Sher-ing Time

One last field trip

2011-01-13T21:49:00.004-07:00

Can you believe what a beautiful sight this is?!!!!

Paul has always wanted to take a one day outing and go far away to an area of the Viti Levu (main island) Island and visit a very remote branch of the Church called Siaoko. We have been told over and over that the area where it is located is breathtaking! as is proven in the above picture! The challenges included in making a visit out there is the far-away-from-Suva distance, the several-hours-each-way-on-a-rocky-dirt road and the steep incline required on foot. Most important however is the fact that it isn't a good idea to take this trip on a rainy day but that it is the "rainy season" now so it is very tricky to figure out a day that it won't rain. Consequently, I have not been a very avid promoter of taking this outing. As our time has been getting shorter and shorter Paul finally found someone to accompany him besides me!

As you can see, the odds were in his favor this day and it turned out to be a perfectly sunny outing.
After driving for about 2 1/2 hours they came across this sign that welcomed them to the side of the road where they should park the truck and take off on foot.

Bro. Tuilevuka was his companion and trail guide that day. If you are ever going to head out into the bush over here, it is always really smart to be accompanied with a local person who has made this trip many, many times. The path was easy to follow but it did have a pretty good incline.

After about a 30 minute trek, they arrived at their destination. The thought that kept running through Paul's mind was "how did they ever decide this would be a great location for a church meetinghouse?!" Which then made him wonder how they ever got the building built in this remote setting!

Here is the inside of the building. Paul was really impressed with how neat and clean the members keep it here. This unit has about 35-40 members in attendance each Sunday which is another very impressive fact about this Branch! Behind that white wall that is at the front of the chapel are two other small rooms. One is the Branch President's office and the other one is the "bedroom" for the missionaries when they come to work in this area.

Paul and Bro. Tuilevuka were warmly met and welcomed by the Branch President, his wife, one of their daughters and a grandson. Life is really simple up here. The Branch President is a farmer and a fisherman. That is how he supports his family. Paul spent about 45 minutes going over financial matters and doing some training on how to keep track of the Branch budget. Paul has met with this Branch Pres. 2 or 3 times before but it has always been when the Pres. would come to Suva so this was a great opportunity to see first hand what and where and how the Branch President serves.

So this is where the missionaries sleep ... two foam mattresses, two blankets and one woven mat ... very, very simple!

Their accommodations do include a shower. Lacks a little privacy but there aren't too many people close by and if you shower before the sun rises or after the sun sets, that provides another form of privacy! Life in the bush is quite simple!

On the way back to Suva, Paul & Bro. Tuilevuka stopped at another branch along the side of the "main" dirt road. This branch is called Nausatoka. Paul & I have actually visited this branch twice. The first time we visited, we were asked to speak in Sacrament meeting. Before the Sacrament meeting began, Paul went out back to use the "facilities".

Here is the restroom building just behind the chapel and up the hillside several yards. I love that they have a number for each door so that no one can get lost or confused... once again, it is good to keep things simple!
Paul chose to enter room #2 and was very impressed to find a very wise statement written on the backside of the door which inspired his Sacrament meeting talk a few minutes later. This experience happened over a year ago and he has wanted to go back there and take a picture of this "inspiration". This was another reason he wanted to take this field trip as well.

Paul began his message by saying how amazing it was that he had found
"such profound inspiration in such an unprofound place!"
That's what we love about Fiji so much! You just never know what you are going to come across and how it is going to affect you for the BEST!
We will never forget this wise thought!

"P" is for Christmas

2010-12-22T02:00:00.006-07:00

"Priceless, Precious, Personal, Performances & Participate"

So far these are the highlights of our Christmas season!

Our participation began last weekend with the Annual Missionary Fun Day on Saturday. This event is really for the young missionaries to come together from all over Fiji and get to spend time together in games and sports and meals! It is a huge hit! The Senior missionary couples were involved by preparing and serving lunch and dinner. Those 2 meals were huge hits also. Thankfully I wasn't in charge but I did get to contribute brownies and enchiladas and dish them out to 90+ hungry young men and women. The evening event was a talent show put on by groups of missionaries from the various Zones. I did get coersed into, I mean, asked to be one of the 3 judges which was really not easy! The performances, including clever costumes, were original, enthusiastic and very well performed. Most all of the items were Fijian dancing and singing done by non-native participants. A few months in this country and they can perform like they grew up here!

Sunday evening was the spiritual event, the Fiji Suva Missionary Fireside. It was a wonderful hour and a half of Christmas hymns sung by all the missionaries in their white shirts and colorful ties and spiritual Christmas stories and testimonies including talks by Elder Wakolo, an Area Seventy and Pres. Ostler, the mission president. The Stake Center was filled to capasity with members and investigators, friends and friends-to-be.

Monday was another choice experience. One of the SM couples, Mike & Cherie Tait organized a service project. When we heard about it, we jumped right on board. Taits had found this small institution called The Hilton House for Handicapted Children. After visiting to check it out, they determined it would be the perfect place for us to offer some Christmas help. This facility houses about 20 or so severly disabled children who live there full time. During Christmas most of the children had returned to their families and villages for a couple of weeks. There were 5 children who have no family... basically abandoned at birth so they were still there.

Here are the residents we got to visit with. A variety of ages and disabilities. From l-r in the back, boy:19, boy:6, girl:32, girl:18 and upfront, girl:16 Very humbling to say the least! But we tried to bring a strong feeling of love and Christmas joy as we sang Christmas carols and visited and ...

showed them how to blow bubbles. The 2 girls who could handle this were thrilled!

That's the Taits standing on the left and the woman on the right is the dear person who runs the facility. They were so appreciative of our tiny effort and we left feeling that joy you do when you get to serve somewhere that you know needs whatever you are willing offer.

The next day we got to participate along with all the employees at the Service Center in a gift brought to the office from one of their customers.

This group just showed up unannounced. They were all decked out in their tropical island Christmas attire: colorful suluvakatogas (skirts) and salusalus (floral lais).

Then they came inside to the reception area and enthusiastically entertained us with Christmas carols in those beautiful Fijian voices,

expressed appreciation for business from the Service Center and handed over this yummy cake,

then concluded by inviting us to dance along Fijian-style! I wasn't going to turn down that kind of celebrating. Paul stayed back to snap photos!

The next big event in the office that afternoon was a Goodbye Party for the Service Center Finance Department Manager, Arama Puriri. We have been very lucky to have made his aquaintance and work with him daily for the past 17 months. He is a really high-quality person not only at work but in his Church callings and as the father of 6 young children (5 boys and one girl named Nauvoo - I love her name). He is of Maori decent and he and his family are moving back to New Zealand as he has a new job at the Church's Pacific Area office.

Yesterday, Wednesday was another really great holiday outing. This time the Service Center employees set up a Christmas caroling outing. About 15 individuals including Paul & I went to 2 special locations and enjoyed bringing a little attention and warm Christmas feelings to people who sometimes get neglected. The first location was a Catholic Church-sponsored old folks residence called Home of Compassion. There were only about 8 residents and 5 staff but they seemed to enjoy our songs and smiles. Almost all of the dear elderly folks were in wheelchairs or had some kind of obvious physical challenges but they smiled and were very welcoming. Next we drove to an area that Paul & I had never been to. There we visited a place called House of Hope. This is for unwed, young, mostly teenage mothers and their infants. We were told that the youngest mother living there was 13! There were 2 dormatories with 8 rooms in each domatory. One domatory was for moms and infant sons and the other one was for moms and infant daughters. The newest baby was 2 months old. Once again we could tell that we had cheered them up with the familar sweet Christmas messages. It was reciprocal; it cheered me up to be around so many sweet little ones.

Finally, do you remember my story of going Visiting Teaching with the 2 new VT sisters? That was back in October. Last Sunday, the 3 of us decided we would go visiting again this week and take some Christmas love to the women they visit. Once again, it was a very dear experience. Swati (on the left) and Jyoti (on the right) are the two companions. Jyoti invited her husband to come along. The woman they visit is such a dear soul! Her name is Kailash Pati. She is around 82 years old but still in quite good health. She speaks some English but it was best when all 4 of them conversed in Hindi. Swati read from the book of Luke about the birth of the Savior and then Bro. Chand translated and shared the message to her in Hindi. What a special experience.

So that is how we have been enjoying this wonderful season. We know this is a very unusual year and are trying to make the most of focusing on the purpose of the Birth of Jesus Christ and finding ways we can make our gifts reflect His Gospel through serving those we are blessed to come in contact with.

We miss ALL our loved ones -- family members and dear friends -- during this Happy Holiday season but we are so grateful to know the purpose of that infant, Jesus Christ that was born in a manager who's birth the world acknowleges at this season. We are so grateful to be serving Him at this time and sharing His love with those who are seeking for peace and looking to the Savior to find it.

"For God so loved the world that he sent his only Begotten Son"

What's for dinner?

2010-12-16T23:20:00.005-07:00

We just never know what we are going to come across!

A few weeks ago we were driving between Suva and Nadi and we passed this building along the side of the road that we have noticed for months but this time we decided to stop and check it out. It is called "The Prawn Shop". We love to eat prawns though we haven't had them very often so we decided we'd splurge... we bought this frozen tray of about 30 prawns.

First I thawed them in a bowl of water. They were huge! and came fully decked out, including their eyeballs! It was actually quite a bit of work dismantling all those long, prickly parts along with their skulls. There wasn't much left by the time I finished. Of course, they looked just like the scaled shrimp we're used to buying at home. So we moved forward and soon we were enjoying our delicious dinner....

COCONUT SHRIMP!!!

Good thing we didn't discover this any sooner because we would want to have it for dinner every other night no matter how much effort it would take. Coconut Shrimp has always been a favorite dish to us!
Still is!!!

Now we weren't the only ones coming up with food for dinner along the highway that afternoon.
This group of men were very involved in their culinary efforts of preparing for...

a whole pork feast!

We could see this group of men all gathered together next to the highway and we wondered what they were doing. So as we got closer, we were amazed to see this poor pig hanging from the tree. We actually stopped and turned around and drove back so we could see up closer what was taking place. When they saw us pull out our camera, they burst into cheers and whistles and were happy to give us a great shot!
Before we drove away we made sure we asked what time dinner was!

(we didn't join them for dinner but we'd have been more than welcome!)

Making the most of our LAST trip to Vanuatu!

2010-12-04T23:14:00.005-07:00

We always look forward to our trips to Vanuatu for many reasons! First and foremost, is to be able to visit with our dear friends that we have come to know and love but secondly, is because it is usually sunny and bright! Not this time!!!
Before we took off from Suva, it had been raining for several weeks. We so looked forward to drying out in Vanuatu for a week but as luck would have it, the rain seemed to follow us. This was really a heavy downpour...so intense that as our jet began to descend to land in Port Vila it suddenly shifted up and caught everyone off guard. The pilot then told us that we'd have to be in a holding pattern until the downpour subsided which took about 15 minutes. In all of our flights, this had never happened before. Another first was everyone getting handed an umbrella as we stepped out of the plane and headed to the terminal. Oh well, what's a little rain! It took about 5 days before we finally got a totally clear, sunny day. We couldn't complain as we kept reading warnings that were going on in Fiji regarding a potential cyclone that was headed their way... now we were really glad we were in Vanuatu! (thankfully, the potential storm never did increase to the cyclone level! Though we did get to "enjoy" a tiny, little earthquake one afternoon while in Port Vila!)

After 4 days in Port Vila, we went back to the airport and caught a flight to Luganville. This is the domestic terminal. It is really very entertaining to sit and watch all the various people coming and going. Their tourism must be growing because they are reconstructing and remodeling this area which serves as the check-in location, the waiting room and the snack bar.

We were in Vanuatu the middle of October and did training in Luganville on how to keep track of Branch budgets. The District Presidency was very anxious for us to come again as soon as possible. They wanted to bring the Branch leaders from the outer islands over to Luganville to have this same training. I didn't think this would work because we seemed too close to the end of our time but it all seemed to come together and here we were, back in Luganville. There were Branch Presidents and clerks (if they had one) from 11 Branches from 2 outer islands. Paul did 2 separate sessions for each of the individual islands. It took the whole Saturday. These men are so willing to be taught and are anxious to do what they are supposed to do. Sometimes the language is a challenge but everyone seems to work together and it all gets explained. The young Elder on the far right of the photo, in front, is the new Branch President on one of these outer islands. What an experience he's having!

This mission assignment is just perfect for Paul! Numbers, adding machines, checks and reports!

That took care of Saturday... so Sunday after Church, the sun was finally shining so we decided to go out and about to 2 remote Branches in "the bush". Palon and Fanafo are about a 40 minute drive (along a rocky, bumpy, pothole-riddled dirt road). There is a new Senior Missionary couple, the Albrechts, who are serving in Luganville now so they were our transport.

Life is pretty simple here in the bush. So is the usual attire. We drove onto the property of the Fanafo Branch President's home and he and his friends and family were out playing a little volleyball.

Here is the Branch "meetinghouse". This structure is also on the Branch President's property. He told us they had had 43 people in attendance at Church that day. I think they are going to out grow this facility very soon!

As it is, they hold Primary here in the Branch President's home. I admire them so much. They just make do with what they have! Actually, there are plans to build a R-85 (rural Chapel) for them on the property just beyond the volleyball court.

I didn't do a very good job of getting very many pictures of all the people that came out to meet and greet and visit with us but I thought this baby was so cute!

The Branch President's wife, Sister Stevens, came around handing out some refreshments -- pieces of breadfruit. I have never eaten any breadfruit. It seemed to me that I had been told it was not really very good, just kind of tasteless and so I have never really tried to check it out.

They had trees loaded with huge bundles. Very accessible. She just cut one off and sliced it open and started pulling out chunks and passing them around.

There are these huge seeds inside that they just pull out and toss away and then extract the flesh that surrounded the seed. It was actually quite nice. It had a very soft sweet flavor and was about the texture of a piece of cantelope before it gets soft. They don't eat all the insides, just the part around the seeds. The probably do lots of other things with it but that was just how they were serving it to us.

These guys were caught on the paved portion of the road as we drove out to Palon. Elder Albrecht told us that he sees them all the time. So this time he decided he wanted to stop and catch a couple of them. They were not happy to have been caught and put into a plastic bucket. But they were very entertaining. I think they are called Coconut Crabs. I wasn't sure what Elder Albrecht was going to do with them if he took them home. Maybe he wanted some pets. We stopped at the Luganville Chapel before we went back to the Albrecht's flat and we met up with another set of young missionaries. When we showed them these crabs, they told us they had a big bucket full of them that they had caught that afternoon and they were taking them home for their dinner. We decided to give them these 2 as well. We declined their dinner invitation.

Here is Elder & Sister Albrecht. They have been on their mission for about 10 weeks now and are getting adapted and settled in to this unique part of the world. They are CES (Church Education System -- or something like that) or S & I (Seminary & Institute) missionaries. He just retired as an Elementary/Middle School Principal so they are perfect for this calling. They teach English classes 4 times a week and teach Institute 2 times a week and then they do Inservice Training with all the Seminary teachers on 3 islands in this area. He is picking up the Bislama language and starting to feel at home. We admire them so much! They are the only Senior couple on this island.

We just never know what we will run across. Did you know there were Boy Scouts in Vanuatu? And girls that also belong to the Boys Scouts? This group was waiting for some special person at the Luganville airport. I was impressed with how formal and serious they were taking this event.

One of the highlights of our Vanuatu trip was getting to have an almost normal Thanksgiving dinner! There is an American woman that runs a cafe in Port Vila called "Jill's Cafe, the American Way". When we heard that she was serving turkey, dressing and cranberry sauce, we made sure we got there for the special event! It tasted SOOOOOO good! We missed not having any sweet potatoes or yams or pumpkin pie but we were not going to complain about anything!

We even got to share our meal with 3 other Americans! Sister Allen and Sister Sewell are missionaries serving in Port Vila and the young man is Christopher who served his mission in Vanuatu about 5 or 6 years ago. He had just come back to Port Vila the day before so he was happy to be included in the celebration!

So we finally had to pack up and call our dear taxi driver, Pierre and accept that we will probably never be in Vanuatu again. We have made some really dear friends including people at the hotel we always stay in. The cleaning maid knocked on our door one morning and when I opened it, she said "oh! you're back!" I told her this was our last trip and that soon we would go back to America. She then surprised me by hugging me and telling me that all will be well with each of us as God has a plan for us and he watches over us! I appreciated how much she respected our work as missionaries.

