The Spirit of Aloha!

We got up really early this morning and left about 7:15. We wanted to take pictures at the Laie Temple before doing a session. The roads weren't too bad but still a little backed up. We got to the temple about 8:30. It was raining and very cloudy. We decided to take pictures after.
We went to a 9 am session. There were 22 women and 14 men. This temple is one of the first 10 temples so it's set up for a live session, with the moving and such. I think I sat next to the lady we saw at church on Sunday. She was from New Mexico. I didn't talk to her though. We had a really nice session. My opinion, it's a very square building. I was surprised it had a round chandelier. Very beautiful! I think that was temple 32 for us.
We then went to the cafeteria for lunch. The only option was to have Hawaiian Stew and carrots. It was good. We spent $8 for renting clothes and $6 for lunch.
The sun was shining when we came out of the temple. We took pictures from many angles. I couldn't get over being able to see the ocean from the front doors of the temple. We walked down to the meditation garden. It is practically on the shore. The walkway had tons of giant yellow hibiscus. The grounds and area are just beautiful.
On the way back to the car I started to realize how humid it was. It hasn't really bothered me while we've been here. We didn't have water to stay hydrated so I think that's why I started thinking it was hot and humid.
We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the rest of the day. We had purchased the Ambassador Package months ago. This package gave us a tour guide from 12:30-5. We got a shell lei and were off on a canoe ride. We went around to many of the villages there. We saw Tahati, Hawaii, The Canoe Pageant, Fiji, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Samoa (in that order). In Samoa Aaron started fire by rubbing two pieces of wood together. He was fast at it too. It was interesting to see buildings that have made it through hurricanes and that there are only 3 left of in the world. The Canoe Pageant was fun to see all the different cultures and styles of dancing. Aaron did okay with the Poi balls. With some practice I think we could have a lot of fun with those. We also learned the tahitian dance and the hula from Hawaii. We had coconut bread (which we liked) and I got the recipe for it. We saw how they make poi. I found that I really like fresh poi. It is the Aotearoa Island that sticks their tongues out when dancing. During the Canoe Pageant we shared a shaved ice. At this point it was so hot and we really needed something. We hadn't had water or anything. The shaved ice hit the spot. We both felt much better after that.
The guided tour was nice; I just felt like it was repeatitive of what we had already learned all week. In some ways it would have been nice to go off on our own, and in other ways we did learn some new things. It was a good day.
We then went to dinner and the lua part of the evening. We got a flower lei when we went to dinner. We tried raw fish. Aaron actually ate it. I couldn't even eat one piece. We had chicken and long rice; which tasted like chicken noodle soup. We had kaluah pig and rice, salad, piece of seasoned beef, a poi roll which was yummy, and pineapple. I had a lot of pineapple because it's our last night here. I didn't care about my swollen mouth. We got plenty of desserts; pineapple bars, chocolate cake, white cake with red something on top, coconut cake, apple cobbler thing like a bread pudding almost, and of course coconut pudding. I couldn't eat all the desserts. I tasted all of them and then ate my 2 coconut puddings. During dinner and the lua they had people celebrating an anniversary come up on the stage and dance. Aaron and I of course went up.
We then wondered the shops while we waited for the show to start. We found a lot of expensive things. There were some cute things, turtles etc. and we even thought about buying some poi balls; but we were good and didn't get anything.
At the show "Ha" we had 4th row seats right in the middle. We did that on purpose months ago. They were perfect seats. We ended up sitting next to somebody we had seen at the temple this morning. They are from Roy Utah. We talked for a bit and found out that Pres. Uchtdorf was at the PCC today. The show then started. I would have to say the show is absolutely FABULOUS! Incredible! During intermission we had tickets for free ice cream with fruit. YUMMY! I started looking around while Aaron got the ice cream and found Pres. Uchtdorf. He was sitting 4 rows directly behind us. Wow! So cool!
After the Great show, I had to get a picture of Pres. Uchtdorf. I didn't have enough guts to shake his hand, but I did take pictures of him just by being around. Pres. Uchtdorf went down to the cast and told them how great they were and that they are doing a great thing. The cast then sang "Army of Heleman". WOW! That was the same song sang on Sunday. It was great. Pres. Uchtdorf then got a picture with the cast. We left then and talked to the people from Roy for a bit at the parking lot. Just as we were pulling out we saw Pres. Uchtdorf again. It was so fun to see him and hear him and just to have him around. It brought a neat spirit to the evening.
It is really late now and I still have to pack. I don't want to leave Hawaii. We have been having so much fun and just enjoying our time. We hope the time change won't kick us too hard. At least we have 1 day to try to recover before going back to life.