coming to a school that is taught in a language that you have only been studying for a couple of years. Wow that would be hard.

I love them all so much and we so try to be surrogate Mom's for them and they just all need lots of love and hugs and when they walk across that stage in three years with a college diploma it just changes their young lives.
Thank you all for your help God will bless you.

Must hurry and get over there, it is time I Leave,
Love, Brenda

Hello Everyone,

This has been a great month so far. The best thing that has happened is a great visit from seven dear friends whom I have known since I was engaged to my husband back in 1962.  They are friends from our study group which have met every month for nearly fifty years so we know each other very well and our kids as well. Judy and Allen Brown, Bob and Elaine Sperry and Chad and Judy Hamilton and Mary Ann Wright all flew into Hawaii and stayed out at Turtle Bay about fifteen minutes north of Laie where I live and work
.  I was able to get some time off and spend time with them.  They spent a day here at the PCC and a darling girl from Yuma AZ who happened to be the daughter of ,Marsha Hansen, the daughter of Russ and Naomi Hansen of the old Mt. Olympus 14th ward I believe, offered to take us around on her day off. She is a guide here and in her freshman year of school at BYUH.  So needless to say it was a great day and she was very informative about all that goes on here.  We all spent other time together going to my favorite restaurant called the Kahuku Grill where I also took Murray's when they were here. Everyone has to go there as it is the greatest food in a ten mile radius or more. It is owned by one of our three Stake Presidents in the area President Hannemen and his seven sons. They are opening a new place right here in Laie shopping center and it will be called Seven Sons. Anyway lots of fun. They went to church with me even though it was at 8 am.  We had a great fast meeting and as you know I am with all freshman kids and I love them. We watched the Super Bowl together, well some of them watched the game and others of us watched the commercials and talked the rest of the time.
Anyway it was a great time and I so loved them being here so to those of you who came I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I am so glad that you had such a great time as well.
So, we just keep having a great time visiting with the people who come here from all over the world. Lots of people showed up yesterday on a special tour from Iowa and filled our little mission home for about an hour and bought all kinds of things. It was crazy but fun to talk with them and they had a ball.  Everyone loves to bring something handmade from the PCC so it makes all that sewing worth it.
Did I mention the rain we have been having?? I had to get through a ton of water last week to get to my car. the place was flooded and the Lagoon nearly went over it's edges. It was actually pretty exciting.  this wee has bee beautiful again and there have been lots of visitors. We had a whole day where Amway took over the entire PCC and they were all from Asia, and that was very interesting.
Well, Pat and Dan Vassileros are here on the island and I will see them tomorrow at the church where the Kammerers form PA are going.  So that is very exciting that they will be here and at the PCC on Tues. they are good planners so they took a tour of the island yesterday and probably had a ball.
So thank you for reading this as I am sure it is getting kind of boring, not a whole lot happens here that is terribly interesting to you I'm sure.  they are working hard to get this place perfect for the month of Sept. when Pres. Monson is supposed to be here to help celebrate our 50th anniversary. that is such a big deal and everyone is so excited. The IMAX is about to reopen with a new film and that will be wonderful too.

Well, I just got an invication the the beach for an hour so I think I had better take advantage of that before I go to the PCC to work at 1:30 til closing. I have crazy hours, different every day but I love that.

God bless you all and have  great week and great month. Eleven months to go.......
Love, Brenda, Mom, or Sister Woods