Another Weekend in Taveuni

2010-11-08T00:00:00.008-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we finished helping to set up MLS within the Taveuni District. There are 4 Branches on these islands of Taveuni & Rabi and now they are all set to electronically transmit their weekly financial reports.
That's what we like to call "Progress"!

Our training began at 4 pm and finished around 7 pm. By then everyone was famished...

but these dear Sisters had spent this same time (plus a couple more hours) fixing a delicious dinner of roasted chicken, chicken curry, fried fish and lamb stew. The meal was polished off in about 20 minutes!

Here is one of the most devoted ward clerks anywhere! Bro. Ram Chandra loves his calling and he actually listens to what we train on and DOES it!

I think the wet season has kicked in early this year! It rained constantly the 4 days we were there. Here is the main river that runs through the Somosomo town. Not a problem ... in fact, it ramps up the entertainment factor.

Lots and lots of kids showed up on the bridge near the center of town. This became the fijian version of Cowabunga Bay!
First, these kids attached a rope to the railing along the side of the bridge.

This was seriously observed from those below...

then the rope was thrown down to a "secure" location. I don't know how these kids didn't totally just get swept away.

Now the brave (or crazy) guy wraps a swatch of fabric around the rope, counts to three and jumps!

Yee Haw!!
so fun and FREE!
All the kids kept doing this over and over...there weren't too many adults nearby. I sure hoped I wasn't going to have to jump in for any kind of a rescue! (basically I was worried about who would save me!)

Then I noticed there was a mom right to the side of the river taking advantage of the high level of the raging stream (also referred to as the local laundramat).

The next morning, we took off on a trip to see the other side of this island. We got our plans interrupted by another river that was overflowing the road where a concrete portion is in place for crossing the river. The depth of the flow was about 10 inches but the current was really strong. When we pulled up, there was already one car stopped with the driver considering how dangerous this could be.

Then these 2 men came walking across.

They actually seemed quite calm about the whole situation.

The rest of us weren't quite as willing to take the risk so we got back in our truck and changed our plans.
We were in the company of a new couple, Jean and Jack Sunderlage who have just come to this mission and have been assigned to Taveuni. They weren't about to get swept out to sea after just a short 5 weeks into their 18 months.

As we headed back along the main road, we happened to pass the home of this family, Br & Sis Lai. We were so excited to see them! On our first trip to Taveuni, over a year ago, he was our taxi driver so we spent a lot of time with him. Last December they came to Suva to be sealed in the Temple and we had done something for them that must have meant a lot to them because when they saw us they told us they had a gift for us that they had been hoping to give us but they hadn't seen us for so long. Then they went into their home and come out with this beautiful tapa cloth. Br. Lai told us that he made the cloth by hand and his uncle painted the picture on it. What a treasure it is for us! Both their friendship and this sweet gift!

We kept on exploring and soon ran across the home of Pres. Aumule (sp?)of the Qeleni Branch. When we told him we had planned to go take a boat outing to see the area of the island that is said to have 200 waterfalls running down the mountainsides into the sea, he told us he would be happy to take us in his boat! He instantly dropped everything he had going and the guys all pushed the boat into the water.
All Aboard!

How could you not want to spend ALL DAY in this setting?!

Paul was more than happy to help drive the boat while Pres. kept the gas tank full.

There were waterfalls EVERY WHERE! No one lives on this side of the island. The only way to access it is by the sea.

The falls come from fresh water springs that are abundant on this side of the island.

We even disembarked a short distance from the shore in one place so we could enjoy a picnic lunch and then hike up to another waterfall that was about a 30 minute hike inland.

It was not exactly a "white, sandy beach". These rocks were really tricky to wade over and reach the shore.

Not much of a problem for the locals. Everyone walks barefooted around here...on the road, on the beach, through the bush, around town and even at Church... shoes are soooo over rated!

As we hiked up to the inland waterfall, we passed a dalo farm. This vegetable is grown everywhere and is the main staple of the Fijian diet. The main vegetable is the root of this plant but the leaves are also cooked and eaten. Dalo tastes a lot like potatoes only they don't serve it with butter or sour cream so it is pretty bland.

When we got to the impressive waterfalls, there were a few other people that were swimming and hanging out. Such an interesting world we live in: we met 2 British people who live in California and 2 Germans who live in Hong Kong! And they got to meet 4 Americans who live in Fiji!

Bau Branch Chapel Groundbreaking

2010-10-28T00:59:00.005-06:00

Here is the site of the current Bau Branch Chapel.
This is a very humble structure and the land it sits on has had some issues with the land owner

so the Church has been looking for another site to build a new place to worship for this growing Branch.

Last week I got to attend a really choice event - the groundbreaking for a new Chapel for the Bau Branch. This event began at 10 am and it was a very rainy day but despite the less than perfect weather, lots and lots of members showed up to be part of this historical and anxiously awaited event.

The location of this property is just down the road from the current building but on a very large, spacious and level piece of property that the Church has leased for 75 years. The new building will be enclosed with louvered windows. The design is called a R85: R stands for rural design and 85 means it will accommodate 85 people. As of the 3rd quarter attendance report for this year, this branch has an 80-person attendance at Sacrament Meeting! I hope they don't outgrow this facility too soon!

Young, old and everyone in between were in attendance this morning. Thankfully they had anticipated the rain (truthfully, it has been raining almost non stop for about this whole month!) and had set up this makeshift structure just for this service.

Here were the "important people" for the presentation.
From left to right:
Paul Whippy, our Service Center general manager: In his remarks he mentioned that the Church completes one new Chapel some where in the world EVERY day of EVERY year! Seriously, that is 365 buildings a year! Amazing!
The man in the blue shirt (I don't know his name): He is the Chief of this area. He is not a member of the Church but he was representing the villages in this area and he is the one who the Church dealt with for the land lease. He didn't speak but Paul Whippy also mentioned that it was this man's great-grandfather who was the Head Chief of Fiji that ceded Fiji to Great Britain back in the 1800's. He is a pretty important guy. I did make a point to shake his hand!
Next is the Pacific Area Physical Facilities director (I forgot his name, whoops). I asked him what his responsibility included and he told me he was in charge of EVERY building (chapels, Temples, schools, service centers) in the WHOLE Pacific Area. Believe me, that is a huge responsibility!
Next to him is the Stake President for this Stake. His name is President Tagidunu. He is such a wonderful, competent, committed Church leader. We are blessed to get to work with him quite often. His talk was all in Fijian so I have no idea what he said but it was powerful!
The last man up front is the Bau Branch President, Pres. Koroi. What a dear man also. He is so humble. We just love and admire him so much also.

During the speech-giving portion of the program, there was rain just poring down nonstop but just before the men got up to go out and start digging their shovels into the soil, the rain cleared up! I have to tell you that it didn't surprise me at all. I felt like that would happen. It was really impressive to see it actually take place!
Paul Whippy also said in his remarks that it will only take 10 weeks to complete this construction! We may even still be here for the dedication!

After all the first men completed their shoveling, lots of individual Branch members went out to join in and dig out their portion of the ground. This picture is for Barry & Jackie; there is your favorite Bau Branch member right in the middle of all the action!

This event wouldn't have been complete without traditional Fijian refreshments! Aren't they beautiful! Very yummy too! Thanks to all the Bau Branch sisters!

It is so exciting to see growth and progress in this country. So many of the Saints are so committed and humble and strong in their faith and their testimonies. They are a beautiful example of serving our Heavenly Father with everything they have to offer. There was a really sweet spirit at this event. Even the Head Chief told Bro. Whippy that he felt something really different and touching during this meeting that he had never felt before! I know I felt blessed to be among such faithful and deserving members.

Vanuatu again! Lucky Us!

2010-10-19T17:22:00.011-06:00

Vanuatu is wonderful!
We just got home last night from our 6th trip to that unique, fascinating, entertaining and enjoyable country!
This trip included traveling to 3 different islands: Efate, Tanna and Santo so we were kept busy and got to meet and greet and teach a lot of the Branch leaders.
These first 3 pictures are taken from the non-stop activity that we enjoy watching take place in the harbor of the capital city of Port Vila. This seaplane sailed right up to the shore, picked up the passenger and then headed our way before he then headed out of the harbor and took off into the blue sky! We'd never seen that before!

There is always a plethora of ships coming and going.....
small, medium, large and ....

.... unique!
This one is a catamaran that serves as a kind of taxi-service between a lot of the outer islands. It is cheaper for the locals to travel by boat than by air but it is not as speedy as flying. It takes about 12 hours to sail to Santo Island from Port Vila where as it takes just 45 minutes by plane. But why rush?

Here is what we came for: MLS roll out for the Port Vila District!
Six units plus the District were given computers and training on how to do their weekly financial reporting and membership record keeping online and on their hard drive. This was a huge step forward! and all the leaders were so excited and anxious to become "tech savy"!

Our MSR manager, Sefo, trained on how to report their weekly donations. They practiced with fake donation slips and fake bills and coins but the process was REAL.
Here Paul is working with the Etas Branch leaders. Then Paul trained on how to enter expenses (checks and cash spent) and how to keep track of the Branch budget. I even got to train on how to input and update membership record information.

Here is the District Presidency working together.
You need to meet these wonderful men. From left to right:
Pres. Tokalolo, District Pres; Pres. Souvai, 1st Coun; Paul Hilliman, counselor to the mission President; Pres. Massing, 2nd Coun and Paul Kaun, District Clerk

Mele Branch and Blacksands Branch were working together. Their Branches are next door neighbors so they are actually going to share their computer. The Mele chapel is not secure enough to leave a computer there so this computer will be housed in the Blacksands chapel.

Sitting down are the 2 leaders from Port Vila 1st Branch. Paul Hilliman and Sefo Farpapau, our MSR manager are standing behind them. We work with Sefo everyday in the Service Center. If we had a boss, he would be our boss but we technically don't have a boss. Sefo is also the Bishop of our home ward, Samabula 1st.

Last here is the Port Vila 2nd leaders near the table with the Blacksands Branch clerk sitting behind them. It was exciting to see how quickly they were picking this all up.
The training only took about 2 1/2 hours and the next day, Sunday, everyone of the units were able to input their reports and send them off! There were a couple of snags but by the time we flew away on Tues. Sefo had sorted everything out and he felt like his goal was achieved! We were just happy to have been a part of this exciting move forward.

Sunday we decided to go to church at the Blacksands Branch. All the units in Vanuatu are conducted in the national language which is Bislama. It is a really simple, pidgeon-English language but still I didn't think I'd get much out of Relief Society and Gospel Doctrine classes so I choose to attend Primary.... which was the best choice for sure!

They were actually practicing for the Primary Sacrament Meeting program which they will present the end of November. It was so much fun to see these sweet, shy children come up in front of the group and recite their little remarks. There were about 25 children all together. The leaders had assigned groups of 2 children: a younger child to display a picture representing what the older child was talking about in their presentation. Then between each group of children, all the kids would stand up and sing a Primary song. Most all the songs are sung in English so I thoroughly enjoyed being able to sing along with them!

I think I was kind of a distraction (or maybe even a concern) to some of the children. Aren't they beautiful! Seriously, look at those huge, gorgeous eyes! I did get him to smile but he did seem quite concerned about why I had joined their group!

She didn't seem to mind!

I was actually watching this little guy quite closely because he pulled that pack of matches out of his pocket and I was afraid he was going to start striking them into flames but then he just started chewing on them which made we anxious for a whole other reason! You can't really see very well in this picture but he had the longest eyelashes!

These two girls show the 2 typical hair styles: either puffy or braided.
Those braids would have taken some time!

After church we headed back to the airport to catch our next flight over to the island of Tanna.

We really never thought we'd get back to this island again but as a result of some of the information that showed up on the mid-year audits for the 4 units on this island, we were asked to return and do some more training so we JUMPED at the chance!
The young missionaries suggested this hotel/resort for our accommodations. It is called Tanna Lodge. I guess tourists are flocking to Tanna right now to visit the active volcanco so it is actually quite hard to get a reservation here as there aren't too many overnight accommodations on this island (that we'd feel comfortable stay at).

Not bad, huh!
They had about 10 of these individual little villas (that's what they called them). You can see it was right next to the ocean. I love being lulled to sleep by the waves crashing on the beach.

The vegetation was so lush! I was afraid we wouldn't be able to find our villa after the sun went down!

Our villa actually had 2 rooms; one with a large bed and one with 2 twin size beds. There was no A/C but it did have a really good ceiling fan and it actually got kind of cold during the night. There were some blankets on a shelf in our room and we ended up using them! Something I never thought I'd need in this tropical environment. There was indoor toilet facilities and 2 sinks in the bathroom but the shower was OUTSIDE! That was another first for us! It was surrounded by a tall, stone wall so it actually was very private. See the metal box on the wall? That was a very effective gas heater and the shower was perfect! To choose how hot you wanted the water, there was a dial on the unit that gave you the choice of "big flame" or "little flame"... bislama is delightful and simple!

Because this is a volcano island, the sand is black and very rocky...

but not a problem for the locals who were totally enjoying their evening outing in the sea.

And not a problem for us as we watched the sunset.

and choose our dinner off the menu board.
We went for the stir fried chicken and it was delicious! Oh yeah, and the banana split with ice cream! Where are we?

We were accompanied on this outing with Brother and Sister Koipoi. He is one of the District auditors and she is the Family History specialist. We needed him to help us with the training we had planned because he was the one who did the audits and he knew what the problems were that we needed to cover and he also did the translating when our English wasn't getting understood.
Brother Koipoi served his mission in Fiji and Sister Koipoi served her mission in Vanuatu. She told me that Tanna Island was her first area on her mission and this was her first time back since then. They have been married about 4 years and have a little boy who is about 3 years olds.

Did you know that some watermelons are yellow? I didn't!!! I've never seen this anywhere else. It tasted just like the red watermelon! I should have brought home some seeds... I just now thought of that... a little too late!

Paul had quite a lot of training to do. He has been trying very hard to simplify some way for these unit leaders to keep track of how they spend their branch budgets. The District gives them cash because there aren't very many places on this island that you can cash a check. But seldom do they document or record how the money is spent so this is a constant topic of discussion. But they are very anxious to do what they should and they are very willing to listen and try to do what they are instructed about. Finances are like learning a foreign language. It just isn't something that they use in their daily lives. They live off the land and seldom do they even deal with money in their personal lives. Our hearts are so full of love and admiration for them and their willingness to accept this responsibility especially when they themselves are just quite new in the Church.

Here is another of the Branch Presidents and 2 of the 6 young missionaries that serve here on Tanna Island. They were fully involved in making weekly records that hadn't been made or submitted for about 6 months! We were really happy with all that was accomplished on this less than 24 hour visit.

So that gives you just a brief, quick glimpse into some of our visit to Vanuatu. Even when we think we have had a very productive outing, we come back home and think "we need to go again; there is still lots to do!"

Academy for Creating Enterprise

2010-09-24T16:46:00.008-06:00

There is a very exciting program that has just been launched here in Suva. It is called "ACE" which stands for "Academy for Creating Enterprise".
This is a 12-week course of study to help teach people how to start up and run a business even in places where there seems to be no business opportunities.

I first heard of this program about last June while reading articles online in the Meridian Magazine.
A man named Steve Gibson had introduced this program in the Philippines several years ago and the articles were telling very touching, inspirational stories of how successful it had worked in that country. It is a program for returned missionaries who have come back to their villages and families and are struggling to find jobs or work or anything to support themselves and their families. As I read the stories I kept thinking, I wish there was something like this here in Fiji because our returned missionaries face these same challenges. (ACE is also being taught in areas of Brazil, Mexico and India)

Meet Frank Stanford!
He is my hero! Though he won't like me calling him that.
He and his wife, Susan, were here in Fiji when we arrived 13 months ago. They had come to Fiji not as missionaries like us but as "full-time Church volunteers". He had just sold his business and they decided to take 8 months off and go somewhere and just volunteer their time and their talents. They choose to come to Fiji and serve in the Temple. While they were here they unexpectedly fell in love with Fiji and more specifically, they fell in love with the young men.
When their time was up last November, they left Fiji and returned home where Frank says that the minute he touched the ground on the other side of the world, he wanted nothing more but to COME BACK TO FIJI!

Long story short: after much praying and searching they discovered that they needed to come back and help the Raising Generation to figure out how to progress in their temporal lives. So many young men are so anxious to do something worthwhile but they just don't have the resources or knowledge of even how to get started.
Frank and Susan are here with a huge amount of FAITH but we all know that faith without works is dead so here is the works part come to life.
After interviewing many, many excited and anxious potential students, this group of 20 (16 men and 4 women) are the first class to get to partake of this hopefully, life-changing experience.

