I said my final goodbyes to my mom today. She met me up at the dorms after doing a session at the temple that morning. From there we walked all around campus trying to find my Great Grandpa Brower's picture. My Great Grandpa was a president here at BYU-H right before it switched from Church College of Hawaii to a branch of BYU. He was basically called to come fix the college up so the church wouldn't have to shut it down. It was a pretty intense few years for him and my Great Grandma, but I'm so grateful that they came and served here because it has allowed me to come get an education in this lovely state of Hawai'i :)
We ended up asking about 5 people where the pictures were but no one seemed to know where the portraits were of the past presidents. So we decided to go take pictures by the sign at the entrance of the school (scratch that, my MOM decided to take pictures at the sign). I wasn't really all that excited to climb up the wall (which is a lot higher than it looks!) but the pictures turned out fairly decent so I guess it was all worth it.
The Shaka sign: Hang loose \m/
After that we journeyed on over to the Laie Temple. The Laie Temple is the LDS, or Mormon, temple that is right next to campus. Mormons believe that in order to live with our Father in Heaven again, we must preform sacred ordinances in the temple. To learn more about temples visit this really neat site: FAQs about Mormon Temples :-) Anyways, the Laie temple is pristine! It is such a bright white temple, a lot brighter than Boston! We went through the visitors center there and it was so cool! I love how each visitors center is unique. From what I remember I've been to the one at the Hill Cumorah, in Salt Lake City, and now here in Laie. At the Hill Cumorah, the visitors center focused on the Sacred Grove and the First Vision. In Salt Lake, it focuses on the pioneers settling the area and building the temple there. In Laie, they focus on the history of the church in Hawaii which is so cool! We watched a video on how the Temple, the University, and the Polynesian Cultural Center are all interconnected. They talked about how the missionaries came over to Hawai'i and a lot of people converted. All the members migrated to Laie because church leaders had received revelation that it would become a prosperous city. A temple was soon built so that the members could participate in the saving ordinances and so that their families could be sealed for time and eternity. Eventually, the Church College of Hawai'i was built to help educate all the converts in Laie. In April of 1974, President Kimball announced that the Church College of Hawai'i would become Brigham Young University-Hawai'i and that President Brower (My Great Grandpa (: )would be succeeded by Dr. Dan W. Anderson as President. In the mean time, church leaders received revelation that the different cultures of Hawai'i and those who settled there needed to be celebrated; they had visions of a center that would thrive and receive millions of guests, to celebrate and learn more about those cultures. What they saw was the PCC, or the Polynesian Cultural Center. Today, the PCC has served over 30 million guests! It's cool place where you learn about different cultures by visiting different "villages". There is also an evening show and luau you can go to. Here is a picture from the visitors center:
This is called "The Christus", it's a statue that is in the Palmyra, SLC, and Laie Visitor's centers as well as numerous other visitors centers across the world. It depicts Christ after His resurrection.
We then made our way up to the temple to take some more pictures because who doesn't love pictures of pretty things especially when the pretty things are in Hawai'i?!
Afterwords, I had to finally say goodbye to my Mom. She's pretty much the best and I'm so grateful to her for coming out to Hawai'i with me :) I know it must've been SO hard to trek all the way to Hawai'i but I hope she had a good time. I seriously have the best parents in the entire world.
♡,
Nina
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