Aloha!

My name is Eugenia, and I am a student at Brigham Young University Hawaii (BYUH). I have been in Laie for about five months, and I am loving every moment!

This past semester in Hawaii has been so awesome. I think this goes without saying but I'll say it anyway. Provo is very different from Laie. I thought I would miss out on some things in Provo with school when I left. I'm glad to say that I was wrong.

I live with a cute family in a faculty townhouse. They have one girl and two boys. I have a beautiful roommate from Mongolia, and she hopes to transfer to either BYU Provo or BYU Idaho in the spring so that she can reunite with her fiance in Provo. The Laie Temple is right behind our place along with the visitors' center. We have one grocery store called Foodland which is a 20-minute walk away. I was lucky to go to Walmart and Costco a couple weeks ago because it takes 1 hour to drive there (or even worse, 2 hours by bus!). I was shocked to see shopping malls after not seeing anything but campus, palm trees, and beaches for four months. If I could, I would love to send you some plumeria flowers. They have the best scent in the world!

The people here are so warm and friendly. They call it the spirit of Aloha. Everyone says hi to each other and seems to genuinely want to get to know you. I absolutely love this and getting to know so many people from different countries. The last time I heard, BYUH students represent about 75 countries. In my ward, I am one of four American girls, and everyone else is from Korea, Japan, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, and more. We even have one girl from Sweden and one from Switzerland. Around here, people from Europe and South America are especially rare. The majority of the students are from Asia or the Pacific Islands. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are so many others in the world who look like me! :) Now that I think of it, I hardly have any American friends here. The majority of them are those from mainland China or Asia. Everyday, I learn a little Mandarin and Cantonese from them.

Things are extremely laid back from Provo like schedules and such--I don't think anything around here starts on time! It's a nice change from Provo. If I could give anyone advice about moving to Hawaii, it would be to expect delays in everything hehe. The school has a great mission as President McKay said that "from this school, I'll tell you, will go men and women whose influence will be felt for good towards the establishment of peace internationally." I have really felt the Spirit confirm to me that the Lord has set aside this place for a special purpose. I felt this while I was attending BYU-Provo, but I feel it even more so in Laie as I have met and gotten to know so many people gathered from all over the world. I feel so luck to be able to witness such a miracle.

This past semester, I have been continuing my studies in information systems and instructional design and development. One thing Provo doesn't have is an IDD minor! I have been privileged to work with Peter Chan (who is also happens to be my landlord and IDD professor) on several projects including one on BYUH employment. We developed some guidelines for supervisors to help student employees have more opportunities to learn on the job. We will present this project in the Hawaii Educational Research Association Conference on the 26.

I am going to serve a mission in the spring for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I decided to go about two months after coming here. I think the Lord really prepared me to meet the people I have met this semester to help me realize that this is what I need to do. I have met so many people who are not members of the Church, and it's so wonderful to share the gospel and testimony and teach English. I feel so happy that this work is what I will be doing for 18 months.