This is week 3. The class is held at the Nausori Ward building each Thursday from 9am to 3 pm. There is no cost for the students except for their time and commitment to take the class seriously. In order to receive a graduation certificate, the students must have a 90% attendance (which means they can only be absent once).
Frank doesn't do all the teaching. Each week he brings in different people to share their experiences in the business world.

This week's guest speaker: Elder Kasteler

Paul thoroughly enjoyed sharing his experiences of why and how he started his own accounting firm and how he got started. It was fun for me to hear him talk about those early days back when he was finishing up his education and trying to figure out what to do next and how to make his dreams come to pass.

I don't think any of these students will be starting an accounting business but the basics of believing in yourself and recognizing opportunities as they pass by and then just hearing that "you can do it" but "keep in mind" are relevant and basic principles. He told how he had no money, a mortgage and a wife expecting their 4th child... but failure just couldn't be an option.

It is really fun to see lights go on in the students faces as something that is said makes an impact on their minds. After he finished his presentation, he had several students ask some thoughtful questions. It was a choice experience to be included in this life-changing project.

This won't be Paul's last time up front in the teaching spot. He has been asked to do two more presentations. One on micro-franchising and one on cash management.
(that seems over MY head!)

We so love these people and want nothing less for them then to succeed
and find JOY in their lives and be able to support their families and grow the Church and Gospel here in Fiji!

Here is another man that is fully involved and committed to this project. His name is Arama Puriri. He is the Finance Manager in the Service Center. He is brilliant when it comes to the business world and taking care of money! He has a strong passion for the success of the youth and young adults and he does an excellent job of getting people to THINK.
The first week of class, he gave a very motivating presentation and I was lucky enough to get to have a small part of it. He had a poem he shared with the class and he asked me if I would read it. It is entitled "The Race" by D. H. Groberg. I don't know if you have ever heard of it but it was new to me. I loved it and thought it was perfect for this class but it applies to all of us and all of the challenges that we face in life. So HERE is the link to it.

Senior Missionary seminar

2010-09-12T00:24:00.013-06:00

Back a few weeks ago our Mission President and his wife hosted a 3-day Senior Missionary seminar. They brought all the outer island missionaries here to Suva and we got to meet and enjoy each others company and share our unique experiences. We had many activities such as a Temple session, an all-afternoon training from the President and his wife, an evening of sharing photos and experiences about Fiji, Vanuatu and New Caledonia. The final day we got to go out on the Navua River for an all-day boat trip to visit an up river village and enjoy the gorgeous scenery that Fiji is known for.
Here we are loading up on our wooden, 25-foot long, 4 feet wide, wooden- planked seated, 30 hp outboard-motorized engine, about 6 or 8 passenger boats that sailed about a foot above the water.

Here is our dear, very competent captain: Maciv

He was really good at bailing out the water and keep us from sinking!

About a mile from our boarding point, we passed the Navua Ward Chapel that sits atop this hillside near the bank of the river. Interesting bit of trivia about this site. Besides being the Church's worshiping location it is also a designated, Government assigned evacuation center for when this river floods. There was a huge flood some months ago and 500 local neighbors spent 2 weeks residing there. The waters that were flooding this area were as tall as half way up that hillside. People had to use boats to even reach the building.

There was a lot of normal, daily life going on along the banks of the river as we traveled upstream.

The terrain along the shores was very lush and beautiful... low in some areas and other areas reminded me of sailing through the canyons at Lake Powell (but a lot more lush in the vegetation category).

There were lots and lots of waterfalls: small, medium and very impressively large.

More of the locals just living life beside the river.

We arrived at the village and climbed up the mountainside. This is a village that earns income by hosting visitors and tourists almost every day except Sundays.

We were greeted by the traditional beating on the wooden truck that has a carved out center. It is very effective in announcing to everyone in the village that the guests have arrived.

Then we were ushered into their village group meeting hall. This was probably one of the nicest meeting halls we have been in anywhere.

They began with the traditional Kava ceremony but they had no idea that our whole group did not drink Kava... no problem, that just left more for the villagers. Notice how beautiful the inside walls, floor and ceiling are. All covered with hand-woven mats and tapa clothes.

After the initial welcoming ceremony, they toured us through a lot of the village. Here we got to visit the preschool kindergarten class. All the older children travel some distance to get to Primary and Secondary (Elementary & High School) schools but the children that are about 3 - 5 stay here and attend this school.
It was just a one-room building. What you see is what all that it was. The children each told us their names and then they sang about 3 songs. One song was a Bula (hello) song and as they sang they walked around to everyone and shook our hands and warmly gave us BULA greetings!
So sweet!

All schools here hang everything from lines scattered long the ceiling. They had lots of stuffed toys hanging along the walls also. Very simple.

Here are list of all the students in this year's class!

Next we were shown how they do their handicrafts. It was fascinating to see how they continue to make these traditional woven mats and painted tapa clothes.

These are the stencils this woman has used for ever... well, at least since they switched from making their stencil sheets out of leaves to sheets of plastic that hold up much better and longer.

Here is one of the finished tapa clothes that depicts traditional symbols of Fiji and includes the name of the village: Koromakawa
From left to right the items are:
bure (Fijan home), kava bowl, the welcome drum, "head basher" from their cannibal days, turtle, another cannibal weapon, woven fan.

Here these women were demonstrating weaving of mats. This is a really arduous project. Notice how EVERYONE sits on the floor! Not all that comfortable. I asked this cute woman how old she was... she is 85! I think she's made a few mats over the years!

Then they did a coconut presentation which included cracking it open and shredding the meat and sharing the milk and squeezing the meat for the lotion. Coconuts are a lifesaver to all the islanders. They use everything from the leaves to the trucks to the fruit; every bit of it is valuable.

Even coconut JEWELERY!

Lunch was included in our visit. They served the traditional lovo which is the meal that is cooked in the ground. It included chicken and vegetables. It was really quite good.

And then as you would expect, they set up LOTS and LOTS of handcraft souveniers. But we enjoyed taking advantage of the accessibility!

This is what I bought... I love it! I reminds me of a quilt! I have it hanging on the wall in our bedroom and I am really enjoying laying in bed and gazing at it!

After we left the village, we stopped at this beautiful, huge waterfall. Our boat captain here told us we could go in the pool right there below and swim around but no one took him up on it!

Here are our dear friends, the Scherns. They are the senior missionaries in Luganville, Vanuatu. They go home the end of September so the next time we get to visit with them will be back in the USA.

For some reason, after the waterfall, they decided to but us all on these bamboo rafts. It was quite the simple version of river transportation. I think they just wanted us to experience how a lot of the local villagers access the river. Glad we didn't have to do the whole outing on these rafts!

This is not part of the SM seminar but I thought I'd show you a few pictures of some of the SM in action. Sister Sewell and Sister Allen are based in Port Vila, Vanuatu. When we were there about 3 weeks ago, I sat in on their English class. They teach this class twice a week and have about 16 students in attendance.

After the class portion of the evening, they spend about a half hour playing games which is a huge it. Here they were playing musical chairs. I don't think they had ever played it before but they caught on really quickly and it was very entertaining to watch.

Here is Sister Lesuma who lives in Taveuni. She has just begun learning how to applique. Some of her stitches were looking more like basting than applique so I asked if she'd like to see how I applique and hide my stitches. After I showed her how, she caught on in no time. Just what I've been looking for... another quilting fan!

These next few pictures show Sister Erickson in action. She has been sewing flannel diapers non stop while she has been here. She is the mission secretary but when she goes home at night, this is how she has spent a lot of her evenings. Not everyone in Fiji can afford disposable diapers so flannel diapers are still a necessity.
This was a Relief Society meeting and she taught about 8 or 9 women and young women how to make them. I was very impressed because all the women knew how to use the sewing machines. They usually can't afford their own machine but at least they do know how to use one.

So there you go... just another small glimpse into our Senior Missionary life! Great! isn't it!!!

(I hope you don't think that this is all we do but pictures of us sitting at our desks doing our normal office work just doesn't seem like much of an interesting blog post subject!)

This week's adventure = Rabi Island

2010-08-15T00:16:00.010-06:00

So back in March, we got to travel to Kiribati for 2 weeks. While we were there I had someone make me one of these custom, traditional blouses. I love the way they do smocking and create a word right in the forefront. Some people display their name or the word "mauri" which means "hello" but I chose the name of this special country.
This week, we went to a "mini" version of Kiribati called Rabi Island and I was dressed appropriately.

Rabi Island is part of Fiji. Back in the 1940's, the British found a valuable mineral on an island in Kiribati and decided to remove all of the people living on that island so they brought them to Rabi Island in 1945. I won't go into the whole story because it is very complicated. It involves a huge law suit and trail but the Kiribati people ended up losing the suit and their homeland and so they continue to reside on this island.

There is a Branch of the Church on this island. It is connected to the Taveuni District. We have been to Taveuni three times and each time the Nuku Branch leaders have sailed over to meet with us. Last time we visited with them was back in April and we told them that next time WE would sail over to meet with them! We had been told it was about an hour and a half boat ride but it could be quite rough sailing depending on the weather. For the week before we were to take this adventure, I began praying that we would have good weather for a smooth sailing. We scheduled to take our trip on Thursday but the winds were way too strong so we postponed the trip until Friday. The winds had slowed down quite a bit but it was still quite a bumpy outing.

Most all of the population lives along the coast. There are about 2000 people that reside on the whole island and it is quite a good size island. Very lush and green; just like all of Fiji!

Here is the boat and the group that we traveled with. From left to right: the 2 young elders who are assigned to this area. They actually live on the Taveuni island but travel over here every couple of weeks. They have quite a few investigators and they really wish they could be assigned here full time. Elder Gashler is from Sandy, Ut and Elder Wall from Layton, Ut. Next is Pres. Lesuma. He is the Taveuni District President. He is a really wonderful and committed leader. He gave us a lot of confidence and peace of mind about taking this outing. Next is the ship captain. He is the brother-in-law to Pres. Lesuma and a very experienced sailor. The ride was rough and long but we never felt unsafe. Paul and I and Pres. Lesuma wore clothes that we didn't mind getting wet and then changed into our missionary attire once we arrived on the island.

Isn't that just a gorgeous view!!!

Here is the MAIN road through the town of Nuku with a few of the sights along the way...

Groups of people just hanging out and enjoying the day...

I thought this "house" proves how plants grow everywhere!!!

Are you ready to see this? This is the Chapel here for the Nuku Branch... very humble! This is one of the original Colonial homes built back in the 1940s. Every person who moved to Rabi was promised a house like this but it never happened and most people lived in tents until they could construct their own homes mostly from coconut trunks and woven fronds.
The pictures below didn't really end up in the order I wanted them but they still tell the story of our outing just fine.

Our main purpose for this trip was to do the mid-year audit of the Branch finances and training on updating and handling the membership records.

After the training and auditing was completed, the Branch served us lunch. Honestly, these dear people have next to nothing so we felt like we were eating their next meal when we got served. One of the wives of the Branch Elders Quorum Pres fixed us corned beef spaghetti served over rice along with sodas and biscuits (cookies) for dessert! I have to admit this was the first time I've ever eaten corned beef spaghetti... very interesting!

Here is Sister Mary who fixed the meal... look at her beautiful hair! and face! and personality!

Here are some of the Branch leaders we met with. From left to right: first is Pres. Natantamokin, the Branch President. Bless his heart! He does such a great job as the Branch President and this Branch is growing. They have about 70 members in attendance at Church each Sunday and like I mentioned, quite a few more investigators. Next is Bro. Mateka. He is the Branch clerk but he has only been a member of the Church for 3 months and was called to the Clerk calling just recently so he is still learning what he is supposed to be doing but he seems to be catching on quickly. Next is Pres. Lesuma who was so much help to us. He really made our job go smoothly. Last is Bro. Valu. When he showed up and sat down, I thought I understood that he was just a member of the Branch. He is a Tongan man but has lived on Rabi Island for many years. He joined the Church in Tonga but has been inactive until just recently. He showed up one day and said he wanted to come back to Church and his wife and 6 children all wanted to be baptized! It turned out that he helped me a lot by translating what I was saying in English to the Branch President who mostly only understands and speaks Kiribati, not even Fijian. Believe me, these kinds of meetings are always really interesting! What I loved the most was that by the end of our training, the Branch President decided to call this Tongan man, Bro. Valu to be the Branch Assistant Clerk over membership records! They even went into the next room and set him apart!

Aren't these children darling!
We always seem to attract quite an interested audience when we pilangies show up!

Here is quick tour of a bit of the Chapel. Here is the sacrament meeting room. It is really small. They have grown so much that they really struggle to get all the members to fit into one room. Some times, members have to sit in other rooms on the other side of the walls. This shot is facing forward....

this is facing opposite of the podium. Quite tight quarters!

Here is one of the classrooms

and this is the Primary room. Notice the "blackboards"! The songs are written on the walls.
It may not have been one of the nicest Chapels I have ever been to but it was about one of the cleanest! I was really impressed with how neat, clean and organized all the rooms were despite the lack of nice facilities. Unfortunately, I have seen really nice buildings that are not watched over and maintained anywhere near to how well taken care of this humble facility is cared for.

So, as usual, all good things must come to an end. We were only on the island for about 2 and 1/2 hours but we felt like it was a very productive and worthwhile outing. We feel like it is important to visit these outer Branches and show them that we appreciate and recognize all that they are doing and that they are important enough to us that we will come to them not just always expect them to come to us. We find we are always touched and edified by meeting these dedicated, willing, humble and committed Church members. It helps remind us of all that we do have instead of how we sometimes just seem to focus on what we don't have.

The ocean was lots rougher on our return trip and it took about twice as long to get back. By the time we approached Taveuni island, it was low tide and the captain ended up having to get out into the water and push the boat forward from behind while....

Elder Wall helped push from upfront with a big stick!

Then we finally all just disembarked and waded through knee-deep water until we arrived at the shore!

We walked quite a ways... you can see out boat just below the right-side of that large island. We loved it! Makes for a fun story!

Here is another story: We weren't the only people in the ocean. For the past month or so people have been flocking out along the shores around this area when it is low tide. They are harvesting what they call "caterpillars" ...

I'm thinking they are more like squid or slugs or something pretty creepy! Apparently, these slugs or whatever, show up about once a year and are a greatly desired delicacy to Chinese people. So the locals dig them out of the sand, boil them and then dry them and then sell them to the Chinese dealers who I guess then export them over to China. After I caught a glimpse of these squishy little beings, I was glad I made it a shore without having come in contact with any of them!

Just another WONDERFUL day in the life of a missionary!

Give Blood! Play Rugby!!!

2010-07-25T00:31:00.006-06:00

We went to our FIRST Rugby game!!!

Rugby is huge over here! The season had just ended when we arrived last August. In fact, one of our first cultural events we attended in this country was an end of season, Saints rugby team party but at that time we didn't know any of the team members let along anything about the game of Rugby. So we have been anxiously awaiting the opening of the next season which started several weeks ago. But we hadn't been available to make it to a game until just a week ago.

This is the SAINTS Rugby team.

It is composed of young men from various Wards and Branches of the Church around the Suva area. In fact, George Koroivanuve who is sitting in the middle of this group shot (facing forward, holding the blue bottle) works with us in the MSR Department in the Service Center.

The Saints belong to a league made up of teams from this Province (like a county). The other teams are from particular villages. Ours is the only team not made up of villagers. The other teams practice every day in their village while the Saints only get together for practice twice a week because Monday night is Family Home Evening and Wednesday night is Institute.
At "kick off" the opposing team of this game was ranked in first place of the league. The Saints were in 5th place.

We stood right on the sideline almost next to this guy who began the game with his throw in... good view! Actually, there weren't very many spectators. I don't know why there weren't more fans... I actually believe the women get pretty tired of non-stop Rugby games.

That's George being lifted up to catch the throw in and the guy with #1 on his red shirt is Bro. Ramasimi. We have spent a lot of time with him in his church calling as the Nausori Stake IT (computer) specialist so we were excited to see him in ACTION on the field. He is a really strong, tough player!

Off and running! NON STOP!

Seriously, even when someone goes down the game keeps on going! This is one intense, rough, no-protective-gear game. When players are smashed to the ground, it made me wince and quiver but don't worry, they just jump up and keep on going!

And of course, it just wouldn't be Rugby without the SCRUM! So brutal!
They all put their heads down and together and then start pushing straight forward as someone throws the ball in the middle beneath all the players. Somehow it gets in the hands of some player and everyone is off again.
Their coach, Bro. Maiwiriwiri stood right next to us during the game and "tried" to explain the game but I'm sure he wondered what planet we came from -- no, he knows we are American and only understand football. He did tell us that this opponent team was doing whatever they could to avoid having to get into a scrum with the Saints.

