Week 3

Our responsibilities in the Office of Honor are becoming more clear to us. Besides the day-to-day things dealing with Bishop’s endorsements, and an occasional honor code violation, we have been given a long-term challenge to help (find a way) and to educate the students about the Honor Code. So many people look at it as something they are told they MUST ABIDE BY or they will be referred to our office. There is really a bigger picture of the honor code that we are going to be trying to educate the students about. Each student signs an agreement when they enroll in school, agreeing to abide by the Honor Code (which includes 12 points) Three of which being: Academic Honesty (cheating, plagiarism, etc.), Dress & Grooming Standards (on & off campus), Residential Living Standards (visiting hours, respecting others, dignified conduct). We are going to focus on HONOR & keeping the commitments you make. Making a long & very detailed story short . . .. . Don’t sign an agreement you aren’t willing to honor -- it will impact your character.
We have a map of the island of Oaho with about 35 spots to visit. Our plan is to visit each one of those (to begin with). We bought a truck this week, and so we are ready to explore!! Today we visited Kahuku Golf Course Beach. It is off the beaten path and had only 4 people on a huge wide open beach. . Then off to Pupukea to see an ancient Hawaiian Temple (only the foundation is left). But it overlooks beautiful Waimea Bay . There were hundreds of people at Waimea today. We’d prefer to visit there on a weekday or evening. Shark’s Cove was also right there and it 's THE PLACE to snorkel & scuba. We couldn’t resist going to see a large scout camp for our area while we were in the mountains. The last beach we visited was Laniakea Beach. It is also known as “Turtle Beach” because the sea turtles come out in the late afternoon to rest on the beach. From the road, saw two large turtles just approaching the beach. We definitely want to return to that beach -- also not on a Saturday.

2nd Week - Trying to adjust to the time change

The first week of our “Dream Come True.” Sorry, I can't get my pictures in!! Our first week in Laie has been wonderful. We live 1.5 blocks from the beach and in the other direction 1.5 blocks from work (school). We live right across the street from the Polynesian Cultural Center and about three blocks from the Temple that will open in November after a year long renovation. We are able to hear the musical performances and practices that go on in the evenings at the PCC. We will be working in the BYU Hawaii Office of Honor. The purpose of this department is to educate and encourage students to keep their commitments they made when entering school: Honesty, chastity, residential living, dress & grooming. Another part of the Honor Code is that students are expected to govern not only themselves, but to let other students know if they are violating some part of the Honor Code. Our goal is to shift the perception about our department from being an “enforcement” department to one of educating and encouraging students to take their commitments seriously. We have spent much of this week reading last year’s cases, just to help us see what violations have been made & the resulting consequences. We both know we’re going to love it!!

Because of the time change, we wake up early each morning and go for a walk. We try to go someplace different each morning. We also walk to work and then walk in the evening -- if it doesn’t interfere with our 9 p.m. bedtime! It rains almost every day, we have been told that a 30% chance of rain here means that it will rain three times during the day. We have been soaked once while we walked, most of the time it’s OK.

Laie is considered living in the “country.” We are sure glad that we do. Even though there are paved roads and sidewalks, there are lots of chickens running around all thru town. One jumped up out of a garbage can as we walked by and scared us both. We have geckos in the house and lizards outside of the front door.

There are many senior missionaries here and they are all so friendly. They have lots of get-togethers, that we are sure we’ll get involved in. We will be trained next week to work a couple of hours each week at the Polynesian Cultural Center (plus enjoy their great buffet dinners).

We hope to see someone we know while we’re here, so start looking at your calendar & saving your $$.