The games are divided in two periods of 30 minutes each. If a ball is kicked over the goal post, the team gets 3 points. If it is carried across the goal line, they get 5 points and they get to try to kick the ball over for an extra 2 points.
During the whole game the only points were made by 2 kicks from the Other Guys (as we called them) so it was 6 - 0 up ...

until the last minute when the Saints ran the ball over the goal line and then...

kicked it over for the extra 2 points (you can barely see the ball straight above the yellow truck in the center of the photo) and the Saints pulled it off:
Saints 7! Other guys 6
They were stoked and we were thrilled! The coach was even kind enough to give us the credit for their win because of our attendance!

So now I can confess that we are Rugby fans!!!! Which, as it turns out, is really lucky since our grandkids, Colton and Cory, have become rugby players and our son-in-law, Eric has become their rugby coach and a cerfified Rugby official! I think we have lots more rugby games in our future!

GO SAINTS!!!!

Ahoy Matey!

2010-07-10T02:39:00.006-06:00

Even before we came to Fiji we had heard about a really exciting adventure outing. This last week we finally got to experience it and it was every bit as great as we had been told!
This is the "Sigatoka River Safari".
The brochure touts that it is "simply unforgettable" and they weren't kidding!

We got on board a custom made jet boat that seats 20 passengers. This boat is very comfortable with padded seating and a very competent Captain. Maybe you have heard of him....

"Captain Jack Sparrow"
(that's what he likes to be called on the boat. He goes by Josh off the boat.)

He was really entertaining and kept us laughing and safe all at the same time. He also shared lots of historical information about the Fijian traditions and customs of village life from days gone by as well as village living today. Lots of things are still the same. The Fijians are very proud of their traditions and their villages and are happy and anxious to share this unique lifestyle. This company has arranged with 24 villages to bring these tours through regularly. They rotate between 12 different villages for 6 months and then switch to another 12 villages for the next 6 months. These villages use this as a mean of earning income that otherwise they would have no other means of acquiring.

Here is the loading dock. There were 2 boats in our group and each boat held 20 passengers. The boats absolutely rip along the top of the water. We guessed we were traveling about 40 miles an hour. They can smoothly travel in as low a level of water as 6 inches which in some places we could tell we were that close. Other places the water was quite deep. It is a very wide river and when it is the rainy season, it can flood and raise up 25 feet.

Traveling up the river felt just like cruising the main channel at Lake Powell!
There are a lot of villages that are situated along the banks and we passed lots of people and animals in and out of the river just living their normal, daily lives.

The scenery was spectacular... lush, green, mountainous along with lots of farming and plantations on both sides. Fijians are about the most friendliest people anywhere so every person we passed waved and everyone on the boat waved back.

There are very strict village standards that anyone and everyone must observe and respect whenever entering a village anywhere. First off, all women must wear a skirt or a sarong as they call them here. The tour provided sarongs for all women on our tour. No women in any Fijian village EVER wears pants and never wears anything that would show anything above her knees. Next, no HATS are allowed to be worn in a village. Only the village Chief can wear a hat. Everyone else is "below" the chief and so to show respect, no one wears a hat.
Our villager guide, the man in the red floral shirt, was helping show the guests how to put on their sarongs.

Here is the Welcome to our Village sign for our hosting village of NAVEYAGO VILLAGE.

We were directed into the Community Center where the locals had prepared a Kava ceremony, a feast and dancing. I counted 22 men, 8 women and about 9 beautiful young children. These sweet kids were really enjoying the festivities. Aren't they just beautiful!

Another longstanding tradition here in Fiji is KAVA drinking. It is the high point of any event in the village. As guests, our group brought a gift of a bundle of kava plants (that was provided by the tour company) that the villagers beat into a dust-like powder, mixed it with water (by hand) and then shared it with anyone that wanted to give it a try using one coconut shell cup. NO THANKS. We passed. Kava drinking is actually quite a problem over here. It honestly looks like dirty water and that is exactly what some of the other guests commented as well. I also heard one person say it felt like having gone to the dentist and gotten a novacaine shot.

Then the feast began!
Another tradition lots of Fijian live by is sitting on the floor so that was continued for this meal. Paul & I have eaten in other villages before and so we were more than willing to let the other guests have the bulk of the dishes. People seemed to really enjoy the dishes. I enjoyed the watermelon and the cucumbers!

After lunch, they cleared up the feast leftovers and dishes and everyone got dancing! It is really fun to go to dances because EVERYONE dances... young, old and in between!
After about 2 hours of visiting, eating, dancing and sharing village customs, we boarded the boat and jetted back down the river.
Captain Jack made sure this would be a memorable experience by doing about 5 or 6 360 degree rotations that ended up drenching all of us in water!
All in all it was a really fun "P" day outing!

Girls come to town

2010-07-08T20:13:00.001-06:00

Ok.... so this post is WAY BEHIND TIMES but I'm going with the mindset of "better late than never"!

We had the most amazing reunion with Heidi and Katie that last week of April. Katie spent 7 days with us and Heidi squeezed in 4 but we made the MOST of every second we had together!

I'm going to also leave most of the narration up to "pictures speak louder than words"...

here is my report:

Katie, Paul and I had spent 4 days on an outer island and then flew back to Nadi Airport where Heidi was patiently waiting for us... we enjoyed several hours at this airport cafe snacking on hot chocolate, carrot cake and catching up with each other's lives.

The girls were quite impressed with the beautiful view from the balcony at our apartment.

The Suva weather decided to give us a break from the rainy season and treated us to a gorgeous sunny, blue sky couple of days. Here we were on our way to a session at the Temple... it felt like "heaven on earth"!

We had to show off downtown Suva and took the girls to the traditional handicraft market where everyone, including Paul found some impressive souveniors! Paul's is a Fijian warrior head banger!

Turns out they were very useful just a short time later!
(this is the local Fijian warrior that turns up downtown whenever a big cruise ship comes to town)

Paul had lots to choose from... luckily he didn't choose any of those masks.

The girls loved seeing the guard at the Fiji Prime Ministers compound. I love these uniforms.

Turns out what we really needed was some R & R time so we went to this hidden resort that Paul & I had never been to before but looked really nice when we checked it out on the internet.

Here are our rooms: K & H on the left and P & me on the right.

I think K & H were happy with our choice!
Inside and out.....

Unfortunately, these reunions never last long enough!
Thanks for making the effort to come! It was just what we needed!

PS: any one else like to come on over?

Kaboom!!!

2010-07-08T03:13:00.000-06:00

Paul and our tour guide, Celina arriving at the edge of the volcano about the same time it began to rain

Mt. Yasur, the non stop, active volcano on the island of Tanna as we approached from the ash covered side... looked very similar to the Bonneville salt flats only gray. We had to drive along this ash plane to access the road to the crater which is on the other side of the mountain.

A sample of what the debris that gets regularly blown up and out of the crater look like...seriously, you wouldn't want to be attacked by one of those stones!

Beautiful clouds of gas, ash and red-hot lava shards! All were accompanied with tremendous earth-shaking, ear-deafening explosions! Very attention getting!

You can't really say that you have been to Tanna if you don't go and see the volcano! We were really hoping that we would get to have this adventure but we weren't quite sure since we would only be on the island for about 28 hours.
We arrived around noon and found out that our training meeting had been scheduled for the next day so we found a driver and a tour guide and headed off to check out this amazing hot spot!
We didn't really know what to expect for this tour and it turned out to be much more than we expected. First of all, it takes about 2 hours (each way) to drive to the volcano along a very rough dirt road. Second, it had rained the day before and if the road wasn't bumpy and rough, it was muddy and had mini swamps to drive through.
But as this road was also a "main road" through many villages, there was a lot of everyday life happening along the route.

We were so surprised when we came across this group standing by the side of the road waiting for us! We were invited out of the truck and warmly welcomed to their village and then treated to 4 beautiful songs by these dear women and children. Islanders have the most amazing voices and harmony! Then they gave us ALL those bouquets of flowers -- beautiful, fresh and very fragrant! I so wished that I had come prepared with some kind of gift in return. After we thanked them profusely and got back in the truck and started down the road again, all the young kids chased after the truck laughing and waving! So cute!

Here are a few more people we passed along the way

This group of boys were walking home from school and loved seeing our white faces!
Thumbs Up!!!

The next day we had a really great and productive training meeting with all the Branch leaders from this whole island. There are about 30,000 people that live on this island of which there are about 400 Church members within 4 Branches and 2 Anexes (units that are much smaller than a Branch).
After the training meeting, we brought everyone back to the place we were staying and enjoyed a delicious lunch together. I'm pretty sure that most of these dear men had NEVER eaten at a restaurant like this before.
See the man in the plaid shirt, standing up on the right side... turns out he is the resort manager and from Australia and he knew my father from back in 1977-1980 when my father was a mission president in Adelaide, Australia. Quite AMAZING! Another "small world" connection!

Thought you might enjoy seeing the "chapels" for the 2 annexes...
very humble meetinghouses.

Life on Tanna is very simple but quite the ADVENTURE!

Happy 4th of July! God Bless America!

2010-07-06T03:33:00.002-06:00

Just because we are living on the other side of the world doesn't mean we don't celebrate those really special American holidays! Especially with so many American friends by our side!

Hope you all had a wonderful and patriotic and safe 4th of July!

We feel extremely blessed to be Americans!

What? End of May! No way!

2010-05-30T17:04:00.012-06:00

Poulet fish, fresh and headed to Luganville from Malekula aboard our flight

A mother and her young son out collecting their firewood for the day

Fresh caught and still alive ... how would you like fresh CRAB for dinner tonight!

One of 4 new neckties that I have made for Paul with some "island flare"!

Cute little guy enjoyed sketching on the chalkboard during Gospel Doctrine class

Visiting Osea at his farm

Seriously! Where does the time go! I cannot believe that I haven't posted on my blog since April 15th! It's not that I don't have things to blog about! It is just that I have TOO MUCH to blog about and too little time to spend putting a post together. So that is my excuse!

Since I last connected with you here on my blog we have been coming and going non stop! We even had our darling girls, Heidi and Katie, come to Fiji for a quick visit (I have been sitting on that post for over a month now! Yikes! I still plan to post about that reunion!)

Right now, I am sitting in Port Vila, Vanuatu enjoying a couple hours of "down time" and with a decent internet connection so here I am and yes, we are still alive!

Since the middle of May we have been traveling around Fiji and now Vanuatu. The middle of May we went to the west side of Fiji to the Lautoka Stake Conference because there was a Stake Presidency change which had been long awaited and much anticipated. A member of the Pacific Area Presidency, Elder Brent Nielson and our Pacific Area Seventy, Elder Wakolo were presiding which added to the specialness of the conference. Paul had the assignment to audit the stake checkbook and financial records before the change so we traveled from Suva to Lautoka a few days early. The new Stake Presidency is wonderful. There is always a burst of enthusiasm when new leadership takes over so we are anxious to see how things will take off and progress over there. The new Stake President is a wonderful man. He was serving as the Bishop in one of the Lautoka Wards at the time of this calling. He is from a 4-generation Church member family which is a very unique situation. His mother was one of the first 50-members of the Church here in Fiji. His nephew serves as a Branch President on the island of Taveuni. Solid family!

We were only back in Suva for 2 days before we flew off to another Fijian island of Vanua Levu to meet with the 5 unit leaders of the Labasa District. We were over on this island back in February but it seems like we cycle around every 3 or 4 months. We left on a Weds and returned to Suva on Sunday and we were out and about non stop! We really felt like this was one of our most productive trips with these leaders. Besides all of our meetings and training get togethers, we were able to go out and meet several individual members at their "homes".

In one of the pictures above is Paul and me and a man with a beard. His name is Osea and he has quite "the story". We had heard about him from Staggs (who served in our position before us) but we were never really sure where he lived. When we found out he was near Labasa, we asked someone to take us out to meet him. Osea has only been a member of the Church for a couple of years but what a total turnaround his life has taken since he joined. He told us that he had been a terrible man. He had done almost every kind of illegal activity, been in and out of prision many times, was a converted Muslim, heavy drinker and marijina user and at the time the missionaries connected with him, he was a mess! But the missionaries told him that his Heavenly Father still loved him and Osea decided to believe it. He is a changed man! and a very passionate believer. He shares the Gospel with everyone he meets and has helped to bring quite a lot of others into the Church as well. He is a totally different man! We were glad we were able to hook up with him and that he was willing to hike out of his sugar cane field to come and meet us.

I even enjoyed my own little bit of missionary work by sharing copies of the "Proclamation of the Family" and "The Living Christ" with Navin who is the man we rent our truck from. He is an Indian man but he is also a minister in the Pentacostal Church. He was so excited to get these two pages. He happened to see my copy of the "Gospel Principles" manual and was just in awe. He asked where I got that book and I could tell he wanted that too. I told him I could have the young Elders come and visit him and they could tell him how he could get a copy.... we'll see....

We were only home in Suva for 2 nights before we packed up again for a 10-day trip to Vanuatu. We haven't been here since January so it was definately time to come again. We love to come to Vanuatu. It is so different than Fiji (usually lots less rain!) We loved going to the island of Santo because we have some good friends there, Elder & Sister Schern, who are the only senior missionary couple on that island and it is really fun to spend time with them and compare our different situations and experiences. Plus they take such good care of use by feeding us meals and driving us everywhere and arranging our meetings and training sessions. There are about 17 units in the Luganville District but many of them are far away on remote islands. We met with the 4 units that are close to Luganville and that was very worthwhile and productive. These leaders are such an example of committment and dedication to a leadership calling even though they are infantly new in the Gospel and have never had these kinds of responsibility in their entire lives. They are so willing to accept guidance and instruction and try to do the best they can.

When we were in Luganville last January, we had all the outlaying island leaders come in to town to meet with us so this time we felt like we should go out to them. So we choose to go to Malekula Island where there are 6 branches. We got to fly over on one of those tiny little 8-passenger planes and for the first time ever, there was only one pilot! I was hoping he didn't have a heart attack or anything seriously unexpected since there wasn't a backup pilot! Thankfully the flight is only about 15 minutes and we all survived! 4 of of the units leadership (a total of 7 men) showed up for our training so we were pleased about that. Once again, very dedicated and humble men. They are kind and generous and also express so much gratitude for our presence and our messages. The next morning the plane that took us back to Luganville was a bigger plane -- 18 passengers and 2 pilots but just when I think "ahhh, this is comfortable" they surprise us and land on the grass next to the runway instead of the tarmack! You just never know what to expect!

With that last sentence in mind... in the middle of the night, actually at 4:12am we were suddenly awakened by our bed rocking and rolling! It woke us both up and we turned to each other and just said "earthquake!" and then rolled over and went back to sleep. Scherns have told us many times that they always feel earthquakes so we didn't think it was a very big deal. The next morning, Scherns told us that it had been a BIG one actually - 7.2. It had struck 200 miles north of their island and it was out in the sea. It didn't do any damage any where; just ruffled some feathers is all. Once again, you just never know what to expect!

Now we are in Port Vila which is the capital of Vanuatu. It is the "big city". We really enjoy it here. There is a lot of French influence and lots of tourists so there are really good restaurants and nice hotels. We went to Church yesterday at the Port Vila 1st and 2nd Branches and they each had about 130 members in attendance. There are 6 Branches close by here but the highlight of this trip will be our adventure tomorrow. We are going to fly over to Tanna Island to meet with the Branch leaders of the 4 units on that island. Now the interesting thing is that this island has a live volcano and thanks to Elder Schern, we know that it is ramping up its erupting activity. If you want to google it, it is called Yasur volcano. It says on the Vanuatu Volcanic activity bulletin "the increasing activity of the Yasur volcano since Jan 2010 led to an upgrade in the hazard rating of this volcano to Alert Lever 3 starting from May 27, 2010. Therefore the access to the volcano is now closed and its 500 meter surrounding zoine is strictly prohibited." OK, that sounds a little unnerving! I should have something interesting to blog about next time!

Before I end this post, one more interesting item: we noticed on lds.org under the full-time missionary opportunity category that our position has been posted as available so in case you have been considering a senior missionary experience, we highly recommend this one! Of course, we'll still be here until next Feb but then we could hand everything off to you! If not here, there are tons of other opportunities... check it out... sign up and be prepared to have the most wonderful, life-changing experiences ever! Missions are the Best!

Suva City tour

2010-04-15T00:50:00.007-06:00

Welcome to Suva City, Fiji!
I realized that I have shown lots of remote, backwoods photos of life in Fiji on this blog but I have yet to give you the city showdown.
We actually try to avoid spending time downtown because it is usually a hustling, crowded and chaotic environment with tons of people shopping and doing business, tourists (especially when the cruise ships are in port), shoe-shine guys, newspaper boys, non-stop taxi drivers and even the regular beggars. If we have to go downtown, we try to go first thing in the morning before it gets so congested.
The Monday after Easter was a public holiday so we decided to go downtown and take lots of pictures while it would be relatively "quiet"... it was!
The picture above is of the newest building. It looks like sails of traditional Fijian ship. Inside it is a very upscale department store that focuses a lot on tourist goods. It has escalators and a multi-level parking terrace -- neither of these luxuries are found around here very much.

Here is the main river that runs through the city. I have no idea if it has a name. I wish it were cleaner and less smelly because it is quite scenic. There are a few women that regularly fish along the sides of the walls but I can't imagine eating anything that would come from this water.

There are a couple of police stations downtown. The police system is quite different than what we are used to. No police personnel carries a firearm. They only carry clubs, if they carry anything at all. Firearms are totally illegal here. There are not many police officers that drive cars. There are police posts all around the towns and villages but none of these police officers have access to a car. I really don't know how they respond to urgent needs urgently. I am just really hoping we never have an urgent need!
They do have radar guns and stand along side the main highway and if they catch someone speeding they just wave their arm and you are supposed to pull over. Paul and I have both been flagged down each once. I was caught going 72k in a 60k area. I sincerely apologized but the officer said he'd have to ticket me anyway. He took my driver's license (I do have a Fiji DL) and then came back to the car and told me that he decided to just give me a warning instead. I thanked him profusely and slowly drove away breathing a huge sigh of relief!

Here is the Westpac bank. This is the bank that we use when we need to get a large amount of money to pay our rent each month. I read in the paper this week that they are going to do some renovations over the next 22 weeks. The building was built in 1901. I guess it is time for some updating.

Not all the buildings in the downtown are old and historic. Here are some of the more contemporary buildings.

Thankfully we have one of these "staples of life" close by. But like most foreign McDonalds, they never give us enough ice in our Coke Zeros!
There are 3 McDonalds in all of Fiji: 2 in Suva and 1 in Nadi (close to the International Airport).

I do love the historic, Colonial-influenced buildings. Too bad they have to keep up with the times!

This is the Suva City Carnegie Library. I keep thinking I will go inside but I haven't done it yet. I finally found the library at the LDS Church College so I having my reading covered for now.

Just a couple more office buildings that were built during the British ruling years.

Here is our MALL!
Yes, a mall!! Complete with 3 levels of retail shops and a food court!
Now, clear your minds of what you can find in "your" mall because shopping here is not the same. I seldom find anything to buy (which doesn't seem to bother Paul at all). When I come downtown for my hairdresser Paul usually drops me off and then I come here to catch a taxi to get me back to the Service Center.
(remember this is a public holiday and most stores were not open and still lots of cars... only a small version of the normal traffic chaos.
This is the back side of the mall....

... and this is the front side. It is right next to that scary river. It is a nice place, don't get me wrong. It has escalators and a parking terrace too! Great place to people watch.

Here is the mini bus station. Tons of mini buses travel from outer areas into Suva and back and forth constantly. The majority of the population does not own a vehicle so the streets are full of taxis, mini buses, transport trucks and tons of big city buses with open windows that just have canvas tarps to cover the windows when it rains. Transportation expenses are a huge challenge to the locals.

There are quite a few handicraft booths in several locations. This is the closest one to the port where the cruise ships anchor. The building behind the blue building is the main handicraft area and that is a huge parking terrace above. Across the street and down the road a ways is another handicraft market called "the flea market" but it sells nice, new, traditional wooden, woven and Fiji-esk souveniors. Always very entertaining to step into these places. All shoppers get immediately swamped upon by multiple vendors promoting their goods. We bought all of our grandsons rugby shirts for Christmas at the flea market. It was fun and we got a good deal from a really sweet Indian woman who shared how much she loved Jesus when she noticed our missionary badges.

Yes!!! A movie complex!! We were so surprised when we walked inside. It looks exactly like any theatre complex at home complete with popcorn, candy, sodas and one of the 6 theatres is 3D. The upside is it costs $5 fijian ($2.50 US) for a ticket but the downside is most of the movies are from Bollywood instead of Hollywood. About half the population is Indian and they are the more affluent citizens so they get the most movie choices.

So I hope you enjoyed seeing where we get to spend these 18 months. If you want to get up close and personal, come on over! We would welcome visitors any time. We are so excited to get our girls here next week!!! It will be fun to see this all through new eyes!

Happy Birthday honey!

2010-04-08T04:05:00.003-06:00

From the looks of this picture, we could be any where but this is a monumental occasion: Paul's birthday in Fiji. Each of us will only have one birthday while we are away and this is Paul's turn. We made the most of it. First we took cupcakes into our office at the Service Center and shared with all our dear friends at work and then tonight we had 5 of our senior missionary friends over for cake and ice cream. Besides singing "Happy Birthday to you...", here in Fiji they always add "Happy long life to you..." as well. We think that is a great gift of a wish for a long life!

We only attached a small fraction of the total number of birthday candles. We didn't want to set off our smoke detector. Paul did blow them all out at once!
I was pretty pleased with the German Chocolate Cake I managed to create.
(thanks for the delicious frosting recipe Katie)

Would you like a slice? Hurry over... this won't last long!

Happy Birthday to my beloved Eternal Companion! You are the love of my life!

Out and about on Vanua Levu

2010-03-30T00:40:00.007-06:00

Last month Paul & I took a trip to the 2nd largest island of Fiji called Vanua Levu. We have been to this island 2 other times but we had always stayed in Labasa and then driven across the island (about a 2 hour drive) to meet with the priesthood leaders. This time we decided to fly into Savusavu and we would drive out to the remote villages and meet with these leaders in their "neck of the woods". Labasa is considered the drier side of the island and it is mostly sugar cane plantations. Savusavu is considered the "tourist" destination with most people coming for scuba diving and sailing. Here is the view from the balcony of our hotel overlooking the bay.
We enjoyed watching a good variety of sailing vessels coming and going. But this trip did not include any water transportation...

... oh no, we rented a 4-wheel, stick-shift, 5 passenger truck to get us down the rocky, bumpy, dusty roads. We figure we spent about a total of 10 hours in 2 days rocking and rolling our way to Tukavesi, Tacilevu and Nabua. About 180 k the first day and 60 k the second day.
Here is what the road looks like. There is not a lot of traffic but huge, city-type buses travel along these roads to transport the villagers into Savusavu so it is well used.
There is a large coconut drying business (copra, I think it is called) run in this area so there are lots of people cutting coconuts along the road. That large bush knife the man is holding is a very common and well used tool that everyone carries.

This man had gathered up his coconuts and was headed somewhere to sell them. I love the "bridle".

Here is the roadside convenience shop. People have these stands along the roadside and in front of their homes so they can sell and provide snacks and food for people passing by either on food, in vehicles or by bus. When we stopped for the photo opt, the mom and her baby raised up from where they were laying around waiting for any customer.

It is always so fun to be out in "the middle of no where" and turn a corner and come upon one of our chapels. One thing that I have noticed almost everywhere we have gone is our Church buildings are always located on a really lovely piece of property and very well groomed and maintained. This is the Tacilevu Chapel.
And below is the inside of this building. Sister Kumar, the District auditor that came with us on our adventure is standing next to me.

And just a short 50 yards above the chapel is this building which is the missionaries home. Here is the outside...

... and here is the inside. Looks really nice, doesn't it! Clean and organized... and they didn't even know we were coming. Elder Cegaudru (pronounced: thing-in-drow) and Elder Graham. Elder Cegaudru is from our "home" ward here in Suva. We were at sacrament meeting the week that he had his "farewell" and we sang with the ward members "God Be With You Till We Meet Again". We also met up with our mat! Remember the woven mat that was made for us by a woman to earn money for her temple trip... here is where it has been put to use!

Next we moved on to Tukavesi Village. After parking the truck, we followed the Elders who showed us to the next chapel where we met with the Branch President and his clerk and Sister Kumar and Paul each did an audit. It is always really interesting actually walking into a village because you aren't allowed to enter unless you are accompanied by a villager or you get permission from the village chief. Women must always wear skirts to enter a village and men may not wear hats.

Here is the building that the Tukavesi members use to meet in. It is a rented facility. There are about 30 families in this branch so my meeting concerning membership records was very short.

By the time the audits were completed, it was about 1 pm and everyone was hungry. While we had been meeting with the men, their wives had been preparing a generous lunch. We went to the Branch President's home. Here is his cute daughter (or niece or grandchild --- it is so hard to figure out how everyone is related... and believe me, it seems like everyone is related to everyone!).

As usual, there is a mat laid out on the floor and food is centered on the mat and everyone just gathers around and sits cross-legged and enjoys the meal. Luckily, they did have one chair in their home and they generously offered it to Paul. He was really concerned that if he were to sit on the floor for any amount of time, he would not be able to get up again. I think you have to do this your whole life for it to be comfortable. If you are planning to spend any time in Fiji, get off your couch and chairs and starting sitting on the floor --- oh, and sleep on the floor too with nothing but a woven mat.

Guests (especially, missionaries) always get served first. Well, not served. They just watch while you get to be the first to load up your plate. Then the men join in but the women and children do not eat with the guests and the men, they get to eat whatever is left over. They mostly just sit and wave towels and fabric back and forth to keep the flies and bugs away.

Here is my plate. I was a little hesitant to be very adventurous. The fish was delicious! The Branch President had gotten up early that morning and caught the fish just for this occasion. The banana looked like a safe bet but it turned out to be hard as a very hard potato and it tasted about like one too. The greens were some kind of leaves cooked in coconut oil. I have to admit I didn't eat very much but the young Elders made up for what I passed by. They seem to have assimilated well.

After lunch we decided to go across the street from their home and take a group photo with the sea in the background. These people may not have much in worldly possessions but between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the beautiful view of the sea, they are rich and blessed.

As a side note from our trip... you may have heard me talk about the Cyclone Tomas that thankfully passed by Suva. Unfortunately, it slammed this area and did lots and lots of damage. It was an extremely slow moving but intensely strong, torrential storm. And because of their proximity to the sea, that became another source of damage from high tides. At our Monday morning devotional in our Service Center yesterday, it was announced that we will be gathering clothing to send out to these people because they have lost so much of their belongings. We were asked to gather any used clothing we might have and donate it. Since we have very little in the clothing department anyway, we are going to go and buy clothing to send over to help out. It makes a difference when you actually know the people that are in this difficult situation.

How strange is this? We just burst out laughing when we came across this sign in the middle of NO WHERE! But as strange as it seemed, we just about took the turn to see how long it would take us to get back to SLC! Maybe next time!

On our 2nd day we drove to Nabua and while Paul & Sister Kumar were meeting with the 1st Counselor in a very hot meetinghouse, I went out in back and walked about 25 yards and dipped my feet in the pleasant ocean water and rested in the shade of a huge tree. But before too long, I noticed that they had decided to move their meeting outside and under the trees also. Where does it say that meetings have to be indoors? By the time it was my turn to go over the membership records, everyone was feeling much more comfortable.

Then we were invited back inside for another lunch prepared by the 1st Counselor's wife. This is Brother and Sister Kalougati. This is the man that I have talked about before in an email. When he was about 12 years old, his family was on a boat on their way to Suva to be baptized into the Church. The boat capsized and all his family drowned. He held on to a sack of empty coconut shells for 3 days! He was the only survivor from the boat. As he grew up he drifted out of contact with the Church. People from the Church had been trying to find him but no one knew where he was. When he was in his 20s, he was working in a field and a car stopped and a senior missionary couple came over to him and asked if he knew Joeli Kalougati. He asked why they wanted to know and when they explained, he told them they had found who they were looking for. He told me this story back in about October when I first met him. This story has also been published in either the Ensign or the Liahona (I can't remember). He told me that he was mad and confused for a long time about why his family had to die. And why he lived. But he believes that he was saved so that he could do the Temple work for his family. He has a strong testimony now and is a great leader. His son is serving a mission here in the Suva Fiji Mission and his second son is preparing to serve his mission some time next year.

This was a delicious lunch. She served us fried eggs served on noodles (a very typical dish), dalo (upper left corner -- another very typical dish that is a root crop that is similar to a potato but it doesn't have much flavor that I can tell but Fijians eat it almost every meal), fresh papaya, fresh avacado and traditional lemon pie which is more like a cake with lemon pudding on it. The dish on the left hand side in front is a huge, banana that they boil in sugar and water and it is very soft and yummy.

Here we are back in Savusavu. Next to our hotel is this park that has several hot springs; hence the name of our hotel was The Hot Springs Hotel. The local people like to bring food wrapped up and leave it in these hot springs to cook. They were very, very hot!

As we were walking back to our hotel from the hot springs, this young boy started walking and chatting with us. His name is Joseph. He is about 9 or 10, I think he said. He was showing me all the flowers and fruits and telling me what everything is called. Then he showed me how to blow up a hibiscus petal. It blows up like a mini balloon. Who knew?! The Fijian children are so darling and friendly and curious about the white-skinned strange people. Aren't his eyes beautiful. I always consider them my substitute grandkids! We are so blessed to meet new faces and see new places. I hope you enjoyed coming along!

Amazing Kiribati!!!

2010-03-13T14:24:00.012-07:00

We just returned from this small, shoestring island nation of Kiribati.
You may be asking yourself (as we did), where is Kiribati (Kerr a bus)? It is right on the equator just north of Fiji!
What an amazing, awesome, memorable experience!

From the air it just looks like palm trees lined up side by side in a straight line with the sea on one side and a beautiful lagoon on the other. The whole island chain is only about 3 or 4 feet above the sea -- no high ground anywhere!

(Right now, just for your info, we are sitting in our flat in Suva hunkered down and waiting for an intense cyclone to blow on through. We have had warnings since last Friday afternoon -it is now Sunday. The storm has a name, Cyclone Tomas and it is traveling very slowly but it is building up strength as it progresses. So, this post will have less words so I can finish before the power goes out. But since "a picture is worth a thousand words" you will still get a good report of our Kiribati trip.)

Here is The Lagoon Breeze Lodge where we stayed for 12 nights. Kiribati is not featured as a tourist destination so the accommodations are very limited. We were very happy with this place. We had a good sized room with a comfortable bed, air conditioned and a mini fridge. There was no hot water for our shower but we had A SHOWER! We have learned to appreciate the very basis necessities of life (those listed above and one other: Coke Zero! which was also available). That is our rental car too!

There is ONE paved, main road in the whole country! Between the minivan buses that "own" the road, the potholes, the narrowness of the supposed two lanes, locals walking alongside the road or down the road and only moving off the road two seconds before we could have run them over, packs of dogs and many, many speed bumps that seem to magically appear just when you least expect them, driving was a huge challenge especially at night! Because of all the above mentioned obstacles, it would take about an hour to drive 15 - 20 ks but because we were traveling so slowly, we did get to observe everything along the roadside.

During WWII, the Japanese occupied this land and they constructed 3 main causeways to connect some of the close islands that today make up the main island of Tarawa. This portion of the roadway was in the best condition and very scenic with the ocean on one side and the lagoon on the other.

We were not prepared for how poor the living conditions are here in this land. Because the base of this land is just coral reefs, the soil is not fertile so things don't grow like they do here in Fiji or Vanuatu. These people really just live on the fish they catch daily, rice that is imported and whatever fruit their trees can grow like breadfruit and coconuts.

The children are darling! So happy and active! Remember they live on the equator so clothing is not really necessary for these little ones!

When Paul & I would go out on the main street each morning for our daily walk, we soon turned into the entertainment committee and we always had kids following us and calling out "mauri" ("hello" in Gilbertese: pronounced like "howdy" but with an m as in "mowdy")

Fresh catch of the day! There are lots of people along the roadside with these cooler containers and weight scales to offer their fishing results.

Fresh water is a huge problem in this area as fresh water has to come from wells and because the soil is so shallow and filled with rubbish, buried bodies, etc and that has contaminated the aquifers. There are wells everywhere along the roadside and in the "neighborhoods". Everyone shares the water. These guys were just having their morning shower along the side of the road as we walked by one morning. The guy on the right is covered in soap and the guy on the left had a #10 can tied to a rope and he draws water from the well just next to them for rinsing.

This was a new fruit to me. In fact, I still don't know what it's real name is but it is called the ice cream fruit because when one of those knobs is pulled out it is in the shape of an ice cream cone and very sweet. I just took their word for it!

These kids were on their way to school. All the children wear school uniforms. Here is the neighborhood "7-11". These kinds of shops are up and down the main street and in every neighborhood so the locals don't have to travel very far to get things like canned beef and crackers, and sweets, of course.

Accountants are needed everywhere!

I loved these blouses that were for sale along the road. They are handmade by smocking.

Here is the symbol of Kiribati: the sea, the sun and a seabird.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Gilbertese.

This chapel was located right on the seashore. A beautiful view from 3 sides. I had to laugh; the 4th side looks directly at the local prison! There is a lovely garden with a lot of beautiful native flowers between the prison and the chapel but still....

Here we are having a wonderful reunion with a friend of ours from almost 36 years ago! This is President Brad Smith. He is the mission president of the Marshall Island mission. He just happened to be in Kiribati (which is part of his mission) and we got to spend time together 3 or 4 times.

Just so you don't think we were just off on a vacation, I thought I'd better post some photos of some of our training meetings and the Priesthood leaders we got to visit and interact with. What dedicated, committed, sincere men. The highlight of each and every day!

We got to take 2 boat trips to go out to 2 remote branches. One branch was on the far, far end of the main island that is not accessible by a vehicle and the other was to a remote island sail about
1 1/2 hours each way. This is the rural chapel on the outer island.

After the training session, we were served lunch by the wives of the priesthood leaders. Be sure to notice the lobster! When was the last time you were served lobster at church! Right next to the lobster is the usual dish of canned corned beef with rice and crackers. The most odd item served, I thought, was the hot chocolate (in the kettle). Seriously, it was so hot outside and they served hot chocolate? Not too sure about that one!

There was a missionary house next door to the chapel and this was the "welcome to this area" information that some previous missionaries had left hanging on the wall. I'm not sure if you can read it. It is very eye opening! It begins with: Rats, Rats, Rats!!!! Yuck!!!

Here is our destination as seen from the boat as we drove to the shore of the outer island. What a beautiful sight!!!

Here was our welcoming committee! Just another day on the beach for these kids!

On the trip over, one of the men decided to throw out a fish line. Notice he didn't exactly need a fishing pole. He just held on to the fishing line. I was disappointed I didn't get to see him pull in a big one!

When we arrived at our destination on our 2nd boat outing, the tide was out so the water level was very shallow and the boat had to be pushed in as far as it could go. We still ended up having to wade ashore about 100 yards. The water was clear and warm and it was actually really enjoyable.

Here are Elder & Sister Phippen. They are one of the 4 senior couples that serve their mission in Tarawa, Kiribati. They came along on the boat outing so they could check out the missionary house (the one with the above instructions on the wall). We so admire this couple. We were in the MTC with them last August and were so excited to get to run into them again. They are in their 70's and serving their 3rd mission: 1st in Brazil; 2nd in Conneticut and now in Kiribati! They are happy and dedicated and just love and serve the young missionaries. They also took such good care of us!

Taveunia -- the Garden Island of Fiji

2010-02-15T12:27:00.007-07:00

Paul & I just returned from a great weekend of visiting and training with leaders of the Taveuni District over on an outer island called Taveuni. This was actually our 2nd trip over there but I never did get around to blogging about it after the first time so I figured I'd catch up and write about it now.
Taveuni is only a short 1 hour flight from Suva aboard one of those 18-passenger, double-propeller airplanes. We have absolutely fallen in love with this destination!
Here is how they welcome us at the hotel! Fresh coconut juice! Now, I have to admit I really don't like the taste of coconut juice but I do love their hospitality!

Here is kind of the "down side" of staying at this resort... there are trees full of great, big FRUIT BATS! Yikes! Yes, there are 3 large trees just behind the hotel right between the swimming pool area and the open ocean just a mere 10 yards from the dining room (which has no walls and is fully open to the view of the ocean and the pleasant breezes) where we eat most of our meals and the trees are full to the brim with these freaky creatures! During the day they are mostly just hanging upside down and sleeping but about dusk they start getting noisy and screeching and flying in every direction. It is quite the sight to see!

This photo doesn't do any where near the justice of the actual scene but they are way too quick for my camera. Thankfully they aren't interested in humans at all so other than the fact that they look creepy, they are pretty much harmless. However, at about 5 am they come back to those trees (which are also just outside the hotel bedrooms) and announce their arrival with the same screeching and squealing! Ahhhhh, Fiji!!!

One of the highlights of our travel is that we get to see so many different locations of the branches of our Church. Here is one of the most humble, basic structures we have seen so far. This is the Qeleni Branch. It is the right-hand side of that home. Yes, that is a member's home and the Church just added on a small area where the branch can meet each Sunday. The family uses it during the week and then they set it up for Church service on Saturday afternoon.

Now, if you thought the outside looked humble, here is what the inside looks like. It is a small branch but it has been growing and it is up to about 50 members that come to church each week. When we came last November, we were shown the piece of property where a new building was going to be built for them and this trip they were so excited to tell us that the building project was going to begin on Monday of this week! We plan to go back again in April. The new building will probably be completed by then. They so deserve a nicer location. They have been very patient and committed and now it is paying off for them.

Here is our training group: from left to right - Pres. Batarua, 1st Coun. in the District Presidency (remember the woman that made the mat for me? This is her husband), me, Paul, Branch's Pres. young son who just was curious about what we palangies (white skinned people) were doing here, Qeleni Branch Pres. Aumaile and the clerk named Thomasie, who is now serving a mission California himself. (this picture was actually from last Nov)

Here is the Batarua family who live in this house. (the clerk and us a just extras) You might notice that even in this rather simple existence, they have their priorities -- see the satellite TV dish standing up behind everyone!

Here is another family from the Branch, Brother & Sister Lai. Brother Lai was our transport driver. Such a great man! He took such good care of us. He has a couple of other children and about a month after this trip, this family came to Suva to the Temple to be sealed. We were in New Zealand that week so we missed it but we got back just before they left town. We are really happy for them.

Here are a couple of the young men that were attending church this Sunday. He is holding The Book of Mormon, in the Fijian language.

Here is the 2nd of the 3 Branches on Taveuni. It is the Matei Branch. It is right next to the airport... literally. The landing strip is about 50 yards behind it. It almost sounds like the plane is going to land on the drive way!

Here is the newest and nicest Chapel on this island. It is the Somosomo Branch building. It was built just last year. The Open House was held around May of last year and it hasn't been dedicated yet. We have been wondering why it was taking so long to get the dedication taken care of. When we were there this weekend, they announced the dedication will be held in April so we booked our hotel room to come back over for that. The Somosomo Branch is growing and doing really well too. We attended Church here on Sunday and there were 120 in attendance. Lots of families and youth and children.
We did get invited to each speak for 5 minutes or so and Paul also was asked to play the electrical piano and accompany the hymns. This chapel does not have air conditioning but they do have about 12 ceiling fans that keep the air flowing. As Paul began to play the opening hymn, I noticed he was struggling and skipping notes and when I looked over, I noticed that he couldn't keep the pages of the hymn book from flipping around due to the fans so I jumped up and hurried up to be his page holder! Such simple things we just take for granted.

This picture is deceiving because I don't want you thinking that we just "sit on the dock of the bay" all day long! We did go for a walk one morning and this is where we ended up. So pleasant!

Here was our big adventure! We actually did this when we were here last Nov. There is a beautiful set of 3 waterfalls called Bouma Falls that are a have-to-see experience. The day we planned to go to check it out, it was raining pretty heavy. The falls are located in a State Park kind of location where they charge a fee to enter. There are actually 3 waterfalls and if you hike to all 3 of them, it would take 3 or 4 hours. We only intended to go to the first falls but when it was raining so hard we weren't sure if we should go at all. But we decided, "hey, we are here -- let's do it!" Sister Lai and Sister Batarua agreed to accompany us. We were glad we went. The waterfall was spectacular!

We were quite surprised when Sis. Lia took off and the next thing we knew she was waving to us from over there behind the falls! I was really scared that she was planning to jump into the pool. Thankfully she just didn't because I don't think Paul or I would have been up for jumping in to rescue her! Great experience, none the less.

So here is where we plan to visit on our next trip. There is a pearl farm on one of these little islands. We heard that you can go over for a tour and they show you how they cultivate and raise the pearls and then you can snorkel around the farm area and see everything "up close and personal". We didn't have time to do that this trip so we will have to hope to work it in next April.

Taveuni Island sits right on the International Date Line, the 180 degree meridian. I forgot to download the pictures we took but we asked our transport driver to take us to the exact spot which is really close to where our hotel was located. It is on the edge of a rubgy field and over looks the beautiful, turquoise sea with lush green foliage all around and various islands out on the horizon. Not everyone can say that they have experienced today and yesterday at the same time! One side is where the day begins and the other side is where it ends!

So we did have to bid farewell to this wonderful getaway! We boarded our 32nd flight after spending our 63rd night in a hotel in the past 6 1/2 months and look forward to coming back soon. But in the meantime, we have trips to Vuana Levu and Kiribati... so many places, so much to do as we continue on the Lord's errands.

Tales of the South Pacific (my version)

2010-02-04T00:43:00.008-07:00

Welcome to Vanuatu 2010!
Paul & I just spent the past 2 weeks over in wonderful Vanuatu. We had some very fun, interesting and unique experiences. We were walking down the main street in Luganville one morning and we came upon this bushman who had come to town to sell some of his products to this grocery shop. So amazing to realize that people still live like this. I'm sure he has dressed like this his whole life. I'm sure he looks at us and wonders why we wear so much clothing in this heat and thinks we are the strange ones!

I had brought along a copy of James A. Michener's "Tales of the South Pacific" and it was such a great book to read as I was visiting the very place it was written about. I could relate to what he was describing as far as the locals and the islands and the climate (hot & sweaty!) and a lot of the customs. Other than every person on the street has a cell phone, I don't think things have changed much since he was there!

As usual the main purpose for our visit was to do training with the Priesthood leaders over there. We knew there was going to be a very unique satellite broadcast leadership meeting and all the outer island leaders would be coming to Luganville to attend it so we planned our training to coincide. We enjoyed hours of individual meetings with 13 Branch Presidencies over about 6 days. Here is a group photo of all these dear men and Elder Schern (the white-faced man). Elder Schern and his wife are the only Senior Missionaries in the whole country! They live a pretty isolated existance. We really enjoyed getting to visit and spend a lot of quality time with them. In truth, they just really take great care of us with food, company and some evening entertainment of DVDs and Skipbo competition!

Here are most of the same men as in the photo above. This picture was taken after our audit training meeting and individual Branch audits. That's what we do: train, train, train!

After our week in Luganville, we moved on over to Port Vila which is the capital city of Vanuatu. All the leaders from the island of Tanna had come there for the same satellite training and they were available for us to meet with them before they went back. Here are the Branch Presidents from 3 Branches and one Unit. It is always quite entertaining to be involved with these discussions since these men mostly speak Bislama or French and we only speak English but somehow we seem to make it work. They were very receptive and had lots of questions and concerns for us to discuss. They really want us to come to their island next time. It has an active volcano and they are very proud of this and want to show it off. I'm hoping it can be one of those over and back in the same day flights!

Here is a really great guy! This is Saksak (sock sock). He is a member of the Branch Presidency in Luganville. This is his mode of transportation. Most people just walk or take a taxi or a transport (definition: sit in the back of a pick up truck) so he is pretty high class with his bike! It may be minus a few parts but that didn't seem to be of any concern. Saksak is a jack of all trades! He plays the piano "by ear" for the prelude music in Sacrament Meeting. And at the Branch Christmas party at the beach, he went into the ocean with his fishing spear and ended up spearing a 5 foot shark!!! I heard all of the members got to take some shark home with them for dinner!

Here is Saksak's family: his wife (right side), 2 daughters and 2 grandchildren. This is their home. We stopped by one afternoon for a quick visit. Saksak was off fishing but we visited with these dear folks for a little bit. Mind you, it is hotter than blazes right now since it is the middle of summer. They were all just sitting outside in the shade just hanging out. We could only stay a short time before we needed to get back to our a/c in the car! We are such wimps!

We noticed this rusting vessel along the highway and Paul wanted to stop and take a picture. This looks like it has been rotting out there in the waves since WWII but it actually just ran aground and was abandoned there and not a casualty of a battle. Just as Paul got down close enough for a shoot, these kids came walking by as they were heading out to go play in the water. They were very willing to get in the picture also. The cute baby had no clothes on. The perfect way to spend the afternoon.

Here is a local seamstress. In fact, this is her handicraft shop at the airport. She just sits here all day long, on the floor, and sews clothes to sell to the tourists. Notice her sewing machine is hand powered! I had no idea people still used hand-powered sewing machines! For some reason all the island people prefer to sit on the floor. I would not last very long in that situation!

Now, this is how I prefer to do my sewing. Sister Schern and I have alot in common. First and foremost, we are avid quilters. We got to spend some time together working on our projects and discussing everything we could think of about quilting!

We just passed our 6 month mark! We are amazed how quickly time passes. We are still having new experiences each and every day. We came across this flower which we had never seen before. I thought it was amazingly beautiful. We love where we are and we love what we are doing! We are trying to make the most of each day and each new opportunity and just trying to take time to smell the "roses".

12 minute flight = 12 hour adventure

2010-01-09T19:52:00.011-07:00

It is not often you get to begin a flight by taking a picture with the pilots! But this if Fiji and pretty much anything goes!
Yesterday Paul and I finished up our training with the Priesthood leaders of the Nausori Stake. The last group for us to meet with live on an outer island called Ovalau in the town of Levuka. We had two options of travel to get there: 1- drive an hour to the departure harbor, get on board a boat and sail the open sea for about an hour and a half or
2- take a 12 minute flight on an 8 passenger plane. As you can see, we choose the quicker option.

This flight carries the daily newspaper so it is a much anticipated arrival for the locals. Once again this is one of those self-esteem crushing experiences where you have to be weighed in and then assigned your seat as to your weight.

There were only we 3 passengers: us and the Nausori Stake President, President Tagidunu so we were seated in the middle of the plane. However, Paul and I boarded from one side of the plane and Pres. Tagidunu boarded on the other side. There were 4 rows of double wide seats accommadating two passengers each and surprisingly they were quite comfortable though very tight quarters!

Here is our view from our row. There was an empty row between us and the pilots. It was fascinating to watch them flipping buttons and turning switches. We have come to really appreciate and highly value skilled and qualified pilots!

One of the best parts of the flight is that the plane does not get too high up in the sky so the view out the window is very entertaining. On the ground we travel along mostly just main roads and wonder where the side roads go. We get to see exactly where those side roads take off too and we are amazed at the beautiful landscape below. We didn't realize there are so many plantations (farms).

I have to tell you, this country looks a lot more organized from the sky than from the ground! Even the homes and the neighborhoods and the villages look a lot nicer than as we drive by in our car. I probably look lots better from a far distance too!

OK, 12 minutes (77 miles) after take off we (and the pilots) spotted the runway and landed faster than a speeding bullet! These little planes don't waste any time getting out of the sky. They just drop down, push on the brakes and switch off the propellers and it's over!

Welcome to Bureta airport. (Coincidentally, we live on Bureta Street in Suva.) This is a very nice airport for such a remote area. There are about 3 flights a day coming and going to and from this island so it actually gets quite a bit of use. See the open gate in the middle of the picture. It has a sign above it that says "Arrival gate" and on the other side of that sign it says "Departure gate"... very helpful! They even have a small kitchen room where they will make you coffee (not us) or hot chocolate (in hot weather?) and today they even had a cake you could enjoy as your refreshment from your long journey.

I typically avoid using "the facilities" in most places but this looked like a decent location. I noticed that down under the sink there was a small water trough in case there was any water overflow from the sinks or the toilets. I happened to notice something out of the corner of my eye and when I took a closer look I realized I wasn't alone in there! Don't worry, I didn't disturb them. They just sat there and waited for me to get out of their territory.

It is always fun for us to see what the Church building looks like in all the various areas we travel to. This is quite a nice building. It is very old and was originally built for the European settlers who came to Levuka around the mid-1800's when Levuka was a thriving and bustling sailing and whaling town. It was the original capital city of Fiji back in those days because of it's convenience to sail into and out of the island. All of Fiji is surrounded with lots of reefs and boating is very tricky especially when it is low tide.

We had a wonderful training session with these dear men. From left to right is, President Tagidunu who traveled with us. Then there is the 1st councelor in the Branch Presidency, Bro. Volau. This dear man lives on the other side of the island and it takes him 5 hours to walk over to the Levuka side for Church or special meetings, like this one. There are transport options that he could take but it would cost him $5 each way and most of the time that is just too much so he will walk. He is also the Seminary teacher but I think he teaches Seminary on Sundays so he doesn't have to come back during the week. The man on the right is the Branch President, Pres. Musuka. He lives only about a 20 minute walk!! Seriously, when was the last time you (or I) walked anywhere? let alone to fulfil our Church callings. They don't get visits from off-islanders very often so they were very appreciative of our coming over.

After our training we were able to walk around town and see some of the original buildings from back in the days when the British came and took over Fiji (at their invitation). The Deed of Cession was signed on Oct. 10, 1874 and lasted until 1970 when Fiji became independent from Great Britian. This convent school was founded in 1862 and is still in use today.

Here is the original public school which was built in 1879 and is still in use today. Though right now it is summertime and school is out of session until Jan. 24th.

This fijian family was at the school property taking pictures for some reason so I decided to snap a shot of them myself. I especially loved the two young boys climbing up on the big mound of rocks. It is just what my grandsons would have done! Kids are kids no matter where you are in the world! So sweet and so full of mischief and energy!

Here is the Catholic church called the Church of the Sacred Heart. It was built back in the Colonial days about 1858 when the first Catholic missionaries arrived. It was built in 2 stages. First the white wooden structure in the back was built from local timber (there are pine forests in this country which so surprises me). Then the Clocktower in front was built some 40 years later and there is a blue light on the top of the tower so it also acts as a light house for sailors. After I got home I read that in a tourist book that there are some beautiful paintings depicting the life of Christ that are housed in this church. I usually always go into Catholic churches but I didn't this time. I will have to remember to do that on our next trip over.

Any of you readers that know me very well know that I am an avid quilter. I even gave in to my "wants and desires" last weekend and bought me a sewing machine! I came across this fabric shop in Levuka this weekend and enjoyed spending quite a while here just admiring all the bright, colorful, tropical patterned fabrics. Unfortuneatly, I didn't have enough time to make any purchases. Trying to decide which fabrics to purchase with 4 men waiting outside (impatiently) just wasn't the right environment for getting very creative. But it was a rejuvinating few minutes regardless.

Across the street from the fabric store was the only shade tree along main street and it was being well used. Lots of visiting and relaxing; even a small produce market had been set up.

Here seems to be the community swimming site which is actually a river that runs through the town and out to the sea which is just past the bridge. I could hear lots of laughing and squeals of delight coming from across the street so I went over to investigate and this is what I found. These kids were just having the best time. And as usual, when they see someone is taking their picture, it just ramps up the excitment another level. They all began to wave at me. This picture just doesn't do this event enough justice.

Now this group of young men were just hanging out for the afternoon and they noticed me walking around taking pictures and they didn't want to be left out of the fun so I asked if I could take a picture of them and they immediately sat up and "posed" in a very laidback way. After I snapped the picture, they all wanted to see what they looked like on my camera. You'll have to click on the picture to see their faces up closer. All the Fijian people are so kind and friendly. That is one of the biggest pluses of this country is how welcome and safe we feel anywhere we travel. Everyone you pass greets you with a friendly "bula" and a large smile. They have the most beautiful white teeth smiles shining out from their beautiful dark skin.

So here is Main Street, Levuka. It is actually named Beach Front Street which is quite ironic since there is no beach along this street. The sea is just off to the right but there is a 2-foot seawall that protects the street from the surf. All of these buildings are the original buildings from the 1800s and this area is considered a heritage site. If anyone wants to upgrade their building, it must go through the government and follow certain requirements to keep the feel and flavor of their history alive. So life hasn't changed much around here since the mid-1800s except that most of the Europeans have left the country and sailing and whaling is not much of a thriving industry anymore. But it is authentic and scenic.

See those guys in the white shirts, those are my chaperones... you know, my shopping buddies. The ones that stand outside the shops and "patiently" check their watches as they wait for me. Most of my shopping is just window shopping but that is very entertaining nevertheless!

There is a national company here in Fiji that is everywhere. It is called MH and it sells everything. They are kind of like Target or Walmart (only REALLY toned down -- think on a much more humble level). They do have a big mall in downtown Suva. Anyway, this is the original store. Now it is a museum and a library. It was closed on Saturday afternoon. Shot!

Here is a picture of the beach front on Beach Front Street. Not much beach but the water is clear and absolutely beautiful! You do NOT see water like this in Suva unfortunately so this was a delight and a treat.

This is what most of the "beach" areas look like when the tide goes out. Not very enticing but the locals don't seem to mind it.

Lots of people go out when the tide is low and find clams. The ocean is a staple of their lives. No one goes hungry here in Fiji especially if they live near the ocean. Anyone can go out anywhere and fish for prawns or fish or clams and feed themselves or sell them along the highway. The soil is wonderfully rich and things grow well and fast so most people here have small gardens and fruit trees nearby that they can provide for their own needs. And it seems like everything just grows non stop all year long. Some things have a season but most of the subsistance crops are year round.

We were very happy to finally have this view from the aircraft on our flight back to Suva! One thing we have learned to live with over here is that just because something is scheduled doesn't mean it will happen. This applies to everything from our training meetings to air travel flights.
We were scheduled to return to Suva on the 3:45 pm flight but when we got to the airport we were informed that there was a delay. The flight would not leave until 5:30pm. There is not much to do at the airport since it is a good 45 minute drive from town (yes, it takes longer to drive from the airport to Levuka than it does to fly from Suva to Levuka!), We just had to sit around and be patient. There were 5 passengers waiting for the departing flight and we were the only ones that didn't have connecting, International flights that were in jeopardy. I laid down on a hard wooden bench and took a much needed (very uncomfortable) 45 minute nap while Paul watched movies on his palm pilot and 2 french men played chess and the other canadian guy just sat there bored to death. At 5:30 we were informed it would be another hour before the plane would show up but they would guarantee us that we'd be able to leave before the final flight allowance time of 7pm. We were beginning to wonder if we should have brought our toothbrushes because it seemed like there was a good possibility that we could be spending the night but just before we all lost hope, here came an airplane to the rescue! It was from another airline but who cares! I guess our airline had some issues (not too much information was shared) so they just called their competitor airline and asked them to come and back us up! It was fine by us... whoever could get us home! So after waiting at the airport for 3 hours, we finally got back to Suva in 12 minutes!
We loved this adventure!

Christmas at the Beach

2009-12-31T11:34:00.010-07:00

Our version of white Christmas this year was white sand not white snow!
And you will notice it was enhanced with a beautiful blue sky!
Nothing I am used to but definitely how it is done when Christmas comes around in the summer instead of the winter. We found it was very easy to adjust our traditions!
The real reason we went out to this beach was for a Christmas lunch buffet. We were invited to a Fijian feast called a LOVO. This is a traditional method of cooking all the food in the ground.

And here is our chef de jour -- Elder Fitch!
He is an amazing cook and he had been planning this get-together for weeks.
He and a few other Elders got to the beach at about 8 am, dug a 2 or 3 foot deep hole in the sand and filled it up with hot stones and lots of food wrapped in coconut palm leaves, buried it all and by the time we arrived at about 11:30am, served it all right off the trunkbed of their truck -- quite the production.

Here is a little closer look at the buffet table which included roasted chicken and roasted squash.

This meal was delicious!!! Honestly, the chicken was so moist and tender and the squash was the best I have ever eaten. Now, the stuff just below my hand is some kind of tomatoes and corned beef and onions wrapped in some kind of native leaf. I avoided eating it after I heard from some of the other Elders that that green leaf makes your throat sting when you swallow it. I'm not very adventurous when it comes to some of the native dishes.

There were lots of other Elders (probably about 12) and a set of Sisters and 9 senior missionaries so we had lots of company to enjoy the holiday celebration with. Here is one of the local Fijian missionaries. I wish I could remember his name. I am terrible with the Fijian names though Paul can pronounce and remember them, thank goodness! There are about 25 local young men and women serving their missions here. We really enjoy their company and I'm especially grateful for the name badges they usually wear (oops, I forgot to wear mine too!

After the feasting, there were other activities taking place like volleyball, rugby, ukelele strumming, singing, visiting and laughing. It was great to hang out with these hardworking,
hard playing, dedicated representatives of the Gospel.
We stayed for about an hour and then we needed to get back to our computer so we could Skype with our kids and grandkids on their Christmas eve. That was truly the highlight of our whole Christmas. All our family was together laughing, playing and we even got them to sing Christmas carols to us. We loved being able to participate in two totally opposite special events on totally opposite sides of the world! Amazing!

But as the sun set on our unique Christmas experience with our "missionary family" we were grateful to be where we are, doing what we are doing and knowing that this is just a small moment in time and before too long we will be back home and these days will just be precious memories.

"Oh, Christmas Tree..."

2009-12-22T00:19:00.007-07:00

...Fijian style, that is. Yes, this is considered the official Fijian Christmas tree because it is in full bloom in December just in time for Christmas. I have heard it called several names: Flame tree, Flamboyant tree but everyone agrees it is their Christmas tree.

And to accompany that lovely Christmas tree is the only snow that I have found so far in Fiji. His name is Bishop Edward Snow and he is that tall man in the middle of the picture, just behind me. What a fun surprise! Here we are with him and his Bishopric. These men are really wonderful, dedicated leaders of their ward in the Lautoka Stake.

It wouldn't be Christmas without a Christmas tree in the center of town. Suva is no different. They have this huge, beautifully decorated tree in the park right in the heart of downtown. I love to drive by especially at night when it is all lite up and twinkling. I was afraid that the cyclone that blew through here a week ago would have totally destroyed it but it is still standing.

It did better than alot of the banana and bread fruit trees!

Gift giving is not a big part of Christmas over here. When I have asked our friends how they celebrate Christmas, they all tell me that it is a day they get together with their whole family- aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, anyone else that shows up and just spend the day together. There is always a big meal involved. On special occasions like this, they like to prepare their big feast in their "lovo" which is their "oven in the ground". They dig a big hole in the ground, heat up rocks and cook pigs and veggies wrapped in big palm leaves for hours and hours. We are going to a lovo feast (at the beach!) on Christmas day so I'll share that with you later.

Since we haven't really gotten into the gift giving much this Christmas, the Senior Missionary couples decided to do a little service project. The public hospital here is called the Colonial War Memorial Hospital and it is really old and, from what I hear, kind of scary. The mission nurse has been there many times with the young Elders and she mentioned that the patients are not provided with any simple supplies that you would expect to need if you were staying there. You know, things like toilet paper, soap, wash cloth, bottled water, etc. Even meals have to be provided by the patient's family. (I guess the hospital provides one meal a day but that meal is not very appetizing). So each senior couple put together 5 or 8 or 10 zip lock bags with just some simple, basic items and we were planning to go to the hospital to sing Christmas carols and pass out our gifts but once again that darn cyclone came through the day we had planned to go so we ended up just dropping everything off and letting the hospital pass them out.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a Nativity scene. I love to collect nativity sets from various places that I have traveled over the years. The very first week that we arrived here, I met a man that hand carves nativity sets and I immediately ordered one. Our apartment is so small that I took this into our office and set it up above my desk and I have really enjoyed it.

But then we got to experience our own real-life nativity last weekend. Our mission president's son and his family came to visit and just in time for our Senior Missionary Christmas dinner. These sweet grandchildren were perfect as Mary, Joseph and a shepherd. It made each of us feel like we had gotten to go back home for Christmas eve and share the true meaning of Christmas with our own grandkids. I'm sure we were all substituting our own grandkids in their faces. Dave Seare was our accompanist for the program.

Let me just send out my love and best wishes to each of you for a special and memorable Christmas whether you are at home or away. This year I have found so much peace and comfort from focusing more on the "Christ" part of Christmas and less on the "mas" such as masses of decorations, gifts, parties and crowds. Let me share a quote from Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, "Without Christ there would be no Christmas, and without Christ there can be no fulness of joy. . . . And now, my beloved brothers and sisters, what must we do this Christmas season--and always? Why, we must do the same as the wise men of old. They sought out the Christ and found him. And, so must we. Those who are wise still seek him today."

Home Sweet Home -- under construction

2009-11-24T12:25:00.009-07:00

This is more like "Home Humble Home"

Here is the sweet family that lives in this humble dwelling. Along with them are the Stenlunds. Stenlunds are one of our senior missionary friends. They have been assigned to attend the branch of our church where this family lives. One Sunday they went out to visit this family and we so shocked and disturbed by their living conditions that they decided they had to do something. A couple of weeks later we accompanied the Stenlunds on one of their visits and we decided we needed to be involved in this worthwhile endeavor also.

It didn't take them long to come up with a plan. Another one of the senior missionaries, Elder Hatch, has made it his "hobby-to-pass-away-spare-time" to help build some better houses for quite a few locals out in the more remote areas around Suva so the Stenlunds contacted him and he was on board in a flash!
After a few minor obstacles, like Elder Hatch having to take a quick medical trip to New Zealand to check out a blocked artery, people were recruited to show up this particular Monday morning at 7am.
They began by tearing down the scary dwelling, chopping down a coconut tree that stood in the spot where the new dwelling was going to be built and started digging the holes in the ground for the stilts.

Paul & I arrived about 11 am and this was how far they had gotten in just 4 hours!

Things were moving along just perfectly with everyone measuring, sawing, nailing and having a great time! Even the two oldest boys (about 10 and 8 years old) of this sweet family were right in the middle of the action. I think it was the first time they had ever seen electric saws or hammers! The tool of choice over here for everything is a bush knife!

This dear woman gets the "hardest worker" award! She is the aunt of the mother of this little family and she was the one that had actually built the previous structure. She worked like a trooper! She was cutting down trees and brush and hauling wood and tools. I think she sat down only once or twice the whole day!

By 4:30pm that day the framework had been accomplished! Everyone was so pleased and proud of their results! After this, the only thing that needed to be done was to put the corrugated tin on the sides and the roof, hang the door and install the louvered windows -- yes, actual windows and a door! What an upgrate! We actually haven't been back out to see it finished but we have been assured that all the tin was installed and they are enjoying their new digs!

Various extended family members came by to watch the progress throughout the day. I loved this mom and her sweet little twin girls and her creative backpack. So adoreable!

Here is the baby girl of the family who's house was being built. She is sweeping up around the building site. This broom is a typical sweeping device that is used over here by everyone! It is hand made using the center stem of the coconut leaves. They are really effective and do a great job. Never too early to teach children how to work.

We did feed the workers. Here are some of the guys enjoying their ham sandwiches and their 15 minute lunchbreak. From the left is Elder Hatch, then Elder Stenlund, then Elder Kasteler, then Brother (we can't remember his long Fijian name). He is a neighbor and a high councilman from the Nausori Stake. The 2 young boys were really enjoying those sandwiches and the homemade chocolate chip cookies Sister Stenlund had prepared.

Here is the best use of a wheel barrow I think I've ever seen! He was just enjoying a quick, power nap!

The women of the family and some sisters from the Branch laid down a mat on the ground and put together a huge Fijian lunch. It made our ham sandwiches look pretty pathetic though this group helped devour the chocolate chip cookies so we felt like we had made a contribution.

Meal time is very labor intensive. The woman on the left hand side has split open fresh coconuts from the coconut tree they chopped down, grated it up and now she was squeezing it to get all the liquid released from the "coconut flesh". Her granddaughter was tearing the leaves from the stems of whatever those green plants are called.

Then she mixed the greens with the coconut and took it up to the cooking shed and boiled it and stirred it and added some canned fish and some fresh chilies and that was her version of lunch. I enjoyed watching this whole process. I can't imagine having to cook every meal, every day over an open fire but when you don't have electricity, you don't have much choice.

I also watched her open the can of mackeral with her bush knife and she didn't have any hot pads either. Seriously, I am such a whimp!

Sister Stenlund and I thought we were really being tough by sitting on the mats while we made our sandwiches and ate our lunch. After sitting down for about 45 minutes, we both had to get up and walk around. We didn't want to be rude but we told the sisters that it was too hard for us to sit like that for so long. The next thing we knew, here came 2 women ....carrying out a bed frame and a foam mattress and a blanket and set it down in front of us so we didn't have to sit on the ground! We really felt like wimps!!! I think most of those women sat on the ground for 4 or 5 hours straight!

After lunch, the women began pulling apart the leaves from the coconut tree that had been cut down and stripped the leaves from the center strand. Still sitting down, by the way!

This was beginning to be more like a Relief Society activity as much as a home building project.

Now the fun really began. This woman began showing us how to weave a tray using the inside strands of the coconut leaves. She said that she had learned how to do this from a Filipino woman. Sister Stenlund and I were so fascinated and just admired this handiwork.

Just this week, Sister Stenlund came by my desk at the Service Center and presented Paul & me with these beautiful, handmade trays as their appreciation for our involvment in the new home for her daughter and her grandchildren. I'm pretty sure these baskets took about as much time to weave together as it took those men to build that framework for the house!

We are so grateful we were able to be involved with this life changing experience! I think it is safe to say that not only was their life changed by now having a strong, stable and safe home especially as Fiji heads into its' rainy season but that our life has been changed by being included in such a simple but powerful project.

Welcome to our World

2009-11-07T02:08:00.006-07:00

Paul & I have just passed the 3-month-point of our mission. I am constantly amazed how fast time is flying by. We feel quite comfortable and settled in by now and are realizing that things that seemed so foreign to us just a short few weeks ago seem almost normal now (i.e. the left-side of the road driving). I thought you'd might be interested to see some uniquely Fijian aspects of our daily life.
The photo above shows our water filter system (the 3 white cylinders) and our "hot water heater". We have been instructed not to drink the tap water. But in each missionary flat the Church has provided us with these unique filters systems. We keep our toothbrushes here next to the kitchen sink so we can use the filtered water. We don't have any hot water except in our shower so we use this pot that is sitting in the sink

One of my favorite TV shows at home was "The Biggest Loser" and guess what, I am actually playing that game over here -- which I am not excited about at all. The office where we work came up with this project and included us on one of the teams. I'm not sure if I should be offended or happy that they included us. It is a 3 month experiment and it began in Oct and will end sometime in December. I committed to losing 1K (2.5 lbs) which I think I have actually gained instead...which is information I am not interested in knowing!

Fiji is quite humid and salt does not do well in storage. I have noticed that if any restaurant serves salt it is either in a small packet or in an open dish like the photo above. It does not do well in a salt shaker even if you add rice to absorb the moisture. Just one of those things you live with.

Thank goodness for modern technology! It makes life liveable over here. Have you heard of the handy little device called "Magic Jack"? Heidi & Eric discovered this fabulous gadget when they were living in China. You pay a small amount to purchase the device and receive a US phone number. We just plug in our landline telephone in one end of the Magic Jack and plug the other USP plug into the computer and we immediately get a dial tone and can make a "local" call to anywhere in the US for free. We video Skype also but sometimes it is more convenient to just pick up the phone and have a regular conversation. It has saved our sanity more than once!

Here is our soup bar. We love this place! We discovered it in the back of our local grocery store and we probably take away soup for dinner at least once a week. There are about 10 different soups to choose from and they take your order and have your soup ready in about 10 minutes.

Our favorites are won ton soup and sweet corn chicken! It costs us $2.50 to feed both of us!

Grocery shopping is always an adventures. It is always interesting to see what is available over here and what they just don't carry. This was a unique way to purchase frozen veggies. You just scoop up how much you want, put it in the plastic bag that is provided and you are good to go!

The flowers over here are stunning and so unique. I love to see the beautiful arrangements that are created using these colorful tropical blossoms and leaves. Most of the flower arrangements hold up for quite some time, like over a week. These are some of the arrangements that are on display in the reception area of the Temple Patron housing.

Here is our local butcher shop. This is called Walley's and they sell the best meats around. They sell mostly lamb, chicken and pig heads. I mostly stick with minced beef (hamberger).

Oh, and they do eat a lot of FISH! Here is a young boy that stands out in front of his house in our neighborhood and sells what his father catchs that day. My grandkids had a lemonade stand in their neighborhood but over here, there are produce stands and fresh fish for sale.

Here is the Deacons Quorum one Sunday a couple of weeks ago. Paul was very impressed with how well put together these young men looked that day. Sulu's are the style of choice. All the males from toddlers to businessmen wear this apparel everyday. They look very handsome. Paul has bought a sulu but he has yet to wear it. They don't really look as good on "white" legs.

Rugby is the sport of choice! Everyone plays rugby -- rain or shine! And since it always rains here, that does not even matter. The mud just makes it more fun.

Here are the local shoe shine boys. They sit in the same spot every day in downtown Suva next to the high rise office buildings and wait for anyone not wearing flip flops to come by and then they put on the pressure for shining your shoes. They actually do a really nice job and it costs about $1.

And if you have shoes that needs any repairs, here is the place to go and have the repairs made while you wait. I think people here tend to repair instead of replace their shoes and boots. These repairmen are constantly busy.

Here is our local car wash. I think this was our first and only time we have had the car washed since we arrived bacause it seems pointless when it rains so much. But somebody must be washing their cars alot since most all the car wash places are open 24 hours. These 4 men did a super good job and it only cost us about $4.

There was even an oil change bay here....

Suva is all about traffic round abouts! We have learned to appreciate them and how they keep the traffic moving. There are very few stop lights around town. The round abouts were quite intimidating when we first got here. We couldn't quite figure out which way to look and who had the right of way but now we know to just look to our right and if no one is coming we are good to go...the faster the better!

Before we came on our mission we had heard from many friends that they had never worked so hard as while on their mission. We have been finding this to be very accurate information. Sometimes we just have to take a quick break and then we are good to carry on....
and Paul thought he had retired from working at a desk!
Don't let me fool you, life in Fiji is fantastic! We wouldn't want to be any where else right now!

A day at Sea

2009-10-27T02:32:00.007-06:00

Ahoy Mateys!!!
Welcome aboard the Coongoola!!!

When we were in Vanuatu a couple of weeks ago, our last day there was a National Holiday so we weren't able to schedule any meetings for training as everyone was busy enjoying a day off with their families. So we decided to go for an all day sailing adventure. Our sailboat was this 23 meter sailing ketch (whatever that is) that held 50 passengers. We took off at 8am and returned to our hotel at 5:30 having had a very delightful and relaxing outing.

The sea was so calm and so warm and so clear. We even put on some snorkeling gear and checked out the colorful fish and corals below. The tour provided another dinghy to take divers out to a nearby reef but we just stayed close to the beach where we could walk in and out of the water or just lay on the beach in the soft, warm sand.

Another highlight of the excursion was a stop they made at a "turtle conservation rookery". This is a place where newly hatched turtles are brought and raised for 9 months to a year and then released into the sea when they are old enough to survive on their own. There were probably several hundred turtles of various ages and sizes being cared for. We had fun watching them and holding them and just being up close with nature.

The turtle conservation place was just beside this scuba diving "resort". It is called the Tranquility Island Dive Resort and if it looks quite rustic you have got it right. The accommodations were very austere but I'm sure the "tranquility" word was very accurate as there was not much more than a grass hut and a small generator for any power; forget an internet connection at this resort! But the up side is that the scuba diving here is supposed to be spectacular. Our ship picked up and dropped about about 7 or 8 guests that were staying there and they said it was great. So there you go, something for everyone!

Here is the trail between the "resort" and the turtle sanctuary. Quite a well constructed pathway.

With signs to keep you going where you needed to get...to take advantage of all the facilities...

I think Paul agrees with the "tranquility" part of the name... he'd have been happy to spend hours at this location.

The girl in the white shirt was our tour guide on the ship and through the turtle conservatory. When she first saw our missionary badges, she told us she was also a member of the Church. Always a fun coincidence!

I think this photo could be sold as a postcard for this beautiful country of Vanuatu. This is looking out from the turtle sanctuary to the Coongoola. We had been brought ashore on the small tinghy; just a short 5 minute trip.

I thought this was just an interesting relic that had been left on board to make the ship look more authentic but turns out this is what they still use to steer the ship.

Here is the small, off shore beach in the "sun and moon bay" of the enchanting Moso Island they took us to. We spent 4 or so hours here and they even provided us with a delicious BBQ steak lunch complete with salads, bread and fruit.

In case you weren't familiar with the word dinghy, here is the dinghy. Basically it is just a small boat that toted about 20 passengers at a time from the shores to the ship.

So as the sun set we were relaxed and revived and pleased with our holiday outing.

Diwali holiday

2009-10-18T15:12:00.005-06:00

Today is the 3rd Monday in a row that we have celebrated some new (to us) local holiday. On Oct. 5th it was Unity Day in Vanuatu, then last Monday, Oct. 12th it was Fiji Day and today, Oct. 19th is the public observance of Diwali. This is one of those holidays that goes on for multiple days however. It began last Friday when all the sisters in the Service Center, where we work, decided to dress Indian/Hindi style to fit in with the tradition observed by all the Hindi women here. A couple of the women in the office had extra suras and loaned them to those of us that don't own suras. In the picture above, there is only one woman who is Indian. She is 3rd from the right.

Let me introduce you to all my friends: (beginning on the right)

Diana, Sarah, Sunita, Eileen, Mele, Sister Erickson, Melika and me!

The Indian/Hindi people take this holiday very seriously. It is considered their New Year. For weeks before this date they clean, repair and tidy up their homes and belongings. Our landlord is Hindi and he has been cleaning and repairing ever since we met him back in the middle of August. Last week he was working non-stop to have everything in order before this date. He was even power washing the gate and the driveway and had his cars cleaned and repaired also.
Many people decorate their homes with lights and decorations similar to what we do in America at Christmas time except it is only for one or two nights of display. But the highlight of the whole celebration is the setting off of FIREWORKS NON-STOP FOR HOURS on Saturday beginning at dusk.

Two of the senior missionary couples live in a duplex situation and have this wonderful, large wooden deck behind their two flats and it is used very often for our monthly family home evenings and our pot luck dinners. On Saturday night we just happened to have scheduled our monthly dinner out on the deck and we were lucky enough to be entertained by the most amazing fireworks displays being put on by the surrounding neighbors. These fireworks are not the legal kind that we in the US put on in our neighborhoods on the 4th of July and New Year's eve... oh no! they were the kind of fireworks that you would see if you paid a lot of money to attend the "Stadium of Fire" or some other official fireworks show. There was a lot of serious money going up in colorful, breathtaking, nonstop bursts of glitter and glitz and sparkles! These fireworks displays were going on all around Suva (and probably all of Fiji) well past our bedtime even!

Note to Jason Perkins: Thank you so much for your amazing and informative comments! I would love to be able to connect with you personally and the Scherns would love to invite you to their personal blog. They are the couple serving in Luganville and who visit Ambae monthly. They have even better stories that you would relate to than I do. Send me an email at skasteler@hotmail.com and I'll hook you up with them.

Paul's Adventure

2009-10-16T02:20:00.006-06:00

Welcome to Ambae!

Here are the passengers departing the flight that took them from Santa Espirato island to the island of Ambae. Elder Kasteler and Elder Schern were two of the dozen or so passengers. This was another "first" for Paul... first time landing on a grass landing strip!
Sister Schern and I were not needed on this training session so we graciously stayed behind though Sister Schern makes this trip about once a month when they go over for Seminary and Institute training.

Here is the mode of transportation all over Vanuatu. Just pile in the back of any truck and you are good to go anywhere...shopping, to work, even to church. On this island, like on most of the more remote islands, this is it.... or walk. Paul was told that there were about 14 vehicles on this whole island! Now, age has it's advantages...because Paul was the oldest guy, he got to sit in the cab with the driver instead of in the back as they bumped and jerked and rocked and rolled everywhere they went.

This tire looks like it has been around the island a few times. It is not like there is a local repair shop anywhere. If they need a new tire, or ANYTHING, it has to come by air or by a boat and it takes a long time and it costs a lot of money so they use everything as absolutely long as they can! Paul was keeping his fingers crossed that this tire would last a few more hours.

Here is another version of a Branch meetinghouse. It is always fun to see what the church house will look like. We have seen a wide range of designs and structures. This one has woven bamboo walls. It is perfect for this area and this climate.

This was a really wonderful training session. There are 5 branches on this island and they had at least one leader from each branch. These leaders are very committed and dedicated and take their callings very seriously as evidenced by their dressing in white shirts and ties and making themselves available on a Tuesday morning.

The Scherns were just back to Ambae this week and they sent us an email to tell Paul that during their training one of the Branch leaders got up and started to share with everyone some of the principles and topics that Paul had used in his training. It was really rewarding to hear that the things that Paul shared with them had actually gotten through. Paul looks forward to going back in a few months to visit them again.

Here is the guesthouse that was their accommodations for the night. It looks really nice, doesn't it. Paul said it was very descent. There was a light on the porch and a restroom out back and he said that he didn't even hear the rats that run around on the roof all night long. He must have been really exhausted!

Here is the view of the "freeway" from Paul's perspective in the cab of the truck. Who knows what lies around each curve and incline...probably not another vehicle, just cows or pigs or dogs or people on foot.

Here is a group of boys that were playing around this fishing boat that was just sitting on the shore on the rocks since the tide had gone out. Fishing is a main stay of their lives. No one goes hungry in these areas because anyone can catch a fish or grow something in the ground. It may not be fancy but it is definately sustainable.

One more interesting piece of information that you might not know. James A. Michner wrote a book called "Tales of the South Pacific" while he was in the military back in the 1940's and he was stationed in Luganville, Vanuatu (it was called New Hebrides back then instead of Vanuatu). What he calls Bali Hai in his story is really the island of Ambae. So now Paul can say that he has been to Bali Hai!

Each picture is worth a million words...

2009-10-11T22:13:00.005-06:00

... so I'm going to let the pictures tell most of the post.

One Saturday afternoon while staying in Luganville, we took a quick 15 minute boat ride over to the next island to enjoy lunch at the Aore Island Resort. The boat held about 10 passengers and all of us were visitors from other foreign countries. Everyone was asking everyone else where they were from... some from Ireland, some from New Zealand and when we responded that we were from Utah in the USA, another group pointed to this woman and said "she's from Utah too!" Now, I have yet to meet any other American tourists -- everyone has been from Australia or New Zealand and this woman from "Utah" had a very distinct Aussie accent. As we continued to chat with her we made the most amazing connection...her husband works for the same company as a niece of ours and she knew our niece very well! What a fun, unexpected coincidence!

When we flew to the Island of Malekula for some training with the Branch leaders, here is the cute little guest house that was our accommodation for the evening. It was decent and clean but the cockroaches running around the shower area kind of freaked me out.

There is a peek at what one of our training meetings looks like. Three local Branch leaders come to our guesthouse and the meeting was held on the front porch. We weren't able to get on the early morning flight over to Malekula so we didn't arrive until about 5 pm and it was around 6 pm before the meeting began. One of the the men had come from an even remoter outer island by boat so as to attend this meeting. The 3 men in the while shirts are Elder Kasteler, Elder Schern and Brother Stephen, who came with us. This picture is much to clear for you to see the hords of black bettles that were flying around and attracted by the light on the porch and the nice, white shirts. I choose to sit just off the porch in a less lit area. The meeting was really productive and what a priviledge to meet these dedicated, committed leaders.

On the remote islands, there is not usually a gas station so you just buy the petrol in these 2 or so liter jugs and fill your vehicle tank by hand!

Here is the highlight of those small airplane flights... the views out the windows are spectacular! It is so fun to see these islands from overhead. Some are really small and others have volcanos but all are covered in lush, green foliage and surrounded by beautiful blue ocean and lovely white sandy beaches.

Here is the Norsup Airport terminal on Malekua Island. Here are all the people waiting for those arriving or they are waiting to take off on the next flight. It is really nothing more than a small, tin shack. The original building was burned down about 10 years ago and it just hasn't ever been rebuilt. The baggage is always very interesting to observe. There is everything from live chickens and pigs (wrapped up in a cloth bag with their heads sticking out) to tires to root vegetables wrapped in big leaves that have been woven together to whatever someone needs to bring along to survive in this far-flung setting.

Now this is a confidence building experience. Yes, that is me on the weigh in scales. First they weighted in my check-on bag and then I got to get on the scales along with my carryon bag and purse and whatever I intended to take on board! I have got to learn how to pack lighter!!!!

This was a really fun experience. Elder Schern had driven us out in the bush to the Palon Chapel to meet with the Branch President there. When we drove on to the church property there were 2 young men (the one on the left and the one on the right) who were sitting on the grass and playing the guitar and singing "Armies of Heleman". Paul walked over and immediately asked if he could play the guitar. It was a really nice, 12-string guitar. I stepped back to take a picture and one by one each of these extra people appeared and wanted to be in the picture. I ended up taking about 5 pictures before everyone near by was able to join in the group. The locals here just love to see the pictures on the digital cameras! It is fun to print them out and take copies back to them next time we go over!

Our experiences here are so unique and our visits with the members are priceless. I hope you can get even the slightest glimpse into some of our experiences because words just can't express and pictures can barely portray them completely!